Bake Off begins on cake week, one of my favourite weeks! In the first round; in which the challenge was to bake a Madeira cake, Flora, the youngest contestant this year at 19 made the mistake of not turning her oven on - the first error of the Bake Off! Many innuendos were 'cracked' regarding the signature Madeira Crack, including Ugne "looking for a crack!" in her oven.
My favourite from the signature bake comes from anaesthetist Tamal. He used his syringe skills to inject lemon drizzle to the inside of his cake. But as there's no taste TV, obvs, it was the exterior that got me. IT'S JUST SO PRETTY. It was said to be an "amazing bake!" so probably tasted pretty good too.
Next was the technical, in which the bakers were tasked with Mary Berry's walnut cake. A recipe with caramel would have caused me disaster, but then again pretty much any recipe gives me disaster... Ugne excelled in this, with a great cake and some extra sugar work on top; subtly showing off some of her extra skills. Stu,again, had a bit of a meltdown which ended in a singular caramel walnut being presented on his cake. However Nadiya did not precisely follow Mary's instruction, an amateur error, so didn't realise you had to put the meringue round the entire cake resulting in her bringing up the rear end.
The show stopper was an oldie but a goodie, Black Forest Gateau. The show stopper is always my favourite round because it gives the bakers a real chance to shine. Stu tried to be out there, with a beetroot cake, but unfortunately this didn't pay off as it was commented to have "the texture of a raw sponge."
Dorret exclaimed "This is the perfect bake for me!" I think she spoke too soon. My heart dropped for her as she removed her cake from the fridge, almost replicating last year's Alaska Gate - oh the memories.
Not a pleasant looking cake, and also according to Paul "tasted of rubber." Luckily, she had been quite consistently good up until this point.
Ugne had a very clever way of creating some cups and saucers, blowing up balloons then dipping them in perfectly melted chocolate which were then left to set before the balloons were popped and the chocolate was wonderfully shaped! However, her cake was marked "not good" by Paul, oh dear.
Marie was crowned the first star baker. She managed not to cave in to the pressures of the tent and kept a steady hand throughout. Well done Marie!
I'd already found out the basics about the contestants before watching, so had a favourite and his name was Stu. This was based on absolutely no baking skills but a summary of them as a person. It turns out I made the wrong choice! Stu didn't have a great episode, obviously the pressures of not being in the comforts of his kitchen got to him and it ended up with him being the first to leave. Bye Stu :(
- Sophie x
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