GBBO – Episode 2

Oh crumbs……. It was biscuit week, did the biscuits snap or was that just the contestants?

Personally I loved the fruity Welsh style Rich Tea biscuits baked by Louise, and laughed until I had tears in my eyes as her sheep shaped biscuits tried to make a run for it. Then Val threw half her batch on the floor but carried on to ice them anyway.

Elsewhere in the kitchen we had butterflies, bees, flowers, racing cars, foaming beer glasses and ice-cream cone shaped biscuits. Tom claimed the top biscuiteer….. is that an actual word? with his iced coffee flavoured biscuits.

With the warm up bake of biscuits out of the way it was time for the technical challenge. Mary set this week’s task… To produce 12 Identical Viennese whirls. They needed to be buttery, crumbly and willed with cream and jam.

Laugh….. watching some of the bakers struggling to pipe the mixture out of the bag was hilarious. The bakers had an hour and a half to complete the challenge, I couldn’t wait to see what was eventually placed on the judging table at the end. There were flat biscuits, crumbled away to nothing biscuits, assorted sized unidentifiable biscuits but there were actually 3 batches of very impressive looking whirls produced and it was a close call to first place but Kate just took the top spot.

So, on to the show stopper…. How fantastic!!!! Build a 3D Gingerbread structure that tells a story about the baker. This has to be one of the best challenges I have ever had the pleasure of watching.

There were Landmarks, churches, a wedding (well it was supposed to be) Hastings, a mountain trek, Brownie camp, Punting in Cambridge, Santa in Lapland and the pub that Candice grew up in.
Sitting on the edge of my seat watching the constructions take shape, I was impressed at Candice’s masterpiece. Complete with sticky carpet and a pool table, it was fantastic and it stayed stood up!!

Most of the others were….. well…erm… disastrous. Poor Louise, not a great sign for her forthcoming wedding as she watched her church collapse before her eyes. Val’s city scape looked like it was in the middle of a war zone with gingerbread crumbling everywhere.

Oh no…… you had to be kidding me? They had to carry their crumbling creations to the front of the tent for judging. How Louise didn’t burst into tears I’ll never know. We had burned Gingerbread, soft Gingerbread, Gingerbread that didn’t taste of Ginger and Pub Carpet Gingerbread….

There can only be one winner and this week’s Star Baker was Candice and poor Louise had to pick up her crumbling church walls and go home.

If you have been inspired by Episode 2 why not attempt your own biscuit baking challenge. We have all the kitchen equipment you need, right here at Housing Units.

Ready, Steady …….BAKE!

GBBO Episode 1

So we’re off and baking….. the 7th series of Bake Off kicked off on Wednesday night and what a treat that was.

GBBO brought us Drizzle Cakes, Jaffa Cakes and for the showstopper challenged we gazed longingly into the glazed mirror cakes. We saw tears, injuries and innuendo’s everything that makes GBBO great viewing.

It’s a bit early to start predicting who out of the 12 will be the winner but Selasi produced a fantastically shiny mirror cake and was our star of the first episode. Poor Reverend Lee from Bolton was the first casualty with a disastrous drizzle cake and a poor technical round.

It looks like the tent has been given a makeover and did you get a good look at the workstations? Looking at all the bakeware, gadgets and utensils made me want to invest in new kitchen appliances and join the baking frenzy.

Housing Units bakeware range has everything you could possibly need to produce the finest of cakes and pastries, apart from the ingredients of course.

Check out some of the items that graced the Bake Off workstations in episode 1.

Salter Digital Scales	Cookbook Stand	Cake Tin	Bun Tin
Measuring Jug	Cooling Rack	Box Grater	Steller Cake Fork Set
Mason Cash Mixing Bowl	Orla Kieley Cake Tins	Kenwood Chef Mixer	Brabantia Whisk