Angel Food Cake attempt from Episode 1

So each week I am going to try and make one of the bakes shown on BBC2's The Great British Bake Off...and I will be choosing the easiest one because I don't bake things very often - I'm more of a meal cook than a cakey bakey cook. It will be interesting to see how hard these challenges actually are for an inexperienced baker. Admittedly I don't have a camera crew in my face and millions watching, but are they crying and bleeding everywhere over nothing? (probably) 

This week is the Angel Food Cake which is a lemon flavour, very light fluffy thing. I can honestly say it is  pretty easy to make because mine was a huge success! I found the recipe online and this is what you need:

For the cake

• 125g/4½oz plain flour
• 300g/10½oz caster sugar
• 10 large free-range egg whites
• 2 large lemons, grated zest only
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• ½ tsp salt

For the topping

• 300ml/10fl oz whipping cream
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
  
  
  You also need to make your own lemon curd and mix it with passion fruit seeds but as we didn't see the bakers making curd on the programme you will not see me doing that either. I bought some lemon curd and the supermarket didn't have passion fruit - this is realistic baking.
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  

  Here is me with the weird shaped cake mould. It isn’t the one used in the programme but it seemed to do the trick.

  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  First, you find a sieve. I never see bakers on GBBO spending ten minutes rooting though every draw in the kitchen, asking the dog for help, standing in the hall way with a blank expression on their faces then eventually ringing their mum to locate said item. We were off to a slow start but when found, you sift the flour and 100g of the sugar in to a bowl and put it to one side.

  
  

  Jessie was no help at all in finding the sieve.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  Then you put 10 egg whites in to a bowl and using an electric mixer you whisk for a minute. Next, you add the Crème of Tartar (What the hell is this? Is it related to Tartar sauce? Who knows), lemon juice, lemon zest and salt. Mix this on high for 2-3 minutes. Then spoon by spoon, add 200g of caster sugar and keep mixing until the peaks are “firm and not stiff”. I think mine were stiff but it was hard to tell.

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Here is the mixer I used that belonged to my grandma and is at least 35 years old. It still works which is amazing, but it does smell like burning when in use. Part of the cable is cello taped together which isn’t very encouraging.

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  Now you FOLD, like bedding, the flour and sugar you set aside, in to the egg whites mixture. Apparently you need to keep the air in and do it slowly. I was FOLDING but there were still waterfalls of flour at every FOLD. I didn’t want to do anymore so at this point I tipped it into the mould anyway.

  
  

  Here is it in the mould and here is me going around the middle with a knife to let out any bubbles. I am so confused though. I thought the FOLDING was to keep the air in, then you have to use the knife to remove the air. Wtf Mary Berry.
  

  
  

  

  
  

  Check the dog. She looks confused.

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  Put in the oven for 45-50 mins at 160 C for a fan oven. It was done at 40 mins for me.
  
  
  

  

  
  

  Once out of the oven, you hang it upside down and in the programme this meant propping the mould on tiny feet. My mould didn’t have feet or even legs so instead I slipped it over a bottle of pink food colouring, helped by some plates and a tube of icing. Leave for an hour.
  
  
  

  

  
  After an hour the bloody thing was still very much wedged in there so I used a knife to go around the edges and then used a pallet knife to prize it out on to a wire rack.

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  It came out in one piece!! Hallelujah! It looked a bit shit though. Most of the outside of the cake was still in the tin.
  
  
  

  

  
  

  
  Next, you ignore the fact that your cake looks really really bad and you whisk the cream and vanilla together for sosososososossosososo long and then your arm kills. Finish when there are “soft” peaks.
  
  
  

  

  
   Here comes the best bit: get a spoon and spoon the cream on to the cake and spread it about with a pallet knife.

  
  

  

  
  

  Then take your jar of lemon curd and put it into a bowl and mix it about a bit. Then drizzle everywhere. On the cake. Not all over the house. But a lot of it does get on the table.
  
  

  

  
  

  Ta Da! A cake that looks awesome and better than most of the Great British Bakers’ attempts (applause).

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  Here is me with cake.

  
  

  

  
  

  Here I am poking cake to check the texture and pretending to be Mary Berry.

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  How good is this slice?
  
  
  

  

  
  As you can see I am chuffed to bits with this cake. I didn’t cry or cut my fingers off and it tastes delicious!  If all the bakes go this well maybe I should apply for next year’s series! I don’t want to overshadow Mary Berry by being just too good at baking though.