loveFOOD does Bake Off! Mary Berry's dacquoise with Edd Kimber

It was Andrew's turn again to do the Bake Off technical challenge this week, and who should drop into the loveFOOD kitchen but first-ever Bake Off winner Edd Kimber…

Mary's hazelnut dacquoise, last week's Great British Bake Off technical challenge, was probably the most difficult yet. Thankfully, due to a mix-up in kitchenware that's too long-winded to go into here, I had the pleasure of original Bake Off winner Edd Kimber's company.

I was a bit worried about this technical because the recipe on the BBC website says over two hours' preparation time and one to two hours' cooking time, yet the contestants on the show only had two hours. Time pressure, it seems, makes the drama. 

First roast your nuts

As you'll know from my previous challenge, I play fast and loose with recipes. So when I saw pre-chopped and roasted hazelnuts in Waitrose as well as whole ones, I opted for them - why wouldn't you? Mary's recipe calls for Camp Coffee extract. If you've not heard of this before, it's what people in the past used when they couldn't get real coffee. Chicory is the main flavouring, a common bulking agent for coffee. I once had coffee with the Maltese High Commissioner, who told me that Maltese people grew so accustomed to the adulteration of coffee with burnt chicory during WWII that they now sometimes actually prefer it that way. 

Back in 2013, Waitrose's Barbican branch didn't stock Camp Coffee. They did, however, have a bazillion types of real coffee. I pondered this as I browsed the aisles. Was Camp like Spam? A war time 'do without' simulacra product made redundant now the real thing is available and cheap as chips? 

In the end I bunged in three tablespoons of Nescafe instant espresso coffee (a contradiction in terms in my book, but we had it lying about) to the mix. 

Boil over and soft peaks

Bringing the milk up to the boil was a slow task. Naturally the second I took my eye off the pan, it boiled over, causing a digital squealing from the induction hob worthy of when R2D2 got shot.

I was grateful that Edd bought a large piping bag with him, rather than the tiny ones we have in the studio, as this meant I could pipe my three meringues much more easily.

With them in the oven, I whipped the cream and made the ganache. Here again Edd offered a time-saving tip: 'Put the chocolate and cream in together and melt over a low heat rather than do each separately'. And do you know what, he was right. 

Once the meringues were cooked and cooled, it was just a case of assembling the cake. This required some extensive grouting around the edge with the coffee custard filling. Piping the ganache on was easier enough, a tip here is to do one at 12 o'clock on the clock, then the next one at 6 o'clock. Then 3, then 9, etc. That way you get an even distribution of swirls, rather than going round 12, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. I'm chuffed to say I came up with this on my own. 

Taste test

With that the cake was ready. To be honest I think we went over time, but then the recipe said as much, and I'm amazed the contestants in last week's show got it done it two hours. So what did it taste like? Well, strangely underwhelming, and of nothing much but hazelnuts. 'I can't taste the coffee' said Edd, and I agreed. Maybe we should have used Camp, though the original recipe only calls for two tablespoons and I put far more espresso mix into the custard than that. 

I have a huge respect for Mary Berry, she's practically at beatification into a National Treasure, but this recipe is just not very nice. Hazelnut all around the edge, and in the meringue, leaves little room for any other flavours. 

Compared to the contestants' efforts I don't think mine looked that bad.

Conclusion

An odd technical then, with a cake that I felt required lots of effort but delivered very little in terms of flavour. I found this a rather soulless creation, and it's just not my kind of cake.

Like a cakey Liberace, it was reminiscent of something from the 1970s, all sugar and meringue, but very little substance. I was glad of Edd's company, advice and bonhomie, otherwise I would have found the process very uninteresting.

It also created Biblical amounts of washing up! I've said before, I'm not really a baker, more a cook, and though I enjoyed the bread element of making the couronne the other week, this felt a very unusual cake at the end. Having said all that, when offered to the rest of the office they wolfed it down, so maybe it was just me who had a problem with it?

So, roll on the next episode. What will we be cooking next? Stay tuned to find out...

Have you attemped any of the technicals in Bake Off? Do you like our attempts? Do  you agree or disagree with Andrew's thoughts on the dacquoise? Tell us in the Comments box below.

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