Join in with all the campervan baking fun and be in with a chance to win the best campervan kitchen gadget… an Omnia oven!
In collaboration with Brown Bird and Company
If you have seen The Great British Bake Off you will know it is a British institution. They place bakers in a marque and ask them to bake according to the weekly theme, e.g. cakes, biscuits, bread. Surely such culinary delights can’t be made in a rolling home, a tiny kitchen, a campervan….. Can they?
We need YOU to show it can be done! Sometimes without an oven, a fridge or freezer and most likely without a fancy Kitchen Aid – future vanlife kitchen goal right there! Let’s show the World that just because we travel or live in a home on wheels, we don’t live off stale chunks of bread and noodles you cook using a kettle – we can bake and bake we shall!
We have teamed up with Brown Bird who are no strangers to creating delicious breads, cakes and other meals in their van – usually in their Omnia Stove-top oven.
The Rules
Each week will follow the theme set by the Great British Bake Off TV program that airs every Tuesday at 8 pm in the UK.
All photos are to be posted on Instagram tagging both @vanlife_eats and @brownbirdandcompany , make sure to use #vanbakeoff too!
For example, week one is cake week so you would bake a cake of your choosing using vanlife kitchen style equipment. We appreciate not everyone lives full time in their vans so it’s ok to cook out of your van, but please keep in mind the suitability of the recipe being baked in a van.
Vanlife Eats alongside Brown Bird and Company will judge the creation, based on the presentation, the suitability of campervan baking and also how in theme the bake is. Each week a winner will be chosen as STAR BAKER, their recipe will get featured on this very site! Each star baker is then in with a chance of winning an Omnia Stove top oven courtesy of Brown Bird and Company.
If you haven’t heard of an Omnia, they are the best thing to come out of Sweden (minus Abba obviously). They can be used just like an oven but on a stove top so are ideal for vanlife, motorhomers, rvers, boatlife and even in the home. If you are already bang on trend and have an Omnia, do not fret, Brown Bird have you covered – you can choose 2 Omnia accessories instead if you are the lucky winner.
If you are not lucky enough to win this year, you can purchase one directly from Brown Bird.
Week 1 – Cake Week
Where better to start than with cake?!? On the TV show contestants were challenged to bake a Battenburg cake and a pineapple upside down cake. The show stopper was a cake caricature! We didn’t think we could manage that in our van so we used our Omnia oven to create a Toffee Apple Upside Cake.
We had some amazing entries for our first week, including some vegan cakes and a paleo cake. The Omnia was a common choice for bakers to make their cakes. The winner however, was a show stopping battenburg!
Week 2 – Biscuit Week
We’re onto week 2 now, biscuit week! On the tv show bakers had to bake macaroons, florentines and a tea set made from biscuit! Cooking biscuits in a van can be tricky without an oven. We decided to use our Omnia which worked perfectly but meant we had to cook in batches which was a little time consuming. We stuck with the theme and created Florentine Biscuit Bites.
Again we had some fantastically creative entries this week, lemony jammy dodgers, cookies and shortbread. Some even made in a ridge monkey. The winner this week though had to be the double baked chocolate biscotti!
Week 3 – Bread week
Onto bread week now. The tv bakers were required to make soda bread, rainbow bagels and a bread plaque! We stuck to a more traditional cheddar and onion loaf
This week you tiny kitchen cooks surpassed expectations, Brown Bird and us found it very difficult to pick a winner, so we didn’t. We picked 2!!! We had some delicious looking entries including naan breads, focaccia and even a stuffed loaf. The worthy winners though had to be these delicious bagels which were filled with burgers, and these delicious burger buns. Burgers all round this week!
Week 4 – Chocolate Week
It was onto chocolate week, the first challenge for the TV bakers were brownies. The technical challenge was a tricky chocolate babka. The show stopping finale was a tiered white chocolate cake.
Once again, we stuck with our trusty Omnia oven. We decided to use our silicon muffin mould again. We made double chocolate banana muffins, the recipe can be found here
There wasn’t too many entries for van bake off this week, we wonder if the show left you feeling a little uninspired. Brown bird were definitely inspired and they created an AMAZING chocolate babka in their van.
The entries we did get looked delicious, quality over quantity right? We had an amazing looking chocolate & peanut butter cake, a festive Halloween entry. A scrummy looking nutella banana bread, some salted caramel chocolate muffins. Another entry was a fab chestnut and chocolate cake cooked in the Omnia. There was a very well deserving winner this week who definitely created her own show stopper. It was our original star baker Carrie of @freespirit_c_g who wowed us again. This time is was with her Triple Chocolate Orange Drizzle Cake.
Week 5 – Pastry Week
Week 5 meant pastry in vanlife bake off, sweet or savoury. The TV bakers were challenged with cornish pasties and eclairs. For the show stopper they had to create a tart with a pastry cage over the top! We made some Cheesy Potato & Leek Pasties with leftovers.
Once again we had some delicious looking entries. There was a good mixture of sweet and savoury entries. Of the sweet entries there were some peach danishes (baked in a car) and a sweet pumpkin pie. They also included a delicious pear & stem ginger pie from our double star baker @freespirit_c_g. The final sweet entry was some toblerone turnovers which looked cooked to perfection!
Of the savoury entries we had some sausage rolls cooked on a sandwich toaster, inventive! Special mention has to go to @wildernessvandwellers for their incredible entry. It was a very close call between their amazing pie and the star baker entry. Both had incredible detail on the top of the pie and it must have been very time-consuming. This autumn inspired pie was filled with pumpkin, lentil and sage.
The very deserving star baker this week created one of the most deep filled pies we have ever seen! Well done to @nextstopevwhere It was full to the brim with chicken, leek and mushroom. The detail on the top was amazing and must have taken so much time – We never thought we would see our name in pastry!
Next week is very exciting, it’s Japanese week….. Stay tuned
