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Dessert week Bake Off 2016

Wednesday’s here again and that means that bake off is too!

This week is dessert week and the signature bake is roulade, the bakers will be hoping not to see any cracks in their bakes.

Unfortunately for Jane her sponge wasn’t big enough so she ended up with more of a cylinder than a roll! However the alcohol in the bake was able win at least Mary over! Selasi had a great bake, good texture and flavour impressed both Paul an Mary!

The technical is nuts! Well, nuts and meringue. The bakers this week are required to layer meringue and nuts and decorate it perfectly to make a dacqouise.

Selasi, again, ended up at the bottom of the pile this week leaving him at risk of being left behind. Andrew had a great bake however, nailing the texture, flavour and decoration, making him a prime candidate for star baker at the end of day 1.

The showstopper today is to make 2 flavours of mini mousse cakes and make 12 of them both. The bakers need to make sure they have identical bakes decorated beautifully.

Jane, who’s had a poor week so far managed to produce two beautiful bakes with great texture and fantastic flavour combinations saving her from elimination this week. Selasi had a poor bake, as his cakes were not so mini and the texture combination didn’t work. Tom’s bake didn’t really fit the brief as his bake was more like a cake than a mousse cake since what little mousse he had didn’t hold the air! Benjamina had great flavour but didn’t look as good as it should have!

This week’s star baker will have been one of the more easy choices, he didn’t make any mistakes and had the best technical challenge, it’s Andrew. This week was the last for Tom unfortunately who struggled throughout the weekend unfortunately. So as we say goodbye to dessert week, we say Hail and Well Met to Tudor week next week!

However in the meantime if you want to try baking some mini cakes we have just the perfect products Alan Silverwood Mini Cake tins !

Botanical week! A Great British Bake Off first!

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With numbers in the tent dwindling, what was once a tent packed full of bakers in now feeling a little bit more…empty. Whilst that does mean a lot of people have left, it also means that only the best bakers should be left in the tent, so surely the remaining bakers should be able to handle a brand new (but slightly weird?) theme!

Botanical week kicks off with citrus meringue pie, a true balancing act with the texture of the meringue and crust as well as the flavours of sweet an sour. Whilst there weren’t any catastrophic failures, Rav’s wet meringue struggled to hold its structure and Tom’s flavour wasn’t quite up to scratch. Andrew and Jane on the other hand both managed to produce some great flavour in their signature bake.

This week’s technical, set by Paul, was the French classic, herb fougasse (which we think may well have been a very cheeky way of having another bread bake!). This technical challenges the bakers to create a delicious herbed bread shaped into a large leaf. An important part of this bake for the remaining bakers is deciding how to prove their bakes. Breaking Rav’s losing streak, Selasi’s underbaked effort was adjudged the worst bake by the judges, Tom on the other hand had a perfect bake and Benjamina’s was almost as good!

The weekends showstopper is a floral cake with three tiers! It’s not often we see flowers in our cakes in the tent and these showstoppers require a balanced flavour and a light texture. Andrew’s bake wasn’t up to scratch, with slack mixture and a poor bake. Rav’s bake was too basic and left a lot to be desired. Jane also had an uncharacteristically poor showstopper with poor bake and decoration. Selasi’s bake was nigh on perfect, with all three layers baked well and decorated even better! Similarly, Tom had a well decorated and flavoured bake.

Unfortunately, despite no glaring errors during his weekend Rav ended up leaving this week in what was probably the closest week in bake-off, certainly as early as week six! On the other side of the table, Tom managed to pull out all the stops for his showstopper and technical after a poor signature bake to fight his way to the star baker title! The remaining bakers now have dessert week to look forward to!

Let the batter battle commence! Batter week on Bake Off!

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Let the batter battle commence! It’s week 4 on The Great British Bake Off Series 7.

This week’s theme centers around cooking using batter, often a delicate and difficult to mixture to use for baking and today’s technical signature challenge is exactly that. Trying to produce 24 identical Yorkie’s is nigh-on impossible, how will the remaining bakers cope?

For Tom and Jane, both star previous star bakers the answer is not well unfortunately as both of their Yorkshires came out looking more like biscuits (probably because they both filled their tins with the oven door left open letting out all the heat).

Thankfully Jane’s bake tasted amazing which meant it wasn’t all bad news for her. At the other end of the spectrum Selasi had an great bake which Paul couldn’t stop eating although he did have a few irregularities, but with an almost flawless bake Andrew is definitely in the hunt for the star baker prize even at this early stage of the batter week!

The technical challenge this week is a toughie, pancakes are simple right? Well not these ones, lace pancakes are delicate, fiddly and a little bit special. To get 12 pancakes all looking the same with only one practice really lives up to the name of technical challenge.

Unfortunately Rav struggled with his pancakes, with major inconsistencies and over baking but Benjamina absolutely knocked this challenge out of the park with an incredibly elaborate design which was recreated almost perfectly across all twelve of the pancakes.

The showstopper for batter week is a Spanish street food delicacy and a delicious doughnutty one too! Churros are made using a batter choux style batter causing it to have a crispy outside but soft and fluffy centre.

Tom’s poor week has continued, an overbaked dry set of churros leaves him at risk of not being in the tent again next week and Selasi is also at risk after his churros were raw in the middle and burnt on the outside. Kate, another previous star baker who has had a difficult week and hasn’t improved with her showstopper, producing what were probably the worst bake of the entire weekend as her churros ended up taking in all of the oil and being all crispy with no doughy inside. Benjamina had another great bake, nailing her tropically flavoured churros!

This weeks star baker was a certain almost at the end of the technical challenge and her incredible showstopper only helped her cause as this week’s runaway star baker is Benjamina!

The bake off is definitely cruel to some of its bakers, and Kate is no exception; after looking so strong for the competition so far her churros and Yorkshire puds let her down and unfortunately she won’t be returning to the bake-off for next week.

If you have been inspired by this weeks bake off take a look at Gourmet Cookwares range of Yorkshire Pudding Tins & Bun Tins from Alan Silverwood & Judge Bakeware

The Great British Bake off Bread Week 2016

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Which name do you think of first when someone says bread?

It may well be Paul Hollywood. This week’s signature bake is chocolate bread and the combination of chocolate and bread is often enough to scare a skilled baker, but doing it under the watchful gaze of Mr Hollywood adds an extra level of pressure to this week.

As the breads emerged from the oven there were mixed emotions, amongst the relief and joy etched on some faces, there was some despair, especially for Candice whose hopes fell apart along with her bread as she got it out of the mould, her ambitious bake was too big and ended up under baked. Val followed suit and also left her bread slightly under baked as Andrew’s flavours wowed the judges. Rav, much like Andrew managed to impress the judges with his flavours and with an interesting bake!

A bake-off first in the tent, dampfnudel is a sweet German roll which are steamed and not cooked in the way most bread is. This is a particularly nasty technical challenge as the process would have been completely different to what the bakers have done before and the challenge to cook the dough, give it the right texture and also give the rolls a nice brown bottom proved far too much for the majority of the bakers!

Last this challenge was Rav after his good bake in the signature bake he will be disappointed but with everyone struggling as much as they did it may not be as big a problem as most technicals. At the top end, Andrew produced another good bake to scrape a second but Val, who has been at risk of leaving the tent these first two weeks, managed to clinch first! Paul did say they were still a million miles away from his dampfnudel, but a first is still a first!

This weeks showstopper was to make bread plaits with three different types of bread, the difficulty being that doughs using different flours will rise at different rates. After a great technical challenge, Val went a bit overboard with her bake for the showstopper and ended up with partially raw dough with such a large bake. Tom’s experimental Thor themed bake had great flavour according to the judges who loved his seaweed and lava flavoured plaits.Michael’s plait wasn’t up to the standards of Tom’s however with his accompanying alcohol also failing to impress the judges, he was left at risk of not making it into the next week. Kate, after having a couple of mediocre bakes in the first two rounds absolutely nailed her showstopper and the bread king himself called the bake gorgeous. Last week’s star baker has had a shaky week and this continued in the showstopper round.

This was a tough week for all the bakers and very few ended up safe from leaving the tent, one of those however were Tom who managed to clinch star baker after shocking the judges with Thor’s hammer at the end of his best week yet! Unfortunately Michael had a week that was particularly poor when his Cypriot plait fell flat.

Has this weeks Great British Bake Off inspired you to bake bread? Then take a look at our Alan Silverwood Hard Anodised Loaf Tin designed to last you a life time!

Up next is batter week and we sure cant wait to see some of the Yorkshire puds that the bakers manage to whip up !

Extended range of Alan Silverwood Bakeware

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Just in time for the Great British Bake Off, we have extended our range of Alan Silverwood Bakeware here at Gourmet Cookware, and would like to tell you a bit about this wonderful product range, made 100% here in the UK.

Alan Silverwood Bakeware is a family firm, established in 1966, and are specialists in manufacturing a distinctive range of bakeware, all made in their Birmingham factory. These products are long lasting and high quality, British made, good enough to bear the Silverwood family name, and in fact many of their innovative bakeware designs are unique to them.

As well as stocking the extremely popular Aluminium Silver Anodised (Alsil) Bakeware, at Gourmet Cookware we have secured a limited quantity of their very best Hard Anodised Bakeware, bringing them all to you at excellent prices; including loaf tins and baking sheets.

The Hard Anodising process is related to silver anodising, but is a more advanced finish. A film is built up, after prolonged processing, which can be 10 times thicker than the film on silver anodised bakeware, and if it is then properly cared for, it will last a lifetime. This process leave the surface in a permanently changed state, leaving a finish that is harder than steel. This then means that metal whisks and other utensils can be used in the pans and bakeware, without causing damage. This surface will never end up peeling or blistering, and a benefit of Anodised aluminium is that it will never rust. These non-stick and durable items by Alan Silverwood Bakeware are all available to purchase on the Gourmet Cookware website.

Gourmet Cookware is listed as an Official Stockist on the Alan Silverwood website, and we are more than happy to order any of the Alan Silverwood Silver Anodised Bakeware items that we don’t currently stock as a special order for customers.

The Great British Bake Off, Series 7 Biscuit Week

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Almost as soon as The Great British Bake-off comes back, week two is upon us and this week we are in for a treat, it’s biscuit week! The tent was full to the brim with biscuits to begin the weekend’s baking with 289 (including Rav’s extra biscuit, Candice’s extra 24 biscuits and even the sheep biscuits that decided to graze on the lush tent carpet) iced biscuits for the judges to get their hands into. The omens this week were not good for Louise after dropping some of her biscuits on the floor and last weeks star baker, Jane wasn’t able to keep up with the pace of the tent this week and ultimately wasn’t able to fill in her flowerpot biscuits in time! Candice produced double the required amount of biscuits which, whilst not perfectly uniform, tasted great but the definite winner from this round was Tom, who managed to produce 12 tasty coffee flavored biscuits.

Ever been offered a Viennese disk? No? Well if you were standing by the bake-off tent this week you may just have been! This technical managed to prove tricky most of the Bakers with only Kate, Jane and Benjamina really looking like whirls. Michael looked devastated with his flat whirls and Selasi looked cool, calm and collected as his whirls came out the oven. Something he managed to do even when finding out he came last in this technical challenge, can anything waver him?

Paul will huff, and he’ll puff, and he’ll blow your (gingerbread) house down. Unfortunately for Louise her church was indeed blown down, however I’m not entirely sure it was Paul’s fault and in fact an issue with the structural integrity of the bake. Louise however, was not the only one with a bit of a collapse as Val’s Empire State themed bake ended up, in part, on the floor and combined with her poor results from the rest of the weeks bakes put her in jeopardy of leaving the tent. At the other end of the scale, Michael’s Santa’s Grotto did look like it was a child’s work but tasted so good it more than made up for it. Candice though, managed to pull off a phenomenal bake with incredible attention to detail with even a pool table and sticky floor to recreate the family pub.

With the fantastic final bake, drinks may be on her tonight as Candice manage to clinch the title of star baker with a very solid week. Louise on the other hand will be a little disappointed that her stay in the tent ended as quickly as it did as with only a few mistakes proving very costly at the end of this week.

Roll on week three, bread week where Paul will be even more stern than usual given it’s his best area.

It’s Great British Bake Off night. Will you be Tweeting too ?

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It’s Wednesday, so that means it is Great British Bake Off night

Gourmet Cookware will be glued to the television screen and tweeting during the Great British Bake off once again this evening.

Why not join us on twitter this evening? There is a nice community of bakers, would be bakers ,and professionals twitting along every Wednesday evening at 8pm.

Last Wednesday everyone was missing Norman at the start, and the the comments when no one had to leave the tent were really fantastic!

This week we just had to reweet the following as we couldn’t have put it better ourselves ‏@BBCGoodFoodShow

‘‘8pm can’t come fast enough… Ridiculously excited about pastry week. There’s bound to be some soggy bottoms lurking around the tent! #GBBO ”

As well as watching the baking we are normally easily distracted by seeing who can be the first to spot another item of Alan Silverwood Bakeware or Judge and Stelllar Cooking Utensils being used.

Before and at the end of the show we like to Tweet a limited time special offers

Hope to see you Tweeting along with us tonight !

The Great British Bake Off Series Five Launches in True British Style

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Wednesday 6^th August saw the opening episode of the popular baking series launch, now in its fifth year.

The Great British Bake Off (fondly abbreviated to GBBO) has captured the hearts of 7.9 million viewers who tuned in to watch 12 amateur bakers put wooden spoon to mixing bowl in the BBC show which has become an unexpected phenomenon.

Comedy presenter duo Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins front the narration of the show with typically British jokes and baking puns aplenty. Judges are Mary Berry CBE, a food writer who has written over 70 cookbooks and sold over 5 million copies along with renowned straight-talking artisan baker Paul Hollywood.

The launch of the fifth series last week saw the GBBO’s youngest contestant ever – Martha, who is just 17 and studying for her AS levels. At the other end of the scale is Diana who at 69 is the oldest contender so far, favouring more traditional baking methods.

In the first episode bakers were challenged to make a Swiss Roll in the Signature Challenge, recreate Mary Berry’s classic cherry cake for the Technical Challenge, and finally in the Showstopper Challenge make 36 miniature classic British cakes; no easy feat.

Claire was the first to depart after her Swiss Roll failed to rise to the challenge, leaving 11 bakers left to fight for the title of the Great British Bake Off winner.

The GBBO was BBC Two’s most viewed programme in 2013 and has won two BAFTAs to date.

To celebrate the launch of the fifth series of the GBBO we have some special offers running. These include promotions on Alan Silverwood bakeware, frequently used by contestants on the show, and Delia Smith’s range Delia Online:

– receive a free hardcover copy of Delia’s Cakes by Delia Smith when you spend £50 on Alan Silverwood or Delia Online Bakeware products!

– spend over £100 on Alan Silverwood or Delia Online Bakeware products and receive a free Silverwood 16-piece Mini 2.5” Round Cake Pan Set!

Offer ends on 22^nd August 2014 or until stocks last. Terms and conditions apply on the Delia Online and Alan Silverwood promotions. For more information please contact Gourmet Cookware on 01449 700 072 or get in touch via our contact form.

Author: Nick Page