When Jane pipped Selasi to become the first Star Baker of the 2016 series, she was so surprised she had to blink back tears. If it seemed a sign of things to come, it wasn’t: thereafter, Jane bumped safely along in the middle of the pack, out of danger and mostly out of the spotlight. It’s not a bad strategy in a season afflicted by the Curse of the Star Baker – on top one week, out the next.
Week one was also just about the last time Jane’s emotions seemed to get the better of her. Where Selasi remained chilled to the point of stasis, Jane was simply unflappable, taking both setbacks and compliments in her stride. “Oh, thank you!” is about as effusive as she gets. Throughout the competition she’s retained the unassuming air of someone who knows exactly what she’s doing. “She’s always ahead of the game, isn’t she?” said Selasi in the semi-final.
A garden designer by trade and the granddaughter of a bakery owner, Jane Beedle was clearly one of the most experienced bakers in the kitchen; not the oldest, but older than most. Her official bio lists her twin nemeses as macarons and ciabatta, but her Instagram account features a pretty professional-looking example of the former. And when she goes wrong, she knows exactly why. At times it feel as if she’s got more than one series of GBBO under her belt. In a show where frustration and panic are the chief emotions on offer, she has refused to give in to either.
That’s not why I like her, though. I like her because she’s messy. When you think about it, the oddest thing about Bake Off is that everybody appears to be cooking in their church clothes. Not Jane. Just as athletes strive to leave everything on the field, Jane leaves it all on the worktop, concentrating so intently that she’s oblivious to the blob of meringue on her nose. She emerged from one challenge coated to the elbows in flour and icing, with a chocolate handprint on her top. She must have finished the day with the silhouette of an apron on her outfit.
In spite of her messiness, Jane has a particular talent for the sort of fussy precision that undoes a lot of GBBO contestants. She’s good at detailed piping and flat, shiny surfaces. She can maintain the consistency required to turn out 24 identical something-or-others with two kinds of sponge. She may not have produced the flashiest showstoppers of the series, but Bake Off is, first and foremost, an endurance test. Jane has already proved she can stand the heat.
