Berry Mary - The great British bake off: how to turn everyday bakes into showstoppers

CONTENTS

List of Recipes

About the Book

BAKING DOESNT HAVE TO BE COMPLICATED TO BE SHOWSTOPPING

Inspired by Mary Berry and Paul Hollywoods challenges, SHOWSTOPPERS shows you how to create bakes that will both turn heads and make mouths water.

To transform really good recipes into eye-catching bakes, you dont need professional levels of skill, nor hours of time. Just a host of brilliant recipes together with ingeniously simple styling secrets and decorating tips.

Whether you want a quick, everyday recipe or something special for a party, put on your apron and make Mary and Paul proud!

About the Author

The Great British Bake Off won a BAFTA for its second series and is now in its third series on BBC TWO. Twelve contestants face challenges that test their baking knowledge, skill and creativity. Only one can be crowned Britains Best Amateur Baker.

Linda Collister is an experienced cook and baker and the author of The Great British Bake Off: How to Bake the Perfect Victoria Sponge and Other Baking Secrets.

Love Productions is a UK-based independent production company, which makes award-winning programmes for all the main UK broadcasters.

INTRODUCTION

Food is part of the joy of life and The Great British Bake Off celebrates this in every aspect of baking. Baking evokes many happy emotions. We bake for our friends and family as well as for ourselves and we feel an enormous sense of pride in our achievements. Secretly we also want to show off, to earn praise and make people happy.

So this time, we have devoted our book to the Showstopper Challenge the part of the show where the bakers endeavour to create beautiful tasting, but also beautiful-looking bakes.

LOOKING GOOD

You dont have to be an experienced baker to create culinary masterpieces. We have plenty of ideas for you, including familiar recipes for a sponge cake or shortbread that are transformed into Showstopping creations with the use of layering, a simple stencil, clever pastry finish or an easy chocolate ribbon.

You will also find Mary and Pauls own foolproof recipes, and the best (and most imaginative) ones made by the bakers during the competition we guarantee youll be amazed! Never have bakes been so closely examined. This year the judges devoted as much attention to the inside as to the outside. You could feel the anticipation building as they first cut open the bake and then check the slice for taste, texture and appearance. It certainly galvanized the bakers into perfecting their techniques and devising even more new ideas so as not to disappoint Mary and Paul.

OUR SHOWSTOPPING CHALLENGES

Each chapter begins with a Showstopping Challenge that takes its inspiration from the competition, but weve designed three stages for each of our Challenges. First we give a basic recipe. This can be made into three recipes from easy to a real culinary work out. We will show you how the simplest ingredients and straightforward recipes can be baked into memorable creations, tasting and looking truly fabulous, whatever your budget, skill level or time constraints.

Throughout each chapter are lots of tips to add a touch of magic to your recipe as well as some Showstopping Techniques to add a professional-style finish. Please do feel free to mix and match these with different recipes as your own creative muse takes you weve added suggestions at the end of many recipes.

THE RECIPES

This years bakers certainly got into the spirit of celebration from the very first round, producing some jaw-dropping cakes with hidden depths that tasted as spectacular as they appeared; you can see them in the first chapter where you can try your hand at making a hidden-picture cake too.

Our biscuits are simple recipes, but with standout design, whether in the shaping or decorating. You can decide what goes into them your favourite chocolate, loads of nuts or nut-free and what decoration, from the elaborate to a simple dusting of icing sugar or cocoa. Our Showstopping Challenge is gingerbread easy enough for children to melt, mix, roll out and cut shapes, but also fun to build a gingerbread cottage as the centrepiece for a party.

Pauls technical challenge in chapter three is sure to raise many a cheer doughnuts! The perfect jam-filled doughnut is one of lifes simple pleasures so do have a go, you wont be disappointed. The Showstopping Challenge is brioche, an egg and butter-rich yeast dough that may take longer to make than a simple plain loaf, but bakes to a delicate and rich-tasting (almost cake-like) crumb. But there are easy recipes too: sandwiches made out of real home-made bread are so much better than anything out of a plastic bag so theres a range of loaves for slicing, rolls for filling, flatbreads for dipping; breads for every occasion.

Theres an old saying: what you eat every day is a meal, but what you eat when you celebrate is a feast. Chapter Four is all about pies, from Pauls perfectly filled and beautifully layered hand-raised pies and luxurious beef wellington to the best of American pies. They form our Showstopping Challenge a combination of excellent pastry (and no soggy bottoms!), a perfectly judged filling and appealing finish.

Theres a large chapter devoted to Desserts with some real show-off recipes for special occasions as well as some pretty twists on old favourites. Meringues are centre-stage throughout they make the perfect basis for so many desserts and theyre cheap! Marys challenge was Crme Caramel, tricky to make perfectly, still much-loved. Of course we havent forgotten the chocoholics with the Best of the Bake Off an impressive flourless torte and a great-looking striped cheesecake. These arent difficult recipes, but just require a little time to make and are well worth it.

Like most good meals were ending with a pudding. We thought it would be fun to see how the bakers tackled strudel, so thats our Showstopping Challenge. The winning Sticky Toffee Sponge Pudding is also here, along with Marys version of the Queen of Puddings. Paul has chosen a Rum Babas as his Challenge and, as you might expect, he shared his views on this most classic of French pudding-cakes.

Its been a great competition with so much for the judges to laugh (and cry about)! So, lets celebrate our love of baking with the three Graces associated with festivals splendour, mirth and cheerfulness.

Happy Baking!

THE MOMENT WHEN you reveal your cake is always accompanied by joy and excitement. It doesnt matter if your cake is simply or extravagantly decorated, it will make an impression. But as Mary and Paul emphasize as Bake Off judges, the cake must also taste as good as it looks.

This chapter will give you some mouth-watering recipes, but also lots of presentation and styling ideas. Some add an instant, easy touch of magic to a familiar or simple bake; others need a bit more skill or time perfect for special occasions, when you really want to show off, celebrate and impress.

We begin this chapter with a basic Sponge Cake Mix that can be transformed into three very different and striking cakes. The bakers from this years series were asked to create a Hidden Picture Cake as their first Showstopper Challenge. Not only did the decoration have to be delicious and the sponge perfectly baked, but when cut open, a picture was revealed. So we have created a showstopping Champagne Heart Cake for you to try. This recipe is not for beginners, so there is also a much simpler challenge a beautiful Mocha Marbled Loaf Cake. Using the same basic sponge mix, there is also a Chess Cake, which though not technically difficult, does require a bit more time.