The joy of group baking

Bake Off is done for another year. First, there was the expectation that like so many of our annual highlights, it just wouldn’t happen this year. Then a few brief weeks of anticipation once we’d heard it was going ahead. Followed by ten weeks of baking challenges that feel as if they’ve gone by in …

Great British Bake Off 2020 week 9

It doesn’t feel long since I was anticipating the unexpected pleasure of a new Bake Off series, yet here we are at the semi-final stage already. Somehow this sums up 2020 for me. Long spells where time drags and nothing much happens, followed by fleeting pleasures that are gone far too quickly. Only a week …

Great British Bake Off 2020 week 8

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 …

It’s the little things that keep you going.

It’s the little things that keep you going at a time like this. My last post was al about the sort of baking which takes a few hours to complete and feels like quite a project. This time around it’s the quick and easy option, the sort of baking where you barely have time to …

Great British Bake Off 2020 week 7

This season’s Bake Off has reached the point where the weekly themes start to go a bit off-piste. In previous years we’ve been served vegan and Danish baking, this time around we’ve had Japanese followed by the Eighties. When I saw this theme listed I was desperately hoping the show might include a Black Forest …

Back through the looking glass

So here we go again, UK lockdown 2, the sequel no one wanted to see. It’s been pretty obvious for a few weeks it was coming, but it still doesn’t make the thought of shutting the doors and hibernating for the next four weeks anymore appealing. If that wasn’t enough, there’s a certain election to …

Great British Bake Off 2020 week 6

Bake Off entered a whole new world this week. The world of Japanese baking. If my knowledge of Japanese food is at best limited, my knowledge of their baking is even less. This was the sort of week where contestants who’ve managed all that’s been asked of them so far suddenly started to falter. A …

Great British Bake Off 2020 week 5

Of all the baking basics, the one I struggle with most is pastry. On the face of it things should be easy, most pastry ingredient lists are even shorter than bread making, but somehow it never quite seems to work that way. It never has quite the shortness or crumbly texture I’m looking for. I’ve …

Discovering new flavours

I’m the person who often picks the dish he doesn’t recognise on the menu. The person who then sits wondering what’s going to be delivered to the table. Hoping for a new food experience, eager to be the envy of my dining companions, running the risk of leaving them thinking ‘will he never learn’. It …

Too much time, too little to do.

I forgot it was my fathers birthday at the beginning of this week, or perhaps I should say I momentarily overlooked it. Ever since lockdown started back in March I’ve been calling him regularly to see how he is and when I did on Monday it went to answerphone so I left a message. I …

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