One Last Challenge

I had expected something really challenging for the last technical challenge of the Great British Bake Off 2016... An extravagant gateau, an elegant pandoro or a towering croquembouche... especially a croquembouche because I want an excuse to make one... so I was quite taken aback when it was announced that the bakers had to make a simple Victoria Sponge.

Surely any half decent baker can make a Victoria sponge even without instructions? And this is the final challenge! But then I remembered my experience with the "Spongy sponge" and thought perhaps I was being too blase and so I challenged myself to make the best Victoria Sponge I possibly could, without instructions just like the three finalists in the show.

And it was then that I started to realise how many decisions there were to be made and the controversy surrounding such a simple bake. I know Mary Berry prefers the all in one method, which also requires adding extra baking powder to the mix, and she is not adverse to using margarine which I cannot abide (the list of ingredients on the side of any margarine tub is so off putting and it tastes revolting), although she claims it gives a lighter bake. I opted for the creaming method and butter. I weighed my eggs in their shells (four of them) and then used equal quantities of butter, white caster sugar and sifted self raising flour plus a couple of tablespoons of milk. I also like to add half a teaspoon of vanilla to my sponge. This mixture was baked in two 8" tins at 180 deg C for 25 mins.

Then there is the filling... apparently the W.I. says absolutely nothing other than raspberry jam, definitely no fresh cream or buttercream, but that does sound rather frugal, so I went with challenge on the show to add buttercream. Other times I might be tempted to add fresh cream and even some fresh fruit. First of all I made my raspberry jam using 120g raspberries and 135g jam sugar which made just the right quantity for a good thick coating. I would usually reach for a good jar of ready made jam but it did taste lovely and fresh and not too much effort to make my own.

 

The buttercream was made with 100g butter, 200g icing sugar and a splash of milk and vanilla... and I went to the trouble of piping it, which I wouldn't normally do. I thought it looked quite pretty until a friend on Facebook said it looked like a grinning set of dentures! She's not wrong!

But I was actually really pleased with the result and as my Mum and two of my boys joined us for lunch today it disappeared rapidly with second helpings for some! It tasted quite delicious and I declared it was probably not such a bad technical challenge after all. And although buttercream might not be for the Victoria Sponge purists, it certain makes it taste rather scrummy!

So that is all ten technical challenges from this year's show tackled... and another sixty by sixty challenge crossed off my list! 

Joining in with Jenny from Mummy Mishaps who has very kindly hosted this blog link up over the past ten weeks for the Great Bloggers Bake Off 2016

An Extra Slice

Now you will already know I'm a huge fan of The Great British Bake Off, but I also enjoy the spin off programme An Extra Slice on Friday evenings with Jo Brand.

So you can imagine my delight when I was offered the chance of tickets to be in the audience via the clandestine cake club... not just any old tickets either but right up the front, sat around the tables, where the audience is invited to bring a cake. I immediately decided I would bring a Pumpkin cake being as it is almost Halloween (as did two other people too!) but then I found out there was a Royal theme so I converted my Pumpkin into Cinderella's coach. On Wednesday me, my friend Anne and my rather large cake in its box went into London on the train and underground to the ITV studios on the South Bank

Anne and I were shown into a holding area which was the last chance to take a photo before being ushered into the studio. Once there all bags, coats and phones etc had to be handed in so there are no photos of the actual filming or the set, which looked fabulous. 

At this point we were told that unfortunately there wouldn't be time to see any audience bakes with it being the final show... there was a brief moment of disappointment when I realised that Mary Berry would probably never taste my cake but it was very brief indeed because the whole experience was amazing. First of all we were shown the final of the Bake Off and sworn to secrecy over the winner. We then met all the other contestants who mingled among us. We spoke to Kate, Michael, Tom and Rav (who said he wanted to try  my cake!) Val was just as dippy... and lovely as she appeared on the show. Louise and Lee were there too, although Benjamina and Selasi couldn't be there. There was a warm up man who got us all laughing and then the filming commenced. They filmed continuously for an hour and a half  - Jo Brand chatting with Mary Berry, Sarah Millican and Hal Cruttenden before meeting the runners up Andrew and Jane and finally the winner Candice.

The whole experience was just wonderful from meeting lots of lovely people to seeing the whole process of filming a TV show. We returned home... with the cake... absolutely exhausted but having had a fabulous time. And if you tune into BBC2 tonight (i.e Friday in England) at 8.30 pm you might even get a glimpse of me and my cake!*

As for the cake... which was a spiced pumpkin cake with pecan nuts and freshly grated pumpkin and a buttercream frosting, with a hidden trick or treat centre filled with jelly snakes... I took it along to a charity quiz last night where it was shared out for donations to the charity so it didn't get wasted. I don't think we could have eaten all that ourselves!

Look out for me on the telly!

I had "See a tv show recording in the studio" on my sixty x sixty list but I never dreamed it would be this one!

* A little update... if you watched the show you would have seen a lot of the back of my head but a friend managed to capture the screen shot above, which does at least show me (in the red cardigan)  and my cake!

Week Nine in the Bake Off Tent

Well that's another series of GBBO almost over and I've had mixed feelings about this series. I don't think I've enjoyed it quite as much as I usually do... some funny old themes and it has taken a while to warm to some of the contestants, although I have huge admiration for all of them. It was sad to see Selasi go this week as he always made me smile but I think it was the right decision although I don't think Benjamina should have gone last week. It was a shame she just had a really bad week. But I guess that it the nature of the competition. It took me a long while to warm to Candice... that pouty mouth was just too much but I do think she is a great baker and love the way she really pushes herself. I think my money might be on her. Who do you think will win?

 

Of course for me, another week in the tent meant another technical challenge and this week the bakers had to make a Savarin... a sort of orangey flavoured Rum Baba. The base is a yeasted cake which starts as a very soft batter so I used my mixer again. While the dough was rising there were lots of other things to be getting on with, one of which was to make the soaking syrup... almost a whole pint of liquer flavoured sugar syrup!

The cake is baked in a very well greased bundt tin... the biggest problem is always turning out cakes in these tins as they can't be lined.

Also while it was rising I had to make caramel shards. I made my sheet of caramel and then Stewart dropped a pot on to it (he was washing up for me at the time). After a moment of panic we realised the shards were just perfect!

The cake baked beautifully... but would it turn out of the tin?

Hooray! It was then left to cool down and soak up all that syrup... something the bakers in the tent really didn't have time to do properly. Every last drop soaked into the cake!

It was then a case of assembling the cake with whipped cream and fresh fruit and a little chocolate sign... no, I would definitely not bother with this another time!

As you can see my piping skills could do with improvement!

But unlike Selasi, I did segment my oranges cutting them away from the membrane. I also used plums and golden kiwi fruit.

Luckily we were going to my step daughter's for dinner last night so we brought it along to share for pudding... but there is still loads left.

But it was rather good so I don't think it will hang around here for long!

So that is my ninth technical challenge completed and also another week joining in with Jenny from Mummy Mishaps for the Great Bloggers Bake Off 2016

A Jumble!

I wasn't sure I'd have time to do the GBBO technical challenge this week as I had a big birthday cake to finish today, farm shop bakes to get done and delivered by 4 pm and we're off to the airport before the crack of dawn tomorrow... But there was just time! When I first heard the news about the Bake Off going to Channel 4 and Sue, Mel and Mary leaving I felt quite sad but I'm getting the feeling that they have started to lost the plot a little this series what with Batter week and now Tudor week so perhaps it has started to run its course. Better to stop on a high than to drag on forever with a tired format with more amd more bizarre bakes.

But that said, I'm still working my way through the technical challenges and this week it was... Jumbles! No, I hadn't heard of them either! A jumble describes the contents of my wardrobe or the meanderings of my brain... but not a biscuit as far as I'm concerned. I decided to forego Tudor baking methods and got out the food processor to speed things up.

I followed Paul Hollywood's recipe from the programme. These spicy biscuits are flavoured with caraway, aniseed and mace, none of which I had in the cupboard, so not being up for another supermarket dash, I substituted a teaspoon and a half of fennel seeds for the caraway and aniseed and some nutmeg for the mace as they are from the same seed and have a similar flavour.

 

The recipe wasn't very clear about the size of eggs to use and I instinctively felt that three large eggs (which was all I had) was probably too much. However I didn't trust my instincts, bunged in all the egg and ended up with a dough that was far too sticky. Off course, had I been mixing by hand and not using the food processor I might have found out before it was too late. Ah, the wisdom of hindsight!

 

But with a long rest in the fridge and a good dusting of flour the dough was just about manageable and various lumpy looking knots were made... and baked

Of course being very soft they lost definition during baking but had the required crispy exterior and soft interior... well if I'm honest the interior was rather doughy but the flavour was wonderful. I've never used fennel in a sweet bake before, generally only putting it in curries but it was lovely and aniseedy. After I finished my first one (yes, I had two) I decided they reminded me of the Farley's Rusks of my childhood... in the days when they still put sugar in baby food!

Now if you'll excuse me I really must go and pack for the weekend... after I've finished off making a batch of chilli jam that is...  have a lovely weekend and I'll see you next week!

Joining in with Jenny of Mummy Mishaps for the Great Bloggers Bake Off.

p.s. I forgot to mention that my Marjolaine got star baker last week so I'm feeling rather chuffed!

Very Challenging!

Another week in the Bake Off tent and it was dessert week and the seventh technical challenge was to make a Marjolaine, a layered French gateaux of dacquoise, chocolate and buttercream. I'll be absolutely honest... until this week I'd never even heard of Marjolaine never mind seen or tasted one, but continuing on my quest to make each of the technical bakes I prepared to tackle the unknown! Following Mary Berry's recipe, this was definitely the hardest challenge so far, consisting of four distinct stages.

Fist of all I had to make meringue which involved separating lots of eggs and whisking up the whites with ground hazelnuts and almonds to make a dacquoise.

The dacquoise had to be baked in two swiss roll tins. Here I met my first hurdle... well actually two hurdles. First of all I only had tins that were too big but then my timer didn't work and I didn't have a clue what time I'd put them in the oven... which meant a lot of guesswork was involved!

Step two was to make a ganache. I have made ganache many, many times before. It's simple.... it involves stirring hot cream onto chocolate until it forms a smooth chocolate cream. I made my ganache and it seized into an oily mess. So I sent Stewart out for more supplies, made another batch and this also seized into an oily mess! That's a lot of cream and chocolate wasted and at this point I was on the verge of a Bake Off melt down. The whole lot nearly went in the bin! I managed to salvage one batch by beating it furiously into something that vaguely resembled a ganache but it was far from perfect.

At least the almond brittle worked, before it was processed into a powder to be folded into a French buttercream (using up all those egg yolks)... I really don't like French buttercream. I find it is like eating slightly sweet butter and much prefer a regular buttercream.

But still I persevered and after some pretty fiddly assembly and managing to coat myself and a lot of my kitchen with chocolate ganache and meringue crumbs, this is what I came up with.

It certainly looks the part and I found that for once the three hours allocated to the bakers was plenty of time, even with an emergengy shopping trip for more cream and chocolate!

But I wasn't overimpressed with the taste... way too sweet and sickly for my tastes. Fortunately Stewart likes it as it is absolutely huge!

And due to the uncertain baking time my meringue was rather chewy and toffee like not lovely and crisp as Mary Berry would have liked! Got a feeling I might have come last in the technical challenge this week!

Next week is Tudor week so goodness knows what that will turn up but I'm hopiing it is something small and dainty. Another three weeks of technical challenges like this and one of my sixty by sixty challenges will have to be to lose a shed load of weight!

Joining in with Jenny of Mummy Mishaps for The Great Bloggers Bake Off 2016

Tear and Share

I treated myself to this book a few weeks ago which accompanies this year's Bake Off series. It mostly consists of recipes by Linda Collister but it does feature some recipes from the contestants and a handful of "Judges Recipes" too. Hey... call me Sherlock but I have deduced that all the Judges recipes are actually the technical bakes from the show.

So armed with this knowledge, in my quest to bake all of this year's technical challenges, I tackled this week's challenge, to bake two fresh herb Fougasse, on Wednesday afternoon several hours before the show aired. It was a bit of a guess that this would actually be the technical bake this week... but my guesswork paid off.

I used my stand mixer to knead the dough as it was very soft and sticky to begin with but not too difficult to work once it got going.

You can find Paul Hollywood's recipe here. I didn't have fresh thyme so used some dried herbs with my fresh Sage and Rosemary... I don't think it made that much difference. Other than that I pretty much stuck to the recipe and made it within the time given. For once the contestants had enough time.

It smelled really wonderful as it baked. The eagle eyed among you will have spotted I only made five cuts up the side of the "leaf" not the six specified. No doubt I would have lost marks for that

But it didn't effect the flavour! If I made it again I would probably increase the amount of herbs as I was fairly cautious but other than that it was pretty good. I fancy trying some herbs in a sweet bake too after seeing that Jenny had successfully used basil in her strawberry cake. My mind does tend to go off on tangents...I was reading this article about Jo Malone after having signed up for email updates from The Business Bakery. I'd not heard of The Business Bakery before,which doesn't really have anything to do with baking but is a source of advice for small "kitchen table" businesses. Having read about it on Planet Penny I was intrigued and have already discovered several interesting and possibly useful articles. But I digress... reading about Jo Malone I started to wonder if someone with a good nose for putting fragrances together would have a similar talent for putting flavours together. And when I read about her lime,basil and mandarin fragrance I remembered Jenny's basil cake and thought that if these three things smell great together maybe they would taste great together too. Watch this space!

Anyway... back to the fougasse... I took one along to our book club meeting last night to tear and share... there were certainly no complaints and I didn't bring any home so I guess it was a success.

Once again, as well as completing my own challenge to complete all the technical bakes, I'm also joining in with Jenny of Mummy Mishaps for the Great Bloggers Bake Off.