Have you met the Daring Bakers?

October 9, 4:55 PMChicago Baking ExaminerNancy Yos

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Or, more correctly, have you ventured inside the Daring Kitchen? 

In November of 2006, two well known baking bloggers, Lisa at La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice, teamed up to challenge themselves: they decided to bake the same thing (pretzels) from the same recipe, and post about their results.

Their private challenge was so enjoyable that they repeated the experiment the next month, baking biscotti, and blogging about it, in December 2006. Already they had been joined by other baking and blogging enthusiasts. Within just a few more months, Lisa and Ivonne were welcoming so many new participants to their monthly daring bakers' challenges that they found they had to set up a separate blog, with its own identity and newbie-friendly rules, to manage everything. The Daring Bakers were born; and, as of this past May, the project had grown so (up to 2000 members, though not all who bake are bloggers), that it reinvented itself as The Daring Kitchen, with a yet newer site and -- true sign of arrival in cyberspace -- even technical support staff. The Daring Bakers even have a spinoff named, and appropriate challenges for, Daring Cooks.  

The Daring Kitchen is a fun place to at least browse the gorgeous photos and absorb the efforts of all concerned the meet the challenges that each randomly selected host offers for the month -- even if you don't feel up to making Opera Cake or vols-au-vent just yet. The challenges are kept tantalizingly secret until the moment they are announced, which means that newcomers to the group have to wait a bit until they are allowed access to the private side of the site where the latest challenges can be found. And the generally surfing public has no idea what the latest Daring challenge will be, until all results are finished and posted, and everyone can wallow at once in the triumphs or disasters. In other words, no ordinary, pre-warned Ms. Shmoe can simply arrive at the forum one day and say I made that, too, and it turned out great!

The purpose of the site is fun plus learning. Of course those who blog are looking for a little publicity, too, but it's mostly a place where fantasy meals and desserts meet the moral support and tips and tricks that actually help bring them to fruition. After you've spent some time in the Daring Kitchen, do carry on and visit the blogs of the two foundresses: La Mia Cucina, and Cream Puffs in Venice