Last week we had the return of The Great British Bake Off and what better way to start of this site.
The Great British Bake Off has been on for years and for the last couple it has been a ritual and obsession for myself.
This year we will be taking that love of cake a step further as I have been challenged by my other half to bake along. My boyfriend came up with this plan after my many times talking about baking more but not quite getting myself there. What would I make and would I make sure I had the time?
After each episode I have to find/come up with the recipe for two challenges (one of them has to be the technical) and then bake them before the next episode airs.
This season looks to be a good one as there are many good bakers but my favourite so far is Selasi. Selasi seems to have a great skill at baking and I love how calm he is about everything.
Anyway onto the cakes. My first challenge was to make a drizzle cake and my attempt was a simple lime loaf drizzle cake. As I only attempted a simple drizzle cake it was pretty much an all in one cake and while it was in the oven I made a quick glaze of sugar, lime juice and zest.
I got a nicely risen loaf which had a good lime zing but it was not as soaked through as I would have liked.
The second challenge was the technical and the bakers had to make 12 jaffa cakes. My first attempt at the sponges didn’t work but on the second attempt (I made nine instead of 12) they turned out well. I will continue to practice these as the whole process is quite quick to put together. I need a little work on getting my chocolate smoother but I was happy with them. The sponges had a great bounce to them too.
The mirror cake was not one I was going to attempt but after seeing it all over pinterest these last few months and thinking they were such gorgeous cakes I thought this was the time to at least try. However time hasn’t been on my side this week for all three so the mirror cake will have to wait for another day.
This has been a fun start for me and I’ll be watching tonight to see the next set of bakes.