Do you watch The Great British Baking Show? My daughter2 and I have watched every season together apart. By that I mean she's in her house and I'm in mine, but we start the program at the same minute and then text throughout the show.
We decided this season we were going to attempt to bake the 'technical challenge' from each week's show. Both of my girls love to bake and are excellent bakers, but daughter1 is currently in a rental home several time zones away so she's not joining us in our little kitchen endeavor.
If you don't watch the show here's the 411...
The season begins with 12 home bakers and then each week one is eliminated until a 'star baker' is named. There are three parts to each episode-
- the signature challenge (where the bakers put their own spin on the same dish; they've been able to practice this one ahead of time at home)
- the technical challenge (where the bakers follow a surprise recipe, usually an incomplete one at that)
- the show stopper (showcasing their talent in a showstopping bake, also one they've been able to practice at home).
We're doing this at our own pace and a week ago watched the first episode. In the technical challenge contestants had to taste a mini Battenberg cake, then replicate it without a recipe.
Spoiler alert! We used a recipe. In fact at one point I was working with pieces of three different recipes because whew, this was not easy. I had to watch a youtube video just to get the pan set up.
If you don't know what a Battenberg is it's a light sponge with various colored sections held together with jam and then covered in marzipan. The cake calls for homemade jam and homemade marzipan but we both bought the apricot jam and tried making the marzipan ourselves. Three ingredients. How hard can it be?
Harder than it should have been that's for certain.
I do not care for marzipan. After making this cake I especially don't like it. In fact I use almond paste to make macaroons at Christmas time and I told my daughter I'm not sure I'll make them this year because I may never get the smell of almond paste out of my head.
I had this notion I'd snap pictures documenting the process but y'all! Ain't nobody got time to take pictures when they're trying to put a Battenberg together. I was three quarters of the way through when company dropped by so I paused. The cakes were baked (that was simple) and I'd made one batch of marzipan that was so sticky you couldn't work with it so I froze the cakes and figured I'd deal with the rest another day.
Hubs took the spackle knife to the countertop (only slightly kidding) and then it was actually something like four days before I could face it again. And I waited til hubs was going out because he for sure couldn't face it again-ha!
The TV bakers got it all done in two hours and mostly succeeded (although theirs weren't perfect either). Watching them make their cakes had us thinking it wouldn't be too hard, but we both struggled. We sent a million hilarious (to us) texts, our kitchens and ourselves were a hot mess, and while we wouldn't call the finished product a complete disaster it came awfully close.
My daughter set hers in front of her 2-year old son who asked her to 'take the lid off' (that would be the marzipan) and then he left the cake and enjoyed the lid. Pure sugar so of course.
This is not a cake I would ever make again, order in a restaurant, or serve to a guest. Unless maybe I bought it from a British bakery.
Week 2 is Biscuit (Cookie) week. We consider this our wheelhouse so here's hoping!
This reminded me of trying to make an Italian Creme Cake for Joe's birthday. Never again, but I'm so glad I did it for him - all from scratch. I don't like marzipan or fondant so wouldn't have even tried to make that cake you both conquered. How fun to have this challenge each week. I've never watched the show. May have to give it a look!!
ReplyDeleteWhat fun and I admire y'alls courage to tackle such. I'm not a fan of marzipan either. I am interested in cookie week for sure. Have a great weekend!!
ReplyDeleteDo you make it in one pan to slice it easier for the final assembly? That is all I could think of for why you have to go to the trouble of using one pan rather than two. I do like marzipan but I think I have only had it in Mozartkugeln- candies sold in Austria and Germany honoring Mozart in the form of chocolate and a center of marzipan. SO good! I have never tried to make it and I could see how that could change my mind. Your cake looks great! Have a wonderful weekend.
ReplyDeleteWell I suppose you could do it in two pans but you don't want them too wide and I think my loaf pans would have made them too wide. But it might be fine. We are trying to mostly make the recipes as they do on the show and this is how they do them so we figured we'd give it a try. Once I got the foil in place it actually worked well. I was afraid they might run together, but the batter was a bit thick. I thought it was more pound cake in texture than a light sponge, but we did follow the cake instructions exactly and they were pretty tasty. It was the whole jam-buttercream-marzipan fiasco that wrecked it for me.
DeleteOh I just LOVE this idea! Of course my middle son (the baker) and I have tried lots of recipes I would never have bothered with on my own but Battenberg cakes and many of the other technical challenges they come up with on this show are not ones we've ever thought of trying... mostly because I don't think they look that good half the time! LOL I can see you all having so much fun with this though; even if they aren't all successes.
ReplyDeleteGirl!! I'm so impressed with your effort and the challenge you and daughter are giving yourselves. We don't have Netflix so I can't watch the show. Bummer because I love it. 'Take the lid off", how great is that!! I did enjoy a Battenberg slice of cake on a tea tier whilst in England. Did you notice I said whilst? :) cheers!
ReplyDeleteYes we do watch but haven't watched the new season yet. That's cute that you watch at the same time. Seriously, your going to do that baking? Way to go! I'm impressed with all the work you had to do. They look good but I have no idea what they should taste like. Can't wait to see your next one.
ReplyDeleteHa ha 10/10 for effort, the presentation isn’t bad either. I’d never even try especially when it’s available in the shop. The marzipan looks a bit wetter than it usually is- you mentioned buttercream? It’s usually pretty much like the marzipan you’d use on a celebration cake before icing but with a sugar sprinkling. I don’t actually like it much lol
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting because on the show they added a layer of buttercream then the jam coating but most recipes online don't call for the buttercream. We added buttercream because that's something we knew we could do lol. It was a very thin layer then the jam on top. It was never my choice of cake but now I'd like to taste one made the right way by someone who knows what they're doing.
DeleteI think I need to watch the episode lol. If you like the taste of marzipan it's quite a nice cake but for me it's too much faff for just a sponge cake wrapped in marzipan.
DeleteAhh! Here it's called the Great British Bake Off and I love it. I always feel inspired to bake when watching it.
ReplyDeleteBattenberg is an amazing cake but so hard to make, I've tried a few times and have failed even with shop bought marzipan! I will stick to buying them. hehehe
I think yours looks great!!
I struggled with the title. On Netflix they use Baking Show but when I looked it up online the wording is bake off. It feels like a bake off because there's a winner but everyone is so nice to their fellow contestants it's more like a show. I would like to taste one made by professionals..
DeleteI just love that you and your daughters do things like this together, over the miles. My daughter and I did 2 Bible studies together, years ago, over the phone. One of my sons would watch the Bronco football games with my late husband, over the phone, and later, using text messages. Fun times. Good bonding.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun, techinical challenge! I am impressed by just the creativity and time in all of the steps involved!
ReplyDeleteYep I watch the Great British Baking Show and all the other countries that baking shows, I really like these shows the talent the bakers have, I think it is awesome that you and your daughter are attempting some the bakes yourselves
ReplyDeleteI'm reading these before I read this weeks Hodgepodge. I love this show and this is such a great idea!!!
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