The Great Taisty Bytes Bake Off - Season 2
Week 1: Cake Week
Hello friends - it’s only that time of year again! Bake Off is back on our screens once again, which can only mean one thing… #GTBBO is back too! 🎉
Yes, The Great Taisty Bytes Bake Off returns for Season 2 - aka me attempting the weekly Bake Off challenges in my own kitchen. I’ll be tackling both Signature and Technical challenges each week, with half an eye on the showstoppers too… if time (and my mental bandwidth - ha!) allows.
Disclaimer - No Spoilers: Don’t worry, I wont be talking about the bakers or their bakes in these weekly posts - just the challenges themselves
If you’re interested in seeing how Season 1 went, check out my ‘That’s a Wrap’ post:
GTBBO: That's a Wrap
·If you’re new here: hello, I’m Mark 👋 This time last year, almost to the day, I decided to learn how to bake. I had no experience and was quite literally useless in the kitchen. Fast forward 12 months on and here I am, wrapping up my very first Bake Off bake-along challenge.
It’s been a whole year of baking since then, and I’m pretty damn excited to see how things go this time around. Although, if Week 1 is anything to go by… either the challenges are much harder, or I’ve gotten worse at baking!
This year I’m lucky enough to have a shiny new kitchen and a brand new oven to play with - which will hopefully mean more consistent bakes. No more guessing what temperature the oven feels like being today.
I’ll also be sharing little Baker’s Logs over on Notes and Instagram (think Captain’s Logs), documenting how the challenges are going and giving a more behind the scenes look. I’m awkwardly uncomfortable on camera, so hopefully that will get a little easier too! Here is the first one:
Baker’s Log #1
So, here we go: new season, new challenges… Ready, steady - BAKE!
Week 1: Cake Week
Signature Challenge - Swiss Roll
Last year, the baking gods blessed me with a loaf cake for our first challenge of the season. This time, we’ve not been so lucky - as first up is a Swiss Roll which has a decorative inlay on the outside, two flavours inside and of course that all important swirl. So no pressure then!
For the flavours I went with a classic - lemon curd and vanilla bean buttercream. You really can’t go wrong with that combo and my thinking here was to keep the filling simple so I could focus on getting the sponge right - with it being my first time attempting a genoise sponge, let alone a Swiss roll!
For the design, I sketched out lemon motif (pic below!) and thought to colour the sponge sky blue so they had a nice contrast. I actually think my piping skills have come a long way, as it was much easier than anticipated. (I mean they’re basically yellow blobs, so I couldn’t go too wrong). Though I’m starting to think that half the battle with piping is figuring out how to tie and hold the piping bag. Not having to deal with stopping the icing from shooting out the top of the bag makes all the difference, funnily enough!
The initial roll went surprisingly well too. I dusted the sponge with icing sugar, laid clean baking paper over the design and then used a warm, damp tea towel to roll it up. Apparently this stops the paper sticking and helps prevent cracks as the sponge cools. Something to do with the steam?
Either way, it worked like a charm and there wasn’t a split or crack in sight - which I think definitely earns me some extra brownie points, don’t you?
In the final roll however, I didn’t doo it tight enough for fear of breaking it, so the swirl isn’t as strong as I’d like. The sponge might also have been a touch too thick, which didn’t help I’m sure.
Top tip: So, you can also see that the inlay has lifted slightly from the sponge. I’ve found out that this is due to batter of the inlay being too cold when going in to the oven. Only pop it in the freezer just until it forms up - not for 20 mins like I did!
The sponge itself was baked perfectly, the filling was lush and the inlay design was clear - so for my very first attempt at a Swiss roll, I’m absolutely calling this one a win!
Technical Challenge - Fondant Fancies
Ok, so I’m not going to lie - these did not turn out very fancy looking! This was the most aesthetically pleasing shot I could get (and trust me, you don’t want to see the others!).
Everything started off so well, too…
First, I made a start on the raspberry jam - this was only my second time making jam and it still amazes me how easy it is. I then whipped up the almond sponge which baked beautifully, came out with a nice crumb I’d normally be pretty damn chuffed with. And then the almond buttercream came out spot on too - the consistency was exactly what I was hoping for. So far, so good…
I measured the sponge into exact little cubes, hollowed out the centres and piped in the jam. I then popped the lids back on and piped the domes of buttercream on top. Honestly, at that stage I thought I might actually pull this off.
Enter fondant icing disaster.
I thought I’d done everything right, sifted the fondant icing sugar and added water a little at a time until it come together into a thick paste. I then placed the bowl over a pan of water, which I brought to a simmer, in order to heat. I stirred until smooth and glossy, and to the point where it was pouring off the spoon nicely. Added the pink food gel and I was good to go! This is when it all went wrong…
(So any tips on how to nail this would be gratefully received!)
As soon as I started pouring it was basically solidifying mid-stream. I used a ladle to pour the icing over the fancies which were on a cooling rack, and before I’d even done 4 of them, I could tell there wasn’t gong to be enough to go around.
I’ve since seen people balance each one on a fork and pour the fondant over before setting them on the rack - maybe that would’ve worked better?
All in all, this was hard. I didn’t take many photos - mostly because I was too busy trying to wrangle the icing, which was taking over my kitchen like some solidifying symbiote, but I did manage a video (which says it all, really!).
Baker’s Log #2
No Hollywood Handshake for me this week. Not even close. But hey, at least the jam, sponge and buttercream were delicious!
Plenty of lessons learned this week and as much as I’d love everything to look picture perfect, I have to remind myself that this whole challenge is about having fun, pushing my skills and learning some new ones along the way.
I sadly ran out of time to attempt the Showstopper this week, but if I had tackled it I would’ve gone with Jacob’s Ladder too (spookily - I live in Sidmouth and thought it would be a great one to do before Toby mentioned he was!).
My idea was to stack three large rectangle bakes, then carve out the cliffs and beach from there. The ladder itself would have been built out of pastillage, with the rungs painted on in white food gel. For the pebble beach I had considered spherification but realised the results would look too uniform, so settled on hand rolling marzipan into ovals of different sizes and then sponging on grey and brown food gel. I’d then finish with a section of sea made out of gelatin and swirled in/on some marshmallow fluff for the waves.
One day, maybe I’ll circle back and actually build it. For now though, I’m chalking this week up as a win for lessons learned and rolling (literally) into Week 2 - Biscuit Week!
Thanks for reading, friends! Until next time,
Mark
A handshake from me though Mark.
I've only ever dunked little cakes likes these, or dipped if they're the kind on a biscuit base, but you can get liquid fondant sugar too. It still needs melting because it's a bit like glucose but easier maybe that powdered. The one photo does look very pretty!