Well that was a little surprising. Lithuanian cottage cheese biscuits, slipper biscotti’s and laminated wheels. This weeks episode certainly had a bit of bite, and when it came to the crunch, those that played it safe, simply crumbled! (sorry). Uniformity was key for every task this week.

Signature Bake – Biscotti (24)
These are yummy and I love them, especially ones with pistachios. According to Mary and Paul the key points are that they are:

• twice baked making it crunchy and snappy
• dry all the way through, but not break your teeth

I have made these before and served them with ricotta cheese, coated with honey and dusted with cinnamon. Equally they are great with coffee or a nice dessert wine like vincanto. Most of bakers with week seemed to be playing it safe with this challenge, but there were a few that stood out. Ians use of rosemary is something I’d like to try, as the fiance’s favourite herb at least it’ll be something he’d eat. Nadiya’s use of fennel and coconut was another that intrigued me, even if she didn’t add the fennel until the last minute. I’ve never heard of jackfruit and it was interesting to see Alvin use it as a fresh fruit rather than dried which every one else used. Marie provided some great comedy value by trying to appeal to Paul’s generous nature (does he have one?)

Technical Bake – Arlettes (8)
High end, light, delicate cinnamon flavoured biscuit. Basically its a laminated puff pastry style biscuit, wafer thin spiral with a bit of bite and very similar to a palmier biscuits. Last year we saw lots of variation on laminated dough, but this is the first time we’ve seen it in a biscuit. The main difficulty that the bakers seemed to have was the setting of the butter in between the layer folding. If its not set hard between each fold the lamination won’t work and when its cooked it’ll bleed out, leaving you with chewy dough. The other thing was which way to cut and how thin is ‘nervous’ thin? I know that I’ve said that I’m only going to do the showstoppers this year, but I’m keen to try these. Lets see how hot it is this weekend first!

Showstopper – 36 biscuits, encased in a biscuit box, in two flavours.
Well they are certainly starting to ramp things up quickly in this series. Chocolate work last week and two type of biscuit this week, I can certainly feel the pressure, albeit I’m not in that tent! This week has to be architectural, decorative, uniform and flavoursome. Its all about precision. The box needs to be tough, and according to Mary it has to be ambitious and taste really special.

I loved the decoration on Flora’s box, but it was the more abstract boxes that made more of an impression, basically anything that wasn’t a rectangular box. Interesting to see that two of the bakers chose to make earl grey tea and present them in a similar style.

I’ve got a few ideas for the box, but I’m still unsure about the biscuits inside. I’m taking them to a kids birthday party, so they need to be child friendly. Time to get the sketch pad out I think and start doodling!

Ian certainly deserved this weeks star baker. He experimented with flavours and pushed the creative boundaries with his biscuit box. I’ll definitely try to incorporate more herbs to my bakes this year. I’m a little disappointed that Marie has come out this week, I really thought she’d go far. It just goes to show that even if your a solid baker, you need to push the boundaries, you can’t stick with what you feel safe with. Dorret needs to push herself a bit more, I think she was pairing it back considering last weeks failure. I loved the fortune cookies that Nadiya made it’s just a shame that her box didn’t work, but she certainly has determination. Alvin was so passionate about his bakes, and I hope he keeps it together.

The best onliner this week came from Nadiya with “If I go down, I’m going to go down making fortune cookies!”

B. F. G. the shortened version of this three layered beast, and there was nothing friendly about this giant! Firstly can I just say that baking on a hot sunny day is not the most ideal conditions to bake, let alone try to temper chocolate in! This weekends bake turned out to be a chaotic, repetitive (you’ll see what I mean) and frustratingly long.

To begin with I came up with a few ideas for this weeks showstopper, which were brought down from the grandiose scale of a 3D cherry shaped cake, after seeing what the bakers attempted on the show. Instead I decided to stick with a more traditional 3 layers version, with a few new additions. The plan was to get everything done early in the morning, so that I didn’t spend all day in the kitchen. This turned out to wishful thinking as I had to go out in the morning to get the final ingredients, the camera battery was dead, and I still hadn’t decided not the recipe for the sponge. Not a good start.

Sponge, Sponge, Sponge
After doing a bit of research, finally, I decided that going with a genoise sponge was the best way to go. I’d read Felicity Cloake‘s article on the Guardian site, which was very helpful in trying to determine some of the other methods and variations for the BFG. I’d made a genoise before for last years Swedish Princess Cake, so I wasn’t too concerned about the outcome. The recipe I chose to go with this time came from butter loving James Martin.With everything measured, the eggs and sugar went into my new mixer (old Ken died a few months ago) and turned up the dial. The eggs needed to be whisked for nearly 7 minutes until they were pale, fluffy, volumous and had reached the ribbon stage. Once they got to here, the flour and cocoa could them be folded in, carefully, so not to lose the air in the eggs, until well combined. Once this was done, I could see that I had lost some of the volume and when it was poured into the tin, it didn’t look too promising. After 20/25 minutes in the oven it still didn’t look good, and even though the skewer came out clean on later inspection it still needed longer.

With the second attempt, after a quick run to the shops for more cocoa and eggs, I used the same recipe but tried a different method. This time I separated the eggs, as Cloake suggests, and folded the egg whites into the egg yolk, flour and sugar mix. The problem with this was the egg yolk mix was so stiff that it was impossible to loosen it with a spoonful of the egg whites. By the time all the egg white had been folded in, it looked worse than the first, and looked just as bad after a period in the oven

If in doubt…Delia
Finally deciding to give up on James Martin’s version I decided to take Cloakes’ advice and give ol’ faithful, Delia Smith, a turn. This final version was flour free, so good for the gluten intolerant, instead it is just eggs (separated), sugar and cocoa. This mix went a lot better, in fact when I poured it into the tin it was already double the height of the cooked cakes! I felt a little more optimistic with this one, especially when I took it out of the oven. It did deflate slightly (as predicted by Delia and Cloake) but didn’t think it would sink as much as it did. There was no way I was going to be able to cut it into 3 layers.

Keep calm and carry on!
Trying to ignore the majority failure of the sponges I turned my attention to the fillings of this giant.  The first was the cream filling.  I decided to make I bit more indulgent by using mascarpone, along with double cream and a splash of kirsch. It had a good taste, but I was possibly a little over zealous with the mixer and slightly over whipped the cream.  I tried to rescue it by adding a little more cream, which seemed to work, but when it came to decorating, transporting it in the car, combined with the heat of the kitchen, the end result looked a little but of a mess. It tasted good though.

Chocolate Heaven?
More like a hellish mess. I will fully admit that patience and tidiness is not my forte when it comes to baking, and when it comes to chocolate it goes everywhere. Some how it even ended up in on the fiancé’s elbow, and he was upstairs! The first stage of this very long winded process was to melt a majority of the chocolate to 55°C nd then add unmelted chocolate to it to lower the temperature.  After reading a little about this ‘Seeding‘ method what seemed key, was to ensure that the chocolate and the boiling water in the saucepan did not make any contact, even the steam.  This is why there is a napkin between the saucepan and chocolate bowl (in case you were wondering). Once the chocolate was up to temperature, the saucepan was moved to the other side of the kitchen, and the rest of the unmelted chocolate added. The delicious liquid then needed to reduce in temperature, naturally to 27°C, which took at least a good 40minutes. Once it had reached this required temperature it then needs to be heated back to 32°C, and not a degree higher, otherwise you have to do the whole thing over again.  This is meant to leave you with chocolate that once set (at room temperature) should be shiny, and snappy once set. More about that later.

While this chocolate was tempering away I made a simple chocolate ganache with double cream and some more alcohol, this time some home made cherry brandy.  This glossy substance was to spread over the topped of the boozy soaked sponges before the mascarpone and cream layer.  Initially I had intended this to go around the outside too, but I didn’t have enough, and by the time it came to building it I had lost some of my creative love for this cake. Instead I chose to fill some of my freshly de-stoned, brandy soaked, cherries, with it instead, which were then to be dipped in the tempered chocolate. Yum!

Layer Cake
Returning to the now cooled sponges it was time to attempt to split them. There was no way that I was going to be able to cut any of them into 3 layers, so I decided to cut all three and hope that I could use one of them as a substitute for the third layer. As you can see from the pictures below there was only one sponge that I could use with the Delia one, and that was the 2nd James Martin version. This was ok but a little dry and dense, but hopefully nothing a bit of cherry juices and kirsch soaking could solve, hopefully.

Temper temper
While the 3 selected sponge layers were soaking with repeated lashings of booze, I used the remainder of the tempered chocolate to help created an extra layer for the cake. This cake needs texture otherwise it becomes a squishy wet mushy mess. For this I decided to add some very thin chocolate layers, similar to what you get in a Viennetta ice cream. Spreading the chocolate was fine, but trying to get it to cool and harden in a hot kitchen, on a warm summers day, is not easy. Running out of time, and patience, I decided to cheat, and put them in the fridge in the hope that they would set while I started to build the rest of the cake.

Soaking, Piping and layering
Once the cakes had had enough booze to make them flavoursome, but still hold their shape I use the more dense one for the base. To this I spread a generous layer of the cherry chocolate ganache and spread it evenly before adding the next layer. I decided to pipe the mascarpone and cream mixture, in a similar style to Flora last week. On top of the cream went one whole jar of the cherries soaked in kirsch. Now the test of the chocolate disc. The first one was still a little soft, but I was able to peel it from the sheet and rest it on the top of the cherries without breaking. As I was running out of time I decided to harden the last chocolate disc in the freezer! Repeating the process one with the remaining ganache, cream and another jar of cherries. When it came to removing the chocolate from the freezer, I thought I had lost it. Instead it had slipped down the back of the drawer! As you can see this meant that although it was hard and crisp, it was a little broken but still usable

Finishing touches
The top of the Delia sponge was a perfect shape to hold the topping of the cake. Although I initially had the idea of coating the cake in ganache, with the heat and lack of time I had to think on my feet. Instead I decided to go with an extra layer of whipped cream, flavoured with the cherry juices. The only problem was that rather than make the cream pink, it made it more grey. I remembered reading somewhere that arrowroot acts as a thickener which is flavourless, and a clear, rather than cornflour. I added this to the now boiling syrup and waited a short time until it was thick enough. Once it was cooled enough I added it to the cream to create a rippled effect and spooned it on top of the final layer to then be adorned with the chocolate dipped cherries.

Never again!
At least not in the summer. The final result and flavour was good although there are some elements that definitely need more practice and patience for me. I am determined to get the sponge right and will give it another go. James says to pour the mix into two tins, I decided to pour it into one, as I did last year. In hindsight, I should have listened to James and been a little more fairy fingered with the folding, maybe then it would have been a success

 

Woohoo the bake of is back and so is my baking drive.  It’s been a little slow of late, what with the pressures of work and starting to plan a wedding! That’s right peeps the boyfriend proposed and as baking isn’t great for the waistline I’ve decided to do things a little differently this year.  Instead of doing the Signature and Technical bakes each week, I’ve decided to just do the Showstopper.  In theory this should be simpler, but I am prepared to eat my word as well as my cake!

This episode see Mel & Sue back to their old tricks and there is no shortage of innuendo, especially with during the first task. A week of throw back bakes with traditional cakes begins…

Signature Bake: Madeira Cake
This is one of my favourite cakes.  Mum always baked it for birthday cake as its a good solid base, so it’ll definitely be making an appearance in the wedding cake 🙂

Traditionally, according to Mary this cake should be a close texture, soft, domed and with a good crack on the top. Some of the bakers chose to go with the traditional citrus flavours, but others got a little experimental sometimes with unsuccessful results. Alvin decided to add figs, great for moisture in an often dry dense cake, but the piece were too big and they sank to the bottom.  Matt decided to do a gin & tonic glaze, unfortunately according to Mary, there simply wasn’t enough gin!  One of the more successful variations, which I’d like to try, was Tamal’s Pistachio and rose.

Technical Bake: Frosted Walnut Cake
Not a popular cake, because of the walnuts, but still pretty impressive.  The main thing seemed to be the size of the walnuts. Too big they sink to the bottom, too small and they get lost in the sponge when you still want texture.  In general this is a pretty easy cake, the difficulty for me, and what proved to be for the bakers would be the caramel for the candied nuts and the frosting. The frosting seemed similar to an Italian meringue, but instead of adding hot molten sugar to cook the egg white, it was all cooked while whisking it over boiling water. Only a few of this weeks bakers seemed to do the frosting correctly, with the main problem being that this was too granular, I can only assume it wasn’t cooked for long enough.

Showstopper Bake: Black Forest Gateaux
A 1970’s classic, made up of distinctive layers sponge, cream, cherries and the vital ingredient, Kirsch. Three, or in Floras case four layers, of sponge, traditionally chocolate. The sponge needs to be kept light and the rest of the fillings can be rich and dense.  Genoise sponge seems like the obvious choice but the question is, do I bake 3 cakes or 1 large cake and slice it up?

I’ve been thinking about how I can pimp this cake up, so it’s good to see what every one else has done to help develop my ideas.  I like the idea of the cherry generate that Tamal uses, though I don’t think I’ll attempt the chocolate wrap.  Stu’s use of mascarpone it a nice twist on the cream, but unless you have the right texture of sponge, it’ll just be to heavy. Some of the best chocolate work came from Ugne, but at the detriment of her sponge.

This will be a first for me, I like chocolate and cherries, but it’s a bit of a decadent cake to make on a regular basis.  The key this week will be to keep it traditional but at the same time give it a bit of a kick, and not just  with the alcohol content. Chocolate tempering is not something I excel at so there’ll have to be a bit of research and swotting up this week. Texture, moisture and full flavour are the major players, I’ve jut got to make them all stand out.

Lets get down to business, episode one is out and that means 12 new bakers to get to know. For starters this is, for me, an episode to learn the names of everyone and try to pick out the strong contenders. From the outset Marie, who bakes everyday (who has time for that!), stands out as the a solid and steady baker, so no surprise she was star baker. Ones to look out for in my opinion, Tamal, Flora and Ugne. It was a bad week for Stu, but maybe he was just too experimental for the first week.  However he did come up with a new catch phrase which I will take with me and try to use “Holy Shenanigans!”

The best onliner this week came from Ugne with “My crack will show!”