Get baking to support Great Ormond Street Hospital

National Baking Week’s bake sale challenge is the perfect excuse to get stuck in.

The British have always loved a piece of cake – we even invented elevenses and afternoon tea so we could enjoy a couple more slices – while bread is one of our most-eaten foods, with around 12million loaves sold in the UK every day.

More than five million viewers regularly tune in to watch The Great British Bake Off since it arrived in 2010.

We’re copying what we’re watching, too.

Waitrose recently reported that Bake Off had been ‘whipping up demand’ for baking products such as butter, sugar and flour, following an episode which saw contestants tasked with baking biscuits.

With National Baking Week now underway, it’s the perfect time to join the cake party.

The idea is to organise a bake sale in your workplace, college or school to help raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity (GOSH).

It’s sponsored by baking stalwarts Billington’s, Just Milk, Stork, Kenwood, Jus Rol and Nielsen Massey, and organisers are hoping to stir up lots of interest, with thousands of budding bakers rising to the occasion.

Here are three recipes, devised by Bake Off’s 2012 winner John Whaite for National Baking Week, to get you started.

SALTED CARAMEL SWISS ROLL (Serves 6-8)

For the sponge:

90g sugar 3 large eggs

1tsp vanilla bean paste or extract

75g plain flour

15g cocoa powder, plus extra for dusting

½tsp baking powder

For the filling:

125g light muscovado sugar

75ml double cream

75g butter at room temperature

½tsp salt Preheat the oven to 200C.

Grease and line the Swiss roll tin.

Place the sugar, eggs and vanilla into a mixing bowl and whisk using a hand mixer until it has tripled in volume, and clings for a few seconds then drips in a steady stream when the whisk is lifted out.

Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder over the mix and then gently fold in with a spatula until well incorporated.

Carefully pour this into the prepared tin and level off with a spatula, before baking in the preheated oven for eight to 10 minutes, or until evenly risen and the sponge springs back when gently touched.

Remove from the oven. Dust a piece of baking paper with cocoa powder, onto which invert the freshly baked sponge and allow to cool completely.

Meanwhile, make the filling. Place the muscovado sugar and cream into a saucepan and heat over a medium/high heat until the sugar dissolves. This forms your caramel sauce.

Allow to bubble for a minute or two, before pouring onto a large plate to cool.

When cool (and it’s important that it is completely cool), beat the butter in a bowl then slowly whisk in the caramel sauce until thick and well incorporated, and then add the salt.

Smooth the filling over the cooled sponge, leaving just a centimetre or two at one of the shorter ends. Then roll up the sponge along the length, into a tight spiral, forming a Swiss roll.

PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY CUPCAKES (Serves 12)

For the cake:

60g smooth peanut butter

100g butter

125g caster sugar

75g seedless raspberry jam

2 eggs

150g plain flour

1tsp baking powder

For the topping:

80g butter

45g smooth peanut butter

200g icing sugar

6tsp seedless raspberry jam

Preheat the oven to 190C. Line a deep 12-hole muffin tray with muffin cases. To make the cake batter, simply place all of the ingredients into a bowl and mix together either with an electric whisk or wooden spoon.

When well combined, divide the mixture between the muffin cases and bake in the preheated oven for 20-22 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

To make the frosting, place the butter and peanut butter into a mixing bowl and beat until very smooth. Add the icing sugar and stir then, when incorporated, whisk well to add some air.

To finish the cupcakes, place the frosting into a piping bag and snip off the end to create a hole of about 1cm in diameter. Pipe two concentric circles (one inside the other) around the edge of the cupcakes, leaving a little hole in the middle.

Into that hole, gently spoon half a teaspoon of the jam – to make it easier to spoon, beat the jam before using.

BRIOCHE GALETTE (Serves 8-10)

250g white bread flour

5g salt

7g sachet fast action yeast

30g caster sugar

150g egg (about 3)

20ml milk

For the creme patissiere:

125g butter

250ml milk

1tsp vanilla bean paste or extract

3 large egg yolks

75g caster sugar

30g cornflour

For the fruit topping:

1 large apple, Braeburn or Cox are best

10-15 large blackberries

1 egg, beaten to glaze

6tbsp apricot jam

Icing sugar to dust

First, make the brioche dough. Place the flour and salt into a bowl and blend together. If you have an electric or stand mixer, use the dough hook. Then add the yeast and caster sugar and blend that through too.

Beat the eggs with 20ml of the milk, and add to the bowl. Knead for at least 15 minutes until the dough is extremely stretchy.

Slowly add the butter, piece by piece, still mixing. It should take around five minutes to incorporate the butter. When done, carry on mixing until the dough is smooth, silky and very stretchy. Place the dough onto a baking tray, and wrap tightly with cling film. Place into the fridge overnight, or for at least 12 hours.

To make the creme patissiere, place the rest of the milk and vanilla into a medium saucepan over a medium heat. Allow to come to the boil.

As the milk heats, quickly whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until the sugar dissolves, then whisk in the cornflour.

Pour half of the boiling milk onto the egg mixture and whisk immediately and rapidly.

Then pour this back into the pan with the remaining half of the milk and place back onto the heat, whisking constantly until the mixture comes to the boil and becomes very thick.

When thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon scrape the creme patissiere onto a large plate and immediately cover with cling film. Cool completely and refrigerate.

When the brioche dough has rested overnight, flour the worktop and then roll out into a large disk of about 10 inches in diameter.

Remove the creme patissiere from the fridge and with a wooden spoon vigorously knock it back, beating it to a smooth custard. Spread or pipe the beaten creme patissiere onto the brioche disk, leaving a good inch around the edge.

Peel, core and quarter the apple, then slice it very finely, using a mandolin if you have one. Place this onto the creme patissiere in a spiral pattern then halve the blackberries and dot them around.

Gently crimp the edges of the brioche by pulling a little outwards, then sticking it to the edge on the left, continuing all the way round.

Preheat the oven to 200C. Allow the brioche pizza to rest until the edges have puffed up and almost doubled in size.

Egg-wash the edges and bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the exposed brioche is a deep golden colour.

Heat the apricot jam with three tablespoons of water, pass through a sieve then use to glaze the hot, freshly baked brioche. Cool, then finish with a dusting of icing sugar.

For more information visit nationalbakingweek.co.uk