If you're in the UK you really can't have missed the fact that the Great British Bake Off arrived back on our screens this last week. If you love baking then this is must watch TV.
Last year I was a bit busy giving birth in the middle of the series so didn't really join in at all, but this year as soon as I saw plans for a Great Bloggers Bake Off I just knew that I had to be involved. I bake quite a bit, but generally tried and tested old recipes and I often feel too scared to try anything really new. I'm not normally too bad at baking, but there's definitely still room for improvement, so I want to use this as motivation to up my game.
This week I chose to do a very simple victoria sandwich using my late Gran's standard three egg sponge recipe. All you do is weigh three eggs, then use the same weight of butter/margarine, sugar and self raising flour. Cream together the butter and sugar. Then add the eggs, one by one, mixing them as you go. Finally mix in the flour. Divide between two cake tins and bake for approximately 20 minutes at 180 degrees C. Done.
This really is the simplest of sponge recipes ever and works every single time. It's also what I use whenever Little Miss C wants to bake as it adapts perfectly well for cupcakes.
That part of things was very simple and went well. Easy I thought. Big mistake…
Once it came to making the butter cream icing for the middle things seemed to go a bit wrong. I'm not too sure whether I just got my ratios wrong, or whether the butter cream itself was too warm, but this is what happened…
The cake was definitely cool before I added the icing, so that wasn't the problem. My sister seems to think it is because I used margarine instead of butter. She may be right, but I've not had this problem before with margarine. Another possibility is that the jam was just too posh… I'm pleased to say that at least one friend identified with this as a genuine possibility. I do love my friends.
What I can report back to say is that it tasted delicious. The sponge itself was perfectly done and once you'd scraped up the middle from around it, that too tasted fantastic.
I like to think that I'm just leaving plenty of room for improvement in future weeks!
I've also managed to persuade my sister H to join in with us. She's not a blogger herself (although I hope she will be one day) so I'm going to host her creations here. This week (and looking far better than mine) is I believe a chocolate sandwich cake. Recipe to follow…
I'm joining in with the Great Bloggers Bake Off that is being hosted by Helen Hollywood and Jenny Berry (possibly not their real names…) Each week the aim is to blog your recipe to fit in with that week's Great British Bake Off theme and Berry and Hollywood (again possibly not the real ones…) will choose a star baker. It's not a title I'm expecting to win, but you never know!
If you want to see what everyone else has been baking then check out the Great Bloggers Bake Off pinterest board.
looks yummy! my butter cream does that all the time – still tastes good though!
this cake looks fab and the sponges are lovely and golden and well risen. i adore that the recipe is your late nan’s – iu have heard of weighing the eggs and adding the other ingredients based on that.
shame about your buttercream but the margarine may be the reason. Either way it still looks fantastic and i am sure it tasted yummy!
thank you for linking up x
your sponges are great!
My Mum always uses margarine for her buttercream without problem so maybe it was just a little too warm…blame the weather!
Thanks for joining in with the #GreatBloggersBakeOff