Lottie Bedlow

It’s out there! Thank you so much to everyone who has made it possible from agents to publishers, friends and family and to you lot for being so supportive and believing in me enough to spend your actual money on a book that I wrote - I feel very humbled and happy To those of your that have received it, let me know what you think! And better still, let Amazon know what you think with a review… Here are some photos from the launch, thank you to everyone who showed up and travelled so far to be there! Shout out to my mother who literally said within my earshot ‘well, this is the closest I’ll ever get to being mother of the bride’. Fair. Lastly; thank you @phaseeight for the jumpsuit combo, I felt like a grown up and believable author and it was great. That’s enough of that x . . . #bakingimperfect #launch #bookstagram #bookreview #bookrecommendations #gbbo #bake #recipes

How Hard Can It Be? Macarons Well so many of you asked for this one that I couldn’t ignore it any longer. There are a lot of variables and I’m still not entirely sure I nailed it but I made some that were passable…and that’s all we need, right? I have a lot of respect for @sugargeekshow and she’s got me out of many a bind in the kitchen when the science isn’t sciencing. So I would strongly suggest using her recipe for French macarons as a starting point if you’re scared. Things I learned: - It’s bloody hard to find decent ‘almond flour’ in UK shops. It’s just VERY finely ground almonds. I bought mine online. - Aging the eggs wasn’t necessary for me. This could be because British eggs are different to those in the States. The second batch whipped up so much better after just being separated - The temperature of my oven was too cold and then too hot. For me 145c fan was the sweet spot - After baking, ignoring the recipe, I left them on the baking sheet to cool which I think firmed them up and made them more sturdy You aren’t going to get this right first time. But think of it like pancakes: the first one is always dodgy but it helps you to work out how hot the pan is etc, then the second and third batches will be much better. Give it a go and let me know how you get on - Italian Macarons are also a thing if you fancy a challenge… Sfogliatelle next week. I already can’t be arsed. Happy weekend! X . . . #macaron #bake #weekend #itwilldo

AD The finishing touch to any good recipe? Clean-up that's just as effortless as the cooking. We trust @finishukofficial Ultimate Plus dishwasher tablets to handle the aftermath, we asked @lottiegotcake to put them to the test after making our chocolate and salted caramel waffle bread and butter pudding and the results speak for themselves! Fancy making this delicious dessert yourself? Get the full recipe on our website now. #goodfood #goodfoodrecipes #dessertrecipes #breadandbutterpudding #cleaningtips #finishuk

How Hard Can It Be? Baked Alaska I made a vegan version of an Alaska on New Year Bake Off once but I think it was long enough ago that I’d forgotten the trauma. This bake took me 3 days. 3 DAYS!! The ice cream was lovely, the meringue was fine and the cake was average. But why would you eat them all together? If you want to give it a go, I would buy the ice cream, buy a sponge and make french meringue instead of Italian. I just thought the Italian version would make it more structurally sound… So how hard was it? Yeah really quite hard. Not one for the baking bucket list. Shout out to my mate Freya who is one of the reasons I applied to Bake Off in the first place. So it’s actually her fault that I now spend my weekends doing nonsense like this. The least she could do was help. Macarons next week. What could possibly go wrong. . #bakingfail #baked #bakeoff

Humpday Meal: whipped feta ham tart On the table in 30 minutes - great little midweek meal! This is adapted from a @waitrose recipe, I just added my own toppings. Would also look great on a bbq table and you could keep it veggie if you so desired. Recipe - 1 pack pre rolled puff pastry - 1 free range egg, beaten - 200g block of feta - 100g Greek yoghurt - Zest of 1/2 lemon - 2 cloves garlic, crushed - Sprinkle of onion granules - Lots of black pepper - Pack of asparagus tips (I used about 150g) - Pack of ham hock - Handful of frozen peas, in a bowl of water - 2 spring onions, trimmed and sliced - Nigella seeds - Olive oil - Parmesan to serve - Balsamic glaze (optional) Method - preheat the oven to 180c fan. Roll out the pastry, leaving it on the paper in comes in and score an inner border. Brush with beaten egg and bake for 8-10mins - In a small blender, put the feta, yoghurt, lemon, garlic, onion granules and black pepper. Zhush until smooth(ish) - Spread the whipped feta across the inner sanctum of the semi baked pastry rectangle. Top with the ham hock, and then the asparagus, alternating which way up they sit. Push the spring onions into the gaps. Sprinkle the (cold but now defrosted) peas on top. Brush the sides with egg again and scatter nigella seeds around the edge. Bake for 20 mins. - Top with a drizzle of olive oil and some Parmesan, slice and serve! We’ve been doing Humpday for over 2 years now and I think it’s time for a rest and a redesign. Thank you so much for all your support on the series; we’ve had a laugh and I hope you’ve liked some of the recipes along the way. Not sure what my savoury offering will look like moving forward but all ideas welcome, as always. Lots of love and Happy Humpday! Xx

How Hard Can It Be? Profiteroles Your suggestions for this little series were terrifying, thank you. I’m going to have to do some proper research for a lot of the bakes so this week I wanted to start easy. Choux is actually my favourite pastry to make but it has been a while (can you tell) so this was a humbling experience! Recipe - 70g unsalted butter - Pinch of salt - 1tsp caster sugar - 185ml water - 60g plain flour, sieved - 50g strong white bread flour, sieved - 3 medium free range eggs, beaten Bring the butter, salt, sugar and water to a boil. Once the butter is melted ‘shoot in’ the flours in one go and beat together by hand to make a smooth dough. Cook out the flour for a few minutes, keeping the dough moving and then transfer to a baking sheet, spread out, to cool. Add the flabby mixture to a stand mixer and gradually beat in the eggs. Work through the scrambled eggs stage, until you have smooth batter that forms a ‘V’ when the beater is lifted. Transfer to a piping bag and pipe onto a lined tray, leaving space in between each. Use a wet finger to gently pat the little tops so they don’t burn and bake at 160c fan for 30-35 mins. Make a whole in the base of each and return to the oven for 5 mins to allow to dry out. Once cooled, fill with whatever you like (I used Chantilly and a basic ganache: 100ml cream: 200g dark chocolate) Top tips for profiteroles - You don’t have to use all the egg in the recipe - Look for the V shape when deciding whether to add more egg - Bake it for longer than you think (these baked at 160c fan for 35mins) - lots of recipes work at a high temperature for a shorter time - do whatever works for you and your oven - Make a steam hole, flip them, put them back in the oven for a further 5 mins to dry out before cooling and filling Next week: baked Alaska…because that’s gone SO well for me in the past… Happy weekend! X Ps shout out to @frankovondeadly for the artwork and my cousin @jjessbather for making the little jingle on GarageBand in her uni room instead of studying for her exams ❤️

Humpday meal: pesto salmon and spring veg open lasagne Got to get those greens in after all those retro humpdays…not a baked bean or a potato in sight this week. And it’s a proper mid week meal, on the table in 20 mins. You could use any pasta, it doesn’t really get layered so it doesn’t need to be an ‘open lasagne’ and actually what a ridiculous term. Do what you like with the recipe below, just know that it tastes great and the dill shouldn’t be skipped. Recipe - 2 salmon fillets, seasoned and baked for 15-20 mins, depending on how you like it cooked - 1 leek, sliced (or half if you get a fat one) - Asparagus tips, chopped - Sugar snap peas, chopped - 2 cloves garlic, crushed - knob of salted butter - 200ml of white wine or stock - Sprinkling of dried dill - Couple of dollops of pesto - Couple of dollops of creme fraiche - 6 sheets lasagne, snapped in half and boiled for 6 mins until cooked - Lots of black pepper - Parmesan to serve - Lemon to serve (optional) Method - cook the salmon however you like - I bake mine to reduce the lingering smell of fish - Fry off the leek, asparagus and peas until softening and then add the garlic to fry for another couple of minutes. Stir in the butter. Pour in the wine or stock and simmer until evaporated - Stir in the dill, pesto and crème fraiche and allow to simmer before flaking in the cooked fish - Add the cooked and drained pasta sheets to the sauce and fold in so that the sauce coats the pasta. - Plate up and grate over lots of Parmesan and black pepper. If it needs it, serve with a squeeze of lemon Use any veg you like, this is just what I had in the fridge. You could use courgette, frozen peas, broccoli etc. Adjust your cooking time accordingly! Happy Humpday x

This week in the salon chair, we had the lovely @lottiegotcake serving star baker energy as we transformed her gorgeous colour with a soft, seamless balayage refresh! 🤎✨ The brief? Keep all that natural richness, lift the warmth, and blend in delicate ribbons of golden dimension for that effortless, glossy, “was she born with it?” finish, all thanks to @goldwelluki ✨ Using warm-toned balayage, we enhanced Lottie’s already beautiful colour with: ✨ soft face-framing brightness ✨ seamless balayage blending ✨ glossy golden warmth ✨ a lived-in, low-maintenance finish The result? A perfectly baked balayage with just the right amount of lift, warmth and shine, and most importantly… The verdict? Star Baker approved. 👏🏼✅ If your hair colour is feeling a little flat and you’re craving softness, dimension and a brighter, more blended finish, a warm balayage refresh might be your perfect recipe. Ready for your own Great British Hair Off moment? Book today! 🍰✨ #greatbritishbakeoff #salon #hairtransformation #hairinspo #goldwell

Retro Humpday Meal: turkey dinosaurs Tasted lovely but good god it was a faff! If you want to attempt them then - Get proper sized cutters - Mince the mixture in a blender before rolling out - Freeze the mix before stamping out Ingredients - 500g 7% turkey thigh mince - Garlic granules (not too many…but actually mine tasted great) - Onion granules - 1tsp paprika - Salt and pepper - Flour to coat - 2 free range eggs, beaten - Golden breadcrumbs - Vegetable oil to fry Method - mix the mince and seasoning together. I would blitz this mixture if you can, to make it really paste-like - Roll out between 2 pieces of baking paper - Freeze for 1 hour before stamping out the dinos. Coat them lightly with flour, dunk in egg and then coat with the breadcrumbs - Heat the oil to about 150c and then fry each dinosaur for 3 mins on each side. Transfer to kitchen paper to remove some of the excess oil and then serve with curly fries and beans! Or just make nuggets and be done with it. I’m away next week so there won’t be a Humpday but they’ll be back the week after and maybe let’s make something that’s not orange…

Brownie baking, bake off reminiscing and a lot of laughs is what you can expect in this next YouTube episode with @lottiegotcake I just had the best time and hope you'll enjoy sharing that time with us on my YT channel! 📸 @charliegouldphotography

Retro Humpday Meal : sausage and bean pie I made something similar last year which was more akin to a Greggs ‘sausage cheese and bean melt’ but this is more hearty, reminds me of a happier time AND can be eaten cold the next day (if the thought of cold beans doesn’t make you want to throw the pie at a wall) Notes: I don’t think the blind baking was necessary because the fat from the sausages soaked into the base anyway - it wasn’t raw but it was not crisp…not helped by my use of the glass dish. You also need to roll out those top strips so they are nice and thin because they really don’t cook otherwise Ingredients - 1 red onion, peeled and roughly chopped - 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped - Handful of fresh sage - Handful of fresh thyme - Salt and pepper - 440g sausages (or sausagemeat) - Splash of cider/chicken stock/gravy (?!) - Squirt of ketchup - 2 rolls of puff pastry - 400g baked beans - 1 egg, beaten Method - Blitz together the onion, garlic, herbs, salt and pepper - Fry off for a couple of minutes, then add the pork and break it up in the pan. Cook until the pork is starting to brown - Add the liquid. I would recommend cider or stock but actually the gravy worked alright. I used 2 heaped tsp and about 250ml boiling water. Add a squirt of ketchup. Once the liquid has been cooked out and the meat is cooked through, season to taste and take off the heat - Line a baking dish with one roll of pastry. Rest in the fridge until the filling is cool or blind bake if you want to - With the second sheet of pastry, halve it, then roll out so each piece is nice and thin. Cut into strips and arrange in a lattice, folding each alternate horizontal strip back on itself, inserting a vertical strip, folding the horizontal strips back over the vertical and then repeating with the alternate horizontals (id watch a video if you’re not sure because I’ve made that sound way harder than it is). Trim the lattice and rest in the fridge until needed - Press the sausage into the dish and then top with beans. Place the lattice on top and brush with egg. Bake at 180c fan for 25 mins Happy Humpday! X #humpday #dinner #pie #sausage

Mini egg crunch cake I know I’m late to the party with this viral bake but oh.my.god I’m glad I tried it. It is heavenly. I used my fudge cake sponge recipe, topped with a loose ganache, topped with my mars bar cornflake tart recipe. You can use any sponge recipe you like but make sure it has real chocolate in it! Ingredients for the cake - 175g butter - 175g dark chocolate - 1 tsp coffee in 30ml boiling water - 140g caster sugar - 125g soft light brown sugar - 175g plain flour - 1/2 tsp baking powder - 1/2 tsp bicarb - 1/4 tsp salt - 3 free range eggs - 150ml sour cream - Vanilla bean paste Ingredients for the ganache - 200g milk chocolate - 200ml double cream Ingredients for the topping - 75g butter - 3 tbsp golden syrup - 6 Mars bar - 130g cornflakes - 2 bags of mini eggs Method - Line a square baking tray and preheat the oven to 160c fan. Melt the butter and chocolate together and leave to cool slightly. Whisk together the flour, sugars, salt, bicarb and baking powder. Whisk the eggs and sours cream together in a jug and then add to the dry ingredients. Beat together and transfer to the tin. Bake for 40mins and allow to cool slightly. - Make the ganache by melting together the chocolate and cream in the microwave in stages, stirring between bursts - Pour over the top of the sponge - For the topping melt together the butter, syrup and mars bars. Pour over the cornflakes and stir well. Then spread over the top of the ganache and top with mini eggs. Serve whilst still warm. Or cold. Or whatever. It’s great. Thank you to @rubybarneybritton for the inspiration! Happy Easter! . . . #easter #crunchcake #chocolate #pudding