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!