The last bake and this was one of the scariest looking bakes in the book. So after 13 months and 13 days I have finally baked all the recipes out of the Great British Bake Off Big Book of Baking as well as 30 of my own recipes. Exhausting, but fun, fun fun!!! đŸ™‚ I have learnt so much about baking and time management too. And it just shows me that you can achieve whatever you set your mind to. I have loved all the baking, it’s been so much fun, though stressful at times, but well worth the effort. I’m really pleased I did it.
I had already done a Baked Alaska so I knew this was going to be a big bake, but this recipe which was Nancy’s Showstopper, involved making your own ice cream, not one, but three different ice creams!!! Eeeekkk
I needed a bit of time for this one, it took about 24 hours!! No kidding, because each time I made an ice-cream and placed it in the mould I had to leave it to set for 4 hours. It was fun making ice-cream, in fact each ice-cream used different ingredients and a different process. My challenge was that I didn’t have an ice-cream churner but I got away without one, I used my electric beater with the paddle attachment, hey improvisation is a great thing, saved me money and having to acquire another appliance for the kitchen. So I made the forest berry ice cream with frozen mixed berries, caster sugar and cream. Not having any creme de cassis in the house I used PacharĂ¡n made from blackthorn berries (close enough to blackcurrant in my book).
berries and sugar 
cream 
and pacharan! đŸ™‚ 
combined 
churning in the mixer!!
I whizzed the mixed berries with caster sugar, added cream and PacharĂ¡n liqueur, then put it into the mixer to churn until firm. (well, mine didn’t really go firm so to speak, but nothing that the freezer couldn’t fix). So I poured this into the mould and placed another smaller bowl on top to make the hole for the next ice cream. Fun, fun fun. ;/
berry ice cream into the bowl 
making a dome
Time to go to bed and have another crack at the next layer in the morning! For the next ice cream, which was strawberry and mint, I needed an unusual ingredient which I had never bought, a can of
evaporated milk. Never heard of it, but I did find it on the supermarket shelf easily. This I chilled overnight and beat vigorously until mousse like, then added the whizzed strawberries and icing sugar. Sadly I didn’t read the recipe properly and was supposed to use half the can, I used the whole can, so ended up with less strawberryy strawberry ice cream and way too much of it. Never mind, on-wards.
evaporated milk 
strawberries 
into the mousse like evaporated milk 
strawberry ice cream in the churner!!
Once the ice cream was churned (Haha this was already quite firm, lucky me) I lifted out the bowl set in the middle of the berry ice cream and poured the strawberry ice cream into the hollow, then fitted in a smaller bowl for the last layer of ice cream. It’s complicated stuff!!
bowl for the hole 
strawberry ice cream into the hole 
making another hole for the next layer
The next stage was to make the vanilla parfait for the centre of the dome. That involved beating egg yolks with sugar and vanilla over a bain maire until thick, then adding whipped cream. I then lifted out the small bowl and filled the hollow with this delicious parfait. Mmmmmm. It’s getting exciting, the dome is done.
eggs 
sugar and vanilla and eggs 
and cream 
vanilla parfai 
vanilla parfait layer in centre 
ice cream dome done
Now the three tiered ice cream dome is done, time to make the sponge. That was easy in comparison! I whisked eggs and sugar until mousse-like, then added sifted flour and ground almonds and baked in a sandwich tin for 12 minutes.
fluffy 
sponge done!
The jam I made by adding 200g of mixed berries to 100g of caster sugar and boiling for about 8 minutes. That was fun, I must put this on my to do list one day…Make jam.
fruit 
sugar 
boiling jam
Now I had to make Italian Meringue. By now it was night again, should I leave it until tomorrow, no do it now I felt even though it was late and the process seemed a bit overwhelming. That is after all how I have managed to get all these bakes done in the first place, by “just doing it“. Good philosophy for accomplishing your achievements really. Have to remember that one. If you are keen to just do it btw here are some baked alaska recipes đŸ˜‰ https://www.bbc.com/food/baked_alaska
The Italian meringue involved dissolving sugar and water and then boiling this sugar syrup to a very high temperature. I have to admit my thermometer was broken so I had to wing it. I boiled the heck out of it, all the while making sure it didn’t turn to caramel. Meanwhile I whipped the egg whites until frothy, then poured the boiling sugar syrup into the egg whites while beating. This formed a beautiful marshmallow like meringue. I have to say, it’s more effort, but you do get great results from this method of making meringue. (like I would know, haha!!)
Then I spread jam over the sponge, and got the dome out to lay on top. I spread a layer of meringue over the ice cream dome and then after placing streaks of jam in the piping bag and filling the bag with meringue, I piped it onto the dome.
The pièce de résistance is nearly done.
I piped the meringue onto the dome and (we are getting close, ahhh) As I didn’t have a blow torch, the finished product stayed in the freezer while I figured out how to cook the meringue. I decided to use the method from the previous Baked Alaska I made, which was put it in a very hot oven for 4 minutes. And after much breath holding, it worked. YAY!!!
piping 
piped 
baked Baked Alaska 
Yum, all those layers, well worth it.
We did it, we ate it, and well worth the effort it was and I did it, all the recipes from the Great British Bake off Big Book of Baking – Done. What an accomplishment!
