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