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Sunday 27 February 2011

Irish Car Bomb Cake and The Great British Bake-Off

"Irish Car Bomb"?? I hear you ask.

Well, lucky for you, I am here to enlighten and educate :) An Irish Car Bomb is a drink. It is made up of a shot which is half Baileys and half whiskey; Baileys on the bottom and whiskey on top. Then you pour  3/4 of a pint of Guinness and let it settle. And now for the best part! You drop the shot into the pint of Guinness and chug for your life! If you don't drink quickly enough, the drink will curdle and become pretty disgusting to drink. Mmmmm yummm! Not. What is yummy though are these cupcakes inspired by the drink from cupcake queen Annie's Eats.
Now for the second part of my story. A friend on Twitter sent me the ad for 'The Great British Bake-Off' and suggested I apply. At first, I was adamant I wouldn't. I barely like photos so I definitely don't want to be on TV. Plus I have never seen the show and was convinced there's no way I'd be good enough. However, I decided to apply thinking I'd never get through and so I had nothing to lose. So I filled in the 6-page application form, e-mailed it off and forgot about it! A few weeks later, I got a phone call and spent 45 minutes talking to a lovely lady called Cheryl about baking. And another couple of weeks after that, I got another phone call asking me to come and meet the judges with two samples of my baking; one sweet and one savoury. Now, those of you that read my blog must know that savoury baking isn't something I do often so I was a bit stumped as to what to make. Since I wanted to make things I had made before and liked; I decided to make Nigerian meat pies and Guinness cake. However, I decided to take inspiration from Annie's Eats and sandwich my Guinness cakes with her Baileys ganache and cover with her Baileys buttercream frosting. I hadn't made them before but I didn't think ganache and buttercream would be too much of a risk.

The day dawned bright and sunny and I wandered off to Holborn to meet Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry.  Under bright lights and video cameras, Paul asked me if I had ever baked bread. I said 'no' and they proceeded to try my meat pies first and labelled the dough too salty, and too tough. Mary said I used too much water and Paul said that I should practice my bread making as that would help me with dough. Then they tried the cake and had nothing but good things to say (phew!). They said it was incredibly moist, the combination of the Guinness and Baileys went very well together and was altogether "very good cake". Unfortunately they didn't put me through to the next round because they thought I'd fall at the first hurdle due to my inexperience with bread but that was fine. They didn't say anything I didn't already know; that I'm good with sweet baking and not so good with savoury! And on the plus side, I got to take my cake home and taste it!

Anyway, that's been my interesting couple of weeks. I leave you with pictures of my cake!! And I can confirm what they said, it is VERY GOOD CAKE! If you'd like to try it, use my Guinness cake recipe and Annie's Eat's ganache and butter cream recipes.

16 comments:

Sanchita said...

Your cake looks absolutely delicious..and well done for GBBO audition. They liked your cake!!

Onada said...

Oh you didn't tell me! What an awesome experience! The cake looks amazing :)

Ali said...

I feel much the same about TV, which begs the question why I am auditioning on Tuesday!! I'm also slightly freaked out by how many obviously skilled bakers have been knocked back. Your cake looks beautiful!
Did you get to plate it up at the audition or did they just whisk it away from you when you got there?

Mari said...

Sweetie, this looks AMAZING! I couldn't finish reading the post coz the pictures wont let me. My mouth is watering, heheheh. Goodness, I want to have a taste right now.

Kitchen Butterfly said...

Fantastic - you know what, good on you for being courageous enough to bake and meet two great cooks/chefs. And I'm so glad they liked the cake - it looks delicious.

Ceri said...

That cakes looks amazing - Great British Bake off's loss not to have you on board I think! Ceri x

Unknown said...

Can you mail me some cake please!! It looks so beautiful and yummy too:) Well done girl and @ the bake off soo impressed that you tried it out and got rave reviews on your cake. I will try this cake soon.

Unknown said...

@Sanchita Thank you very much :)

@Onada Thanks!

@Ali I hope your audition went well and you're through to the next round! Do let me know.

@Mari Thank you! I know you don't have too much of a sweet tooth so that compliment means a lot :)

@Kitchen Butterfly Thank you very much :)

@Ceri Aww, so sweet of you to say! Umm, not quite sure if that's the case but sweet anyway :)

@Titi's Passion Honestly, you need to have a chat to your postman! That big chunk I cut out? It was on it's way to you ;p You'll just have to come and visit!

Anonymous said...

This cake looks amazing!! The perfect cake for St. Patricks Day! :)

Anonymous said...

This cake looks amazing!! The perfect cake for St. Patricks Day! :)

Nicole Peterson said...

Wow Vicki. You never cease to amaze me!

I have to try this cake. Looks delicious!

Ms Afropolitan said...

Well done Vickii! Love this post, because of the fantastic achievement and also for your not taking any of the criticism to heart, because yes, they confirmed what you already knew, and lastly for the photos. WOW. that cake looks like a piece of savoury art

Uzo said...

Fantastic Vickii. Well done. Must have been really, really exciting stuff. Get started with the breads and savoury baking. I am starting up a from my kitchen blog....So here's to more time in our labs....

Chacha001 said...

Great job Vickii!!!

Daughter of Her King said...

heloo... first time here..

I found u through Naija Mum in London Blog page..

I have been looking at ur blogs since forever..

U are soo good and talented.. How do u compliment someone that seems to have a talent for creativity, diversity, baking etc.

I am inlove with this blog and I am inspired.. chai I love baking but this blog has encouraged me ohh...

I will be using some recipes ohh..

U are blessed hun.. keep up the good work...

Happy smiles

Unknown said...

@Daughter of Her king - Thank you so much for your wonderful compliments! Honestly, I am just someone who loves baking and tries to bake regularly and I've taken it from there and I still have LOTS to learn! Let me know how the recipes you try work out and how your baking endeavours go okay? Thank you again; you are too kind :)