For a showstopper that is half way through the series, I would have thought they could have chosen something a bit more tricky.  The main element, the ice cream, in itself isn’t technically difficult, with the only tricky bit, the freezing, being out of your hands.  Even the sponge isn’t particularly taxing, especially for this far into the series. But enough of that let’s see how tricky it actually could be.

This week we had a bank holiday so I managed to get a good head start on things by making 2 of the main elements almost a week in advance.  Plus the day was miserable and raining so what better way to spend it than making jam and ice-cream?!

This weeks flavour inspiration from one of my favourite drinks, the Mojito. Choosing to use coconut milk as the main carrier of the ice-cream it was a case of trying to get the other main flavours to balance along with it. Mojito has a lot of fresh lime in it,  and instead of adding too much of this to the ice cream I decided that this would used in the jammy glue.

Sticky Fix
The first part of this jam/marmalade was certainly the most arduous, and after cutting my finger half way through the most painful! The first thing to do was to cut the fruit in half then juice it into the water in the pan, then came the fiddly bit. Each half of the fruit needed the inside pith removed (and kept), leaving just the shell. This was easier with the lemons then with the limes, and it ended up taking well over an hour till both fruits were completely empty.  The kept pith then was tied in a muslin bag and tied to the side of the jam pan (keeping it in the liquid), and then the fruit skins sliced into ribbons and added to the pan  

Once all the jam prep was done, the pan was left on a medium heat for 2 hours. Which gave me enough time to prepare the ice cream.

Dairy free does not mean mess free!
The ice cream mix in itself is pretty easy, and as I mentioned in an earlier post, one that I wasn’t too phased about.  I had previously made an avocado ice for my ‘Not So Savoury Nacho’s’ dessert which used a few of the same ingredients. After a bit of reading there were a few suggestion that in order to get a creamier, silky ice-cream you should use just the cream content of the coconut milk.  The only way to do this is to stick the cans in the fridge for a few hours until you are left with the scoopable cream sitting on top of a minimal amount of liquid. Once I had scooped out 5 tins of cream, I added chopped mint, grated lime zest, the juice of 1 lime and about 6 tablespoons of white rum, and mixed it together until really smooth.  In theory you could just use this mix as a creamy adornment to any cake, chocolate would probably be nice, but that’s something to try another day. For ice-cream I needed to churn it in an ice-cream maker.  Sadly, I don’t have the fancy maker they had on the show, nor do I know anyone that does. I did however have the use of my sisters simpler version where you freeze the bowl first and churn until it is thickened before adding to the freezer.  I worked great for the avocado ice cream and I should see no reason why it would be any different for this one.

The mixture for the ice cream needed to be churned in 2 sessions as the bowl was pretty small. With double the mixture there was no way it would all go in, especially as the volume increases with the churning and freezing process.

Frozen pipes
In order for the ice cream to freeze in the shape of a log, I needed a mould.  Seeing as I didn’t have anything fancy like Ian had in the show, I fashioned one out of a plastic shopping mat, lots of sellotape and topped with plastic container either end.  Blue Peter check that out!

The churned ice cream then got poured in and laid in a now clear freezer drawer to freeze. As I had some left over I froze the rest in a tub for testing! During the freezing process I chose to break up the forming ice-crystals with a fork, but I only managed do this once but maybe I should have done it more but I hoped that the alcohol in the mix would help to keep it semi-soft.

Jamming it up
Once the jam had simmered for 2 hours, the sugar had to be heated in the oven before pouring into the liquid.  I’m not too sure about this method, but maybe it’s just to get it to the same temp as the liquid and guarantee that it will fully dissolve rather than crystalise. Once poured into the liquid it, the pith bag was removed and the pan left to boil. At this point Delia, kindly suggests putting some saucers in the freezer to chill, the reason will be explained shortly…

Taking the pith
The purpose of retaining the piths and boiling them in a muslin bag was that they contain the pectin which is the setting agent that is usually found in preserving sugar.  Lemons and limes create their own pectin which is great, it’s just a question of how do you get it out? The answer is to squeeze the bag until it seeps through the cloth, easy right?  No, it’s bloody ridiculous, hot, messy and icky!  In the end the only way I could get a grip on the wet, sticky  jelly bag was to put rubber gloves on and then, most of the pectin substance came out on my fingers! After about 40 minutes of gunk squeezing and scraping I decided I couldn’t get anymore out and carried on with the rest.  

Jamming it up 2
The jam pan now needed to boil, a fast rolling boiling, for about 15 minutes. After these first 15 minutes one of the saucers comes out of the freezer and it’s purpose made clear.  A small spoonful of the jam is poured onto the frozen plate and left for a few minutes to cool.  Once cool, you can find out if it is cooked enough to be set by pushing the jam with your finger tip.  If it produces a crinkly like skin when you push it it’s ready, if not continue boiling for another 10 minutes and test again.

While the boiling was happening I placed my collection of jam jars (lids off) into the oven to sterilize.

After another 10 minutes the jam was ready, so I turned off the heat and left it to cool for 20 minutes before pouring it into the hot jars.  Once I had poured out half of the jars, I decided to add a little chopped mint to the remaining mixture to heighten the mint flavour of the mojito for the dessert.  A last minute idea, which I didn’t know whether it would work, but it looked pretty and smelt good.

Print and pipe
With all the over elements for this showstopper made, the final bit was the sponge. Now last year I managed to learn how to make a swiss roll, and made loads of them, so this was a relatively easy task.  But this is  a showstopper so easy isn’t really allowed.  I chose to do a plain vanilla sponges, but the showstopper element would have to come into play with the design. The pattern on the sponge was made match the holiday tropical vibe of the flavours using palm trees and cocktail glasses. This printed design was placed under the baking sheet to be piped on top using a thicker cake paste, that the remaining fatless sponge mixture.

The cake paste was a mixture of egg whites, flour, butter and sugar, and food colouring, or cocoa for the trees. With a paste that was thick and pipeable, the piping of the pattern had to be strategic; green tree tops first, then the brown trunks and lastly the pink cocktail glasses.

Once everything was piped I had a pattern similar to a Hawaiian shirt! This was then left to harden up in the freezer before pouring over the rest of the sponge mix, and baking

Rolling, rolling, rolling
Once the cake was baked, it needed to be cooled but rolled up for the process so that it didn’t crack later. In order to do this I had to to tip it over and remove the baking sheet allowing me to see the piped design.  It looked good but had lost a little of it’s definition with the main sponge colour, but you could still make it out.

After the sponge was cooled it was time to put everything together. The jam (made 5 days before) was spread over the sponge and the frozen log of ice cream (made 4 days before) placed on top.  As you can see the sponge did overlap slightly but it held together.

Proof is in the pudding
It took ages for the ice cream to soften, even after travelling in a hot car and packed picnic ice box for 2 hours with ice packs, in still hadn’t softened.  We left it on the side, fully constructed, for another 2 hours, while we ate dinner, and even after that it was pretty solid still. In hindsight, I’d love to try making this in a proper ice-cream maker, like on the show, and see if this would still be the case. Plus next time I think I would use less of the coconut cream and instead use the whole tin, and churn it for longer.  If I haven’t got an ice-cream machine, I’m just going to have to remember to break up the crystals more during the freeing process. The flavour was good and you could taste the key elements of the lime, mint and rum. However the rum definitely did not make much difference in keeping the mixture soft, maybe next time I should add more!

The marmalade was tasty and I like the added texture that the rind gave it, but next time I might try a curd instead, it might be more subtle and less tangy.

Overall I’m happy with the way it turned out.  I’d definitely do the designed sponge again and the ice cream, but not so sure on the jam. It was a good flavour jam, but I prefer orange marmalade and my limes to be in my drink instead of on my toast! Now I’m left 5 jars that I need to  get rid of!