Herbert IV and The Great Big Bucks Bake Off

The sun is out (for the moment), exams are over and the blog is back. Since healthy competition is currently taking centre stage, I thought I would mark my return to the cloud with a post about my own recent victory.

On the 28^th July I came third in the Great Big Bucks Bake Off at the Eden Centre in High Wycombe. Since the competition was for eight inch cakes, I decided to go with something a bit unusual, and made a Hummingbird cake with cream cheese icing. Actually, I made three. I also followed my own tradition of naming Hummingbird cakes Herbert, so Herbert II (pictured below) came the week before the competition, as an experiment in taste and decorating.

Herbert II.0

I discovered that unlike well-behaved buttercream icing, cream cheese icing will turn into a gloopy, delicious mess if you add too much icing sugar. I also discovered that if they are in fact what they eat, my family and friends are nuts. The more the merrier. With these revelations in mind, I made Herbert III only a few days before the competition to make sure these tweaks all worked out.

Despite a few concerns I had with the icing, Herbert IV went reassuringly well. I managed to beat the icing just enough that it was smooth but also stiff enough to pipe. I put icing in between each layer and round the outside, decorating the top with pecan halves where the numbers on a clock would be, and put three roses in the centre. I left the cake in the fridge overnight, which gave the icing a chance to set until it was time to drop Herbert IV off in Wycombe.

Herbert IV: Cake it away

Like a nervous parent leaving their child at school for the first time, I anxiously watched as one of the supervisors put Herbert in his place and labelled him ‘Hummingbird Cake’. Would people stare at him and make nasty comments? Would they notice he was leaning a little bit? Would a small child stick in a mucky finger and send him careening hopelessly to the floor? Would the other cakes be nice to him? It was a nervous wait for judging.

On the table

A note on naming cakes: you will get attached and find yourself referring to them as ‘him’. This may lead people to think you are crazy. It also makes carrying them even more traumatic.

After nervously watching the divine Mary Berry produce a chocolate brownie to make a dieter weep with longing, I proceeded to nervously watch the judgers announce the winners. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long as they announced third place first! I was absolutely delighted, not least because I have never received a trophy before. I was so delighted that I almost forgot how to walk and/or talk, and my mouth developed a weird, manic twitch, which made smiling an interesting challenge. I also go an incredible shade of red when I’m embarrassed, so all in all the photos are rather dispiriting. However, the judges were all lovely, including Mary Berry, who seemed genuinely pleased for all the winners.

Berry pleased with my trophy

After the prizes had been handed out, the cakes were sold for charity. I decided that I wanted other people to try Herbert, so we bought a slice of the winning cake, an exquisite lemon cake. I later regretted leaving Herbert behind, when I was tortured with the thought that he might not have been bought.

Having a cake judged by people who are not obliged to swear through gritted teeth that it’s the most delicious baked product to ever grace the earth was a terrifying and fantastic experience, and I will be watching with bated breath and watering mouth when TheGreat British Bake Off returns to our screens on 14^th August.