We’re down to the last five contestants in the Bake Off, this was quarter-finals week and the challenges were all desserts.
For me, dessert is a catch-all title which can include gateaus or even pies, as long as they’re of the sweet variety. For Bake Off, it gets a bit more specific, as the ones I would include have already found they’re way into cake and pastry week respectively.
This time around the challenges set were to produce six individual baked cheesecakes of they’re choice as the signature, to make a Sussex pond pudding for the technical and finally to create a jelly art cake as the showstopper.
This weeks signature challenge pretty much speaks for itself but the other two probably need some explanation. I was as baffled as to the next person when a Sussex pond pudding was announced. The pond reference makes it sound quite unappetising, but I now know it to be a very old traditional English recipe. I’ve done a little research since the show and apparently, there are mentions of it going back as far as the 1600s. It consists of a suet pudding case around a centre of butter, sugar and lemon. The lemon is cooked whole and the centre is supposed to ooze, a bit like a baked fondant when you cut into it. My partners 89 years old mother watched the show with us and she remembers it as a childhood treat, but it’s certainly not something I’ve come across before. Neither I’m going to guess had any of the contestants, as I don’t think I’ve ever seen a challenge where they’ve all failed to quite the degree they did on this one. Without exception, the puddings collapsed long before anyone had a chance to cut into them
I’m not sure that a jelly art cake is a thing, it feels to me as if it might have been created in the minds of the judges. However, if you click the link you’ll see the fantastic creation one of the contestants came up with, a real work of art. My last experience of jelly was probably at a childhood birthday party and I’m not sure I enjoyed it then.
Cheesecake isn’t one of my favourite desserts, I often find them quite rich and heavy. The Italian version is different though. The base and filling are lighter and it’s nowhere near as sweet as the traditional variety.
This is the recipe I use. If you’re just cooking for two this works fine if you half all of the ingredients amounts.
Ingredient
For the base
- 125g plain flour
- 50g ricotta cheese..if you can’t get ricotta you can use cottage cheese
- 50g unsalted butter..melted
- 100g icing sugar
Filling
- 450g ricotta cheese
- 100g caster sugar
- 25g plain flour
- 2 eggs
- Pinch of salt
- 60ml lemon juice
- 0.5tsp vanilla extract
Method
- Preheat the oven to gas mark 8
- Butter and flour an 18 or 20 cm springform cake tin.
- Mix the ingredients for the base together and press them into the base of the tin.
- Whisk together the filling ingredients and pour them over the base.
- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. When it comes out the filling should still be slightly wobbly in the centre.
- Leave to cool completely in the tin before you release it
I often decorate the top with sliced strawberries. I couldn’t get any this weekend so I used some raspberries I had in the freezer.
David in the kitchen. 