Bake Like 'The Great British Baking Show’: Mini Mousse Cakes
Week seven was dessert week on The Great British Baking Show featuring three new challenges for our pre-quarter finalists: Jane, Benjamina, Selasi, Candice, Tom and Andrew. Judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood really put them through their paces asking them to produce roulades, marjolaine gateaus and dozens of mini mousse cakes. As the British sunshine beat down on the baking tent, raising the temperature inside, almost all of the contestant’s mini mousse cakes had a meltdown during the Show Stopper Challenge.
In a reversal of last week’s best and worst bakers, our key competitors switched hats. After fearing he would be sent packing after his Botanical Week disasters, Andrew was awarded Star Baker of the week, wowing the judges in all three challenges—especially with his two mini mousse cakes inspired by his childhood ice cream favorite flavors: forest fruits mousse on vanilla sponge and mint chocolate mousse with honeycomb topping. Not quite the pink bubble gum or mint chocolate chip ice cream flavors I enjoyed at Baskin Robbins in my youth, but close enough. Like the great competitor that he is, the presentation of his desserts a top a moving Ferris Wheel was, well, just P.T. Barnum-like showmanship! And, in a complete turn-around, Tom, who was Star Baker last week and during Bread Week was sent home, proving that no one rests on their laurels in the eyes of the judges.
The contestants were given four hours to make 24 mini mousse cakes in two flavors. Whenever you are working with ingredients that require a stabilizer like gelatin, or chilling, to attain a proper “set”, the odds of success increase when time is shortened. Four hours to make a multi-layered dessert of this complexity really tested the contestants technical and artistic skills. Many failed. Except for Jane and Andrew, no one else really produced a mini mousse cake “showing many textures” that judge Mary Berry required, nor did they achieve the “melt in your mouth” quality that Paul Hollywood wanted in a mousse. So, what went wrong? Foam.
