I gave it a go. After following the Great British Bake Off for weeks (and irritating the people at work by reminding them I had to get home to watch it!) I finally made one of the numbers. I've actually made a full list of the bakes and will work through them at some stage but for now, here's the Fraisier. I kept relatively true to the recipe - minus the marzipan because no one likes it. The key things you should know about this cake though is that the sponge becomes very lemony as you add the juice of a lemon to each layer effectively. The other aspect is that the creme patisserie... tastes like wallpaper paste. That is to say, it has a distinct lack of flavour despite me adding a touch of vanilla extract once I realised the pod hadn't made an impact and I just had a feeling it should be more... french? That is Mary Berry I guess. It felt... austere. I crave something silky and French. Like a deep custard tart. Like creme brulee the double cream edition. I was proud of the cake all the same. It looked the part and I'd managed to get the creme patisserie to stay stiff and not collapse like the contestants on the show. I would say acetate is a great tool which I had recently bought. A trick to getting the cake edges right (it's meant to be perfectly even) was to wrap the acetate tighter than the cake tin (which won't fit as obviously the cake shrinks in when it cooks) and to wedge kitchen towel in between the gap. It was quite satisfying.
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