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Shadowing practice: We Try to Bake Mary Berry's TENNIS CAKE from The Great British Bake Off

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  1. We are Sorted, a group of mates who have your back when it comes to all things food.0:00
  2. From cooking battles to gadget reviews and cookbook challenges to a mid -week meal packed zap.0:05
  3. Crack your eggs, bake.0:12
  4. We uncover the tools that will help us all cook and eat smarter.0:14
  5. Join our community where everything we do starts with you.0:18
  6. Right boys, today I have a surprise for you.0:23
  7. I would like you to work together as a team to make and bake a cake that celebrates an annual sporting event.0:26
  8. Any ideas?0:37
  9. Cricket?0:38
  10. What?0:39
  11. Cricket annual event?0:41
  12. It's probably like once a year that I watch it.0:42
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  1. I don't know mate, what?0:46
  2. Wimbledon!0:48
  3. It has been cancelled but that doesn't mean we can't celebrate it.0:49
  4. So I'd like you to create something that does exactly that but first we should probably dress for the occasion.0:53
  5. Can I do it?0:59
  6. It's sassy as he did it.1:02
  7. No.1:03
  8. Tell me what he looks like.1:07
  9. You know in the PE teacher can't make a PA this week and cover turns up.1:09
  10. Yeah substitute PE teacher.1:13
  11. So I would like you to recreate a cake by one of my favorite people Mary Berry a Wimbledon tennis cake.1:16
  12. It's gonna test a whole bunch of baking skills.1:23
  13. You want a light fruitcake, homemade marzipan, homemade royal icing and homemade fondant icing.1:25
  14. I didn't know you can make your own marzipan.1:31
  15. Well someone has to make it.1:33
  16. It doesn't grow.1:34
  17. Two hours of active cooking time.1:35
  18. You are working together but obviously taking interns in the kitchen.1:37
  19. You're up against Mary and I at the other end of the court.1:41
  20. I'll sub you in and out at my discretion but your two hours of baking Jamie starts now.1:44
  21. Bads we've got this.1:49
  22. Step one preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius.1:51
  23. Sub me out boss.1:57
  24. I'm done.1:58
  25. I'm out.1:59
  26. Grease rectangular cake tin.2:00
  27. Line the base and sides with double layer of baking parchment.2:03
  28. So if you remember when we made our last -minute Christmas cake a few years ago it's important to double line a fruitcake otherwise it tends to burn the bottom2:06
  29. because it's gonna bake for a long time.2:15
  30. The longest game in Wimbledon history was 11 hours.2:16
  31. I think if you don't speed up a little bit you're gonna be there somewhere similar.2:19
  32. Place all the fruits and nuts in a bowl with a lemon zest and gently mix together.2:23
  33. The only problem is all of them say they're cut into quarters, they're chopped.2:28
  34. Pineapple rings is a bit of sixties isn't it?2:33
  35. Well I think pineapple is very Wimbledon.2:37
  36. I mean however many players compete over however many days and matches to win a pineapple.2:39
  37. What are you talking about?2:46
  38. Ta -da!2:48
  39. That's it.2:49
  40. Everyone is trying to win the pineapple.2:50
  41. What you've got to remember is that Wimbledon is one of the world's oldest tennis tournaments and back in 1877 when it began pineapples were a thing of prestige to2:52
  42. show off with.3:02
  43. Jamie there's a pineapple on top of the Wimbledon trophy.3:03
  44. Sultanas, roughly chopped some blanched almonds.3:05
  45. Barry I'm drying.3:13
  46. Fruit in, time for some lemon zest, it's going in and then we can give it all a good mix up.3:17
  47. Turns out I could have done with a bigger bowl.3:21
  48. 12 minutes gone that's 10 % of your time.3:23
  49. New balls please.3:25
  50. Okay let's pick up the plates.3:26
  51. What's next?3:27
  52. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.3:28
  53. It's weighed out yeah?3:32
  54. Hallelujah.3:33
  55. Perhaps I should have melted that, never mind.3:35
  56. Let's get rally going.3:37
  57. Worst pale and I've got cramp in my hand.3:40
  58. Sport.3:45
  59. One egg at a time, keeps it simple.3:46
  60. Less counting.3:48
  61. Shut up, you just have a tea.3:49
  62. Bads, did you add in the flour?3:52
  63. No.3:54
  64. I looked up the origin of umpire.3:55
  65. Umpire's from the French, non -père, which means non -père which means not on anyone's side.3:59
  66. I'm gonna be honest with you Ben, this challenge is difficult enough as it is without having to listen to these facts.4:03
  67. I've realised we've made a mistake, Baz.4:10
  68. Why?4:12
  69. What we've not done.4:12
  70. Please read ahead.4:13
  71. What does Mary Berry always say?4:14
  72. Read the recipe.4:17
  73. Get out of my house Ben.4:18
  74. Again.4:20
  75. Ridiculous mix.4:30
  76. There's no way Mary Berry could do this with her little arms.4:32
  77. I mean you talk about Mary Berry's little arms.4:35
  78. Into an oven, four.4:41
  79. We'll find out in a sec.4:44
  80. So the recipe says two hours.4:44
  81. Right, clear down and new balls please.4:47
  82. Clear down first and then new balls.4:50
  83. There was a very specific order to have instructions.4:52
  84. So I'm starting with the almond paste.4:55
  85. Mix the ground almonds, caster sugar and icing sugar in a bowl.4:57
  86. Mix these all together.5:01
  87. Stir in the egg and almond essence.5:02
  88. Here we're entering the unknown with baking.5:05
  89. I've never ever made an almond paste.5:07
  90. Right.5:09
  91. Right, wrap and cling film.5:14
  92. Set aside.5:15
  93. 35 minutes gone.5:19
  94. New balls please.5:20
  95. For the raw icing, whisk the egg whites into a large mixing bowl until they become therophy.5:26
  96. This was supposed to be your speciality's day, P .E.5:32
  97. He's still struggling with the maths and the reading.5:35
  98. Hater happens when you have to separate the eggs but one half of your egg is that big.5:39
  99. I find you very in control of that.5:43
  100. So royal icing is another one we've not made for a long time.5:44
  101. It's an icing that you initially make and then when you pipe it, it sets really hard.5:47
  102. It becomes very, very firm.5:54
  103. To the extent that this royal icing is going to stand up on its own, you need to be able to pipe your net.5:55
  104. There's a sieve for you to sift.6:04
  105. Thank you.6:07
  106. Luckily you have an hour and 20 minutes remaining.6:08
  107. So we'll do that and then whisk.6:11
  108. That's been only three hands.6:13
  109. You need to whisk, whisk and tap.6:16
  110. That's really hard.6:17
  111. Sorry, relax.6:19
  112. Loosey goosey.6:20
  113. Don't think about it, don't think.6:22
  114. That's really...6:24
  115. I can't do it.6:25
  116. That's just so much icing sugar on the chopping board.6:27
  117. I'm glad I weighed it all out.6:30
  118. Do you know what will be fun?6:31
  119. No.6:33
  120. Wimbledon is the largest annual sporting catering event in Europe.6:40
  121. You're coming up to your hour mark.6:47
  122. That did take a little bit longer than I expected because...6:50
  123. Do one.6:53
  124. In my head, half an hour to make it and pipe it.6:54
  125. You can't rush genius, Ben.6:57
  126. It's becoming difficult to read the iPad.6:58
  127. Quick clear up.7:03
  128. Then new bowls, please.7:04
  129. So now for the fondant.7:05
  130. I've got to place my gelatin, glue close, glycerine and two tablespoons of water into a bowl.7:07
  131. You've left...7:13
  132. You've left yourself 55 minutes to finish an icing and decorate.7:15
  133. It feels like this entire challenge comes down to the final few points.7:20
  134. And I mean, we're going to get it to tyre break.7:25
  135. And then we're going to have to do it again.7:27
  136. Oh, my God.7:28
  137. It's then to sieve the breast -yolk sugar onto the work surface.7:30
  138. It's quite a lot of ice sugar onto the work surface.7:34
  139. This feels like I'm just making a mess.7:36
  140. All dissolved?7:38
  141. All dissolved.7:39
  142. All good.7:40
  143. Now into this mix.7:41
  144. We've given them a two -hour time limit, and that's only active time, so it doesn't include cake cooling.7:46
  145. But they only have 55 minutes of the active time remaining.7:50
  146. You're going to have to pick up the pace because I'm not giving you any extra time.7:54
  147. One minute.7:58
  148. Barry, Barry, cake, cake, cake!7:59
  149. Multi -tasking.8:02
  150. It's not clean.8:07
  151. It's not clean.8:08
  152. Tin foil back in the oven.8:08
  153. Testing to see if the cake was done and putting a piece of tin foil over them took from five minutes.8:10
  154. That's where they're losing the time.8:14
  155. This doesn't feel right.8:15
  156. Oh, I feel so good.8:17
  157. So you should end up with something that's pretty much like Play -Doh.8:20
  158. You should be able to mould it into all sorts of shapes.8:22
  159. 35 minutes remaining.8:25
  160. Right, thumb -sized piece.8:27
  161. Off.8:28
  162. Wrap it in cling film.8:29
  163. New balls, please.8:30
  164. Right.8:32
  165. Green.8:33
  166. Green.8:34
  167. Green.8:35
  168. Green.8:35
  169. Green.8:36
  170. Whoa, okay.8:39
  171. You'd put quite a lot, didn't you?8:42
  172. Yeah, I did, yeah.8:43
  173. So much for a little by little.8:44
  174. I think we might have nailed that first time.8:46
  175. That's lucky because you've not got much time to get back and do it again.8:48
  176. Wrap it in cling film to prevent it drying out and then we're going to move on to almond paste.8:51
  177. Oh, I hate it when people do that to cling film.8:56
  178. I didn't do it.8:58
  179. It's done.8:59
  180. Stop fiddling with the cling film.9:01
  181. I'm not fiddling, Barry.9:02
  182. I'm trying to...9:03
  183. You've got to take a knee to this.9:05
  184. This tells me you've done this a lot.9:07
  185. Don't stick.9:09
  186. Don't stick to me.9:10
  187. There we go.9:11
  188. Right.9:11
  189. That's it.9:15
  190. Easy figure down.9:15
  191. Lovely.9:16
  192. We now need to roll out your almond paste.9:18
  193. How does it feel?9:21
  194. It looks like it's rolling okay.9:21
  195. I'm sure these are the things you can just like take a bit off and fill in a hole.9:23
  196. It's not a pastry.9:26
  197. It's a paste.9:28
  198. Many colour blinds but you shape blind as well.9:30
  199. Come off it.9:33
  200. I top tip that I sometimes think if you're rolling something very thin is actually to roll it on baking paper.9:34
  201. Good measuring, mate.9:42
  202. How's your cake cooking?9:46
  203. You?9:48
  204. I mean, just...9:49
  205. 21 minutes remaining.9:53
  206. Hell.9:57
  207. It's fine.9:58
  208. You can fix it.10:00
  209. You can fix it in post.10:01
  210. Oh, hell.10:02
  211. That will hurt time you've spent prodding it.10:03
  212. Yep.10:05
  213. Shut your face.10:05
  214. Clear down and then new balls.10:06
  215. Neatly cut out a 9x6 inch rectangle and carefully place on top of the almond paste.10:08
  216. Barry's patched up the hole with some of the multi -pound from the side which has created a new hole.10:14
  217. Food colouring goes really far, doesn't it, Barry?10:19
  218. LAUGHTER I now have to cut this out neatly to the side of the tennis court which I think is a little bit bigger than an A4 piece of paper.10:23
  219. I have gold.10:32
  220. 15 minutes remaining.10:34
  221. This is the moment because if the consistency of your royal icing isn't quite right it's going to be very difficult to pipe.10:37
  222. Oh, mate, that's great.10:42
  223. That's better than Mary's already.10:43
  224. Ah!10:45
  225. New balls!10:49
  226. No!10:51
  227. Let me do the tennis racket.10:52
  228. New balls!10:54
  229. Give me a few of those.10:55
  230. Five minutes remaining.10:58
  231. Yes.11:01
  232. Screw up your racket.11:02
  233. Don't go screw up with my net.11:03
  234. I'm going to do my net.11:05
  235. This is hard, isn't it?11:08
  236. I hate to be a stickler for the rules, but I am the tennis official and therefore I'm going to hold them to the last four minutes.11:10
  237. Right, trim it now, Jay.11:17
  238. New balls!11:18
  239. Ah!11:20
  240. A minute and 45 left.11:24
  241. And stop the clock.11:29
  242. So you've left yourself a minute and 10 seconds to hopefully peel off some tennis rackets and place them on the court, stand up a net and then slide the11:31
  243. whole thing onto a cooled cake.11:40
  244. OK, the cake is cooled.11:49
  245. Hopefully the royal icing has set.11:51
  246. You have one minute and 10 seconds left on the clock.11:54
  247. And the time starts...11:58
  248. Come on, watch.11:59
  249. Come on, watch.11:59
  250. Come on, watch.12:00
  251. It has worked.12:01
  252. Yes!12:04
  253. Now he's got to place rackets on balls.12:05
  254. Jamie, come on, stop.12:08
  255. Oh, my goodness.12:09
  256. Look, you're croctor!12:12
  257. 40 seconds left to get the net.12:15
  258. That's a tennis racket.12:17
  259. Right, it's the net, mate.12:19
  260. We're going to make some big blobs.12:20
  261. You've got 12 seconds.12:23
  262. Five, four...12:27
  263. Barry, sorry!12:28
  264. I just don't move.12:30
  265. The net's up.12:32
  266. Two, one...12:32
  267. Don't move.12:33
  268. Time up.12:34
  269. Oh!12:36
  270. I mean, for us, that is incredible.12:37
  271. MUSIC Now, obviously, we've done such a marvellous job that it wouldn't fit under a clock.12:51
  272. So we've had to...13:15
  273. Yeah.13:16
  274. James, what are your expectations?13:17
  275. Let's just get that straight first.13:18
  276. A cake with a tennis court on it.13:21
  277. Well, please, remove your blindfold.13:24
  278. It's a cake with a tennis court on it.13:30
  279. Yeah!13:33
  280. It looks good.13:35
  281. Look, clean lines.13:37
  282. I don't know why the net looks so good, but the rackets are a bit of a mess.13:38
  283. I don't have that many negatives.13:42
  284. I think, obviously, the piping could be a touch better, but it looks good, especially from a little distance.13:44
  285. Let's see how it tastes.13:52
  286. And we have some pins, James.13:55
  287. Thank you, sir.13:57
  288. There's a lot going on in there.14:00
  289. Thank you, Barry.14:02
  290. Cheers.14:03
  291. Cheers.14:04
  292. It's waging it.14:06
  293. It's a good fruit cake.14:09
  294. I'm so impressed.14:11
  295. I don't have a bad thing to say about it.14:13
  296. It's great.14:16
  297. My goodness.14:16
  298. Apart from the rackets, you know, whoever did the rackets.14:17
  299. The fact that you made your own fondant and royal icing and marzipan, super impressive.14:20
  300. We all know that cake decorating, fondant, icings, marzipans, they're not our thing.14:27
  301. The fact that we've gone over and above and made them from scratch shows it with a little bit more effort.14:34
  302. You can do it.14:39
  303. Yeah, and I'd do it again as well.14:41
  304. Now I know how to do it.14:43
  305. That might be the best decorated cake we've ever made on Salted.14:44
  306. Oh, no.14:48
  307. Because it ain't our forte either.14:49
  308. I agree.14:51
  309. I think you might have gathered by now that I think this is an absolute pass and you guys have done a great job.14:51
  310. But if there are any more cakes that you want our resident cake experts to take on, Barry and Jamie, please comment below and let us know.14:56
  311. They're raring to go.15:03
  312. This is not going to be a thing.15:05
  313. I think Mike needs to have a go as well.15:06
  314. No, Barry and Jamie, cake experts.15:07
  315. We've also built the Sorted Club, where you can get tons of foodie inspo using the Pax Midweek Meal app, discover and share restaurant recommendations using the Eat app, listen15:11
  316. and contribute to our Feast Your Ears podcast, and send us ideas for new cookbooks you'll receive throughout the year.15:21
  317. Check it all out by heading to sorted .club.15:27
  318. And now a blooper.15:33
  319. Click.15:38
  320. Click.15:41
  321. Ha ha ha.15:44
  322. Click.15:47
  323. Click.15:49

Daily English Conversation Practice from a British Kitchen Under Time Pressure

This clip is the Sorted Food team setting up a baking challenge: recreate Mary Berry's Wimbledon tennis cake against the clock, with mates swapping in and out of the kitchen like substitutes on a court. It is rated B1 and moves at 216 words per minute, faster than most of the catalogue, so the host's instructions and the team's banter overlap the way real daily english conversation practice does, not the slowed down delivery of a textbook dialogue.

What makes it worth shadowing is the mix of registers in one short stretch. You get a presenter briefing the task in full sentences, a joke about a substitute PE teacher, quick competitive shouting between teammates, and then a flat, step by step recipe voice once the baking starts. Moving between those tones in the same breath is exactly what british english pronunciation practice needs to cover, since real conversation rarely stays in one gear.

The Line That Turns Into a Recipe: Reading the Shift in This Clip

Two short instructions mark the point where the scene stops joking and starts cooking: "Grease rectangular cake tin." and "Line the base and sides with double layer of baking parchment." Both drop the usual articles, the way spoken instructions do when someone is reading a method aloud rather than talking to you, and that clipped rhythm is worth repeating on its own before you try the fuller lines around it.

  • "It's gonna test a whole bunch of baking skills." The reduced "gonna" carries the stress, not the verb after it, so say the line fast and let "gonna test" blur together rather than pronouncing each word evenly.
  • "I think if you don't speed up a little bit you're gonna be there somewhere similar." A long, single breath warning built as one sentence. Notice the pace does not slow for the joke, which is what makes it land as banter rather than as an instruction.
  • "So I would like you to recreate a cake by one of my favorite people Mary Berry a Wimbledon tennis cake." A formal setup sentence with a name and a prize dropped into the middle, useful for practising how English speakers stack information without pausing to restructure the sentence.

A Line by Line Order for Shadowing This Wimbledon Cake Challenge

Work the clip in the order the scene actually shifts register, since that is what makes it useful rather than just long.

  • Start on "Right boys, today I have a surprise for you." It is short, at a normal pace, and gives you the presenter's baseline voice to compare everything else against.
  • Shadow this line next as a pair: "So I would like you to recreate a cake by one of my favorite people Mary Berry a Wimbledon tennis cake." Say it once slowly for the words, then again at speed for the rhythm.
  • Move to "It's gonna test a whole bunch of baking skills." and "because it's gonna bake for a long time." back to back. Repeating both makes the reduced "gonna" automatic instead of something you have to remember mid sentence.
  • Try "The longest game in Wimbledon history was 11 hours." on its own. It is a plain factual sentence, good for checking your speaking practice is accurate before you go back to the banter.
  • Finish on the two recipe instructions, "Grease rectangular cake tin." then "Line the base and sides with double layer of baking parchment.", said flat and quick, the way a cook reads a method aloud rather than explains it.
  • Record yourself on the full run from "Right boys" through the recipe lines and compare your pace to the clip's own to see how close you are to speaking english fluently at native speed.
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