The thrill of the taste

Last Friday saw the culmination of months of cakey preparation - a very special wedding cake finally came to fruition.  Well this is perhaps a misnomer because the happy couple were insistent that this should not be a traditional fruit cake.  Keen to have something somewhat ironic, highly personal and rather northern, they dismissed early thoughts of a cake flavoured with Henderson's relish in favour of one infused with Yorkshire tea.  Settled with this key ingredient, I suggested classic, slightly kitsch, biscuits as the perfect decorative partner and the 'Tea and Biscuits' wedding cake was born.  

Fast forward to the tasting session a few weeks ago, where the bride, her sister and their mother popped in for a baking brew buffet.  With a selection of eight tea cake flavours and three buttercreams  I presented the choices like a nervous Mrs Overall and awaited their verdicts.  First up was a lemon tea flavoured cake.  The bride to be's mother, Bev, tasted and was forthright with her opinion.  "I'm not thrilled with that."  Encouraged to try it again with a little of the lemon buttercream, she reevaluated - "Oh, now I'm thrilled."  And thus the success of the cakes was measured by the degree of thrill they could achieve.  

So on Friday, five cakes were delivered and assembled - four different tea flavours, two butter creams, five tiers and over 150 hand made biscuits.  We all held our breath for Bev's verdict.

"My thrillometer went off the scale," she said.  Success! 

Yeastily direction

Last week I played tutor to two lovely students who won me (or rather a baking lesson with me) in a charity auction.  Opting for my TV sweet dough swansong, they asked to bake Peachy Buns and Baumschnecken (the sticky snail-shaped ones flavoured with nuts and maple syrup).  Their brioche dough needs an overnight chill, so I came armed with a batch of the dough ready made. We pottered around, chatted, drank tea, chatted some more and three hours later ended up with a dozen of each bun, plus a fresh batch of the dough for them to take home and bake the following day.  It was lovely, relaxed and hopefully educational.

Two days later the kitchen tables were turned as I was reunited with a floury handful of Bake Off buddies for a day at Richard Bertinet's cookery school in Bath.  Monsieur B turned up the heat and in little more than three hours we had produced focaccia, fougasse, breadsticks, baguettes, pain viennois, flamiche and doughnuts. Which goes to prove (sorry) that when it comes to showing the dough who's boss, I still have a lot to learn.

Sweet charity

"Charity begins at home" - this is one of those sayings that drives me up the wall.  Too often it's used as an excuse for mean insularity and sheer selfishness - the notion that you should look after yourself before thinking of others.

In fact charity does often begin at home.  How many sponsored fundraising events have been boosted by a trawl of every relative and neighbour in sight?  And where would charities be without cake sales, coffee mornings and pea and pie suppers?

Baking has a proud history of supporting good causes.  Which is why it's no surprise that my Bake Off buddies and I have been inundated with requests, sadly sometimes too many to cope with.  But it is lovely to be able to produce something that brings pleasure and has purpose far beyond the effort it takes to make.

One charity that recognises the power of sharing food is Down's Syndrome Scotland.  The annual 'Do a Dish for Down's Syndrome' is a fundraising and awareness campaign that promotes inclusion, something that's close to my heart. In support of the campaign, I've shared the recipe for my spelt, oat and ginger beer bread.

You can find out more about the campaign and get the recipe from their website... www.dsscotland.org.uk

Go on, get that oven on and bask in the warm glow of doing something good. Charity may begin at home but it doesn't have to end there.

The cookie policy

Council worker by day, baker by night (and at weekends), these two worlds usually overlap only when I take a bake into the office.  Last week, however, I found myself in the delicate position of baking not just with eggs, sugar, flour and butter, but also with diplomacy.  Organising a visit of senior managers from other councils my reputation preceded their arrival and I was compelled to provide baked refreshments.  Ignoring wholly unfounded allegations that I was attempting to offer 'a sweetener' or 'butter them up', I considered what to bake for this 'peer review' team. Thinking that 'peer' is only one letter away from 'pear' (and discovering that one team member is particularly fond of cardamom), I created a spiced and tenuously named 'peary chew' biscuit, which was well received.  The team went on to deliver a very honest appraisal of the council. Proving that honesty is still the best policy... but biscuits come a close second.

You'll find these spiced pear and honey biscuits in the recipes section.

A Boo cake of Violet's

My niece, Violet, is pretty specific about her birthday cakes.  Over the past seven years, she's given me her annual brief, which invariably fills me with a combination of excitement and dread. I've been introduced to a cheerful cast of commercial characters - Peppa Pig, Hello Kitty, Moshi Monsters and Octonauts, as well as classics like Alice and the Mad Hatter, and Violet's very own imaginative creation - the Princess Queen Ballerina Hamster.  Sometimes their innocent cuteness hides an evil streak - replicating their features in sugar paste, they smirk mockingly at me as they teeter, lose their balance and a head rolls towards the floor.  

The latest addition to the cake crew is Boo, officially titled the cutest dog in the world.  Not much to live up to there then.  Now when it comes to birthday cakes, I've developed a bit of a knack. Sugarcraft figures keep indefinitely so I take my time, pacing the creation over several weekends. I bake the cake a day or two before it's needed and then it's a fairly simple task of assembly the night before it's needed.  Until this year.  Violet decided that she didn't want a cake with a little sugar Boo on it, she wanted the cake to be Boo.  And so the decoration window narrowed from weeks to hours, and suddenly I'm transported back to the realms of time limited baking.  

With the help of a garlic press, I extruded strands of fondant fur and proved that I can rise to a technical challenge after all.  Vanilla dog biscuits added a touch of authenticity and a sugar paste bowl of chocolate dog food provided a suitable spot to stick seven candles.

Happy Birthday Violet!  Whatever you have planned for next year... bring it on!

Flour arranging

Erm... hi... my name is Howard and I am a flour addict.

Another delivery arrives and I have to face facts - this is getting out of control.  My stash has outgrown the neat confines of my flour drawer and I need to make a choice - either I stop buying flours or I need more storage.  This invasive floury creeper moved slowly, but it now only takes someone to innocently say, "Have you ever tried teff flour?" (as they did last week) and I have to have it.  So today's arrival of teff has brought my current collection of gluten-free flours to ten.  Oh, not including flour blends... or home made 'nut flours', which are basically just ground nuts, so you can't count them really.  

I may be in denial but the good news is I've just spotted some space in the sideboard.

Clockwise from top right the collection is sorghum, chestnut, amaranth, teff, potato, hemp, quinoa, rice and tapioca flours.  Gram or chickpea flour is in the centre.

The baker of Seville

Another week, another tart.  Last week's Bakewell is this week's Seville orange tart.  Still gluten free but these two are separated by about 1,500 miles.  A search on Google helpfully suggests that if I set off from Bakewell now, I can drive to Seville in less than 24 hours.  Tempting but unlikely, as I never learned to drive.  

But I digress. Actually these two bakes are not so dissimilar - the Spanish tarta de Santiago consists of ground almonds, eggs and sugar, which sound very familiar. I nod to a Moorish heritage by including chick pea flour and cinnamon in the pastry.  Whilst the demure Bakewell keeps its fruits under cover, my shady dame from Seville has hers on display. Seasonal Seville slices are caramelised and arranged like the vaulted ceilings of the Alcazar palace.  OK, maybe that's a bit excessive, but this is essentially chunky marmalade in the extreme.  I feel the urge to exercise my fluent grasp of the language -  "estupendo".

"La cuenta por favor".

Gluten free Bakewell

Word association – say the word “Bakewell” and most of us would reply “tart”.  However, this four-letter word offends the baking sensibilities of the picturesque Derbyshire town, insisting that Bakewell Pudding is the only bake well-deserved of its name.

This week, I experimented with a gluten-free Bakewell, controversially veering more towards the tarty than the pud.  On a sweet buttery shortcrust of rice and quinoa flours, enriched with egg and almonds, I squished fresh raspberries and a drizzle of rosehip syrup, then topped with more, egg, butter, rice flour and almonds in the form of a frangipane. 

The quinoa flour added a lovely extra nutty quality to the crust and what it lacked in authenticity (and gluten) it made up for in taste.  Back in Bakewell soon, I’ll be sharing more tips and tricks at my gluten free baking course. Fingers crossed, I make it safely past any hordes of pudding purists.

Second helpings

Now, exactly one year ago I got a phone call.  "Hi Howard, we've received your application for The Great British Bake Off..."  

And so began the craziest, most exhilarating, most wonderful year I've ever known.  A year in which the extraordinary became ordinary and the impossible was possible.  Looking again at the calendar for 2013, every month brought something new.  Auditions, baking, screen tests, baking, filming, baking...  Actually, you're right, there was quite a lot of baking.  But even in the 'lull' of July, before transmission (that's TX for those in the business, sweetie) we still had the mutual support of our fabulous baking family.  It was the experience of a lifetime and I'd do it all again without hesitation.

So, dear fresh-faced 2014, I'm just saying that if there's any chance of serving up a year remotely like your predecessor, well I could definitely manage a second cup...

Hemp milk shakes

Just over a week ago I made my demo debut at the BBC Good Food Show in Birmingham.  On a stage echoing the Bake Off tent, I watched from the wings as Frances Quinn recreated her beautiful cauliflower cheese scones, coasting through the recipe with wit and winning charm.  "Are you nervous?" asked a crew member.  "No.  It looks fun", I foolishly replied.

So armed with instructions to bake, chat, be organised and funny, I stepped out onto the stage and faced what felt like a multi-tasking nightmare.  Prattling away to the lovely Jo Pratt, I suddenly realised that the recipe and equipment, so familiar five minutes earlier, had morphed into things beyond recognition.  What was that strange meshy, sifty thing with the flour?  And why would you use it if the flour is already in the bowl?  Waiting for a pan of hemp milk to boil, I saw my hands shake as I performed the tricky task of measuring two spoonfuls of dried yeast.  It had clearly taken years of practice.

Oblivious to the massive timer in front of me, I ran ten minutes over and left exhausted, a tad embarrassed, but exhilarated. I'm hooked - please let me do it again!

Bergamots and Birmingham

Two things to look forward to this week.  

The first is that bergamots have come back into season.  One of my favourite fruits, their aromatic zest gives Earl Grey that air of distinction.  On the Bake Off, I'd planned to use them in the Earl Grey storeys of my Japanese pagoda biscuit tower, but then the week before filming they went out of season.  As the supermarket could only helpfully offer bergamot hand wash as an alternative, I settled for Earl Grey tea leaves in the mix.  But now, they're back, bringing a Narnian anticipation of summer, like the scent of rose in Turkish Delight.

My second highlight is a trip to Birmingham for the BBC Good Food Show, where I'll be making my demo debut on the Bake Off stage.  Delighted to have the opportunity, I'll be sharing a gluten-free, dairy-free bake... with a touch of the old hemp.  Sad though that I am stepping into a slot that the lovely Christine couldn't make.  Renowned for her generosity, I can't help feeling this is something nobody should have to give away.  I am an uncomfortable understudy.  Like my bergamot marmalade, it will be a bittersweet experience. 

Just peachy

Pondering over a something suitable for a charity bake sale, I settled on a batch of my infamous peachy buns.  At their last outing they failed to pack a peachy punch so this time I pimped them up with a cheeky splash of peach schnapps in place of the peach essence.  Groggy before sunrise, I gently powdered them with their edible blusher and placed their angelica leaves strategically.  Then the first light of day revealed a fun fruity fundraiser.

Sweet sugar candy man

Secret conversations, a mysterious parcel, and a drop-off on neutral ground - what's that all about?  Armed with a sugar stash, my own sweetheart, Peter, took a trip to Nottingham this week to deliver the goods and rendezvous with... Deborah.  Yes, that Deborah, from the Bake Off.  You know, the one who... oh no, please don't mention the 'c' word again.  

Well, she is throwing a surprise party for her husband's birthday and I'd offered to make a sugar snowboarder for the top of the cake.  And here he is...

I am absolutely certain that Deborah will not be claiming him as her own creation.  No, really!

Sunday soda bread

Feeling in a virtuous mood, I decide to use up some of the fridge-lurking ingredients that have outstayed their welcome.   I spot a quarter jar of sun-dried tomatoes and a lump of Parmesan that saw better days about three weeks ago.  Waste not, want not. Having worked up a sweat on a morning run, I want something quick and easy so I opt for a soda bread.  

Respecting its Irish origins, my excellent sense of geography tells me that Caraway is a little town not far from Galway, so in go a spoonful of caraway seeds.  A delicate dusting of Parmesan resists the urge to melt even after 40 minutes in the oven and I am blessed with an unexpected flurry of interest on the crust.  Heavenly.

Stockings and choux

"Fill up the stocking, I may be rushing things, but deck the halls again now..."

Channeling Auntie Mame, we needed a little early Christmas for a festive magazine shoot today.  The photographer seemed a little disappointed that I hadn't already bought my Christmas crackers and we had to improvise.  So out came paper snowflakes, baubles and oversized sequin garlands to provide some festive context to my savoury party canapes. Both the decorations and choux buns were cheesy but it was fun to be part of this sneak preview of the party season.

Party cake, party cake...

Party cake, party cake, baker man, bake me a cake as fast as you can!

Thankfully, time-limited bakes are now a thing of the past and I'm able to take my time over important cakes.  So it was a late night yesterday when I put the finishing touches to my twin nieces' 11th birthday cakes.  The two roughly 1-shaped cakes were made to an exacting brief - coffee and caramel with 1950s dress and shoes for Lola, chocolate and almond with three pigs for Coral.  I took artistic licence with her request for a pig on the Empire State Building - it looked more like a generic American tower, but I hope the finished cakes would still fit into the showstopper category.

Humbling pie

Can you really celebrate leaving the Great British Bake Off?  Probably not, but last night we had friends round for a little departure party.  I made a 'smoky' salmon pie, with smoked cheese and smoked salmon, encased in a rye and black pepper pastry.  It was very good - even if I do say so myself.  

So I drank too much and prepared myself for the worst.  And then something quite remarkable happened.  As we watched the inevitable on TV, Twitter went crazy and my phone buzzed with hundreds of virtual messages of love and support. I'm just an amateur baker who was fortunate enough to have the most wonderful experience, but the kindness of strangers has been truly humbling.

Tuiles meet again

Having described my efforts at cigar wafers as 'fag butts' on last week's Bake Off, I was determined to give this technical challenge another go.  To quote the lovely Ruby, "I will not be defeated by a sodding French biscuit".  So having coughed up for a tuiles template, I tried again.  Et voila! Crisp curved tuiles and (having run out of dark chocolate) white chocolate and raspberry cigars that look a little too much like... well... fag butts. They say you shouldn't try to reinvent the tuiles.

Carrot cake with celebrity frosting

Invited for a chat on Wednesday's breakfast show at BBC Radio Sheffield, I took along my crunchy nut carrot cake.  When asked about the ingredients I forced myself to avoid saying "It's a carrot cake, and it's got carrots in it", which is the kind of thing I seem to say a lot on the Bake Off.  Later, on Twitter, someone asked about the secret of a good cream cheese frosting and I referred to Dan Lepard's foolproof recipe, only to get a lovely tweet from the man himself!  As my sister said, "Surely that's enough. Your life is complete".

Promised you a mirabelle

After a fruitless visit to France in August, I finally managed to get my hands on some imported mirabelle plums.  Often preserved or baked in a tarte aux mirabelles, I  wanted to try something different. Using a gluten-free rice flour pastry, I played around with the theme of a rice pudding (don't ask me how my mind works - it's a mystery to me too). Adding nutmeg to the pastry, I then filled the cases with thick vanilla infused rice pudding and topped them with the precious golden fruit. Rice on rice with a jammy mirabelle on top.