So that’s it for another week of Bake Off! Thank you as ever for joining in with your comments – I’m off to read them all over a cup of tea and a slice of coffee and walnut.
I’m off on my holidays later this week so won’t be here for next week’s Bread Week liveblog – I’m reliably informed that there will be a stand in, so play nicely. I will be back the following week, then every week through to the final. Thanks again, and see you soon! Hx
It’s judging time! Ruby, Karen and Acetate Manon saved themselves in the Showstopper, we learn.
This week’s Star Baker is...RAHUL! And leaving the tent this week is...LUKE! I was 50% right.
Poor Luke, he was lovely. Choosing white chocolate and cream in that heat was his downfall, but he couldn’t have known. Hugs all round.
So who is going to be Star Baker, and who is simply going? Has to be Dan or Jon for Star Baker, and maybe Karen, Terry or Luke to go?
I’m going with Jon for SB and Luke to go.
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So whose Showstopper managed to survive a tent that’s hotter than the sun? Dan’s cake looks stunning, as does Kim-Joy’s - the cats are fabulous but it’s a bit dry. The colours on Antony’s sari cake are beautful, and Karen’s collar and cake is an all-round triumph. Jon’s Hawaiian collar looks amazing, it’s beautiful . Luke’s cake tastes great but it’s all collapsed and his sponge isn’t great. Manon’s princess cake arrives with acetate on, I think she was too scared to take it off.
Terry’s post-apocalyptic Eiffel tower has lovely ironwork, but the top is missing and the cake is boring. Briony made one tier too many, and it’s all a bit rubbery (DRINK). Rahul’s chocolate collar is a stunner, and the cake looks incredible - he earns himself a handshake from Paul, who has never given a handshake for a Showstopper before. Apart from Paul’s bread lion, and all the other times.
For the first time in his life, Rahul is speechless.
Ooh, Ruby gets a handshake too! The standard of baking is incredibly high this year and I’m very happy about this, but Hollywood doles out those handshakes like your dad at a wedding.
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Manon is either crying, or her face is melting. Hard to tell.
Ten minutes left! Everything is melting, and the chocolate collars are either too stiff or running out of the tent of their own accord. Luke’s cake is collapsing in the heat, and Terry’s Eiffel Tower has been in the wars.
The tent is boiling, buttercream is melting and tempering chocolate seems unfeasible in these conditions. Sandi is still wearing a jumper for continuity purposes. Karen is singing a song about a girl meeting a suitor at a fair, something something buttercups and daisies. Noel asks if it’s about a prostitute, which it definitely is.
Karen looks appalled. For god’s sake don’t tell her that the Little Piggy that went to market wasn’t popping out for some shopping.
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Luke’s white chocolate and raspberry cake is getting an art deco collar. On paper, it looks fabulous. In a billion degrees, I’m less convinced.
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One of Briony’s cakes is raw, so she needs to re-make it. The bottom of Terry’s Eiffel Tower is looking dubious.
Kim-Joy is making fondant cats, because cats wear collars. She is marvelously crackers, I love her. Manon is making a princess cake, with adorable fondant princesses.
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If words were made of sponge, Rahul’s cake would be the size of the Bake Off Tent. Man, that guy can talk.
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Six inches takes 45 minutes, Dan tells us, but eight inches takes an hour. I’m happy with either tbh.
Terry is making a champagne and strawberry Eiffel Tower, which sounds all kinds of fabulous. Noel is wandering around dressed as Marie Antoinette, because cake.
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Jon is making a pina colada chocolate collar cake, because he likes pina coladas (and getting caught in the rain). Antony is making a sari collar, and Ruby is making a Jackson Pollack collar cake. So if it’s a drippy mess, nobody will notice. I like her style.
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Showstopper time! This week our bakers have to make a two tier chocolate collar cake in four hours, in the hottest tent in the world.
We’ve seen scores of chocolate collars over the Bake Off years, and they’ve invariably been an acetate shambles. Meanwhile acetate sounds like something you’d take at a festival, as in “I popped some acetate at Creamfields and you should have seen the state of my chocolate collar”.
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So who’s flying high this week? Dan got a handshake and is in the running for Star Baker along with Jon. Manon, Karen, Terry and Luke are all in danger.
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Dan came third, Rahul got second, and JON got first place. Let’s hear it for the boys this week.
Judging time! Jon’s has a nice colour and good layers, but Briony’s green icing is a bit washed out. Terry’s cake is flat and wet, but Kim-Joy’s is a good effort. Luke’s is a bit rounded, Manon’s has good layers, but Ruby’s is stodgy and overcooked. Karen’s is thin and rubbery (DRINK), but Rahul’s is a great result. Dan’s has too much icing, and Antony’s wasn’t high enough. YAY I REMEMBERED EVERYONE’S NAME.
Jon’s marzipan looks great, and he’s the coolest man in the tent. Manon’s green icing looks radioactive.
Some lovely decoration from some of bakers this year though, definitely a few artists in the tent.
All our bakers are trying to cut their sponge into three layers, but some of them are getting sponge wafers. This challenge is stressing me out, they are all running out of time. DRINK.
The green colour comes from wringing out spinach, which looks rank. Dan and Terry are still baking their second sponges.
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A few look great, but Dan’s has sunk so he’s making it again. Just as well they have so much time*
*they have no time.
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First they have to make a Genoise sponge, but Karen clearly doesn’t know what she’s doing, and is starting again. Terry didn’t separate the eggs first, but is going with it. Genoise is Jon’s favourite sponge, and he’s looking very comfortable right now - he’s also made marzipan before.
Technical challenge time! This week they have to make a Gateau Vert, which was Monet’s favourite cake. Basically it’s a green cake, coloured with spinach. I’m having flashbacks to that hideous tennis cake from a few years back.
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Judging time! Rahul’s lemon traybake is declared ‘elegant’ by Paul and they taste beautiful, despite looking like an egg sandwich. Manon’s sponge is tough (DRINK) and bland. Antony’s traybake looks a mess, but tastes great. Luke’s traybake is tough and sloppy (DRINK MORE). Prue and Paul both love Terry’s rum and raisin, but Karen’s are too dry and sweet. Kim Joy’s chiffon is lovely, but Paul doesn’t like the pandan. Briony’s look hideous but they taste divine. Jon’s lemon meringue traybake is delicious, but his meringue needed more whipping. Ruby’s traybake looks like a forest floor, but needed more kirsch. Dan’s black forest effort look incredible, and he gets a handshake from Paul. Take that, Ruby.
Ooh, do watch this new Bohemian Rhapsody John Lewis/Waitrose ad, it’s GREAT.
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Karen is quite artistic and has fabulous shoes. Her traybake features almond, marzipan and rhubarb. None of them appear to be coping with the time limit. DRINK. Even Manon looks vaguely flustered.
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Luke is making a lemon and poppy seed traybake, and have lovely dogs. Rahul is making a double layer traybake, because he’s this year’s Unnecessary Complicator. One of his ingredients smells like disinfectant. Perhaps he could use it to scrub Kim-Joy’s fishtank.
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Jon is making a lemon meringue traybake. Was Jon there last week? He looks new.
Meanwhile Kim-Joy is making a Pandan Chiffon cake; no idea what pandan is, but it looks like something you’d scrape out of the bottom of a fishtank.
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Terry is making his a rum and raisin traybake, but Paul is worried the apples will make it soggy. Time is short, as they need to let their traybakes cook before they can be cut up. Meanwhile, fillings and toppings.
Manon’s traybake has rosemary and honey in, but she’s only using egg whites as a raising agent. Eyes peeled for rubbery sponge.
Briony is making a Spanish traybake with oranges in, whilst Dan is doing Black Forest Gateau slices. Turns out Ruby is doing the same thing, but hers has a tonne of booze in. Happy days.
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Antony is doing something with coconut, pineapple and frangipane. He describes it as “an Indian bakewell tart”; it sounds glorious and I want some.
First up it’s the Signature Challenge, and our intrepid bakers have to make a traybake, which is a big cake baked in a tray, then cut into 16. What could possibly go wrong?
Rahul has already admitted he can’t manage his time. DRINK.
PRUE AND NOEL WARDROBE WATCH (yes, I’m making this a thing): 1983 called and wants Prue’s outfit back. Noel is wearing an adult colouring-in book. It all feels like a cry for help, has someone checked they’re OK?
And we’re off! Previously on Bake Off: BISCUITS. Some bland, some buttery. Lots of fabulous artistry, which bodes well for future weeks. Imelda was sent back to Burnt Mountain, Co. Mayo, but Manon took the first Star Baker for being generally French and fabulous. Bravo.
Tonight: CAAAAAKE.
While we’re waiting for our ovens to warm, can I draw your attention to the divine recipes in the FEAST section of this fine publication. Today it’s Tamal’s recipe for Bavarian Apple Mousse and it looks like heaven. I think Liam is doing one next week, and they are two of my fave GBBO contestants ever.
This week’s Bake Off Bingo – a swig of cooking sherry for any occurrence of the following:
- Prue dressed as something you can buy in Hamleys
- Rubbery sponge
- Ingenious home made cutting tools
- Some kind of oven crisis
- Bakers having no concept of how time works
Welcome to the second GBBO liveblog!
Evening all, and welcome back for this week’s Great British Bake Off liveblog! Last week was a biscuit rollercoaster packed with new names, new challenges and new faces; Terry’s brandy snap death mask is still giving me cold sweats.
I can’t decide who I most want to win this year – it’s a toss-up between Briony because my day job is in Bristol and she’s gert local, or Manon because of the collective fury in certain corners about a FRENCH PERSON winning the Great British Bake Off. They still haven’t recovered from lovely Nadiya, and she was born in Luton.
In the meantime let’s just relax in a bath of buttercream and enjoy a chocolate-coated hour (plus ads) of light and fluffy sponge-based happiness. Get involved down below, you know the drill. See you at 8!
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