S1E6 Signature: Miniature Cakes
I made it to the final! The showstopper for the first season finale is so extreme that there is no technical challenge this week. 
The final signature bake is 24 miniature cakes. Paul Hollywood made it clear that he didn't want cupcakes, rather he wanted miniature cakes like you might find served at an afternoon tea. Unfortunately, I had to make them in a cupcake tin as that was the only "miniature cake" form I had on hand. Sorry, Paul.
This week, I was gifted a big bag of blueberries, so I decided to theme my cakes around them. I put out a call for inspiration on my Instagram page and most of the responses I got were requests for berries and coconut. I found a recipe for a gorgeous-looking fresh blueberry frosting and decided that I would pair it with a coconut sponge. One person also mentioned cheesecake, so I had to incorporate that too. Had to.
The plan: lemon-coconut sponge with cheesecake filling and blueberry buttercream.
I have 2 and a half hours, go!
I started by creaming my margarine and sugar. I did this by hand which was probably a dumb idea since I got a pretty bad blister on my palm from it.
I added my eggs one at a time and then zested my lemon straight into the batter.
I added the vanilla and then whisked my dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. I substituted the sour cream in the recipe for coconut cream (it just makes sense), which I added in three additions alternated with additions of the dry ingredients.
Once the batter was just smooth, I folded in one cup of shredded coconut.
Once the batter was combined, I prepared my cheesecake filling. As usual, I needed to make the batter lactose-free, so used lactose-free cream cheese, which was very soft. I whipped it with eggs, sugar and salt, and the resulting batter was extremely runny, so I added a little flour to try to thicken it up.
I lined my cupcake tins and spooned the cake batter into each compartment. I used two spoons to create a little pocket in the centre of each cake and carefully filled them with cheesecake batter. The cheesecake mix was still runnier than I had hoped, and I was worried that it would spill out of my cakes and get messy, so I improvised and used a toothpick to swirl the two mixtures together.
I only had the one muffin tray which yields 12 cakes, so I had to do this bake in two batches. Risky, yes, but I can do it!
The first batch went into the oven and I got started on my blueberry buttercream. The first step for the icing was to create a blueberry puree, so I poured my berries into a pan with some lemon juice and cooked and mashed them until they formed a thick juice. Once the mixture was adequately juicy, I pushed it through a sieve and placed it in the freezer to cool completely.
What a GLORIOUS colour!
By this time, my first batch of cakes was coming out of the oven. Now, I had a slight issue. I'm not 100% sure, but I think that my lining paste was too effective, causing the sides of the cakes to rise faster than the centres. This may have also been caused by the fact that the cheesecake mix was heavier than the cake mix, weighing the mixture down in the centre. Whatever it was, my cakes looked weird.
They look like tiny straw hats. They'll still taste good, right?
I took them out of the tray and set them to cool on a rack. I quickly relined the tray and prepared the next batch.
The second batch went into the oven and I got started on my buttercream. I mixed the margarine with blueberry puree and then added icing sugar, cream and a pinch of salt. Then I whipped the mixture for a few minutes on high speed to fluff it up.
I was extremely pleased with the colour, but I was a little disappointed in the flavour. The overall taste was of butter. It was not very sweet and seemed to be missing something. I added a touch of vanilla, a spoonful more blueberry puree and a little bit of oat milk and whipped it a little longer in the hopes that it would lighten up. It did, a little, but it was time to assemble my cakes, so I tossed it in a piping bag.
Once the cakes were frosted, I drizzled some leftover blueberry puree over the top.
And then I sprinkled on some shredded coconut.
And then I was done!
Time: 2 hours, 23 minutes
Judgement time!
The cakes were dense, but not in an unpleasant way. The cheesecake flavour did not come through, sadly, but the buttercream was lovely. I was grateful for the strange shape of the cakes, as it allowed optimum frosting height while also optimizing frosting to cake ratio.
Overall, I would say that these were almost a success. With a bit of tweaking, I would be very happy with them!
Recipes used:
Cheesecake filling: https://www.handletheheat.com/cheesecake-stuffed-chocolate-cupcakes/
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