Episode 9 Bake Off Creme de la Creme

Welcome to Bake Off Creme De La Creme,

where the hunt for Britain's best pastry chefs is drawing to

the dramatic conclusion experts so widely predicted -

the final.

Right from the outset,

this competition has been incredibly hard-fought,

intensely demanding and above all absolutely delicious,

and now, nine weeks and two-and-a-half stone later,

I'm here to tell you that the final is between England and France.

Now, ironically, not 20 miles from here,

the famous Battle of Hastings was fought in 1066,

but today in the Creme De La Creme kitchens,

there's a far more important battle taking place between

Liam's military boys of England and Laurian's French dragons -

a battle that will surely be referred to in future by historians

as the Battle of Tastings.

So, who will be the conquerors?

Only Benoit and Cherish can decide.

The journey to the final has been a punishing one...

We're not going to get it done.

..and the heats saw many fine chefs...

It's really beautiful.

..capable of extraordinary work...

It is exquisite.

..fall along the way.

-For the oven!

-Eclairs.

Did you have any filling in there?

-We could do with a bit of luck right now. Oh,

-BLEEP!

The semifinals saw the fiercest fighting yet...

-Don't slow down, guys.

-Finish, finish, finish.

God, this is disgusting.

..and the most stunning creations the competition has ever seen.

This is what we live for, right?

'But Paula's team and Reece's team...'

-Thank you very much.

-Well done.

'..were sadly dealt the killer blow.'

Now it's the final, and Laurian and Liam will lead their teams...

-Let's do it.

-..one last time.

We're going to smash this. Give it everything.

So, having endured eight brutal challenges along the way,

just one single epic two-day challenge remains,

at the end of which both our teams will have to serve their patisseries

at a party hosted by their Lord and Ladyships Gage.

The winner will then be announced to all of the guests -

including friends, families and former competitors -

right here in the Great Hall,

a magnificent room, without which

we'd all be extremely cold and suspended in mid-air.

As for the single, epic two-day challenge,

it will be just how our judges like it -

impossible.

For us, it's about pushing ourselves.

I think the passion we've got for the profession

is the biggest weapon we've got.

If we can get it right on the day,

then hopefully we can be rewarded at the end of it.

As long as we can stand there proud behind what we produce,

everything else is up to the judges.

Welcome back, teams,

and congratulations on reaching the final -

an incredible achievement.

However, today sees the start of the biggest,

longest and most demanding challenge of the series,

overseen by Benoit and Cherish, the Bonnie and Clyde of judges.

Over the next two days,

we want you to produce a lavish display of desserts,

featuring a sculptural showpiece,

and eight different types of desserts -

enough to feed at least 100 people.

This time, we would like you to come up with your own theme,

for you to show us as a pastry chef how creative you are.

So, simple enough. Well, clear enough.

I don't know about simple. You have two hours now,

you will have a further six hours tomorrow,

and halfway through those six hours,

Benoit and Cherish would like you to have produced half of

the eight desserts, which they will then taste -

as the Fugees would say - ready or not.

The remaining four desserts will be tasted

at the end of your time tomorrow.

Good luck, and your time starts now.

Let's go, boys.

-Keep communication the whole time, yeah?

-Yes, Chef.

IN FRENCH:

This is the grand final of Creme De La Creme.

It is not about us telling them what we want them to do -

it's about them serving us what they want.

They've got to bring something very close to their heart.

We want the original. We want the sublime.

We want to be amazed, and I want to have fun.

They have to produce eight different styles of pastry, and the showpiece.

It is certainly the toughest yet.

You can take the scale there.

OK, thank you.

We would like to test the chefs to their maximum skill.

Overall vision is so crucial.

It has to be mind-blowing, it has to be magnificent,

it has to be beautiful,

and, of course, the eye for detail is so crucial.

Are you using all this white chocolate, Chef?

That's for the flock. Use it if you need it.

The grand final begins with not just one but two golden hours...

That's a lot of chocolate to put in your mouth.

..and every minute has to count.

Today is concentrating.

If either of the teams fail to prepare any element

that needs setting overnight...

My caramel's on - just keep your eyes on it if you can.

..tomorrow they simply won't have the time to perfect the kind of

chocolate and sugar work the judges will expect from the champions of

Creme De La Creme.

Bear's going to be mainly concentrating on the showpiece,

and me and Chris are doing the eight desserts.

If we get this right, it'll give us a good head start for tomorrow.

There's no room for error.

You're expected to be at a high standard now,

you're in the final.

For the past week, Liam has been honing his battle plan...

Use a bit of gold leaf to bring a bit of lavish to it.

..with the help of his RAF wingmen, Bear and Chris.

We spend roughly, maybe, 16 or 17 hours a day just in this kitchen.

Our family and friends are kind of resenting us now,

because we're so enclosed in research, and in learning, and...

It's been really intense and really pushed ourselves,

our friendships, our families to absolute limits.

Showing all techniques, covering all areas?

-I think so.

-I think so.

We've made it to the final. Let's go home with that trophy.

As a thank you to everyone who've given their support to us,

now let's push on and win it.

Let's do them all proud.

-Hi, Liam.

-How are you doing, Angus?

-Are you all right?

-Yes.

-How's it going?

-Good at the minute.

What are you making? What's the theme?

We really wanted to do a military-themed table,

cos that's exactly what we do.

It's about the pride of England, the UK...

Against the French people. Yeah.

I mean, obviously, the military runs deep in you.

Is it a family thing?

My...my parents were in the Army.

I've been in the Royal Air Force about seven years now,

and I've loved all the opportunities that the military have provided me.

But it comes with hardships as well.

It does. We've had one day off in ten weeks now.

-Ten weeks?

-Yeah, I've not been home.

-That must take its toll.

-Yeah, it's been hard.

So you're looking forward to tomorrow?

Yes, definitely.

Which of ours will go first?

Chocolate, yeah?

We've got, like, a mammoth task ahead.

We've got a lot to cast.

It's going to be tough,

but then we've got to do as much as possible in the two hours,

and then that will massively help.

No coming back, no matter what,

so it'll be better to come out the winner.

Laurian has had to practise his ambitious plans for the final

in the few hours each day when his patisserie in Cardiff isn't open.

It's a small shop in Cardiff,

and probably no-one at the beginning of the competition thought we could

go that far.

-We can put the cakes all over.

-OK.

I want to win for the shop.

It's been six years, and a lot of struggles through the years,

and my wife always kind of...

She always backed me up.

This means a lot, because suddenly it's all those times when I said,

"One day it's going to work, and one day it's going to pay off,"

and for us to get here, suddenly it feels more real.

I definitely think, then, that our friendship and our passion

has got to do with us finishing in the final.

So we're better friends... We're better friends than when we started!

-Yeah?

-For sure.

-Are we friends now?

-Are we?

-I... I don't know.

There we go, then!

-Hi, Laurian.

-Good morning.

You're in the final - how does it feel?

-Unreal.

-And what's the theme?

-It's Christmas - the night before Christmas.

-Ah-hah.

-And is that a big thing for you?

-Yeah.

Christmas in a French patisserie is always a really special time.

It's long hours, but then it's good fun,

and it feels a bit like being in a family with your colleagues and...

Right, so it's a trip down memory lane for you?

Yeah. It's all things that relate to us or to friends,

and we feel, then, we've got more love to put in it.

-Love and passion.

-Love and passion.

I'm just filling all the moulds up with chocolate,

and this is one of the main elements to our showpiece.

This is for the sleigh.

We'll have Santa's sleigh flying in the sky with a Christmas tree.

This is going to be our cloud ring that the Spitfire's

going to fly through.

With just half an hour remaining for the teams to get their main

elements prepped, it's a chance for Benoit and Cherish to

cast their critical eye.

So, Laurian's and Liam's teams -

worthy finalists, I think we're all agreed.

What marks them out?

They work so clean. They are so professional.

They raise the bar higher and higher each time.

Adaptability on both teams is their key strength.

Let's be honest about it -

those two teams not only are happy to be in the final,

but they really want to win it.

-Mm-hmm.

-And, in fact, they are quite matched.

Let's look at Laurian's Christmas theme and Liam's military theme.

What do you think to those?

I'm looking at two themes which might not be

the most innovative themes.

One being Christmas - this is Laurian's theme.

So, we've seen Christmas in all its shape, form and glory,

so where and how we're going to bring the innovation there,

it's going to be interesting.

Who doesn't like Christmas?

Who doesn't like Santa Claus?

-It just lifts up my smile.

-Yes.

As far as the pride of the military in Britain,

I've got nothing against, of course, the nationalistic

kind of approach of our Army boys,

but I hope they can bring the fun element to it.

It is a display which everybody needs to be attracted to.

It's back to their roots.

I'm actually quite intrigued what they are going to

put on the table tomorrow.

So, they don't have only to serve those desserts to us,

but also they'll have to present them to Lord and Lady Gage.

We do not want to spot any kind of mistake at all.

It is the final.

How are you getting on?

Yeah, how long have we got?

There are ten minutes to go now.

And we've got camouflage chocolate,

which is four different types of chocolate piped into the mould.

Get the caramel for the logs, please, in the freezer.

CLATTERING

Steady on, Chris.

He's here. Thibault, Thibault!

Here.

I'll just jump on with these. Yeah, we'll do them together.

Chefs, your time is up now.

Step away from your work stations.

That's the two hours that are over.

-We've done it.

-All of the glazes are OK?

Yeah, all the glazes are done.

You'll have six hours tomorrow, so we'll see you in the morning.

-BLEEP

-my life.

I look like I've just done the six-hour challenge.

How was that for you?

-BLEEP

-emotional.

It's the very last day on Bake Off Creme De La Creme.

The teams have been preparing with a cup of tea and a chat with

Lord and Lady Gage, and their day is about to get even worse,

because the challenge today lasts six hours.

It's going to require sang-froid and va-va-voom

combined with savoir-faire par excellence,

and whatever the French word is for panache.

Plus, it will decide our winners.

Let's do it, boys, yeah? Exactly as we practised.

Feeling nervous, anxious...

We've got a big challenge ahead of us today.

We'll just get our hands on this trophy. It's now or never.

-Keep communication the whole time, yeah?

-Yes, Chef.

We all know what we need to do -

stick to our plan and work as a team.

-Tip it back, tip it back...

-HE EXHALES

Today's going to be... It's going to be massive.

It's twice the length of any other challenge we've had in the past,

and there's a lot to do.

Yes.

Having started the main elements of their showpieces yesterday,

the teams switch focus to their desserts -

specifically the four that will be judged in just three hours' time.

So, with this challenge,

although the points will be added up the same way as before,

at the halfway point,

we'll be tasting four of their beautiful desserts.

We want to have fun.

We want to discover what they are all about

and taste amazing pastries.

-Shortbread's in the oven, Chef. Wherever he's gone.

-Thank you!

It is not only the texture, the colour,

the combination, the taste...

It has to be risk-taking.

I do not want a boring dessert.

It is the final - we are looking for the creme de la creme.

Sorry, mate. Thank you.

Let's not let all that hard work that we did yesterday go to waste.

Yes, Chef. For us to be able to produce a table

based on the military is quite a nice, nice thing for us,

and hopefully we can pull it off and do ourselves and the military proud.

This dessert... The idea came from when people were evacuated in the war.

We thought of honey, lavender and things that grow in the countryside,

which ties in quite well to our military theme.

Their rural Britain dessert will be made from honey mousse

with a vanilla yoghurt centre

on a lavender genoise sponge.

This is going to be the lavender genoise disc to sit in

the bottom of our beehive mould.

Our story on the outside shows what the story on the inside is.

If you want to win this, you've got to show that

you've thought about every aspect.

The inspiration for this one came from our ration packs

that we get when we're in the field.

We get, like, little packs of dried fruits and nuts,

and you get a chocolate bar in there.

Liam's edible ration pack will consist of chocolate mousse,

filled with peanut salted caramel and rum and raisin purees

on a chocolate feuilletine base.

You look like you've found another gear somewhere.

-It looks like you want this one.

-Yeah, absolutely.

You think you are better than the French dragons?

All we can do is do what we do, and do our best,

and hopefully that's good enough.

What do you have for us today?

All our desserts are sort of linked into the military -

World War I, World War II -

what they were working with in the World Wars,

like preserving things and stuff like that.

Is that going to be elegant?

It is elegant. We feel we've got an elegant side to it.

It's theatrical. It's got some flair to it.

But it is a pastry competition, not a war.

No, it won't come across as a war.

With Liam drawing on the lofty issue of human conflict,

Laurian's not to be outdone.

I'm making the little gingerbread men.

We want it to be playful and, yeah, it's Christmas.

The gingerbread man is an iconic thing you see around Christmas time.

Laurian is giving the humble gingerbread man a gourmet makeover,

adding a coffee bavarois belly,

filled with salted caramel and glazed in milk chocolate,

and that's not the only Christmas classic he's rebranding.

The Christmas Pud Or Not is actually our signature dish

in the shop.

We call it Hypnosis, and it's all made with

our personal vein of chocolate,

so it is something which is really close to us.

So inside will be chocolate bavarois, chocolate cremeux,

and a tempered chocolate insert,

on top of a chocolate shortbread base.

Not enough chocolate, surely(!)

What do you have in treat for us today?

Christmas is always an exciting time to be creative

and to do things a bit different, so some of the things...

It doesn't look like exactly what they taste like, but...

So, like the Christmas Pudding Or Not, that's the question?

It is not, but it looks like Christmas pud.

-Are you all right, Chris?

-Yeah.

Preparing four of their desserts for halfway judging isn't the

team's only priority.

I need to crack on, on the chocolate showpiece.

-I will create a bricks effect.

-At

the end of the challenge, Benoit and Cherish will also be scoring

the design and execution of their centrepieces.

I've just moulded some chocolate in the shape of a rock.

Hopefully it'll resemble a bit, like, the white cliffs of Dover,

and then, from that, the globe.

We're trying to show lots of different techniques

on this centrepiece.

What is that going to do with the theme that you put in?

So, it was a WORLD war, wasn't it?

If Liam's team's centrepiece seems ambitious...

The globe looks bangin', Bear.

..Laurian's raised the bar even further,

making every single part of his display edible.

We're doing a sledge cake stand.

Using isolation tubes is a good way to do it.

You can flex them,

and you can give the shape you want onto the tube, then.

The idea is Santa's been in,

dropped all the presents and all of the nice cakes,

and he just flew off.

So, if Laurian's opted for Santa,

which popular figure has Liam chosen to immortalise?

This is Guy Gibson getting released now.

And he was what?

-He was the guy who led...?

-He was a Wing Commander.

He was... He'd flown in the Dambuster raids.

Have you just gone and bought a Guy Gibson mould?

Oh, I wish it was that simple.

We found a statue and we've made the moulds ourselves out of the statue.

That is genuinely impressive and completely edible.

I look forward to trying some of his nose later!

Thibault, if you need any help, just say, yeah?

Yeah.

Chefs, you are halfway to your halfway judging point.

Oui, oui.

Straight in the freezer with them after that, please.

-Yes, Chef.

-Merci.

Stop speaking French.

I'm trying to make you feel at home, mate.

Liam's third dessert is perhaps his most patriotic yet.

My whole table's called Pride Of Britain,

so we wanted to use all, like, sort of British ingredients,

and we were going to try and incorporate some poppy seed into it,

but it didn't really work,

so we've just left it as lemon and blueberry.

Chock-full of lemon posset, blueberry gel,

and honey-infused blueberries,

national pride even extends to its crunchy topping.

There's a little biscuit to go on the side of the glass.

We don't want to waste anything, so we're utilising all

our offcuts on other desserts as well.

Rations were at a bit of a premium,

so you would make jams or maceration and stuff like that.

The guys were having to utilise everything.

The team are putting a modern twist on a wartime preserve,

layering creme anglaise,

strawberry and lemon gels,

and crumbled biscuit,

and, in his own take on

a classic ration book recipe,

before marinading, Chris has rested strawberries

in a small amount of sugar, in a process called maceration.

I'm basically just adding the strawberries now

to the bottom of the pots.

What do you marinade the strawberry with?

The strawberry has got just a little bit of balsamic sugar water,

and a touch of strawberry, just to give it

a bit of a punch in the bottom.

We'd like to try and keep this one as fresh as we possibly could -

just to get all the natural flavours into it.

Whilst Liam's team are embracing wartime austerity...

-Start the macaroon now.

-Yeah.

..Laurian's team are busy celebrating festive overindulgence.

Laurian, joyeux Noel.

How joyeux is your Noel at the moment?

It's not bad. I am doing an orange toddy.

We've got some Welsh whisky and some orange cream in it.

I wasn't aware that Wales made...

-They make a cracking whisky, yeah.

-Right.

-Do they?

-And it's not too strong.

It's just right for us to do...to do cakes with.

-Can I have one of those?

-You definitely can.

-There will be plenty on the table.

-Excellent, yeah.

Just got to wait a little bit.

-Well, I don't mean right now.

-No?

-Yeah.

-Good.

-OK, just as well.

Laurian's team's third dessert,

their orange toddy,

will see whisky bavarois,

filled with orange cremeux,

served on a sable Breton biscuit base.

You want a bit of crunch,

and when you're going to put your cake on it,

if it's too thin, then it's going to go soggy really quickly,

so this is why we double-bake it as well,

to make sure that they're nice and crunchy.

The good thing is that this is exactly what I wanted.

And it seems Laurian's orange toddy is just the tip of

a somewhat boozy iceberg.

-What is that?

-This is a macaroon.

What flavour do you have? Or is it just colour?

This is just colouring.

Oh, just colouring, is it?

We will have a whisky cream filling.

Their sweet tipple macaroon will be topped with gold cocoa nibs

filled with chocolate,

and, in a nod to Boxing Day hangovers, Irish cream ganache.

Cherish, yeah, she definitely likes the booze -

that's why we've been having booze every week,

just to get those extra two points, isn't it?

Guys, you have 30 minutes until your midpoint judging.

All right, let's do it, Chris.

I'm going to build the lemon and blueberries.

So, this is just a short breadcrumb.

This one's the wartime preserve, and they'll be layered

with different...other different flavours.

Thibault's concentrating on the Christmas tree.

I'm making barbed wire.

It's going to wrap round the base,

just to give it a bit more texture,

and up the skill level a bit.

-Yeah,

-BLEEP!

-Let me help you.

-Yeah, yeah...

Just stick it back together and let me help you.

While Thibault is feeling rather less than festive about his tree...

Aargh!

..Chris is also in a battle...

-What are you doing?

-It's too thin.

..with his wartime preserve.

Are you all right, Chris?

Not really, mate. It's just anglaise central, isn't it?

It's not holding as well as I would like it to.

It just hasn't been cooked out enough on the stove

so it's still quite thin. Oh, mate...

There's not enough time now to go back and rectify the problem.

As long as all the flavours are in there,

we can put across what we were trying to achieve.

-Shall I spray?

-Yeah.

We're just going to set the buche for the gingerbread man

on, like, his belly, basically.

Beehives - do they not need to be out, Chris?

They're going to be garnished up soon.

The sweet tipple macaroon, some of them are a little bit dry,

maybe a little bit harder than others,

but we're not doing them again.

Is that you finished, Chris?

Yeah, I'm going to clean this out for you and then you're good to go.

Maybe this one a little bit more.

The filling is ganache, which is really soft

because of the amount of alcohol in it.

That'll be perfect, then. Perfect. Go.

Little bees...

Pick the bloke with the biggest hands to do the smallest jobs...

There are 15 minutes left.

Keep battling, guys.

We're starting to garnish it now for the halfway point serving.

That's the glaze for the orange toddy.

TOOL BUZZES

Jeremy, leave them there.

Just going to finish them up with the white glaze.

This is just going to be garnished with a little bit of

the yoghurt that was from the centre.

Just put the macaroons onto the Perspex.

Nice job on the beehives, mate.

Those two dots of red make the whole thing come to life, so...

Five minutes left now, guys.

Chris, can I have two straight over, mate?

-Now?

-Yeah, if you can.

Teams, that is the midway point.

Oh, God!

If I could ask Liam and Laurian to bring your four desserts up to the

presentation table, whilst the rest of you carry on.

Just keep going, mate.

This is the judges' first chance to scrutinise the efforts

of the finalists.

Each dessert is worth 20 points, but no results will be revealed

until the whole challenge is over.

Wow, your love for Christmas.

Well, I feel the love!

Definitely, they are very pretty and very elegant.

You just put a big smile on my face.

They are so cute and fun.

Laurian's team's gingerbread man contains salted caramel

within a coffee bavarois torso,

and their orange toddy comprises whisky bavarois

with an orange cremeux centre on a sable Breton base.

Should we start with the little orange toddy?

It's a lovely, colourful glaze - very pleasant to look at.

This is with the Welsh whisky?

It is with the Welsh whisky, yeah.

It's a good sign.

The lovely, zesty cremeux inside

really brings the orange flavour.

-I wish, perhaps, the sable Breton was a little bit thinner.

-Yeah.

I could not taste the toddy in it.

-I wish there was a little bit more whisky in it.

-Yeah.

I really like the presentation of the gingerbread men,

and you put the three little buttons there -

I think it's a really, really nice touch.

Oops.

Coffee, caramel, gingerbread...

beautiful to eat.

-Thank you.

-I really love the combination.

Perfect texture, very well presented...

Beautiful.

Laurian's team's sweet tipple macaroon

has a chocolate and Irish cream ganache centre,

garnished with gold cocoa nibs,

and their Christmas Pud Or Not comprises chocolate bavarois,

filled with chocolate cremeux and tempered dark chocolate

on chocolate shortbread.

-Well, I guess it is not a Christmas pudding on the inside...

-Not.

..but it does look like a Christmas pudding on the outside.

It is very pretty.

Love the taste!

The mousse is just to perfection.

It was creamy, it was light, it was sensational,

and it finished with a nice, beautiful crunch on the bottom.

I have to say,

I'm not completely in agreement with Cherish,

as far as the flavour is concerned.

For me, I'm lost. Am I eating a Christmas pudding?

In which case, I would love to see a little bit of the Christmassy spice.

And the chocolate flavour is not pronounced enough.

Last but not least, our lovely macaroon.

It's a little bit too boring.

It's just not festive enough for me.

-Ah, the colour...

-HE BLOWS A RASPBERRY

Is that something I'm drawn into trying to taste?

Not really.

Your macaroon is overcooked.

You need more moisture in there.

If you could have put a little bit more ganache,

it might balance it out quite nicely.

It's very tidy, but...

you know, it's a bit safe,

and I'm concerned that you may not bring enough celebration

with the presentation of your dessert.

I think it's a little bit more for the adult than kiddie,

so yours is really fun,

but yours is sort of, like, "I'm serious, don't mess with me!"

-That's how I felt it.

-Yeah.

Liam's team's wartime preserve has macerated strawberries,

lemon gel and meringue surrounded by creme anglaise,

and their lemon and blueberry pot comprises lemon posset

and blueberry gel, also topped with shortbread.

I really like the texture that you've put in,

because lemon posset is boring,

but you have the blueberry,

and it's very clever that you've put the crunch on the top.

Lovely, balanced flavour of lemon and blueberry.

Does that excite me for the final of Creme De La Creme?

Not quite.

Voila! The strawberry one.

OK.

Wow.

-LAUGHTER

-What's in the strawberry?

-Balsamic... Balsamic.

-Oh, yes.

-The first touch in the acidity is too much.

-Right.

That acidity should have been balanced throughout the dessert,

not just in one bulb like that, especially on the very top,

but good flavour.

OK. Cherish?

-It's so slimy, Chef.

-LAUGHTER

I just didn't enjoy it.

But the look of it, when I tip the bowl...

You see? It's just... It's dripping out. Look.

-Is something wrong with your recipe?

-We didn't...

I don't think we've cooked it out quite enough, so apologies for that.

Yeah, I didn't enjoy eating this dessert at all.

Liam's team's ration pack contains chocolate mousse, crammed with

peanut salted caramel and rum and raisin puree,

finished with an edible stamp,

while their rural Britain dessert comprises honey mousse,

filled with vanilla yoghurt on lavender genoise sponge.

I really like the attention to detail,

with the little bee. I saw Bear and his very tiny hands

trying to extract from those moulds.

It looks like a little honey pot.

The colour just put me off straight away.

Is it grey? Is it purple?

-The lavender, yes.

-Lavender?

-It's purple, yeah.

I tuck into the mousse, it's soft.

I tuck into the honey, it's soft.

I tuck into the sponge, it's soft.

There's nothing there to excite me at all.

For me, it's the flavour combination.

It's pretty plain and uninteresting.

I feel you just took the story too literally,

and didn't focus on making a nice dessert with it.

Let's hope the last one, but not least,

-is actually the good one.

-OK, yeah.

-Mm-hmm.

The ration pack.

You kept the best for last!

BENOIT CHUCKLES

Beautiful.

This is what I'm talking about.

You know, where you failed a little bit on the other three...

This is exciting.

A lovely caramel, peanutty in the middle...

Lovely texture. Lovely taste. Well done.

-To be fair, that rum and raisin was lush, yeah?

-Yeah.

Mixed reviews is probably how I'd describe it.

If you'd like to rejoin your teams and press on...

-There's good days.

-Did you get much of that?

-Nothing.

-BLEEP

-awful, is what it is.

The only problem wasn't enough ganache.

-Ah, OK.

-They said it all looked a little bit safe for the final.

-Strawberry pot?

-Anglaise, mate.

Because of the anglaise, they didn't like it.

You look at Liam's team, it's very pretty, but ultimately,

the taste has to be great.

As far as I'm concerned, they might have been distracted with the story

a little too far.

Laurian's team, altogether slightly more successful.

For me, they really embraced their Christmas theme.

They thought about the texture, the component, the combination.

So am I sensing that maybe one is in the lead?

I would say Laurian, but there is so much more to go.

Right, where are we at? Are we all good?

A little bit behind.

Three hours remaining.

Four desserts still to perfect.

And delicate centrepieces still to construct.

You might have to jump on it.

Just jump on with these, yeah, we'll do them together.

With ground to make up,

Liam's team's remaining British desserts

have to deliver more flavour.

Rhubarb and custard has always been quite a big one in Britain,

so it's just our little tribute to that dish, really.

Chris's twist on rhubarb and custard will see ginger shortbread support

set layers of rhubarb jelly,

ginger creme anglaise and a stewed rhubarb compote.

This rhubarb mixture has stewed down with a little bit of sugar and a

little bit of grenadine as well just to give it a bit of colour and make

it a little bit sweeter, because rhubarb can be quite sharp.

While Chris attempts to balance flavour...

Let's push on, then, guys.

..Liam still seems to be focused on presentation.

This is going to be the case for our Winston Churchill cigar.

His tempered chocolate tubes will be finished with freeze-dried

raspberries and gold leaf,

and each cigar will be filled with raspberry mousse and a raspberry

-liqueur syrup.

-You've got a liquid centre.

I don't want it to be running out.

I want for it to just sort of hold itself inside the cigar.

When you break into it, I don't want it to run all over the plate.

But things might not be quite so firm with Chris's rhubarb and custard.

-This is such a

-BLEEP

-job.

His creme anglaise agonies are continuing.

This is not a creme anglaise. This is liquid, like...

I don't know what's going wrong.

But that's your sable. So, that liquid is going on your sable.

I've got a bit of butter over the top that we'd normally use to try and protect it.

OK.

It's something I'll have to go with now because of time restrictions.

As Liam's team battles to deliver classic British flavours...

That's marron glace, glazed confit chestnuts.

..Laurian's celebration of all things Noel is getting "plus francais" by the minute.

It's one of those delicacies in France,

especially around Christmas time.

You want some chunks in there.

Chestnut chunks and Breton biscuit will sit at the base

of Laurian's verrine-style Mont Blanc.

Also flavoured with myrtille.

It sounds posh, but it's actually just French for blueberry.

You get the crunchy from the sable Breton,

and then you get the chewy from the chestnuts,

and then you get a blueberry cheesecake mix

so you get that sourness from the cheese

and a bit of acidity from the blueberry as well.

Jeremy's making a dessert which hails from a little further away

-than France.

-It's from New Zealand.

Anzac biscuits, they are like coconut oatcakes, nice and crunchy.

I really like them.

Their Anzac biscuit will be topped with a square of raspberry mousse

and lemongrass cremeux,

and it will be glazed and decorated to look like a Christmas present.

I use the same glaze of the ginger men but in red with white chocolate inside.

-Oh,

-BLEEP.

I need to relax.

It's all good.

How long do we have left?

Two hours remaining and the finalists' friends and family

have begun arriving at Lord and Lady Gage's party.

For me, what's been coming out of the kitchen in the last six weeks

could be renamed as sculpture, and I found it absolutely fascinating.

Absolutely genius. Marie Antoinette would be terribly impressed.

We haven't seen Liam in months. He has been so focused on this.

If he was to win tonight, it would be the cherry on the cake.

Laurian, Thibault and Jeremy, all three of them have been working

so hard and I think by Laurian winning this,

to see that his hard work has been appreciated would mean a lot.

As well as family, also awaiting the result are a few familiar faces.

It feels amazing to be back minus the stress.

I am not jealous of the boys at all.

I'm not sure who's going to win. I couldn't say.

I think we do want...we want Laurian's team to win, don't we?

As you can see, I've got the pink hat on so we are team pink today.

I'm sorry, Thibault and Laurian,

I love you to bits but today we are with Liam's team.

As a French man, I would say I want a French team to win.

As an army guard, I want an army guard to win.

Because we can see, actually, we lost against the winner.

It depends which ever way you want to look at it.

Chefs, you have an hour and a half left now.

BLEEP!

Two desserts still to perfect.

-We're all good, Chris, yeah?

-Having an absolute nightmare.

But the longer the teams spend on them...

..the less time they'll have to construct their centrepieces.

HE COUNTS

I'm onto the cherry.

The glaze that we're using is made from white chocolate.

It's got a little bit of the cherry flavour into it as well.

Not trying to overcomplicate it with different flavours.

We've stuck to everything that is already in there.

Liam's glaze coats a chocolate mousse filled with frangipane

and cherry coulis and each dome will sit on a sable Breton base

and be topped with a sour cherry jelly.

You seem to have answered the judge's call for more colour.

To be honest, I think we were saving our stronger ones for the finale.

We had gone a little bit simpler on the early ones, which they noted and

they commented, but hopefully they appreciate...

They'll be wowed by these.

After two worryingly thin attempts,

Chris maybe also be finally ready to wow with his third dessert

featuring creme anglaise.

Best creme anglaise out of all of them.

This is for the apple and blackberry.

We thought it would be quite nice to do one of them in a tin.

With the rations and the war and stuff, a lot of stuff was canned.

The ration tins are also layered with a Calvados apple jelly,

caramelised apple puree and a blackberry gel

and it'll all be topped with a honey roasted granola.

-How long, Chris?

-I've got one more tray of these to do.

Be with you.

Hoping to save time that they can then dedicate to their centrepieces...

..for their final desserts,

Laurian's team are making not one but two Christmas-themed lollies.

Jeremy is finishing the snowball.

It's like a little lollipop and it's an explosion of flavour when you eat it.

Coated in the white chocolate glaze and then finishing in

a fine desiccated coconut.

Their snowballs are a tropical fruit blend of calamansi mousse

and lychee cremeux

and their second lolly sees a chocolate cremeux and mint

bavarois centre coated in dark chocolate

and roasted nibbed hazelnuts.

Fresh mint. Nicer than any kind of oil or paste.

You get a proper mint flavour from it.

It's just to recreate the well-known mint chocolates

that some people have at Christmas.

-Set, yeah?

-Yes. Rhubarb's done.

This is it. Only one hour to go.

This is it!

-How long is it going to take you to present? Hour?

-Tops.

Everybody is jumping into the showpiece now.

-LIAM:

-The medals are from friends and family.

Everything's going to be served at different levels, so these will have desserts on,

these will have desserts on, these have got big discs going on

and the centrepiece right in the middle.

Whilst Liam's team have brought in their own props and display stands...

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

..Laurian's team have had to spend time making their display

entirely by hand.

I think they know what they're doing.

I think they have a game plan, and the slate that they are making,

everything out of chocolate.

It looks like they got it from an antique shop.

So you mean the pastries are actually going to be displayed

on chocolate?

This is the workmanship of how you display your lavish buffet table.

For me, I've got a little concern.

They're starting to build a tall structure.

The taller the structure, the more you need to put on.

-Tell me when.

-'I need to see more.'

If it stays like it is, I'm worried.

If they put more on, then maybe we have a cracker.

-Yeah?

-Yes. Thank you very much.

Just currently building our take on a poppy as such.

Three of them to do.

The way Bear is putting this piece together is very, very elegant.

He is the builder, he is the creator for the showpiece.

-The artist.

-He is the artist behind the team.

And it's actually beautiful.

It's very colourful. We've got lovely flowers,

the Union Jack is elegant

-on their showpiece.

-I'll tell you what really got me excited,

the Spitfire.

-I need something big.

-Time left?

Chefs, you have just 40 minutes left.

Is that straight, anyone?

Stop now.

-How long to table?

-How long?

I've got about another two minutes of slicing.

You OK? Straight on it?

Yes, straight on it.

Do you want to take the centrepiece over?

In a minute, yes. You might need to give us a hand to get it up.

Once I've got it up, I'm all right.

Ready when you are, Chris. Three minutes.

Do you want to put it on there and twist or put it up here and twist?

It needs to be facing you, basically.

Right, up, up, up,

higher...

It's going to have to go higher, mate.

That's it.

-Ready?

-Yes.

-Three, two, one, lift.

Three, two, one, there.

Side to side. No, no, no, no!

You're moving the whole box, not the centrepiece.

Do you want me to hold the box?

-Hold the box.

-Right, you've got Gibbo?

Little bit more.

That's it, bang on.

-That's it, dude.

-Yeah?

There are 15 minutes left, guys,

until the end of your final challenge.

-We're in a good place for that.

-We'll crack on with garnishing up.

Trying to make a snowman to display the lollipops.

Jeremy is finishing all the cakes.

Getting really close on time now.

Looking good, Chris. All the labels facing the right way, yeah?

-Bear's going to start getting everything on the table.

-OK.

I'll come over and gold leaf for you.

I'm making some candy cane for the Christmas tree.

How are you doing with the gold leaf, Chris?

Pain in the arse, mate.

You all right?

No.

Oh, you...

-Is this the last thing to go on?

-Yeah.

Lush.

-Is it done with the...?

-Snowman? Almost.

Clean down.

30 seconds now.

Guys, that's it.

Six hours are over. Your time is up.

Well done. You have completed the challenge.

Well done, big man.

Knackered.

Happy?

Oh, we tried to do too much stands ourselves.

Two stunning centrepieces,

400 individual desserts all made in just eight hours.

Benoit and Cherish will now judge the centrepieces

and taste the remaining desserts.

We're going to start with Laurian's team, so...

Before we start, there's one more thing needed to be done.

-Please.

-We get a surprise?

Right.

Oh!

The Smurfs. Pink Smurfs.

Should have brought our helmets.

You guys have done a fantastic job.

It looks amazing.

Yes, a lot of thought that gone through on the table.

Chocolate sleigh, the snowman, the chimney stack, the tree.

I really like the little details that you put on the candy cane

with the baubles.

And the flower, the little touch of sugar work

which I always like to see.

And the little fire with the little logs.

Bottom of the chimney, love it, love it, love it.

The proof is also in the pudding so shall we start with the snowball?

Laurian's snowball has Calamansi mousse and lychee cremeux

all finished with white chocolate and desiccated coconut.

-It looks like a snowball.

-It does.

On a stick!

Lovely Calamansi flavour.

I'm not sure about the coconut desiccated on the outside

not being toasted or anything. I know you were looking for

the snowy effect but personally,

desiccated coconut, untouched, and me...

This is why we went for the really fine desiccated coconut.

So it's not going to hang around too long, is it?

Not as much as a thicker one.

-OK, well, I hope so.

-I think it is quite one-dimensional.

I think it's just one texture that I can taste

so it's quite disappointing in a way when I eat it.

-OK.

-Still there, though, the coconut, eh?

Their Mont Myrtille, or Blueberry Mountain, has crumbled sable Breton,

blueberry cheesecake mousse and piped chestnut vermicelli.

It's very pretty on the glass and you inject blueberry.

I can't taste the chestnut.

-You can't?

-No.

-I can.

I know that you put bits and pieces of chestnut on the bottom and then

when I taste it, it's all sweetness throughout.

The blueberry, I don't think it marries well with the chestnut

so I'm a bit disappointed.

Mont Blanc, my favourite dessert.

I have the chestnut, which is important in a Mont Blanc.

If you have a Mont Blanc without the chestnut, where are we going?

The myrtille is a great addition

but it's not strong enough.

Halfway there.

Their Christmas presents have a raspberry mousse,

lemongrass cremeux and Anzac biscuit.

I like to have a little bit more precision in your little Christmas

presents. I think they are a bit untidy.

Jeremy, I wish you would just keep calm, slow down

and just pipe it very, very neatly.

Well...

A little safe.

I got raspberry

and I've got your charming little sable from New Zealand

with coconut.

Well, it's a bit safe is what Benoit is saying.

-You think it's a bit safe too?

-I think it's a bit safe.

-Is this one safe, here?

-And finally?

Their final dessert sees a chocolate cremeux surrounded by

fresh mint bavarois and coated in dark chocolate

with roasted nibbed hazelnuts.

I've got a texture which is extremely soft, a very mild,

mild mint infusion,

lost with a bit of chocolate cream.

All of that...

brings almost a faded-away

kind of chocolate minty kind of dessert.

And around - bam, a lot of dark chocolate with hazelnuts.

None of it is working together.

You should be able to enjoy it all in one go

and get the freshness of your inside

married harmoniously with the chocolate on the outside

and the nuts.

It is one-dimensional for me.

I wish you could put in a dacquoise

or a sort of sponge and something more.

I know that time is running out but this is final and I'm looking for

something that is so tasty that I want to dip in more.

Well done, and we will move on now to Liam's team.

Liam, Chris.

Before we start, can we just finish something off?

-Yes. Please.

-Of course.

Good Lord.

-Well, I think that deserves a round of applause, surely.

-Yes.

Well done, Chef. It is really impressive.

It's very elegant and it's so magnificent

to see you thought of the whole showpiece, and when I look down,

it's the Earth, the camouflage and then the poppy seed flower.

-Well done.

-You haven't mentioned my favourite bit,

which is the chocolate barbed wire.

I think you brought an elegant showpiece,

interesting stories, but I feel like I'm going to a museum a little bit.

I'm sorry, guys. I really like your poppy flowers.

They're really beautiful, they really bring something a bit more modern.

Without those flowers, it would be, dare I say, boring.

OK, let's move on to the tasting.

Liam's team's rhubarb and custard slice has a ginger shortbread base,

stewed rhubarb, ginger creme anglaise and rhubarb jelly.

Flavour-wise, it's actually pleasant.

The rhubarb is quite sharp.

Your custard could have been set a little bit more.

It's actually struggling to hold.

And the sable underneath, well, it's cooked nicely.

Is that an exciting dessert?

Maybe not, but I see you wanted to take the

rhubarb and custard kind of dessert. That's what I've got.

I'm quite disappointed I could not taste much rhubarb in it

and it's quite stringy as well. You can see this part

is very, very stringy.

As a whole, it is quite uninteresting for me.

Their chocolate cherry dome sits on a sable Breton base with a chocolate

mousse, frangipane and cherry coulis.

Beautiful, elegant.

The glaze is very shiny and uniform

and that little cherry topping is actually working a treat.

What does it depict? A land mine?

Pleasantly surprised, Chef. It's really, really nice.

This is what I want to see.

This is what our final is about.

Beautiful texture of the cherry, cremeux and then of course the biscuit.

It just finish up beautifully for me.

Well done. Very nice.

-Thank you.

-It's creamy, the sable at the bottom is cooked nicely.

I like that.

Well done. Let's hope it continues building up like that

because so far, we stepped up with the second dessert but what about the third one?

It's going to be even better than the second.

Their apple and blackberry tins contain a caramelised apple puree,

vanilla creme anglaise, blackberry gel and granola.

The effort you put on the tin to try to bring a story and so forth...

I think this is a dessert and it needed a little bit more work.

A little bit more texture.

I think the granola loses a little bit of its crunchiness

after it gets in contact with the texture of the apple.

As far as the apple is concerned, I've got a thin layer of apple.

There is no personality in it. There's just a little sharpness

to it.

Chef, it looks better than it tastes.

When I tuck in the first layer, for me, it is just too gelatified,

the apple puree, then I tuck in again, the custard,

then I realise that you have blackberry in it.

It's not as exciting as I like it to be.

And finally...

The cigar!

Their Winston Churchill cigars have a tempered chocolate shell

filled with raspberry mousse and raspberry liqueur syrup.

I wanted to do this the whole day.

Pose. Chef, I have to say that it is so beautifully done.

Love the cocoa butter that you paint on

and the little effort that you put in again.

Love it, love it, love it.

Whoops.

Liquid centre.

Not too set but I don't want it to drip on your shirt.

Every mouthful gives me different texture.

First I bite the chocolate, then when I bite in,

there's the mousse and then I hit the centre

and then the raspberry kicks in. All very beautifully done.

-Thank you, Chef.

-The element of surprise is there.

The raspberry cake, which I was looking for - without that,

it would have been boring, extremely boring.

This centre makes your dessert.

-Thank you, Chefs.

-Cheers, Chefs.

-This one?

-Or that one.

As the finalists serve their desserts to friends and family,

Cherish and Benoit face a huge decision.

-It's going to be hard, hey?

-Yes.

They'll be marking each centrepiece out of 40.

The thing about it, they make their own mould themselves.

I don't know.

I think you need to look at that in a different way, because you got the technicality,

the innovation...

And they'll mark each of the eight desserts out of 20.

Whichever team achieves the highest overall score out of 200

will be crowned champions of Bake Off Creme De La Creme 2017.

Seriously, I don't know who is the winner.

Me neither.

Good evening, everyone.

Lovely to see some of you again, and it is time now

to reveal the winner of Bake Off Creme De La Creme.

Liam's team, Chris and Bear, if you'd like to step forward,

and Laurian, Jeremy and Thibault.

It was incredibly close.

There were just three points in it.

The winner of Bake Off Creme De La Creme,

with a score of 146...

..is Liam's team.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Oh, my God!

-Well done, guys.

-Thank you, Chef.

Really well done.

Liam, if you'd like to come and accept the trophy.

-Wow!

-Was not expecting that.

Yeah, what an amazing achievement

and I think we're probably the three happiest guys in the world

right now.

We've sacrificed so much and it's just...

It just means everything.

To have three points in it, as well.

They were some real stiff competition in there today.

And they deserve this as much as we do.

We met great people and it's been a great experience.

We are a lot better than we were three months ago.

We look for new things,

we look for new ideas and this is why it's such a pleasure

to work with them two.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

He's a lovely man sometimes.

It has been one of the most difficult decisions of my career

and I've judged many competitions.

There was so little in between.

When there are strengths, there are also weaknesses, and you know what?

You come in the afternoon and they are reversed,

they swing it all around.

They were neck to neck.

The mark was just so close.

Little details on the cigar,

little detail that is on the ration pack.

What else can you ask for?

The Creme De La Creme, 2017. Phenomenal.

The two guys stood here with me are not just team-mates,

they are amazing friends.

They are not colleagues, they are

almost like brothers. They're family.

We've spent that much time together,

we know each other inside out and I wouldn't have changed them for the world.

So, congratulations to Liam's team, who have battled through entremet,

ganache, croquembouche and other words I've no idea what they meant

two months ago to become champions of Creme De La Creme,

and commiserations to Laurian's team, who were close but no chocolate cigar.

All that's left is for me to rejoin the party, have a sip of champagne,

thank Lord and Lady Gage and hopefully start a food fight.

We'll see you next time. Bye for now.