For today’s recipe, I am featuring one of the most famous food-related TV shows out there – the Great British Bake-Off. I remember not liking it that much when I first watched it, but realized that it was because it lacked the usual flair for drama that American TV unfortunately conditions us to appreciate. I like to keep this show on in the background because of its calming, wholesome nature, and it’s so jaw-dropping to see what some of the contestants are able to pull off. It can also be very educational, seeing all the different desserts that I have never heard of, although I will never forgive them for their terribly executed “Japanese” week.
Honestly, I did not do too much research into which recipe I would do from the Great British Bake-Off for this challenge, but I am excited to give it a try. Fun fact: I realized too late that it’s actually not from the original show, but rather from their Holiday spin-off series. Let’s just agree that it still counts.
Rav’s Frozen Fantasy Cake appears deceivingly simple, but I couldn’t even replicate the full recipe because I forgot about letting the royal icing trees harden, so I made the cake sans trees, but with some sprinkles instead that happened to be the same color and theme! It took me about 8 hours (I wasn’t actively working the full 8 hours, but not far off), which is a testament to the amount of work involved in what the Great British Bake-Off website deems “Easy” under Difficulty. You can watch the work condensed into my 20 second video on TikTok. Also who knew how tricky it would be to grocery shop for passion fruit?
Speaking of passion fruit, the passion fruit buttercream was ah-mazing! I loved the tart, but sweet flavor paired with the almond-y cake. I personally found the cake to be too sweet, but my fiance enjoyed it, and we both agreed that it was D-licious, with a capital D. I highly recommend giving this a try, especially if you’re wanting a tropical flavor in the middle of winter and a (potentially intense) baking challenge.