Don't get me wrong, I have had a great time baking in general, and I've loved watching this series of GBBO, but it takes the fun out of it somewhat when you have to bake every week, and without much choice as to what to bake. If you've been reading this blog series, I'm sure you'll agree that there have been a few dodgy bakes along the way, and some really good ones - I'll definitely be making that chocolate roulade again!
The theme for the final was Royal, and as tempted as I was to have a go at the picnic fit for a Queen, and make 49(?) different items, including one chocolate showstopper, scones, tarts and sausage rolls, it was my sister's birthday on the 30th, so I thought I'd pour all of my efforts into a Victoria Sandwich instead.
WEEK 10: ROYAL WEEK
TECHNICAL CHALLENGE: VICTORIA SANDWICH
First things first, I used this recipe. I've always been a big fan of the BBC Good Food website, and it didn't let me down on this occasion; there were other recipes to choose from of course, but Granny's Victoria Sponge sounded so cute, it had to be the one.
You'll notice that there are only 2 layers on the BBC recipe, and yet my cake has 3 layers; this was literally only because it was my sister's birthday, and I wanted the cake to be a little more special. I just increased the volume of the ingredients included, and decorated using some unintentionally patriotic-coloured fruit. I'm aware that this is not a component of a standard Victoria Sandwich, but again, birthday cake...
Fortunately this week, baking mishaps were few and far between, and the only offering I have relates to my efforts to get the first layer of cake out of one of the cake tins. Without making a mountain out of a mole hill, I thought I'd sufficiently loosened the cake all the way around the edge and underneath, but when I tipped the cake out, only half of the cake came out, and the other half remained in the tin. I caught the part which fell out so the damage wasn't too bad, but it pretty much split the cake in half - needless to say, that was the bottom layer.
Thankfully, the rest was more or less plain sailing, apart from the cake being slightly wonky; I mean, of all the cakes, a Victoria Sandwich is the least complicated to do well, so that's not saying a great deal, but it made me happy anyway.
And apparently I wasn't the only one. My sister loved the cake, and from what I've heard since, it's been going down well. Clearly I'm no expert, but I don't recall ever having filled a Victoria Sandwich with jam and whipped cream. Maybe it's just that I've been doing it wrong, but I'm sure I've filled with buttercream before; never again, a Victoria Sandwich with whipped cream is 100% the way forward. More work, but definitely worth it.
And that brings me to the end of this series of blog posts. I wish I could say that I'll be doing it again next year, but in all honestly, I don't think I can. Not for lack of wanting to (although I am looking forward to a bit of a break for now!) but because I don't actually think there's going to be a series next year, following the move from BBC to Channel 4.
(For my birthday, I got given a copy of Tanya Burr's book, and I've not managed to give many of her recipes a try yet. I want to start having a go at some of those, so if you'd like to see blog posts or videos of me baking some of those recipes, or any specific ones, let me know!!)
Finally, a huge, huge thank you to everyone who has read this series of blog posts, and to everyone who has sampled all the cakes/biscuits/bread I've been making. I really do hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. I guess it may seem a bit of a strange notion to thank people for eating cake, but without them I'd be the size of a house by now, as I'm a real waste not, want not kinda person, and Harvey only really likes chocolate cakes.
Until the next blog post...
LAURA
No comments
Post a Comment