Cupcake win! Had a great result using Bob's Red Mill buttermilk for my cakes. Nice buttercream color as well from the Ann Clark food coloring I picked up and the 1M piping tip! Nice to finally report on a triumph hahah! Couple of news stories - Network ITV has given new GBBO host Alison Hammond a very nice contract to lock her into the network. In another article (both of these from the Irish Mirror) Prue talks about how nice it is to have another woman on the show and that she didn't get a lot of the jokes when it was 3 men.

A quick "Who are they" segment about Juniors host Harry Hill (not his birth name) where we learn a bit about him including his original profession - I was very surprised!

Heat A of Juniors follows the "formula" two very young and absolutely adorable little ones - Lola and Quique - are my out of the box favorites. Lola's attitude on baking is what EVERYONE's should be! "Hey Ho, let's give it a go!" Mia age 11, Macy, 10 and Eliza are the "middle of the packers", Will, 11, is the one I feel is going to bring nice artistic flare. Joey, 11, is probably the "ringer" who is a liiiiitle arrogant but knows his stuff it appears, and then the "veteran" is Kezia at age 13.

Paul was substituting for Liam who was out sick so the kids had a nice surprise when he showed up!

First technical challenge was "mini piggy rolls" essentially swiss rolled sponge with berry and mascarpone filling coated in pink chocolate and decorated to look like a pig. The big test here was "the sponge". Very easy to overbake this or not cool it right and you get a cracked mess... which many did. One comment - they only had an HOUR for this... that's a tough call. Mia had the most problems... and only delivered 3 of the 6 ... which landed her last in the technical. Lola - who approached the whole thing with a smile created what Paul called "abstract art" and landed 7th. There were a few that were dry and not so nice looking... Quique went a little chocolate crazy, Joey came out decently and Kezia was the definite "most attractive pigs" which landed her the technical win.

In the showstopper, the bakers had to create a cake depicted their proudest moment. There were some sweet stories, and a lot of "lemon cake" choices. Fondant or Buttercream were the typical toppers with a few interesting flavors. three interesting cakes: Macy with carrot cake (it collapsed a bit - as carrot cake can do - under the weight of the fondant); Quique with an almond cake that used olive oil, and Joey with a Japanese Chiffon cake. This paid off for Joey even though he overbaked them and they burned a bit... but they still tasted amazing. He pulled out the Star baker with this.

Picked up a tip - when using artificial flavors - like will and his bubblegum buttercream - a little salt can balance out the artificial flavoring.

As usual - on day one of Juniors... nobody goes home.

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Food coloring is the kick off topic - imagine wanting patriotic red and Blue and ending up with Baby blue and pink?! So Sheldon invested in some of the "good stuff". Details coming forth! Also - it was finally time to "harvest" the homemade vanilla started last November. This looks to be delightful - hope to test some out soon.

We do a quick "where are they now" with Jurgen (or is it Juergen?) Krauss from season 12. In a recent interview he stated had it not been for the "fully sequestered" nature of his season, he probably would not have applied! He wanted complete focus on baking. He continues to trombone and bake like crazy! New book coming in September "The German Baking Book" - IG @juergenthebread

Five bakes in this Masterclass:

Mary's Tipsy Trifle - Key tip: don't use raspberry jam if soaking with booze... it turns grey. She used strawberry. Mary sifts her flour - is that still a thing?

Paul gives a side bar tip on avoiding soggy bottoms - blind bake... yeah ok. But interesting tip - he used plastic wrap to line the tarts... never seen that.

Ile Flottant (floating islands) are a poached meringue - the big tips from this are that when you are scooping and forming the meringues use a wet spoon to get a smooth exterior. Also - once you pop them in the pan to steam - do NOT open it until they are done. A glass top is very helpful so you don't boil and you can tell when things are done. Spun sugar... looks cool... but does it add anything? Mary does not recommend making it in the kitchen hahah

Egg custard tart is next - its a golden short crust made even "shorter" by Paul by using partial ground almonds replacing part of the flour. Paul gets in there with his hands as usual. Seven egg yolks used for the custard! A key to this recipe is rolling the crust very thin. Tip was using a tooth pick to impress a design around the perimeter of the crusts. A big key to these is to use something with a "pour spout" when filling the tarts - if you spill outside the crust wipe it up immediately or it could run behind the crust and STICK. Also critical is cooling time... remove too soon and you could have a mess.

Double crust fruit pie - Mary's "wobbly" pie names for the shape the top crust takes forming around the apricot mounds. Mary uses a sweet crust made in the food processor. Key to this is using only an egg as the liquid and not letting it get to "ball" stage in the food processor - Mary takes it out and finishes the crust to a ball by hand. In this pie is marzipan. A tip is to shred it using a cheese grater so that it gets better distributed and melts completely.

Phyllo (filo) Pie is the next one. On GBBO the bakers could do sweet or savory. Paul chooses Spanakopita ... even though he doesn't like spinach or feta. What was fascinating - watching Paul knead "automatically" while having a full on conversation with Mary... just wow. Paul uses a pasta maker to do most of the rolling (the bakers did rolling pin or one uses a broomstick to get the width!). Paul then proceeded to do the rest of the stretch by hand...that looked very precarious to me. Butter AND egg on the top make for a delightfully delish looking finish.

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Croissants. It's been on Sheldon's list to try. Well, he did. we discuss this and the lessons learned. There were many. The experience required a cupcake recovery bake. I find a nice buttercream recipe from natashaskitchen.com We also talk "mixers".

We dive into the Masterclasses of season 4 with the first one today. Five bakes:

Spiced orange cake with orange buttercream. Mary boiled a whole orange. Victoria sponge with self rising flour AND baking powder - why both? Key - keep oven doors CLOSED - we saw the debacle from a contestant on the show. Tip from Mary on flipping out cake without getting "grid marks".We also see Mary make crystalized orange peel. yum!

Next up - Angel Food cake with lemon and passionfruit curd.This cake uses a massive TEN egg whites. I hate when I have a ton of eggs and the recipes only needs one component... I need a list of recipes for "yolk" or "whites" only to use when I have this situation! Special pan needed... but Mary gives a tip if you don't have it. This cake you cool upside down! Keys: pour batter close to surface to retain air. Stir curd constantly at VERY low heat (Mary touches side of pan). When making meringue - just a spoonful of sugar at a time.

Yeasted breadsticks made the next appearance. a very soft and sticky dough - so much that Paul even uses a mixer! The dough structure looks amazing. Tips: listen to mixer - if motor struggling, add water. Temperature is critical - must be very hot of you want that crisp. 220C Fan!

We get a quick tip on two tone icing from Mary.

English Muffins - one of my favorites. A reasonably easy looking recipe. Paul says "you can see if it needs more milk".... can you, Paul? Show us! Full 10 minutes of kneading and REST time. 30 if in warming drawer... 90 if in the kitchen. The hot griddle (a hot cast iron pan can also work!) is the key for that nice brown finish. MUST let these cool 90 minutes as they continue to "cook".

Final bake was the E1 Showstopper - a Chocolate Fudge Gateau. Three different cake sizes makes this a logistical nightmare to keep track of for us normal folk... Tips on tempering chocolate: heat to 47C cool to 31C (Paul adds chocolate to facilitate cooling). Acetate used (available at a hobby store) to pipe the chocolate on and apply to the cake. Something they seem to do a lot - cover the cake in sieved apricot jam to hold the crumbs in - could a crumb coat do the same?

Next week - S4E12 MC.

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Lots of baking - cookies 3 ways and an 8 egg yolk vanilla cake with swiss buttercream... Sheldon gives himself a B to B-

New Season of The Professionals! No Tom! New host is Ellie Jane Taylor - a comedian, TV host, and author joins Liam, Cherish and Benoit. I am not familiar with her, but she looks like she could be a lot of fun! Follow her on IG: @elliejanetaylor

In this episode the three finalists from Season 1 take on a wedding cake challenge. SPOILER ALERT - we reveal the S1 finalists below and in the episode!

There were two challenges: Create a "traditional British" wedding cake, and then create your own "modern cake". They had 11 hours for the first one (which to me would just feel exhausting... but that's not a ton of time for a 3 tiered wedding cake), and five hours for the second.

For the first cake:

Miranda: Wrapped her tins in brown paper. Made one continuous batch. Decorated with 200 sugar paste (which we know as fondant these days) primroses. Overall it looked delicate and spring like. I felt her decorative beads were mayyyybe a little wonky.

Ruth: separate mixes for each layer. She is VERY fast in her work - impressive. Made Sugar paste roses which were beautiful and made the surface look a bit pillow like. Hers was my personal favorite. Romantic and elegant.

Edd: Non-traditional - no nuts, lighter cake. Decorated with very neat looking sugar paste daisies. He had to level things up inside with some almond paste. He brought it all together with some ribbon and a nice looking "band" around the cakes.

In this round - Mary liked Miranda's cake - boozy and rich. Paul leaned more to Ruth's even though in one of the layers it looked like the fruit had sunk a bit.

Some fun history of the British Wedding cake. The originals were more "bread" like, sugar only for the very wealthy. Paul does a little trip and shows us the way they were made. 3 tiers: One for the day, one for first anniversary, one for first child christening. Original idea thought to be of a baker who saw St. Brides church and modeled it after that. Queen Victoria created the modern decorated wedding cake - the "royal icing" comes from this. Traditional cakes used fruited cake as they had to sit several days to allow the royal icing to set. WW2 was a time of rations and we learn of some of the history. Also dive into how in the 1980's we started to see a turn away from "tradition" and why.

The second "cake" let the bakers go wild:

Miranda went with w white chocolate rose cake with 4 toppings: white chocolate ganache, buttercream, sugarpaste roses and real roses. Hers was the closest to a "wedding cake". Incidentally - white chocolate ganache can be a real pain as white chocolate has only cocoa butter so is finicky. A very pretty cake but still a little what looked like non-straight lines when I saw the result.

Ruth went all in on lemon meringue pie. Using short crust, lemon curd, a lemon drizzle sponge, and italian meringue she had some complex elements and despite some shaky moments with the italian meringue - tricky element that requires 115C sugar syrup on the nose. Overall hers looked fantastic - especially once she pulled out the glitter.

Edd went what I consider an odd route... he basically just made a bunch of macarons and stuck them to a styrofoam cone. They looked really good but was this a wedding cake? I'm not so sure.

So then came the end... which was weird... Paul and Mary each had their overall favorite... but no winner was chosen. 16 hours worth of baking and ... that's it. Super weird.

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Houston's tortillas, Cookie madness, and Sheldon tackles puff pastry!

Where are they now: Season 1 winner - Edd Kimber (Theboywhobakes)

Season 3 E15 - Christmas Masterclass

Christmas cake: like a fruitcake. Tips on treacle. Mary Origami. So much TIME. Want more visuals when discussing the "crossroads" of a bake.

Mince Pie: UK eat 70MM a year! Sweet short crust pastry - looks fun! No blind bake needed. Paul swears it's more robust because he uses his hands to mix.

Buche de Noel: essentially a chocolate ganache covered swiss roll. Special pans needed. Baking parchment with foil - where is this marvel? Tips on gangle minimal mixing to avoid reducing volume. Rolling secrets! How not to ruin ganache.

Paul's Panettone: Brioche meets panettone. lots of fruit means lots of yeast needed. Room temp eggs and warm milk get things started. Look for the webbing. Then after butter - you want that sheen. Chilling overnight CRITICAL. Another special pan? ... maybe a paint can will work?

A side story of the christmas pudding - Agnes Weston and the sailors that she took care of.

Christmas pudding: tip on how to get rid of muscovado sugar lumps. Bread crumbs are better with JUST 1 day old bread - too much more and the crumbs are too small. Parchment foil... or parchment, then foil. Mary the foil engineer...7 HOURS in a water bath... Finally, Paul needs to can the "old" jokes.

Christmas chelsea buns: Great way to use Christmas leftovers. How much liquid for your dough? You have to "feel it". Rolling vs kneading... For enriched dough Paul is generous with the bench flour. Tacking the dough important for this recipe - you need to "lift, tug, roll" to get the tight bun desired.

Next week - perhaps diving into S1 "wedding cakes episode" or S2 masterclass.

Sheldon dives into S3E12 - Masterclass where they take on the signature bakes. But first, a little baking! It’s cookies galore - some successes … but also a big fail involving getting confused about whether baking soda was added.  Pro tip: too much baking soda can reallllllly toss a hand grenade on a bake. Redemption came in the form of an old standby chocolate chip.

FIVE bakes in this one, all were Paul and Mary’s takes on some of the signature challenges in the season and lots of lessons.

Flatbreads - Paul chose a recipe with camembert cheese and quince jelly (we discuss what these are). We hit on the finer points of flatbreads (Sheldon having his naan failure flashbacks).  Good tips on why he uses oil not flout for these kind of doughs, how to test if a pan is hot enough to cook flatbreads, and the importance of how to work these doughs for success.  

Then a little sidebar with Mary showing how to completely line a cake tin with parchment. Let’s just say after watching Mary do it, Sheldon is opting for a heavy greasing as the alternative.

Next bake it taste tannin and Mary chooses a bake with apples and caramel. Mary chooses a rough puff pastry here, using VERY cold butter and lard so it can be grated. Typical tips on making something with butter - the colder the butter the better the rise and “puff”.  Twice in this episode we get good puff pastry tips - we watch the importance of the “fold” / turn and they do a total of 4, with refrigeration after the first 2.  This is to keep the butter from melting. Reminders on making caramel - never use a non-stick pan and when you pour it into a pan make sure it is UNgreased. She chooses “eating apples” - pink lady, leaves on the skin, and slices SUPER thin..  Tips : add some lemon juice to apples to keep from browning, and don’t turn out this dish until right before serving.

We then move to beef Wellington - moooore pastry lessons. Good tips on rolling out super cold butter - coat in flour first! In Paul’s puff he uses an egg - he insists it gives more flavor, color, and spring. Mary learns how Paul “tacks” the pastry to the board when rolling up as it allows him to roll more tightly.  Sheldon also learns that “kitchen roll” is what Americans call paper towel.  Sheldon also discusses his “blue collar” idea for beef Wellington - the Meatball Wally.

Sticky toffee apple and pecan sponge pudding is next. Toffee. It’s ALL about that toffee sauce… Mary with a good tip on adding only part of the egg and then a bit of flour to stabilize prior to adding the rest of the egg. Sheldon has questions on UK vanilla… is it light in color? Looks much lighter than his own. Mary basically is a kitchen engineer with her foil steam covers and cradles for the bake… impressive. 

Finally Chelsea buns. Paul uses fruit in his. Sheldon would choose nuts and add some of that toffee sauce from Mary’s last recipe. We get some clearer tips: plain dough use oil, enriched dough use flour.  Beautiful bakes all around. 

Baking adventures - Cookies galore, trying some local GIANT macarons. Sheldon gets a new work surface!

5 bakes: Queens Pudding, Jam donuts, chocolate tea cakes, Fraisier cake, and fondant fancies

Couple ongoing themes: using the "Bain Marie water bath cooking seems to be a recurring theme. Caster sugar also seems to be used an awful lot - I mean it's the "same" but will it impact regular bakes?

Queens pudding key lessons: Make sure you pan fits in the Bain Marie bath before you butter it. When adding hot milk mix to eggs - just add a splash to temper the egg temp or you might cook them. When making jam - use equal weights fruits and sugar. Caster sugar for meringue. Use FRESH eggs and never a plastic bowl with making meringue.

Jam donut lessons: add more yeast than breads - enriched dough. Kneading speed helps prevent sticking. Using a mixer with dough hooks could create overworking of dough. For an enriched dough knead with flour not oil. Cool completely before filling.

Chocolate tea cakes lessons: Tricky chocolate work. Using a mold - let chocolate cool a bit before spreading around mold or else it will run down the sides. Let chocolate harden up in the room - NOT the fridge - otherwise it will oxidize and lose its shine. Put a bit of melted chocolate on meringue so biscuit adheres better.

Faisier cake lessons: Using self rising flour makes it easier - it is AP but with some salt and leaving in it. Side bar: SO many flours - the key difference is often the protein content. The danger zone on this cake is in mixing in butter - don't do it too much or you can lose the air - and when pouring batter into mold pour in close to bottom of mold so you don't knock out air. Mary uses corn "flour" in creme pat. Most recipes show corn starch - these are different things technically so a bit confusing. Whisk corn flour with sugar first - coats it and prevents clumping.

Fondant fancies lessons: A basic sponge where all of the ingredients are the same weight. To keep cake as flat as possible, Mary pushes batter to corners creating a "dent" in the middle that will fill in and even out. On genoise especially do NOT open the oven door or it's toast. Mary puts buttercream on the sides of the cake so fondant doesn't pick up crumbs. if after chilling it doesn't smooth well - heat knife in hot water. Use hot water with fondant to smooth it out until dippable.

Sheldon dives into S3E10 - the first of 2 Masterclasses. But first, a little baking! I had a whole lot of extra coconut lying around… it’s a long story… and then remembered I had a loaf over pie crust in the freezer! Coconut cream pie it is. Had a little issue with my crust sagging down the sides of my pie plate… might have been that this crust was maybe the “runt” of my batch fro before so I had to roll it a bit thin. Overall, my count cream seems delightful and I got to use my homemade vanilla! Gonna get some whip cream later today and try this pie.

FIVE bakes in this one, all were technical challenges in the season and lots of lessons.

Rum Babas - this is a bake that I might try. A leavened dog - like cake and bread had a baby. Some good tips on making dough - don’t add the butter until you’ve let it get started with some milk first or the fat in the butter will stifle the growth.  Paul loves making stuff with his hands… but Mary asks the practical question os “CAN I use a machine?”.  Yes.  Yes you can. We also see Mary’s “eyeballing 3 tablespoons of rum …. That’s more like a cup hahaha. These look delightful and may give me a reason to buy a sprinkler for icing sugar.

Next was the dreaded plaited braid loaf. Interesting discussion to start with Paul saying you can use cool water for the bread … and that it will have more flavor! I’ve always heard “warm” so that the yeast will rise faster - which is true - but Paul has added a new thing for me to research.  Paul uses a lot of oil in his work - as opposed to flour. He has a wooden work surface and it gets me all kinds of worried about what I would use as I don’t want to wreck my kitchen. I’ve decided that I need a “portable and sacrificial” work station for these things… Paul talks through kneading in this episode as well, so if you want some tips I highly recommend watching this one. Important to remember to not use a lot of flour when rolling out the strands either as you need these to STICK together! The process of braiding I’m not going to lie seems a little daunting, but man it’s pretty.

Treacle tart was next. A British classic, but not something we really make here in the US. Tip #1 was the putting of the heavy baking sheet in the oven to create an even bake (I might use a pizza stone).  Labelling tins with a marker - tip 2. Egg washing lattice before putting on the tart - good idea. And letting the tin do the cutting were all good tips from this section.

Bonus: Paul teaches us how to spin sugar… I fear this.

Creme caramel is the one I fear the most. Caramel sends fear into me. Key tip - do NOT use a non-stick pan or it will crystalize! Stir a little at first to dissolve then Do NOT stir until it’s boiling and clear. Cleaning the pan after? Put some water in it and boil - boom. Learned about why water baths work so well (even and limited temp), and when a custard is done. When making this, do NOT butter the ramekins before putting in the caramel! Let it set up and then butter the REST of the ramekin.

Finally - Hand raised pies. Won’t spend time on a lot of this as it’s very similar to pies from last episode. I do have a couple of ideas on how to prevent some of the failures that the bakers experienced!

Another Sheldon solo - the next several weeks are going to be hit or miss for Alison as her work is needing her to focus on some things - but no fear! Sheldon will do his best to keep the squad entertained. This week we dive back into Season 2 for the second Master class episode - S2E10.

Four bakes in this one, all were technical challenges in the season and lots of lessons.

Pork Pies using Paul's hot water crust - key tips: lessons in the power of flour. Lard and butter - a match made in flavor.Importance in getting thickness right and working this crust when warm. Be careful with your choice of bacon. Don't refrigerate pork that hasn't cooled first!

Next we move to chocolate roularde. A delightful rolled cake that intentionally has a cracked outer surface. key lessons: butter below the parchment keeps it from slipping. Whipping egg whites - be careful not to OVER do it or they get dry. Add whipped egg whites in TWO stages, the first third to "slacken" the batter, otherwise you will lose a lot of your desired air.Put down confectioners sugar when you flip the cake onto parchment or else it will stick and you'll have a mess.Must be COOL before rolling with whipped cream. Mary had an interesting trick of intentionally breaking off about a 1"strip to make rolling easier. A lot of contestants thought the cracking meant they messed up - joke was on them!

On to another British treat that we've never heard of - Iced fingers. These are a bread based delight and we got to see Paul in his element. They are filled with whipped cream and jam.For this he used strong (bread) flour as it gave the yeast more to eat. Tricks learned: be careful not to let your salt directly land on your yeast or it will kill it. Mix the salt in first. when adding milk, warm it a bit as cold milk will also slow the ability for the yeast to do its job. this recipe had two proof stages and he showed what a proper proof looked like.

Finally, the sacher (maybe pronounced "sacker"?) torte. A dense cake with a nice mirror glaze and scripted writing on top. Mary used a special tinthat the bottom popped out - would certainly make this bake easier - but the cake is robust so as long as you grease well it should turn out ok. she also used a parchment round in the tin - these can be purchased! If you are making lots of cakes - a good choice for sure. Other tips: use caster sugar - finer granules that will completely dissolve more easily. FIVE eggs in this one and again Mary demonstrates the egg while fold in method to slacken the batter. she uses lower cocoa chocolate to prevent bitterness and ads ground almonds for stability.... I am assuming this is the same as almond flour? Her ganache method is perfect - but the one question I am still having is "how cool do you let it get before pouring". I'd like to see a number for temp. The piping on top to me is the most intimidating part, apparently the key is to just continue to roll with it like handwriting. I see a disaster in my future hahaha.