Well what a fantastic week 1 we had – 36 recipes were linked up, and it has to be said they all looked amazing!! It is never easy deciding who will be Star Baker or Bakers, but please remember this little bake off is just for fun, and if you did not get crowned with the title this week, we still have 10 more bake offs to go 🙂
Normally, I show all of the recipes linked up in my round up posts, but I will be honest this does take a lot of time so this year I am just going to feature my favourites and if you want to see the rest, you can look back to Week 1 or visit the pinterest board.
So for those of you who do not already know, last weeks 1st episode featured 3 cake categories which were:
Madeira cake
re-inventing the classic 1970s Black Forest Gateau
Frosted Walnut Cake
Before I reveal the Star Baker/s I would like to give some special mentions to the following bakers:
**to Andrea with her Black Forest Flapjacks because I thought this was a great take on the re-inventing the classic.
**Also, I was very impressed with the Bake Off Style Plan that Carole drew for her Black Forest Cake – just like you see on the TV Show!
**and Missy made her cake while live streaming it on Periscope
**well done to the GF, DF and vegan and SF bakes that were entered too – I am always amazed at how well your bakes turn out.
**finally welcome back to our youngest baker – Jacob who produced a worthy looking orange madeira cake, and also to the two young men who baked this madeira 🙂 always lovely to see youngsters entering the bake along
And now it is time to crown our Star Bakers – yes for there are actually 4. I usually award one per category, but I have awarded a bonus one too.
The Signature Star Baker is Debbie with her Lemon and Lavender Madeira . There were some really great looking and sounding Madeira Cakes – all with perfect cracks across the top BUT I have chosen this one just because the flavour combo is very intriguing and different.
The Technical Star Baker is Carrie with her Frosted Walnut Layer Cake . There were some wonderful takes on this bake – all had such wonderful coffee brown sponges and gorgeous buttercream and frostings, but I felt that this one *just* pipped the others.
Finally, Showstopper Star Bakers for the Black Forest Gateau round. I actually liaised with Carolin on this because, being German, if anyone could spot a great Black Forest Gateau it would be her. Funnily enough she chose my two favourites too, and in the end I decided to award 2 Star Bakers because one is a very contemporary take on this 1970’s classic, and the other, according to Carolin, “ looks more like the ones you’d get in Germany”. So congratulations to Made With Pink for this stunning version (which she took aboard the train yesterday morning to work!)
And also well done to Jenny for this match to a German version!
I have a badge for you all if you would like one – please email me and I can pop one over for you to display on your blog 🙂
If you would like to enter the #GBBOBloggers2015 bake off, the rules are here and the new linky will be live Thursday morning at 9am – week 2 is Biscuit week and the lovely Andrea will be guest hosting. You can also check back here after the show finishes on Wednesday to see my Biscuit recipe 🙂
Happy baking x
Louise Fairweather
They all look amazing! Infact I could eat that walnut cake now!
allyouneedisloveandcake
Thanks for the mention Jenny! There were some fantastic entries this week – can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with for biscuit week 🙂
susankmann
These look so amazing. I am watching it this year with Tyler as he’s became obsessed with baking and cooking. I think he might want to join in x
Boo Roo and Tigger Too
Well done to all the bakers and Star Bakers this week
LauraCYMFT
OMG look at all of those cakes. Thank goodness looking at photos doesn’t put on calories. x
Carrie - Time to be an Adult
Thank you Jenny – I’m amazed! There were so many brilliant cakes last week x
Andrea @ Made With Pink
Oh wow, I’ve only just seen this. What a lovely surprise to see that I’ve won the Show Stopper Challenge along with Jenny. There were so many amazing bakes entered this week, I’m sure it must have been a very difficult decision. I must say that I especially love Debbie’s Lemon and Lavender Madeira cake.
Tracy
Congrats to all the star bakers – I didn’t manage to write up my recipe for G&T madeira cake in time, so I’ll do better with the biscuits this week 🙂
Jen @ Jen's Food
Congrats to all the star bakers. I’m not sure I’ll get chance to bake a long with everyone this year but definitely going to keep an eye on what everyone makes 🙂
nessjibberjabberuk
Difficult choice for the cake category as there was so many delicious looking cakes!