Join me as I bake through the Great British Bake Off.
Is the Jaffa cake a biscuit (i.e. cookie) or a cake? That was the subject of a 1991 court case, but you can decide for yourself if you make your own! These chocolate-covered mini-cakes with an orange center are made from Mary Berry's recipe, which was the technical challenge during Biscuit Week in GBBO 2016.
This drizzle cake combines tart grapefruit, roasted to bring out its sweetness, and earthy thyme in an olive oil and buttermilk sponge. Perfect with a cup of Earl Grey tea on a drizzly winter’s day, this moist yet delicate sponge is definitely moreish and one you'll want to add to your baking repertoire!
Moby Dick’s Bubble Bath, my chocolate centerpiece, consists of a white chocolate whale sitting in a chocolate gingerbread bathtub, surrounded by towers of dark chocolate bubbles.
Vol-au-vents are delicate shells of puff pastry that can be filled with almost anything your tastebuds fancy. Some of these are filled with succulent beef tenderloin, and the rest with melted brie and cranberry chutney.
You'd never know this rich and creamy frozen dessert is dairy free! The pistachio ice cream is made with coconut milk and coconut cream. The hurricane roll is flavored with purple ube. And sandwiched between the two is a thin layer of blackberry jam, all topped off with luscious, marshmallowy Swiss meringue!
For my three-tiered cheesecake, I chose: pumpkin spice with a gingersnap crust, rhubarb ripple with a Biscoff cookie crust, and lemon poppyseed with a shortbread cookie crust. Obviously, it’s not necessary to stack your cheesecakes; that was only a requirement for the Great British Bake Off.
Who can forget the famous lion bread sculpture from the 2015 season of The Great British Bake Off? That's what inspired me to make this sun-moon medallion bread sculpture, featuring a dark rye moon and turmeric-basil bread for the sun, surrounded by pesto and mozzarella stuffed rolls for the sun's rays.
This gingerbread Mad Hatter's hat is filled with 36 Queen of Hearts Linzer Tarts, perfect for an Alice in Wonderland themed tea party. I hope this will inspire you to make your own!
Black Forest cherry cake is made of multiple layers of chocolate cake filled with cherries and whipped cream and garnished with additional cream, cherries and chocolate. My retro interpretation incorporates a chocolate chiffon cake and dark sweet cherries with the traditional German flavor of kirschwasser.
Mary Berry's walnut layer cake features three layers of light, moist sponge with bits of walnut throughout, filled with vanilla buttercream and covered with what she calls "boiled icing" but what I recall from my childhood as "seven-minute frosting."
