So it was the final of the Great British Bake Off tonight , I feel sad and cannot believe how quickly this series has passed! Still as I write this I am rooting for Nadyia because I feel she has been the most passionate each week, and she has been very creative with her takes on each weeks bakes. **yaaaay she won!!! **
From the baking categories this week, I decided to go with classic British cake because I love cake and because it was the easiest one for me to do. I googled classic British cake and among the names which popped up onto my screen was Coffee and Walnut, which is a favourite for many a coffee morning and is my Nanny’s favourite cake too.
However, as per usual I did not have any walnuts but I did have hazelnuts instead so I figured that as latte flavoured with hazelnut syrup tastes nice, used in a coffee cake, ground hazelnuts would be tasty too. I had some quark in the fridge (a Slimming World favourite!) which I used to make my frosting, but obviously cream cheese would work fine or even fresh cream. For extra naughtiness, I topped the cake with some cappuccino flavoured popcorn and some salted toffee sauce! Hence, the cake changed its name into a Cappuccino Cake instead. So I am hoping that this is classed as a classic British Cake – I mean coffee shops are very popular in this country! **
(** having just seen the show I see that my cake should have had 3 tiers! Oh well never mind!)
Here is how I made it:
- 250g unsalted butter
- 250g caster sugar
- 200g self raising flour
- 50g ground hazelnuts
- 2-3 tsp instant coffee mixed with 50ml boiling water
- FOR THE FROSTING
- 1 x 250g pot of quark (or you could use cream cheese)
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
- salted toffee sauce (I used Clarks)
- 1 individual bag of Portlebay Cappuccino popcorn
- pre heat the oven
- grease and line 2 x 8 inch cake tins
- make your coffee now, to give it time to cool
- cream the butter and sugar together until pale and soft (about 5 mins)
- add the eggs and the ground nuts and beat well for a few more minutes
- add the coffee and beat again
- fold in the flour
- divide the batter between the two tins and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until risen and cooked right through
- leave to cool before turning out onto a wire rack
- make your frosting by mixing the cream cheese with the icing sugar
- then stir in a squeeze of the salted toffee sauce
- sandwich the now cooled sponges with 3/4 of the frosting
- then add the remaining frosting to the top of the cake
- scatter the popcorn across the cake and then drizzle more of the sauce over the top
For once I cannot tell you whether or not this cake tasted nice because I gave it away to the playgroup, and I did not try a slice as I would normally as I ran out of time! However, if it tastes as good as it looks then I am happy. It certainly looks good, and the sponge rose well and is a lovely colour and I am sure that salted toffee sauce over that popcorn was nice!!!
If you would like to bake along with me for the final episode of the Great British Bake Off, then the rules are here and you can grab my badge on my homepage and on the rules page.
On your marks, get set and baaaaaake
This week’s bake off linky is being hosted by Clare and her gorgeous boy Jacob, the reigning Great Bloggers Bake Off Star Baker 2015, so please go and see what he has baked for Finals week.
For those of you who have been a part of #GBBOBloggers2015 this year, I have some great news for you. Your entry for Finals week will be judged and 3 Star Bakers, 1st, 2nd and 3rd, will be selected by an independent judge/judges (names tbc) and you could win the following prizes kindly donated by my bake along sponsors Tesco. It will be the 3 best bakes as chosen by the judge – it wont be based on the 3 categories, it will simply be the 3 best bakes.
I will be giving you longer to get your bakes made and linked up so the deadline for all entries will be midnight on Sunday 18th October, 2015. Remember it will be for the 3 best bakes across all 3 of baking categories in the final show – not 1 per category as I have done in my round up each week.
BUT that is not all. As a thank you to each of the #GBBOBloggers2015 who have gone to so much effort and joined in with my bake along, bake off I am holding a prize draw which is not a competition, just a thank you. All you need to do is to fill in the form below, and (fingers crossed this will work!) you can enter every day for as many times that you entered my bake off. Therefore, if you joined in every week you have 10 chances to win, and if you maybe only entered 3 times you have 3 chances to win. This is only open to the #GBBOBloggers2015 who entered my linky. The prize will be a bundle of baking goodies supplied by me made up of new and unused baking items that I have been sent by various PR’s. a Rafflecopter giveaway
*** The 3 winners of this years final bake off were chosen by Tesco and they were:
1st place – Carrie from Time to be an Adult with her Victorian Sandwich Showstopper
2nd Place – Tracey with her Eton Mess Victoria Sponge
3rd Place – Jacob with his Cherry Bakewell Cake
What a fabulous looking cake, I love cappuccino so I bet this tastes fab. Thank you for all your hard work running the bake off for us Jenny, I have thoroughly enjoyed it x
That’s an amazing looking cake and that popcorn is like the icing on it…no weird pub intended 🙂 I’m going to miss GBBO!
Such a scrummy looking cake Jenny, I can imagine the play group enjoying it.
So sad the GBBO is over – but hurrah to Nadiya for winning – we were rooting for her too (a Yorkshire lass as well!)
Thank you too for hosting the bloggers’ bake off – it’s been fabulous! I’ve learnt so much along the way 🙂
Angela x
This is a pretty epic cake to finish on! Thank you so much for organising again this year Jenny…I’ve found so many great blogs to follow and had so much fun (mostly) doing the bakes! x
thank you Carrie and for joining in x
Oh my word!! What an amazing finish and look at all those fab goodies from Tesco. Jenny thank you so much for allowing me to be part of this wonderful bake-along!! I am looking forward to next year already!! 🙂 And your cake.. cappuccino.. oh yes please!!
what an unusual (but very clever idea to add the popcorn) – it certainly looks amazing and I’m sure it tasted great too and appreciated by the playgroup. thanks so much for hosting such a fabulous linky – I have really enjoyed joining in so much and i think i have finally overcome my fear of baking! Can’t wait for next year! xxx
Oooooo I would have to eat it all! Just so you know that it is only letting you add one recipe per day on the rafflecopter – think there’s a box you can untick?
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Oh wow Jenny that cake looks absolutely amazing! I love everything about it and would love a huge slice 🙂 x #recipeoftheweek
This cake looks great. I really love the idea of popcorn on a cake! x
I love this cake – thanks so much for all your hard work running the blogger’s bake off – I always look forward to joining in. x
Ooh coffee cake is one of my favourites – this looks amazing! Thanks so much for all your work organising the bloggers bake off. Sorry I didn’t manage to join in every week.
Gorgeous looking cake hon; and thank you so much for hosting this great blog group, and for letting me join, being a newbie blogger an all, missing it already, can’t wait for next year. looking forward to having the winter to get my blog site spot on too. thanks chuck xx
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[…] the Great British Bake Off and my bloggers bake along now finished for another year, *sobs* , you would think it would be a chance to wind down and relax and maybe […]