The Bake Off take 2

The Fleece Fest at The Golden Fleece in Birkenshaw returned for its second year this bank holiday weekend and it was even bigger and better! Over the three days, we have seen beer and champagne pong, the ‘golden games’ competition and the coveted Great Birkenshaw Bake Off. 

After last year’s failed attempt I was keen to show off what I could do and so decided to take a classic recipe for a spin…or something like that. 

It was to be my mother’s birthday that weekend as well for which I was making a carrot cake so as I had a multitude of carrots in the house already I decided to base my recipe on these vegetables. 

My carrot and cardamom recipe is based on this one and I was very pleased with how it came out (I made extra cupcakes with the same mixture so that I could taste it) yet I was at a bit of a loss how to decorate it. 

As the cake itself is full of flavour I decided to go for simple decoration - obviously, this was my reason, not the fact that I am totally useless at cake decorating. I made a lemon buttercream and topped it with a mixture of lemon and orange peel.

The bake off judging was to be at 2 pm so I arrived in good time with my cake and my entry form and proceeded to wait….and wait….and wait some more. 

It was with a heavy heart that I placed my humble offering on the table with the other entries including a Pina Colada cake and even the ‘Pig - feast which involved little pigs wallowing in (chocolate) mud.

There were two categories this year: the junior bake off and the adult Bake Off and some of the kids' entries were very impressive. Congratulations to Bethy for her winning creation. 

The competition was due to be held in a tent next to the gin bar yet because there was such a large turn out at the event the decision was made to move proceedings to the stage. A flaw in this plan was the kids’ entries and all the rest of them got a bit mixed up. 

First up on the judging table was the Pina Colada cake -without the rum, many people sad about this fact.

The Rhubarb and Custard cake was next up: this cake was undecorated and relied purely on taste. Unfortunately, I thought that the flavour could have done with being a bit stronger. (I tried some of this afterwards.)

The Pig-Feast cake was chocolatey as it looked; perfect for little piggies.

Next up was the Celebration cake. this was a celebration of all things chocolatey although in the baking hot sun it was looking a bit sad- still tasted good though.

Last but not least was my carrot and cardamom cake. I guess that there must have liked the strong flavour and moist texture from the carrot because....

The judges faced a hard decision and it proved to be just a little bit too hard as there was a joint winner. The Celebration cake…..and me. 

Yes really ME!!!

The Bake Off

The Great British Bake Off is now in its sixth series and has quite literally taken over the world, well the UK at least as ‘bake off’ competitions are cropping up all over the country and the humble village of Birkenshaw was not one to miss out.

The Golden Fleece in Birkenshaw has recently been refurbished and since its reopening has placed itself firmly as ‘Birkenshaw’s favourite local.’  

This bank holiday weekend saw the first ever ‘Fleece Fest’ and welcomed over 60 types of beers, a hog roast, live music and even a BOUNCY CASTLE!!!  The village’s first ever Fleece Fest Bake Off was held on the bank holiday Monday and I of course had to take part.

The cake that my very good friend Emily and I made for the occasion was GBBO winner John Whaite’s Sherbet Lemon cake.

Herre I am with my mate John Whaite and his lovely shorts

The baked masterpiece combines the popular lemon sponge with zingy sherbet lemon filling and homemade mixed peel. Guys we made mixed peel! Surely that means points in our favour? 

Our contribution was the first cake on the bench as I (naturally) was the first to arrive and my hopes were high. I mean there was free meal at stake here. However my hopes were dashed somewhat when a cake with an actual sheep on top arrived a.k.a The Golden Fleece.

All proceeds of the Birkenshaw Bake Off went to the BVA (Birkenshaw Village Association) and indeed as well as the £1 entry fee, each slice of cake  was also sold off at the end of the competition.

There were three separate categories: cakes, cupcakes and children. however of the grand total of 6 entries (one being the kids’ so that won by default so there were technically only 5)  they were all cakes. Maybe I should of made cupcakes instead. 

To be honest things were getting a bit tense as I sat waiting patiently…ok not so patiently…for the judging to start and it did not help matters that the affair was late. 

Head Chef Ollie (from Hotel Chocolat no less) was to head the judging joined by the general manager. Apparently Ollie recognised me…maybe I've been to Roast and Conch a bit too much.

The first cake under scrutiny was the Homer Simpson Doughnut cake which though chocolatey didn't look all that appetising alas we didn't get to hear any feedback and I was eager to hear what the judges thought as my cake was up next. 

I was quite disappointed that they didn't try any of the peel.

Sophie's’ Cookies and Cream cake was a tribute it would seem to the popular Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream yet I never really got the hype about that and personally I feel that it lacks flavour. Something that can also be said about this cake (i tried some of it) Sorry Sophie

The Golden Fleece cake caused quite a commotion as the judges weren't sure how to cut it - eventually they went for the popular delicacy: mutton rump. As the cake had been called ‘Golden Fleece’ it wasn’t clear what type of cake it was and as we got no feedback from the judges i just had to guess. The sheep looked to be lemon whilst the base was a plain sponge decorated with coconut. 

The final cake to be tried was Chocolate and Strawberry. This yummy looking chocolate cake was topped with strawberries yet I’ll guess we’ll never know whether or not there was anymore strawberry involved.

Three men debating about cake - it doesn't get much more tense

I was gutted to find out that I had not even placed as third place was awarded to Charlotte’s Strawberries and Cream, Second place surprisingly went to Adele’s Golden Fleece which I had thought was sure to win. 

The Cookies and Cream cake by Sophie was declared the winner much to my shock and hence why I had to try some for myself. Suffice it to say that I did not agree with the judges verdict. 

Next week on the GBBO it is ‘Free From’ week, here the bakers will create gluten free/dairy free e.t.c  bakes. For some free from recipe ideas check out the baking tag. 

Matcha, pistachio and goji berry biscotti

In the second week of this year's Great British Bake Off the signature challenge was biscotti. An Italian tea time treat that is twice baked and super crunchy and delicious. As for many of my bakes however I opted for a bit of experimentation rather than just sticking to a recipe. 

The original recipe that I based my biscotti on is as follows and can be found on A Pocket Full Of Rye

50g whole almonds
50g pistachio nuts
200g Plain Flour (ideally organic)
150g caster sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 grated lemon rind

Whilst I used this blog post as a guide my recipe was somewhat different:

25g Matcha green tea
25g Goji berries 
100g Pistachio nuts (shelled)
200g Ground almonds 
1 Lemon rind
150g Honey 

It can therefore be seen that my biscotti are gluten free - no flour and contain no refined sugar. 

The first step to biscotti heaven is to roast the pistachio nuts in a preheated oven for 4-5 minutes. Whilst these are becoming lovely and crisp in the hot furnace I like to find a super smashing great playlist on Spotify and dance around. 

Anyway onto phase two: whilst you leave your nuts to cool - the pistachio nut guys, spot snickering- place all the rest of the dry ingredients in a bowl. 

You may have noticed that with the matcha and almonds combined I seem to have a lot more dry ingredients than the original recipe calls for. This is because my version contains no gluten and is therefore makes a fairly wet dough. Therefore I have added a little bit more almond to compensate.

Stir in the pistachios, goji berries, honey and eggs until you have a violently green dough.

Transfer the dough to a greased baking tray using a spatula to work it into a rectangular shape so that it will bake evenly.

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Place your baking tray in the centre of the oven preheated at 200 degrees C / 180 fan for approximately half an hour. I had a slight mishap at this stage as I realised bit too late that my oven was actually at 200 rather than 180 because it is indeed a fan oven - idiot. 

Its fine though, just a little brown.

It doesn't look very appetising at this stage (maybe its the green) but you need to wait until the dough is completely cool before cutting the biscuits otherwise they will crumble. Again I took to dancing madly around the room whilst my 'not quite biscotti yet' cooled.

Using a sharp knife  cut the biscuits to roughly 10mm  in thickness, if you want to be super precise use a ruler for this stage or if like me you aren't that bothered - don't. The biscuits should however be roughly the same thickness so that they cook evenly.

Put your biscotti back in the oven for 5-10 minutes for a second bake, this seals the extra crunchy yumminess. 

Leave to cool if you can wait that long and enjoy with a cup of tea. 

They still look a bit weird though.

The Great British Teacake

Inspired by the Great British bake off I decided to try my hand at making every recipe from the show. But after a while I got bored, but I have the book now so I can revisit this task at a later stage.

One of the recipes that I decided to tackle head on was the chocolate marshmallow teacake. A nice challenge to sink my teeth into and it tasted rather nice when I did.

The first challenge I faced was before any ingredients were even set on the counter and that was to get a silicone baking tray. Simple, I thought and head off to the nearest supermarket to find said tray. Alas the tray was nowhere in sight, nor was it at the next supermarket, or the next.  Not to be conquered we set off to a specialist bakery shop, it wasn’t there either. Getting  ready to tear my hair out at this point I quickly purchased some piping bags, I later learnt that these were the wrong kind but more on that later. 

Eventually we finally found what we were looking for, well sort of, this tray was a bun tray not rounded like I had hoped but if I had to settle for funny upside down bucket shaped teacakes, well I suppose that would just have to do. 

The Recipe used was from the wonderful Paul Hollywood and can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chocolate_marshmallow_60410 Or in fact here because I will post it too. (makes 6)

Ingredients

        400g/14oz dark chocolate with around 40% cocoa solids

        50g/1¾oz wholemeal flour

        50g/1¾oz plain flour

        pinch salt

        ½ tsp baking powder

        25g/1oz caster sugar

        25g/1oz butter

        1 tbsp milk

For the marshmallow:

        3 free-range eggs, whites only

        150g/5½oz caster sugar

        6 tsp golden syrup

        ½ tsp salt

        ½ vanilla pod, seeds only

Melt 300g of the chocolate in a bain marie and leave to cool slightly before evenly spreading the melted chocolate around the mould making sure that there aren’t any holes but you don’t want the chocolate to be too thick either. Leave to cool completely while you turn your attention to the biscuits but don’t put them in the fridge because that will spoil the chocolate and it will lose its shine.

Preheat the oven to 170C

To make the biscuits, put the flours, salt, baking powder and caster sugar into a bowl and rub in the butter with your fingertips. Add the milk and stir everything together to form a smooth ball. Roll out on a floured surface and roll out until an approximate thickness of 5 mm. Cut out six rounds with a diameter of approximately 7.5 cm or to cover the bottom of the mould. Leave the rounds to chill in the fridge for 10 minutes, the addition of a magazine or the TV remote control is optional. Baking the biscuits when they are well chilled helps them to keep their shape and stops them spreading in the oven. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

While the biscuits are cooling melt the rest of the chocolate before fully coating the cooled biscuits in chocolate, you could cover only the bottoms if you are running out but my philosophy on life is the more chocolate the better so slather the yummy stuff all over.

To make the marshmallow, place all of the ingredients in a large bowl over a bain marie and whisk with an electric whisk for 6-8 minutes, making sure it is smooth, silky and doubled in volume. Please note that for a bain marie the water has to be boiling, not just in a hot pan. Whisking the eggs over a hot but not boiling pan doesn’t actually get you anywhere, well apart from ending up hot and bothered with a pan of egg whites. Paul Hollywood recommends using the seeds of a vanilla pod but I didn’t have one of them so I put a few drops of peppermint essence in. This was a mistake because my marshmallow tasted rather like toothpaste.

When you eventually get the consistency you want, spoon the marshmallow mixture into a piping bag.  However you ideally want a large sturdy piping bag not a small flimsy thing because you will more often than not end up with your hand covered in hot marshmallow. Fill another piping bag with more melted chocolate, yes MORE chocolate, my mother wasn’t happy about the amount of chocolate involved in this recipe but as the well-known saying goes ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you fatter’

   Pipe the marshmallow into the chocolate covered moulds and place the biscuits on the top. Carefully pipe some chocolate to fill in any cracks between the rim of the chocolate and the biscuit. Leave the teacake to set completely before attempting to remove from the mould, if you try this before the teacakes has had the chance to seal properly things could get a bit messy- trust me I would know.