Episode 1 The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice

The Great British Bake Off is back.

12 brand-new bakers. Together with Mel and Sue...

-That's mine.

-..Mary...

-Absolutely scrumptious.

-..Paul...

That...

is fantastic.

..and now me, Jo Brand,

poking my nose into all the goings on inside the Bake Off tent.

Welcome to An Extra Slice.

APPLAUSE

Good evening. Earlier this week,

we were served our first helping of the new series of Bake Off.

Don't know about you, but I've got room for some more.

So, here on An Extra Slice, I'm joined by a panel of celebrity fans

to get their take on the new bakers and their bakes.

I'll be checking out your cakes from home, and talking

to our audience of baking boffins

about the cakes they've brought along!

CHEERING

And I've been rooting around the Bake Off bins for unseen

moments from the tent just for you.

Here's one of Paul.

Francis does keep missing out on Star Baker. She needs to up her game.

Ooh!

Don't worry - he was absolutely fine,

although one of his hair spikes got snapped off.

And here's a question for you. How does Mary Berry like her nuts?

And you've not chopped the pistachios too finely and I think I like that.

You like your nuts chunky.

LAUGHTER

Chunky. I have to agree with Mary on that. Chunky is the way.

I tried baking with whole nuts once.

That coconut cake was enormous.

Plus, well be asking the all-important questions,

like what happens when one of your bakers gets a puncture?

HE EXHALES

Joining us in the studio will be Claire.

She is the first baker to leave the tent this year.

AUDIENCE: Aw!

I'll be asking her why she was crying over cake...

I don't know why I'm crying over cake.

LAUGHTER

OK - don't bother asking her that.

So let's crack on and meet tonight's panel of celebrity fans.

First up, a fantastic chef who won Northern Ireland's first

Michelin star - Paul Rankin.

APPLAUSE

A comedian who says her biggest disappointment in life

is an iced finger - Roisin Conaty.

APPLAUSE

And a MasterChef judge whose love of puddings is

the stuff of legend - Gregg Wallace.

APPLAUSE

Gregg, are you proud of your sweet tooth?

Yeah, I think we all have them as a kid

and I just never lost mine.

I've loved, since I was about four years old, Battenberg.

I think I had Battenberg as one of my wedding cakes once.

LAUGHTER

How many other wedding cakes have you had?

I think there's been three.

-Paul?

-I like that very simple type of cake with lots of

nuts in it, a little bit of citrus in it. That sort of continental...

Lots of butter, honey, quite rich.

Roisin, you're not much of a baker, are you?

No, I'm more of an eater.

-I eat what gets baked.

-Is there anything you won't eat?

I mean, if you bake something, I won't eat it,

you're in a bit of trouble.

LAUGHTER

Now let's have a look at what you've all been up to in your kitchens.

Baking-wise I mean.

If it's anything else that's a whole different show really.

Jo from Gloucester sent us this picture

of a flower pot birthday cake.

Although I notice if you look closely someone...

LAUGHTER

-..someone was anticipating indigestion.

-That's amazing.

That is the truth right there.

And Paula from Bedfordshire made this classic Victoria sponge.

That looks like something you'd see in a cookery book.

Maxine from Cambridgeshire also made a Victoria sponge.

LAUGHTER

That doesn't.

Lily made this birthday cake for her twins.

AUDIENCE: Ooh!

Meanwhile Elizabeth's daughter got this cake for her birthday.

LAUGHTER

That looks like she's iced a tortoise.

So, first things first.

Let's peer through the tent flaps now and...

LAUGHTER

Let's take a look at our 12 new bakers and their first

Bake Off challenge - Cake.

-Bakers, welcome to the Bake Off tent. On your marks.

-Get set.

-Bake!

The first Signature Bake challenge of the series was Swiss rolls.

Yeah, that looks quite good.

Iain had his own thoughts on how to roll one.

It's split a bit, yeah.

Claire didn't hold back in front of Paul and Mary.

-The cream is non-descript.

-I quite liked the cream.

-You're wrong.

-And Richard and Luis impressed.

-That is fantastic. Nice swirl.

I think it works phenomenally well.

Mary Berry's cherry cake was this week's Technical Challenge.

Kate forgot to take her almonds of the hob.

I can smell burning. Oh!

And Jordan seemingly forgot the one key feature of a cherry cake.

Where are the cherries?

I really don't know where those cherries have gone.

He predictably finished last with Norman,

and Enwezor not faring much better.

In the Show Stopper, the bakers had to make 36 identical cakes

and Chetna went with the theory that big is best.

They're too tall.

It was a good day for the tent's oldest baker, Diana.

Tick, tick, tick.

-And the youngest, Martha.

-That is very good.

-But Nancy's Jaffa orange cakes...

-Absolutely perfect.

..led to her being named Star Baker.

I'm thinking, well, maybe I must be quite good then.

-And a chocolate disaster for Claire...

-Absolutely no idea.

..meant she was the first to leave the tent.

Come and have a massive sandwich.

APPLAUSE

So what do you think of the new bakers? First impressions, Paul.

I think they are likeable bunch. I think bakers are.

There is something about the whole process of baking, it's a

sort of giving, warm, loving...

Feeding someone who loves to be fed.

LAUGHTER

Roisin, what about you? What were your first impressions?

I liked them. I thought they all seemed nice. I liked Nancy.

I really liked it when they said to her, "Are you worried about it?"

-She was like, "No." I just thought that was...

-I liked that too.

She was really cool, like, "I know my cakes."

I thought there was a decent level of competency throughout

the whole 12. I don't think anybody made a fool of themselves.

There is one that I really like and that's Diana

and she's from the WI

and I don't know anybody in the WI who doesn't bake well.

How many people do you know in the WI?

LAUGHTER

I like Chetna as well.

People with Asian backgrounds that live in this country do this really

great fusion thing where they blend the two

and I like the look of some of the stuff she is doing as well.

Let's discuss the first challenge, the Signature Bake,

which was a classic Swiss Roll.

Paul and Mary wanted to see a clearly defined spiral,

with not even the hint of a crack.

Well, one of the bakers is a builder so you can't be too careful.

Some had the right idea - rolling their sponge up before it had cooled.

And then there was Iain's idea.

Why have you done that?

If you score it, it prevents the cracking when you roll it.

-I want to see you do this.

-All right.

This is one of the most monitored rolls in the history

-of Swiss roll making.

-Mm.

LAUGHTER

Mary, don't be inscrutable. Be loving, be loving.

-MARY: We... PAUL: Thank you very much indeed.

-Thank you.

LAUGHTER

You could see it wasn't going to work, couldn't you?

It was pointy as soon as he started rolling it up.

I don't know why he didn't just look at Mary Berry's face.

On the first turn you'd have been like, "This isn't going to work."

The first score is really only to get it started.

It's that difficult first turn sort of thing.

Normally in a professional kitchen you wouldn't really do that.

You'd just kind of make sure that your sponge layer is not

too thick. A lot of them had their sponges too thick

and too much filling in it...

Just scoring it once works, do you think?

If you have trouble getting that first turn in.

You don't have to score it.

You saw some beautiful ones there that weren't scored.

Gregg, have you ever made a Swiss roll?

Yes. I did it on stage as well as one of the food shows.

I actually made a chocolate log

and mine had the odd crack, but when you ice it,

it doesn't matter if there is the odd crack.

-Do you like brown food?

-Oh, mate...

LAUGHTER

That wasn't the answer I was expecting.

I'm actually a child of the late '60s and '70s,

so all of my food was brown. And I still think the best food is brown.

-Your shirt is brown.

-In celebration.

And I still think the best cakes and desserts are brown.

They are butterscotch...

Should you really be a judge on MasterChef?

LAUGHTER

This week's nightmare ingredient was cherries.

The Technical Bake was a Mary Berry recipe - a classic cherry Cake.

Mary, cherry cake.

Why have you picked this is the first Technical Challenge?

It's a great British classic

but it's quite tricky to get absolutely right.

-That's what you're looking for, isn't it? Suspended cherries.

-Exactly.

Paul, how do you keep your cherries suspended?

LAUGHTER

There's a few ways I could answer that, but the first thing,

and I was very impressed that Martha picked up on it, that the

batter has to be the right texture. If your batter's too loose,

almost anything's going to fall through it.

Martha's 17 and she is already picking up on this sort of technique.

The girl blew me away. I thought she was fabulous.

I think 17-year-olds are quite mature.

I left home when I was 16 and by the time I was 17 I knew exactly

how much water to put in a Pot Noodle.

LAUGHTER

It was actually quite a tussle at the top.

You've mentioned Martha and then of course there is Nancy

and Richard as well, all vying for Star Baker.

And all three of them did deliver excellent Show Stoppers.

The crunch of the nuts on the outside with the coffee works extremely well.

Excellent flavour and it's beautifully soft.

-That is fantastic.

-Wow.

-Good distribution with the cherries.

-Good bake. Good icing.

It's a good bake. They are very thin sponges.

In my book that's absolutely scrumptious. What perfection.

-A sheer joy to look at.

-Very, very good.

Our Star Baker is Nancy.

For Mary Berry to tell me my cake was perfect - it doesn't get better.

-Gregg, would you have crowned Nancy Star Baker?

-No.

LAUGHTER AND BOOING

Controversial. Who would you have crowned Star Baker?

Definitely back with the WI again.

Diana, that chocolate cake with the chocolate mousse inside

was obviously wonderful.

Double brown.

LAUGHTER

I would have voted for Nancy. I think she deserved it. She was just proper cool.

She looked like someone who's been baking her whole life and didn't need your praise.

She was like, "Eat the cake or don't. They're blinding"

She just had that vibe.

I loved the little bit at the beginning

when they were doing the Swiss roll and she kind of got her caramelised nuts wrong, but she went,

"I'm just going to blitz it and turn it into a crunchy praline thing and roll it down."

-They ate the Swiss roll. "That's the job."

-Yeah.

This week quite a few of the bakers brought along home-made gadgets.

Norman's 36 cake Show Stopper was the perfect excuse to invent

a multiple cake de-tinner and he also made a brilliant serving

-dish for his Black Forest Swiss roll.

-That's a skateboard.

Nothing gets past Paul, does it(?)

Perhaps someone can help me identify this

because I found this at the back of a cupboard.

And I know what it looks like, but it is actually a gadget.

-Does anyone want to have a...?

-A milk jug?

Is it for separating out the milk from the cream?

You are sort of not far off but have a little look at this.

Egg whites.

It looks like his brains.

Wow! That's a crazy thing.

It separates the egg.

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

That is so horrid, isn't it?

That's amazing.

I've got to get one, yeah.

Our studio audience have also been busy baking. Zoe, where are you?

You've brought two cakes. Let's have a look at them. Zoe, yes.

-Brilliant.

-Is that Mary Berry?

-Yep.

-I thought it was Margaret Thatcher.

LAUGHTER

GREGG: And Ronald Reagan.

And you've given them 3D eyes. What are the eyes made from?

-Terror.

-Terror!

LAUGHTER

-And, Olivia, where are you?

-Hello.

-Hello.

What have you got in your cake?

It's almond and citrus and a secret ingredient - mashed potato.

That is my type of cake.

It's my favourite cake and it's got spuds in it too. Love it.

-ROISIN:

-I'm coming over. I'm coming over.

Can I ask you why mashed potatoes in your cakes?

It makes them gluten-free. It's a flour substitute.

It makes them gluten free and I thought, why not?

-They are amazing.

-Are they amazing?

It's like dinner and dessert in one.

It's like the head and shoulders of cake.

-Suneer. Where's Suneer?

-Hello, Joe.

-You've got something unusual in your cakes, haven't you?

-Yes. Bacon.

I've got bacon as well.

Am I asleep?

-The green ones have got the bacon in them.

-Yes.

-Right.

So you've got bacon in there. What else is in there?

The ones with bacon are salted caramel and apple with bacon.

-Salted caramel and apple?

-Yeah.

-Oh, my word!

-Bacon on the top?

Not bacon in it?

-There's a small amount of bacon.

-And crispy bacon on the top.

-Crispy bacon. It's all mainly crispy bacon.

-Why?

I love bacon.

LAUGHTER

-How is it?

-It's good. It's like an American breakfast.

-Gregg?

-No.

LAUGHTER

Not for me, I'm afraid. Maybe I'm too old-fashioned.

But salty, crispy bacon and then a sweet icing doesn't work for me.

But don't let me stop you.

That's brilliant, thank you.

-So, the first baker has left the tent.

-Aw!

She may not have been in there for long,

but she brought an explosive energy to proceedings.

And that was even before her mini chocolate cakes blew up.

Please, will you welcome Claire?

-Welcome to An Extra Slice.

-Thank you.

Your time in the tent was a bit short lived, sadly.

-But in between disasters, did you enjoy it?

-Loved it.

Wouldn't change it for the world. Loved it. Yeah, it was brilliant -

-if eventful.

-Yes, you had one or two little nightmares, shall we say?

A few? It just kept happening. I just couldn't stop it.

Was that nerves, do you think? What was it?

I don't think I anticipated how it would be in there.

I think I just thought I was going baking some nice cakes in a nice tent

with some nice twee pastel colours around me.

And I kind of got in there

and realised that actually someone was going to be judging me.

And they're there. They're right in front of you.

And obviously his eyes are boring into you, like bloody kryptonite.

You know, and Mary's sort of looking at you

like a disapproving aunt and you're thinking...

you know, in the grand scheme of things,

my buttercream is not important.

But at that moment in time,

it's like the most important thing in the world.

So, yeah, you know, I wouldn't change it for the world, I loved it.

-Do you think that Mary and Paul made the right decision?

-Absolutely, yes.

-Really?

-Yeah, I mean obviously from the time in the tent,

you see that there's a couple of us in the bottom three.

And I think it's fairly obvious that,

with Iain's scoring method of the Swiss roll

and Jordan's kind of haphazard way of baking

and then my just explosions,

everything just went a little bit wrong.

But I got to a point where everything went wrong and it was like,

I can't polish a turd. Just enjoy it.

Oh, yeah, fair enough.

We obviously didn't get to see the best of you, as a baker.

Shall we remind ourselves?

The cream is a little bit non-descript.

-I quite liked the cream.

-You're wrong.

Mm...I'm thinking spider's web.

Sorry. I have got an hour and 40, so I've got another tray to go in.

Do know what I know about baking?

It's that you can do things quite quickly.

-Never open an oven for too long.

-Oh, yeah.

-BLEEP

-Sorry!

Oh, bugger, Claire, look what you've done.

-It looks a bit clumsy.

-They're both dry.

Mm.

Oh, what went wrong?

Do you think the time constraints were difficult for you?

Yeah. I mean, I procrastinate at home.

I will think I'm going to make, you know, a Swiss roll,

so I will sit and make the sponge and I'll watch a bit of, you know,

the news or Bargain Hunt, or whatever.

Sort of doing it one thing after the other

without having 15 brews in between and without having sort of like

my daily fix of Homes Under The Hammer and all that sort of stuff.

-It is a bit of a shock.

-Yes.

Now, let's talk about your Showstopper, shall we?

Because your mini chocolate and cherry cakes

-suffered a bit of a catastrophe, didn't they?

-Yes.

I wasn't quite sure what the problem was,

but here we can actually see you explaining it.

I should warn everyone

Claire does actually use quite complicated baking terminology.

Right, so, these have gone wrong.

Yeah.

Understatement of the year.

So, when you finished your cakes, all you have left to do

was put the 36 cakes on a stand ready for judging.

There wasn't actually time to include this in the main show,

and let's face it, you had quite enough going on already.

So we're getting an exclusive here. Let's see what happened.

Oh!

No, it's fine.

Right, that one's been on the floor, that middle top one.

You just put it back on the stand.

I thought, with those little crispy bits on top,

if there's a bit of grit in there, you're not going to notice, are you?

And it's lucky no-one saw it!

Did you tell Mary and Paul which one you dropped on the floor?

I just sort of totally forgot about that.

All I could think was, "Oh, my God, I've got to the end of this

"and I've got 36 cakes on a platter here.

"I've done quite well."

And then somebody shouted out at the back, "Claire, you need to

"tell them really that one of them went on the floor."

And I just went, "Oh, yeah." And Paul just looked at me and he went,

"What, one's been on the floor?" You know, proper horrified.

And I was just like, "Yes, sorry, it was that one."

Now, Claire, here on An Extra Slice, we do give our bakers a chance

to redeem themselves and have another go

at one of their less successful bakes.

Away from the pressure of the tent, you've made another selection

-of your mini chocolate and cherry cakes, haven't you?

-I have, yes.

-Shall we show your Showstoppers?

-Okey-dokey.

-All righty.

I've not thrown any of these on the floor.

APPLAUSE

There we go.

They do look a bit different, Claire.

In the middle there's a nice squishy middle.

They are lovely, they are really lovely.

The sponge is light enough, there is booze and heat in the middle

-and there's a nice sugary, crispy coating. That's nice.

-Thank you.

Why didn't you do that in the tent?

I've been asking myself the same question, Gregg.

You like it, do you?

I do like it. She should be let back in because this is good enough.

-Thanks.

-Listen, well done. Massive improvement. They all loved it.

-Roisin, what were you going to ask Claire?

-What bits...

You're not going to get to make all the stuff.

What thing do you think, if you'd made, you might have had a chance of being Star Baker?

Was there one thing you thought, if I get to make that,

-I'm going to nail it?

-Bread week.

-Bread week.

-Yeah.

-That's your strong thing?

Yes, because they wanted filled bread and I stuffed my bread with

a great British breakfast, but I did it really quite... It was awesome.

Sorry, you stuffed your bread with... You made a sandwich?

Now, it gets a bit scary now because two of us

on this panel have also been baking.

Claire, this is your chance to step into Mary and Paul's shoes

and judge our efforts.

One of these is a chocolate fudge cake.

And one of these is a lemon drizzle cake.

Yum!

-What's up with it?

-What's up with it?

It looks like someone's had a lie down on it, that's for sure.

-What do you think?

-It tastes nice. It's dead lemony.

I'm just looking at you...

Is it a bit raw in the middle?

It's a bit too sticky.

I don't know, it's a bit eggy. It's all right though.

-Still eat it.

-Cake!

-So, a bit raw,

-a bit eggy.

-Yeah.

-A bit flat, but brilliant all the same.

OK, that's the chocolate fudge cake.

Awesome.

Oh, Jesus!

Wow!

That's why you've given her a trowel.

Um... Is there no filling?

-Yeah, a cake.

-How can you have a cake without filling?

That's really dry.

So, now you've got to decide

and you've got to use the time-honoured Bake-Off phrase -

"In first place, it's..." Which one and why.

In first place, it's this one

because even though it's not cooked

and looks like an old man's flip-flop...

-LAUGHTER

-It's what I was going for.

-..tastes all right.

-So, Roisin is the winner.

You win a massive great jar of sprinkles.

Well done, mate.

APPLAUSE

So, Claire, it's been an absolute pleasure to have you on the show.

And to say thank you, we have baked you, yes indeedy,

-a very special cake to take with you.

-Sounds exciting.

You might recognise the person on top of it.

Oh!

Oh, lovely!

-Thank you.

-Thank you so much, Claire.

Thanks for coming in.

Well, that's it for tonight. Next week is biscuit week in the tent.

Here's a quick look at how the bakers get on, including

their Showstopper challenge to make a three-dimensional biscuit scene.

-They haven't got a soggy bottom, have they?

-It tastes burnt.

-Cake.

-Please, can you say to me, "That's it a cracker."?

-That's a cracker.

-Good.

-Gorgeous.

I really expect to get a Blue Peter badge for this.

-You've managed to retain a good snap.

-Sugar.

-We'll see what happens.

-That's it.

So, get cracking at home, but not in a Swiss roll type of way.

It would be great if you could bake some biscuits.

You could try your hand at a 3D Bake-Off tent

or a 3D Mary and Paul. Or me, come to that.

Get baking and stick your pictures, good and bad,

up on Facebook or Twitter and Instagram,

using #extraslice or via our website.

So what have we learnt this week?

Well, first, Paul and Mary think a miniature cake can be too big.

Paul and Mary are wrong.

And finally, we learn that the decoration of the cake

should always enhance the overall effect.

So if you're decorating a wedding cake

for a couple called Aaron and Stephanie,

don't add a little swirl in between their initials.

A big thank you to our guest baker, Claire, to all of our studio bakers

and to tonight's panel, Paul Rankin, Roisin Conaty and Gregg Wallace.

CHEERING

See you next week. Good night.