111. Great British Bake Off Appreciation Post

Hello everyone, I cannot believe that I've not done this post before as I've been religiously watching the show since 2012 which to me is still the best series ever because I just loved John, James and Cathryn and most of the others that year and they were all of a very high calibre. I've met John Whaite, the winner of series 3 twice and he is so lovely! My friend Misbah and I went to the Manchester Cake and Bake Show in 2014 and met John and the winner of series 4, Frances Quinn and two of our other favourite series 4 contestants too - Ali Imdad and Kimberley Wilson.

Apologies that this photo is so blurred!

On Wednesday, the new series kicked off with Cake Week which is my favourite week as that is what I bake the most compared to bread and pastries. I've already chosen my favourite contestants for this series. I really like Marie who was Star Baker this week and also Tamil who made the most beautiful cakes. Nadiya and Flora seem lovely too. If any of you have watched in previous years then Flora may remind you of Martha who was the youngest contestant ever and participated last year.

Apologies that I've not posted a baking post since April because I've not actually had the chance to bake since my Parkinson's Awareness Week bake sale. Last week however, I had a baking day to celebrate the start of GBBO by using recipes from two of my favourite contestants ever, James Morton from Series 3 and Ali Imdad from Series 4.

My friend, Sammia actually bought me James Morton's second recipe book for my 21st birthday. I don't have his first one as I don't really bake bread but that's something that I am hoping to change as shop bought bread is so processed.

I actually really want to read James' book cover to cover because he thoroughly explains why things are done in a certain way when baking and he gives really good tips on what to do when things don't go according to plan as it says in the title. He's so cute, he reminds me of Where's Wally! :) I've only baked James' chocolate orange cookies but there's everything in the book from blackberry macarons to blueberry pizza (I know?!). I can see this becoming one of my favourite recipe books. My cookies went down a storm when I took some for the nurses at the hospital and Sammia said she liked them too. I added both the zest and juice of the orange to the cookie mix for added flavour whereas James only included the zest in his recipe. You can purchase the book here. 

Ali unfortunately hasn't released a traditional recipe book but he did release a free ebook last year. The best place to find his recipes and news on his other projects is his Facebook page which you can "like" here. He also has a YouTube channel which is where I followed the recipe for his raspberry and Oreo cheesecake brownie tart (trust me, it really is as extravagant and yummy as it sounds). You can watch Ali make the tart here and here is my attempt:

Hope you've enjoyed this post and if you're a regular reader you can already tell that I have given the blog a makeover so let me know what you think!

Until next time, take care. 

Love, 

Mancunian Sheep x