Great British Bake Off Challenge - Week 5; 'Alternative Ingredients'

The first thing that sprang to mind when I heard that the initial bake of week 5 was sugar free cake was beetroot chocolate cake so lets ignore the fact that I said in my cheesecake post I'd be making a polenta cake, shall we? 

Mind you, a polenta cake may have been more sensible and my kitchen may not look like a crime scene if I had stuck to that plan, but ohhhh well. 

Beetroot added to cake sounds disgusting but is actually probably one of my favourite methods because when done well it yields a wonderfully sticky, moist and fudgey texture to a chocolate cake. This cake is no different however the lack of sugar means that it tastes rather... uhm, earthy. Whilst there is some definite sweetness to the taste it's not overwhelming and if your taste buds are tuned to sweetness like most peoples are when presented with a slice of cake then you'll probably dislike this quite a lot. I am in two minds whether I like it or not. I mean, I don't dislike it, but I wouldn't go crazy over making it again in this form. I'd happily make another beetroot cake! 

The ganache and strawberries really save this cake even though the ganache definitely defeats the object of not using refined sugar. Whilst we're tentatively on the subject of what you can legitimately use in a sugar free cake, I think we need to have a brief discussion about how a) what you bake on the show should probably be edible and b) how a cake is a sweet item, and not a savoury one, so not including any sugar at all would not yield a cake at the end. Yes, honey, maple syrup and agave syrup are all still sugars but then so are fruits (fructose) and natural sweeteners such as Xylitol and stevia. I saw the challenge as more of a 'Don't make a cake using your traditional grain sugars' rather than 'Don't use any sweet ingredients at all'. 

Anyway. 

Once again, I've slightly adapted a recipe I've found online, this time it's from The Wholesome Cook. 

3 cups self raising flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarb of soda

6 tbsp cocoa powder

2 tsp Chinese five spice powder

1 cup of raw grated beetroot

2/3 cup of olive oil

2/3 cup of honey

1 1/3 cup of cold water

2 tbsp vanilla extract 

250g dark chocolate

275ml double cream

Oven temp: 150 degrees fan. Line a spring release tin with greaseproof paper.

Combine all the dry ingredients with the beetroot and mix well. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients and combine with the dry. Fold in gentley with a wooden spoon. 

Transfer to the pre-pared tin and bake for 30 - 35 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

To make the ganache put the double cream in a glass bowl over a bain marie until warm (don't boil it). Add the chocolate and remove from the heat, stir until all melted. Chill in the fridge for two hours or until set enough to spread on the cake. 

Nat vs the Cake Pop

(Or as it will now be known as, 'the day the cake pops won... again.')

As it's my Dad's birthday today (Happy Birthday Dad!) I set about baking him a cake. Mindful of the fact that both me and my mum are on diets pre-wedding in July, and that my Dad is only home for 4 days, I didn't want to make an actual cake. I just wanted something small and easy for the three (or four) of us to eat.

I've made cake pops before but they were an actual disaster - I didn't put enough frosting in, I didn't put chocolate on the stick before I shoved it into the pop, and consequently all my pops ended up taking a permanent dive into the bin. This time however I was prepared. I knew exactly what I was doing and when, I knew how much of what I was putting in where, and I was ready. I was going to win this battle.

For those of you not in the know, a cake pop is a small, round ball of cake and frosting smushed together, shaped onto a lollipop stick and then decorated. You can get some gorgeous cake pops that are real works of art -

Bakerella's 'love' display

If you're in London you can buy them from The Pop Bakery

What do mine look like? Well, uhm, not as good as those.

They look ok, right? Not perfect but ok. 

Apart from I made 24 cake balls... and only 12 cake pops. 12 decided to swan dive off into the candy melts I was using :( so like a mature adult, I made sure I had enough for everyone and then did the most adult thing I've done all day... threw my spoon on the floor, threw the rest of the candy melts down the drain and stomped off to sulk for five minutes. One day I'll actually grow up... hehe. I'm just passionate, honest!

Baking bonanza

Had a bit of a baking splurge these last few days, hence the absence and lack of posts! Firstly, my Dad wanted me to make him some soft centre cupcakes to take back to work with him and then my sister requested I make a few desserts for the BBQ she held yesterday. Finally I  made a sausage pie for dinner today and some lovely little fruit pastries with the left over bits.

Boozey ganache centred cupcakes boxed up and ready to go. I got the recipe from the recipe section of the Baileys GB facebook page and adapted it slightly as I wanted a chocolate sponge and I didn't actually have any Baileys in. Instead I used 'Amarula cream' which my sister brought back from Sweden for us (more info here, if you can you should definitely get some as it's lovely!) which made it sweeter and fruitier than the original recipe would've but overall, very tasty. Poured slightly too much in which is why the buttercream was too runny; obviously if you made this measuring out your liqueur would be advisable.

Next I made a selection of muffins. My favourite, lemon and poppy seed (from this post) and some chocolate ones from a general google search. Apologies for the lack of recipe link there! I used some of the remaining ganache to fill the centres of the chocolate muffins, and put a teaspoon of lemon curd into the centres of the lemon and poppy seed ones. It's definitely how I'm going to make them from now on, as the gooey centre gives them a lovely texture and a great surprise for those who don't know how you've made them! It's also really simple, all you do is spoon a small amount of mixture into the muffin case, put a spoonful of curd/ganache on top, and then cover it with more mixture. Yum!

Lastly, my fruit tarts. So easy, so simple, so tasty! Just get some ready rolled puff pastry (cheating I know, but I don't have the time to make my own), lay it on a baking sheet in rectangles and spread some jam on it. Slice up the fruits you have - I used strawberries and nectarines -, add a pastry border to hold it all in, egg wash the exposed pastry and sprinkle with a little icing sugar! They're really summery and can be made to your own individual taste. Probably would be better with sweet pastry but for a quick throw together dessert if you're making something with puff pastry in the first place they're great. As you can see the pastry doesn't really rise very much as the ingredients are quite heavy but it doesn't really matter. Just make sure it's browned underneath.

I also made a 'cheesecake' but that went, uhm, a bit wrong and is probably best not mentioned...

What do you use your left over pastry for? Do you know of a better substitute to Baileys? And why did we get it as a gift from Sweden when it's an African drink? Mysterious.