And so onto the multi ingredient, multi stage, multi tasking Swedish Princess Torte.  Only last week was I thinking that I’m not a fan of stage cooking and this one has 14 to go through.  In fairness though, each stage has to be completed before putting the final build.  One is not dependent on another stage to be completed, in the sense that the custard custard could only be cooked once the tart was half baked etc, if you catch my drift.

Not wanting this weekend to be completely consumed by baking I decided to get up early to get a start on this in a systematic manner.  First things first, way out the numerous ingredients, this alone took about 30 minutes!

Crème pâtissière
Similar to last week, although this week we have the addition of cornflour so that it becomes a thick set custard that holds it shape and can be piped.  The milk had to be boiled with the vanilla pod while the eggs, are whisked with the sugar and cornflour until you have a thick, pale paste. The hot milk it poured over the eggs and the whipping continued the whole time. This can be a little difficult and cack-handed as trying to whisk without the bowl moving can be a little demanding! When all the milk was mixed into the eggs the mixture is then poured back into the saucepan, to be whisked and heated until really thick and can hold it shape on the whisk.  The final stage for the crème pât was to transfer it to a bowl and cover the top with a layer of cling film,to prevent a rubbery skin from forming.  Crème pât complete it was onto the next stage….

Raspberry Jam
As I was trying to do everything together I had the jam bubbling away while I was making the custard.  I’ve not really made jam before, which is surprising as it is pretty easy, and my mum makes the best apricot jam I have ever had.  For this raspberry jam, its just the fruit, jam sugar and water all boiled together until it reaches 104°C. thank fully I had a sugar thermometer for this measurement so I didn’t have to rely on my spidey senses!  When the jam was done, it was given a final mix to make sure all the fruit was broken down then transferred to heat proof bowl to cool down.

Genoise Sponge
I was in two minds at the start of the weekend as to whether I was going to make this sponge on the same day as the everything else, including the panettone. However seeing as the panettone had failed I thought it was best to get this torte over with!  The most important part of the sponge is the eggs. You need to get as much air in them as possible as this helps to create the light airy sponge, and to create the height needed to be able to slice the cake into 3 layers. As I still had the ol’ kenwood chef out I used this as my substitute to the bake off kitchenaids! With the eggs whisking away I sifted and combined the dry ingredients, while also melting some butter.

It took a lot longer than I thought it would to get the eggs whisked to the right consistency, but I decided I would follow Martha’s advice. To ensure you have the the right consistency it’s important to make sure the ribbon, left behind when you remove the whisk from the mix, is visible for 3 seconds before it disappears back into the liquid. After testing the mix a few times it wasn’t until about 8minutes of whisking that I was happy with it. While I carefully folded in the flour etc I decided I really need to get a larger metal spoon! Using a tablespoon takes far too long and you probably end up knocking out the air of the eyes that you have spent so long getting! Moving on, the melted butter was the last thing to fold in before transferring it to the cake tin and baking for 25 minutes. Keeping my fingers crossed that I didn’t end up with a flat sponge like Chetna I kept checking on it through the oven window. Luckily I mana eyed to succeed in keeping the air in the sponge regardless of the size of my spoon and removed it for the oven to cool.

Oddly as it cool the height dropped a little because the upper crust of the cake ended up looking like a deflated balloon! What’s that about?

Marzipan
With the cake cooling it was time to shift my focus from the wrinkly deflated top of the songs and onto the marzipan. I had thought I could cheat on this originally, by buying the pre-made version, but my conscience wouldn’t let me. The search for ground almonds in the local sainsbury’s proved a little tricky as the whole shelf was bare, but for the two 100g bags I found hidden away at the back of the shelf.I had to send the boyfriend out the next day to track down the remaining 200g. It turns out that making the actual marzipan is pretty simple, if a little sticky! The almonds at mixed together with sugars to which beaten eggs and almond essence is added. Once the basic marzipan is formed it was time to get my hands sticky, and knead in the green colouring!

Pink Rose
I’ve not made one of these before so I was winging it for this one.  Using the wider end of the a piping nozzles I cut out 10 circles.  With the first one I rolled it between my fingers to form a tube.  The middle of next circle was placed over the seam of the tube using a little water for glue. This process was continued until the last petal was in place, and the rose was left to rest and dry out until the rest of the cake was assembled.

The slicing!
Now that everything was made and cooled and ready for the build the first thing to do was to slice the cake into three layer.  Have done this with and even thinner sponge for the tiramisu, this was pretty simple.  Each layer was just over 1cm, cut with a serrated knife while turning the cake at the same time.

The Build – Layer 1
Layer 1 was the bottom of the sponge, onto which a thin layer of the crème pâtissière was spread, and a ring piped around the outside.  Inside the piped ring the cooled set jam was spread, making sure it was loosened slightly by mixing with a spoon.

Cream
This cake requires an obscene amount of cream, double whipped cream!  It’s important to make sure this is whipped to stiff peaks, but not too whipped that its grainy.  Thankfully this wasn’t my problem, my problem was I didn’t really have enough to go on the top of the cake, on the sides and round the bottom!  Needless to say there was a few trips to the shops to buy some extra! Half of this whipped cream needs to be added to the remaining amount of crème pât, and folded in.  One third of the cream and crème pât mix was them spread of the the jam.

The Build – Layer 2
The Second sponge and the rest of the cream and crème pât mix, and the third layer of sponge placed on the top

The Build – Layer 3
This is where it started to get a little tricky.  The remaining cream needs to be spread around the sides and on the top of the cake to form a dome.  I chose to do the top first then the sides, which in hindsight was a mistake. The layers were stable but had slight wobble to them and trying to spread the cream on the top made the custard slowly ooze out of the sides!  If I had put the cream on the side first and chilled it, before doing the top then it may have held it together structurally.

Chilling
This is the important part of the build, which isn’t shown in the bake off.  the recipe states that the creamed cake needs to be chilled to set, for at least an hour before the marzipan is added.

Blanket of Green
Rolling out marzipan is a little tougher than fondant.  The main thing was to make sure that the thickness was the same all over, I was aiming for 5mm. I always find the moment when you have to transfer the icing/marzipan to the cake the hardest.  You have to be super careful to have an even weight distribution in the lift, otherwise it will stretch and tear. Another this is when you have covered the main body of cake the edges need to be trimmed otherwise the excess icing will weigh it down, and again tear. So many things to do all while trying to smooth the marzipan over the cake! Once its all covered and trimmed the rose needs to be added.  I made a hole in the top using a chop-stick, and inserted the hardened rose. Then I placed the whole cake back into the fridge to chill again

More cream and chocolate too?!
The final amount of whipped cream needs to piped around the base of the cake in little flowers. Then the chocolate needs to be piped on the top. Thank the lord when this was the end!

Voila…knackered.
It had clearly defined layers as stated as one of the key points from Mary and Paul, along with a domed top, good chocolate decoration and a pink rose.  Its great cake for a party, but other than it’s a lot to try and eat between two people, so I would like to say a huge thank you to my friends and family in helping us finish it! It looked good, tasted good, but overall it is a bit ridiculous.

For this weeks signature bake I’m in a bit of a quandary. I had decided to make panettone as it is something that both the boyfriend and I enjoy, so rather then make a random concoction from a selection of ideas I decided to go traditional and with something less risky. My quandary was whether panettone would be classed as a cake or and enriched dough? Either way, I decided to stick with it and look for a recipe.

After searching through the books I have on my shelf at home and not finding anything, it was time to turn to the infinite encyclopaedia that is the internet. As with most things there were lots of variations, I managed to narrow it down to two. One recipe came with the help of an ingredients kit, and other was recommend by a friends husband, who is a chef. The one with the kit required a starter, and seeing as I had been meaning to start one for a while I thought this would be a good option. Turns out I need over a week to get a good starter going, so the kit is going to have to wait. I just want it make it clear that I have not purchased a cake mix where you just add milk etc. This kit, from Bakerybits.co.uk,  is made up of the bare ingredients to make a panettone, including the paper cases, pearl sugar nibs and premium flour. I will be using it in the near future, but it will have to wait until after bake off.

Anyway with the starter method out of the window it’s onto the chefs suggestion. After doing a bit of digging I’ve found that the recipe is from an American magazine: Gourmet (Dec 2008) . I found a another blogger who had used the recipe and found it interesting to read about her adventures with the bake, and the comments from other people. With the recipe in hand it was time to dig out the measuring cups and start the long process that is needed to make panettone.

15 hours; no joke.
Reading the recipe carefully and more that twice to be sure that I had a) got a everything and b) understood it, I was still surprised about the length of time needed for the first prove. However further reading of other recipes of this sort confirmed that indeed the timings were correct, so I was in for a long bake! The start of the bake needs to happen at least 8 hours before the dough is even formed. The raisins need to be soaked in rum and hot water, so that they get fat and juicy for the dough

I’m using a less manual labour method for this challenge, the good ol’ Kenwood.  My Kenwood is at least 30 years old, so when it comes mixing anything it likes to travel a bit with the motion.  With this in mind, I have decided to put the mixer on the floor, so it can roam freely without falling over!   Beginning with the dry ingredients in the bowl they are left to mix with the dough hook while the eggs are mixed with the warm water and honey.

Once the separate ingredients have been mixed, they then needed to be combined until a dough is formed. Next it was time to add the less healthy element to the dough, 101/2 tablespoons of butter! Each spoon needed to be added separately, until completely combined.  This took a lot of time to do as the butter needed coaxing into the dough otherwise it just got spread around the bowl, by the dough on the hook! Eventually it was all combined and the dial turned up so that the speed was a little higher, and left to do it’s thing for 8 minutes. The speed dial on the my kenwood mixer is a bit naff.  It has the regular numbers 1-10 for the speed, with 10 meant to be the fastest, but mine goes goes 1-2 slow 3, medium, 4-10 slightly faster, louder and more mobile on the work surface!

When the time was up, the dough was extracted from the hook and the placed in a new clean bowl ready for the fruit to be mixed in with the obligatory wooden spoon!  The now plumb raisins were mixed with melted butter and the citrus peel before being tipped into the dough for a good stir. With everything fully combined the bowl was covered with the baking cap (complimentary hotel plastic shower cap) and placed in a cold oven overnight for a 15 hour prove. So I promptly tidied up, grabbed a glass of wine and put my feet up.

Morning after the night before…
It was with slight trepidation I went toward the oven the next morning. Hoping to see a well risen dough, triple the size it was the night before, I was greeted with the same size dough I had left in the bowl the night before! The only explanation I can give for this is the yeast.

The recipe called for dry active yeast so I had used the Allisons Dried Active Yeast. Why wouldn’t you use this, it’s almost exactly the same description isn’t it?  Time to do some research I think.  Turns out that the dried active yeast need to be activated with water and sugar before adding to the dry ingredients.  However Allisons Instant Dry Yeast /Doves Quick Yeast can be added to the dry ingredients and will activate within the dough when the wet ingredients are added.  With this science of yeast now explained I made the decision to start again.  The only problem was that because it takes so long to prove I would have to wait until the evening to start the process all over again! Grr, time to go shopping!

I won’t bore you with a repetition of the method again, but needless to say the same was done and the 15 hours commenced.

And….
Yes! The next morning I was greeted with a well risen dough! I was so happy that i did a little jig around the kitchen!  This now meant that I could get onto the next part, the second prove, this time 5 hours!  The dough had to be tipped out of the bowl and knocked back slightly, but not too much.  The edges were folded into the centre creating a ball which then had to be dropped carefully into the paper case, Carefully so as not to rip it.  My case was a little bigger than the one requested in the recipe, but I wasn’t too bothered by this, I was just happy I had found them!

As I said before the second prove needed 5 hours, covered with a damp cloth.  Seeing as I been careful not to tear the paper case, I wasn’t about to lay a damp cloth over it to soften it. Instead I put pint glasses around the side and rested cloth on top of these, which meant it was suspended over the case and dough without actually touching it.

Final stages
The second proof needed to be done at room temperature, but for the last hour or so I put it in front of the pre-heating oven to give it the extra boost.  When it had reached it optimum height I had to be brave and cut a cross in the top.  The last knob of butter needed to go in the middle of the cross, to help prevent a skin from forming.  I had decided to use the pearl sugar nibs from the earlier mentioned kit, just so it wasn’t a complete wasted purchase for this bake, plus it made it look pretty.  Next it was oven time, for about an hour….

Smells good but…
Armed with the cake testing metal skewer I tested the centre of the cake after the alloted time, only to be met with mix being visible at the bottom.  Odd as the outer edges were fine  and the top of the cake was certainly a little browner than I would have liked.  Deciding to leave it in the oven for a little longer I  covered it with foil hoped for better in 5-10 minute.

When I could eventually be sure that it was cooked all the way through, it was time to remove it and hang it upside down for cooling.  I used a Pandoro tin that I had received a previous delicious Italian cake in.  The reason for hanging the cake upside for cooling is so that the top doesn’t sink and the panettone retains it iconic dome shape.

As you can see from the pics, the panettone is a little more brown on the outside than it should be.  In truth, burnt! In hindsight I realise I didn’t account for the fan setting of my oven when converting the temperature from 370F.  This would also explain why the cake was wet in the middle for so long, but cooked on the outside. I hate making silly mistakes like this, especially when it smelt and tasted so good too!

I will be making this again, as I don’t want to be defeated by a technicality! I will do this recipe again, but also experiment the one with the sourdough starter, in the aim to find the best version of panettone. Plus next time I could do two smaller panettones, great for presents at Christmas me thinks!

 

You’ve got to love Mel and Sue, they bring refreshing lightness and comedy to a show that could otherwise be like all the other vote off TV programmes. They to know the programme they are presenting can be a bit farcical and but the play along with it. This week was no exception. They were on par from the start and made me giggle throughout, even though I was dreading the tasks ahead of me!

Signature bake – a European yeast leavened cake
So many hopf’s but not a life buoy in sight! I loved the array of cake tins used for this challenge. When they were tipping the cake from them at the end it reminded me of sandcastles on the beach as a kid. Luis was great, again. I really like the decoration. Mary and Paul were really critical this week which shows the competition is really hotting up. They were really playing the roles of good cop bad cop right from the start. Paul’s exclamation and the amount of butter being mixed into Martha’s dough would certainly be enough to make me stop and think.  When it came to the tasting, Mary waxed lyrical about Kate’s flavour combination and Paul was the complete opposite and disagreed with it all.

My choice of bake for this challenge is a Panettone. It’s a yeasted dough originated from Italy. Does this qualify as a European yeasted cake? I hope so be use I’ve already ordered the ingredients and they arrive tomorrow along with the paper cases! Technically it is the same as what Mary says about these cakes:

“A leavened cake is made in a similar way that you would make a loaf of bread and it can’t really be hurried too much, get it too hot and it will rise too quickly and you won’t get the right texture. Too slow, the won’t have had time”

But I worry it is classed more as an enriched bread dough rather than cake. Either way I’ve never made it before so it’ll be something. New!

Technical Challenge – Swedish Princess Torte
Oh my, they really are upping the ante with this one.

Simple explanation: 3 layers of sponge, filled with creme pat and Jam, its got a dome of whipped cream on the top and on top of that its got some green marzipan and a little pink rose plonked on the top! Nice and easy then? HA! with 21/4 hours, 26 separate ingredients, 14 stages and remember to read the recipe at least twice I’ll admit I’m not looking forward to this! I have bought most of the ingredients already, but after watching the show, I now have to return the pre bought marzipan in favour of making my own. I went out looking for ground almonds this evening only to find the last 200g in the store tucked behind some other nuts.  Lets hope I can find some more tomorrow!

Showstopper Challenge – Hungarian Dobus Torte (2 tiered)
Wow, I’m really pleased I don’t have to bake this at the weekend too!  I think I’d seriously turn grey with the stress.  The sugar work alone worries me let alone the amount of thin sponge layers you need to make up a tier.

My Favourites this episode:

1. I’m so pleased that Chetna got Star Baker.  She worked so hard all the way through, especially with having to make an extra sponge in the technical. It was great to see her excitement at the end, you could tell she was totally surprised and elated.
2. Martha managed to surprise Paul with her signature bake and that is certainly impressive
3. I know that Nancy didn’t have the best week, but I sympathise with her when it comes to chocolate.  Despite everything she still manage to pull herself back from the disaster that was her signature bake.

I wasn’t really surprise that they judges made this decision this week.  They have already lost one baker, Diana, through un-baking circumstances, so they had to do something to get the numbers back up.  There were no real stand out poor baker, and although Richard and Kate were rightfully on the line I think it would have been wrong to kick one of them out. I think Luis needs to watch himself too, hes was slipping on his flavours with the showstopper. It’s probably harsh to say, but it’s nice to see a chink in his armour for once.

I’m a little anxious about the baking I have ahead of me. But I love Richard’s comment of begin cautiously optimistic, so I‘m going to aim for that mental state for the whole weekend!

 

And so to the custard tart. At the same time as making the rough puff for the pear pies I made the pastry that was required for the tart. As I mentioned in my previous post the main influence for my custard tart was a roasted fruit recipe from Nigella. I wanted to incorporate all of these refreshing flavours into my tart it was just a question of how I was going to do this without one flavour overwhelming the others.

Inspiration and influence
For the pastry I liked the idea that Kate and Martha had, that of adding nuts to the pasty to give it extra flavour as well as crispness. I’ve decided to go with and almond shortcrust pastry recipe from Eric Lanlard’s Tart It Up! He says that for this pastry you have to rub the icing sugar, ground almonds and butter together until you reach the breadcrumb stage, then add the flour and eggs. I’ve made pastry a lot in my lifetime and I could see that there was not enough dry ingredients in the bowl for this to work but went with it. After the breadcrumb stage was reached (sort of) the flour and beaten eggs were added to create a dough. After a quick amount of kneading and adding a little more flour the dough was wrapped in cling film and put in the fridge to rest and harden up.

A perfectly poached peach
The peaches for the top of my tart needed to be cooked, the big question was do I cook them in the custard or just add them to the top of the baked custard? Taking some direction from the show and the feedback that Martha and Richard had, I have decided to go with the latter option. I need the flavours to stand out, but blend individually. I think if I baked the peaches in the tart the whole thing could become too wet, and the strength of the peaches would be lost. Therefore I decided that I would poach the fruit along with a vanilla pod, so that there is only a subtle added sweetness to the ripened soft fruit. The peaches needed to be peeled first, and the method used was the same as the one for peeling tomatoes. Simply put them in boiling water for 2 mins, remove and place in cold water. The transfer from hot to cold creates steam underneath the skin and making it easier to remove the peel.

With the peaches is peeled it was time for the poaching. The liquor consisted of water sugar and a vanilla pod, pretty simple really. However, I was worried about the quantity of liquid, as it didn’t look like enough to cover the fruit, but does this does that matter? I don’t know, so I decided to poach the fruit with the lid on and turn the peaches half way through the 10 minutes required to get them perfectly poached. After the time was up the fruit was transferred to a tuppaware pot, along with the syrup and left to infuse for a minimum of 24 hours, or until needed, which in my case ended up being about 48 hours! Explanation to come…

Everybody needs good neighbours
When the time came to baking the tart, the friendship of my parents and their neighbours was requested. Due to mum not having a kitchen at this time, let alone an oven, I was able to use the neighbours kitchen for the this next step. Rolling out the pastry in the al fresco kitchen of my parents garden, was easy enough although trying to do it between two sheets of clingfilm is not an easy one. There was a little bit of adjustment needed to align the pastry in the tart tin, which then meant there was a little bit of patching up too. As the pastry was warming up quickly it was clear it needed to be chilled before the blind bake. Waiting for the neighbours oven heat up to temp seemed to take an age, but on the plus side that gave me time make the custard.

Suspicions mounting
After looking around online I found a recipe by Jun Tanaka for custard tart and earl grey prunes. I’ve watched Tanaka cook a few times on BBC Saturday’s Kitchen and always found them delicious and enticing. I would love to visit his restaurant, but finances won’t allow that just now. Deciding to use his custard recipe I boiled the milk and vanilla over a camping stove in the garden and whisked the 5 egg yolks and sugar separately until pale. The hot milk was then poured slowly over the eggs, mixing all the time until everything is combined, then I added a tbsp of the orange flower water. I have made custard and crème patisserie before and this mix looked a little thin, but I thought trust in the recipe.

When the oven was up to temp the base of the pastry tart was pricked with a fork, a baking sheet put over the top and baking beads added to be able to bake the case blind. After fifteen minutes the beads were removed and the case inspected. It was not as flat as I would have liked, there were air bubbles in the base of the tart and the sides had slipped, not ideal when you want a level bottom for your custard. The tart went back in the oven for another 5 minutes while I got the custard ready to pour into the case.

The next bit of the bake was always going to be tricky as I don’t have the fancy oven that they have on the bake off, the one with the fancy telescopic sliding shelves. With as steady a hand as I could manage the custard was poured in and the tart case gently pushed it back into the oven. Then bugger, gently was not gently enough and on the last nudge a little but rippled over the edge. Grrrrrr! Anyway with irritation I closed the oven door and waited for 45 minutes for it to cook.

WTF?
After the time was up and the tart was ready to come out. I was looking for a slight wobble in the middle of the tart but nothing like what I was greeted with. I didn’t have wobble, I had the same liquid as what I had poured in! There was no amount of extra cooking that was going to make this set. I will admit that there was a bit of swearing and stamping, and eventually I had a bingate of my very own!

Reflection
It was only after a nights sleep that I was even able to contemplate tackling this challenge again. After the chaos that the pear pies turned into, I decided to leave the second attempt to when I was back in my own kitchen.

This time I decided to make the pastry my way, with the same ingredients, but with all the dry components and butter rubbed together first then adding the beaten egg, adding it slowly and adding only just the amount needed to bring it all together. Much better.

With the pastry chilling it was time to do the research into the previous attempt at the custard.

Custard 2.0
The general conclusion was that there was simple not enough egg to set the custard in comparison to the amount of milk used. After reading through a few more recipes I decided to put my faith in a previous bake off contestant and winner, Edd Kimber and his recipe posted on The Independent site. This one uses cream, milk and 8 egg yolks1 With that amount of eggs it better bloody set this time!

It was the same process as before, however I added the 1tbsp of orange flower water to the warm milk before mixing it all with the eggs. Once combined I was left with a thicker custard than before and one I had more faith in.

Blind bake no.2
When it came to rolling out the pastry for this second version of the tart the pastry seemed easier to work with, maybe because wasn’t trying to do it outside! Once it was in the tin, it was another blind bake session, but this time I have decided not of prick the bottom, and make sure that the baking beads are well distributed into the corners of the tin. My timings were different too, I baked it blind for 20mins, removed the beads and baked for another 5, then egg washed the bottom to seal it from the filling and baked for another 5. Perfect.

This time, with the help of the boyfriend’s steady hands we managed to pour the custard into the pastry case and slide it back in the oven without any spillages. Now I just had to sit down and pray to the baking peeps on high that it would work!

Yippee, success…even if it was delayed.
When the 40 mins were up, it was time for the dreaded wobble test. It was certainly a lot better than before, although I felt it needed a bit longer so it stayed in the oven for an extra 10minutes until I was happy with it.

Finishing touches
As I mentioned earlier the poached peaches had been infusing I the fridge, for 48hrs rather than the 24 stated in the recipe I was using. This was mainly because not everything had gone to plan and the good tart didn’t come out of the oven until 10pm on Sunday night.

The final tarting up didn’t happen until the Monday evening and thankfully this bit was easy. Half the peaches, without squishing them, remove the stone then slice each half into 5/6 slices. The next bit was to arrange them on the top of custard in a pretty circular pattern and top off with the blueberries. After the chaos of the bake it was nice finish with something that was almost calming.

Result
There was no soggy bottom, and the flavours worked better than I had expected. I was worried that the orange flower water flavour would either be lost in the baking process or be too overpowering but I think I got the balance just right. The custard although nice tasting probably needs a bit more experimenting. Although it was set, it was a soft set and even though it worked well, would it have worked better with a harder set?

Considering the circumstances that it took to make this signature bake, it turned out ok, eventually! I can confidently say that I have learned a few things this week!