The bake off - happy birthday Jemma!

This post is a little late, but still worth posting!  The idea of the bake off came from a somewhat drunken royal wedding day.  A friend of mine gave me a large amount of preserved cherries.  The question was what to do with them?  Well let's use them for a bake off of course - the challange was this:  Cook something for Jemma's birthday party that incorporates the cherries.  The contestants, myself (of course!) and my university friend Craig.

Now because we came up with this idea while drunk, I never thought it would actually happen.  But while I lay in bed waking up slowly the next morning, I hear Craig rush out to the shop at 9:30am.  He is gone for ages, and when he finally comes and I heard bang, crash, bang in the kitchen.  Could it be?  Yes, he was already steps ahead of me, with his ingredients bought and his cake well on it's way.  Right, it's time to get up and get cooking!

Craig decided to go for an ice cream cake.  His cake consisted of a layer of chocolate cake, a layer of mint chocolate chip ice cream, and another layer of chocolate cake, all encased in icing and decorated with smarties and cherries.  Ambitious and brave!  It started well, the cake layers were baked and looked impressive.  Now for the ice cream - onto one of the layers (with lots of foil and a bit of mess) then into the freezer.  An hour later, the ice cream had not set.  A second hour later and still not set...

In the mean time, I began on mine - I decided to go for a berry pavlova.  Not only can I not pronounce it properly, but I'd never made pr even eaten one.  The idea of course came from Saturday Kitchen a few weeks back.  I don't have an electric mixer and really I should have been put off when I read online that this should not be attempted by hand.  But instead this just made it more of a challange!  So in go the egg whites and I whisk.  And whisk.  And whisk.  Add sugar and whisk more.  More sugar, more whisking.  Over an hour later, and with a sore arm, I'm beginning to get peaks.  A bit more whisking then into the oven.  180C for an hour and then turn the oven off and leave it to cool in the oven for hours.  All I can do now is hope that the merange is light and fluffy!

At this point the tension and fighting talk meant we needed to get out of the house to break the tension.  So out to the park for some lunch and relaxing.  Nice!

A couple of hours later back in the house and finally the ice cream had sort of set.  So second later of cake on top and quickly on with the icing before the ice cream melts.  Then on with the decoration and back into the freezer.  I have to say, at this point the cake was looking very impressive and I was begining to doubt my ability to win.  So I pick up my game.  Out come the cherries, which need destoning.  Then I find some strawberries and raspberries in the fridge and throw those in too.  Lightly mix the fruit with the greek yogurt, add a touch of sugar and it's ready to go!

The journey to the party, which was a good 30 mins taxi ride was interesting. Craig asked the taxi driver to make sure the cake got there as quickly as possible.  We get there sacely and Craig convinces someone who works at the pub to put his cake in the freezer for safe keeping.  Now all we can do is wait until showtime.  About an hour later, there's bad news.  The freezer that Craig's cake is in is actually a fridge and it's melting quickly.  So out it comes and it's judgement time!

Little did we know there were two categories - best looking and best tasting.  The ice cream cake wins best looking while the pavlova wins best tasting!  So it's a tie.  I'll get you next time Craig...