Thanks to everyone BTL (especially the ones who actually ate some cake - you know who you are). The 20s weren’t too roaring, too many bakers got into a flap and two people were sent home but, well, things aren’t always fair in love, war and the Bake Off tent :( Rhik will be back next week - in the meantime please remember to buy his book, I Never Said I Loved You, so I can get my commission, and have a very sweet week indeed.
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Michelle and Helena are eliminated
That “two people” thing was pretty literal, eh?
Star baker: Steph
Who else?
There are two people that are beginning to fall away. Could it be ... Noel and Sandi?
BTL, jdsworld says “Michelle always looks so pissed off when she gets mediocre feedback”, which reminds me of a comparison Rhik made a little while ago...
Michelle’s cake is brash, sparkly and looks like it might fall over at any time – basically Gemma Collins if she ends up on Dancing On Ice
Paul praises Steph’s lime sponge ... I know what I’m having for dinner tonight
Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo
Alice’s cake is a mess and the drawing isn’t great … which, weirdly, is what my friends say about my eyebrows ...
Everyone’s on edge. Except for David. David is weirdly calm. What’s his secret? Was he the one who turned the heating up? Oh no, wait, it’s because he’s made A Good Cake.
Rosie’s accidentally made a car tyre instead of ganache. An easy mistake.
Henry’s cake is “very 20s”, says Prue. At this point, we’ll have to take her word for it.
Helena’s cake’s a bit dry ... a bit like Noel and Sandi’s 20s ‘jokes’ ...
Michael’s black icing is “unusual”, which is my favourite Paul Hollywood way of saying “this is horrible, never do this again”
What if the flapper girl we were looking for was here all along? #priya #bob
The Great British Bake Off Ep5 © Love Productions Photograph: CHANNEL 4
Tiers assembled ... but Michael’s tears will hopefully not assemble once again #poetry
Suddenly got a weird urge to go to Waitrose ... can’t think why ...
The Pina Colada Gang. Feared throughout the land.
On Helena’s bake, Canterbury1 BTL says “Bram Stoker’s Dracula was 1897, not 1922. Murnau’s Nosferatu was 1922. Calls herself a Goth? She knows nothing!!!” Maybe the producers SHOULD have kept those 20 minute history sections after all.
Where’s the Mojito cake, cowards?
No idea why the worst song in the world is playing in my head on a loop ... curious ...
David’s making a cake based on a cocktail ... that he’s never had. What could possibly go wrong?
Helena’s gone full-on teen goth, making a Dracula-inspired cake and joking about being dead. DEFINITELY angling for a role in the Boosh reboot.
If you mention a drizzle in the sponge in the first act... keep yer eyes peeled #greatbritishchekhov
Showstopper: prohibition cakes
Al Capone. Tick. Cocktails. Tick. Some flapper girls would really be the icing on the (cliche) cake.
Loads of choux/shoe puns flying about before the break. You know who else had a thing for shoes, and drinking Baileys out of them – the Mighty Boosh’s Old Gregg. Played by Noel Fielding. That revival/UK high school tour is only a matter of time away, isn’t it …
Television programme The Mighty Boosh Howard Moon (JULIAN BARRATT) and Vince Noir (NOEL FIELDING) Photograph: BBC/Mark Chilvers/BBC
Me in primary school when I’d accidentally leave my lunchbox at school for a week and then find it full of ‘cider’ (rotten apples)
© Love Productions Photograph: CHANNEL 4
Steph’s beignets looked A+ (for art deco) but were a D (for the death of the American Dream, or something ... listen, this just isn’t a proper theme)
Henry misheard, and made cement instead of sabayon
Poor lovely Michael. At least he’s done something. I once baked a cake for a colleague that was so bad I pretended I’d left it on the bus.
BTL, GreatIsMyNewt says “Even though David says he has no idea his thingies will probably be perfect”. David was definitely the person at school who said they didn’t know what a book was and got 13 A*s, right??
[sinister chanting] Sabayon! Sabayon! Sabayon!
Between the deep fat fryer and mystery ingredients I thought they were making Findus crispy pancakes served on a feather boa. Which, incidentally, is also one of the specials at one of my local East London cafes
BTL, Mred74 says “I wouldn’t worry if I was Rosie. On the evidence of last week they’ll forget about everything other than the Showstopper when the final judging happens”. In other words, no use crying over spilt cake. Urgh, if only she’d messed up on DAIRY WEEK!!
Technical: beignets and sabayon
Easy peasy
Helena’s poo emoji cake proves a greek tragedy (hahaha)
Steph’s custard is beautiful and yellow, just like the middle of a daisy (Buchanan). Maybe THIS is why Noel and Sandi haven’t bothered with puns this week.
That’s a custard pie, says Prue, of David’s creation. Thank god – I thought it was a lamb shank!!!!
I’ve had a sneak peak at the producers’ notes for this episode and...
Also, is it just me or does this mythical sea creature look suspiciously like the iPhone poo emoji?
UPDATE: This is the most Helena thing I have ever seen. #gbbo pic.twitter.com/iiNfemAx8D
— Scott Bryan (@scottygb) September 24, 2019
TallulahBankhead BTL says “I was going to make some sun-dried tomato and black olive palmiers today, but didn’t get round to it. However, I do have one square of apple in puff pastry left (not a tart, just some sliced apples chucked on puff pastry with a bit of cinnamon) which I’ll dig out of the freezer in one of the ad breaks” ... are you commenting or auditioning for next series, Tallulah?
I guess that poor intern will clear it up. Once they’ve finished ordering the tracksuits for 80s week.
If you show a dropped tart in the first act, it should be launched off the counter in the second #greatbritishchekhov
So far, we’ve got Bugsy Malone, flapper girls, some rubbish costumes and - just out of shot - one intern, throughly bored of being sent on sodding errands to the fancy dress shop
BTL, Hathycol says “These pies all sound really delicious but aren’t even slightly 1920s themed as far as I can tell?!” To which I say, very true - what the F (Scott Fitzgerald)! Will this be as tenuous a theme as when X Factor just let everyone do what they wanted under the guise of a ‘Best of British’ week?
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I tried blind baking once. Couldn’t see much, mind.
BTL, TBagpuss says “shouldn’t 1920s baking mean getting an underpaid kitchen maid or three in to do all the hard work?” What is this, Bake Off or the Downton movie?!
Henry ... going back to the freezer ... this can’t possibly end well after the river of mishti ...
Signature: custard pies
These aren’t the slapstick, silent movie kind, we’re told, but somehow, you get the feeling someone’s going to end up with egg on their face one way or another ...
As a wee reminder, last week was dairy week. But, as LorLala astutely pointed out below the line, surely every week is dairy week? After all, “what do they think butter is”? We also got our writer, Emma Beddington, to bake the impossible Maids of Honour for G2 – more pain, suffering and lemon curd over here.
Fondant fancies ... microwave pasta ... is anyone BTL actually eating cake?!
A little advert for the show there, and a look at one very dropped tart. Could this be worse than Henry’s puddle of mishti last week? In any case, it’s clear that 20s week won’t be a cakewalk (hahaha).
Hello to everyone BTL (two of you so far but, you know - early days). I’d like to know what sweet treats you’re eating during Bake Off tonight. I’m a fan of a Jaffa Cake or eight, but I’m eating chorizo, to be a bit different.
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s GBBO live blog, as we reach week five of the competition. Unfortunately the incomparable Rhik Samadder can’t be here, but he gave me a tenner to plug his book, I Never Said I Loved You, which is available in all good bookshops now (thanks Rhik!)
On to tonight, and the Roaring Twenties. Whose bakes will be great like Gatsby, and whose will be as bootleg as prohibition-era booze? I’ll be delivering all of the highlights and all that jazz here live, so please get involved in the thread below – it’s Al Capone-ly (sorry) a few minutes away!
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