The Bake Off is over and it's time to hit the kitchen

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It is less than a week since John Whaite walked from the Great British Bake Off marquee having been crowned 2012’s winner.

He was a worthy recipient of the title, although I have to admit my money was on Brendan Lynch.

Brendan was consistently good throughout the competition, the only thing that let him down, I think - he played it a bit safe.

John was more willing to put it out on the line and take a few risks, a quality which eventually took him to glory in my opinion.

So it is all over for another year, the bakers have hung up their pinnies, put away their rolling pins and stacked away their baking tins.

However, the show left me with a bit of an itch to roll up my sleeves and get stuck into some home baking.

I used to be good at it when I was younger, I even once won a prize for my bread-making.

That was a few years ago though, and I think I might have become a bit rusty.

But, not letting that put me off, this weekend I decided to have a go at a bit of domestic creativity.

Having watched Nigella Lawson’s show a couple of nights ago, I was taken with the idea of knocking up some ‘hokey pokey’.

That is honeycomb to me and you, Nigella, true to form, devised a new name because making it reminds her of witches in a coven brewing a strange frothy concoction.

It is a simple enough recipe and I am a bit of a fan of Crunchie, so I thought I might knock some out.

So here are the magic ingredients:

100g sugar; 4 tablespoons of golden syrup and 1.5 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda.

And the method: Mix the sugar and syrup together, melt them in a saucepan (without stirring as this makes it gritty), leave to bubble into a golden brown “goo”, then whisk in the bicarbonate of soda to make it go frothy before pouring onto a sheet of parchment paper.

Easy!

So here is how it went.

Mixed the sugar and syrup.




Heat in a saucepan.



Keep heating until it goes bubble and golden brown  - good so far.





Mix in the bicarb and whisk - looking good.





Set out onto parchment paper and leave to set - done!


Fantastic it seems to have worked. The next step is to smash it up into “gorgeous, magical golden shards” (yes, Nigella).

Having been left with a sugary, sticky saucepan, I had to call on the help of master baker Eric Lanlard for some advice on cleaning.

He told me to fill with water and simmer to melt the sugar and clean the pan.

So the verdict on my first spot of confectionary making - unfortunately, after it set, it flopped, melted and went soggy.

I don’t understand why as I followed the recipe to the letter. Never mind, small steps, if at first you don’t succeed....

I think it may be a while before I have a go at the three-tier chiffon cake.


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