Episode 19 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.

We've got some fantastic bakes coming up for you today.

We've got Ainsley Harriott baking a lovely looking fig and honey tart.

There's a ham and mushroom pie from Tom Kerridge.

Try and make sure that you get that little bull's-eye

right in the middle. Just a little bit off there.

Definitely not going to get a 501 finish.

Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood show us how to bake a fraisier cake.

-Can I help you there, Mary?

-No, because you're going to show me up

-and do it about ten times quicker.

-I love piping.

I know, well, I'm going to let you pipe the top, the chocolate part.

James Martin makes a traditional ginger parkin with rhubarb.

And there's a goat's cheese and chive souffle from the Hairy Bikers.

You know, this is cheese, but it's cheese with its best suit on.

Even makes you think posh, doesn't it?

And it's cheese we are starting off with today, with a rather enticing

scone recipe from Nigel Slater, who is a bit of a cheese obsessive.

It's a good job I don't work in a cheese shop.

I'd take every last scrap home, but after meeting Morgan

during my weekly shop, I realise my fantasy is her daily reality.

Oh, look at that!

So, these are all the ones that aren't pretty enough

for the cabinet, but they're fantastic still.

So I'd like to help her out, with the dilemma of how to be creative

in getting every last bit from the cheese she takes home.

-What's that?

-Shropshire blue.

-So quite strongly flavoured.

-Yes, gorgeous.

-Good.

-That's a bit of Cheddar.

-Yes.

-What's that?

That is really strongly smoked cheese.

-And you've got, goodness me, what's that?

-Gouda.

That is so firm I could almost grate it.

'I've got rich pickings here,

'but this recipe will work well with whatever remnants

'you've got spare in the fridge.

'I just have to seek out a few other simple ingredient.'

OK, you've got some flour here.

'I'm using 450g of plain flour.'

-Have you by any chance got any baking powder?

-I think we do.

I'm going to put about four teaspoonfuls of baking powder in here,

which looks like a huge amount. That's all we need.

Then I just need some butter.

I need 85g of this.

So what is this you're rustling up?

-I am making a big cheese scone.

-Cool.

Or "scone", depending on which part of the country you come from.

Is there anything I can do to help?

-Would you crumble a mixture of your cheeses?

-Yes.

-It just needs to fleck through the dough.

-OK.

I'm just going to rub this butter into the flour

with my fingertips,

-until it resembles sort of coarse fresh breadcrumbs.

-Yes.

It's the lovely thing about making scones is that they are so quick.

-And easy as well.

-And very easy.

-I think one of the very first things I made, actually.

-Really?

Yes, I was lucky enough to be allowed to do domestic science

at school, as it was called in those days

and it was one of the very first things we made.

Baking scones with Miss Adams.

I remember it well.

Finally this giant savoury scone will need 350ml of milk.

What I'm after is a dough that is firm enough to roll into a ball,

but soft enough for me to pat down into a big scone.

So you're quite happy to put different cheeses into one recipe?

Yes. I think it works quite well,

but it's good having you here as well because we have

used cheese in a lot of recipes but you do run out of ideas.

Once you've done quiche four times, it gets a bit boring.

So what I am doing here is making something that I might

eat on the side with a sort of an autumnal vegetable stew.

'Once I've got a good doughy texture I just work in the crumbled cheese.

'Then it's almost ready to go into the oven

'on a baking dish lined with flour.'

-Make this into a kind of rough round I this.

-Yes.

Nothing too perfect.

I don't really do perfect.

It looks amazing already.

I'm going to keep him craggy because that's how I like my food.

Dabbing a little of the milk will help to give a fine glaze.

'Finally, a bit of that Gouda I spotted earlier

'will grate wonderfully here.'

Grate it, don't waste it.

'And scoring it will help the scone break-up into pieces.

'Great for sharing.'

Half an hour is all it takes

for this to transform into a melting showpiece.

OK.

-That's amazing.

-Smells good.

It smells really good. Looks scrummy.

-Shall I break it open and see?

-Yes.

-What we've got inside.

-Oh.

-Oh, that's nice.

Yes. So, dig in.

Right.

That's really good.

Oh, I love the Shropshire blue and the Gouda is amazing.

-Have you got any kind of pickles or chutney or something like that?

-Yes.

Quite a few. I've got quince.

-Quince cheese, that would be fantastic.

-Yes.

-Onion marmalade.

-Yes.

-Apple and brandy chutney.

-Spicy red onion.

-Smells amazing.

I can feel a tasting game coming on.

-Mmm.

-Mmm.

-Works with the quince.

-Works with the apple.

I'm going to try it with mango.

Spicy red onion marmalade, amazing.

-Now, I'm not sure about that mango, I've got to be honest with you.

-Really?

This is fun.

It is that thing, the joy I get from using up little bits

and not chucking them in the bin.

This is the ultimate comfort food.

If you're ever wondering how to use up every last bit

of the week's cheese, this scone could just be the answer.

So, a scone that works with every kind of pickle except mango.

That's very unlike Nigel, normally he loves odd combinations.

There's nothing odd about the next two ingredients being used together,

figs and honey, a classic combination

and always delicious, especially in this tart made by Ainsley Harriott.

Figs are one of my favourite fruits, and the reason I like

this particular recipe is the idea of nestling them inside

a beautiful sweet pastry tart, with a base of ground almonds,

and I've got a wonderful reduction of honey,

that wild flower honey, spread onto the figs.

All those bees, all that hard work they've done,

hasn't gone to waste. First of all I'm going to prepare the pastry.

I'll get that butter.

'Add plain flour, icing sugar and butter to a blender.'

And what I prefer to do is pulse it instead of just

leaving my machine running. Let me show you.

Be careful, there is a very sharp blade in there but look at that.

It really is like fine breadcrumbs.

'To bind the mixture, add beaten egg... '

'..and then blitz again until the mixture starts to stick together

'and can be rolled into a ball.'

'After chilling for 15 minutes, roll out onto a floured surface.'

200 degrees Centigrade, 400 degrees Fahrenheit,

Gas Mark six, if you've got an old-style gas oven.

'After baking for 15 minutes, glaze the pastry cases with

'the leftover beaten egg and cook again for a further ten minutes.'

'Meanwhile I can get on with my orange and honey glaze.'

This is a really, really good little tip.

That's my tablespoon there, OK? My measuring tablespoon.

And you put a little bit of oil on that.

Just a touch of oil.

What that actually will do is protect your spoon

so your honey won't stick to it.

Three tablespoons of honey.

Look at that. It just flies off the spoon.

'To the honey add a few knobs of butter

'and some freshly squeezed orange juice.'

Or, if you've got loads of mates coming round

and it's for a bit of an adult supper, then why not use

just a little bit of orange juice and a little bit of orange liquor?

Perfect.

'So, whilst that's heating up, I can prepare my figs.

I've just cut the top off there,

and I want to cut these into six, but you don't want to cut

all the way through, so a little bit of control here.

Turn that around and one half of it cut into three,

follow the knife almost all the way down, you can see that,

and you can just open that up like a little flower, can you see that?

I wish you were here now.

I can just smell that honey is coming alive now,

it's just beginning to release its lovely aromas.

'Next, line of the pastry cases with some ground almonds.

I'm just using the back of the spoon to push it into the corners

so this soaks up all that lovely juice

and then it doesn't seep through into your pastry

because you don't want soggy pastry, soggy pastry is awful, isn't it?

I can't be bothered with that.

We're just going to pick that up now

and just sit that inside our pastry case.

That's quite syrupy now, look at that. There you go.

Just spoon that around like that.

Remember you've got the ground almonds on the base there,

to soak up any of these juices,

but try and get most of that on top of your figs.

It's interesting that in this country

we don't tend to eat that many figs, do we?

But it's such a gorgeous fruit.

I suppose if I wanted to use something alternative

I might use something like a damson or maybe a bit of peach.

'And pop those back into the oven for a further 10-15 minutes.'

Oh!

Look at that.

The juice has just started to come out and

the honey just kind of raises up into your nostrils, just gorgeous.

'And for the finishing touches I'm adding a dollop of creme fraiche,

'a touch of orange zest

'and finally a drizzle of my scrumptious honey glaze.'

Mmm.

Just a little bit more.

There you have it.

My caramelised fig and wild honey tart.

As with figs and honey, our next bake has another classic pairing,

ham and mushroom.

Used together today in a wonderful pie, baked by Tom Kerridge.

Now, ham and mushroom pie really is hard to beat, but I've got

a little extra tweak that's going to make this dish even tastier.

'I want my pastry to be just as tasty as the filling,

'so to get some real powerful flavours in there

'I'm adding mushroom powder.'

Now you can buy dried mushrooms already powdered

but I'm just going to blitz these up in a spice grinder.

'These are dried porcini mushrooms. A quick blitz and they're done.'

'I'm making shortcrust pastry,

'so just add flour and butter to your magic ingredient.'

Now, this dried mushroom really is going to make a difference to the pastry mix.

It's going to give it a really nice depth,

an earthy kind of flavour that runs through the pie.

'Just bring it all together with some egg and water.'

Just as it's beginning to lump up a little bit,

just finish working it together with your hands.

You can just feel the pastry come together.

It's nice, soft, it's easy to work with.

'And while that chillaxes in the fridge, I can crack on with

'my pie filling, and this pie, like Paul's,

'is going to have loads of it.

'Starting with these meaty chestnut mushrooms,

'fried up first in lots of lovely butter.'

So they get these beautiful little brown caramelised little tinges

on the outside, and that starts off that lovely

sweet, nutty, mushroomy flavour.

That's going to be at the heart and soul of this lovely pie.

'Once cooked, remove the mushrooms from the pan

'and chuck in some onion.'

You know it's quite strong cos as you chop it,

it should make you want to cry a little bit.

That's all right, just don't let your mates see.

Give your onions a quick fry up.

You can see those onions have started to brown from the mushrooms,

it's just taken on all that kind of mushroom juice and flavour.

So, again, very simple ingredients but every little bit

we're trying to get as much flavour out of it as possible.

'Mushrooms and onions done, it's time to move onto my pie's rich sauce.

'This one starts off with a simple white sauce and is pimped up

'with ham stock, double cream, white wine and mustard.'

More flavour, more taste, more rich.

Just more!

It smells lovely.

'All this needs now is some freshly chopped thyme and some proper ham.'

Nice, big chunks, so when you eat it you've got lovely, crumbly,

flaky pastry and a massive cube of lovely ham.

'Then whack the whole lot into the white sauce.

'Give it a stir and it's job done.'

Now, it's important to stick this into the fridge

and leave it to go cold cos otherwise,

when you roll the pastry out and you put the filling in,

if it's warm the pastry will start to go soft

And you won't get a nice crispy, crunchy pastry.

'While the filling relaxes I can get on with rolling out my pastry.'

That already looks like it's going to taste of mushrooms.

'Just keep a third back to make the lid later,

'and roll out the rest.'

Now, this is a great pie to be making

if you've got friends coming over for a spot of lunch.

You can make it up in advance and leave it in the fridge,

and stick it in the oven about 45 minutes before they're coming.

Job done.

'All this needs now is a proper helping of filling.'

Don't be shy, get it all in.

There's nothing worse than a stingy, tight-fisted pie.

'Then roll out a lid to keep it all in there.'

A pie without a lid is not a pie, it's a tart.

Just saying.

'And remember to cut a hole in the middle to let out any steam.

'Then brush the edge with egg wash and stick it on top.'

Roll the pastry up.

Make it look like you're well professional

and that you've worked in a pie shop for years.

I look like I've worked in a pie shop for years.

'Coat it with egg wash and sprinkle on some thyme leaves and a bit of sea salt.'

Can't wait to get that cooked.

'Then whack it in the oven at 190 degrees.'

I love pies.

'And 45 minutes later, it'll be done.'

There you go, look.

Beautiful mushroom pie.

If you've got friends coming round for lunch,

they're going to be well happy with that.

The kind of pie that everyone loves from Tom there.

And now another favourite. Yorkshire pudding.

But this isn't the sort that goes with your roast beef on a Sunday.

This is a traditional Yorkshire recipe called a parkin.

It has been around in the North of England for centuries

but, still, some in the South won't have come across it before.

So, to set the right, let's look at this version

which comes from James Martin and sees him getting all nostalgic.

Now, this is parkin. It's one of my grandmother's old recipes.

It's a classic, really,

one that's often served at Bonfire Night in Yorkshire,

but it's really sort of an adaption, I suppose, of, sort of, gingerbread.

It's got the same sort of flavours.

She used to put it in a tin and all the kids used to dive into it.

Just like my granny, I'm losing light brown sugar,

rather than dark brown. The molasses flavour can be a bit too much.

The same amount of butter goes in.

For that supreme stickiness, I like a heart-stopping combo

of three parts golden syrup to one part black treacle.

A little of the treacle's burnt caramel taste goes a long way.

What you need to do now is just warm this up.

Take the entire lot...

All we're going to do is melt the butter, sugar and the golden syrup.

What we don't want to be doing is boiling it.

If we boil anything like this, you really unbalance the recipe.

It's important to just warm it.

So, do this on a really low heat to start off with.

Now, this is a recipe that I've never changed.

It is my grandmother's,

probably, hence, it was my great grandmother's recipe.

Just brings back so many memories...of my childhood.

There always used to be a bit of a battle who was the best baker,

my granny or my auntie.

Still, to this day, I'm not going to mention who was best.

Now for the dry ingredients.

Starting with oats and self-raising flour.

Now for our spices.

This is where you get the kick.

When you add dry ginger in anything, you not only get the flavour

but you get this kick at the back of your throat.

That's what parkin is really good for.

Especially, when we had it around Bonfire Night to warm you up.

Then a teaspoon each of ground nutmeg and mixed spice.

Before cracking in two eggs.

Then I add a splash of milk and, finally, a pinch of salt.

Then, before I mix everything together,

you need to butter the tin.

For that, just use some softened butter.

Now, I don't really use pastry brushes. Use your fingers.

They were invented before fancy brushes.

Then what we can do is combine all the ingredients now.

So, chuck everything in.

The sugar's not really dissolved.

All you're doing is just melting the butter. Mix this together now.

And I would always do this by hand.

If you do this by machine, you're going to break-up the oats in there.

You won't get that, sort of, texture to your parkin, as well.

Got to try it.

Because it just tastes fantastic with that spice.

Give it a good quick mix.

And then pour it into your tin.

You can see from the mixture, it's actually quite a wet mix.

This means that it's got to cook slightly longer

than a normal cake mix.

Reduce the temperature to stop it from burning.

Throw it in the oven.

The parkin needs about an hour and a quarter to cook.

If I was doing this like my granny, all my work would be done now.

But I've got to fancy this up. I've got to use Yorkshire's veg.

This is what this is classed as.

Rhubarb. We produce some of the best in the world in Yorkshire.

People have really fallen out of favour with rhubarb.

Mainly because of its taste.

I don't think people put enough sugar into it.

That's why it really lends itself together with this.

I prefer rhubarb in batons.

To cook it, I get a pan and pop in some butter.

Water and sugar.

Plus, a bit of orange zest,

which really enhances the rhubarb's flavour.

Then I poach it, for just a few minutes.

So, while that's gently poaching,

I'm going to do the best part of this dish,

which is the sauce to go with it.

For that, we use a combination of golden syrup,

the same spices, and cider.

Now, my granny wasn't a drinker.

She had a bit of a sherry now and then,

but cider was definitely always in her cupboard.

Not really to drink, but to cook with.

All you do with this, really, is bring it to the boil

and you end up with this amazing spiced syrup

that you can serve with the rhubarb.

So, this rhubarb is cooked.

Take it off the heat.

That's what you're looking for.

Something that is not a load of mush.

Too often with rhubarb,

people just cook it to death.

You end up with this horrible stew in the bottom.

The worst thing you can possibly buy is tinned rhubarb.

That is up there with horseradish for me. Food of the devil.

It's food of the gods!

Best of all, it's from my neck of the woods.

Now, this is one I made earlier. Now, the key to this

is leaving it for at least a couple days, five if possible.

You get this tackiness to the parkin

which is what really separates it apart from most other cakes.

Just a nice little piece on this.

You got this wonderful rhubarb here.

And then some of this amazing syrup.

Now, this, to be honest, is really fantastic.

Just vanilla ice cream.

You just put a spoonful on there.

It's a little bit more fancy than what granny used to give us.

But times have moved on. We've evolved. We've got cars now.

But, fundamentally,

parkin should always tastes same.

Think I've got it. It's as good as hers.

Now, our next bake includes something

that's a bit of an acquired taste.

Goat's cheese. Some love it. Others, not so much.

I like the milder ones,

but can you guess how the Hairy Bikers feel about it?

Well, of course, they love it.

And this is their goat's cheese and chive souffle.

There is no simpler meal than cheese

but, if you really want to push the boat out,

what better way to celebrate great British cheeses than a souffle?

The souffle! It's like the Hyacinth Bucket of the cheese cookery world.

The French may have invented the souffle,

but we've been cooking souffle since the early 19th-century

and there's no souffle better than ours, which is...

Goat's cheese and chive souffle.

The thing is, I think chefs over the years have encouraged people

to think it's unobtainable, it's difficult. It's not!

It's not. No. And, you know what?

We're going to show you why it's not.

You know why? Because it's not that hard.

And souffles generally all start with infused milk.

Milk that's infused.

What we do is push certain flavours through that milk

that pervades the whole entity of our risen Vesuvial mass.

Oh, yes! The souffle.

Milk goes in a pan. We bring this to a boil.

I'll get a small onion.

We're going to make, like, a little bouquet, a little bunch of thyme.

So we infuse the milk with onion, thyme and bay.

I mean, the French were making souffles

as early as the late 18th century.

And that great French cook Beauvilliers.

He gave us his recipes for souffles.

I wish I was called Dave Beauvilliers.

So much more romantic, isn't it?

Dave Beauvilliers would be a racing driver. Do you know what I mean?

Thyme, in milk, to infuse.

Onion.

The leaf of bay.

Look in there, boilio de milkio!

Bring the milk to a gentle simmer, and remove from the heat.

Just leave that for 15 minutes

and you'll have a pan of infused milk to make your sauce.

Shall we have a sit down?

Well, I think that has experienced an infusion transfusion.

-I think it properly has.

-I shall strain it off.

-Marvellous.

Use this little pan here.

Now, we are so confident

that our souffle is going to rise,

it's going to go beyond the dish. A souffle dish.

It's going to be massive. We want it up to there.

So, what I've done is, we've built an extension to the dish.

It's just a piece of greaseproof paper. Or baking parchment.

Folded over and tied round.

So, it's effectively, given us a souffle dish like a chimney.

Now, I've really got to liberally cover that with butter.

So, while Dave's doing that, I'm going to make a cheese sauce.

Same gig as usual. Start with a roux.

And got to be thick, eh?

-It's a special white sauce, isn't it?

-It is. It's beautiful.

British goat's cheese.

That's a treasure, isn't it?

-It is.

-Look at that!

-Absolutely gorgeous.

Look at the colour of it.

Look at it. It's like a bleached polar bear, isn't it?

Can it get any whiter or purer?

You know.

Lots of butter. The souffle. It's a dish with pretence, isn't it?

I can't even say "souffle". You know? Even I go French on a souffle!

Un souffle!

'Next, add 50 grams of plain flour to the melted butter.

'Then separate four eggs and leave to one side.'

Right, what I'm going to start to do now is just add this

beautiful infused milk to our roux.

Ooh.

Look at that.

That's what we mean when we mean thick.

-Could put windows in with that, couldn't you?

-You could, aye.

By heck, this cheese is good!

It's a useful creature, the goat.

It's been around since Neolithic times

and, do you know, it's the most eaten meat on the planet?

I don't know why it's never really caught on in Britain.

Because, by crikey, it's tasty.

It is. I mean, you can eat its meat, it produces milk...

It's no good at dancing though.

No, no. that's true. You cannot dance with it.

-And they do smell, goats.

-They do.

-They do, they honk.

And do you know, interesting thing, a goat can die of loneliness.

How mad is that? Because they're a herd creature, you see?

So if you've got a goat and you've only got one of them and he's

looking a bit miserable, buy another one because they need a friend.

Put half of this cheese into here to make an even thicker sauce.

Quite how, I'm not entirely sure! Put it in there, like that, look.

Kingy, I can't resist, I think

I've just got to have a taste of this wonderful cheese.

People say goat's cheese...

I think they get confused with the Greek feta,

they think it's going to be salty.

And crumbly. This just melts in your mouth.

-Beautiful.

-Mm.

-Right, mate. We're ready for them eggs.

-Right. Now...

-Yolks.

-Take it off the heat and just add these bit by bit.

And whisk like Billy-oh. Who was Billy-oh, I wonder?

Look at that.

It's turned this beautiful slightly golden colour

and lustre with those egg yolks.

Now, remember, it is off the heat now.

We don't want to cook this any more at this point. Chives.

Chives are wonderful.

And the chive is the smallest member of the onion family.

Again, it's a food...

It's a marriage, with the goat's cheese, made in heaven.

-I'll not be shy with the chives, eh?

-Oh, no. Absolutely.

Just whisk them in

to the cheese mixture.

It's funny, it's so heavy that you begin to think -

that's never going to rise!

It is!

'Next, whisk the egg whites up in to stiff peaks

'and a pinch of salt, as this will help to firm up the eggs.'

Oh, I think we're there. Don't overdo it.

They're likely to go dry and then it'll turn back to liquid.

Now, is this firm enough to stay in the bowl without it falling out?

Yes, it is! That's perfect.

Housewives all over the country, children,

and men who cook, have a go, it's a laugh!

Now, we put one spoonful in and you can mix it in quite roughly.

-That's just to get it moving cos that's quite stiff.

-That's it.

Now, into that, we fold in the remaining goat's cheese.

This is the chunks.

Now, remember, the rest of the cheese is in the sauce, but

we want, like, little cheesy chunky bits to come through the souffle.

And then we're going to fold the egg whites in.

Now, Delia Smith always says you always fold with a metal implement.

Why? Because it's got a thin edge. The thin edge,

and you fold like Kingy is, with a cutting movement.

The cutting movement, folding, you're folding, you're not mixing.

And we want to lose as little of this volume as we can.

So, now, we start the fold. So, look, like that. One...

It's a fine balance, isn't it?

And just be patient with it. Don't be hasty.

-I think that's pretty even, isn't it?

-Oh, aye.

'Finally, fill the pre-prepared buttered dish with the mixture.'

Just for that little bit extra,

we're going to sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Now, it's important the parmesan cheese doesn't touch the born paper.

If it does, it'll stick, so keep the parmesan cheese around the centre.

if it sticks, it'll stop the souffle rising.

And put this into a preheated oven,

200 degrees Celsius in a fan oven, 220 in a non, a hot oven.

And put it in there for half an hour.

Now, you shut the door and leave it!

-Ho-ho-ho! You know what I said about it rising?

-Yeah.

We weren't kidding you.

Look at that. That's a souffle. Go on, Kingy.

With all the quality of a provincial mayoress, cut the string.

We declare this souffle open. Now, look at that!

Oh, man! What a beautiful, lovely, gorgeousness!

That is beautiful, isn't it?

But inside, it's just going to wobble.

Are we ready?

Pfoosh!

That's a souffle!

Look at it.

It's cooked on the outside, it's just cooked so in the middle.

-I guarantee a taste of paradise.

-Oh!

-Oh!

Right.

But you know, this is cheese, but it's cheese with its best suit on.

-Even makes you think posh, doesn't it?

-It does.

It's hot.

-Oh, makes every night an occasion, doesn't it?

-Mm.

-Mm!

-Now, there we have it.

-There's now cheesy about this.

This dish is best served with a frilly green salad,

dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette.

Just look at that golden mountain of fluffiness!

And now our final bake of the day

and it's appropriate that this is a Bake Off masterclass

because it's definitely not easy. It's a Fraisier,

one of the most impressive looking cakes you could ever attempt.

Even Paul Hollywood needs help making one of these,

but luckily Mary Berry knows exactly what she's doing.

First of all, roll out a thin disc of marzipan

and draw around the base of the cake tin,

so that the circle will perfectly fit on the top of your cake.

Place on a baking tray

and leave to chill in the fridge whilst you make the Genoese sponge.

Now, a classic Genoese is just eggs with flour and sugar and butter.

And you make it over hot water.

If you've got a powerful machine, you can

do it just by whisking the eggs and sugar to start with.

Crack four eggs into a bowl and get all the zest off two lemons.

You will need their juice for the lemon syrup later.

Measure out 125 of caster sugar and add to the eggs.

Mix it on full power, so that you get good volume.

There we are, that's it.

Now, you can see it's lovely and thick. You can overbeat it.

If you get it really firm, almost like meringue,

you won't get the flour in.

Sift in 125 grams of self-raising flour, a little bit at a time.

If you add all the flour at once,

it's likely to go in in pockets, so just a little like that.

When I made this when I was trained, we used plain flour

and you used just the volume of the eggs to rise the sponge.

-Yeah.

-But I find now we all use self-raising flour, why not

use it and get the extra rise and you know it works every time.

Add the melted but slightly cooled butter to the sponge mixture.

If added whilst hot, you'll lose the volume of the mix.

It's melted, but it's not runny, not oily, just very, very soft.

At this stage, it just looks like a normal whisked sponge that

you would use for a Swiss roll.

But adding the butter makes it a Genoese.

Gentle folding the mixture to get all that in.

This is the danger point because if you go on working in the butter,

-the volume will go down and you won't get such a good rise.

-Mm-hm.

Gently pour the mixture into a greased and lined cake tin.

Don't pour the mixture into the tin from a great height

because the air bubbles will be stretched and burst.

Do it close to the tin.

If you do see a little bit of flour in it, just give it a little stir.

It goes in the oven at 160 fan, that's four gas,

and it'll take about 35 minutes.

-Looks good, Mary.

-Oh, good! Sigh of relief.

You can tell the cake is baked, as it will shrink

away from the sides of the tin and will spring back when pressed.

And you expect that slightly roundedness with it, Genoese.

Leave the cake in the tin to cool whilst you make the lemon syrup.

Juice the two lemons that were zested earlier

and measure out 75 grams of caster sugar.

Heat together in 70ml of water until it's all dissolved.

Leave that to cool, as you make your enriched creme patissiere.

I'm going to start off by putting 600ml of milk into the pan here.

Then I'm going to put a vanilla pod into the milk

and those seeds are going to add flavour.

Heat the milk until just below boiling point.

Measure out 180 grams of caster sugar

and 100 grams of corn flour to thicken it.

I mean, I use a lot of creme patissiere

when I'm making Danish pastries, you know. I think it tastes so good.

Oh, I think it's lovely.

And if you get the consistency right, it cuts through like a dream.

Now, I've found that in order to get this beautifully smooth,

it's a good idea to coat the corn flour in sugar.

Otherwise, the corn flour can go in in lumps.

So that's just mixing it together like that before the eggs go in.

Then I'm going to add four eggs and two egg yolks.

So there we've got the four eggs in there, two extra yolks.

That's just to enrich it.

And you just go on mixing until it's really, really smooth.

That's really well mixed. There's no flecks of corn flour.

-It does help to put that sugar and corn flour in first.

-Yeah.

Pour the hot milk on to the cold egg mixture,

so that the eggs don't scramble.

You can use a sieve to catch the vanilla pod and keep whisking.

Pour back into the saucepan and stir continuously,

so that it doesn't go lumpy.

Even though there's a lot of egg in there,

the corn flour is stabilising that and it will gradually thicken.

I think it's there, Mary.

Right, I've just got the addition of the 150 grams of butter

that's slightly softened, just drop that in in one go.

And then some kirsch, about a tablespoon.

If you haven't got kirsch, you could use limoncello would be nice,

brandy... Whatever's in the cupboard.

And now we need to take that out and put it to cool.

I find it's better to put it in something shallow

and then it cools quickly.

So once that's cooled down a bit,

we'll put it in the fridge to become really firm.

Now, the cake should be cooled. Shall we have it out of the tin?

Certainly is cool.

Right, spring form tin.

Take off the paper from the bottom.

Now for the exciting part. We're going to assemble the cake.

Grease your cake tin and line it with greaseproof paper or acetate.

This is what will give the Fraisier cake its distinctive edges,

once assembled.

Acetate is perfect for lining this, but not everybody's got it at home.

I've tried it just lining the tin with clingfilm,

that's absolutely fine.

Or you can use foil that's lined with parchment.

Now it's time to cut your cooled sponge in half.

So you put your hand flat and get eye level

and then what I do is I turn the cake and move it round as I'm

doing the knife and then go through to the middle a bit later.

That's it.

Put the bottom half of the sponge back in the lined cake tin

and brush with half of the lemon syrup.

I'm going to get a spoon and squash that down,

so that it really does get into the sides.

Now we come to the strawberry part.

It's essential to cut the bottom off and have a neat slice

-and this will go next to the acetate.

-Yeah.

Pressing it firmly down on to the sponge.

I'm absolutely squashing them as tightly as I can to each other.

You notice how the very last one,

I've squished in and they're very, very firm against the side.

Put the chilled creme patissiere into a piping bag

and pipe on to the exposed layer of sponge in the tin,

-so that it is all completely covered.

-Can I have a go, Mary?

No, because you're going to show me up.

-You can do it about ten times quicker.

-No, I love piping.

I know. I'm going to let you pipe the top, the chocolate part. Right.

That is completely covered.

Now, we're going to just go between these strawberries.

Sort of like that, all the way round.

Now, the next move is to put the chopped

strawberries into the middle here. The layers are building up.

-They are.

-And now, I'm going to put the rest of the creme patissiere

all over the top of that, so that's perfect.

And now we come to the final layer.

So just turn that upside down on to the top there.

-Gives you a nice flat top, doesn't it?

-It does.

I'm pressing that down well.

So we used half the sugar syrup on the first sponge

and I'm now using half the lemon syrup on top.

Then take a spoon and just press that down.

Just so that it's level. And then we need the marzipan. Do you remember?

-We put the marzipan in the fridge.

-Yup.

Now, I think I'll be able to lift that off in one piece cos it's

so cold. Like that.

And slip it on the top.

And that is a perfect fit.

Now, you want to put that back in the fridge to be really firm

before we turn it out and decorate it.

You don't have to be perfect, but the spirals do look quite effective.

It always looks better to use plain chocolate,

rather than milk chocolate. It also holds up better.

It's your artistic flair coming out on top of a cake.

Let the chocolate swirls harden quickly in the fridge,

whilst you release your cake from the tin and start to decorate.

-It's important to pipe quite thick ones.

-Yeah.

Now, this is the one cake

that you must keep in the fridge at all times. That's it.

Now, all that's needed is a nice dusting of icing sugar

and that would be wonderful for any celebration.

Doesn't need any cream.

-Just as it is.

-Absolutely.

Looks great that, Mary, doesn't it?

-I think we ought to try it, don't you?

-I think we should, Mary.

It's a shame to cut into it. How about that?

-We ought to share that. Can I just take a little...?

-I don't think so!

-OK, I'll take myself...

-No, it's all right.

-Do you want some of this, Mary? Yeah.

-Mm.

The strawberries, the creme patissiere, and then the last

thing you hit is that marzipan, which I think works really well.

It's so beautiful when you've finished and of course,

it tastes absolutely wonderful.

I totally agree, Mary. It's gorgeous.

That's all there's room today.

But we'll be back with more bakes soon,

so make sure you join me again then. Bye.