Great British Bake Off Challenge - Week 4

White Chocolate Sacher Torte

I know it should be Week 3.... But I never got around to making my treacle tart, but I have made my torte, american pie and sponge puddings!

I used Mary Berry's Sacher Torte recipe, and just replaced the chocolate with white chocolate :)

Ingredients

• 140g white chocolate
• 140g unsalted butter
• 115g caster sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 5 free-range eggs, separated
• 85g/3oz ground almonds
• 55g/2oz plain flour, sieved

For the topping and the icing

• 6 tbsp apricot jam, sieved
• 140g/5oz white chocolate
• 200ml/7fl oz double cream
• 25g/1oz milk chocolate

What to do...

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease a deep 23cm/9in round cake tin then line the base with greaseproof paper.
2. Melt the chocolate. Cream butter and sugar.  Add the cooled chocolate and the vanilla extract and beat again. Add the egg yolks, then fold in the ground almonds and flour
3. Whisk the egg whites, then fold in chocolate mixture. Pour into tin.
4. Bake in the oven for about 45-50 minutes, then cool.
5. To make the topping, heat the apricot jam in a small pan and then brush onto cake.
6. Heat the cream, then remove from heat and add the chocolate.  Mix until melted.  Wait for AGES until it is really thick, then pour onto cake.  (Don't get impatient like I did!)

Obviously this is the concise method.  If you want all the hints and tips, check out the full recipe.

Great British Bake Off Challenge No. 2 - Bagels!

I am a relative novice when it comes to bread - so far I've made 4 loaves of bread, 1 batch of white rolls, and 1 batch of wholemeal rolls!  But I vowed I would make one bake from each show, and bagels seemed easier than flatbreads or eight strand plaited madness!  Bagels always seemed so complicated to me, what with the boiling before baking, but they were actually easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Here is the full recipe....

And here is my simplified, Juliarised version :)

Ingredients:

• 7g sachet yeast
• 4 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 450g bread flour

Method:

• Tip yeast and 1 tbsp of sugar into a bowl.  Cover with 100ml warm water.  Leave for 10 mins til frothy.

• Pour 200ml warm water, then add salt and half the flour.  Add the rest of the flour in small amounts and keep mixing til you have a soft sticky dough.
• Knead for 10 mins until the dough is smooth.  Shape into a bowl and leave in an oiled bowl.  Cover with cling film and leave to rise for 1 hr.

• Heat oven to 200C.  Divide the dough into 10 pieces (abt 85g each).  Shape each piece into ball, then flatten with your palm. 
• Now for the fun part!  Stick the handle of a wooden spoon into the middle of the ball, and spin!  You want to make the hole nice and big, abt 3-5 cm wide.

• Boil water in a large pan and add the sugar.  Use a slotted ladle to drop bagels in (I managed to do 2 at a time).  Cook for 1-2 mins, turning over halfway through.  Set on clean tea towel to get rid of excess water.

• Place on baking tray lined with baking parchment and bake for 20-25 mins.  Check your bottoms - you want to hear a hollow sound when you tap.
• Enjoy with cream cheese or whatever your topping of choice is!

Upcoming challenges... Mary Berry's Treacle Tart!  White chocolate torte!  Mississsippi Mud Pie!  Sticky toffee pudding!

Great British Baking Challenge No 1 - Upside Down Cake!

Ok, I have decided to honour the 3rd annual Bake Off by trying at least one challenge from each show.  (I know I should do all 3 - but I have a life lol!)

This week, I attempted the signature bake from Week 1 - Upside Down Cake.

I decided to make Lorraine Pascale's Dulce and Banana Cake.

My first tip - never ever EVER leave your caramel for a SECOND let alone for several minutes while you search for your camera to take pictures!  I had a lovely burnt mess at the bottom of my pan lol!  However, apart from that one snaphoo, the rest of the bake was easy peasy simple pimple :)

This is my adapted recipe (I didn't have treacle, so I used golden syrup, and I didn't have wholemeal flour, so I just used all self raising.  I also had no light brown sugar, so I used dark.  Oh, also I had no salt!  Lol, it still came out fine)

Ingredients

For the sticky topping

• 50g/2oz butter, plus extra for greasing
• 50g/2oz soft dark brown sugar

For the sponge

• 150g/5½oz butter
• 175g/6oz soft dark brown sugar
• 4 medium free-range eggs
• a couple of drops of vanilla extract
• 175g self raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 2 small firm bananas

Method

Grease and line a square tin.  Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

For sticky toffee - Melt sugar and butter over medium heat.  When its all melted, whack up the heat and stir like crazy!  When its a nice light brown colour (and not burnt), pour it into your tin and tip to spread around.

For sponge - Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at time, beating hard between each addition. Add vanilla.  Then fold in both flours, the baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, golden syrup.

Slice the bananas and arrange across tin.  Plop the cake mix on top and smooth. Pop it into the oven for about 35 minutes.  Check with a skewer.

Cool cake in the tin, then turn out onto a plate (Be brave - its better if its quick, just like a plaster lol!)  Take the tin off and peel off the baking parchment.

Cut into squares and eat straight away while its still warm and sticky and gooey!  YUM!

Very easy to make - I acheived it at 7pm on a Sunday evening!

Now come on GD staff, you know you need to comment if you want me to bring you goodies next week..... :)

Who wants to be a millionnaire?

I loooooooooooooooooooooove Millionnaire's Shortbread!!  I love the chunky chocolate on top, the gooey, sticky caramel beneath, and the crunchy shortbread finish!  It's my absolute kryptonite, yum!

My favourite recipe is from my trusty sidekick 'Baking Magic'

First of all, you need to make the shortbread.

Ingredients



• 250g butter
• 50g caster sugar
• 250g plain flour
• 125g corn flour

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170C/325F/Gas Mark 3.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale anf fluffy.
3. Sift the flour and corn flour, then stir into butter mix until smooth and creamy.
4. Press the mixture into your greased tin (size depends on how thick or thin you like your shortbread!)
5. Prick with a fork, then bake for 20 mins until pale gold.  Cool in tin.

Next, you need to make the caramel.  This was my first time making caramel from scratch.  I didn't have any condensed milk so i used evaporated milk - and it worked perfectly!

Ingredients

• 175g butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 4 tbsp golden sugar
• 1 tin condensed (or evaporated) milk

Method

1. Put all the ingredients in a pan and heat gently, whilst stirring.
2. Once all the ingredients are melted, turn up the heat, and keep stirring while it bubbles.
3. After about 5 minutes, it will be thick and golden.
4. Pour over the cooled shortbread and leave for 30 mins to set.

Finally, melt 350g milk chocolate and spread it on top.  Immediately, before it has a chance to set, pipe melted white chocolate in lines in one direction across the top.  Get a cocktail stick, and drag the chocolate in alternative directions.

You have to do it v quick - as you can see I mucked up the middle one!

Whoopie!!

I could spend loads of text apologising for not updating... But I won't! Lol. In the last month I have mostly been:
* writing reports :(
* doing the big end of year clear out at school :(
* having a girly weekend in Brighton :)
* exploring Bruges :)

Bruges blog post will be coming up soon, as well as my Summer Challenges (hoping to get back into my posting schedule), but first...

Vegan Whoopie Pies!!!

I adapted the recipe from this book...

Ingredients

280g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda
1/4 tsp salt
125g vegan margerine
100g caster sugar
100g light brown sugar
1 large egg (from the Farmer's Market)
120ml vegan milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g vegan chocolate chips (I get all my chocolate from Montezuma's)


Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 C.  Line 2 trays with baking powder.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt.

3. In a different bowl, cream butter and sugar, add the egg and mix.

4. Mix milk and vanilla in a jug and add to butter mixture.  Mix together.

5. Mix in dry ingredients in 2 batches.
6. Stir in the chocolate chips and chill for 30 mins.
7. Drop small blobs of mix on baking sheet.

8. Bake for 8-10 mins and cool.
9. Sandwich together with buttercream (icing sugar, vanilla and butter)


Nom nom nom!

:)

(As you can see, mine were too big so I couldn't sandwich them together lols!)

Eggless Carrot Cake - FAIL!!

I am sad to announce that my first ever vegan bake off went VERY badly!  It tasted absolutely delicious, but the texture was very soggy because it didn't rise properly.

I've done some research, and apparently the rescue remedy is to use self raising flour AND baking powder AND bicarb to get it to rise with no eggs.

These are the adapted recipes which include the baking powder and bicarb - next week I'm buying free range eggs!


Utterly Vegan Carrot Cake

Recipe taken from this website

Ingredients:

• Carrots 225g
• Sultanas 170g
• SR Flour 280g
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarb
• Sugar 170g
• Ground Cinnamon 1tsp
• Ground Ginger 1 tsp
• Fresh nutmeg 1 tsp
• Vegan Margarine 200g
• Orange juice 200ml
• Orange Zest 1 tsp
• Vanilla Ext 1/2 tsp
• pinch of salt


Method


Get yourself prepared by preheating the oven to 170 Degrees Celsius, lining the tin, weighing out all the ingredients and getting all the utensils out your going to need.



1. Mix the sugar and margarine together in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy.



2. Grate the Carrots and add to the mix.


3. Add the sultanas to the mix (soak sultanas overnight in the orange juice.)





4.  Sift the flour, bicarb, baking soda, salt, spices and vanilla into the mix and stir well.








5. Spread out in the baking tin and place in the oven for 20 minutes until nice and brown on the top and cooked in the middle.









Next week's Vegan Bake Off Challenge

My first ever attemot at Whoopie Pies!

My First Ever Weekly Great British Bake Off Challenge!

By now, everyone knows of my great obsession with Paul, Mary and the Great British Bake Off!  I've decided that I need an impetus to blog regularly, so every week (probably on a Tuesday) I am going to set myself a Bake Off Challenge that I must complete and blog about at the weekend.

Please feel free to join in - suggest challenges, and participate in challenges and post your entry!

My first challenge is linked to an important change I'm making in my life that I've been thinking about for a long time - I am becoming a supermarket vegan!

I've been a vegetarian since I was 16, and, over the last few months, I'd been thinking about cutting down cheese because I am a self-confessed cheese junkie!  I could literally eat it at every meal and every snack every day, and I know that's not healthy!

Another factor in my decision is that I have always used free range eggs in my baking, and always assumed free range meant free range.  I found out recently that that is a complete fallacy.  Sky News recently did an undercover investigation into the Happy Egg company and found that conditions were definitely NOT happy.  I always assumed free range meant on a nice farm with lots of grass.  It does not.  It means in a large cage in a barn with stinted access to the outdoors.

So I've now decided I am not going to eat eggs or dairy products unless I know 100% where I come from.  Mum stop panicking, I'll still eat dairy and eggs from the farms in Cambridgeshire becuase I can see how the animals are treated!  Unfortunately this is a luxury I cannot afford in London.  I've found a lovely farm that supplies Twickenham Farmers Market, so I can use their eggs in all my baking.  It's called Lee House Farm, please check out their webpage and gallery, you can see the beautiful outside spaces for the chickens and how much they are clearly loved and well cared for.

Until I find a dairy farm I can trust (please email/comment/tweet if you know one) I am going dairy free.  So far it's going surprisingly well, and I can eat most of the stuff I'm used to as long as I check the label carefully. 

Vegan Changes I've made:

• Pure olive spread instead of butter
• oil in cakes instead of butter
• soya yoghurt instead of dairy yoghurt
• dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate (still check the label carefully!)
• Linda Mccartney sausages and mince instead of Quorn

Vegan changes I am researching:

• Vegan cheese!
• Tofu (I don't normally like it)
• Olive tapenade and vegan pesto for pasta sauces instead of cheesy sauces
• vegan jacket potato toppings (I love me a jacket potato)

As I said, I'll still be using eggs from Lee House Farm, and I will use dairy again when I find an ethical farm that treats their animals well.

So my first Vegan Bake Off challenge is...

To make a vegan carrot cake!

Carrot cake is my ultimate favourite cake - and has the plus side of it shouldn't be TOO hard to convert it for my first challenge as it is usually made with oil instead of butter.  The big challenge is the cream cheese icing - which is the best part!  I'll let you know how I get on.

Please let me know if you are vegan, thinking of going vegan, or know some good vegan websites or ethical farms.

A cheesecake is not a cake!

For my final Jubilee post, I want to let you all know how bitter I am that I came second in a cake competition...  to a cheesecake!

A cheesecake is not a cake!  It  is a pudding!  The offending cheesecake can be seen right here...

                                                                                                                                 ***

                                                                                            This is my cake

My cake was (as always!) a Mary Berry sponge cake.  I was very excited, because I had been feeding my baking addiction at Lakeland (I love Lakeland) and bought a Victoria Surprise Cake set I'd had my eye on for a loooooooooooong time!

Click on the picture if you want to look at it in the website.  I'd advise using baking parchment because otherwise it sticks no matter how much you grease it.

I filled it with raspberries and whipped cream, topped it with white chocolate buttercream and my lovely boyfriend made a fab Union Jack on top with fruit.

It must have been good because after the judging it was absolutely devoured - I didn't even get a piece!

Mary Berry's Very Cherry Trifle!

 

Hi!  My name's Julia, and I'm addicted to the Great British Bake Off!

I looooooooooove Paul and Mary.  I want to live with them, I want to carry around mini versions in my pocket....  you get the idea!

So when I read about Mary's cherry trifle in Delicious magaxine, I knew it had to be my showstopper challenge dessert!

It is sooooooooooooooo easy you must make it!

Click on the official picture for her recipe, but keep reading and I'll break it down for ya...

Ingredients
2 cherry madeira cakes
a jar of cherry jam
2 packs of glace cherries (or stoned cherries)
Some cherry liquer or cherry juice
fresh custard
double cream
fresh cherries to decoorate

Method
Slice the madeira cake and stick toegther with cherry jam.
Pour some cherry liquer or juice into a bowl and dip the cake sandwiches in.
Line your bowl with cake sandwiches.  When you've used them all, pour some liquer or juice over them.
Cook the glace cherries and the rest of the jam in a saucepan.
Pour the cherry mixture over the cake sandwiches.
Top with custard and whipped cream.  (I added some extra juice to my cream for taste - and it made it ever so slightly pink!)
Decorate with fresh cherries.

Sooooooo easy, but so effective!  Someone stopped my MIL when she was tidying it away and told her how delicious it was -  was proud! :)

My version of Very Cherry Trifle:

Jam Sandwiches and Tarty Fingers!

I thought I'd combine these two recipes into one post as they are SO easy!

I made cheese finger sandwiches and chocolate spread finger sandwiches.

Cheese:
Cut the crusts off brown bread.
Put a slice of cheese in between two slices. 
Cut into rectangles.

Chocolate spread:
Cut the crusts off white bread.
Put a spoonful of chocolate spread in between two slices. 
Cut into rectangles.

Jam tarts:
Roll out some eady made sweet pastry (I used sainsbury's own dessert pastry) to 1//2cm thick.
Cut out circles with a cookie cutter that are just bigger than a hole in a cupcake tin.
Put the cicles into a cupcake tin!
Fill with any flavour of jam, or lemon curd, or chocolate spread (yum!)
Cut out a cute shape to go on top (I chose a star)
Bake for about 10-15 mins at 180c until the pastry is golden brown and the contents is bubbling.
Leave to cool in the touch - the jam will BUUUURRRN!

Jam tarts are my new favourite easy peasy simple pimple treat!

 

Luvverly Jubberly Jubilee!

This year's Jubilee was my FIRST EVER Street Party, so I decided to go full on!

I made:

Finger sandwiches

Jam tarts

Mary Berry Cherry Trifle

Union Jack Surprise Cake

See the next posts for recipes and pics...

What is your name? Jooolz! What is your quest? To find one sodding can of Guinness!

So let me put this all in context. In February, me and my brother visited Dublin, and (obviously) went to the Guinness factory. While we were there, they offered free food and drink, which we gobbled down quickly before they could take it away! We both agreed that the best was a Guinness chocolate mousse in a chocolate cup, and my brother then decided he wanted them for his birthday party. They are REALLY easy to make. All you need is... Love! Lol!

Ingredients:

10 egg yolks

10 egg whites

350g dark chocolate (for mousse)

300g dark chocolate (for cups)

1/4lb butter

100g caster sugar

100ml Guinness draught

Now it was the last ingredient that caused me the most dramas. I already had some at home (London) because I'd had a practice go. But mum had told me they had some in the fridge (Cambridge) so I didn't bother to take any with me. My mother showed her alcohol awareness skills - it was definitely NOT Guinness in the fridge! So the question was - how to make Guinness chocolate mousse without any sodding Guinness??? The quest begins...

I went to the garage... No Guinness. I went to the corner shop... No Guinness. I went to the spar... Still no Guinness! My dad eventually had to traipse all the way to the specialist alcohol shop to buy it! Talk about a Monthy Python esque quest! Now for the easy Peasy simple pimple part!

 

Method

1. Whisk the egg whites til light and fluffy (tip - if your bowl is not big enough, do them in two batches, they will quadruple in size!)

2. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar.

3. Melt the chocolate and butter (I just did it in the microwave)

4. Mix chocolate with egg yolks, then fold in egg whites gently

DONE! How easy is that?

                Step 1                                                                                                               Step 2

                Step 3                                                                                                              Step 4

They just need to set overnight before you eat them. You can pour them into ramekins or glasses or make your own chocolate cups. Chocolate cups are also easy peasy simple pimple to make.

1. Put cupcake cases in a cupcake tray.

2. Drop a tablespoon of melted chocolate in the case.

3. Use the back of the spoon to drag the chocolate up the side.

4. Leave to set, then repeat until the chocolate cup is thick enough to stand up by itself.

So easy to make, but you need to make chocolate cups the day before you make the mousse, and the mousse the day before you want to eat it, so timing and fore planning is crucial - but apart from that, it's the easiest thing I've ever made! Let me know how you get on xx

My very spoilt brother's birthday...

My brother turned 30 last weekend - and he made a very demanding list lol! He wanted... 1. A chocolate birthday cake 2. Chocolate Guinness mousse 3. Mini cheesecakes I'm going to post each recipe separately because otherwise I will get confused!

My quirky quiche!

My April British Bake Off Challenge is yet another thing I've never made before, but that I love to eat - quiche!

I will admit that I cheated a little because I was short on time and bought pastry - Paul and Mary would not approve!  It was very nice - but it was a bit dry, so I would reccommend making your own if you have time.  Also, I've adapted this recipe from the British Bake Off cook book.

First, I rolled my pastry out Mary style - she always says to put the bottom of your flan dish down, then roll pastry out about 4cm past the bottom, then gently fold pastry into the middle and drop the bottom back into the flan dish.  Then fold the edges back out, and press into the curves of the tin.  Prick the base and leave to chill for 20 mins.

Next, line the pastry base with baking parchment and fill with baking beans.  Preheat the oven to 180C and bake blind for 10-15 mins.  Then take the parchment and baking beans away and brush the pastry with some egg.  Bake for another 5 mins, then leave to cool.

While its cooling, make the filling:

Ingredients

• 250g baby spinach
• 200g new potatoes
• 3 large eggs
• 250ml double cream
• 25g grated parmesan
• a few chunks of feta (amount is personal choice)
• a few cherry tomatoes (halved)
• salt and pepper

Method

1. Wash and drain the spinach, then cook in a steamer until wilted.
2. Cook the new potatoes for 10 mins (I did them underneath the spinach to save space)
3. Chop the spinach finely and slice the potatoes into slices.
4. Whisk the eggs, then whisk in the double cream and parmesan.  Season with a little salt and pepper, and add the spinach.
5. Spread the potato slices on the bootom of the pastry and pour over the spinach/cream mixture.
6. Dot halves of cherry tomato and chunks of feta around the quiche to your taste.
7. Bake on a baking tray for 35-40 mins until golden brown and yummy (Watch out - it will leak EVERYWHERE!)









8. Cut a massive slice and enjoy with your choice of accompanying carbs and salad - you could make potato wedges, nice crusty bread or some lovely couscous :)