I’m going to be completely honest with you – I absolutely loved vegan week. I thought I would enjoy it a bit more but I REALLY loves it. Even the slightly crappy jokes. I did think that Jon leaving though was karma for the kebab joke and the so over-done falafel and hummus combo. I got some pretty good bakes in this week, but some pretty poor photos!
I don’t have any tales to tell about how much I love or hate vegan week because it’s BRAND new. I was here for it when I first heard about it, and it didn’t disappoint. Because clearly two bakes wasn’t enough, I thought I would commemorate the occasion by making all three. That did cut down on the choosing too.
For the first bake, the vegan tartlet, I used almost exactly Kim Joy’s eggless quiche but expanded it to fit a normal tart dish as I didn’t really want to buy 4 individual tartlet cases. I was slightly freaked out by the texture of the silken tofu because it reminded me so much of scrambled egg but overall the taste was really nice. Even the other half agreed. Pastry was a bit overdone but I can live with that.
I also replicated exactly the technical bake and as you can see on my IG I had a really crisp meringue both in and out of the oven, so no problems there. The balance of fruit and sugar was good, my creme pat set like a dream but I really am quite crap at making things look pretty.
Finally, for my show stopper, I did end up making a 2 tier cake. It wasn’t my original plan but I just went with it in the end. Getting a cake to be straight is really a lot harder than it looks. I was quite impressed with how smooth I was able to get the sides and even managed to cover up the slight wonkiness with a few piped flowers. I picked up a few tricks along the way and this is something I would really like to get better at now I have most of the gear and some of the idea.
Danish week, I’m ready for you. Not many weeks left now!
LMJ x
The Great British (vegan) Bake-Off 