On your marks, get set, BAKE! Week One

I’ve decided to bake along with the Great British Bake Off this year. This started as something fun to do in my spare time, but my family has encouraged me to blog about it here!

If you like baking (or like eating baked goods) this is a really fun show. I didn’t think I was going to post about this so I didn’t take many pics during the process, but I’ve got a nice one of the finished product.

So for Week 1 I’ve made Diana’s Lemon Curd Swiss Roll. YUM.

“There are two ways to make a Swiss Roll, first of all you push Roger Federer down a hill. Secondly, lovely thing involving sponge and jam.” -Sue Perkins

The original recipe can be found here, and I’ve added a couple of tips to the recipe below from my own experience.

Ingredients:

For the Lemon Curd:

• 110g lightly salted butter
• 110g caster sugar
• 2 lemons (zest & juice)
• 2 eggs (at room temperature) beaten

For the sponge

• unsalted butter for greasing
• 4 eggs (3 whole egss plus 1 yolk)
• 160g caster sugar (plus extra for rolling)
• 160g self-raising flour sifted

Preparation Method:

1. For the lemon curd, put the butter, sugar, lemon zest and juice into a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water (ensure the bowl does not touch the water). Stir occasionally until the sugar is dissolved.
2. When the sugar is dissolved, add the beaten eggs and continue to heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture thickens. Transfer to a bowl to cool. This will take a good 10-15 minutes and the finished product won’t look much like lemon curd but more like custard. Don’t panic, as it cools it will thicken up nicely.
3. For the sponge, preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Grease and line a 26x40cm/10½x16in baking tray with baking parchment.
4. Place a large heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Add the eggs and sugar to the bowl and whisk until lukewarm (don’t overheat the mixture). Remove bowl and whisk until the mixture is very thick and leaves trails when the whisk is removed. Fold in the sifted flour using a metal spoon. I ended up using my electric mixer for this step instead of the whisk as I found the mixture wasn’t thickening! It did in the end though you just have to be patient with it. 
5. Spread the mixture onto the prepared baking tray and place on the middle shelf in the oven. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until firm to the touch.
6. Lay a large piece of greaseproof paper or a tea towel on the work surface and dust with sugar. Tip out the cake onto the dusted paper/tea towel and carefully remove the baking parchment.
7. Spread the, still warm, lemon curd evenly over the sponge.
8. Position the cake with one of the short ends nearest to you. Make a cut across the width of the sponge about 1cm/½in in and about three-quarters of the way through the depth of the sponge (this will help you roll up the sponge). Tightly roll up the sponge starting at the nearest edge and using the paper/tea towel to help you. Set aside to cool.
9. Before serving, trim the ends of the roll to create a neat finish and dust with a little extra sugar, if desired.

I didn’t have the size of baking tray specified in the recipe so my sponge was a bit thicker, but it all worked out. I even had a little bit of lemon curd left over to spread on toast!

Considering I had never made a Swiss Roll before I was happy with the way this turned out. I would say it’s relatively easy to make and tastes fabulous. I’m sure Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry would have some criticisms (perhaps about the tightness of my roll?), but hey -it was scrummy.

Enjoy!