{Book Review} The Great British Bake Off Showstoppers
Posted by Cupcake Kelly on Sep 3, 2012 in Book Review | 6 commentsThe Great British Bake Off is currently in it’s third series airing on BBC2 in the UK. For those not in the UK The Great British Bake Off is a television show which aims to find Great Britain’s best amateur baker. The show has 12 contestants and is judged by UK celebrity bakers, Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood.
The Great British Bake Off Showstoppers is released in conjunction with the show. The book is inspired by the showstoppers and technical challenges in the show and will teach you how to bake desserts that will turn heads and make mouths water. The idea of the book is good straight forward recipes that also look good.
The book has eight chapters that loosely follow the progress of the show. Cake, I made the checkerboard cake from this chapter. It turned out beautiful. The biscuit chapter focuses on simple recipes with standout designs. Breads & Sweet Dough contain a technical challenge for jam filled donuts. I made the Cinnamon Breakfast Loaf from this chapter. Tarts and Pies with a challenge for no soggy bottoms! The Dessert chapter focuses on special occasions and the last chapter is on Puddings .
I’m always a little weary of books that tie in with TV shows. They can sometimes lack quality, but I was pleasantly surprised with this book. Both of the recipes I tried from the book were very successful and tasted great. A few more photos of the recipes would have been nice since this is a book about learning how to bake. I also liked that it had new ideas considering this is the third book released in conjunction with the series.
Thanks to Ebury for my copy
Ohh I like the look of the Cinnamon Breakfast Loaf! I have recently started baking (not that successful to far) and need a good bakery book. Which one do you recommend for beginners ?
oh, that’s a tough one. Peyton & Byrne British Baking is a good baking bible for beginners and so is Short & Sweet. For cake specific book I’d go for Love Bakery, Baked in America and Leon Baking and Puddings is nice. Once you’re comfortable baking I think you’d like Scandilicous Baking. I just bought it and LOVE it!
Thanks, I will stock these! Won’t attempt the checkerboard cake quite yet…
Great review - I’m just in the process of writing mine for tomorrow. I didn’t attempt the more difficult recipes - love your chess cake. Love Bakery is one of my favourite books! I now need to find Scandilicious Baking - will you be posting a review of it?
I’ve only got the first GBBO book on my shelves, slowly working my way through it and rating each recipe I bake - I really like the idea of this being the first book I make every recipe in!
Some friends are also GBBO fans and we have said so many times we wish they would release the technical challenge recipes. Not the full recipe that is linked on the BBC page, but the one the contestants have. We’d love to do our own technical challenge! Hopefully soon.
Mat x
I LOVE THE BAKEOFF