As promised I spent my weekend baking the cakes that were thrown at the 12 new contestants who were initiated into the Great British Bake Off tents last Wednesday.
The challenges: Madeira, walnut cake and Black Forest gateaux
Challenge 1: Madeira cake
My spin on this was apricot within the cake and candied apricot on top with salted caramel sugar work. The bake actually went quite well and to my delight it came out of the oven with a massive Madeira crack! A little shallow for my liking but I think my tin was bigger than specified. Candying the apricot I innocently followed the technique for candying Orange peel... They definitely don't behave in the same way. Sticky and gooey yes but would never have passed Mary's drop on a plate sound effect test. After a lot of googling I found a new technique which required boiling the fruit three times then boiling again in simple syrup. This time I let them dry over a rack and half an hour later... Dink! Passes the Mary berry sound test!!! CONFESSION: in an attempt to cut corners I made caramel and dipped my walnuts from the next recipe in it then added salt got this recipes sugar work... That extra time on the heat meant my salted caramel burnt but hey... Looks nice! Note to self: put in more apricot elements next time - as my mum tasted this "mmm lemony!"... Where'd the apricot go?!
Next challenge: Walnut Cake
Yuk! Can't stand nuts but hey ho. I followed the Bake Off Recipe for this - as it was the technical challenge I wanted to give it a proper go. Pretty easy mix to do and the cakes came out beautifully flat and even! Win! A simple buttercream sandwiched between and onto the next challenge boiled icing... Sorry what? This was completely new to me and required whisking egg whites, sugar, water and cream of tartare (which I had to google) over a pan of boiling water for 10 minutes. The end product was great but after ten minutes of holding an electric whisk my whole hand was numb! Topped with caramelised walnuts (beware handling these caramel is hot hot hot!), and actually... Not too shabby!
And finally: Black Forest Gateaux
Now I don't mean to brag but as chocolate cake is my favourite thing to eat (in vast quantities) I can make a chocolate sponge with my eyes closed. The challenge here was getting cherry incorporated. I used Nadiya's recipe for cherry jam, which seemed to be going well until I decided it was too chunky and took the cherrys out of the syryp. That's all well and good but the consequence of that was a syrup/unset jelly consistency rather than a nice jam. As I sandwiched my chocolate sponge with the "jam" and buttercream (which I added blended tinned pears to - this was very yum!), it was like jamgeddon... Purple stickiness leaking out everywhere. Nervously I threw it in the fridge and hoped for the best. Half an hour later whilst adding the white chocolate ganache the jam kept on splodging out of the edges! What have I learnt from this? Practice your jams! And don't touch jam whilst cooking - it is effectively boiling hot sugar! Overall the cake looked nice, but taste wise if you're after a chocolate cake then it was perfect... if you're after a black forest gateaux - stick to Iceland's freezer section.
So overall what I learnt - sponges are easy..... caramels are hot...... jam is impossible.... don't put caramel in the fridge, it doesn't like it.... and just because I don't love cherries, they still belong in a black forest gateaux....
Next week - biscuits. Comfort zone well and truly evacuated.
