Abby Attempts: The Great British Bake Off Technical Five

Nom, bakewell tart. I'd been wanting to try making this for a while but had to order some baking beads.. Which never came, so I borrowed from a friend. Brilliant!

My first attempt at a blind bake went pretty well! I put it in a ceramic pie thingy which I think wasn't right, should have gone for the flan case that they mentioned. It went a bit too brown and messy around the edges and I absolutely failed rolling it out so I just plonked bits of dough in there and patted it a bit... but it all cooked all the way through.  AND NO SOGGY BOTTOM :)

It called for a tablespoon of raspberry jam on top of the base but I didn't have any, so I used the last of the strawberry jam that I made for the Viennese whirls, then the almondy frangipane layer on top... It was delicious to try straight from the saucepan, and easy to plonk on top.

Then after it was baked and I'd managed to lop it out of the ceramic dish (just about intact) and onto a plate which had a dip in the middle so didn't work very well, and a bit of fanning Val-style I iced it and then did the pink stripes and tried my hand at feathering. It was a bit of a fail since it was still quite warm and the middle dip was making it run.. And the gel colour wasn't actually pink - it was red - so it looks more like a Halloween pie than a bakewell tart and Ben won't eat it cos it looks gruesome. Greaaaat. I'm a bit out off too, to be honest, but it's really yummy! But also a bit chewy at the edges, not sure why that is, I don't think that's normal for bakewell tarts...

Quote from Oliver, after he told me how much he loved it, loved me and how it was "marvellous": "It doesn't look like Mary Berry's" The boy is right but pass me another slice, it's scrum :)

You can find the recipe here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/bakewell_tart_90600

Abby Attempts: The Great British Bake Off Technical Three

Dampfnudel! I've now found out the reason why I put these off... They're rubbish!! How on earth are you supposed to know when they're done?! They look like they're barely cooked so you obediently follow the timings, plus a couple of minutes extra, and the flippin things are encrusted to the bottom of the pan, gah. I'm pretty sure the dampfnudel itself was cooked, I tried to squish it to see if it was still a lump of dough, but it felt okay (I was surprised, the top looked like a lump of raw dough) so that was a small consolation, now I've got a line of barely edible nudlen (the plural of dampfnudel, perhaps?)

I picked some plums from our plum tree for the sauce and felt pretty pleased with myself, it was tasting delicious. Then I stick buzzed it and it went everywhere, now I've got little bits of plum all over my clothes and the kitchen, hmpff.

Forget the vanilla sauce, I'm sure they called it custard in the bread week episode, so I mixed up a birds instant sachet. Thanks Approved foods, 10p! At least that's one bit that tasted right.

I won't be bothering with them again. You might as well mix in a bit of sugar into a dumpling mix and plonk them on top of a casserole!

Abby Attempts: The Great British Bake Off Technical Four

I needed to do a bit of a switch around with the technicals due to missing ingredients, hence week four has happened before three! So today is lace pancakes, dampfnudel will have to wait.

Today I decided to get the boys in on the action, Zach and Jacob were both with me for these, so the lace and heart shaped brief was quickly tossed aside. As was my sanity as random objects appeared in the batter. A duplo dog was amusing, Zach lobbing in a grubby washing up sponge in not so much... Calmcalmcalm. Failfailfail.

The batter was really smooth... I followed Mary's instructions and mixed in the flour into the eggy milky well GRADUALLY and it looks like that's the key to not getting my usual lumps. You learn something new :)

Using the squeezy bottle (Home Bargains, 39p. Ace find!) was actually really easy, much better than my piping fails. Two out of three of us are nursing small burns,buy what does that matter when you're having fun making shapes like this?! After two fancy hearts it was trains, words, a house, a Mummy with a baby in her tummy (Zachy's request, no, there's no message in there!) and animals all the way.

Highly recommend, lots of fun :)

Find the recipe here http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/lace_pancakes_20045

Abby Attempts: The Great British Bake Off Technical Two: Vienesse Whirls

Technical Two complete - Viennese Whirls this time. It looked pretty doable again, but would have been more doable if

1. I had looked at the recipe before I went shopping for the ingredients. That would have save me buying eggs, cream and caster sugar (no eggs required, and it was buttercream I needed to make, not buy cream.. And icing sugar and jam sugar! I thought I was soooo clever buying caster sugar..)
2. Not dropped said unnecessary eggs and cream meaning they were even more pointless ingredients
3. I had a piping bag that a) didn't have a split in it, b) had a fitting that fit in the bag (would have saved me using sellotape..) and c) didn't have a picture of Winnie the pooh on the side that kept rubbing off on my hand and into the doughy mix

Other than that I'd call it a success! There is a bit of definition in the biscuits, they are - as Paul and Mary call it - "short," light and crumbly, and I made jam for the first time! It tasted delicious, even though it never really set and just dripped all over the place... Maybe using actual jam sugar would have made the difference. Oh, I was happy with the buttercream too. Turns out that if you actually follow a recipe and put in the correct amount of icing sugar/butter it tastes better! :)

Mary's recipe said it should take an hour and make 12-14 whirls.. Think it took two and a half and I made eight! :D

Abby Attempts: The Great British Bake Off Technical One: Jaffa cakes

Anyone see the first episode of the Bake Off this week?? I thought the jaffa cakes looked easy...they weren't! #gbbo #presentationneverwasmystrongpoint