The Bake Off Bake Along || Patisserie Week – Les Miserables

Semi Finals a-go-go and another technical for me this week – Les Miserables!

However, rather than making me les miserables, as I somewhat expected, instead I was l’heureuse.

What to say about the show this week? Without Liam it seemed a little redundant, though I was really hoping that Sophie would come into her own, especially as she’d mentioned she loved making patisseries. What a turn out for the books! Though as you know I am not keen on Stacey’s baking style, I must say she didn’t really deserve to go home this week, usually it’s based on a week by week performance and if it had been, another baker would have gone in the semis. Still, the judges rule, and actually of all the bakers left, it should make an interesting final.

They really didn’t give much away about what we’ll be baking this week though did they?!

However, this week is not about the final, it was instead the return of one of my favourites – patisseries! In the past I’ve made mockatines and fondant fancies, so for this cheeky patisserie I went for another technical that just so happened to fall nicely in line with our Macmillan coffee morning at work – Les Miserables.

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Thin layers of jaconde sponge in lemon and pistachio flavours, sandwiched between vanilla and raspberry french buttercream and decorated with a chocolate curl.

Sounds pretty complex right?!

I think the overall look is really impressive, and yes, although it is fiddly to bring every component together, overall the sponge is naked, which makes assembly easier, and the buttercream is just flavoured differently rather than being two completely different components. We had had a pretty stressful time servicing both our cars (which then went a bit wrong….don’t ask…) so coming back in on a Sunday evening to bake my penultimate #bakeoffbakealong 2017 bake left me praying it would go well. And it did. Phew.

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The sponges were light and spongy (if a little lopsided from my wonky tray), the buttercream was creamy and not too sweet (despite not having quite enough hands to get the sugar syrup off at the perfect softball stage), and though I ended up assembling the tops whilst at work before our bake sale this morning, they actually turned out alright. Not immaculate, not semi-final standard, but pretty damn tasty and one I would actually consider making again.

Well, that might be pushing it for a technical, but I can now say I enjoy a Les Miserables patisserie and have semi-successfully completed another bake off challenge!

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