Episode 18 Best Bakes Ever

The wonderful smell of bread, just out of the oven,

the perfect pie crust, the snap of a biscuit and of course cakes.

Cakes of all shapes and sizes and for every occasion.

We've got something for all the senses here,

as we celebrate some of the Best Bakes Ever.

Hello and welcome to the show.

Here's a little look at some of

the great bakes we've got coming up today.

Rachel Khoo is baking some delicious cheese and potato nests.

The Hairy Bikers show us how to make a homity pie.

Throw me a piece of karma, man.

You see?

And now it's gone.

And Simon Hopkinson has got a wonderful baked pappardelle for us.

And for pudding,

Michel Roux Jr has a fantastic looking strawberry souffle.

We've got fudge brownies from Lorraine Pascale.

Oh, look at that!

I'll have that later with a teaspoon.

And Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood give a masterclass

in baking a three-tiered chocolate fudge gateau.

But we're starting today with two great bakes from James Martin,

with help from his two friends, Simon and Jamie.

One is a classic Italian pizza and the other is a calzone.

You've brought with you a selection of chillies over here.

I was intrigued to know the hottest chilli in the world.

-It's a Trinidad scorpion.

-Which is which one?

-Very much like this one here.

-That's the one we stay out of, is it?

Yes, we really don't want to eat that one,

it's all crinkly and it's pretty hot.

So, what do you do with this? What's the point of it?

The guys in Trinidad, the way they cook with them, is they put

some pinpricks in them and use one chilli to spice seven pots of stew.

You would never eat this as it is?

I've tried it, it's not something I would do again, that's for sure.

We're going to cook an authentic sort of Margherita pizza,

but with the addition of some of your chillies.

And then do a nice little lobster calzone.

With whatever you fancy putting in, really.

The first thing I want to do is make our pizza dough.

I use 00 flour for this.

It's a combination. I think the best pizzas come from a place

called San Michele which is in Naples.

It's an amazing pizzeria.

There's a queue a mile long. They do about 2,000 pizzas, but the only do

two different types of pizzas - with cheese or without cheese, that's it.

But this is the pizza dough I got from there.

So, 00 flour, 800g, 200g of semolina flour.

A pinch of sugar.

A pinch of salt. Then they use dried yeast as well,

so basically you just take the dried yeast and chuck it in.

So, for this one, there's about 14g of dried yeast.

The key to this, really, it's a bit like the stove behind me,

you need to have prepared this in advance.

So you need to stick it on to a machine

and in we go with the warm water.

And you need to make this into a dough.

What you're creating is a little sort of sourdough, really, for this.

If you don't have a fancy mixer,

this dough is easily kneaded by hand.

And that's the sort of texture we're looking at for our dough.

Mould it up into little balls,

and then we'll make our sauce to go with this.

Many people, when they're making pizzas, cook tomatoes down

with onions and garlic and anything like that.

But when you actually see this made properly,

and for real in Italy, they use San Marzano tomatoes.

Sam Marzano are a type of Italian plum tomato.

Sweeter flavoured and less seeds than other varieties.

You don't need to add anything else to make your Margherita sauce.

You just blitz this into a puree and you've got your finished article.

Then with the dough, you need to leave it to prove,

and leave it to prove in the fridge,

and that's where you get that sort of sourness.

Crisp on the outside, nice and crispy, but also soft in the middle.

I need you to pick a chilli.

What are we going to go for for our first pizza?

-This is a little Margherita.

-How hot do you like?

-Well, not that hot, really.

-I'll give you a choice of two here.

You've got a lovely Caribbean flavoured habanero, quite hot,

or a sort of standard garden-centre Apache.

I'll try one of your habaneros. We'll try that one, shall we?

Tell me about the seeds in chilli.

Do we take these out or leave them in?

The seeds give a kind of bitterness taste.

In terms of the heat, the heat is in the tissues surrounding the seeds.

So when you take the seeds out, you are taking the tissue out as well,

so it's making the chilli slightly less hot, more bearable,

and you get more of the flavour of the chilli than just the heat.

'A classic Margherita pizza needs mozzarella.

'But I like to add another great Italian cheese to the mix -

'Pecorino.'

It's like a salted Parmesan, really.

It's quite unusual. You can buy it from the supermarket.

It is unusual, but actually it's the salt, really, that benefits

the pizza, I think, more than anything else.

We need to grate a bit of this.

'Lightly cover your pizza base with the tomato sauce.

'Roughly-torn mozzarella and some of that habanero chilli.

'Grated pecorino and fresh basil next.

'Finally, finish with some peanut oil. Why peanut?

'Well, that's what the old guy used in the Naples restaurant,

so who am I to argue?

So, you get plenty of flour on your pizza shovel.

You can do this at home,

you don't need a fancy pizza oven that I've got.

But a pizza stone is really good.

Put that on the pizza shovel. This is a bit of DIY, this.

I learnt this from that old boy in that Italian restaurant.

Basically, when you throw it in the oven, just pull it back

and the pizza should, in theory, just slide off.

I mean, this then is hotter than hell, trust me.

You think those chillies are hot, this is about 500 degrees.

And when it's fully hot, this will cook in about 20-30 seconds.

So at home, use a pizza stone, put your oven on as high as possible,

as hot as it will possibly go.

Pizza done, it's time to cut a slice. And I have the perfect tool.

This is the random sort of gift...

What do you get a chef that's got all the gadgets in the world?

Thanks, sis, I get myself a pizza cutter in the shape of a car.

You can use it for the very, very first time.

See, unlike a lot of things I get from my sister at Christmas,

this actually works, which is a first for me.

So dive in. Tell us what you think.

That tastes good, you can really taste that cheese.

The cheese is really good. What about your chilli?

You've got the lovely flavour of the habanero

and a bit of after-heat coming in. Definitely worth a try.

My next pizza is a calzone -

a folded pizza which you can stuff with different fillings.

And the boys have a perfect sauce to go in it.

For fish dishes, I'd pick my mango, the mango sauce.

It's quite sweet. We've got some mustard in there.

And we've got some onion, some vinegar, and some yellow habaneros.

Very good flavour, works very well with fish.

I'm going to have a bit now. You can taste this as it is,

it's not going to blow my head off, is it?

No, not at all. It's about a moderate heat. You will be fine.

-It's quite hot, though, isn't it?

-You wouldn't use too much.

And then we've got the lobster here,

which I'm basically just going to chop up.

And you put lobster, lobster tail.

You see, this is a fancy calzone. And then grab loads of basil.

Get in some of this peanut oil,

cos I think that makes a difference as well.

And then we'll put more of this Pecorino cheese...

over the top.

That is quite warm, isn't it, really?

You don't need too much of it.

JAMES COUGHS

-It's the hottest I go.

-Now you tell me, now I've put it in here!

'Once all the ingredients are on the pizza, fold it in half

'and pinch around the edges to seal.'

Hot oven.

In there.

About five minutes. I need a drink.

Look at that.

For anyone who's just turned on, a Cornish pasty.

'Now, will this one be too hot to handle?'

You see, you're wary now, you see?

Actually, the mango works really well with that, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

-Some lobster in there as well.

-Lovely.

It tastes really good, doesn't it?

'I think those two pizzas with the chilli kick

'could grace the menu of any pizza restaurant in Napoli.

'And they'd definitely knock the crusts off any takeaway.

'Just remember to avoid that Trinidad scorpion,

'cos it's got a bit of a sting.'

Don't go near it, you've been warned.

Trust me.

Now for a classy and rich pudding.

From the kitchen of Michel Roux Jr,

it's what he calls the ultimate strawberry pudding.

A strawberry souffle with crumble topping and clotted cream.

For this recipe, I'm using the variety Finesse.

These are a variety you can get on your supermarket shelves,

so I recommend you give them a go.

But I'm going to start off by hulling them and cooking them.

Finesse strawberries are a ruby red, with a good orangey flavour,

perfect for tarts or a rich creamy dessert, just like this one.

That lovely red colour that Finesse has got.

To begin my souffle, I heat the strawberries

with sugar and a squeeze of lemon.

The reason why we're cooking these strawberries is to make it

almost like a jam, but not quite as sweet and sticky.

And that is going to hold up and give all the flavour to the souffle.

After gently simmering for five minutes, I'm going to just

take out a few of these strawberries for the garnish of the souffle.

I then blitz the rest in a blender

and sieve the sauce before reheating it.

Right, that's boiled, as you can see,

and it's gone to like a jam consistency, a thin jam consistency.

Now, some people panic at the thought of the souffle.

But my method is very straightforward and simple.

I start by letting the sauce cool,

while I whisk some egg whites before beating them into the sauce.

Even professional kitchens have disasters with souffles.

This isn't foolproof, but almost.

First of all, we take about a third of the egg whites

and we really do beat it in to this set strawberry puree.

Then we take the rest of the egg whites...

..and fold it in gently,

always working swiftly.

That's just enough.

You can see it's light, it's fluffy, it's holding,

and there are no lumps of egg whites in there.

I then spoon the mixture into ramekins

and pop in the strawberries I set aside earlier.

When you dive in there with your spoon

and you pull out this strawberry, it's nothing but pleasure.

Fill up the ramekins and smooth them off.

And here's another tip for the perfect souffle.

Run your finger around the edge

and that will ensure that the souffle rises straight and true.

And now the secret is all about timing.

Into the oven for eight minutes.

Oh, they have risen, they are beautiful.

I've got to be very quick and put some topping on.

Sprinkle on some toasted caramelised pistachio nuts

before returning to the oven for a maximum of two minutes.

And then my final extravagance - a spoonful of clotted cream.

Oh, yum!

And the clotted cream to dunk in there.

Strawberries and cream, the perfect combination,

but with a crumble topping.

Oh, that's pure decadence!

It is so, so delicious.

I'm trying to find that elusive taste

of childhood memories of the strawberry.

Which I'll probably never get,

but this comes pretty close to it.

And we've got another recipe from the past for you now,

with the Hairy Bikers.

They're making a great vegetarian bake

that was a hippy favourite in the '60s.

The homity pie.

I'm going to take you back to the Summer Of Love,

so dust off your loon pants...

-Get your kaftan out.

-..we're going to make homity pie.

-BOTH:

-Yes!

-Oh!

And homity pie was invented by the women of the Land Army

in the Second World War.

And it was, well, hearty.

It was a substantial vegetarian dish

that you could actually make with the contents of your ration book.

Now, this delicious veggie treat is very simple to make,

but really flavoursome.

It's a humble and filling British classic.

We're going to take the vintage line-up of potato,

onion and cheese in a pastry case and give it a Hairy Bikers twist

by adding spinach leaves, cream and a hint of nutmeg.

Now, what I've got here,

I'm lining this deep pie dish with a wholemeal pastry base.

I've used half wholemeal and half plain flour

because, quite frankly, if I'd used all wholemeal,

my pastry's going to come out like a flip-flop.

The pastry is really easy.

You just blend 250g of half plain, half wholemeal flour

with 150g of butter.

Then add a beaten egg and whizz it until it becomes a rough dough.

Now, it's a deep-filled base and homity pie was always deep.

So, I don't even have to throw a rolling pin.

I can feel the pastry with my fingers.

And I just form it around the pie tin.

Press it into the dish, up the sides of the dish

and you'll end up with this wonderful pastry case.

-Look at the fibre in that.

-Look at that!

-Crikey!

More fibrous than a coconut husk.

For the bulk of the filling, you'll need three chopped onions

and 850g of boiled potatoes.

I'm just going to kind of break them up with a wooden spatula.

I've got a nonstick pan,

so obviously I'm not going to use metal.

Be fairly rustic about this. You know, chunky spuds.

Saute the onions in butter for 15 minutes

and then grate a couple of garlic cloves in and cook for another two.

Simple yet effective. Takes me right back to the '70s.

I should've got me Aran jumper out.

I should have worn me cords. I used to wear cords.

-Did you?

-Yes, baggy ones.

You know, for that kind of bohemian intellectual look.

-Did you?

-Big glasses like that and alopecia.

# Those were the days, my friend

# I thought they'd never end

# They'd sing and dance for ever and a day... #

# When we were young and sure to have our way... #

Add the onions to the tatties.

That's all the cooking we need to do.

Give it a pinch of pepper and some sea salt,

then chuck in 100g of green and healthy spinach.

Brown paper bag, eh?

Throw me a piece of karma, man.

You see?

And now it's gone.

Nutmeg. Always works a treat with spinach.

It's a lovely colour, isn't it?

Next, chop two tablespoons of parsley leaves and stir them in.

The purity of curly parsley, it's beautiful.

To give it some richness, you need 100g of mature cheese,

but not any stuff. Don't forget, this is a veggie recipe.

This is of course vegetarian Cheddar, it's rennet-free.

Now, all we simply do is pop that into the wholemeal base.

We don't want to pack it too tightly, though,

-cos we want the cream to run through it.

-Yeah.

I think that's enough, don't you? Oh, it's tasty.

-It would be. I'm going to put another one in.

-All right, mate.

Actually, Dave, it might all go in...

-No, no, we've got cheese on yet.

-It'll be all right.

No, no. No.

Right, that's fine.

You just can't help who you work with.

Grate some extra cheese onto the top and now pop on the fruit of the cow.

That's 250ml of cream, to you and I.

And it's ready to shove in the oven

at 180 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes.

And this homity pie,

which started life as a frugal feast for the land girls,

was revived by Cranks, that well-known vegetarian outlet

that struck up in the 1960s in Carnaby Street.

And...I can remember going there in the '80s, and it was amazing.

Homity pie was on the menu.

Everything was brown, rustic and rough.

The great thing about our British food heritage is how it has absorbed

different influences, like vegetarian cuisine.

And our updated homity pie pays homage

to the innovations of the Cranks era.

Oh, that looks good.

It's handsome.

Oh, nice!

This looks like a supercharged quiche.

Let it cool for a bit and then carefully lift off the sides.

Make sure you have used a spring-clip cake tin.

The pastry has stood up.

Mind you, I think it would survive anything, that.

Do you know, I'm liking the look of this.

It's cutting well.

Hey, that pastry is good.

Hey, mate, that's all right.

It looks like chicken and mushroom.

But without the violence.

I quite like that.

-Great with bacon.

-Shut up.

-It's really good.

-It is, isn't it?

It tastes good, it even looks good.

And it just does you good.

Oh, it's really good.

I can feel the love.

That's enough.

Homity pie has had an interesting journey,

from something people created to eat out of necessity,

to being reinvented as the iconic food of the '60s veggie movement.

But now perhaps it can simply be seen as great food in its own right.

Up there with any meaty pies.

Our next recipe is a pasta bake that uses pappardelle.

A bit like fettuccine, but thicker in shape.

The name comes from the Italian verb "pappare", which translates as

"to gobble up" or "eat with childlike joy and pleasure".

Here, Simon Hopkinson has exactly that level of enthusiasm.

And he is particularly keen on the main ingredient in this dish,

the porcini mushroom.

I find the process of cooking food every bit as enjoyable as eating it.

I want all the meals I cook to be terrific -

even a simple baked pasta can be sensational.

I'm going to show you how to make a delicious supper

using dried porcini mushrooms.

Do it this way and pasta will never be the same again.

Dried porcini, there's something I'm never without.

Fantastic in soups, risottos,

in a wonderful pasta dish I'm going to cook.

It's a wonderful thing to have.

The great thing about dried porcini is

they keep in the cupboard for months and you can pull them out

when you want to turn pasta into something really special.

It's smelling fantastic already.

The last thing you want is for the milk to boil over, especially

when it's flavoured with such a wonderful, wonderful ingredient.

I think that's fine.

So I'm going to leave that to steep now. At least ten minutes.

While the mushrooms mingle with the milk,

move on to the most crucial part of this recipe, a simple white sauce.

Begin with the butter and flour and keep stirring.

This is as far as you should take it, a sort of pale, pale golden.

Now, these should be ready.

Pour in the flavoured milk and put the porcini to one side.

You'll be adding them later.

If you're worried about lumps, don't be.

I've got a simple, good solution.

Whenever you make a white sauce,

start off straightaway with the whisk, you really can't go wrong.

And now we will return to a spoon. This is a very gentle process.

A touch of seasoning.

And some pepper.

Sauces such as this shouldn't be rushed. I love slow cooking.

I did enough fast cooking in a restaurant kitchen

to last a lifetime, really.

That is about ready. Not too thick.

This is a dish to use dried pasta.

I don't understand supposedly "fresh pasta" in supermarkets.

It's very rarely found in shops in Italy.

Dried is it. There's nothing wrong with it.

This is going to cook more once it's in the oven, bathed in its sauce.

So we want to keep it slightly underdone.

Just give it a wiggle about.

Straight into the bowl.

You can use everyday streaky bacon here,

but it's worth paying extra for pancetta. You only need a bit.

This is smoked and cured. It gives a nice extra bit of flavour.

Tip in the porcini.

And the wonderful sauce.

Make sure you butter the baking dish well,

so that the pasta doesn't stick when you come to serve it.

More butter, more butter, more butter.

Oh, gosh, that looks good!

And finally, I couldn't envisage this dish without Parmesan topping.

And I tend to be quite generous with it.

Oh, go on, a bit more.

It's the porcini in this pasta that will make it truly delicious.

And those that grow in the dark forests of northern Italy

have a really intense flavour.

While growing in the forest, they are a protected delicacy.

And pickers are very, very secretive about their favourite patches.

Local artisan producers choose the mushrooms

for selling fresh or for drying.

The trademark green gills are where the rich and nutty taste lies.

The drying process intensifies their flavour.

You can find dried porcini in most supermarkets.

They are a touch pricey,

but their unique aroma and flavour for me are irresistible.

Especially with this gorgeous pasta.

Fantastic. Smelling amazing.

I love this golden crust from the Parmesan.

You can see the little porcini poking through.

It actually reeks of these wonderful mushrooms.

I'm so looking forward to this.

Try and spread the crust around because it's the best bit.

It smells fantastic.

A little extra Parmesan.

The porcini really come through in this dish.

It's a very, very delicious, very special dish of pasta.

Cooked this way,

pasta can be transformed into something really special.

Dried porcini adds punch and it's a great meal for all the family.

Now, time for another pudding.

With cookies and cream, chocolate and fudge,

these brownies from Lorraine Pascale are just

fantastically rich and delicious.

Everyone will love them.

So, making the brownies couldn't be easier.

I've melted 165g of butter in the pan.

And then turned the heat off.

I'm just finishing grating 200g of dark chocolate.

When you go to the cooking section where all the flour is

in the supermarket, often they have baking chocolate.

Avoid that, because it just doesn't taste very good at all.

So I don't like bains-marie and all that for melting my chocolate.

This is just a super-quick way of getting your chocolate melted.

I've got three eggs in here and two yolks.

And my favourite thing, the vanilla pod.

Just all the way down the centre of the pod.

Split it open and then get the back of the knife

and scrape it off.

Get that whisking. I'm going to make a sort of foam,

because there's no raising agent in this.

So the only air it's going to get is from whisking.

Brownie purists will shoot me down in flames,

but I like to use brown sugar for my brownies.

It just gives a bit more of a caramelised flavour.

165g.

This is now perfect.

It's really important to add the sugar in two lots.

This way, you won't knock out all the air

and you'll give it a chance to whisk up again in between goes.

I can't tell you how much I love brownies.

I love experimenting as well.

I've had a few disasters, but this one really works.

I bung the other half in

and give it another whisk.

So I'm not looking for this to increase, like, seven times,

like a big meringue, but it will get a little bit more voluminous.

See how that's frothed up a little bit,

but it's still got some lovely bubbles in there.

And my chocolate's all melted.

Because we don't want to knock the bubbles out,

just pour the chocolate around the edge of the bowl.

Oh, look at that.

I'll have that later with a teaspoon.

Two tablespoons of flour.

And I really never bother sifting.

And one of cocoa powder for extra chocolateyness.

A little pinch of salt.

And we're going to fold it all together.

Now, folding is very different to mixing,

it's a very slow and gentle process.

A lot of people use metal spoons but, for me,

I prefer a spatula because you can really

scrape down to the bottom of the bowl, like that.

And it does take a little bit of time, but that's fine.

Keep folding it around.

So, that will do for me.

There's a few lumps in there,

but there's no point losing sleep over that.

Next, add the chocolate and cream cookies.

So, just crumble them in.

I've got 100g here.

I like to put half in now and then, once I've popped the mix it a tin,

I crumble some more in afterwards.

So, just a few more cookies on top.

And then I'll pop it into the oven for about 25 to 30 minutes

at 180 degrees. But do check after about 20 minutes,

because brownies need to have a bit of gooeyness in the middle

and you don't want to overcome them, and ovens vary so much.

Once they're done, leave them to cool completely in the tin.

Then cut them up.

And sprinkle them with icing sugar.

There.

Mmm! Dense, gooey, fudgey,

you're going to have to excuse me.

I've got brownies to eat.

We've got even more chocolate fudge coming up later

but, first, a bake for those of you who love a good French cheese

that's got a bit of punch to it.

These are Rachel Khoo's cheese and potato nests,

or, in the original name, nids de tartiflette.

Tartiflette is a dish which was created in the 1980s

by the Reblochon cheesemakers.

Reblochon is a smelly French cheese.

Yes, it's pretty smelly but super yummy.

You need about half a kilo of waxy potatoes.

So I'm going to julienne my potatoes,

make them into little matchsticks on my mandolin.

If you don't have a mandolin, you could slice it by hand.

You can see

it looks a bit like a twig.

I find that potatoes sliced on a mandolin make the best shaped nests.

Finely chop an onion.

Whack them in the pan.

Garlic.

Smelly work, this.

Smelly onions, smelly cheese, smelly garlic

but it makes for an extra tasty dish.

Just put this on the hob.

I'm going to throw in a bay leaf, too.

While that starts cooking, I'm going to cut up my lardons.

While that's sizzling away,

I'm going to cut up my stinky Reblochon cheese.

Look at that.

Quite squashy in the middle.

Yum.

You'll need 250g of Reblochon, which comes from the Alps.

If you don't like Reblochon,

you could use a Brie, Camembert.

OK, that's the cheese done.

I'm going to throw in 100ml of dry white wine

and you just want to cook that

until there's about a tablespoon of liquid left.

My wine's reduced down and I'm going to add my potatoes.

I'm going to pour this into the bowl.

And I've got to fish out the bay leaf.

Now, this is what you should do before you add the potatoes.

Ah, yes, found you.

OK, throw in the cheese.

God, look at all that cheese.

You only live once.

That's what they say.

Give it a stir.

Grab your tin.

The tins are already buttered, so just load up each section.

Overfill it

because it kind of shrinks a little bit.

Might not be the prettiest of dishes,

but when it tastes this good, who cares?

In the oven they go.

And I'm going to clean up.

After about 15 minutes, they'll be cooked.

It smells certainly quite cheesy now.

Let's have a look.

Ooh, it's bubbling away.

They look amazing.

Oh, yummy. Good stuff. All right.

I'm going to scoop one out.

Scoop it all out.

It's like heaven on a plate.

So I've got Reblochon cheese, which is melted,

smoky bacon flavour,

bit of crunch from the potato on the top,

but then it's all kind of soft and cooked in the middle.

Delicious.

What these little tartiflettes lack in looks, they make up for in taste.

A delicious springtime lunch.

We've now reached our final bake of the day and it's pretty spectacular.

It's a Bake Off masterclass when Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood show us

how to pull off a real work of art,

a three-tier chocolate fudge gateau.

So on to our Showstopper cake.

You've chosen a really lovely chocolate cake.

It's got to be bold and beautiful,

so I thought three layers, three tiers of chocolate

and a white chocolate ganache

and you're quite good at tempering chocolate.

-We'll do a design around the outside.

-OK.

Now, this cake is something I've been making for years.

I call it my chocolate fudge cake.

It's a very good base for a cake.

It's lovely and moist, it's really chocolatey

and I find, to make a good chocolate flavour, to use cocoa,

so if you can measure me 125g of cocoa

and that gives a strong chocolate flavour.

Into the cocoa, stir 200ml of boiling water.

And it should be a thick paste.

Add six large eggs, 100ml of milk,

350g of self-raising flour

and a tablespoon of baking powder.

-That is...

-Do you want a tablespoon?

-One tablespoon.

-One tablespoon, OK.

I've never heard of it. I've never heard of it. I'm doing it now!

What are you like?!

Nagging. Nagging and seeking perfection.

Yes, you are.

Add 550g of caster sugar

and 200g of softened butter.

So, down with the top.

I'm going to speed that up for a moment.

Mary's all-in-one method using extra baking powder,

means you only need to do one mix of the ingredients

to guarantee you a rich, chocolatey sponge.

What are you looking for when you're mixing it?

What consistency? What texture are you looking for?

It's a soft, dropping batter.

That looks right to me.

Can I just have a look at that inside?

Such a nice colour.

Mary gets the perfect cake height

by filling two 20cm sandwich tins to halfway...

-It's a lovely mixture, isn't it?

-It is.

..and one 10cm and one 15cm cake tin to two-thirds full.

The 20cm tins need 25-30 minutes,

the 10cm tin needs 35-40 minutes

and the 15cm tin needs 45-50 minutes.

So our fudge cakes are beautifully baked, nice and level on top

and they need to be stone cold.

I'm now going to make some white chocolate ganache.

Now, that can be very tricky to make

but I've evolved a recipe that is foolproof.

I've got 300ml of double cream here.

Pour the cream in a pan and heat until it's hand-hot,

then break up 400g of white chocolate.

I'm not accounting for any that you might eat en route.

Add to the pan and stir until it's dissolved.

You see I've still got my hand here touching the side of the pan,

so you realise it's not getting too hot.

Because of its high fat content,

white chocolate can easily split, so be careful.

As soon as the chocolate is fully melted,

pour into a bowl and let it set in the fridge.

Going to get that last little drop out.

-Looks like curd, doesn't it, at this stage.

-Lovely.

So that needs to get absolutely cold.

Once cooled, beat it into 300g of cream cheese a spoonful at a time.

Do you want to mix and I'll put it in?

-I think I'd rather you mixed and I put it in.

-OK, then.

Now, that looks absolutely perfect.

The consistency that we want.

Look, it's just sort of spreadable

and we'll be able to get a nice finish to that cake.

Basically, what we're going to do is build a collar

to go around the side of your beautiful chocolate cake.

Tempering is the process of heating and cooling chocolate

to create a high shine and a good snap.

Once it's melted, we take it up to 47.

Once it reaches 47, I'll just take it off the heat

and then it needs to cool down to 31.

At 31 degrees C, you can then pipe it,

do something with it and then it'll set.

Tempering creates new small crystals in the chocolate

that gives it its professional-looking finish.

Nearly there. 46.

Going over 47 degrees risks burning the chocolate

and making it lumpy and bitter.

47 and off it comes.

Rest of the buttons will go in there

and we need to cool that down to 31.

Paul's using the seeding method of tempering, adding cold chocolate.

It's like adding ice cubes to your gin and tonic.

-You remember that, Mary?

-I do. Very well.

There's no sign of any now.

If you look at that now, it just dropped below 31,

so we're now good to go.

Pipe directly onto acetate

which has been marked out to the height of the collar.

And what short of shop would sell acetate?

-Model shops would have it.

-Model shops.

-OK.

Acetate provides a flexible template for your tempered chocolate,

allowing you to wrap it around the cake.

Literally, just do it in circles.

Excuse me, Mary.

And then once I've done that, I'm going to strengthen it

by just going over the bottom bit a little bit thicker, you know,

because what we don't want to do is see this thing collapse.

Oh, could you straighten out that acetate for me, please?

That's it. Thank you. Just to flatten it down a bit.

You can do anything on acetate. You can do someone's name.

Mary.

You don't need any help with the spelling?

I've got a long way to go, you know?

I'll still be here to keep an eye on you.

The piped chocolate needs to be left to set at room temperature.

Time to assemble the cakes.

-Gosh, they feel lovely and squidgy and fresh.

-Yeah, they do.

These are quite soft at the edge, which is as they should be.

Slice in half the 10cm and the 15cm cakes.

Sawing action backwards and forwards.

So we've got a bowl full of icing here.

Half will do to cover the whole cake

-and the rest will do to sandwich the layers.

-OK.

-Spreads beautifully, doesn't it?

-It does.

Sandwich each layer together.

This is going to taste good, Mary. I just know it is.

Then we have our diddy little...

Been just a little bit too generous there, haven't I?

Now we come to the assembly.

Heated and sieved apricot jam is used to stick the cakes together.

Right, that's on top.

Also known as masking jam,

it helps prevent the crumbs getting into the icing.

So I'm going to start here.

Take your time to ensure your icing is even.

Paul, this is taking me a long time, because it's very, very fresh to do.

-How about you starting on the other side?

-I'll try.

We'll put the bowl between us.

So I'm just finishing that off.

So that's fine. It's all ready for your beautiful finish.

What we're going to do is start one side here, feed this...

I'm going in a bit blind, am I still on target there?

You're on target and you're level.

Put the bottom one on now.

Gently coax it round.

What I'm going to do is just gently peel off.

Got to be careful.

It's looking good.

I feel like giving you a big clap.

If you don't have a thermometer,

Mary has a simple tip to produce elegant chocolate curls.

I've been doing a bit of experimenting

and I find a combination of half chocolate cake covering

and half a less expensive chocolate

with about cocoa solids between 35 and 40.

That is put in a bowl over hot water, melted together,

then poured out like that,

and then, if you take a cheeseparer - this one was bought for £1.50 -

and then you just drag it across the top.

I think that's rather pretty with the little pleating on it.

So press it down really, really hard.

Give it a little wriggle.

Really big bold rolls.

I think you could put some on the top.

Just pile them up.

You're known for dusting flour all over the place with your hand.

I'll do it with icing sugar over the top.

It just gives a little finish like snow.

Such a special occasion.

That, I think, is a true Showstopper.

It looks great. You'll certainly be through to the next round

-and possibly even star baker. Well done, Mary.

-Thank you.