Thursday 24th September 2020
*Don’t worry, no major spoilers – we won’t disclose who won Star Baker, the technical or who was sent home. We’re catch-up friendly*
2020, it’s not been a great year. Maybe that’s a bit of an understatement. Nevertheless, the abstract necklaces of Prue, the handshakes of Paul and the wacky shirts of Noel and Matt have arrived as a gift from the baking gods to save us all. Hooray!
Episode 1 started with that old classic of cake week, something all of us bakers live and breathe. However, an emergency statement from the Prime Minister delayed our beloved Bake Off by 15 minutes. Some might say this was the biggest injustice of the year so far, and we would be inclined to agree.
That doesn’t matter anyway, as all was forgiven once we heard that recognisable tune. The camera panned over that glistening white tent, the mixers sparkled in the English sun, and the bakers popped on their aprons for the first time. A rush of warm, happy feelings fills the room; that’s it, we’re home again.
The signature challenge let the bakers loose on Battenberg, allowing them to create a pattern of their choice under a mouth-watering layer of marzipan.
10 minutes into the show, and the nation was divided. Who knew we had so many marzipan haters amongst us? They could be living on your street, doing your virtual pub quizzes or even queueing next to you at your local supermarket – beware!
Is anybody else completely shooketh by the revelation that soooooo many people are completely anti- marzipan?! #poormarzipan #igotyouboo #teammarzipan #gbbo @BritishBakeOff pic.twitter.com/gPSY5yIz6A
— Mr Baker’s Cakes (@MrBakersCakes) September 22, 2020
But for those of you who are nuts about almonds, you should take a look at our Original Marzipan. Save yourself the hassle of making it from scratch, simply open the packet and you’re ready to go. We won’t tell anyone, don’t worry.
Psst, you can even buy Ready Rolled Discs of our Marzipan, if you’d prefer to cover a classic, round cake. We’d recommend pairing marzipan with chocolate if Battenberg’s not your thing.
The creativeness of the Bake off contestants never fails to amaze us, as we witnessed everything from vodka-infused to a retro rhubarb and custard Battenberg…
It’s cake. Wrapped in plastic. Unexpected homage to Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks. #GBBO pic.twitter.com/UsgOpJplgV
— British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) September 22, 2020
Simply divine. If you fancy decorating your brilliant Battenberg’s at home, why not try Rainbow Dust’s Metallic Paints to decorate? They’re easy to apply, and achieve magical results. One of our Ambassador’s Jacqui Kelly actually used Renshaw Marzipan and Rainbow Dust Metallic Paint together in a tutorial for our Perfect Match campaign, which you can watch below. Jacqui is great at demonstrating how to use the Metallic Paint if you’re looking for some extra guidance.
Next up was the technical, and Paul and Prue didn’t hold back as the bakers met their match: 6 pineapple upside down cakes. Now, we must admit – we’re no expert when it comes to upside down cakes, but we’re pretty sure they’re not supposed to look like this..
If you’ve seen the episode, we won’t go into detail about THAT ‘incident’, for the sake off our Bake Off slackers (sorry). But hey, accidents happen, right?..
If any of our readers manage to successfully create an upside down cake, please share your wisdom with us. We’re still convinced that only those who are summoned by a baking angel have it in their power to do so.
Whoever thought of this showstopper deserves a pay rise in our books. We’ve seen woodlands, rockets and even dragons in previous years, but nothing could have prepared us for the unexpected JOY of this showstopper: celebrities made into sculptured cakes.
You heard it right. Celebrity bust cakes! We we’re greeted with greats such as Marie Antoinette, David Attenborough and Louis Theroux. If you had a really keen eye, you may have spotted the stacks of our Renshaw Sugar Paste on the baking benches for this challenge. Well, what can we say? Our products are used to make some of THE best cake sculptures the world has ever seen, such as…
Perhaps @LouisTheroux should investigate premature ageing amongst celebrity showstoppers? ? #GBBO pic.twitter.com/5DS9TEDqBX
— British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) September 22, 2020
The resemblance is uncanny, right? Despite the large age gap between real Theroux and cake sculpture Theroux, we can’t see any wrinkly elephant skin ?. Only the best Sugar Paste for Britain’s finest bakers. Anyhow, that’s enough boasting. We were just super excited to have a now not-so-secret appearance on TV!
As we come to the end of our Renshaw rundown on Bake off for this week, we want to celebrate one of the underdog bakes. For us, this showstopper really summed up what Bake off is about: having fun while you’re baking, and bringing laughter and inspiration to all those pairs of eyes watching.
We’ll stop with the emotional babbling now. Here is our favourite bake of the week, chosen by Freya from our Marketing Team. It’s Marc’s Ziggy Stardust cake!
The David Bowie Showstopper – more Gobbling King than Goblin King. #GBBO pic.twitter.com/j43FmQbJG4
— British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) September 22, 2020
“I just love how much this cake is obviously Bowie, but is so completely different from him all at the same time, I couldn’t stop laughing while I was watching the show. I think I would have used some of our Rainbow Dust Lustre on this to add some sparkle. Anything Bowie related deserves to be glamorous in my opinion” Very true Freya, very true. You can watch a tutorial on how to use Rainbow Dust Lustres and Renshaw Sugar Paste together here. They’re a perfect pair!
We hope our run down on Bake Off has helped fill the cookie cutter shaped hole in your life until next week’s episode. We know your news feed can be a little doom and gloom these days, but we’re doing our very best to keep things cheery and full of beautiful cakes and bakes. One last treat for you before you go, here’s our best-loved quote of Cake Week. It was SO hard to choose, the puns were flowing like double cream over an Eton mess. But we have a winner:
“Louis Theroux tastes quite coconutty”
Paul Hollywood, GBBO 2020
The no context of this quote is what makes it so perfect.
There’s much more to see over on our socials, so make sure you keep up to date @renshawbaking. Don’t forget to check out our recipes page too if you need some inspiration.
Happy Baking! x
Thursday 9th January 2020
Marzipan can be a bit of mystery. We love it here at Renshaw, and we know it well (check out our Royal Warrant for almond products if you don’t believe us), so we’re keen to spread the word far and wide. That’s where Jacqui Kelly, one of our fabulous Renshaw Academy Ambassadors, comes in. She’s […]
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