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WEEK 10! THE FINAL!

Sort of. (Just pretend this is 3 weeks ago! Kthnx.)

Ok, so I know that with all the recent US election stuff it feels like GBBO ended about 25 years ago but… I FINALLY got around to doing my FINAL Showstopper Challenge post! *pats self on back*

Tbh, I knew from the get go that I wasn’t going to bake the showstopper that very weekend… what with the final episode falling in half term… and it being the Halloween weekend… and whilst I had my cousin Vanessa visiting. Priorities. However, after watching the episode and realising the extent of what I was actually going to have to make, I wasn’t really looking forward to the task and may have put it off a little longer than intended. I’m sure you can understand why though…

A WHOLE FLIPPIN’ PICNIC?!

49 INDIVIDUAL THINGS?!

IN 5 HOURS?!

SERIOUSLY?!

Yup, for the final the bakers were asked to make a picnic feast containing the following:

12 sausage rolls, with homemade puff pastry
12 mini quiches, with homemade shortcrust pastry
12 fruit and custard tarts, with homemade sweetcrust pastry
12 savoury scones
1 chocolate celebration cake

In 5 hours. Sigh.

So yeah, I wasn’t exactly thrilled. Especially when faced with the fact that I was going to be spending lots of time/energy/money making a tonne of food for no real reason other than a personal challenge! It just felt a bit ridiculous. I mean, my family probably could have polished it all off no problem… but it still felt like a waste.

That was until I had the bright idea of doing something productive with the food I was going to make (instead of just fattening up my family!) …

Why not sell it for charity?

Then suddenly I’d found the inspiration and motivation to finally get the showstopper done! *flexed bicep emoji* And with Children In Need falling in November (specifically yesterday, Friday 18th Nov 2016), I thought that would be the perfect charity! Therefore, last Sunday I spent most of my day in the kitchen baking a feast, to bring everything in to sell to my colleagues on the Monday.

I must have spent about 7 hours in my kitchen (I gave up keeping count after I’d gone over the 5) but it was so worth it because everything sold out and we managed to raise a whopping £100!!! Result!Continue reading “A Picnic Feast – Final GBBO Showstopper Challenge (Week 10)”

For this cake I used Yo’s Ultimate Chocolate Cake recipe because I love her and her YouTube channel, and after making the cake for the first time a few weeks ago I realised my life was changed! It’s moist, rich and just delicious!

Other than knowing what cake recipe I’d be using, I didn’t actually plan what filling to use or how to decorate the cake before starting it. It was only last minute that I decided to add the flavour of coffee by adding instant coffee to the cake batter and the icing. I then sprinkled crushed Kinder Buenos in the middle to add a hazel nutty flavour.

I had wanted to make a ganache to pour over but ran out of time as this was part of my GBBO Showstopper Challenge. Maybe next time.Continue reading “Hazelnut Coffee Chocolate Cake”