Week ten - The Final!

Hello Bake Off fans. It's been a while since my last post, but I'm sure you haven't been waiting with baited breath!, I had to make some crucial baking purchases to be able to attempt the final technical challenge. 

So without further ado here are the final results (drumroll please). 

Tarte au Citron, mini scones and mini Victoria sponge cakes. All very yummy!

I hope you've enjoyed reading about my adventures in my imaginary Bake Off world!  Now to consider applying for the next series and what to blog about next.

Cheery bye...for now x

Week nine - Paul Hollywood's Schichttorte

Another really late post...but as they say "better late than never"!

So semi-final week saw the rather dodgy named Schichttorte!  And yes I have attempted the bake, even though after watching The Extra Slice, I wasn't sure that I wanted to.  Here's the recipe http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/_schichttorte_49934.

Due to time constraints/family commitments this took me two days to complete.  First step was to make the cake batter. This was relatively straight forward, once again bring out the Kitchen Aid!  Once all the batter was mixed the tricky 'technical' part was next...to grill, yes GRILL, the cake. This again was straightforward enough, but I really had to watch my timings.

Once that stage was completed next was making the glaze and icing.  Again, these were easy enough steps and provided a nice opportunity to lick the bowl clean!

So here is the completed Schichttorte!  

I'm pretty sure I did 20 layers but they're not all so well defined as to count correctly.  Taste wise - I was right to be cautious. As Jo Brand and the rest of the panel decided, it's not tasty. I won't be making it again!

Next time...mini Victoria sandwiches, Tarte au Citron and scones. 

Week eight - Paul Hollywood's Povitica

Hi Bake Off fans, sorry this post is a bit late, but life has been a bit busy since baby number two arrived.

Today was Povitica day...http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/povitica_92623.

Making the dough and the filling was easy enough, but then it was the rolling out the dough to as large and as thin as possible...I decided on using the Martha method (cling film) since I didn't fancy using a sheet as suggested by the recipe. This worked quite well, but in the end I still didn't get it to the recommended size of 1m x 50cm!  To be honest I started to lose the will to live. 

Next step was to add the filing and then roll it.  Because the dough was on cling film this part was really easy.  Then pop it in the tin.  I must admit it doesn't look very pretty until you've baked it.  I had a hole in the dough which whilst proving for the second time expanded quite dramatically, and then whilst baking part of the bread fell off as the hole got so large.

Here is the finished Povitica...I only managed a loop and a half hence there's only two swirls.  But not a bad first effort...and I don't think it's raw!

Week seven - Paul Hollywood's Kouign Amann

I was looking forward to this challenge, as it looked quite simple from the recipe (and obviously as I had the full version, I didn't need to guess where the sugar had to go!)

So Kouign Amann (http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/kouign_amann_09102), here's a little interesting fact for you. The name derives from the Breton words for cake ("kouign") and butter ("amann"). Kouign-amann is a speciality of the town Douarnenez in Finistere, Brittany, where it originated in around 1860.  

First stage was to make the dough - time for my Kitchen Aid to have another work out.  I love this  machine so much. Prove the dough for an hour, then batter the life out of a block of butter. 

The next steps were simple enough - roll out dough, place butter on top fold, roll, fold, roll, chill...until it was time for the sugar layer.  Then fold again, then roll again, more sugar and cut into squares.  Or if like me you don't know the difference between a square and a rectangle...

Place the 'squares' into your prepared muffin tin, like a "four-leaf clover" and prove for 30 mins.  Then baaaaake!

Mmmm, they're delicious, will definitely be making these again.  I hope you like my lamination!

Week six - Mary Berry's Princess Cake

Oh my, oh my...what a challenge this was.  Anyway before I begin I must apologise for the delay in writing this post.  Since completing the challenge I've been a bit busy with the small matter of childbirth and subsequent recovery of.  I'm writing this one handed whilst feeding our new little bundle of joy.  As you may say, I had my own 'bun in the oven' and what a Showstopper he is.

Back to the matter in hand. Once again this recipe called for all manner of ingredients that once combined could potentially cause a coronary just by looking at them.  Here's the recipe if you'd like to challenge yourself: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/prinsesstrta_17336.

First step was to make the creme pat (custard to you and me!). I've never made this before, but I didn't find it particularly difficult and was pleased with the result.  Next up, the sponge.  I missed out the raspberry jam making stage as we already had some homemade jam from my in-laws to hand.  The sponge, I believe, is of the Genoese type which again I've never attempted, but I was pretty pleased with this too.  The rise was amazing, I thought it was going to come out of the tin!

Whilst the sponge was in the oven, I made the rose decoration out of some spare marzipan I had (not fondant I know).  Then once the sponge was cooled it was assembly time.  First of all to slice the cake into three horizontally then assemble the first layer.

That was pretty straightforward, thin layer of custard, then pipe around the edge and then a layer of jam. I think in hindsight I would have added a bit more jam, just because it was so yummy. Then whip up some cream and mix with the custard and add some on top of the jam. 

Next place the second layer of sponge on top, spread over the remaining custard cream.  Third sponge layer then goes on top of this and the remaining whipped cream got added to the top and shaped into a small dome.  Now somewhere around mixing the whipped cream and the custard, I must have got confused and didn't seem to end up with enough whipped cream, so my dome wasn't as impressive as some from the Show.

Just looking at that photo makes me laugh.  I soldiered on and once chilled it was time to add the green marzipan (bought, not made) and to decorate with the rose, melted chocolate and whipped cream piping...

And there you have it, one Princess Cake.  I don't know what all the fuss was about!  

See you next week for Paul's Kouign Amann.

Week five - Paul Hollywood's Mini Pear Pies

I I feel so sad, we're already half way through the Bake Off.  How can this be?

Sniff, sniff...anyway here is this week's Technical Challenge.  Mini Pear Pies (http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/mini_pear_pies_77186).  I found these less of a stress than last week's Tiramisu Cake, but I didn't have to keep leaving the house like I did last week.

Again the recipe was very straight forward.  I haven't made rough puff for years, actually not even sure I've ever made it, but hey, I'm pleased with how it turned out.  The only thing I didn't like was having to grate the lard and butter...just messy.

Poaching the pears was easy peasy, here's a pic of them bubbling away...

Then I left them to cool and reduced the poaching liquid down to a syrup.

Once all was cooled and chilled it was time to assemble.  This was quite straight forward, just needed a steady hand to cut the strips and then wrap them around the pears.  As you'll see from the following picture, I had to construct a form of scaffold for one pear as it was leaning over!  

I was half expecting the pastry to slide off the pears a la Richard, but it all stayed on and cooked beautifully.  And voila!  My version of Mini Pear Pies.

They didn't last long...yum, yum!

See you next week with a European cake delight (and perhaps a brand new baby!).

Week four - Mary Berry's tiramisu cake

Good evening Bake Off fans,

Sorry this post is a day late, but I didn't fully complete the challenge until this morning. 

So, when I watched Bake Off last week I was filled with dread at the prospect of attempting this bake. So many things could go wrong.  I think my heart was in my mouth when they had to slice the sponge in half, let alone attempt making the rest of it!

Anyway, I bravely soldiered on and as you will see, I don't think my first attempt is actually half bad.  First step was to bake the sponge.  I was very pleased with my effort, and even took a photo to show you.

Then came the tricky slicing in half and constructing the cake.  Slicing was ok, but then my sponge did end up getting stuck to the wire cooling rack so not all layers were perfect.  But hey, you can't see it all.  Next putting all the layers together was quite easy, just needed to guesstimate how much of each ingredient to use per layer - which consisted of half a tonne of mascarpone, the coffee and brandy mix and grated chocolate.

Here's the result.

And here's what my kitchen looked like after all that effort.

Next up was the chill, then the chocolate decoration.  I had a problem with creating the chocolate decoration as I'm lacking in a proper chocolate thermometer, so improvised by using a meat thermometer.  Even still I think I was impatatient and didn't wait until the chocolate was quite cool enough before I started piping pretty shapes.  Which resulted in only a few good designs,  which didn't end up nice and shiny.

But as a first attempt I'm pleased, and both my husband and an independent taste taster who happened to be visiting today thought it was tasty.

So final results...taa daa!  If you'd like to try it out for yourself here's the recipe: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/tiramisu_cake_13686

Week three - Paul Hollywood's ciabatta

Ok, I have a disclaimer to make about this one...I'm not good at making bread...I cheat, I use a bread machine.  So here goes.

Week three is Paul Hollywood's ciabatta (recipe here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/ciabatta_05418). I like ciabatta, but I don't often make it as it requires me to remember to start it off the night before as I need to leave the dough starter in the machine for 12 hours.

This recipe was straight forward enough, but takes time.  I can see why Paul told the contestants to "be patient".  Also I was excited to be able to use my Kitchen Aid food mixer, whoop! 

I started the recipe on Monday morning and the bread was baked by about 7:30 Monday evening...yeah, I told you it takes time.

All seemed to be going well until we cut one this morning.  Not very holey...hmmmmm.  Oh well, I had some for lunch and it still tasted nice.  Not sure what went wrong as the dough was very stringy all along, even though I didn't use a plastic tub to prove it in.

In conclusion, I won't be making ciabatta by hand again...back to the good old bread machine for this one.  Roll on week four - desserts.

Voila!  

Week two - Mary Berry's Florentines

So here we are, my second blog post, that's quite an achievement in its self!  This week is Florentines. I've never made these before and it's not something I would normally buy.

So I gathered all the ingredients together this morning...unfortunately my local neighbourhood shops don't stock unsalted butter or candied peel - fail.  But I persevered, instead of butter I used margarine with the lowest salt content I could find and ignored the candied peel.

Recipe was very straight forward and easy to follow, I don't think I would make any adjustments next time around, apart from perhaps melting slight less chocolate as I had a bit left (which I spread on some baking paper and refrigerated, then broke it up to use in cookies).  What I didn't manage to do was temper the chocolate properly as I'm lacking in a chocolate thermometer.  Also I left the chocolate to set too much so couldn't add the zigzags properly.

Ta da, my take on Mary Berry's Florentines:

Recipe can be found here http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/marys_florentines_49833.

Week one - Mary Berry's cherry cake

I've decided to take it upon myself to attempt the technical challenge (where the full recipe is available) from this year's Great British Bake Off.  Mainly for two reasons.

1. I thought it would be good to try bakes that I may not normally attempt.

2. I've just started maternity leave so may have a little more time on my hands

3. I like cake...sorry that's three reasons.

Anyhow, week one was Mary Berry's cherry cake.  Here it is:

What d'ya think?  I know, I know it's not been baked in a bundt tin.  But I don't have one and didn't see the expense was worth it.  Also you'll note the icing is perhaps a little runny.  It was late and I was tired of trying to get the right consistency.  Note for next time - gradually mix the lemon juice with the icing sugar.

Otherwise this was a really easy bake.  The recipe can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/marys_cherry_cake_17869

Next week: Mary Berry's Florentines.

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