GBBO 2018 Week 2 - Cake - Custard Cream Blondies

Week 2 on GBBO was all about cake, and the first signature round was "traybakes" - most of the bakers made cake-like traybakes, like the two black forest gateaus. One baker made a frangipane tart though, which sounded delicious! When thinking about what I wanted to make, I wanted something simple but yummy, that couldn't just be bought from a shop.

So, I made these blondies (which I at least have never seen in my local supermarket) with custard creams (which are easily one of my top 5 classic UK biscuits). Blondies are the cousin of a brownie, being dense and moreish, but without any milk/dark chocolate. These have white chocolate and custard powder, as well as crushed custard creams.

They might not look the most show-stopping I'll admit, but they taste amazing!

Makes 16

Ingredients:

• 175g (3/4 cup) butter (or margarine)
• 180g (1 cup) light soft brown sugar
• 145g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 250g (2 cups) self-raising flour
• 4 tbsp instant custard powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 150g (1 cup) custard creams, broken into approximate quarters
• 150g (1 cup) chopped white chocolate

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c (160c fan)/355f/gas mark 4. Grease the base of a 20 x 20cm cake tin, and dust lightly with flour (alternatively, you could line with baking parchment).

2. Melt the butter in a saucepan with the caster and brown sugar, stirring regularly. Once all of the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved, set aside to cool for a few minutes.

3. In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour and custard powder, and mix in the salt.

4. Pour the melted butter/sugar mixture onto the flour/custard powder, and then add the eggs and vanilla extract. Fold together briefly.

5. Add the white chocolate and the custard creams and continue folding until all of the flour has been taken up and the custard creams are evenly distributed.

6. Pour into the prepared tin and level out. Bake for around 20 minutes, and then turn the tin around in the oven (for even heat distribution). Bake for another 10 minutes, or until only the very centre of the blondie has a small wobble when lightly shaken.

7. Remove from the oven and leave to cool before cutting into bars. Store in an airtight container and they should last around a week.

8. Enjoy!