This recipe of Mary's requires 26 separate ingredients, has 14 stages, and needs to look pretty enough for a Princess, making it one of the most complicated technical challenges.
No big deal *cracks knuckles* we've got this!
Very soon we figured out that we did not in fact have this at all. The end (and the bottom of the ingredients list) seemed no where in sight, as we struggled through thin custard, cement like marzipan, rogue jam recipes, and more. Power tools were brought in, and skepticism was at an all time high as we presented our results to our judges.
We'll let you be the judge of whether or not our cakes were fit for royalty.
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| Prinsesstårta - courtesy BBC Foods |
First Baker: Megan
My Thoughts:
I knew before I started this cake that it was going to be daunting just from the 14 million steps and ingredients involved. I think in the end that I ended up feeling all of the exact same emotions that I did as I watched Avengers:Infinity War (this movie just came out here in English so I was just able to see it last night). First I'm always happy to start a bake especially a challenging one just because I think it is fun to learn how to make new things. Almost everything except for the sponge was new to me in this bake because it is quintessentially British which means my simple American baking does not include such posh things as homemade jam or homemade marzipan for sure. That happiness dwindled quickly as it did while watching Avengers because my first component (the custard) failed miserably as it sat on the stove for 20 minutes and never thickened up. My hope was somewhat restored the next day (yes this recipe did take me two days and I think 7 years) as I was able to bring my custard back to life in the microwave of all places. I'm sure Mary Berry frowns upon the use of the common microwave when you're trying to make a cake for royalty. That hope, that all would be well, was destroyed by Star Lord (really marzipan but I see them as one in the same; life ruiners). My marzipan was a cracked, dry mess on top of what could have been a lovely cake maybe fit for a duchess (maybe not one as classy as Kate Middleton though because she is flawless) not quite a princess.
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| From top left: Ingredients, the savior microwave, my whip creamed dome that I had to crouch on the floor in order to see that it was perfectly domed, green eggs and almond, improvising with the marzipan that ended with a crumpled mess |
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| This moment was the proudest that I have been during the bake off so far as I somehow managed to cut that one cake into three with a butter knife. |
Result: In the end, I honestly never want to make this again even though everyone raved about how delicious it was because. I must say that even though I would love to vow to not watch the next Avengers movie because of the marzipan like anger that I felt after it, I must have some sort of closure so I will be at the theater along with the billions of other people I'm sure. I will definitely never make this cake again though.
Fake Paul and Mary Thoughts: My judges thought that the green color on this one was a little off putting and that cracks obviously didn't help with the appeal but that the test was amazing. They were skeptical about all of the different elements working together but after tasting it thought that it was the perfect blend of flavors. They thought that the marzipan was the perfect texture and that it was just the right amount of sweet. All of them wanted more of it and said that it was probably their favorite bake so far in the challenge.
Fake Paul and Mary Thoughts: My judges thought that the green color on this one was a little off putting and that cracks obviously didn't help with the appeal but that the test was amazing. They were skeptical about all of the different elements working together but after tasting it thought that it was the perfect blend of flavors. They thought that the marzipan was the perfect texture and that it was just the right amount of sweet. All of them wanted more of it and said that it was probably their favorite bake so far in the challenge.
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| One judges reaction... |
Average Taste Score: 10
Average Appearance Score: 7
Second Baker: Stephanie
My Thoughts:
I started this cake on a Saturday morning, very excited to get back to the challenge. My almost two year old was also eager to "hep yoo" in the kitchen. By the time the cake was finally finished it was time to drive her off to college, her whole life was gone in the amount of time it took me to make this cake. Ok, so I'm being dramatic, but it did take me all day long, and there was no way I was getting this done in the two and a quarter hours the contestants were allowed on the show.
If you haven't heard, we're actually in the process of moving back to America and a lot of my house is already packed up and sent back, leaving me with no mixer. Craig, who is strangely supportive and into the whole challenge attached my basic whisk to his power drill and voila, a mixer is made!
I started out very confident, I even smugly told him (in my best bake off contestant impression) I've actually made Jam before, I think I have a leg up on this one.
Things started to go downhill quickly. Again, I didn't have some of the ingredients available to me and while making jam I told Craig "I'm going rogue!" only in my process of shout-casting my entire process to my husband and children, I got distracted and began to spill sugar everywhere, resulting in a few "oh expletive" exclamations.
Something went terribly south with my marzipan and my hands became the stuff of nightmares as I tried to mix it with my hands and the sticky porridge like substance began to cement to them.
The only place my cream was whipping was literally all over my kitchen as it stayed in liquid format. But hey, I blame the drill-whisk on that one. Once I whipped it by hand I had a little more luck and a lot more sore muscles.
After wrestling the loch-ness monster that was my overly colored sticky marzipan onto the cake. I admitted defeat, tapped out, and called this round done.
If you haven't heard, we're actually in the process of moving back to America and a lot of my house is already packed up and sent back, leaving me with no mixer. Craig, who is strangely supportive and into the whole challenge attached my basic whisk to his power drill and voila, a mixer is made!
I started out very confident, I even smugly told him (in my best bake off contestant impression) I've actually made Jam before, I think I have a leg up on this one.
Something went terribly south with my marzipan and my hands became the stuff of nightmares as I tried to mix it with my hands and the sticky porridge like substance began to cement to them.
The only place my cream was whipping was literally all over my kitchen as it stayed in liquid format. But hey, I blame the drill-whisk on that one. Once I whipped it by hand I had a little more luck and a lot more sore muscles.
After wrestling the loch-ness monster that was my overly colored sticky marzipan onto the cake. I admitted defeat, tapped out, and called this round done.
Result:
If you hadn't seen the original cake and you didn't know what it was supposed to be, you might think this was a decent cake with a pretty impressive rose decoration. In fact, I took the cake to church and it fed about 30 people and everyone was asking for seconds.
They didn't know what I knew which was that my sponge didn't rise, my custard and my whipped cream never thickened, and that the marzipan is just a disaster.
Overall, for what it was, it did taste good and I was happy with my jam and the fondant rose.
They didn't know what I knew which was that my sponge didn't rise, my custard and my whipped cream never thickened, and that the marzipan is just a disaster.
Overall, for what it was, it did taste good and I was happy with my jam and the fondant rose.
Fake Paul and Mary Thoughts:
The sponge to filling ratio was off, there should have been more custard and a fluffier sponge, so while the jam was good there was a little too much of it. "I can see what you were going for and it's good."
The sponge to filling ratio was off, there should have been more custard and a fluffier sponge, so while the jam was good there was a little too much of it. "I can see what you were going for and it's good."
Average Taste Score: 7.5
Average Appearance Score: 5
Third Baker: Devin
My Thoughts:
PRINSESSTARTE...oh how I have longed to complete this complicated bake. That was before I read the twenty four steps and forced myself to convert the measurements in advance. The more I read the recipe the more daunting it became. I put it off for as long as I could. Custard...really British people? (I'm talking to the entire continent) I'm not even ashamed to admit that I threw in the towel on this bake. No matter how many days I tried to return to complete it, I just couldn't give it my all. I was defeated by the prinsesstarte. I would like to make this one day with all store bought components. I think it could be a tasty dessert but definitely not worth the time to make everything from scratch.
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| Before I knew that custard was the devil |
Result: 
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| When I realized I never wanted to bake again |
Fake Paul and Mary Thoughts:
Paul :Why didn’t you submit something? Even separately with an undone cake you could have been a contender
Mary: (Shakes head, face full of smugness) Custard is such an easy task.
Paul :Why didn’t you submit something? Even separately with an undone cake you could have been a contender
Mary: (Shakes head, face full of smugness) Custard is such an easy task.
Average Taste Score:
Average Appearance Score:
Tune in next week when we try our hand at a bake we can't pronounce, but glory-hallelujah, only has FIVE ingredients!
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