Join me as I bake through the Great British Bake Off.
These mini mousse cakes are light as a feather but pack a real flavor punch. Caramel Macchiato Mousse Cakes have both coffee and vanilla mousse layered atop a chocolate sponge, with a salted caramel ganache on top. Lemon-Berry Mousse Cakes feature a berry-flavored mousse on a lemon sponge, with raspberry gelée hidden inside!
Mary Berry's marjolaine is a 7-layered delight featuring four layers of almond-hazelnut dacquoise sandwiched with praline buttercream and chocolate ganache. Overall, a delightfully nutty, crunchy, creamy concoction that presents itself with elegance and panache!
The classic Bakewell tart, with its layers of short crust pastry, jam, frangipane and icing, hails from the town of Bakewell in Derbyshire, England. While its origins may be the source of some contention, most such arguments fade over a cup of tea and a warm slice.
With chocolate ladyfingers enfolding a mango Bavarian cream, topped with a layer of passionfruit jelly, this Charlotte Russe would have been my entry for the showstopper challenge in Victorian Week on the 2015 season of The Great British Bake Off.
Tennis cakes were a big hit in the late 1800s, when lawn tennis became a popular sport that men and women could play together. The cakes were elaborately decorated with candied fruit or royal icing in the shape of tennis balls and racquets. This was the technical challenge for Victorian week in The Great British Bake Off 2015.
My elk and ale pie is inspired by the classic British steak and ale pie. In Victorian times, raised game pies made for elaborate feasts for aristocracy, but the invention of the sprung metal pie mold made them available to the middle class.
The bakers in the Great White Tent were given the challenge of making 24 éclairs — 12 each of two different flavors. I chose to make Key lime éclairs topped with toasted Swiss meringue and chocolate éclairs filled with a stracciatella cannoli filling.
Kouign-amann (pronounced queen ah-mon) is, IMHO, the “queen” of pastries. A cross between a croissant and a morning bun, this laminated little-piece-of-heaven-on-earth hails from Brittany, in northwest France. The main difference between kouign-amanns and croissants is a layer of sweet, crispy caramelized sugar on the outer edges of the pastry.
Almost every culture has its own version of a hand-held savory pie. One such hand pie is the empanada. These are filled with caramelized onions, figs, bacon and goat cheese. Served hot or cold, these pocket-sized pies make an excellent main course for a picnic or an easy snack on a road trip.
Because the week I made these fell toward the end of Wisconsin strawberry season, I wanted to celebrate this short but oh-so-flavorful season with strawberry-themed pastries: strawberry mille-feuilles with basil-infused mascarpone cream, strawberry Nutella turnovers and chocolate pecan palmier "butterflies" with strawberry hearts.
Here's the Dish 