This week on The Great British Bake Off we were brought dessert week, and as always it didn’t disappoint. The bakers were faced with rolling roulades, meringue layer cakes and mini mousse showstoppers.
The signature bake was a roulade, which all the bakers will have made before, so the challenge was taking it to the next level. Benjamina opted for a pina colada theme which Mary looked very pleased with and Andrew piped a pattern onto his baking tray before adding his sponge. Tom made his filling a little too soft meaning the roll was a bit flat which the judges weren’t impressed with. All the roulades looked very tasty however and I would have happily had a slice of any.
The technical this week was to make a French meringue layer cake which involved lots of multitasking. The very tense moment came when the bakers had to cut their meringues in half which involved a lot of cracking and crumbling! They all presented very impressive looking cakes and Mary and Paul seemed fairly impressed. Selasi came in 6th place however as his had dropped a little and the meringue was a bit chewy. Andrew looked chuffed achieve the top spot with the judges complimenting him and how well it had been put together.
As usual, all was to play for in the final round where the contestants were asked to make 24 mini mousse cakes of 2 different flavours. There were definitely some issues in this round, the main one being no ones mousse seemed to set very well. Tom thought he had pulled it out the bag with his ‘picnic’ theme but unfortunately the judges weren’t too keen and he became the next baker to leave the tent.
Andrew was announced star baker and he looked over the moon at this! Next week is Tudor week (are they running out of themes?) and the bakers will be challenged with pies, marzipan and lots of knots!
This week we are sharing with you a recipe for a Chocolate and Coffee Roulade. This isn’t too tricky to make but looks really impressive when you serve it up!
Ingredients
Sponge:
6 eggs, separated
150g golden caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
45g cocoa powder
Filling:
200ml double cream
1 tbsp coffee, brewed and cooled
30g icing sugar
Topping:
20g cocoa powder
40g dark chocolate
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan and line and grease a swiss roll tin (20x30cm).
Beat the egg whites until very foamy and stiff and set to one side. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale and thick. Sieve in the cocoa and carefully fold in. Add one spoonful of whites and mix in to loosen the mixture and then slowly fold in the rest of the whites, a spoonful at a time.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 20minutes until risen and springy to touch. Place a piece of greaseproof on your table and lightly sprinkle with sugar. Tip the sponge onto the paper and roll up from the short end. Leave to cool rolled up.
Make the filling by whipping the cream, coffee and icing sugar all together until thick. Once cooled, unroll the sponge, remove the middle layer of greaseproof and spread over the cream. Use the under sheet of greaseproof to help you re-roll the sponge. Sieve over the cocoa powder to cover the sponge. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of just simmering water, being careful not to let the bottom of the bowl touch the water. Splatter the melted chocolate over the sponge and leave to set.
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