My Top 5 Adventurous Bakes

I feel terrible.  My blog is supposed to be about baking the adventurous.  What did I end up making for Easter?  A batch of biscuits.  OK, they were from the ‘Fancy Biscuit’ section of Mary Berry’s Baking Bible but they didn’t either look that fancy or taste that great and, according to my dad, their dunkability was also questionable.

They were hot cross bun flavoured biscuits, and, to be honest, who wants a hot cross bun flavoured biscuit when they could have a a real hot cross bun?

Given that my baking hasn’t been particularly adventurous for a while, I thought I’d have a look at the exciting stuff I’ve made over the last couple of years to see if I could get my baking mojo back.

Here’s my top 5.

1. My favourite cake was the prinsesstarta  I made from The Great British Bake Off, Big Book of Baking (the recipe is also available on the BBC Food website).  It was set as one of the technical bakes in the 2014 Bake Off series and, Good Lord, technical it was too.  It took three days and involved making custard, jam, green marzipan and fancy fondant icing flowers as well as a cake. How I managed to do it I don’t know, but I did and it really was worth it.

2. Mary Berry’s Marjolaine was another good one.  Another technical bake from    the  Great British Bake Off (Series 7 this time), and another twelve or so (worthwhile) hours in the kitchen.

 

 

3.  In August last year, I attempted a fraisier from Edd Kimber’s Patisserie Made Simple.      It involved acetate so certainly qualified as adventurous.  I haven’t even opened Patisserie Made Simple for a few months.  It’s definitely time I went back to it.

4. Although it’s a bit less adventurous, I think the coconut cake from James Martin’s Sweet has to be in my top five.  It didn’t take twelve plus hours of kitchen time, but it did taste absolutely lovely.  It would be easy enough to make again once the price of coconut oil comes down.

5.  Deciding on number five has been difficult.  I’ve been scrolling through my pictures remembering the trials and triumphs of the things I’ve made over the past couple of years.  I think I have to go with grasshopper slices from the Hummingbird Bakery’s Home Sweet Home.  The main reason I had for making these was that I was looking for something green because I was baking the jersey colours of the Tour de France (don’t ask).  It was either these or something green tea flavoured.  Green tea, or mint chocolate ganache?  A no-brainer.

 

So, there we are.  My top five Let’s Bake the Books adventurous bakes.  Have I got my baking mojo back?  I may have.  I can’t wait for a cup of tea and half an hour with The Books this afternoon, and that’s certainly a start.