Baking The Bake Off Week 10 Swansea Tribute Cake

Oh heeeeey lovely people and welcome back to Alice Adores Apparel! It's time for the last installment of Baking The Bake Off. It's my last run down of the baker's antics, and my final weekly bake. Not watched the finale episode yet? Catch up here!

The final of The Great British Bake Off was brilliant as per usual. Nancy, Luis, and Richard  went head to head to compete for the ultimate crown in home baking. The Signature Bake saw the contestants create two different types of Viennoiserie. For those who don't know Viennoiseries are enriched pastries made from a yeast leavened dough or puff pastry, which is often laminated (layered). My favourites were Luis's Apple, Walnut, Raisin, and Cheshire Cheese Chaussons. I love the idea of a savoury Viennoiserie. Next up the bakers were asked to go back to basics in the Technical Bake. Mary and Paul challenged the finalists to create miniature Victoria Sponges, Scones and Tart Au Citron. Surprisingly the three classic recipes proved difficult for the finalists to cram in the limited time period. Poor, poor, Richard with his disaster tart au citron! Last of all was the Showstopper Challenge. The contestants were asked to create Tribute Cakes, more specifically a Pièce Montée. The cake had to feature choux pastry, petits fours, and sugar work. All of the cakes were incredible considering the amount of time the bakers were given to complete so many different tasks. I couldn't pick a favourite! I felt all of the bakers would make very deserved winners. I was happy that Nancy won. Obviously I had a little soft spot for Luis because he's been so supportive of my attempts at his recipes. Plus Richard will definitely go down in history for his incredible Star Baker streak.

Before I show you my final bake, it's time for my Bake Off Innuendo of the Episode. This week the honor goes to the series winner, Nancy. She got a little cheeky during the Signature Bake:

For my final Baking The Bake Off cake I decided to tackle the Showstopper tribute cake challenge. My cake is a tribute to Swansea. It's the city I consider my second home. I love it more than I can describe. I studied for my Undergrad and Masters degrees there. More importantly, I met my 'Bad Bitches' there, and some real friends for life. Some of my favourite memories were made in Swansea and I always jump at the chance to return.

The cake consists of two tiers of coffee and pecan cake smothered in coffee icing, topped with pecan praline, coffee cream filled profiteroles, a choux pastry 'swan', sugar shards, and vanilla macaroons. I used a number of different recipes for this bake. The coffee and pecan sponge recipe can be found on the Tesco website, although I doubled the quantities. The profiterole recipe is from a practically vintage recipe book called The Sainsbury Book of Puddings and Desserts, first published in 1980! Possibly one of the best crafted recipes I've ever used though! The macaroon recipe is from Lorraine Pascale's Baking Made Easy. The Swiss meringue buttercream recipe was adapted from Harry Eastwood's recipe for snow meringue icing in Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache, which I just added some butter to.

Apologies about how picture heavy this post is but there were so many elements and steps in the process, that there was always going to be a lot! Unsurprisingly I did not make the cake in the 5 hours the finalists were given. Instead it took me 3 days!!!!

Coffee & Pecan Cake

Coffee Swiss Meringue Buttercream Icing

Green Macaroons

Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream Icing Filling

Coffee Cream Filled Profiteroles 

Assembling!

I'm happy with how my cake turned out. Towards the end of the decorating I did get a little sick of the sight of it, but I think that is understandable after a 3 day bake! The coffee flavour running through the cake represents the amount of caffeine it took to get me through my Undergrad and Masters. The white and dark chocolate covered profiteroles along with the sugar shards are meant to look like mini ice creams to represent Joes and Verdis, two iconic Italian ice cream parlors in Swansea. Unfortunately I overcooked the sugar for the cone shards so they were too dark and incredibly bitter, but they were made with the last of my sugar, so I had to make do! The blue colour of some of ice creams is Swansea University's colour. The macaroons are vanilla flavour, and are green inside to represent Swansea's Varsity Green and White Army. The pecan praline on top represents the sandy beaches of Swansea & The Gower. The sponge was soaked in spiced rum and coffee liqeur which was basically my general state for every night out! And the choux pastry 'swan' on top is pretty obvious!

I baked the cake in time for my sister's return from interrailing so she was a very happy bunny! The rest of my family really enjoyed it too. I took the cake to work and I think it went down well with my colleagues. I pretty darn proud of myself!

I've had a great time baking along with The Great British Bake Off. I've tried some techniques that I haven't ever tackled before, I've learnt a lot, and I've 'taste tested' way too much! The next time I pick up a whisk I'll be happy to bake something simple for a change! A few people have suggested I apply for the show, which is a huge complement. I'm not sure if my knowledge and consistency is quite there yet but I'm not dismissing the idea altogether! I will definitely be featuring more baking posts on Alice Adores Apparel every now and again. I'd like to mix up my content a little, so keep reading!

I hope you enjoyed my last Baking The Bake Off post! Leave me a comment below telling me what you think! I'd love to hear your thoughts on Nancy, Luis, & Richard too!

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