Great British Bake Off Series 3

[Slainte]

I'm so excited, the new series starts next week . Link

Dancing Salty Dog? I literally don't think I can wait.
God, he's not this year's old duffer, is he? Will be be paired with Flavia?

Book's arrived.
There's some great sounding recipes.
Going to try Chickpea, spinach and mushroom wellington soon, and the caramel layer cake for DD's birthday on Friday as she loves salt caramel.
Sticky toffee tray bake sounds great too, and the gingerbread house for Christmas.
Ooh, the plaited loaf is in it too.

DD2 is making DD1s birthday cake today - she's doing the hidden hearts AND the marbled icing roses, which if it comes off ought to look spectacular. She's planning putting two separate colours into one icing bag, but I'll get her to have a look at the link earlier, as that looks a bit easier. It might produce too much of a definite colour divide though, and I think she wants it to be marbled, rather than two-tone. We'll see anyway.

I'm not a great baker and terrible with anything fiddly, but this cake is just a layered sponge so should be fine.
I was going to do Lorraine Pascal's hidden tiger one, but this looks easier for me, and the trouble with Lorraine's is that you don't know it's worked until you cut it.

I'm off the Car Fest later (the Chris Evans thing) and there is a cake and bread making competition going on all weekend. I saw on the website yesterday that Mary and Saltydog will be judging tomorrow. I shall definitely be abandoning DS1 and DH to the cars and going to check that out with DS2. That is a bit of a bonus - I wasn't much looking forward to it before now!!

What's the book called?

Here

Lucky you BBB I hope its fun tell us about it when you get back.

photos of the hidden hearts/marbled roses cake on my profile (at least they ought to be). The roses didn't work as well as they could have done (DD2 did use the two bag in one bag method in the end, and next time she needs to put more buttercream into the hollowed out base before adding the hearts as some slices crumbled a bit), but all in all, a brilliant effort from a 14 year old we reckoned.

Needed a LOT of red gel colouring to get such a vivid red, but worth it for the visual effect.

That's very good for a 14 yr old!

That's great, much better than I could do.
I'm really cack handed.

It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be (although she spent the best part of 7 hours making it).

Which recipe did she follow?

Her own basic recipe for the sponge, added loads of red gel to the heart batch, and watched the bits of the episode where they showed both cakes over and over again. Buttercream for the roses, but put a royal icing disc on the top to do glace icing for DD1s name.

Wotchers Everyone!

Mary-Anne from last years GBBO here waves madly

Bit late to the Mumsnet Party (only 12 months!) - forgot my user name and pw etc etc etc - so I just re-joined and wanted to thank you all for your enthusiasm and comments from last year.

Hope you're all enjoying Series 3 as much as me!

Bikkits for all!

Hello Mary-Anne!

So, what's it like being on the show?

Wotchers Mary-Anne!

Can I just say I love your blog - it's a great read :)

Hello, Mary-Anne. Good to see you here. Can you link to your blog please? (If that allowed). Whose chances do you fancy this year?

Yes, I'd love the link to your blog too please.
Also, what's your favourite recipe from the book of your series, I've got it but only tried one dish.

OOOOOh exciting we're not worthy!!! Mary Anne it's lovely to hear from you!! have we worked out the personalities of the judges correctly? Forgive us if we're a bit cheeky!

Wotchers VV! Being on the show was great fun - lots of laughs. Also very tiring - lots of standing around waiting for clearing up, glamour shots (of the food, not us!), judging, interviews etc. Mostly though I remember the laughs

WD - Thanky! The linky is: timetocookonline.com

AP - not sure I should say who my favourites are - my first choice was Natasha & then Peter - meep! I think I'd better try and avoid jinxing anyone else and keep mum

NOS - My favourite recipe from the book is going to be one of my own - gasp Melting Moments & Chocolate Orange Mousse Cake are also both on my blog (for those without the book) plus a few more from the show.

PP - Mary is lovely - I'm a huge fan - and Paul just plays the baddie. Mel & Sue are both hilarious and sympathetic shoulders to cry on when things go wrong.

Roll on Round 3 - Tarts!
Only 11 hours to go!

Great to see you Mary-Anne . Already have your blog on my Google Reader and Melting Moments just happen to be on my ever increasing baking to-do list.

I saw Paul and Mary on Sunday at Car Fest at the weekend judging the pies v. cakes. Paul complained about soggy bottoms on some the pies and Mary was very nice about everybody's cake, just like on the telly! They whittled it down to a chicken, leek and cream pie and a boozy fruit cake and left if to Chris Evans to decided between them. Needless to say it was a draw. How do you chose?! The crowd were very split on gender lines. Men favoured the pies and women the cakes. I shall be watching the GBBO with interest to see if that bias extends to the competitors. Not long now.

Love your blog Mary-Anne. Gorgeous photos. Can I be nosy and ask what sort of camera you use? I have a blog and always struggle to take good photos but yours are excellent so I wonder what your secret is. I fear it is the case that I have a lot to learn about photography.

Very late to the thread!

Favourites so far are: James, John, Sarah-Jane, Brendan.

Who else is there? Cathryn, Danny, Victoria, Ryan, Manisha, and Stuart. Is that everyone? Can't see Stuart lasting much longer. Agree with whoever said that Danny might be the dark horse for this series.

Can't wait for tonight, but will only be able to watch on Sky+ after it's finished.

It was me! Hello Prey .