A Great British Bake Off Disaster

I love baking. I bake at least once a week. So all my friends (and fans!) encouraged me to apply for British Bake Off 2012. So I downloaded the application form... It's about 12 pages long! And my only real baking experience is cakes and biscuits. I had never made pastry before. I had never made bread before. I had never made patisserie before. I had a long way to go.

So this year, I've decided to give myself a different Bake Off Challenge every month, in addition to my general baking. I tried Paul Hollywood bread and it was amazing, so this month I thought I'd try pastry.

I decided to make a chocolate ganache tart - yum!

I made Mary Berry's sweet pastry (from her tarte au citron recipe) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/tarte_au_citron_94480

Disaster Number 1

Everything was going to plan - my pastry was lovely and thin (I know Paul and Mary don't like it thick!), It was perfectly shaped to my flan tin, and my blind bake was perfect. then I popped it back into the oven to finish off - because I definitely did NOT want a 'soggy bottom'! Unfortunately, I don't know how, the sides of my pastry burnt! They tasted delicious, but they were unsalvageable presentation wise.

So I had a bit of a tantrum, then decided to just trim the edges off before filling the case.

Disaster Number 2

Then I made the chocolate ganache. I love chocolate ganache, it is SO easy to make.

I followed the Green and Black's cookbook recipe:

• Break 275g of 60-70% dark chocolate into a bowl.
• Heat 250ml double cream in a saucepan.
• Once boiled, pour over the chocolate and stir gently (The residual heat will melt the chocolate)
• Once melted, add 50 g butter and stir.

Next disaster - and this never happens to me! - the chocolate split and went all oil slicky. I managed to salvage it by using a hand blender, which saved it (I don't know why, it just does!)

Disaster Number 3

My third and final disaster - I used 85% chocolate because I thought it would make it richer. It didn't it was just horribly bitter :( So I added plenty of icing sugar to my mixture which made it much sweeter!

I poured it into the case and left it to set.

So, long story short, after three major disasters, and a lot of experimenting and salvaging, I ended up with a delicious chocolate tart. But blimey it was stressful!