The chef, as he loomed over them, drunken, arrogant, and pedantic, was enjoying himself.*

by chuckofish

We’ve had a warm, excessively muggy week, and I can’t find anything to read that doesn’t seem a letdown after Donna Tartt and Amor Towles. To top it off, I have managed to break the TV, although I can still watch DVDs and access Netflix and Amazon. Go figure. Anyway, I have found that when I’m feeling dull nothing is better for my mood than a good dose of baking. If I’m too lazy to do it myself — which is to say most of the time — I watch a few episodes of the Great British Baking Show with Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood (those names!).

The contestants (usually) produce the most impossibly beautiful baking, and they do it without being mean to each other or having loud meltdowns (quiet tears are acceptable). The tension all comes from the time-limits and the difficulty level.

On the GBBS they don’t need to yell; a simple “it’s massively under-proved” or “Oh look, it’s still raw” is enough to deflate the most confidant baker. Whenever I bake now, I find myself criticizing the result: the blueberries sank to the bottom of the cake; the pastry was soggy, or the dough too sticky. I’ve certainly never produced anything like this:

Though I fancy myself a better baker than cook, I’ve never been a great one for eating cakes and cookies, preferring to take my sugar in candy form. Not anymore. The show has given me a hankering for cake, and apparently I’m not alone. According to the New York Times, “In the six years it has been on the air, “The Great British Baking Show” has fundamentally changed the way the British regard baking, dessert-eating and even their own culture of sweets. The “Bake Off Effect,” as it is known, has manifested in a resurgence in home baking, a noticeable increase in the quality of baked goods sold all over the country, and a growing number of people pursuing careers as professional pastry chefs.” It was, after all, the most popular show on British TV (now that it has moved from the BBC to become the Great British Bake-off, and Mary Berry has left the show, I’m not sure how it ranks).

Yesterday I made this simple blueberry cake in honor of the fact that two sons are home this weekend.

This is the web site’s photo

I chose the recipe because I had all the ingredients at hand. My cake wouldn’t have won “best baker” on GBBS; the bottom was not soggy, but the blueberries were not evenly distributed and it was a slightly over-cooked. I covered the error by roasting the rest of the blueberries and using them as a sauce. A touch of whipped cream topped things off. I did not take photos, but the family gobbled it up, so I’ll count it as a success.

I am heading back to the kitchen to whip something up for a pot-luck we’re attending this afternoon. Don’t tell, but I’m going to use a boxed brownie mix!

*Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast

Photos of the Great British Baking Show recovered from Google Images.