Baked Goods & Sweet Treats Recipes

The Not So British Bake Off: Week 10 (The Finale)

I’m a bit saddened to write my last Not So British Bake Off post. For this finale, the challenge was to go back to the basics and perfect them. To make perfect mini scones, mini lemon tarts, and mini victoria sponge cakes. On the program we saw front runner Richard really trip up making the three in the time span of 2 hours.

I set myself the challenging of doing the same thing. But in all honesty, it took me 2 hours and 45 minutes. Not too bad, especially since I wasn’t rushing at all, and I had to stop and do the washing up in between each item due to limited kitchen space and the fact that I only have one mixing bowl. Plus I made my own raspberry jam for the first time which was quite exciting!

As you can see, the finale was quite dramatic and a bit traumatising!

Mini Scones, Mini Victoria Sponge Cakes and Lemon Tartlets
cover shot
For Mini Victoria Sponge

Ingredients:
(For the jam)
225g of raspberries, chopped
150 g of sugar

(For the sponge)
112g of self-raising flour
2 large eggs
112g of caster sugar
112 g of butter
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

(For the buttercream)

125 g of icing sugar, plus extra for dusting
32 g butter
1/2 tablespoon of milk

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 190C (375F). Line one baking tray with greaseproof paper.

Start by making the jam. Place the raspberries and sugar in a saucepan, bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes. Then transfer to a bowl and set aside to cool.

Now start your sponge, by beating all of the ingredients in a bowl until light and fluffy. Spread the mixture out onto the baking tray, and then smooth evenly. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes or until golden-brown and cooked through.

Carefully remove sponge cake to a wire rack and set aside to cool.

For the buttercream, sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Add the butter and milk and beat until smooth. Spoon the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a small star nozzle.

Cut out 12 small circles from the sponges. Spread 6 halves with the strawberry jam and pipe on a little buttercream. Sandwich together with the remaining sponge circles. Decorate with the remaining buttercream if you desire.

For the Scones

(Ingredients):
250g of self-raising flour
1 heaping teaspoon of baking powder
40g of softened butter
25g of caster sugar
1 large free-range egg
about 100ml of milk

Preheat the oven to 220C (425F).

Put the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the butter and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.

Beat the egg in a measuring jug. Make up to 100ml/3½fl oz with the milk, then set aside a tablespoon for glazing the scones later.

Gradually add the egg and milk to the dry ingredients, stirring it in until you have a sticky dough

Turn the mixture out onto a lightly floured surface and pat out until it is about ¾ an inch thick. Use a small fluted cutter to cut out the scones.  Keep all the trimmings, roll them up and pat the dough out again to cut more scones

Arrange the scones on the greased baking trays and brush the tops with the remaining milk. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until well risen and golden-brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Lemon Tartlets

Ingredients:
(For the pastry)
88 g of plain flour
50 g of  butter, cut into small cubes
12 g of icing sugar
1 egg yolk

(For the filling)
2 large free-range eggs
50 ml/double cream
75g/ caster sugar
1 1/2 lemons, juice and zest
icing sugar, for dusting

(For the decoration)
50g of chocolate, chopped

Start by making your pastry. Place the flour, butter and icing sugar into a food processor. Pulse briefly until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, then add the egg yolk and one tablespoon of cold water. Mix again until the dough starts to form clumps. Then dump it out onto a lightly floured work surface. Roll it into a ball. Knead the pastry two or three times and then to make it into a smooth ball, again. Wrap it in cling film and place in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Grease your tart tins.

Roll the pastry dough out onto your floured surface until it’s about  ¼inch thick. Cut out circles with a  round cutter and use to line the tins, re-rolling the pastry as necessary. Put the tart cases in the fridge to chill.

Preheat the oven to 200C (400F). Cover the base of the tartlets with foil and fill with a few baking beans. (Like I’ve mentioned before, I literally have  a box of dried beans that I use for this.) Bake for seven minutes then remove the beans and foil.

Return the pastry  to the oven for another 5 minutes or until they are light golden-brown and completely dry. Set aside to cool while you make the filling. Reduce the oven temperature to 170C (325F).

While the tarts are cooling make the filling by breaking the eggs into a large bowl and whisking them together . Then add the rest of the filling ingredients and whisk again until they are all well-combined. Pour the filling mixture into a jug, then into the cooled baked pastry cases. Bake for about seven minutes, or until just set.

Leave to cool slightly then carefully ease the tartlets from their tins an place on a wire rack to cool completely. For the decoration, melt the chocolate bain marie. Spoon the melted chocolate into a small piping bag. Snip off the end and pipe the word ‘citron’ or a decoration of your choice on top of the tarts.

cutting scones
Cutting out the scones.

oven
Checking the colour of my scones.

cupboardsmaking jam
My first ever jam in the making!

tart pastryassembling victoria spongebuttercream pipingsconesdusting sugarscone platetartslonely as a cloud abovemary judges
Mary’s last taste of this year’s Bake Off!

presentation
But just as she’s about to present me the last Star Baker award, naming me the overall winner…..

paul hollywood says no
…Paul Hollywood swoops in with the unexpected news that my American-ness came as a shock and a Great British Bake Off contestant has to be…well…British.

ripping up star baker
Mary could have broken the news to me a bit more gently!

my precious
My precious!!!!

sad
My Great British Bake Off dreams are over for this year, hopefully they’ll sort those rules out next year! 😉

Sadly the series won’t be back until next summer, but if you enjoyed this baking series what food related series would you like to see next?

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