The Ultimate Bake-Off

Cue the Rocky music, cue the movie voice-over guy...this is the 'Ultimate Bake-Off'. It's a clash of the titans, Mary Berry versus Paul Hollywood.

This month Delicious magazine has challenged these two star bakers to submit their ultimate cake recipe, readers must then make both cakes and host a tasting session. We have Mary's very best chocolate and orange cake versus Paul's ultimate carrot cake.

Once taste tested the results will be reported back to Delicious magazine to help determine the winner of the 'Ultimate Bake-Off' and the nation's favourite cake!

First up is Mary's chocolate cake. This was made using the all-in-one method and the chocolately taste comes from cocoa powder. The orange mentioned in the title comes from the zest of one orange. The cooked sponges were then brushed with apricot jam before spreading over the ganache, made as specified using Bourneville! Finally, for the curls on top, melted chocolate was spread on a baking tray and cooled, before being scraped off with a sharp knife... I wouldn't recommend using your best baking sheet for this!! :-o

Next up, Paul's carrot cake cake made with sunflower oil, copious amounts of carrots and light brown muscavado sugar. It also has halved pecans in it. This was easy to make, just mix it all in! The frosting is cream cheese frosting with a little butter, cream cheese and icing sugar, as well as 2 teaspoons of orange juice. It was then piped on the top in an unusual line pattern, before sprinkling with strips of orange zest. 

Both cakes were easy to make and they look delicious but there can only be one winner!

If you'd like to join in then please leave a comment and let me know which cake you would choose and why and I'll take your opinion into account when deciding on the ultimate cake! Why not vote in my current poll too on the top right of this page.

Once the cakes have been tasted I'll post the results!