GBBO Week 7 - Raspberry Mousse Cake

This week was a real toughie. I think we all felt the pressure. Me, I had so many thoughts I couldn't think!

Holly just wanted us all dead LOL ( I actually laughed so much when I saw that). Mary Anne put her sponge on back to front and the lovely Janet was her normal gracious self.

I can't tell you how honoured I am to have been in the semi final with all these amazing women and feel so lucky to have found such a great friends.

A delicious dessert which would work just as well with other seasonal soft fruits. Taken from GBBO website (given to them by me x).

Ingredients

For the genoise sponge

• 100g/3½oz butter, melted, plus extra melted butter for the cake tins
• 8 free-range eggs
• 200g/7oz caster sugar
• 280g/10oz plain flour, sifted 3 times
• 2 tbsp raspberry liqueur

For the raspberry mousse

• 2 x 125g/4½oz punnets raspberries
• 3 tbsp raspberry liqueur
• 2 tbsp icing sugar
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 2½ sheets leaf gelatine, soaked in cold water for 5 minutes
• 150ml/½ pint double cream
• Fresh strawberries, sliced, to decorate
• Mint leaves, to decorate

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Line three 23cm/9in springform cake tins with greaseproof paper, brush with a little melted butter and dust with flour, shaking out any excess flour.
2. Place the eggs and sugar in large bowl and set it over a bowl of barely simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Beat with an electric whisk until the mixture is thick and fluffy then remove the bowl from the pan and continue beating for three minutes.
3. Stir in the melted butter then fold in the sifted flour using a large metal spoon. Divide the mixture between the cake tins and bake for 25 minutes. Let the sponges cool for five minutes then remove from the cake tins and sprinkle with the raspberry liqueur.
4. Meanwhile, make the mousse. Place one and a half punnets of the raspberries in a bowl with the raspberry liqueur and icing sugar. Stir gently until the sugar has dissolved then set aside.
5. Pulse the remaining raspberries in a food processor, or mash with a fork, until they are pulpy but not completely smooth. Place the raspberries in a small saucepan with the caster sugar, heat gently until the sugar has dissolved then remove the pan from the heat. Squeeze the water from the gelatine and add it to the pan, stirring until it has completely dissolved, then mix in the whole raspberries.
6. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and set aside to cool. (You could place the bowl over iced water to speed up the cooling process.) When the raspberry mixture is cold and starting to set, whisk the cream until it forms soft peaks then gently fold it into the raspberries.
7. Place one of the cooked sponges in the bottom of the prepared cake tin. Spoon over three quarters of the mousse then place the second sponge on top and add the rest of the mousse.
8. Arrange the sliced strawberries and mint leaves over the top of the cake, leave in fridge until set then carefully remove the cake from the tin and serve.

Limoncello and White Chocolate Croquembouche

200 g plain flour
150 g cubed butter 
350 ml water
1/2 teaspoon of salt
6 eggs
Limoncello to taste
100 ml Double cream  
2 tbsp Icing sugar 
zest of 2 lemons
200 g melted white chocolate


Creme patisserie 
580 ml full fat milk
4 egg yolks
110 g caster sugar
40 g plain flour
40 g cornflour
whole crystallised roses
500 g Caster sugar


Method 
Place water and butter in a saucepan heat gently till butter melts

Sift flour 3 times with salt

When butter has melted turn up the heat bring to the boil, then turn off the heat beat in flour with a wooden spoon until a firm paste and comes away from the edges.

Tip on to a plate to cool, (about 10 mins) then beat in eggs a teaspoon at a time start with a wooden spoon.

Then transfer into a freestanding mixer and continue to beat until smooth and silky.

Spoon into a piping bag, pipe onto  prepared  baking trays, cook in a preheated oven @ 180 for 30 mins, once risen and golden brown make small holes and put back in the oven for 5 mins to dry out.

Cool on wire racks.

For the Creme patisserie: 
Mix the egg yolks with the sugar beat until light and fluffy, heat milk until scorching point (before boiling) add 2 tablespoons to sugar & egg yolks, sift in flour, add into the pan with warm milk. 

Bring to the boil stirring the whole time, contiue to cook for 2 minutes to cook out the flour taste mix in melted chocolate, turn into a bowl cover and chill until cold. 

Whip cream, fold in  limoncello and icing sugar, lemon zest mix with cold Creme patisserie 
Spoon into piping bag fill choux buns, chill.

To make the caramel: 
Heat sugar over a medium heat until all dissolved, do not stir or it will crystallise, continue cooking until it reaches a nice honey colour remove from heat and place pan bottom into a bowl of cold water. 

Dip choux buns into caramel before putting into mould making sure the dipped edge goes towards the outside every time, continue until you have built up your tower, leave to set in a cool place, turn out onto a cake board.

Week 6, Rum & Raisin Cheesecake (Plus link to Mary's Roulade)

This was the week i'd been waiting for. The one where I could bake how I do normally, without too many disasters.

When we got the brief of what we'd be baking in week 6, I went into total meltdown. A French Wedding Cake that needs not only to stand to attention, be unique in taste but also look stunning. I tralled the internet and my cookery books for inspiration and came up with what I felt would be great flavours then looked again. I think I actually had sleepless nights. The cheesecake wasn't a problem at all, my lovely friend Heather had made a rum and raisin bread and butter pudding when i'd been over to dinner the week before and it was delightful. So I thought great flavour combo, now just to get the creaminess right and we're onto a winner! So the practice began. Cheesecake, one attempt perfect creamy, dreamy, fluffy delight.

But and it's a great big BUT now on to the Croquembouche. Before I even got to fill my choux buns Ellie (the naughty dog) ate 70 of them that i'd left cooling on racks. I had got up at silly o'clock to make them before the school run. So, take 2, I thought I might try sticking the buns together with white chocolate before adding the crack. Oh no that didn't work, hot caramel and chocolate sloppy mess!! Take 3, I get something like a French wedding cake. Take 4 perfect, when I left home for the weekends filming it was standing proud in the fridge, so from that you'd think yay it's all going to be just dandy, well you guys know the rest.

                                                          Rum & Raisin cheesecake

50 g melted butter

10 digestive biscuit

100 g raisins soaked overnight in white rum.

600g cream cheese

2 tbsp plain flour

175g caster sugar

vanilla extract

2 eggs plus 1 yolk

2 x 142 pots of soured cream

1. Heat the oven to 180C Crush the biscuits in a food processor Mix with the butter. Press into a 20cm springform tin and bake for 5 minutes, then cool.
2. Combine the cream cheese, flour, sugar, a few drops of vanilla, eggs, the yolk, and a pot of the soured cream until light and fluffy. Mix in the rum soaked raisins, Pour into the tin. Bake for 30 minutes pour over 1 pot of sour cream mixed with a couple of tablespoons of icing sugar,bake for 10 mins more then check, it should be set but slightly wobbly in the centre. Leave in the tin to cool. Chill for 8 hours or overnight in the fridge.                      

Click for Mary Berry's Roulade 

GBBO Week 5 - Pies

I was hoping the judges would think me innovative but unfortunately Mary wasn't happy with my deconstructed pie! It worked about as well as one of Baldrick's (Black Adder) cunning plans. 

Then on to my least favourite bake of the whole series, pork yucky pie. To make it worse they're with my other hate of boiled eggs. Well there was light at the end of the tunnel as I really loved my apple and raspberry meringue pie. 

My aunty Helen had been making an apple meringue pie for years and gave me a basic recipe to which I jiggled around and came up with these flavours.

Apple & Raspberry Meringue Pie
2lb cooking apples peeled and sliced
punnet raspberry
2oz caster sugar
1oz butter
Grated rind of 2 lemons
100ml water
3 eggs separated
4oz caster sugar
Red food colour paste
9oz plain flour
4 1/2 oz cold butter
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp sug
Pinch salt
1-4 tsp cream

Put flour, butter, salt and sugar into food processor, pulse until breadcrumb like,add egg yolks and cream if needed. Rest in fridge until needed, line a 8 inch loose bottom flan tin, cover with grease proof and baking beans bake blind for 15-20 mins

Cook apples with butter lemon zest and water until soft then turn up heat and cook until a dry puree, stirring frequently. Cool mixture slightly then beat in egg yolks, add raspberries
put into baked sweetcrust pastry case. Whisk egg whites until stiff. Slowly add sugar then run a ripple of red food colouring through,pipe onto pie. Bake in oven at 160 for 15-20 mins



Paul's pork pies (taken from BBC website)

For the hot water crust pastry:
200g/7oz plain flour
40g/1½oz strong white flour
50g/1¾oz unsalted butter, cut into cubes
100ml/3½fl oz water
1 tsp salt
60g/2¼oz lard

For the filling:
6 quails' eggs
1 onion, very finely chopped
350g/12oz pork loin, finely chopped
100g/3½oz unsmoked streaky bacon, finely chopped
small bunch of parsley, finely chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 free-range egg, beaten
1 chicken stock cube
150ml/5fl oz boiling water
2 leaves gelatine

Preparation method:
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Grease a 6-hole muffin tin

To make the pastry, sift the flours into a bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Bring the water and salt to a boil then add the lard and stir until the lard has melted.

Pour the lard and water over the flour mixture and stir to form a dough. Tip the dough onto a floured work surface and work into a smooth ball (you must work quickly or the dough will become too firm to handle).

Roll the pastry out to a thickness of about 3mm/⅛in. Cut out six 15cm/6in circles and use each circle to line a hole in the muffin tin. Cut six 10cm/4in circles for the lids and set them aside.

For the filling, cook the quails' eggs in a pan of boiling water for two minutes then refresh in cold water, peel carefully and set aside.

Put the onion, pork, bacon and parsley into a bowl, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and mix until well combined. Spoon a little of the mixture into each lined pie case, place a quail's egg in the centre and spoon over a little more filling.

Brush the edge of each pie case with a little beaten egg, place the lids on top and crimp the edges together to seal completely. Make a small hole in centre of each pie and bake in the oven for 40 minutes.

When the pies are cooked, set them aside to cool for 10 minutes. Dissolve the stock cube in the boiling water. Soak the gelatine in a little cold water until soft then squeeze out excess water and whisk into the warm chicken stock.

Pour the gelatine mixture into the hole in the top of each pie until the hollow cavity within the pie is filled. Allow the pies to set in the fridge overnight.

Chocolate Mud cake

This is such a well behaved sponge, I make it really often. It's so simple and normally I have all the ingredients in the cupboard and fridge ( if you don't have sour cream use double cream with 2 tsp of lemon juice).

I never really liked chocolate cake before this one and to be honest I'm still not a lover of the artificial tasting shop bought ones. However this moist, just about right chocolate flavour cake is so good that I haven't found anyone who doesn't like it. Great for a wedding topper, birthday cake or just for an afternoon tea cake. It's like a little black dress that you can dress up or down..............

With a chocolate collar and strawberries

165 g softened butter
300 g caster sugar
3 Eggs
65 g S/R flour
200 g plain flour
1 tsp bicarb
70 g cocoa powder
200 ml of sour cream & 50 g cream cheese mixed together

cook for an hour @ 180

Mix caster sugar and butter until light and fluffy, add eggs one at a time beating in between each egg. Sieve flours bicarb and cocoa into a bowl, add half to mixture, fold in, add half of sour cream & cream cheese, fold in, then repeat with both, spoon into a 8 inch prepared tin.

Cook for about an hour, leave to cool for 10  mins before turning out onto a wire rack.

I like to create little holes in the top with a cocktail stick and spoon a couple of spoons of a liquor over, either raspberry or orange are my favourites.

I cover with either a buttercream flavoured with the liquor, a chocolate ganache or a chocolate collar

With a chocolate collar topped with chocolate ganache

Week 4 Macaroons and Lavender biscuits

Well it's week 4 and I cannot tell you how great it felt to be in the show at the half way point. I had been practising my Macaroons relentlessly and I'd almost imprisoned myself in the kitchen, as they are so temperamental. Every time I thought i'd cracked the little blighters they went horribly wrong again!

I had never tried to bake mac's before I had my brief through from GBBO and to be honest I never dreamt they could be so tricky. I tried every recipe I could find, I tried whizzing them in the processor, I tried them without, I tried a sugar syrup and without, with the door a jar (the method I used) and with it closed. Honestly by the end of the week I felt I would never look at a bag of ground almonds again!

My recipe from the BBC website

Blueberry Macaroons, Coconut Cacaroons and Strawberry Macaroons

Ingredients:

For the Blueberry Jelly Filling

750g/1lb 10oz blueberries

400g/14oz jam sugar

For the blueberry macaroons

250g/9oz icing sugar

210g/7½oz ground almonds

40g/1½oz dried blueberries

175g/6oz free-range egg whites (equivalent to about 5 egg whites)

225g/8oz caster sugar

4 tbsp water

navy blue food colouring

For the Coconut Macaroons

250g/9oz icing sugar

210g/7½oz ground almonds

40g/1½oz desiccated coconut

175g/6oz free-range egg whites (equivalent to about 5 egg whites)

4 tbsp water

225g/8oz caster sugar

For the Strawberry Macaroons

250g/9oz icing sugar

250g/9oz ground almonds

175g/6oz free-range egg whites (equivalent to about 5 egg whites)

4 tbsp water

225g/8oz caster sugar

red food colouring paste

strawberry essence

For the Coconut Cream Filling

284ml/10fl oz double cream

2 tbsp icing sugar, sifted

1 x 50g/1¾oz sachet creamed coconut

For the Strawberry Buttercream Filling

6 large ripe strawberries

125g/4½oz unsalted butter

250g/1lb 2oz icing sugar

Preparation method

To make the blueberry jelly filling, place the blueberries and sugar in a small pan, heat over a gentle heat until the sugar has dissolved then boil over a high heat for 7 – 10 minutes.

Push the jelly through a fine sieve into a large shallow dish and refrigerate  to cool completely.

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3. Line 4 large baking trays with greaseproof paper.

For the blueberry macaroons 

Place the icing sugar, ground almonds and blueberries into a food processor and pulse until you have a fine dust. 

Sieve the mixture into a bowl, discarding anything left in the sieve, then return the mixture to the food processor. 

Weigh out 85g/3oz of the egg whites, add them to the food processor and blend to make a paste.

Place the sugar and water in a heavy-based saucepan and heat until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is syrupy.

Whisk the remaining egg whites in a food mixer or with an electric whisk until they form soft peaks then add the colouring and gradually mix in the syrup. Continue whisking until the mixture is shiny and stiff then transfer it to a clean mixing bowl.

Fold the almond mixture into the whisked egg whites with a large metal spoon then spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm/½in nozzle and pipe circles about 4cm/1½in diameter onto the baking trays. 

Give the baking trays a couple of slams on the work surface to flatten the macaroons then bake with the oven door slightly ajar for 12 - 15 minutes or until just firm. Leave to cool on wire racks before filling.

Make the coconut and strawberry macaroons by repeating steps 3 – 6, substituting the dried blueberries with the desiccated coconut for the coconut macaroons, and adding a little strawberry essence and red colouring for the strawberry macaroons.

For the coconut filling, whip the double cream with the icing sugar until stiff peaks form, then fold in the coconut cream and spoon into a piping bag. Sandwich the coconut macaroons together with a little piped filling.

For the strawberry filling, chop the strawberries and press them through a fine sieve to make a purée. Beat the butter until soft and fluffy then whisk in the icing sugar and strawberry purée and spoon into a piping bag. Sandwich the macaroons together with a little piped filling.

To assemble the blueberry macaroons, cut circles of the jelly with a small biscuit cutter slightly smaller than the macaroons. Sandwich the macaroons together with the circles of jelly.

Lavender biscuits are actually a firm favourite with my friends, I have been making them for ages. On the day of the bake off I made the fatal mistaken of blending my lavender in the processor instead of my normal method of grinding in a pestle and mortar. 

Lavender biscuits

Ingredients
2oz Lavender sugar
4oz butter softened
finely grated rind lemon
6oz plain flour

Method
Place butter, sugar and lemon rind in a food processor blend until light & fluffy. 

Transfer to large mixing bowl,sift in flour and beat until the mixture forms a stiff dough. 

Roll out dough in-between 2 pieces of parchment stamp out with heart cutters,transfer with spatula use a stitcher tool to mark round edges, bake for 12 -15 mins @150. 

Transfer after 2mins of cooling on baking tray.

My lavender biscuits Iced as a Beryl dog and classic lavender on the right side of the pic.