GBBO 2015: Week1 Cakes - Black Forest Gateaux

For the first week of GBBO I decided to make two of the bakes because why make things easy for myself? I have never made this cake before, or even considered making it before, and it had more elements to it than I usually try to do for a cake so I knew it was going to be a challenge for me - which is the whole point of this! 

I searched for a recipe online and a lot of recipes varied quite a bit with ingredients and quantities, so in the end I settled on a recipe from a reliable recipe website - bbcgoodfood.com

Ingredients:

300g plain flour

175g butter

375g golden caster sugar

2 eggs

25g cocoa

200g dark chocolate

200g natural yoghurt

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

100g Morello cherry jam

500ml double cream

3tbsp icing sugar

425g tin of pitted cherries

1 punnet of fresh cherries (optional)

I should firstly mention that I did not use kirsch in this recipe as I don't like to use alcohol in baking - just a personal preference! I replaced the kirsch with the juice from the tin of cherries. 

So first is the usual preparations; preheat the fan oven to 160 degrees Celsius, and grease and line with greaseproof paper three round 20cm cake tins.

To make the cake batter firstly combine the flour, sugar, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda in a mixing bowl.

In a separate mixing bowl place the eggs and yoghurt and whisk them together.

Then add this to the first mixing bowl with the other ingredients in.

Take the butter and 75g of the dark chocolate and place them into a pan on a low heat, then stir until melted.

Add this to the mixing bowl of ingredients. Add 100ml of boiling water to the bowl.

Whisk!

Divide the mixture equally between the three cake tins - this is actually way more difficult than it sounds. Pop the tins in the oven and bake for 25 minutes. Time for a sit down after all that.

Time for the cakes to come out of the oven to be dressed. I think this is where I went a tad wrong. When the cakes come out the oven, THEN pour over them some of the liquid from the tinned cherries and let them cool. I made the error of letting them cool and then putting a few tablespoons of the liquid onto each layer of cake. This made the cake too moist and you will see the result of this further down the page.

Take the tin of cherries, drain them, and mix the cherries with the jam.

Measure 200ml of the cream and put this into a pan over a low heat. Leave on the heat long enough for the cream to get hot but not boil or burn. Then pour the hot cream over the remainder of the chocolate and stir it until the chocolate is melted and it mixture resembles Nutella.

Whisk together the icing sugar and the rest of the cream (300ml) until it looks good and creamy.

Time to assemble everything! A layer of cake first, then half of the cream and then half of the jammy cherries on top of that. Repeat. Then when the third layer of cake has been stacked, get the bowl of Nutella-looking chocolate and spread that all over the top. I finished it with a few fresh cherries on top as I thought this would make it look fancy and pretty. I don't really recommend this step though as cherries are more expensive than gold it turns out and they don't even get eaten as people take them off the top to eat the cake.

The final product turned out fairly well considering I have never made or even eaten this cake before. I did have a problem with the cake layers though; the liquid from the tin of cherries made them too moist and they had stuck a little to the cake tins so were quite uneven to start with. When the cake was finished it looked good - if not very messy, but then slowly as the minutes passed a crack formed down the middle of the cake on the top layer. Ten minutes later the crack had turned into the Grand Canyon of cakes. 

GBBO 2015: Week 1 Cakes - Madeira Cake

I was pretty happy when I read that the first week of GBBO included a Madeira cake as it is relatively simple to make - something which always gives me hope.

As I have never made a Madeira cake before, I decided to keep it plain and simple rather than trying to make it fancy and fail.

Ingredients:

200g Self-raising flour

175g butter

175g golden caster sugar

3 eggs

50g ground almonds

1tsp vanilla extract

grated zest of 1 lemon

First, prepare the scene! Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius, then grease and line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper. My papering skills aren't great so that's why mine looks a bit messy. I use the shove and hope method as I don't have the time or patience to be measuring and drawing on the paper.

Now to actually make the cake mix. Whisk together the butter and sugar.

Then add the eggs to the mixture one at a time. I'm not sure why it's done one at a time, I don't know what difference it makes. If someone does know, please feel free to leave a comment below explaining it to me!

Add the vanilla essence - I actually couldn't remember how much the recipe said to use so I dropped in a large teaspoon worth of it. Also grate the lemon so you only have the zest and then add that to the mixture. The lemon I used was on the large side and I think that was too much zest, so maybe next time I will use a smaller lemon.

Last but not least, add the flour and ground almonds to the mixture and whisk away!

Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and pop it in the oven for about 55-60 minutes.

Once the cake had cooled I dusted the top with some icing sugar as I think that always makes a cake look fancy.
I was actually really surprised and impressed with how the cake turned out. It has a good crack in the top which after watching GBBO, I have learned is a good thing, and it also tasted pretty good as my family enjoyed it and didn't complain.

Introduction

After graduating university last year I was in dire need of a hobby as I had too much free time and not enough direction. In September my mum held a Macmillan coffee morning at our house and I was told to bake some cakes for the guests to enjoy. Turns out I enjoy baking and especially decorating cakes.

I want to improve my skills and challenge myself, as so far I have stuck to recipes I am comfortable with, such as Victoria Sponges. So I am using the 2015 Great British Bake Off as a reason to challenge myself and learn to bake some new things. Every week I will be baking one or two of the three recipes which the GBBO bakers will be making that week. They will look nothing like what the bakers make on television, so don't expect to see any of those beautiful creations here! This is just real, messy and stressful home baking at its finest.

WARNING: I have no idea what I'm doing! I just follow recipes and have a go. There will be so many mistakes, disasters and tears - mostly mine but also of those who have to eat my food.

Below are a few pictures of things I have made in the last year. As you can see, they are quite simple recipes and I'm still at the beginner stage.

Raspberry Palmiers

Mincemeat Pinwheels

Birthday cake for my Mom (This was my fave bake)

A little birthday cake for me!

Join me on my baking journey to hopefully being a better baker and not giving anyone food poisoning!

Danielle xoxo