FOOD

The Bake Off Bake Along 2016 – THE FINAL!!

On 2nd November 2016
26 Comments

WE GOT HERE – THE FINAL!!!

Can you believe it’s the tenth bake in as many weeks, and we’ve reached the final?!

This week I was hoping for fanfares, fireworks and some sort of crazy elaborate ENORMOUS bake to beat all bakes. What did we get instead?

A Victoria sponge!

Don’t get me wrong, Victoria sponge is delicious. Who doesn’t like a slice occasionally? But to end the bake off as we know it on the BBC with such simplicity? I was a tad disappointed!

The meringue crowns were lovely, but we’ve also already had 2 meringue bakes this series, so it didn’t feel particularly special. As last year I was off on holiday the week after the final I actually ended up making a sort of autumnal victoria sponge. I tried to make it extra special in the time constraints I had, but for this year’s final, I wanted to go out with more of a bang!

Therefore, I present to you my #bakeoffbakealong final bakes:

Triple Chocolate Layered Cake
Cheddar, Sundried Tomato and Chorizo Scones
Red Berry Creme Patisserie Tarts
Maple Mustard Sausage Rolls
Salmon and Asparagus Gluten Free Quiche

I love a picnic, and instead of just picking and choosing which to make, with encouragement from Adam, I made them all (though some in slightly smaller quantities, else we’d have been the size of houses!). Cue a weekend of baking, mostly completed in my PJs on Sunday. I started leisurely at 11am, and finished ready to take photos at 4.30pm! Though in other weeks, some of the bakes have taken nearly as long (I’m looking at you mirror glaze…!!) and others I’ve got frustrated with, but this week I threw myself into full bake mode and really enjoyed spending a day in the kitchen!

I’d tried to give myself a head start, baking the three chocolate cake sponge layers on Saturday, and had a keen plan for what to do on Sunday. Adam kept me topped up with tea and occasional exclamations of support, as well as completing a few of the sausage roll steps. It also meant that on Sunday night we settled down to a delicious picnic tea, trying a bit of everything I’d lovingly baked all day.

To give a brief summary, I’ve noted some of my conclusions from each of the bakes:

The scones were much simpler than I expected, rose beautifully and are definitely being made again, they’re delicious! They also conveniently only take about 10-15 mins in the oven!

bake-off-bake-along-final-11

The sausage rolls were also quite simple, and made so much tastier by the fact we went to the butchers for our sausage meat. He gave us a discount as we bought a big chunk of pork for making homemade bacon too – #shoplocal! We had a tasty pot of maple butter which was drizzled in, and added to with some wholegrain mustard, to replicate the ones the very same butcher makes, which are SO tasty!

I’ve made a lot of quiches in the past, and the trick is definitely to go mad on the fillings. This one had SO much salmon in it, and it made all the difference. Plus, using some lemon zest and double cream as well as the milk and eggs made it rather decadent. I still hate gluten free pastry though as it’s so difficult to handle!

I have a confession. I’ve never made creme patisserie!! It comes up so frequently in the bake off, yet I’ve always somehow avoided it. It’s quite a strange one really isn’t it, I assumed it was just custard, but it’s even made with flour flour rather than just cornflour?! I was nervous, I’d bought new small tart tins especially, but there was literally nothing to worry about. The creme pat went really well, and I even flavoured it with a little alcoholic burst using kirsch! Mary would be proud! The tarts were topped with some red berries I had dug out of the freezer and defrosted, so they were a little juicy, but I love the overall effect!

Then there’s the cake. Chocolate cake to be precise. Though it’s not my favourite cake to eat, I wanted this one to be super chocolatey and one to be proud of. The sponges were each flavoured using white, milk, or dark chocolate and then sandwiched together with nutella and buttercream, or toffee and buttercream. The cake was then all over iced in white chocolate buttercream, with a rich dark chocolate ganache on the top, to drip down the sides. I decorated with a few different chocolate bars and a trim of white chocolate buttons. I also had 2 egg whites left over from my creme pat, so quickly also whipped up some chocolate meringues that ranged from teeny tiny to bigger stars and I love love loved how it all came out!