Benoit Blin, the exacting judge of Bake Off: The Professionals, is in my kitchen overseeing the creation of a masterpiece. True, it’s not quite up the standards he is used to on the show. I’m not attempting an entremet shaped like a swan or a musical religieuse, rather a humble sponge with a bit of fruit on top— but I’m feeling the pressure.
“It’s the kind of cake you can whip up in a matter of minutes when you want to make something last-minute for a friend’s birthday party,” he tells me reassuringly, but baking and I are not natural bedfellows. If I took one of my typical sponges round, all sunken and cracked, I’d have run out of friends a long time ago.
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Hopefully all that will change, armed as I am with his new book, Bake with Benoit Blin, which promises to show me how to “master cakes, pastries and desserts like a pro”. The recipes, which range from crêpes and croissants to soufflés and savarins, are divided into three levels of difficulty, and I’m pleased to see that the summer berry Victoria sponge I am making is firmly in the simplest group. “My mindset for the book wasn’t about ambition,” Blin says. “It was more about how much time you want to commit to each recipe. How motivated are you?”
First, the good news: anyone can bake. All this talk of needing cold hands or a calm temperament is rubbish. “I’ve got very warm hands and I’m often quite stressed, so all the wrong qualities to be a pastry chef, but I’ve managed OK,” the 56-year-old chef patissier for Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons says.
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As I set to it with the whisk to cream the butter and sugar (I eye my Kenwood, but Blin says it’s not worth it for these small quantities), he explains the science behind sponge making and suggests where I might be going wrong. “There are hundreds of different sponge recipes, but for me this is certainly the easiest one. On the upside it’s very quick and easy to do, it’s richly flavoured and has plenty of texture. On the downside, because it’s very buttery, it can be a little fatty on the palate.”
When I’ve made sponges I’ve found that they sink or dome in the middle. “You just need to follow the recipes closely and bake it carefully,” he says. “If you overmix the batter it will become too foamy. Then in the oven it will form a light fluffy crust, which will collapse and ultimately peel. Or sometimes if you try to cook it too quickly things start to go sideways,” he adds, I think metaphorically. “It won’t have time to rise evenly.”
Doming, it turns out, may not be the problem I thought it was. “It depends on the size and shape of your tin,” he says. “My Victoria sponge does tend to dome a bit, but it settles down as it cools so it’s not a problem.”
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His master stroke though — and this is so simple I can’t believe how stupid I’ve been all these years — is to make a very thin sponge, an inch or two deep. I’ve made them much deeper, cutting them in half if I wanted to fill them. “They cook much more quickly and evenly this way. If you want to make a sandwich cake, just cook two,” he says. His other tips are to add a little ground almond to the flour — “not so much for the flavour but for the richness and texture it adds” — and not to line the tin with parchment paper but to grease it generously with butter. “It’s all about the transfer of heat. You don’t want to put a barrier in the way.”
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As the sponge cooks we chat about his love of British puddings, including custard tart and millionaire’s shortbread. There are recipes for both in the book. Blin grew up in Normandy, but has spent nearly 30 years here with his wife and two now twentysomething children. He was working as a pastry chef at the Ritz in Paris when Blanc poached him. He hadn’t considered coming to England, “but Raymond is very persuasive”.
“Puddings here have very different flavour profiles to what I was used to in France. Sticky toffee pudding is the perfect example of that. It’s very addictive and I love it.” He loves mince pies too, but is less enamoured of English trifle. “‘What the heck is this about?’ I thought when I first came across it. And as for Eton mess, why would you bash all these beautiful things together in a bowl?”
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Not that it’s uniquely British, but he loves rice pudding as well, and insisted on putting his recipe in the book despite the publisher telling him it didn’t count as a bake. “I said, I don’t care. I love it, so it goes in.” In his introduction Blanc tells of the rice pudding cook-off the two chefs had to defend the honour of their family recipes. “We had to agree that it was a draw, or else things would have gotten too heated.”
Twenty minutes later my sponge is ready. We leave it to cool a little before carefully removing the base and inverting it on a plate ready for its decoration. First we brush the sponge with a syrup made with jam loosened with a splash of boiling water, then decorate with a circle of sliced strawberries, then raspberries, red currants and blueberries, brushed with more of the syrup and finally dusted with icing sugar. It looks very professional too, if I say so myself. Perhaps I can bake after all.
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Benoit’s seven baking rules
1. Don’t overmix the batter.
2. Don’t cook too quickly — give it time to rise.
3. Add a little ground almond to a sponge mix for a Victoria sponge to give it richness and texture.
4. Grease the tin with butter rather than line with parchment paper, so there’s no barrier for the heat to get through.
5. Make your sponges thin, and if you need to make a sandwich make two rather than cutting one in half.
6. Let the sponge cool fully before you try to remove it from the tin.
7. If you want an extra glossy pastry add a teaspoon of whipping cream to the egg wash.
Bake with Benoit Blin is published by Hardie Grant (£26). To order a copy go to timesbookshop.co.uk. Free UK standard P&P on orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members
