Baker extraordinaire, recipe developer and Ottolenghi collaborator Helen Goh visited the Readings office recently, to sign our stock of her new cookbook, Baking and the Meaning of Life. So, we took this as an opportunity to have a bake-off, testing recipes from the book! Our staff bakers each chose a recipe to trial, and before they were all devoured for morning tea, Helen taste-tested everything to judge our skills and choose a winner.
Here's a behind the scenes look at how we went tackling the recipes from Baking and the Meaning of Life – overall, Helen was impressed by our efforts and said: 'I’m amazed by the calibre. This is doing me so proud, the recipes work!'
Arthur made:
Champagne & Blackcurrant Celebration Cake
This cake is fabulous and fussy and absolutely worth spending your time on. A champagne sponge, blackcurrant jam, and champagne cream filling make for a cake that is simultaneously light and rich with the bonus of being ever-so-slightly alcoholic.
The sponge came together very easily, with a nice pour of champagne flavouring the batter and adding a little extra lift. The recipe calls for gently dropping the pans onto your counter before and after baking, which feels risky but helps to stop them sinking in the middle. Making the filling requires gently heating champagne, sugar and egg yolks in a double boiler, which will make your kitchen smell like a New Year’s Eve party in a patisserie. The resulting sauce then gets folded through double cream for a filling that I could honestly eat a bowl of by itself.
Each layer of sponge gets topped with a spread of sieved blackcurrant jam, and a portion of the cream. The buttercream icing is flavoured and coloured with more of the jam, this technique was new to me but I trusted Helen’s recipe and it came out like a dream. Once the cake was iced I popped it in the fridge overnight. The fridging let the layers fuse together, and gave me time to finish off the champagne.
Helen said: You can taste the champagne! I’m having trouble finding anything negative to say. It’s nicely balanced. The layers are all even – you can tell they’ve weighed it. Soft and light. It tastes ethereal, like it should. [Lots of ‘mmming’.]
Bella made:
Crispy & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
I made sure I had enough ingredients for two batches of these cookies, because I was worried the pressure of serving them to Helen Goh herself would lead me to mess something up. But I needn’t have bothered, because these cookies come together incredibly easily!
I will admit the aquafaba gave me pause – though I’ve eaten plenty of vegan baked goods before, this was my first time cooking with it, and I was a little unnerved by how strongly it smelt of chickpeas. Despite worrying that I’d missed some important memo about how to properly de-chickpea the chickpea water, I powered on and sure enough, the recipe steered me right. Even before baking, the dough was sweet and delicious, with absolutely no legume-y flavour (and since it’s vegan and egg free, you can eat the dough raw without concern!).
Topped with a generous grind of salt before baking, these are a complete delight – I already put my extra ingredients to good use and have a second batch of dough in the freezer, ready for when I fancy a couple of freshly baked cookies.
Helen said: The flavour is beautifully developed. Very flavourful, I'm impressed that it’s kept its shape as vegan batter can often spread. The batter was well rested and it’s baked perfectly.
Angela’s daughter Verity made:
Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake
I am very busy at the moment, so I outsourced my entry to my talented 16-year-old daughter, who loves to bake. She came up with a few options but in the end we chose the Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake, as it also needed to be sturdy enough to survive a two hour commute on public transport. She found that it was hard to do without a food processor and there were more components to the cheesecake than she expected, but it all looked good to me. Not only that but it transported well, I only had to put the creme fraiche and berries on top when I arrived, and we had lots of great feedback that it was delicious.
So, I was delighted with the outcome and maybe I'll even try it myself next time. Who am I kidding – I will definitely just ask my daughter to bake it for me again!
Helen said: Gosh, it’s just perfectly cooked which is not easy to achieve with a cheesecake. It’s nice and golden and the lemon flavour is distinct. Creamy, no dryness. Lovely flavour.
Lucie made:
Chocolate Cake for Everyone
So often I’m unable to participate in Readings bake-offs as I’m vegan, so I was delighted to discover there were three vegan recipes in this cookbook! I chose to bake the Chocolate Cake for Everyone, because who doesn’t love chocolate cake?!
The recipe itself was quite interesting – I have never used blended dried apricots in baking before! Helen explained that this is used as an egg replacement and I’ll definitely be trying out this method in future bakes. The instructions were easy to follow with lots of handy tips, and I loved the personal note explaining the story behind the recipe. The cake itself was insanely delicious and will be added to my baking rotation.
Helen said: I’ve forgotten how good this vegan cake is! Good, deep cocoa flavour; they’ve nailed the texture. The application of the icing is evenly applied so the mouthful feels balanced. The decoration is quite cute.
Kim made:
Lao Gan Ma Cheese Biscuits
I am a huge fan of savoury bakes, and I decided to try a recipe that contained two of life's very best things: chilli crisp and cheese. I made my dough in the evening, and after an overnight stint in the fridge it sliced into satisfyingly even rounds. I'm someone who keeps multiple varieties of chilli crisp on hand and on this occasion, I used a Sichuan variety from the brand Chuan Nan instead of the titular Lao Gan Ma. I was really pleased at how well these shortbread-style biscuits held their shape. The black and white sesame seeds around the edge are a touch that adds texture and looks lovely. These tasted great, the flavours are admirably strong, and I noticed they disappeared very quickly, so definitely a crowd pleaser.
I will absolutely make this recipe again, the biscuits are very easy to make in advance so will be great for parties and presents!
Helen said: The colour and smell – it's perfectly cooked! I can feel the heat of it. The cutting is evenly sliced, and the application of the sesames seeds is perfectly executed, which is not easy. Technically exceptional!
Lucy made:
One Penny Cake
On flipping through Baking and the Meaning of Life I was overcome by delicious-looking recipes that I wanted to try, and I knew I was going to struggle to choose just one for the Readings bake-off; but as soon as I saw the sprinkle-coated berry-pink icing on the One Penny Cake, my inner child told me I had to do it. I’m quietly competitive and I don’t like to share home-baked treats if they’re not close to perfect, so I was nervous about the cake coming out dense or with an uneven rise, but I needn’t have worried – the recipe was foolproof and the cake tasted of pure nostalgia! The sponge was vanillary, soft and light, and the fresh-strawberry icing added a subtle summery tang. I would recommend the One Penny Cake for any sunny afternoon picnic or birthday celebration, as it’s sure to be a crowd pleaser for all ages.
Helen said: The icing is lovely. It’s not too thick and set just enough which shows the consistency is just right. The flavour is there. The texture is perfection. It’s very, very good!
Natasha made:
Hojicha Shortbread
I had to keep a few things in mind when scanning the pages of Baking and the Meaning of Life for a recipe for our bake-off. All of these centred around having to catch a flight a few hours after Helen’s tasting, so it had to be practical to make while packing (no detail work, temperature management, or fine timings) and easily transportable to work while juggling luggage (sayonara anything with icing). These considerations did nothing to reign in my recipe short/longlists because everything truly looked so good.
I landed on the Hojicha Shortbread after much consideration. What’s better than shortbread with a cup of tea? Tea shortbread. I’ve made shortbread via the creaming method once or twice before, but I was shocked once again at how easy it is compared to the method where you incorporate cold butter with flour by endlessly rubbing it with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. No disrespect to Scottish grannies but I dinnae want to go back to that method. The dough is quite sticky, but the baked texture ends up crisp and crunchy, which pairs perfectly with the caramel nuttiness from the hojicha.
Helen said: Beautiful, crisp and light, not overbaked. The sugar stayed on, and it has a very thin veneer just as it should. It’s at once dense and light, exactly how I like a shortbread. I’m so impressed.
Helen heaped us all with praise, but there can only be one winner...
Arthur's Champagne & Blackcurrant Celebration Cake!
While stocks last we have signed copies of Baking and the Meaning of Life available for a special discounted price! Buy online or visit our shops to embark on your own baking journey.
