The day we did Bake Off
The Great British Bake Off has the nation gripped once more. It turns out that even if you change the channel and some of the presenters the formula still works.
If you think about it, that is a bit ironic for a cooking show since often if you change a few ingredients the end result can be a bit, well, rubbish. Bu I digress, I got hooked on GBBO later than most but I have followed this season religiously; I am quietly hoping for Sophie and Liam to join the inevitable Steven in the final.
With enthusiasm for all things baking riding high, S and I decided to have a go ourselves at the Big London Bake Off.
Now, bear with me, I know this sounds like it could be a bit naff, but I had done my research and it's not.
We arrived at The Castle in Tooting and passed through the garden to find a huge white marquee decorated in pastel colours and with 10 work stations each equipped with a stack of ingredients and a recipe sheet.
It seems we were taking on our very own technical challenge.
The mission for today? A light sponge cake with creme diplomat and buttercream icing, decorated in true hallowe'en style.
This presented us with a challenge - S is a better cook than I am, but she is also vegan which made the large amounts of egg and cream sitting about a slight challenge. But she tackled it whole-heartedly and set to making an expert sponge with whipped egg - which I nearly ruined by cutting it as I put it in the oven.
While S took on the primary task, I worked on creme diplomat and just about managed to get the ingredients together and cooled in time.
With our fellow contestants throwing citrus and various other concoctions into their cakes we stuck with a simple chocolate sponge with peppermint icings.
But how to design it? Over to my creative collaborator. It turns out years of faffing with Blu Tac in lessons finally paid off as we created some icing models of spiders and a grave stone which were paired with a green coffin-shaped cake to create a very spooky final look.
And how did we do?
We won. Of course
Seriously though, the Big London Bake Off is a blast for anyone who loves the show or a bit of cooking.
Tent photos courtesy of The Big London Bake and Design My Night