Episode 7 Bake Off Creme de la Creme

Welcome to the second semifinal in our search for Britain's

best professional pastry team.

15 teams started the contest, and now the judges must decide

who will face each other in our grand final.

'Back to do battle...' Ready? OK?

'..the European dream team, representing the formidable

'pastry traditions of France, Germany and Italy.'

We are ready...to impress the judges.

This is anyone's game today, so it's game face.

'The team from Leeds, united by a passion for chocolate.'

That's your nickname, the King of Chocolate.

We'll have to wait and see what Cherish Finden makes of that.

'And the semifinal wild cards...' Helen, are your sponges all right?

'..back here but only just, as the highest-scoring

'runners-up from the heats.' I think we're all raring to go now

and just trying to prove a point

that we shouldn't have gone in the last round.

'The teams face a micro miniature challenge, as they produce

'300 petits fours...'

Stefan, how are you? Yeah, I'm going to make it. Yeah? Just.

'..and a towering chocolate showpiece.' Gently, gently, gently.

The tower is wobbling. The tower is wobbling.

'For today's winner...' Whoa!

'..a place in the final

'and another step closer to being the creme de la creme.'

It's not going to work.

No-one move.

Our search for Britain's best pastry chefs

has reached the second semifinal.

Three teams back to bake, amidst the grandeur of historic Welbeck Abbey.

The pressure on today's teams is immense.

They've fought their way here with some exceptional cooking.

Now they must push themselves even further

and claim a place in the final.

'It's time for our trio of world-class judges,

'Benoit, Claire and Cherish,

'to set the first of two daunting challenges - the miniatures.'

Chefs, I'm sure you're familiar with the first test, the miniatures.

But because it's the semifinal,

the judges want you to make more of them - and even smaller.

They want 144 petits fours,

three different types. They want each batch

to be perfectly uniform and of the highest possible quality.

You have three hours to do this, guys. The best of luck.

Your time starts now.

We can do this, yeah? Ready? OK. Oven going on?

Petits fours are bite-sized patisserie items

that often accompany coffee at the end of a meal.

The judges have asked for little Miserable cakes,

sable hollandaise biscuits

and fruit tarts.

To make it even harder, half of each batch must be a traditional

classic to test the team's core skills,

and half their own specialities to show off their creativity.

Well done, boys, good start, good start. Yeah, it's good, guys, yeah?

The first of the petits fours is the Miserable,

a traditional Belgian cake that was created as a poor man's dessert,

with humble ingredients of almond flavoured sponge

and vanilla butter cream.

Sounds simple, but it's actually quite difficult to get neat layers,

smooth sides, on such a small scale.

They need to look magnificent.

So we do have to work quite fast

because we've got a lot of items to make today.

And we want to have enough time to finish them to perfection,

to the eye and taste.

Christophe is steeped in classic French pastry making...

Belle fleur. Merci.

..running four patisseries in London

with his European dream team of German Josua

and Italian Valeria.

I think we can win this.

Because we've got the skill, we've got the knowledge and the passion.

Having played to their core French skills to convincingly

win their heat...

Oh, I like that. I can't believe it.

..Christophe and the team have decided

it's time to let their passion, fun and creativity run wild.

We've got something coming up very, very exciting.

For us, and we hope it's going to be the same for the judges.

I think they're going to love it. Let's go, let's go cooking!

How are we doing, Christophe?

Everything all right? Yeah, we're good.

What's the style of petits fours you're going to put together?

The Miserable.

The first one, it's classic, as classic as it can be. OK.

Nowhere to hide. No. We just do what it's supposed to be.

And then for yours, fun time. Exactly.

For Christophe,

fun comes in the shape of a daiquiri cocktail Miserable,

with pistachio sponge, strawberry and coconut mousseline fillings,

rum syrup and strawberry glaze.

We love that drink, we all love that drink.

After work we have a daiquiri,

so we decided to make it as a Miserable.

Semifinals, eh? Wow.

Mark's team is also turning to the bottle with their Miserable.

They're adding booze to the joconde sponges of both their classic

and their own creation.

At the moment, I'm just doing the first plain joconde,

and it's going to be laced with a wee bit of amaretto,

and the second one with raspberry liqueur brushed on the sponge.

They only made it through to the semis as the best runner-up.

Yeah, I think there's a little bit of pressure being a wild card.

You know, coming back.

Knowing you didn't win your rounds, you know,

so we've got everything to prove today, hopefully.

As the head of an international baking and cake decorating school,

Mark's confident of his skills... It's good, yeah.

..as well as those of his team-mates,

former students Helen and Sam.

Are we worried about the competition, guys? Uh...

I don't think so.

This is a team used to competing.

Mark and Sam have both won

prestigious Chocolate Masters trophies.

You've got two Chocolate Masters here.

We're going to show them what we can do.

Immediately putting their skills to use,

chocolate features in their speciality Miserable.

A chocolate almond sponge,

sandwiching Italian raspberry meringue buttercream,

topped with chocolate glaze and a raspberry flower.

We're all just raring to go now and just trying to prove

a point that we shouldn't have gone in the last round.

The sponges for the Miserable need to be baked

and layered with the buttercream filling and set before slicing.

So teamwork's essential to have everything finished on time.

Each one of us has got skills that complements the team,

and that's what we're all about.

And Stephen's skills could give Mark's team a run for their money.

Stephen's asset? Well, he's the King of Chocolate, eh?

You know, he's a master at chocolate and,

you know, as a captain as well, he's also got fantastic leadership

skills, you know, bringing the team together.

Keeping us all ticking along.

Captain Stephen runs his own

award-winning chocolate company in Leeds.

In fact, Stephen's Yorkshire-based team has been brought

together by its shared love of chocolate.

Stephen supplies confectionery to Stefan and Nelson, who oversee

the desserts in nine busy, high-end restaurants up and down the country.

They impressed the judges in their heat with their delicately

flavoured dacquoise slice.

The glaze...

HE WHISTLES That's good.

All of us are passionate and enjoy what we do.

We want it to taste perfect for the judges,

so hopefully we'll do ourselves proud.

Yeah, we're looking good, mate. 25 minutes in.

Time management will be crucial because the team have given

themselves a lot of extra work with their speciality Miserable.

Seven layers deep, it will feature a hazelnut sponge,

diplomat cream and, of course, lots of chocolate.

You're the King of Chocolate, is that right? Apparently.

One of my kind colleagues has said, yeah.

We'll have to wait and see what Cherish Finden makes of that.

To offset the rich chocolate flavour of their speciality,

Stephen's team is planning to add

some freshness to their classic Miserable.

Nice zest. Just to cut through the richness of the buttercream.

And then do a little candy with the orange zest.

Trying to achieve the harmony of flavours.

Helen, are your sponges all right?

It's vital that the layers of sponge are thin enough to keep

the finished Miserable bite-sized, essential for a petit four.

They should be fine.

I'm aiming for nice little cubes, as thin as possible.

The height of the buttercream layer should also match

that of the sponge.

What do you think of the layer of buttercream?

That's cool. Is that all right? Yeah.

Before the Miserable can be cut into neat bite-size squares,

they need to be chilled...

..giving the teams time to prepare the next set of petits fours.

The tarte aux fruits is a staple of all good patisseries,

with its glazed fruit topping, creme pat filling

and pastry cut base.

CHERISH: The fruit that you use has to be very nicely cut,

decorated with a very nice glaze.

And the best pastry that you can produce for me.

It has to be very thinly rolled,

very nicely moulded into the casing.

It has to be baked to perfection.

So, at the moment, I'm working on my pastry for my tarts.

I've got to get it really, really thin,

so that's why I'm using these batons,

so all the pastry will be the same thickness. Christophe, quickly,

an opinion, please. OK, sure. Like this?

No, you need to push it in.

Yes, if you don't push them, they will come up and bubble.

Guys. Yes.

What do you reckon to hand cutting these to show two skills?

Rather than pressing it into a mould. Yeah? But what do you reckon?

Do whatever's... OK. For their classic,

Stefan's abandoning the traditional tart casing

for a flat pastry square,

upon which he will balance a dome of mousse.

Stefan is working on the lychee, raspberry and rose tarts.

Some nice Asian flavours,

and hopefully Cherish is going to enjoy that.

For their speciality tart, Stefan has left out the fruit

completely, pairing chocolate decorations

and a blonde chocolate Chantilly cream with a salted caramel filling.

Stephen? I want you to taste my salted caramel.

I took the caramel quite far.

Is it too far? I can make it again, no problem.

You need to sweeten up a little bit because the caramel

is a little bit better towards the end. A tiny bit. OK.

That's what I thought. A little double cream to bring it back.

I'll taste it again, just to double-check and,

excuse me, make any adjustments if necessary.

How are we doing, Samantha, Helen, are you all right?

Hi. How are you doing, Mark, are you OK? Good, yes.

Listen, welcome back. It's good to see you here. Good to see you here.

How's your chocolate work going on, because I know

you're a bit of a superstar with the chocolate, aren't you?

Sometimes. Sometimes. In the right environment.

In the right environment, you're a superstar with chocolate.

What have you got making?

I'm making a ganache chocolate for one of our fruit tarts. Right.

So it's just a bit of an extra something on the top.

Their planned speciality fruit tart features a passion fruit curd

and sweet pastry casing, capped with a disc of chocolate ganache

and finished with a passion fruit jelly and chocolate decoration.

Here, Sam.

I'm doing mini tart cases for our own choice.

They seem to be going to plan so far!

Christophe's team is creating

a European union of flavours

for their speciality fruit tart.

It features a square of French

chocolate and a dome of blackcurrant

mousse capping an Italian sabayon

flavoured with dark chocolate.

The timing is very important.

We need to make sure they're going to be all the same time at the pass

and they're all very tiny and there's a lot of them, as well!

Pastry chefs, that is the halfway mark.

There is one an a half hours remaining.

'With the miserables setting in the fridge

'and the tarts well on their way...'

Three things at a time - something in the oven,

something in the mixer and something on the stove!

'..the teams can turn their attention to the challenge

'of making 48 bite-sized sable hollandaise biscuits.'

The chessboard design of two different-flavoured doughs

takes a simple 400-year-old

shortbread recipe and elevates it to fine dining.

The texture of the sable hollandaise should be crumbly and light.

This is particularly hard to make

because all the squares have to be of an even size,

one to two mouthfuls big, so again, very small, very dainty.

It's going to take extra work on their behalf.

We need 8mm by 8mm, on our biscuit.

Difficult to get it neat

and the exact thicknesses, you know?

Careful, yeah? They have to be perfect, Stephen.

I know, I'm doing my best.

It's quite... It's quite big, isn't it?

Do you think they'll end up being too big?

Just a stupid mistake,

but all my fault, no-one else's.

Once the teams have mastered their classic chequerboards,

they can turn their attention to their speciality creations.

Bit of a last-minute thing, but, hey - might be a game-changer.

Steven's team are trying out an unrehearsed recipe,

sandwiching whipped praline

and honey ganache between chocolate

and vanilla sable biscuits.

Steve, how far your ganache? Sorry?

How far for your ganache? Finished.

It's a bit longer. Put it in the fridge? Fridge, clingfilm, fridge.

Yep. Can I have your help with this, please? Yes.

To accompany their classic hollandaise,

Christophe's European team are going properly British with a posh version

of a popular tea-time biscuit.

Two chocolate sables stuck together

with dark chocolate

and salted caramel

and dipped in milk chocolate.

They need to be really even and uniform, because, you know...

Obviously we've got some judging to follow.

Right...

In Mark's kitchen, he's also moved on to his speciality hollandaise.

Got to get it really thin, so we can roll it up,

so you see several rolls around.

Kind of like a snail shell, kind of thing?

Yeah, hopefully.

Using both raspberry

and vanilla doughs,

he is creating a spiral-shaped

sable biscuit.

Ahhh! BLEEP.

So it was a little bit hard to roll up,

cos of the temperature, trying to get it off the acetate,

so I just put it back in the fridge

and hopefully they'll peel away a little bit better.

Are the tart cases OK?

Oh, BLEEP!

It's like there's too much butter.

There's something wrong with the recipe.

The pastry bases for Christophe's speciality tarts have failed.

Josh, look, it should be doubled.

How can it be the same amount of flour and butter for hollandaise?

It's really unbelievable

that something that's so simple can go so wrong.

I should have noticed it was too soft. Yeah.

A little bit of stress at the moment, in Christophe's team.

Have you got any chocolate dough left? Yes.

OK, we'll make the chocolate one with chocolate dough. OK?

With time running out, the team decide to use leftover

chocolate sable dough for their pastry tart.

It's OK, we can do it, we can do it. What's the time actually, now?

Pastry chefs, half an hour remaining.

That is 30 minutes.

How you doing for time, Stefan? It's going to be tight, actually.

OK, Christophe - ready for the oven. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Now they're going to say it's too harsh, the chocolate.

Not if you blow them!

Oh-hh!

Forgot to press the timer!

The figs the same size as the plums? Yeah.

What do you need? The dulce ganache piping on top of the tarts.

Just slightly off-centre.

Where do you want it? To the back.

There? Yeah.

OK, chocolate tarts ready. Thanks. Have you got your mousse ready?

Not ready, I need to make it. I want to cut this first.

I think you should do the mousse now. Please, Valeria.

Yes, yes. I'm going to finish this. Valeria, the mousse needs to be set.

I will do it, I will do it.

We have done the best we can.

But sometimes, it's not enough. It's never enough.

Stefan, how are you? Yes, I'm going to make it. Yeah? Just.

Some things are going to plan.

The tart cases are not falling apart,

Valeria's piping a beautiful cassis mousse on top of the chocolate tart

and it's looking like we're going to have a party later

and enjoy some sweets.

Five minutes left.

Five minutes remaining.

Guys, I need a push if anybody's got a push.

Got to get these on the tray. Come on, guys.

Three, four, five, six...

Christophe, we need you to start hurrying up, chief,

let's get moving, come on.

One minute, yeah?

Gently, gently, gently. 30 seconds.

One, two, three, four, five, six...

Go on - take it, take it, take it.

Five, four, three,

two, one...

That is it, guys. Time is up.

That is the end of the miniatures test.

We've got 22 only of this, Josua. Hm? Only 22 of this. Did you count?

Put them on. I forgot to count them!

All right, it's all right.

OK, Jos? Cool, cool.

OK?

The teams were asked to produce 48

of each of the three petits fours.

24 classic and 24

of their speciality creations.

The judges will be expecting

and marking for perfection.

Glad it's over.

I can't look!

I really cannot look.

Pastry chefs...

brace yourselves.

It's time for the judging.

For the classic miserable,

Christophe's team have a vanilla buttercream

sandwiched between a plain joconde sponge.

Their speciality is a daiquiri-inspired creation

with strawberry and coconut creams

and layers of pistachio sponge laced with rum.

I like my petits fours to be slightly smaller.

I'm a lady.

I like to be bite-size

and just finish with one mouthful.

Fitted in Benoit's mouth! It's all OK.

The classic, flavour-wise,

you're on the money. You've got it right.

The creation is very pleasant.

I thought you had some rum in your recipe. Yes. Can you taste it?

No. More rum! More rum! Oh, yeah - definitely.

For their sable hollandaise,

Christophe has presented both the required classic

with its chequerboard pattern

and his own creation - chocolate sables

filled with chocolate ganache and salted caramel centres.

The inside, the actual stacking of the cubes

to get the chequered effect is actually quite neat.

What has let them down is you've rushed the outside

and the dough is tight, so it's cracked.

But they look like a good bake.

Yep.

This, I love. Yum-yum!

Got chocolate on the outside, biscuit, caramel,

chocolate ganache in the middle...

Delightful. Love it.

Christophe's classic fruit tart has the traditional cream

and fresh fruit filling in a pastry casing.

Their speciality is a chocolate tart

topped with a cassis dome

and now served in a chocolate sable biscuit base.

So it looks like we've got 24 creations,

but 22 fruit tarts - did you...

have a couple to taste before?

No, unfortunately... I saw you counting it. I was!

I counted twice, and twice wrong!

Well, it looks beautifully baked from the outside.

You sliced the blueberries in three,

all those blueberries. Yes.

The fruit tart is nicely baked.

For me it's the fruit business on top, which is far too much.

You worked a little too hard, it didn't pay off for the flavour.

And your creation... What looks like to be a chocolate pastry...

Actually, we used the same pastry as the sable.

So, smart move, OK, good.

My first taste is your cassis.

That's all I taste,

then the acidity from the glaze which tastes quite nice and THEN

I taste the chocolate, so it all blends in quite nicely for me.

It's a little finishing touch. If I blindfold and eat, I'll be happy.

Stephen's team's classic miserable

features a citrus buttercream.

For the creation, he's layered hazelnut sponge,

chocolate and praline mousse,

diplomat cream and chocolate ganache

topped with a golden nut.

I like the way that you've cut them.

Your decoration on top, I love your gold nuts.

If you're going to put your squares,

make sure they are sitting down flat, they look wobbly.

You've got some orange underneath. Orange confit.

I think you just need to look at your design.

For the classic, I enjoyed eating the crystallised citrus.

For me, not quite there.

It's a shame, because the flavours are there,

but the texture is...dry.

Hazelnut and chocolate I prefer much more.

I think the hazelnuts add a little bit of moisture in there as well,

cos of the oils in the nuts.

For their sable hollandaise,

they've paired the classic with

a speciality creation of honey and praline ganache

sandwiched between chocolate and vanilla biscuits.

The chessboard effect is very good, fairly regular.

I look though at your creation - suddenly you move from

something very visual to something which is completely non-visual.

Have you purposefully gone for simplicity?

I wanted the centre of the ganache to sing, along with the biscuit.

But you need to really have a visual impact.

Which I kind of don't get, really, here.

Starting with the hollandaise sable,

you've got a beautiful crumbliness,

but the other one, for me,

it's a little bit too creamy

and the flavour is not perhaps

as clean as you want it to be.

I'm going to disagree with Benoit.

It's really buttery and I love the balance of the salt.

I have to disagree with you as well.

LAUGHTER

I love the texture, I think it's brilliant.

For their fruit tart, the creation features chocolate

and salted caramel.

The classic includes a dome of raspberry and rose mousse,

an exotic raspberry and lychee compote

and basil garnish, all on a flat pastry base.

Why did you choose the square with the round shape?

I was going to bake them in individual moulds,

but I thought actually, I'm going to hand-cut it,

just to show something a little bit different.

But we've asked you for a fruit tart.

Is that a tart?

It's a modern interpretation... No, no, no, no, no.

A tart is something you can pick with your finger and you eat.

That, I can't pick with my finger

realistically without messing myself up.

I can taste basil straightaway on my palate, it takes away the taste

of your rose, your lychee,

your subtle tastes. Lychee is very subtle.

I don't really understand this.

This one, beautiful. Lovely. Shame for the baking.

The baking obviously is not even, but when you eat it,

it's really a nice treat. Well done. Thank you very much.

Thank you, guys. Thank you, Chef.

Hi, Mark's team.

Mark's team speciality miserable

has raspberry buttercream,

chocolate sponge and glaze and a raspberry flower decoration.

Their classic has a coffee buttercream,

topped with a golden coffee bean.

I like the little decoration detail on the top.

The ratio of joconde sponge to the cream seems to be disproportionate.

On this one, the joconde is slightly thicker,

that's what I would have expected.

I like the little piping on the top for that feminine touch

of that little flower.

Who's done that job?

Well done, Mark!

Well, it brings a little bit more of a jewel kind of look.

Classic, the only part I didn't enjoy too much

is the bits of coffee - having said that,

biting through that coffee bean made a coffee explosion.

I like the crunch and the texture the coffee bean gives.

For your creation, I can't taste the raspberry.

If you could have put a few pieces of fresh raspberry in there,

it might help a little bit.

For their sable hollandaise,

Mark's speciality creation is a raspberry and vanilla swirl,

while their classic features 16 chessboard squares.

I'll pick up on the size straightaway.

It's like daddy...

This is baby!

Let's say you cut it to this size,

when you look at it as a whole,

they will be more happier.

If you could have introduced salt,

it might bring up the buttery taste for your creation.

The flavour didn't come true

and all I taste is uncooked flour on my palate.

I like the raspberry.

And I think it's a shame that it's not baked more,

because actually, it's tasting really nice.

Alongside their classic,

their speciality tart marries chocolate and passion fruit,

a dark chocolate pastry and ganache with passion-fruit curd and jelly.

I like the way that you've got four corners,

each corner has a different fruit in it.

Your chocolate tart, I like your decoration, that's rather cute.

Lovely tiny quenelles.

I think it's lovely. Eats really, really, really well.

Just the right amount of intensity in your cocoa,

lovely passion fruit, the acidity cut straight through it.

It is exquisite. Ooh!

I don't say this very often. Never.

I don't think I've ever heard that.

Top tarts, Mark.

Each judge will award each of your batches of pastry a mark out of ten.

So that is 90 points available for your petits fours.

Christophe, we start with your team.

For your miserable...

For the sables...

And for the tart...

Giving you a grand total of

48 points for your miniatures.

For Stephen's team,

and your miserable...

For the sables...

And for the tarts...

And a total of 54 points

for your petits fours.

'Stephen has moved into a six-point lead.'

For Mark's team and the miserables...

For the sables...

A score of 24 or more

for their tarts would put Mark's team

out in front.

And for the fruit tarts...

So the end of the miniatures test,

Stephen, and Mark,

your teams are both on 54 points,

so it's neck and neck.

Guys, deep breaths, go and get a rest.

Come back for the showpiece.

Go on, chefs - off you go.

We came joint first, so very happy with that.

Is Mark's team going to win? A World Chocolate Master,

a UK Junior Chocolate Master against the king of chocolate? We'll see.

Obviously, we'd love to thrash Stephen's team!

We'd love to get to the final. We'd LOVE to get to the final.

We can get there, yeah.

Very close to the other team. There's only six points, OK?

There's all to play for tomorrow.

We're going to make Benoit happy tomorrow,

we're going to blow some sugar!

He loves sugar-blowing! Yeah, he loves it!

We're going to show him what we can blow.

With only six points separating them at the halfway stage,

the teams now face their second challenge -

building a stunning confectionery showpiece.

Valeria, you on time?

They were granted a golden hour the day before the challenge...

It means it's easier to heat under the lamp tomorrow.

..to allow time for their chocolate and sugar elements to set.

Have you done this before? They call me Mr Ladle!

And the judges expect the semifinal showpieces

to be more spectacular than ever.

Looks good, OK. With 150 points on offer...

No, no, no, no!...

..the team with the most skill and flair

will book their place in the final.

How close is this?

Mark and Stephen, neck and neck,

Christophe just behind.

It's a really high standard, this semifinal.

It's incredible, isn't it?

Christophe, you can see glimpses

of his team being absolutely brilliant,

but a measurement wrong, and it spirals out of control.

It's like a Formula One race, the change of tyres hasn't gone

as smoothly as they want it to,

now they have to pick up the pieces and minimise the damage,

and that's what they've done.

Damage limitation, and they're only six points behind.

Look forward to the showpiece, see what these guys can do.

Hello, chefs, welcome back.

Benoit, what would you like the chefs to produce today?

We want you to produce a chocolate presentation structure

to display 90 items of confectionery.

I would like to see three types of sweets -

marshmallows,

moulded chocolates,

and calissons, a sweet confection of almond paste and fruit puree.

The showpiece must be amazing from top to bottom.

The originality,

skills shown on the little sweets

has to be as perfect as possible.

Good luck, chefs.

Guys, as usual,

each judge will be awarding your showpiece a mark out of 50.

You had one hour yesterday to do some prep,

you now have a further three hours

to complete and present your showpiece.

Best of luck, guys -

your time starts now.

Right, listen. This is now or never, boys.

OK? Now or never. Let's do it.

Let's go, boys.

Come on.

Today's winners will go through to the final,

but the second-placed team could join them there, too,

if they are the semifinal's highest-scoring runners-up.

Can you get the shells out of their mould?

Shells? Yeah.

This showpiece will have to be different.

This is not the selection process any more.

This is the semifinal, so they will have to bring

their best advanced skills, professional skills,

with chocolate work or sugar work - maybe both.

This glucose is ridiculously thick.

They will have to bring a story, potentially,

they will have to bring a connection with the confectioneries.

They have to present.

It needs to be practical, it needs to be skilful.

It needs to be beautiful.

Not surprisingly, king of chocolate Stephen

is aiming high with a chocolate sculpture.

The concept is the Tree of Life and the simple ingredients

that it provides for us pastry chefs to use and make nice creations.

Their rustic-looking tree

will feature a spectacular chocolate flower at its top,

and sit on a forest floor featuring edible moss

and a white chocolate lily.

Their sweets include apple marshmallows,

traditional melon and orange calisson,

and rum, ginger and vanilla-flavoured

moulded chocolates.

Just got to level all these off

so anything that gets high up is not going to fall off

and put too much strain on any of the structure.

Across the room, chocolate masters Mark and Sam

have begun their own showpiece.

There's a bit here already melted if you want to use it. Yeah.

Of course, it's made of chocolate,

but that is where the similarities end.

So we've got this ornate egg

that we are doing on top of a very tall showpiece.

You know, we love this room, we love the whole gold element

and the regal period of this room,

so we tried to create that in our showpiece.

Their intricate chocolate egg,

decorated with flowers, birds and lace,

will sit atop a chocolate column

and a four-tier revolving plinth,

displaying their fruit-flavoured confections -

pineapple calissons, lime marshmallows

and both raspberry ganache and lemon verbena caramel chocolates.

This is completely different to what I've done before,

but elements of it, I've done before, so, you know,

hopefully, it's going to be...

It's going to be good.

Mark won the Chocolate Masters a few years ago,

so my expectations for this team are so high.

I am expecting to see perfection in their chocolate piece,

I'm expecting to see different techniques -

moulding, casting, rolling...

So many things I'm looking for.

I wish they'd stop talking about the Chocolate Masters. I know.

While Mark is inspired by baroque grandeur,

and Stephen by rustic woodlands...

Stephen, do you reckon a bit more green colour for the moss?

A bit darker, isn't it? Normally.

..Christophe's found his showpiece inspiration

from a more unlikely source.

So your centrepiece - is there an idea behind it?

The title is Mouse Bank.

Mouse Bank?

Yes.

THEY LAUGH

OK. Why?

Because we are making a bank, taken over by mouses.

A bank taken over by mouses. Yes. OK.

Eating all the sweets. OK.

It's a sort of anti-capitalist protest.

So the revolution starts here? Yes.

Christophe's Mouse Bank will be constructed

from both chocolate and sugar work.

Their confectionery will include

marshmallow gold bars,

which Valeria's marzipan mice

will gorge themselves on.

Valeria, these look absolutely amazing.

Thanks.

What about you, Josh? What are you making?

I'm preparing the sugar for blowing... Yeah.

..because we are going to blow the hot-air balloon for the mice,

to get out of the city, before it collapses.

OK. Hopefully it won't collapse today, huh?

No, it won't, I'm sure it won't.

This is still a form of sugar work.

Most people would know this

as more of a lace type of work for a cake,

but we are actually incorporating it into our showpiece,

so we have got a bit more of fine, elegant type of sugar.

We actually made it on our prep hour yesterday

and then we leave it to dry overnight.

I need to get this right, you know? Huh? Hmm.

I always say if you know how to do it,

then it is not difficult, but it is tricky, yeah?

Because you need to have red and white sugar

at the right temperature.

It takes experience, yeah.

If the sugar is too cold, for example,

and you pump it, it explodes, yeah?

Also taking risks with a balloon is Stephen.

This is going to be a very large, intricate flower.

The real trick is how we deflate this balloon without breaking...

These are really delicate.

It's either going to work or you're going to see me try it a few times.

It's not going to work.

It's too fine.

Just need to get the chocolate to contract

to come away from the balloon, or it's just not going to work.

Oh, well done, mate.

No, no. It was much better in practice.

Pastry chefs, that's the halfway mark.

You have had one-and-a-half hours.

You have another one-and-a-half hours remaining.

I'm just getting the marshmallow on and then Mark is going to pipe that.

Over in Stephen's kitchen,

Nelson is making the apple marshmallows

for their Tree of Life.

That's nice, that.

It's not very apple-y.

The texture is beautiful, mate.

I'm happy to go with it if you're happy.

Stephen and Mark made their marshmallows

by combining hot sugar syrup with beaten egg whites,

but Christophe's chosen to go egg-free.

There are different recipes.

There are recipes with egg whites and without egg whites,

but I also think it's got a very good texture.

It is not just about taste and texture for Christophe's team.

His marshmallows are being turned into gold bars for his bank.

So I was looking at Christophe doing his euro, little gold bars.

I said, "Wow, that's going to be a little bit of fun."

Having said that, they are not cut very neatly,

so there will be some skill,

but let's hope it doesn't look too clumsy, in the end.

The second confection the judges have asked for

are moulded chocolates.

Chocolate king Stephen is making them for his team.

So, it is a simple rum truffle, but it is not really that simple,

because it is all about the white chocolate

that we use for the ganache, it's not too sweet.

We've used a dark rum from South America

that gives it a very unique characteristic.

I'm going to go straight in to capping the moulded chocolates

that I prepped yesterday in the one hour.

Rival chocolatier Sam has opted for two flavours -

lemon verbena and raspberry - and Joshua has paired flavours too.

The chocolates are passion fruit and salted caramel.

So strong flavours, acidity, salted caramel -

you know, nice and funky.

Impress the judges.

The third and final set of sweets are calisson.

A basic paste of almonds and fruit

give this traditional French confection its light texture.

It is still quite grainy.

Yeah, we've only got the... Put that in. Yeah.

I've never really made them before, until we knew we had to do them.

So we're making four types of calisson.

Lemon, pistachio, blueberry and amaretti cherry.

Just about it drying on time to be ready to cut.

Turned out to be all right.

So I'm pleased.

Even though Mark is a patisserie teacher...

BLEEP!

..lack of experience with calisson is starting to show.

His almond paste is set too hard to work with.

Any more almonds? What do you need it for?

To do another calisson.

Half an hour remaining, pastry chefs.

That's 30 minutes.

Make sure I don't go over the judges' requirements -

there is a minimum requirement of 70 centimetres

and a maximum of 120.

How's your flower going? OK, quickly.

I've got... I'm going to do two, OK?

Time...

It's going to be up against the wire, I think.

Still got a lot to do.

This is icing in different colours

that will go with different types of calisson.

It's OK? It's not too runny?

Maybe a little bit. It is too runny, whip it again.

Put more icing sugar through it. It's going to leak.

That's a little bit soft.

Usually, it's good to leave them a little bit longer to dry.

Guys? Yeah?

I'm right on 120 centimetres.

Can you just shave that down a little bit? Yeah.

The tower is a bit wobbly. The tower is wobbling.

Hm? It's very slippery.

Can you hold it higher?

I can't reach higher.

OK - Christophe? Yes. I need you to hold this pole, now.

Pardon? This pole, I need you to hold it, now.

The top, the top... From the other side, if you can.

Where Valeria is. Come here. Hold on.

Hold it, hold it... I've got it, I've got it.

Yes. OK, don't push it against the towel, please.

Helen, it would be good to get another bird in a minute.

Oh, two? Yeah. Good job.

Joshua, this is too heavy.

Hm? This is too heavy, this.

Another ice spray, please, Valeria, quickly.

I found one, I found one. Take the dodgy ones away, please.

Take that, take that, not this one.

Move it, move it, shake it. Shake it.

The big one, the big one. I'm coming, Christophe, hold on!

I have two hands, two hands.

Mark, can you spray?

No-one move, no-one move.

Is it ready? Don't lift it like that.

You've got to lift from here, or we'll break...

I can't...I can't get in from here.

Just balance it. Just make sure it doesn't fall, OK?

BLEEP heavy.

Gently, gently, gently, gently!

Get that on, get those on.

Yeah? Yeah.

I'll get the boxes. Yeah.

Just a little bit more. Look...it's OK, I'll deal with this.

Totally lost my count.

Right, you count calissons, I'll count marshmallows.

There is only 22 of them. Of the calissons?

The marshmallows.

Mark, you count, please. On your head be it.

One, two, three, four...five...six...

OK, I can't count.

Right, I'll count.

Right, you put your finger there.

One, two, three, four...

Five minutes, pastry chefs. Five minutes left.

Opinion - like this? Yeah. OK, go.

Good, it's good, I can see it's good.

30...

Stop talking, Mark has got to 28, 29...

Thirt...d'oh!

THEY LAUGH

Oh, go away!

OK, we need a mouse in there. We need a mouse in there.

Yes, it's here.

One minute, chefs, one minute remaining.

That's that.

Smash it, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go.

One-two, one-two, one-two.

Four, three, two, one -

that is it, pastry chefs.

Time is up.

That is the end of the showpiece.

Move away from the tables. Well done, guys.

Well done.

That one? The last one?

Beautiful.

You want to explain to the judges

where this...where this has come from?

We believe capitalism is quite high at the moment

and we wanted to show the failure of capitalism.

Oh! So we wanted to bring a message as well as a piece of chocolate.

Wow - you guys, you know,

you are making me smile, that's for sure.

I love the mice.

I think their facial expressions are wonderful.

They are actually handcrafted very well -

marzipan is not something that people work a lot with these days

and you have got really good detail in there and very nice techniques.

Thank you.

I would prefer sort of put a little bit more effort

into the finishing touch of the chocolate work.

Other than that, I think you did well.

OK, so it is time, perhaps, for us to...

Yeah, get on eating it.

Marshmallow - cassis, you like cassis.

You like blackcurrant, don't you? We love blackcurrant. Very nice.

Fantastic balance of gelatine - it's not too much that you put in.

We work on that a lot.

Why don't we move on to the calissons?

Your icing is a relatively even thickness.

It could be a touch more even throughout,

but I personally like the vibrant colour

and it's definitely goes in with your whole theme.

I could not taste the cherry,

whereas the lemon, actually quite enjoying eating this.

I prefer the chocolate to be very thinly moulded

because I want to bite into the filling straightaway.

I love the texture of the passion fruit,

it's really creamy.

Passion fruit, also, it's not sweet,

and it works well with the chocolate.

So...it's the visual, you guys, it's the visual.

We were expecting perhaps a little bit more skill involved

in the presentation of even your bon-bons,

but flavour-wise, you deliver, deliver, deliver.

Good luck - it's tough.

Well, I like the story,

I like the Tree of Life actually providing food.

Just not sure of your tree.

It's sort of, like... got a hook on the top.

When you started, I saw so many different techniques.

I liked your balloon technique.

But I am rather disappointed that with all those pieces,

this is what was formed from them.

Do you want to start eating, guys?

Grab yourself some confectionery.

Marshmallow, I like it a bit chewy,

but this just dissolved in my mouth straightaway.

So texture-wise, it's slightly off the scale.

Apple, can't taste apple at all.

And the colour, it's a little bit bright.

Thank you, Chef. Why don't we move on to the calisson?

Your paste is an excellent consistency.

I mean, really, really good,

and that's why you have managed to cut it

with that beautiful, clean, sharp edge.

A lovely dough, a lovely paste.

Talk to me about the filling.

It is a Venezuelan rum truffle.

It's got a nice undertone of alcohol,

and there are some spices going through it as well.

I'm not too keen,

but I think it may be down to personal preference, there.

The texture is great.

The flavour, it's very powerful.

LAUGHING: I like it. Of course, I love it!

No, I think the rum works really well.

I mean, it is really powerful and it really gets you.

I like the fact that you get all the sweetness

from the white chocolate ganache,

and then, just as Benoit was talking,

I've got this lovely... not horrible bitterness,

but a really nice bitterness,

just at the back of my throat that is really coming through later.

I think it's very well balanced. Thank you, Chef.

Well done, boys. Well done.

Yeah, well done, mate. Well done, mate.

Wow - this is what I call a showpiece.

This is what a showpiece looks like.

It's regal, classy, elegant.

I can see a lot of technique and skill.

I love the little drawer, I hope that it's movable.

Can I move it?

No. LAUGHTER

I was just trying my luck.

No, looking now, I like the stand that you put on,

it's a nice touch,

because you break in between the look of the structure.

I love your lace work

and it adds a real delicate element to your structure.

I really like that.

A beautiful piece.

My only little comment, there, would be sugar work, you know?

My passion lies with sugar work.

I think, considering the conditions of the competition -

you've got three hours, four hours, with yesterday -

to bring this up together, I say well done.

This is really what I was looking for.

Shall we taste?

Mmm...

I love the taste. I think it has got enough lime in it.

I can get both the oil from the zest

and I get a lovely lime juice flavour.

I also like the two-tone colour.

OK, if we move on to the calissons, Benoit, what do you make of those?

The glazing is a little bit on the rough side, you know?

And the cutting as well -

you see that it has been squashed while it's cut.

It's not really working for me at all, I'm afraid.

It is very granular in texture.

Is there any raw caster sugar in it? I've got a gritty, gritty...

Well, we used pineapple sugar as well,

but we tried to grind it up with the icing sugar.

So that is what we've got. In fact, that's maybe...

Yeah, I don't like the texture.

It was very...rushed, because we had to do a second mix.

So you got more flavour,

but then you compromised the texture a little bit, yeah?

OK, why don't we move on to the moulded chocolate?

It's a lemon verbena caramel and a raspberry ganache.

I get the acidity of the raspberry,

which I think works well with your fruity chocolate.

And I like the little verbena at the end - unusual, but nice.

I prefer it very shiny -

I think this one lost the touch of shininess.

Shiny, gloss, crispy chocolate is what I'm looking for.

'It's time to find out who has made it through to the final.'

Each judge will be awarding your showpiece a score out of 50.

When that score is added to your points from the miniatures,

the team with the most points is automatically the winner

and gets a place in the grand final.

The team in second place may well be joining them,

if their score manages to beat

the runners-up from the first semifinal.

Christophe, we start with your team.

For your showpiece, the judges scored you...

When combined with the miniatures test,

it's a total of 138 points.

Stephen, the judges scored your showpiece...

When added to the miniatures, that is a grand total

of 135 points.

'A solid score, but not quite enough to catch Christophe's team.

'Can Mark's team overtake them both?'

Mark, your team.

The judges scored you, and your showpiece...

And a grand total

of 159 points,

which means you are today's winners and through to the grand final.

Congratulations, guys.

APPLAUSE

But that's not all.

Christophe, I can reveal...

..that the runners up from the first semifinal had a score

of 129 points,

which means that you have a place in the final.

Congratulations.

APPLAUSE I don't believe it!

Oh...!

Well done, guys. Really well done.

We're in! We are in!

You were brilliant. I love you to bits.

Thank you. My other Frenchman.

Well done, huh? Amazing. Amazing, amazing.

Oh, thank you very much. Well done.

Being the wild card, you know, we never...never expected it.

I just feel completely dazed. Like, I just have nothing to say.

LAUGHTER

Well done.

Oh, lovely, Mark.

Congratulations.

Hats off to the teams, there, because they...

What they produced today was stunning.

Well done, mate - go on and win it, now, eh?

Go and win it.

The standard was so high -

I can only imagine what the final is going to be.

I want to be in there to watch it!

Next time...

Sorry, I forgot to put it on.

..it's the grand final.

How many more minutes to go?

Losing time.

The showpieces get bigger.

All right, have you got it?

The judges get tougher.

BLEEP!

Who will be crowned the Creme de la Creme?