To whet our appetites, series nine winner, Dr Rahul Mandal, has created quite a masterpiece: it’s certainly not your average cake as it contains multiple ingredients – in fact it’s the world’s first 100-ingredient cake. And in true GBBO form, you can eat every single bit of it.
Rahul devised the cake in partnership with the award-winning home-swapping platform, Love Home Swap, as part of its tenth birthday celebrations with each ingredient representing one of the 100 countries that the company has homes in. You’ll find chocolate from Belgium, maple syrup from Canada, Oolong tea from Taiwan, tonka beans from Nigeria - and British eggs.
For anyone brave enough to take on the challenge and recreate this masterpiece at home, the recipe and step-by-step instructions can be found here.
A world first: 100 ingredients cake
Did you know that the average cake tends to have between five to ten ingredients – eggs, butter, sugar, flour and flavouring. Take a look at the list of ingredients in Rahul’s showstopper and you’ll be taking a whistle stop tour around the world. You’ll feel like you’ve visited bustling spice markets, fascinating natural wonders and delved into the heart of communities and kitchens around the globe.
And if you haven’t been abroad this year as so many haven’t, this cake is like taking a holiday to your favourite destinations. If you’re interested in baking it, you’ll need the patience to gather all the ingredients and that’s before you start. Rahul’s amazing creation weighs in at over fifty kilograms and is over a metre in height. So it’s definitely a cake in a whole other class. There are five layers, a stack of suitcases topped with a globe, each decorated with fondant icing. The cake layers include the following flavours: chocolate and cherry, mixed fruit and nut, spiced citrus and berry, tropical sponge with tropical jam and white chocolate, passionfruit and peach.
Rahul says
The winner of The Great British Bake Off 2018 commented, “As far as baking challenges go, this one was epic and the hardest bake I’ve ever done, but I knew straight away I had to take it on. Like many others I’ve missed going on holiday recently and I appreciate more than ever before how travel - taking a leap, exploring a new place, meeting new people and seeing how others live - is so good for the soul.
When I was asked to take this particular leap, I didn’t have to think twice. The hardest part wasn’t in fact making the cake, it was devising the recipe and ensuring the flavour balance was just right. I wanted to capture the essence of all these wonderful countries and celebrate them in the way only a cake can do.”
If you want to recreate this masterpiece at home, Rahul’s main piece of advice is “It’s a big challenge but approach it like you would any other travel adventure; try to relax and enjoy every stage.”
Rahuls top five baking tips
1. Whether your cake includes 100 ingredients or just five, if you’re an amateur baker, always follow the recipe – they are tried-and-tested, so don’t go rogue!
2. Always measure the ingredients out properly and mix them together well. Baking is more science than art.
3. Don’t use too much raising agent as your cake will end up rising too quickly in the oven and then fall flat in the middle.
4. Make sure you know your oven well. Each oven will likely have hot spots which can ruin the bake if you’re not careful with monitoring the heat.
5. Always be patient. If something doesn’t work, think about what you could do differently and try it again – you’ll get there!
About Love Home Swap
Célia Pronto, Managing Director of Love Home Swap commented: “Love Home Swap hit a few big milestones in 2021: we turned 10 and we wanted to celebrate the 100 countries on our platform with a celebration cake. So what better way to do that, than by honouring these 100 countries using an ingredient from each one? But this cake is about more than our milestones; we’ve been inspired by the way our global travel community has remained optimistic and pulled together to get through the last eighteen months, so this celebration is dedicated to all of them.
The tourism industry is recovering, but we all know the current situation is only just scratching the surface of people’s desire to travel and reconnect. We hope this cake inspires us all to keep dreaming and planning for future adventures.”
Love Home Swap is an award-winning, members-only global home swapping platform, that allows travellers to explore the world through the power of sharing. Founded in the UK in 2011, Love Home Swap was inspired by the movie ‘The Holiday’. For more information, please visit www.lovehomeswap.com.
By Team GWG
September 2021
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