Oh my god. I have retreated to bed at 3pm. I am sore and exhausted and have a full stomach! I have just baked the Great British Bake Off final. 

I hate that it’s over. Even more so, I’m sad for my son, who adores it! He loved watching 15 minutes on a night and had been rooting for Candice since early on in the series. Maybe it was the lipstick? It’s also sad that the show has been sold to channel 4 but I have a feeling that it’s not all over yet…..

The bakes this week were:

Signature: A meringue crown

Technical: A Victoria Sponge with no instructions

Showstopper: A mammoth picnic spread of Sausage Rolls with Puff Pastry,

Savoury Tarts, Fruit Tarts, Savoury Scones and a chocolate cake, fit for the Queen.

 

So the wonderful Jenny from Mummy Mishaps has hosted the Great Bloggers Bake Along for another year. Each week she bakes in advance so that after the show she can open the link for the rest of us to link to. Each week she has chosen Star Bakers in each category and I am so proud to have been awarded Star Baker, twice! Once for my 3d Gingerbread story and the second time, for my Rainbow Fondant Fancies. 

Jenny has amazingly organised sponsorship from Tesco and there are some amazing prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the final. This being the case, meant that I had to give it my all. 

I made everything. All. Of. It. The Signature, Technical and Showstopper.

I didn’t do all the elements 100% as they were done in the show but I did as much as I could.

Here we go. All recipes will be at the bottom of the post of you would like to recreate anything. I also used my fabulous Vonshef Mixer from Domu. I don’t think that I could have made it through the final without it.

 

 

First I started with the Meringue crown as the oven needed to be at its lowest temperature for this out of all the bakes. In the show, the contestants made a layered pavlova but that just would’t get eaten here, especially with everything else that I had planned and as I have done a lot of weeks, I adapted and reduced the recipes to make smaller amounts. 

Ready, Steady, Baaaaakkkke!

 

 

 

I whipped my egg white, added the sugar and whipped until stiff. I had prepped a bowl with strips of baking paper in order to stop the crown from sticking as I was attempting to make one similar to Candice’s mini one but without a snazzy silicone dome. I was actually surprised that the piped meringue stayed in place and didn’t budge when baking either. Element one, done.

 

 

While the meringue was baking I chopped all my vegetables to roast to go into my tarts later. I then made my vegetarian sausage rolls. I cheated by buying Tesco’s Puff Pastry as there was no way I was going to make my own. I used half of a Gosh! lentil, butterbean and mushroom burger and mixed it with some sage and onion stuffing, salt and pepper. I decided to put a rasher of quorn bacon on the pastry, then the filling and rolled before egg washing.

 

 

All these things sat on the side until the meringue had cooled in the oven and meanwhile, I made my pastry for the tarts. I decided against making a sweet pastry as the filling would be sweet enough ( and I simply couldn’t make two as well as everything else!) This was also the first time that I had ever made pastry. I know, I’m lazy, I just buy ready made.

So, I  made the pastry, let it rest in the fridge, rolled it and filled the tins before blind baking. One mistake that I made was to trim the pastry at this stage so when it baked, it shrank down the sides, however, they still worked pretty well. If like me, you don’t have any baking beans, don’t worry as chickpeas work rather well!

 

 

I baked them for 10 minutes with the chickpeas, 10 minutes without and then 5 minutes with a little bit if egg wash.

As they cooled, I cooked the roast vegetables and sausage rolls.

Now it was time to start the scones. Also, the first time that I had made scones of any kind.

I started with the flour, smoked paprika and butter and made it into breadcrumbs. I added the cheese and gave it another whizz before putting it into a bowl. I whisked the egg and milk in a separate bowl, chopped the olives and then mixed all the ingredients together.

I gently and simply combined the ingredients into a dough, lightly rolled it out and cut my scones. 

 

 

At some point, they got baked and I moved on to the Creme Patisserie. Yup, the first time I have ever made Creme Pat!

 

 

It worked, thickened and I felt a little bit proud of myself. I put some clingfilm down on top of the creme pat to stop a skin from forming and left it to cool.

Now it was time for the cakes.

I made a small amount of Mary’s classic Victoria Sponge and put the mixture inside two tall metal cylinders – they are actually designed to shape rice etc and so don’t have a bottom but I put them inside a baking tray and hoped for the best. Immediately after, I made the chocolate cake mixture and I had forgotten just how liquid it was so was very worried to put it into the metal cylinders but I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

I defrosted my buttercream – leftovers from the last few weeks, to be used in my Victoria sponge and made my ganache using equal weights of dark chocolate and double cream. When it had cooled, I whipped it in order to pipe. 

This is the state of my kitchen at 1.15pm! 

 

 

Now it was time to put my cakes together and fill my fruit tarts before assembling. 

 

 

Finished!

 

 

So first, my Meringue Crown. I didn’t have the guts to take the paper off from underneath as I had a feeling (quite rightly) that it would collapse. 

 

 

the Victoria sponge and chocolate cakes

 

 

and my final sweet element – the fruit tarts with creme patisserie

 

 

Here are my savoury offerings, starting with my vegetarian sausage rolls

 

 

my cheese and olive scones

 

 

and finally, my roast vegetable tarts.

 

 

That’s it. I did it! I baked the final of the Great British Bake Off. 

I am actually a little bit proud of myself for a) baking every week this year as last year I only managed a couple of weeks, b) for winning star baker twice and c) baking all of the elements (if not all of the amounts) of the final.

I’d love to know what you think of my bakes this week. I’ll add my recipes in the next day or so as the baking, photographing and writing has take it out of me but scroll down to see my other bakes this series.

Thanks for reading

love

 

 

 

 

 

My other bakes this series have been:

Week 9: Rainbow Fondant Fancies *Star Baker

Week 8: Tudor Jumbles

Week 7: Roulade

Week 6: Botanical Week

Week 5: Cinnamon Swirls

Week 4: Baked Churros

Week 3: Chocolate Cherry Bread

Week 2: 3d Gingerbread Story

Week 1: Giant Chocolate Mirror Glazed Jaffa Cake