After a long 7 days since Mat’s departure, patisserie week rolls around to the tent. Where

”’Signal the  Cream Horn”

Tamal using puff pastry had a stunning bake continuing his good form from last week with a great combination of flavours

Ian on the other hand, made rough puff with his boozy bake, possibly to pander to Mary? An underbaked pastry left much to be desired however and even Berry herself wasn’t a fan

Nadiya using rose was a risk that pulled through and produced a cream horn with fantastic flavour

Flora baked with revolutionary flavours as always but a leaky horn and poor puff left her vulnerable after the first bake

Paul, again stunning with an incredible bake visually as we have came to expect however missing the mark on flavour unfortunately put him in a bad position after the first bake

The technical challenge was Mochatines, which really did prove to be a challenge this week; a Genoese sponge flavoured with coffee and decorated beautifully which left all of the bakers a little hot under the collar with their presentations

A race to the finish meant the finish was poor but Tamals Genoese was baked well. Ian’s good sponge and filling, the core aspects of the bake, were well executed but it looked a little sloppy

Nadiya, having spied the product in Mary’s cookbook already, had a good idea of what she was baking and came a clear first. After her previous problems with technicals having been shaken off, they are proving to become her forté. Poor presentation left Flora middle of the pack in this challenge

Paul – After struggling with the sponge and taking it out of the oven raw, a second batch had to be rushed out and whilst cooked there was still minimal rise on the bake and an icing which wouldn’t set in the freeze

A bake which required perfect chioux pastry paired with architectural brilliance meant this weeks showstopper really had to live up to its name

Producing a fantastic bake meant, despite his weekends poor beginning Tamal brought himself to certain safety and towards the top of the bunch. Ian used his knowledge of structures to try and reinforce his pastry by corrugating his eclair, meaning his creation was left freestanding. Using an unusual flavour to stand out in the showstopper, Nadiya makes her chioux structure bubblegum flavoured! The risk was unfortunately miscalculated though and her flavours left much to be desired. To make sure her showstopper looked the piece Flora used a Spirit level to make sure the bake was as neat as possible, however she ended up hedging her bets and taking her top layer away from the bottom to avoid collapse and unfortunately her flavours were not strong enough at all! An under pressure Paul returns to the banana flavour despite it being his downfall in the signature, trying to rectify his lack of flavour he makes sure this time the bake packs a punch! The taste was good but the structure was poor and left them collapsed

Unfortunately the level of baking this week ultimately led to Paul’s demise, with Flora narrowly missing the drop! And despite her slightly poorer showstopper Nadiya managed to bag star baker the second week on the trot! Can she match Ian’s 3 consecutive haul? Has she timed her rise to the top of the ranks perfectly?

Bake On!

Once again  Gourmet Cookware  has been following the Great British Bake Off, now in it’s  6th series which has it’s own really useful wikipedia page if you want a reminder of the action so far !

As the competition heats up heading towards the quarter-final we enter Victorian week on the Bake-off, a time of progression in the country as well as baking, where the higher classes would do what they could to make their baking distinguish themselves from those below them in the class system. Thankfully times have changed and all types of baking are far more accessible, but big, audacious bakes like a Charlotte Russe or Game Pie can still be on the menu in the bake-off tent.

In this week’s signature bake the bakers were asked to bake a game pie, with a thin hot water crust pastry and a rich game meat inside with elaborate decorations, whilst early baking high flyer Ian did well with his filling, his thick pie walls and lack of decoration let him down, on the other hand Mat, with dangerous Dave’s Mum’s Victorian pie mould made a pie with an incredible traditional Victorian style but lacked slightly in his flavors. Tamal brought to the tent a pie with some stunning spice and flavour putting a twist on a traditional dish, impressing the judges and even earning a handshake from Hollywood himself!

This weeks technical was essentially a fruit cake with a tennis court diorama on top, simple? Nope, the bake proved tricky combining several fiddly elements and Mat really struggled in this one, his cake was raw,  and in a moment of madness he decided to bake his icing and not chill it! Only one baker actually managed to serve an ace for the technical with a standing net and this was Nadiya with a faultless technical for the second week running with Paul only falling short by half a net!

The brief this week for the final bake was a Charlotte Russe, a delicately balanced and layered dessert requiring layers of jelly and bavarois incased in ladies fingers! After such a good technical and fantastic presentation, with Victorian stylised fruit carvings Paul was on course for an amazing Showstopper except there was a drastic jelly mistake which meant that instead of wobbling it splurged out of the cake as soon as it was cut! Rounding off a poor week for Mat, whilst having a good tasting desert, the presentation was poor and his lady fingers split rather unfortunately. Tamal on the other hand pulled off something which seems to break the laws of Physics, managing to support his entire dessert using just jelly which capped off what was a sublime weekend from the young nurse.

Our valiant vol-au-vent hero Mat is most certainly more of a 1970’s man than a 1900’s man succumbing to a style of baking which is probably quite alien to most modern bakers, whilst Tamal flourished, pulling off an extraordinary bake with clinical decision which truly stopped the show!

Once again plenty of our best selling   Alan Silverwood Multisize Cake Tin were put to good use, but i’m afraid we can’t offer you dangerous Dave’s Mum’s Victorian pie mould!

We can hardly wait for  Episode 8 which  Patisserie  week.

Bake on!