Episode 4 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.

Welcome to our celebration of some of the best bakes seen on television.

Coming up today...

Lorraine Pascale has a loaf you don't have to knead.

Raymond Blanc makes a classic cheese souffle.

Do you know what?

I feel absolutely exhausted. I've cracked so many eggs.

We've got a pavlova from James Martin.

Now, whatever you do, whatever's left in this pan,

do not pour it down the sink,

otherwise you're going to need a plumber.

An intriguing sounding tart from Clarissa Dickson Wright.

Really nice, really good.

And two fantastic cakes.

Nigel Slater's is a chocolate and beetroot cake,

and the Hairy Bikers give us their version of the carrot cake.

It's nutty, it's cheesy...

A bit like us.

But our first best bake of the day comes from the Bake Off tent.

It's a masterclass from Mary Berry

on how to make the best perfectly wobbly creme caramel.

First all you need to make the caramel

that goes in the bottom of the dish.

Measure out 160 grams of granulated sugar

and place into a stainless steel pan with six tablespoons of water.

One, two, three...

Avoid using a non-stick pan because the mixture will crystallise.

I can still feel a little bit of grit at the bottom there.

Once all the sugar has dissolved, do not stir it, but wait for

the mixture to become clear and boil rapidly, watching it the whole time.

Don't be tempted to put a spoon in there

because it will immediately cloud over and begin to crystallise.

When sugar is heated each crystal is broken down

into carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.

The hydrogen and oxygen recombine to form water, which evaporates,

leaving the carbon, which becomes caramel.

-Now, you can smell the caramel.

-You can.

Notice it was making that rapid noise. It's now quietened down.

Don't let it get too dark. Have everything ready.

And I have not buttered the ramekins.

If you butter the ramekins first,

what happens is you pour the caramel in

and it will go cloudy and crystallise.

Then just gently pour that in each one.

Now, this will cool very rapidly, won't it?

It could start to solidify within minutes.

And this is very, very hot.

And it is very important to be aware how hot this is.

Don't have any children around you at this time.

-Do you know the way I get the sugar off?

-How?

Put water into that, fill it halfway full,

boil it and within 30 seconds your pan is clean.

Pop that over there.

That's a jolly good tip.

So these are sort of a deep caramel colour

and we will leave those just on the top here, they don't need to go

in the fridge, and they will set, then I will butter them.

So, we now make the custard.

Four medium eggs...

..25 grams of sugar, perhaps you can get that ready for me.

-Caster sugar?

-Caster sugar.

And then I'm going to add some vanilla extract.

Now, there are all sorts of kinds of vanilla you can do for this.

You can infuse a vanilla pod in the milk,

you can use vanilla paste.

I prefer not to use essence, it's not as good.

This is extract and I'm going to add a good teaspoonful.

And that will give a good flavour.

I'm going to beat that together until it's smooth.

Gently warm 600ml of full-fat milk in a pan.

When I put my finger in and I can't keep it in, that is the temperature.

That's perfect.

-I could JUST hold it in.

-Yes, OK.

So, just beat like that.

For custard it is important to add the hot milk to the cold mixture

and not the other way around.

We poured the hot milk onto the eggs, that's the right way round.

If you do it the other way round, the egg would overcook.

Because you're putting the egg mixture into essentially a hot pan

and it would start to scramble it, wouldn't it?

To make sure that there are no lumps at all in your custard,

you can strain it.

Once the caramel has completely set, butter the ramekins generously.

The one thing that I like about caramel custard is

you can make it ahead and it is greatly improved by making ahead

and we are going to cook them in a bain-marie

and bain-marie simply means

that you're cooking it in boiling water.

Divide the custard equally between the ramekins

before adding the boiling water for the bain-marie.

Whatever heat the oven reaches, the water can never go above 100 degrees

and the evaporating water simultaneously cools it.

The heat is dispersed evenly by the water,

baking the custard gently so it is perfectly tender.

It's important that when you're putting the water in

that it doesn't go into the custard, because it would weaken it.

Put them in a preheated oven at 150 degrees, 130 fan.

We're aiming to get a custard that doesn't have a bubble in sight.

If there are bubbles all the way round, it means that

the custard is tough and we don't want a tough custard.

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until the custard is perfectly set,

with just a very slight wobble.

Right, let's see if they're done.

So, they should not be coloured.

I'm just going to test whether, in the very centre here,

there's a wobble.

Now, can you see there's a wobble.

-Definitely a wobble there, Mary.

-That's right.

Leave them in the water just for another ten minutes or so

and they will just gently go on cooking right through to the middle.

Let them get stone-cold in the fridge

and then the custard makes the hard caramel underneath soft

so that when you turn it out you get that lovely runny sauce.

Now, we've made six.

You could easily have made just one in a two-pint dish.

Again you would do it in a bain-marie,

but it would take another 10 or 15 minutes to cook.

Once cool, leave them to set in the fridge for as long as you can,

preferably overnight, so that the custard absorbs

the caramel flavour and they are ready to be turned out.

Tip them forward so that the weight of the custard will drop down a bit.

-Can you see the caramel coming up?

-Yes.

Now, we've been all the way around.

And then you simply take the plate like that.

And I'm going to give that a really good sort of a shake first of all.

And then over there, another shake.

Do you want me to have a go, Mary?

No, because I would be at home without you,

or without my Paul, and you have to be able to cope on your own.

So I'm going to make quite sure it's coming out.

I heard a plop, I thought I did. So let's just lift that up.

There it is. Now, that is a perfect colour.

It is sort of a deep caramel.

If it's looking any darker than that,

-it will be bitter.

-Yes.

And that's just lovely, and you've got your custard.

Now, if you do that too soon, the very top here becomes pale,

it loses its colour,

so, by all means loosen them, but turn them out just before.

I think they look absolutely fantastic, Mary. Absolutely perfect.

I can't wait to try one.

That's delicious. It melts in the mouth.

It's smooth, the texture is superb, the caramel is excellent.

Not a bubble in sight. They're gorgeous.

Now, a loaf with a bit of history.

Doris Grant was a food writer who forgot to knead the dough

in a wholemeal loaf she was baking.

She thought it tasted better like that

and was quicker and easier to make.

It became known as the Doris Grant loaf,

and was promoted during the war as a good way to feed families on rations.

Let's see how Lorraine Pascale makes hers.

Most people don't make bread at home because they just think,

"Oh! Bread! Way too much faff!"

But this bread, the Doris Grant loaf,

has a really good short cut because it doesn't need to be kneaded.

I'm going to start with my wholemeal bread flour, and I need 225 grams.

Now, wholemeal flour is really good because it has this grain

that gets left in the sieve, and this grain

can be used to sprinkle over the bread when it bakes.

It makes it look really pretty.

Right, and I don't bother sieving my strong white bread flour.

We need 225 grams of that.

So, you might be thinking, why is she using white AND wholemeal flour?

Because the Doris Grant loaf is a really healthy loaf,

but if you use just wholemeal flour

it will be really, really stodgy and heavy,

so the white flour just helps to lighten it a bit.

Seven grams of fast action dried yeast.

The salt is one of the most important ingredients in bread.

It can make the difference between a good loaf and a bad loaf.

So I'm going to put in one teaspoon of salt, just table salt is fine.

Then mix it all together and make a nice well.

I'll add 300ml of water.

Make sure it's warm because it helps the yeast work more quickly.

I'm going to add a big tablespoon,

a big squidge of honey to make it nice and sweet.

You can use some brown sugar or even caster sugar

just to sweeten the crumb slightly.

This is quite a sticky dough.

But, as I say, with bread the wetter the better.

With a nice wet dough you'll get a lovely big rise

and a nice soft crumb.

So, it's all come together.

So, a little bit of flour on my hands.

I'll just take it out of the bowl.

The extra flour will stop the ball from sticking to my hands.

I'm not going to knead it,

I'm just going to bring it all together

and I fold the edges to the centre and squeeze it together

and then rock it and you get a nice, soft top.

Flip it over, put it around like that, make it a nice ball shape.

And then straight onto the tin. You don't need any flour or grease.

So, now the bread needs to rise.

I find the best way to do that is to get some clingfilm

and spray it with vegetable oil.

It doesn't have to be anything fancy. This is fine.

I know some people like to cover their bread with a damp tea towel,

but I prefer clingfilm.

Spraying vegetable oil on it will stop the dough

from sticking to the clingfilm.

So, now the bread needs to rise.

And I find the best place for this to rise is on a chair

next to a preheated oven, and the technical reason for that

is that I don't have an airing cupboard.

After about 30 minutes, when it's almost doubled in size,

take the clingfilm off, slash the top of the bread with a sharp knife

or you can use a blade.

And then the bread gets brushed with milk.

I like to sprinkle over the bran I saved from when I sieved the flour.

Throw ten ice cubes in the bottom of the oven

and they'll produce steam.

This will make sure that the bread rises before the crust sets,

so you get a lovely, big, puffy rise.

The bread goes in an oven heated to 200 degrees

for about 30 to 40 minutes.

Oh! My patience is rewarded.

I'll leave it to cool completely in the tin

and then I am going to serve it with baked garlic and Camembert.

We've got a cheese recipe right now,

not using Camembert, but a cheese called Comte.

Raymond Blanc uses it here in this cheese souffle,

but not before he's taste-tested a few other possible options.

For Raymond's next recipe, a special delivery.

He needs the right cheese to make a souffle.

Hello, Patricia.

Patricia Michelson is a cheese connoisseur

and owner of two award-winning cheese shops in London.

There you go.

She's got three cheeses in mind for Raymond's souffle.

A serious amount of cheese.

-That's for you.

-Thank you.

-That's...

-Emmental.

-Emmental.

-Emmental.

-It has the big holes, very dramatic.

Very delicate though.

In a souffle, that would be not strong enough.

-So I'll leave that one out.

-OK.

Wine, no?

Tom, are you asleep?

It's for the Beaufort.

Oh, it's got such a lovely smell.

-Again, it's delicate.

-Beautiful cheese, wonderful.

It's also good for souffle because of its floral flavour.

It's not too heavy.

You are trying to tell me...

-Trying to tell you how to cook!

-Yes.

But I want a strong souffle, so Beaufort, I put that on the side

and let's taste the Comte.

Oh, so perfect.

I'm lucky, eh?

-It's lovely, isn't it?

-That's lovely.

Voila.

-To you. Thank you very much.

-To you, and to our cheese.

Now the day is perfect.

Raymond has chosen a Comte from his native eastern France

to make his classic cheese souffle.

The Comte cheese souffle, I really have a huge affection for it

because it was given to me quite regularly.

People tell you, "Oh, souffle! Oh, mon Dieu! C'est terrible!

"If you open the oven doors they'll collapse,

"if you breathe they'll collapse." Of course not!

They are so simple to make when you know what's happening.

Start by preparing a dish.

You just butter your dish.

And the butter will help the rise of the souffle.

Breadcrumbs.

Look how beautifully they're coating, they are not too fine,

I want to have texture, I want to bite into them.

Tres bien.

Then begin the souffle base.

I want to simmer my milk here. Voila.

The butter. In here we've got 50 grams.

So I don't want to colour it, I just want to melt it down.

And, of course, you have your friend here,

very close to you,

which is just perfect, the world is absolutely perfect.

I don't normally cook like that in my kitchen,

so it's a treat for me. It's a big treat.

When the butter has melted, add flour and whisk until smooth.

I want to give it a bit of colour,

and a little bit of nutty flavour to my souffle, OK?

And the flour will be nicely cooked and it is very digestible.

Gradually add warm milk which has been simmering gently.

That's it. You've got no lumps whatsoever.

Then seasons with salt, pepper and a tablespoon of Dijon mustard.

It works.

A nice lump of mustard here.

That's what you are looking for in terms of thickness, no?

Next, add three egg yolks...

That's obviously giving a richness to your base.

-..and 160 grams of Comte cheese.

-Voila.

So let the cheese melt very nicely.

You can see how shiny it is. I love to see that.

Now, put the lift into your souffle with six egg whites.

Do you know what? I feel absolutely exhausted.

I've cracked so many eggs.

Lemon juice here.

Whisk until they form soft peaks.

I'm going to be muscle man.

Again, I am so fit!

An electric mixer is always an option.

Now you can really beat them as long as you want to,

so nothing can go wrong.

Add a third of the egg whites to the warm base mixture.

You mix very fast to lighten the base.

The base must be warm, otherwise the mixture will go lumpy.

Then fold in the rest of the egg whites.

Go right from underneath.

My souffle base is ready.

Just a little bit of Comte on the top.

Voila.

So 180 degrees preheated oven and you cook the souffle for 20 minutes.

While the souffle cooks, prepare a sauce.

Voila.

Boil double cream...

add some Comte...

So, of course, the more cheese you put in, the more it thickens,

so be careful how much cheese you put in.

..a pinch of cayenne pepper and a splash of Kirsch liqueur.

It is cherry alcohol.

Cherry goes so well with dessert, with cheese.

So now this is beautifully rich and lovely.

Lovely.

THEY CHUCKLE

You like your cheese, but you like your wine too, eh?

I do. Sorry.

Me too!

Oh, isn't that perfect?

So, for this there is no guilt, OK?

Fabulous.

-Merci, Patricia.

-Thank you.

Now, an unexpected garlic recipe

because it's for a pudding rather than a main course.

It sounds unusual,

but if anyone can make it work, it's Clarissa Dickson Wright.

I'm going to put everything into this food processor,

so I've peeled a couple of cloves of garlic and...

..they're going to go in.

Along with my first short cut.

This is ordinary fudge, and it's quite crumbly,

so I'm just going to put it in the food processor,

with the garlic.

And some caster sugar.

Don't worry that it's going to be too sweet, it's not.

And I'm going to grind all this up together first.

There we are.

And when it's nice and breadcrumby, crack in an egg.

Whiz that about a bit.

And throw in another surprise ingredient, Cheshire cheese.

Which is nice and crumbly and gives a bit more bulk.

Two egg yolks

and some cream and milk,

and it has to be whole milk.

I never bother with semi-skimmed milk, it tastes revolting.

And that's the filling done.

You can make garlic ice cream,

which, in fact, they sell on the garlic farm,

and we had at home,

my mother had an old book from which she made,

or she got the cook to make garlic sorbet.

The cook came from Derbyshire.

The cook was my role model.

My mother was a slim, elegant woman who bought her clothes in Paris

and the cook came from Derbyshire and weighed 20 stone.

And she made the garlic sorbet.

I can't say it was wonderful but there we were.

I can, however, recommend this garlicky delight.

Stage two is the tart itself.

Now, here is a pastry case that I baked blind earlier.

Mine had has ground almonds in it as well as flour,

but any sweet shortcrust pastry will do.

As far as the fruit goes, I am using three nectarines,

but peaches or plums will do.

I am just going to cut them in half.

Just take the stone out.

And then I'm just going to score them across.

Just lightly.

This will help them to cook through evenly

and I think they look prettier.

Then simply pop them into the tart, skin side up.

And then I'm just going to pour this into the pastry case.

Doesn't it look heavenly?

Then put it into a hot oven for 20 to 25 minutes...

..until it's cooked and golden and utterly delicious.

Then leave it to cool

and half an hour later you can cut yourself a slice.

Look at that. How lovely.

And what does it really taste like?

The whole thing blends together impeccably.

You can't taste cheese, you can't really taste the garlic,

you just have this hint of something that you don't know what it is,

and the juiciness of the nectarine makes the whole thing work.

It is really nice. Really good.

Now, after garlic and nectarines, we have got another pudding

that features an unusual combination of ingredients.

This is a cake from Nigel Slater,

who's championing the versatility of vegetables

by putting together chocolate and beetroot.

By the time I get to the end of the week,

I've worked up the appetite for something sweet.

Even if at first glance it might not look like

I've got the ingredients to do that,

this recipe proves just how versatile an ingredient can be -

if you're willing to try something different.

These beetroot, I could pickle them,

I could put them in a salad, but I fancy a cake.

Before I get going with the cake, the beetroots need cooking.

These little ones will need a good half hour.

Most ingredients are incredibly versatile.

It's just that we don't always think of every way

that we can use something.

If I'd have found some beetroot in my fridge a few years ago

I'd have never dreamt of using them in a sweet recipe.

Now, the beetroot is going to provide the moisture in the cake

and I'm going to reduce it to pretty much a puree.

And in a way this is, I suppose, inspired by the old carrot cake,

and the fact that they are always so moist.

I thought beetroot would work in a cake as well.

I want this cake to be sumptuous and chocolaty,

to make the beetroot really work in this recipe.

I've got dark chocolate here.

Beetroot's quite sweet, so a milk chocolate wouldn't really work.

While the chocolate melts over a pan of hot water,

now is the time to prepare the rest of the mix.

Now, I need 135 grams of plain flour,

a teaspoonful of baking powder,

and then about three tablespoons of very dark, good quality cocoa.

This is one of those occasions you do have to be a little bit accurate.

Often when I make cakes I don't bother to sift the flour,

but when there's three ingredients that need mixing together

it's always worth doing,

to remove the lumps and blend everything together beautifully.

So when the chocolate has completely melted,

pour in four tablespoons of very strong coffee.

Espresso is ideal.

I'm going to add 200 grams of butter.

It's best to add it in small pieces.

While the butter melts, separate five eggs.

Lightly whisk the yolks.

And whisk the whites until they're stiff and frothy.

Add the caster sugar and gently fold in.

Once the chocolate, butter and coffee is melted into a gorgeous goo,

it's time to complete the marriage of ingredients.

First the yolks.

And then the beetroot goes in.

And suddenly the whole thing, daft as it sounds, starts to make sense.

You see the beetroot go in the dark chocolate

and there's something very right about it.

Then the egg whites and sugar.

And this is the point to be thorough but gentle.

You want all the egg white mixed into the cake mixture,

but you don't want to do it so hard that you beat all the air out of it.

And then, last of all, the cocoa, flour and baking powder.

Being gentle really is the key.

If you over-mix it, you'll end up with a chocolate pancake.

If you don't mix it enough,

you'll end up with lumps of flour in your cooked cake.

And then that goes in the oven at 180 for about 40 or 45 minutes.

Once it's cooked, let it stand for a minute or two before turning it out.

So, just a little bit of cocoa on top.

To serve this needs something light and creamy.

A hearty dollop of whipped double cream.

It's everything I want a chocolate cake to be,

and it's certainly more than I ever expected a beetroot to be.

It's a gorgeous alternative to the classic chocolate cake.

I dare you to try it.

We're moving on to a more conventional pudding now.

It's a pavlova with the dream combination of raspberries and caramel.

And as well as the great taste of those, the slow baking time

is a real plus too, according to James Martin.

I firmly believe cooking at home shouldn't be a chore,

and what could be more pleasurable

than making something totally indulgent,

like a pavlova topped with chocolate, cream,

caramel and berries - it's a killer combination

that's always a winner at my house.

Now, if there's one dessert that you have to create on a lazy day,

that's a pavlova, or certainly meringue,

because it's the length of time that it takes to cook in the oven

which makes it so good and so worth waiting for.

Making the meringue couldn't be simpler,

I just whiz up some egg whites for five minutes

before gradually adding caster sugar.

Now the actual recipes for meringue don't actually vary

in terms of the quantity of sugar to egg white.

It's always generally about 50 grams of sugar per egg white.

But it's how you actually add that sugar which makes a difference

to the finished meringue.

You could use an Italian meringue which is the sugar boiled

in a pan with a little bit of water,

which generally it's called a cooked meringue.

It's great for things like baked Alaska,

where you don't actually cook it for very long in the oven,

or there's cold meringue, which is what I'm going to do now -

the classic way of adding sugar to the egg whites.

Make sure they're actually firmly whipped.

You can see that. It almost holds itself, really.

What you do is keep mixing it and we add our sugar.

Meringues are actually quite forgiving really.

A lot of people think they're delicate, like souffle.

And now, for some magic, I add a tablespoon each

of white wine vinegar and cornflour,

which will make the meringue nice and crisp on the outside

but give it the chewy inside that I'm looking for.

That's your finished meringue.

I'm going to transform this into a pavlova, that famous dish

that originates, or is said to originate from New Zealand.

If you speak to any Australian,

they would like to say that they invented it as well.

Either way it was basically invented

for a Russian ballerina in about the 1920s.

It's a fantastic dish that has been around for such a long time.

A quick tip really, whenever you're making meringue,

whether a small meringue or a large meringue like this,

particularly if you've got a fan oven,

is to pop a little bit of meringue on the tray

and allow your little non-stick mat to stick to it,

otherwise, particularly if you make small meringues,

you're going to end up with what looks like the lottery balls

going round in a fan oven.

So just a little bit on the tray just to stick it and then really,

with pavlova you can be as fancy as you want, you can pipe this out

if you wish, but...

..it saves on washing up if you just do this.

You just get a nice little spatula...

..and just spread this down, almost like a little nest really.

You don't need to be too precise with this.

And what we do now is just pop this in the oven.

I like cooking the meringue on a really low heat for two to three hours

which gives me plenty of time to do what I want

before starting on the filling.

First I need to melt some white chocolate in a bain marie over a low heat.

Now, the filling, I'm going to go to France for this

and fill it with what they call a creme legere.

It's just really fantastic.

It's a mixture of cream and custard.

It's nice and simple, tastes fantastic.

I whip the cream up to a firm peak before adding the custard.

That sort of texture,

and this would be the classic sort of filling with a chocolate eclair.

You can get away with it using this bought-in custard.

This is a lovely, rich cream.

It tastes delicious.

That white chocolate's about there.

As you all know, I've got a bit of a sweet tooth...

..and meringues are one of these things I love to cook at home

because you can put it in the oven and kind of forget about it really.

It can go in there for about three hours, it can go in there overnight

if you reduce the temperature down.

It's such a simple little dish to make.

And throw it on.

Now, as well as adding flavour, it's actually doing a job,

this white chocolate, because

it's protecting the meringue from the cream,

or acting like a little barrier,

so if you're doing this for a dinner party,

then this is the perfect way

of making sure the pavlova will last,

particularly if you're going to make it and put it in the fridge.

Now I'm going to finish this off with a bit of caramel,

and it's so easy to make, you get that by just adding caster sugar,

clean caster sugar, no bits of tea or coffee stains in the bottom,

clean caster sugar, into a dry pan.

The key to this sugar really is not to stir it,

but to make sure that it's all dissolved.

Keep your eye on it

cos it will burn really, really quickly.

You don't want it to burn, otherwise it ends up being really bitter.

Now, pavlova has never been designed

for people who were health-conscious.

You just chuck it in.

The more the better.

I'm going to use fresh raspberries because I love them.

I grow them in the garden, can't get enough of them.

Just pile it all on.

What I'm going to do is take this caramel now,

while it's still hot, because you can't do this when it's cold,

and just sprinkle this over the top.

Be very careful with this because it's boiling hot.

But the whole point about this is it's going to add texture to it as well.

As it cools, you get that lovely caramel crunch.

Now, whatever you do, whatever's left in this pan,

do not pour it down the sink,

otherwise you're going to need a plumber, all right?

All you do with this, to remove the caramel from here,

is just take a little bit of water...

..back on the heat,

gently simmer this for about two or three minutes,

and then it will naturally dissolve into that water,

and you've got a clean pan.

Now, normally at this point I would dive in

and tell you how good it is, but when I make something this good,

don't take my word for it, take the crew's.

Come on, guys, dive into this.

We've reached our final bake now,

and it's combining two themes that have already come up today.

We've had vegetable in a cake from Nigel Slater,

and a Doris Grant loaf that was popularised during the war.

Now, the Hairy Bikers bring us a cake

with a vegetable that was another triumph of rationing.

It is, of course, the carrot cake.

-This one is a belting, banging, carrot cake.

-It is.

Now, it's our take on a classic wartime recipe,

and we've just moderned it up a bit.

We've improved it, we've perfected it

and we've dragged the carrot cake into the 21st century.

Where it belongs!

Oh, bring on the carrot!

Oh, this one is a luxurious, indulgent carrot cake,

one people could only have dreamt of in the days of rationing.

It's a very interesting history, the carrot cake.

Medieval people, when sugar was scarce, would use carrot,

caramelise the carrots as a sweetmeat,

and we used to make carrot puddings in the 17th and 18th centuries.

It fell out of fashion, but in World War II,

because we were all skint, and we needed something else,

we kind of rediscovered carrots,

and we made carrot cake.

Since then it's never been out of fashion.

First, in a bowl, mix 200 grams of self-raising flour

with pecan nuts and sultanas.

And get to work peeling and grating the stars of the show.

-Didn't carrots used to be purple?

-They did.

But these ones, and the ones that we know today, are orange,

and for a very good reason.

In the 17th-century Dutch growers grew this breed of carrot

as a homage to William of Orange, you know,

orange, carrots, carrots, orange.

I'm not entirely sure what William of Orange would have thought of it, you know?

He probably thought it was GRATE!

To the flour, fruit and nut mix, add half a teaspoon of bicarb,

one teaspoon of baking powder, a teaspoon of ground cinnamon,

a pinch of salt, and half a grated nutmeg.

And to this, something that would have been rare in the war,

the grated zest of half an orange.

-Do you not know there's a war on?

-Shurrup!

Oh, uncle Jack has just come back from Burma

with an orange in his sock.

God love him.

Lastly, with clean hands, combine...

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

-Smell that, Kingy.

-Oh, yes!

-Lush, isn't it?

-Lovely. Really nice.

Zest, every day's a party when you're making carrot cake.

I know it's times of austerity,

but there's a lot to be said...

for a food processor.

When you've finally grated your carrots,

beat three eggs in a bowl with some Demerara sugar.

This isn't a wartime recipe for carrot cake,

it's a modern recipe, and like a lot of modern cakes

we're using vegetable oil as the fat in the cake.

There's no butter or margarine, it's vegetable oil,

and vegetable oil does give you a lovely, lovely moist cake.

Mix the oil in well and add the 200 grams of carrot.

Whisk until well combined.

-Are you ready?

-Ready.

-Bit at a time?

-A steady stream, see how we get on.

It smells fantastic.

-It is a lovely, lovely consistency.

-Oh, yeah.

Pour the mixture into a greased square cake tin,

lined with baking parchment to stop it sticking.

Did you ever think that such a humble vegetable

-could actually be so attractive?

-No.

You wait until you taste this.

And that, once you've patted it down and evened it out,

is your carrot cake, ready for the oven.

Now, just pop that into a preheated oven,

about 180 degrees Celsius, for about 30 to 35 minutes.

-Time for a cup of tea.

-And a lick of your spoon, ooh!

Where's the bowl?

-The colour's good.

-Isn't it?

But is it cooked? Take one skewer.

-Yes.

-Insert to cake.

-Yes.

-Skewer comes out clean.

-Clean.

We're safe, the cake's cooked.

Now, we need that to cool.

But we have got a little job to do while that cools.

-We're not going to just leave it like that.

-No.

I mean, that's a wartime cake and we're in a time of plenty.

We're going to do this most wonderful kind of cheesecake

-buttercream pecan top.

-Add a little zest to it.

It's everything, it's nutty, it's cheesy.

A bit like us!

-Very cheesy and a little bit greasy.

-Yes.

-Yes, it's just great.

Whack 100 grams of icing sugar and 100 grams of softened,

unsalted butter into your bowl, and mash them together.

Then squeeze an orange so the juice is ready to add to the mix.

When you make a buttercream icing, you always add some kind of liquid

because it stops it floating off like it is doing.

You can smell it already, can't you?

This is coming lovely.

I know it's cheating, but, you know, Auntie's got a friend

who's a farmer so he sent her some cream cheese.

That goes in too.

Now, you can tell we're cooking a modern twist

on a wartime classic because the amount of butter that we've just

put in would be the equivalent of about a fortnight's ration.

Well, to make up for that, we'll use the zest of the orange

we just squeezed, we won't waste anything.

Orange goes with carrot.

-Carrot and orange soup.

-Oh, yeah.

Won't that be hard to keep your fingers out of?

Now, that's quite sloppy.

In an ideal world we'd put that in the fridge for half an hour

before we used it, but it's not ideal and we're greedy,

-so we're going to go for it.

-We are.

Oh! Sorry I couldn't resist.

Right.

Put the licked fork to one side.

SI CHUCKLES

Once your cake has cooled down,

spread the luscious buttercream icing all over the top.

And the key to a good carrot cake is not to be frugal with the topping.

-Shall we go rustic and ruck it up or...

-Oh, yeah.

Oh, yes. Lovely.

Now that looks great.

Decorate the top with pecan nuts or whatever type you fancy,

and job done.

Do you know, Si, looking at that, it's hard to believe

that carrot cakes fell out of fashion for nearly 200 years.

You know, it may be only a small positive,

but I'm very pleased that the war brought this back into our psyche.

Well, I think our carrot cake, it's a victory on all fronts.

I hope you've seen lots to inspire and excite you,

and do join me again for more fantastic baking next time.

Bye.