(egg cracking)
(pan sizzling)
- Hello, and welcome back to Sorted food.
Today, all your prayers have been answered,
because Jemma and Sally,
from both YouTube channel Cupcake Jemma,
and the masterminds behind the Soho bakery,
Crumbs and Doilies, are in the studio, welcome.
- Hello,
- Hello.
Now we all know Crumbs and Doilies,
make some of the best cakes in London.
The question is, can our normal home cooks,
Jamie, Mike and Barry,
conjure up cup cakes worthy of a spot in your shop?
- I believe they can do it.
- I reckon, but having a look at some of the ingredients,
I'm not so sure. (laughs)
- We're going to give you 90 minutes,
to have a go at creating a batch of cupcakes,
that can win you this battle.
And Jemma and Sally, they're our judges.
- It's quite a stretch.
- Yeah, definitely.
- Oh, good.
- Would you like to do us the honours and count the boys in.
- [Girls] Three, two,
One, go!
(heavy rock music)
- [Sally] Well, we're going straight in to it, I love it.
- [Jemma] Everyone's focused.
- [Sally I think they look like
they're going to be pretty exciting flavours,
and we are all about that at Crumbs and Doilies.
- What they lack in ability,
they come to the table with keenness and enthusiasm.
(Sally laughs)
- [Jemma] Barry, what's going on in your pan,
what are you doing?
- I'm making a black tiramisu cup cake.
- [Jemma] Ooh, interesting
- To start my batter,
I've got some coffee, some chocolate,
some vanilla, warming up here.
And I'm going to mix that in with my sugar, flour,
and egg mix here.
I'm going really dark, almost like black, on black,
on black, on black.
- It all sounds really dark.
Where is the freshness coming from?
- There's going to be a marsala jelly.
- [Girls] Ooh!
- Oh, that's the reaction I wanted, yes.
(energetic music)
- Mike. What's your method?
- Well, some would call it plagiarism.
- Is it a Cupcake Jemma recipe?
(Sally laughs)
Okay.
- So I am making Caramel Crunch, Biscoff cupcake.
- Where did you get the inspiration for that?
- [Sally] Yes, that's so unusual.
- I just told them, I stole both bits.
Remember we came and visited,
your brownie topped with caramel crunch flakes.
Unbelievable.
During lockdown,
me and my wife made a lot of your Biscoff New York cookies.
- Ah! - Oh.
- So yeah, basically this is a spiced cupcake,
topped with a vanilla and ginger cream cheese frosting,
- Mm.
- With caramel flakes, nuts and a Biscoff cookie on the top.
- Nice.
- Lovely.
- Oh, hi guys.
- Wow.
- [Sally] What is going on here?
- Let's go festive.
Thanksgiving.
Let's go for cornmeal cupcakes-
- [Sally] Ah.
- With Swiss meringue buttercream,
some pumpkin spice in there, some bacon.
And there's some maple glazed pumpkin as well.
With a little bit of crunchy granola.
So, textures. - Whoa.
We got breakfast, lunch and dinner?
- We're going everywhere.
- Can I smell it?
- Please.
So savoury with rosemary and thyme.
- [Jemma] Rosemary
- [Sally] Okay.
- Buttermilk.
Cornmeal, bit of honey, for the sweetness.
- Yeah.
- [Jemma] Are you worried in any way,
that it's going to taste savoury?
- Absolutely, yes.
- Credit where credit's due,
this is one of the most delicious bacon sandwiches,
I've ever heard of.
(they laugh)
- So my cupcake batter uses a couple of types of sugar,
but I'm spicing it with cinnamon and nutmeg.
- It does actually sound delicious.
- It does sound really, really good.
- What do you mean, actually?
(Sally laughs)
- [Ben] What is it you look for in the perfect cupcake?
- A soft velvety sponge, a smooth, non crispy buttercream,
maybe a filling, maybe something crunchy on top?
- Yeah.
- We got first batch in the oven, Jamie, arguably ahead,
but now he's got a pumpkin to deal with.
- Not yet, I've got granola to make first.
- Making granola as well.
He's not just buying it out the packet.
- No, exactly.
It's like if I wanted to use, I dunno, Frosties.
I don't want to do that.
I want to make it from scratch.
- We're not in the business of that.
- Exactly.
Mike, what's going into yours?
- Oh, I don't like food waste and we had Frosties in the studio
(they laugh)
Jay, if you want to kill the planet.
Well, that's your personal choice.
Who am I to say otherwise?
- [Jemma] Are you feeling confident?
- I'm gonna be honest.
I've been more confident, I'm just mixing tired.
I thought cupcake mix was meant to be light and airy.
- Not always, though.
- Have you seen Jamie's?
- That smells a-mazing.
- [Jemma] Hang on a minute!
- Going for two different styles,
black, on black, on black, on black, on black,
and the other, rolled in glitter.
- Yay. - Woo.
I'm excited to see how quickly this batter-
- I know. pours out of your piping bag.
(they gasp)
- [Barry] It's okay, it's okay, I'm okay with that.
- So what is genuinely exciting about today,
is they haven't just come up with three recipes.
They're actually three recipes,
that you guys are gonna put in your shop,
on the 20th of November.
So between now and then,
you guys are gonna have to go down to Crumbs and Doilies,
and share your ideas with the team.
The team will then make them slightly more plausible,
for mass sale and they will go on sale.
- And then, everyone at home,
can come and pick their favourite one.
- Yeah.
- The cupcake that sells the most, wins.
Boys, you've already had a third of your time.
Barry's are going in.
- All the cupcakes in.
- What went into your granola?
- Vegetable oil, dark brown sugar oats, walnuts,
little bit of sea salt, fennel seeds, egg white,
a little bit sweet from the sugar, but yeah, good mix.
- Fennel was a nice touch.
- It is a nice touch.
I am worried that this is going to be too savoury,
I'm not going to lie.
- So what's next?
- Yeah.
- I'm making jelly.
- Jelly! - Jelly, of course,
it needs to set.
- And is it just pure masala, are we diluting it?
- No, just pure marsala, sugar and jelly.
- Nice.
- Have you tried this before?
- Um, no.
- Okay.
- I think it'll work.
Bloom the jelly, warm it up.
Melt that down, stick that in, cool.
- This should be absolutely smooth.
I've got no worries at all about this.
- Have faith, please.
- Oh, I have faith.
- [Mike] Caramel time.
Sugar's gone in, dry pan, high heat.
As soon as it starts to caramelise on the edge,
I'll give it a quick stir,
to make sure that everything cooks evenly.
And I just leave it.
- Well, keep a little eye on it. (laughs)
- [Mike] I'll look at it.
- As soon as it's completely dissolved,
then you want to go with your butter and your cream,
and pop it back on.
And that's when you're going to get it
to the right intensity.
- Bacon time.
- And what are we doing?
Just baking it, are we candying it?
- [Jamie] I'm gonna bake the bacon,
so that's a really nice savoury element.
- What'll I do next?
Oh, I've got two more things after that,
I've got my frosting and then I have my Kahlua syrup.
- It's a cream cheese frosting, presumably.
- [Barry] Cream cheese frosting, yeah, with-
- [Sally] Mascarpone?
- Mascarpone and charcoal.
- Tell me about your icing sugar, have you sifted it?
- No.
- Hm, interesting, texture.
- I think those ones are done.
I'm gonna leave the ones in the red and white striped cases,
for a little bit longer, so I put more mixture in them.
- Loosen!
(playful music)
- What's that, ooh God.
- [Barry] I know.
- How are you going to get it out of the whisk?
- I dunno what to do.
I can't do it in sight, it's embarrassing.
- [Ben] Barry, show us your muscles.
- No, I'm hiding.
- [Mike] What you doing?
- I'm trying to,
I don't like whisking in front of the ladies.
I feel embarrassed.
(they laugh)
Oh, for goodness sake.
It's just icing.
- But Sally and Jemma did say,
the icing is like one of the most important things.
- It's not though, is it?
It's the garnish.
- You've had about half your time.
Cupcakes still need to finish baking, cool,
and get all your other stuff ready.
- Right, so caramel has been poured over my Frosties,
and then crunched up walnuts and pecans,
pinch of salt and some vanilla extract.
(bowl clanging)
- Get out of the whisk.
- Let's talk about buttercream.
I'm going to put some egg whites and some sugar in a bowl,
over a pan of simmering water.
And I wait until the sugar all dissolves,
and I can't feel any graininess.
And then I'm going to whisk it and whisk it and whisk it,
and whisk it and whisk it, 'til it's cool and stiff.
And then I can add in some butter and some pumpkin spice.
- It takes a man to realise what he's made a mistake.
- Top tip, if it's feeling like it's really stiff,
just put a couple of extra tablespoons
of cream cheese in it.
- [Barry] I'll stick in this, see what happens.
- [Sally] Oh, that looks like good cornflake caramel.
- Yes, well done, Mike.
- Thanks.
I was nervous about this, but I think it's okay.
- How is your Swiss meringue going?
- [Jamie] Oh beautiful.
- Yeah?
- [Jamie] Yeah.
- [Ben] Want to go and check?
- Oh no, there's no need, it's all fine.
(Sally laughs)
- It's my favourite icing. (laughs)
- Everything's A-okay.
- I like how you've gone with an attachment,
rather than an actual-
- Is it a whisk?
- I mean, it is a whisk.
Surely not the easiest whisk you could have used.
- They've risen.
They've baked, now I'll just leave them to cool.
- [Barry] I think, thanks to you guys,
I might be saving this cream cheese.
- 'Cause it's a little bit savoury, but I'm sticking with it.
- There we go, we'll be fine - I'm sticking with it.
- You have half an hour left.
- So this is my cream cheese frosting,
just standard cream cheese, so not mascarpone,
butter, vanilla extract, beat it all together.
Add powdered sugar, bit by bit.
- You've obviously been watching the Cupcake Jemma videos.
- I told you, yeah.
Validation feels good.
- Hm.
- No?
- It's too late now.
(they laugh)
- Oh no.
- Very good, very good.
- [Jemma] Lovely.
- Beautiful.
- [Jemma] Lovely.
Bacon.
- [Sally] Crispy bacon.
(mixer whirs)
- [Barry] Yummer.
- [Jemma] Eat bits and bobs of a whisk, but-
- So I've gone for a teaspoon of ginger.
- [Jemma] Okay.
- Along with my tablespoon of vanilla.
(mixer whirs)
- Do you think the butter is supposed
to be in the buttercream,
or do you think it's all right
that it's on the edge of the bowl?
- As we come into last third of the battle,
where are your feelings and vibes?
- [Sally] They look pretty good.
- And everyone has been taking our friendly advice,
let's call it.
- I'm not quite sure what's happening as we speak.
I take it all back.
- Are you giving birth to something?
- It's a newborn.
You forgot your, whay!
- Nozzle, it happens to the best of us, come on.
(comical flourish)
- Pumpkin time. (energetic music)
- Mike's still sifting.
- I was in my twenties when I started this.
- Second part of my booze, Kahlua, chocolate and sugar.
Reduce that down to a syrup,
it has to be drizzled over my cupcakes at the end.
- [Ben] Always getting down into the board.
- [Jemma] Syrup is syrupy.
(bowl banging)
- It looks nice, it looks whippy.
- It's got some candying occurring.
- 15 minutes remaining.
- I love vanilla, but it even tastes vanilla-y to me.
(they gasp and laugh)
(playful music)
- My goodness.
- What happened?
- [Ben] Literally just, look at the state of this.
- [Barry] Sally, you got a little bit on your
- Did you get it on you?
- No.
- No Sally was in the firing line.
- It's all for you, let's taste it though,
since we've got it (laughs)
(they groan)
- That's disgusting.
- Is it pumpkin spice?
- Yeah.
- It's good.
(energetic music)
- [Jemma] How's the candying going?
- At the moment, we're just sauteing,
in the most amount of butter that I've ever seen.
Once it's gone really nice and deep golden brown,
I'm going to go in with the maple syrup, let that reduce.
And then the candying will be complete.
- [Mike] I have no idea,
how to visualise what I'm going to do.
- Wow, look at that.
- That's actually quite frightening.
- So the ones in the plain cases,
have definitely turned out than these ones.
So, I like these cases, that's fine.
- Just do a big squeeze in the middle,
and then work around that squeeze that you've done,
and then bring it back into the middle again.
- Okay, that's why we do a test up.
Oh man, this is too hard.
- [Jemma] Barry was listening, so he's done it.
- I half listened to the instructions.
Hi team.
- Oh, hi.
- Hello.
Minimalistic.
- If I'm honest, presentation isn't my forte.
- It's looking better.
- Whoa.
- [Jemma] That is slightly rude.
- [Jamie] He's a spiky one, isn't he?
- Jelly's looking good, but you only have a minute left.
- It's so tense.
- [Ben] Just need three identical ones.
- [Sally] Oh yeah, that is cool.
- [Ben] Now it is 20 seconds.
Mike looks in control.
I'm worried for both other contestants.
- [Jamie] Are we supposed to have a plate?
- [Jemma] You can do it.
- [Sally] You can do It, guys.
- Five
- [All] Four.
Three.
Two
One.
- [Jemma] Stop baking.
(Sally laughs)
I've always wanted to say that.
What is your serving platter?
- What I've done is turn the concept of a cupcake
on its head, and therefore
- Right I have a funny feeling,
the judging is going to be rather harsh.
Let's see if we can find a winner.
(upbeat electro music)
Boys, how are you feeling.
- Nervous.
- Bit of a mixed bag, earlier.
(they laugh)
- Bit of a mixed bag here, if I'm honest,
should we start with Jamie's?
- It looks pretty firm.
- You've definitely got textures on there.
- Cheers.
- All over my nose.
Okay.
- I really like he icing.
- I really like the crunchy bacon.
- I'm gonna go ahead and say that is not savoury.
That is sweet.
- You've done a really good job
of balancing the sweet and savoury there.
- It reminds me of a cross between like,
American pumpkin spice,
and like some of the Italian biscuits you get,
they've got the fennel in them,
and that kind of sweet fennel thing going on.
- Sally, I'm glad that you like the icing,
'cause you're also wearing some of it.
- That's why there's not much on the cakes,
because it was mainly on me.
I was really worried that the cornbread
would be too like, heavy,
is actually a lot spongier and lighter, than I thought.
- [Jemma] Surprising.
- [Barry] Surprising high bar.
- Surprising for me, as well.
- Number two.
- It's got a nice pull away, nice.
- [Sally] This looks like a good sponge.
- Yeah, this does look like a good sponge.
Now that is vanilla-y.
(Jemma laughs)
- I wonder why?
I like it.
- Texturally.
- Yeah.
- This is up there.
- But the problem with the topping is,
I can't get it all in my mouth.
- I've got an entire sheet of it, if you'd like it.
- The buttercream is perfectly whipped,
- And I'm getting that nutmeg,
but not as strong as the ginger.
- This is on a par with, texturally, one of ours.
I know I keep saying texturally, like a caveat.
- It's not your recipe!
- Inspired by. (they laugh)
- See what happens
- Move on to number three, thank you.
- How do you even get them out?
(they laugh)
- Interesting case.
- [Ben] You put them in thimbles.
- I blame the choice of cases, not the cake.
- Oh look, there's one in the normal case.
Should we take the one?
- Yeah, all right, these are
- I mean I'm not gonna say off to a bad start, Baz,
but if they can't get into the cake.
- Oh.
- I can't really taste any coffee.
- [Ben] A lot of cocoa
- Yeah. It's very chocolatey.
This is a really thick chocolate cake.
The sponge is great.
- It reminds me of red velvet,
in the sense of the colour for me is quite off putting,
but actually it's a really moist sponge.
It's just not what I was expecting.
- The jelly is really nice.
Although it was a bit of a strange sensation in my mouth.
- That's the reaction you want.
- [Sally] Wooh!
- Did you just do a shot, or?
- Yeah, I know, it felt like I just took a shot.
That is just pure alcohol.
- And the icing is not like super smooth,
because it's got the cocoa powder in it.
That was really nice, but it wasn't what I was hoping for,
I suppose, based on your advert.
- Maybe some rebranding.
- Rebrand it.
- Either rebranding or a bit more work
on getting that Tara Mitsuy idea in the
- Got a little, uh, black,
I mean, probably got it everywhere,
have I got it?
- You're good.
- So the important thing to stress,
is all three of these will make it into the shop,
but they will also be perfected by your team.
And you guys can see that on their channel before then,
but today we still need a winner,
and that's over to you guys.
(tense music)
(they whisper)
- Oh my God.
- Oh my God, samesies.
(they laugh)
- Sounds like we've got mutual agreement here.
- Yeah, we have.
- In last place.
No, no third place, bronze medal.
- Third place. - Bronze, bronze.
(fingers drumming)
- I'm afraid it's Mike.
- [Ben] Mike in third place?
- [Jemma] Who'd have thunk it?
- But it was really nice.
- Not because you used our recipes,
'cause all of our recipes are WINNERS!
It just felt a bit one dimensional.
- It's a little bit safe.
- Yeah.
- Fair enough.
- What's more shocking is,
that now Jamie has a chance of winning,
and I'm really scared.
(they laugh)
- In which case, skip second,
who is taking your win?
- It is Jamie.
- Oh my God, (girls cheer)
what's happening?
- [Ben] The festive cupcake takes it.
- I was not expecting that.
- Who's going to buy that.
- Every time I win a battle,
One of you says, look at it.
And the thing is, DO look at it,
because it's beating you, AGAIN.
(they laugh)
- This is really like a fun idea.
It's totally worked, all the flavours work together.
- [Jemma] All the flavours work so well.
- [Sally] It's got bacon on it.
- The fennel twist.
- [Ben] Congratulations, Jay.
- Congratulations. - Well done.
- Well over to you guys,
do you think Jemma and Sally made the right decision, today?
Comment down below, who would have taken your win.
- And don't forget,
you can head to Crumbs and Doilies on the 20th of November,
in London, Soho and taste the cupcakes for real, yourself.
Click the link below for all the info.
(production beep)
- All three cupcakes will make it on to
- They'll be-
- They'll be on the menu.
- They'll be in our shop.
- [Ben] They are gutted that they signed up for that.
- I feel like that should be a question rather than a stop.
(they laugh)