So, I’ve been enjoying the British Baking Show, but I’m amazed at how vast the gulf seems to be between American and British baking.
Especially the flavors that seem to be favored. Like flowers! They’re continually using rose and lavender, scents that mean soap or laundry to me, mostly.
And the fruit choices – passion fruit seems to be a huge favorite, and rhubarb as well. (I knew rhubarb exists as an edible but I’ve never been served it.)
And what’s with all the frangiapani? It seems you have an absolute lust for almond flavored stuff.
Maybe the biggest divide is how every single bun/biscuit/cake/whatever has a name. I mean, we have chocolate cakes, or orange cakes, or sour cream cakes. Basically named for the ingredients. But over there it’s Battenburg cakes and Victoria Sandwiches and Chelsea Buns and Bakewell tarts and who knows what all.
So, I understand that things are likely turned up to 11 for the show. I mean, I figure no one actually builds a precarious tower of four pies to serve at a dinner party. But is that actually within shouting distance of what an average home cook might turn out?
I believe the contestants are all home kooks but practiced,and passionate, I love that show. All the fiddly jargon and new way to say ore A gawno all the bakes are fabulous!
I’ll bet even in America serious bakers are familiar with the formal names of various goods. I mean, if the instruction is simply to make a “chocolate cake”, the contestants will provide many different things. But if they’re told to make a Black Forest gateau, they’re going to make, more or less, the same thing.
I try to catch TGBBS whenever I can. I enjoy it so much more than the American competitions. The contestants are collegial, self-deprecating and have a lot of class, even when they lose. I’ve been inspired by their work more than once to try something new.
As for your question about what an average home cook might turn out, I don’t know… back in my younger days, I would pore over Bon Appetit magazines and gourmet cookbooks for complicated recipes. It wasn’t unusual for a meal to take a week to prepare, doing bits and pieces that could be frozen/stored until the day of the final meal.
There was the holiday Croquembouche.
The Valentine’s Day raspberry torte with 8 layers of cake, filling, hazelnut meringues, icing and whatnot.
The Mother’s Day cake made with rolled out almond paste icing, shaped like a pillow.
So… yeah, to a point. I’m not a chef and would never claim to be. But it is sometimes fun to push the limits and see what I can figure out.
In recent years, I’m more interested in breads and have worked to perfect sourdough, Ciabatta, French baguette and such. Everyone eats them and requests them regularly, so I guess they’re adequate.
I still do an annual Bûche de Noël with meringue mushrooms and the whole logscape theme. That’s about as baking crazy as I get these days.
Do they not do church or school fêtes in the US? There’s often a baking competition, or at least more than one stall with baked goods, and those can get a little … competitive.
It’s the followup to each week’s GBBO, and features outtakes, discussion about the show, an interview with the contestant who left in the last show, viewers’ baking disasters and triumphs, and lots and lots of humour. It adds an extra dimension to the GBBO.
I find the difference in cooking terms and ingredients fascinating. I had to look up “caster sugar” (which is superfine sugar in the US, and not easy to find), and they use sheets of gelatin instead of powder. “Sponge” is what we’d probably call “cake layer.” And many things are weighed instead of measured in cups (probably more accurate).
Well, it’s a big country so I shouldn’t speak for all of it (plus I’m long-lapsed as a church-goer) but no, I don’t think so. Schools sometimes have bake sales to raise money for a sports team or something, but the goods are pretty run-of-the-mill cookies and brownies and apple pies, rather than anything elaborate or ornate.
And the church I used to belong to would hold potluck suppers, but that about casseroles and meatballs and salads, plus more of the cookies/brownies range of things.
My mother did once take a cake decorating course, but that pretty much focused on making flowers and squiggles and dots and bumps out of icing on top of an ordinary cake. Sometimes the women didn’t even use a real cake for the base. Mostly it was an exercise in seeing if you could drape two or three extra pounds of sugar on top of a cake. (Not that we kids ever complained.)
No, I don’t think I’ve ever noticed it. Actually, I’m fairly sure they fill the leftover minutes with a whole bunch of promos for other television shows. Maybe I can find them on Youtube or something.
This is the kind of thing you can expect,at the kind of fêtes that have a competition(whether UK or here in SA) - plenty of ordinary tarts and biscuits as well (and here and Oz&NZ, there’ll always be lamingtons!)
We use granulated sugar, though almost no american home cooks are making meringues unless they’re making lemon meringue pie nowadays. I’ve made a number of meringues with granulated sugar and no one told me they were nasty. I have a carton of baking sugar so next time I make a pavlova, I’ll do one with granulated and one with baking and have people compare.
I do sometimes give the granulated sugar a spin in the blender if I want it finer but not as fine as powdered sugar.
I find granulated sugar doesn’t dissolve completely in icy eggwhite (I beat eggwhites at about the point they start to ice over), so the meringue comes out gritty.
I wonder if the flower waters and fruits are from their connection with India. Although I’m thinking that because the Indian section of the supermarket is where I get flower waters for medieval recipes. It may just be that America lost a medieval connection that England kept.
We don’t seem, collectively, to have the same tradition here, unless one is already a professional baker or is, like the contestants, a serious home baker. It takes a certain type of person to appreciate the time and care it demands. Most people either aren’t interested in that or don’t have the time/inclination to learn.
The only “competitive” baking around my way are the annual contests at the various agricultural fairs. The biggest one subdivides its entries into “Best Pie”, say, or “Best Chocolate Cake”. I don’t think they get as detailed as the GBBS, so you are allowed leeway as to what kind of chocolate cake, say, you’re going to make.
Bear in mind that contestants are given at least a week to practice their recipes. I’m sure many of them hadn’t heard of some of those things as well before they looked them up in a cookbook.
I have a carton of baking sugar so next time I make a pavlova, I’ll do one with granulated and one with baking and have people compare.
