Great British Bake Off excitement

Yesterday my excitement started to mount up whilst listening to Chris Evans in the morning.  He had Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood live in the studio, and Mary had taken in a Lemon Drizzle Cake......just how suggestive was that.  I wonder just how many Lemon Cakes were baked yesterday after that!  Must be in the hundreds.

Its equivalent to watching a film, and seeing someone have a small glass of something, just how hard is it to resist looking in the drinks cabinet and finding a little tipple.  Even though I may not have a drink for days on end it nearly always gets me.....I guess that is why Product Placement is so influential, at least for susceptible people...

I went through my latest Mary Berry's Baking Bible, and chose The Crunchy Top Lemon Cake on page 72, using golden caster sugar, which MB recommends for flavour.  It fits an 18cm/7inch round cake tin, which I have.  Its the easiest of cakes to make, using the all in one method.  It was after listening a few weeks ago that I realised that what I thought was an 8 inch cake tin was smaller than that and it explained my domed cakes....well I have yet to acquire the 20cm tin, but this is now on order....as well as the New Book covering the show. 


Just as it was ready to cut, a good friend rang the doorbell and brought me some new goats butter as a present, thanks so much Penny, but rushed off before I could offer her a slice....anyway Mr S pronounced the cake delicious. 

My 'signature' lemon cake is a simple tray bake with smooth lemon icing which my son just loves and which I have been making for years and years....I think this one is up to that standard.

The Delamere  Goats butter has a delicious taste, and less salty that St Helen's Farm, and therefore will most probably be the one I use for baking, but sadly I shall have to travel to another town to source it.

The Great British Bake Off has been a very entertaining series, and I still have some episodes to watch again!  I've found watching them whilst doing the ironing is making sure that all the ironing gets done without any pain!!

The final had us on the edge of our seats, all the finalists deserved to be there, the pressure must be immense, and I hope all the bakers who took part enjoyed themselves, and expanded their repertoire.  We watched with a glass of milk and slice of Mary Berry's Cake!