Episode 1 The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice

The Great British Bake Off is back...

-On your marks.

-Get set.

-Bake!

..with 12 new bakers braving the tent...

Argh!

..all hoping to impress Paul and Mary.

Fresh bakers with fresh challenges.

I'm expecting the unexpected.

Ta-daa!

CHEERING

I bet you weren't expecting that, Mary.

Time for An Extra Slice.

CHEERING

Hello, and welcome.

It's great to be back,

because I've nearly finished the cakes from the last series.

Did everyone enjoy the first week in the tent?

-AUDIENCE:

-Yes!

So, what have our illustrious judges and presenting duo

been up to while they've been away?

Well, you're not going to believe this,

but Paul has joined the KGB.

Here he is using his top-secret code phrase in front of Mary.

My nipples are pointing east, Mary.

I'm really interested in that.

Mary's been overdoing the sunbathing.

I'm definitely getting an overcooked crust.

And Mel and Sue have learnt absolutely nothing.

-Where did you get the orange juice from?

-The orange.

Cake Week has seen tears flowing and sponge-throwing,

but the bakers were determined to stay focused.

Val, for example, continued to practise her bakes at home

despite the faulty underfloor heating being stuck on max.

And they're an ambitious lot, too.

As Andrew checked his cake tin ready for the Showstopper,

there was concern that it might not fit in the oven.

Here on An Extra Slice,

I'll be joined each week by a panel of celebrity fans,

and later, we'll get to meet the baker who left the tent.

This week, it was Lee.

-AUDIENCE:

-Aww!

He'll be here in a bit, and he's brought along a second attempt

at the bake that really let him down.

Mm, I wonder which one of the three he'll have a go at.

Ohh!

-Oh!

-Ohh!

Oh, it's a joke.

Anyway, there's definitely at least one viewer

who knows exactly how Lee felt when things were going wrong.

It's Charlotte from Buckinghamshire,

who decided to try her hand at some macarons.

Here's how they were supposed to turn out.

And after carefully following the recipe

for 16 macarons to the letter,

here's how Charlotte's turned out.

Six blobs on a plate.

Well done, Charlotte.

And there are plenty more photos where that came from,

although just to be clear,

they're not all from Charlotte's kitchen.

So, what about here in the studio? Have you been baking?

-AUDIENCE:

-Yes!

I can't wait to find out what you've brought along,

and spare a thought for this lot who are going to try some of them.

Let's meet them while they're still hale and hearty.

First up, it's a chef, writer and broadcaster

who is the Mary Berry of Junior Bake Off

and who says she'd be happy never to see another cupcake in her life.

It's Allegra McEvedy.

CHEERING

Next, it's an actress who plays Kim Fox in EastEnders

and who says she's so scared of tiramisu,

she calls it terror-misu.

-That's right.

-It's Tameka Empson.

CHEERING

Hello, hello.

Thank you, thank you.

And finally, a comedian and Bake Off super-fan

who says he has the taste buds of a five-year-old.

It's Hal Cruttenden.

CHEERING

So, why are you scared of tiramisu, Tameka?

I love a tiramisu. Anybody knows me, I love a tiramisu.

So I did a cooking show and they taught me how to make it.

So I went home, I thought, "Yeah, it's easy-peasy."

And it took for ever.

I couldn't find the whisk, and I was whisking single cream.

You can't whisk single cream.

And I was... It was just a state. It was a state.

It took me hours. Like, proper, like, three and a half hours.

At the end of it,

it didn't look like anything like I planned it to be,

and it's just been a terror, it was a terrible experience.

-You don't even have to cook it, though, Tameka.

-OK next...

LAUGHTER

Allegra, what is your beef with cupcakes?

Everyone loves a cupcake, surely.

Well, it's twofold, really.

One is, they're an American import

and they are knocking out the fairy cake

that you and I were all brought up on.

Cupcakes are inferior.

They are basically a simple sponge, and it's all about the icing,

and the icing is not the cake.

It's the cake that's the cake, Jo.

Hal, as a long-time fan of Bake Off,

what are you actually hoping to see in the tent this year?

Last year, everybody got very emotional.

Virtually everybody cried, and even Mary cried, didn't she?

In the last thing, they had a moment...

I want to see Paul cry in the tent.

Don't you? I want somebody to produce a bake so good

that it breaks him, that he's, like, "I can't do that,"

and just cries, and he's, like, left an empty husk of a man.

Now, who wants to see some more pictures

of our viewers' home baking?

-AUDIENCE:

-Yes!

Now, we love an animal bake on this show,

and so do Joseph and Lucy from Redcar.

They had a go at a hedgehog cake they found online,

so they were aiming for this.

Aww!

And this is how it turned out.

-Bits of Toblerone.

-Tob... Yeah!

I don't think it's that bad.

It has got Toblerone on it, as you say.

Not as bad as another viewer Caroline's attempt.

That looks painful.

It looks painful!

Tameka, be honest.

That's a lot more scary than tiramisu, don't you think?

Wow!

Now, Alison from Essex baked a cake for her friend Lucy,

of Lucy's favourite hen, called Barbara.

What a great name for a hen. Here's the cake.

-AUDIENCE:

-Aww!

And here's the moment Babs met her cake doppelganger.

Ohh!

I mean, that's genuinely an amazing likeness. Which one's the cake?

A picture now all the way from Japan.

The Davis family baked a cake of their pet hamster, Purin.

-Here's the real Purin. AUDIENCE:

-Aww!

All soft and warm.

And here's Purin in cake form.

Looking like she's been left out of her cage all night in the rain.

And the animal bakes keep coming.

Thanks to Nina from Essex for this brilliant badger bake.

AUDIENCE GASP

Yeah, that's really good, isn't it?

Or he would be if badgers were exactly the same shape

as alligators.

And finally, a farmyard bake

thanks to the Tilley family in the Lake District.

Their cake is modelled on Dorothy the Highland cow

who lives in a field at the bottom of the garden.

I wonder if Dorothy the cow is friends with Barbara the hen.

Here's the real Dorothy.

Let's see if they've managed to capture the majesty

of the Highland beast.

She does have lovely eyelashes.

I quite like how they've left her a little cocktail sausage

on the plate in case she gets hungry.

Aww!

Please do keep sending them in -

the bakes you're proud of

or the ones that didn't quite go according to plan.

Details at the bottom of the screen.

So, the tent is up, the bakers are in,

and a brand-new Bake Off is under way.

Let's just remind ourselves what went down in Cake Week.

The bakers faced their very first Signature Challenge - drizzle cake.

And Rav got off to a shaky start.

I did have a moment where I panicked

and I cut myself within 30 seconds of us starting.

Kate got fruity with her bake.

I like the flavour of a Cox.

They're a good old-fashioned English apple.

While Tom and Louise cracked open the booze.

Cor!

I can't feel my face any more.

The Technical was a tea-time favourite.

We don't do that in the south, you know.

Jaffa Cakes.

Michael and Benjamina had a wobble over jelly.

It literally just says, "Make a jelly."

Val came unstuck with her sponges.

I greased them, but obviously not enough,

so they're sticking a little bit.

-And Selasi came out on top.

-Well done.

HE PUFFS OUT

It was time for the bakers to shine in the mirror glaze Showstopper.

Candice's genoise reflected badly on her bake.

I think it looks great, but your plain genoise is awful.

While Andrew stunned the judges with his creation.

The genoise is perfect, and the overall look is beautifully simple.

Lee left the tent,

and Jane's skilful bakes saw her crowned...

-Jane.

-..Star Baker.

So, 12 new bakers. What are your first impressions, Tameka?

I am so gripped. From the first episode...

I can see the drama.

Bless Benjamina. The tears... The ones who...

It started, and I was with her.

SHE IMITATES WEEPING

She's lovely. Love her.

I have a particular favourite. Andrew is my favourite.

I think... Yeah.

My wife's Northern Irish, and I've got a ginger daughter,

and I feel like he's one of the family.

He's almost the son I never had.

Well, I would swap one of my daughters for him. He's...

LAUGHTER

-I don't want to be creepy about this.

-No.

-But I love him like a son.

-He's nothing to do with you.

-I know!

-Allegra, what about you?

Well, having just finished judging Junior Bake Off,

the kids are definitely a lot calmer than that lot of bag of nerves.

I mean, I have to say, I do like Val,

because she spent a lot of time wafting her sponge.

What do you make of Val, Hal?

She's interesting. I think when they ask them to cook a fruitcake,

she should just stand there going, "Ready."

She's...

-Hal!

-What?

She is... You know...

Ohh!

-She is, though. She's a character, isn't she?

-I love Val.

And like me, she's a cake whisperer.

You've got to listen to the cake.

Well, she told us

that they were saying to her when they were ready,

that she listens to them and they go, "I'm ready, I'm ready."

She shouldn't listen to them, cos she nearly went out this week.

-So, they're rubbish.

-Nerves. It was nerves.

They're cakes. They don't know when they're ready. They're idiots.

I hope she's hearing nice stuff from the cakes.

I hope she's not hearing, "Kill them all."

Well, let's move on to farmer's daughter Kate.

She prides herself on being a wife and mother.

Her bakes were full of fruit from the family farm.

Should she be bolder with her ingredients, Allegra, do you think?

Even if it involves buying them?

-Well...

-LAUGHTER

We all know about that movement of going foraging

and getting it from your garden, and that's very big,

you know, in the way that British culture's going, and the baking...

All of that is good,

but I think she could do something a little bit more imaginative.

-She's going to have to pull out some stops to win.

-Mm.

-She's not going to win on blackberry and apple.

-No.

A little bit of the mask sort of slipped.

Her first bake, it was the Signature Bake she did,

and Paul didn't like...

Paul said, "I think you've got your flavours a bit wrong there."

-Oh, yes.

-And she went, "Oh, that's very disappointing,"

in a way that if I was Paul,

I'd have checked my brakes before driving home that night.

She's just...

On to Louise.

For her Signature Bake,

she made an orange liqueur drizzle cake.

And as we can see, it's the spitting image of Zippy.

Now, I'm delighted to say

that it's time for a celebratory Extra Slice Mexican Bake wave,

as we've had a series first -

our first weird ingredient.

One, two, three, go.

CHEERING

Do you know, that was actually quite good.

So, our first weird ingredient was courtesy of Rav,

who was making an unusual drizzle cake in the Signature.

I am making a ginger-spiced yuzu drizzle cake.

The drizzle is the yuzu juice and some demerara sugar.

-I've never heard of yuzu.

-Really?

I love the way he's astonished that no-one's ever heard of it.

"Really? You've never heard of yuzu?"

Here's what it looks like.

Fairly revolting.

Mel's taste buds soon picked up on the unusual flavour,

as we can see in this unseen moment.

That's got a yuzu kick.

-There's no yuzu in it.

-There's no yuzu in it, OK.

-No, there isn't.

It's just ginger.

Ah, yes, the distinctive flavour of no yuzu.

Now, the first Showstopper Challenge was to create a mirror glaze cake.

So, whose mirror glaze did you like,

and which ones made you glaze over?

Tameka?

Well, it would be Jane.

It just came out and took my breath away.

I would have loved to have had a piece of that cake.

Yeah, I'm with you. Jane's did look sharp.

But I actually really liked Selasi's as well,

because I thought that having the nice red top, the raspberries,

I thought that was really nice.

Everyone's was just brown, brown, chocolate, chocolate.

All of them did chocolate, which wasn't part of the brief.

At least his looks like raspberries, I loved the colour of it.

I thought Kate's was vaguely sinister.

It was blue, wasn't it? It was like...

You know, they say she's OK,

but I think she melted down a Smurf or something.

Was Lee the right person to go?

I think so.

Lovely guy. Lovely guy, from what I saw,

but the Showstopper, it just stopped.

It wasn't stopping any shows.

I don't think you could...

And I know he's about to come out, but...

As a judge, I don't think you could be truly excited

about his next bake, what he might produce next,

after he's done, as you said, three bad rounds.

And I wanted him to stay, cos he's...

I like to have somebody... a minister in, a religious man.

-I had this little theory...

-Why?

Well, I've got this little thing

that if he put holy water in a cake and see if Paul gags.

Do you know what I mean? Paul's going, "It burns, it burns."

That would have been... Yeah.

Well, Lee will be joining us very shortly,

and I'm sure he'll be delighted

that you all agreed with Paul and Mary,

that he was the right baker to leave the tent.

Now, in happier news, Jane became the very first Star Baker.

She's so excited,

she immediately rushed outside the tent to interview herself.

Can you believe it?!

I don't believe it.

Now, I understand

that our health and safety officers have been placed on standby,

so we can now take a closer look

at some of the bakes brought along by our studio audience.

And possibly have a taste of one or two of them as well.

Jen and Keira, where are you?

Hello. What have you got there?

We've got a cake burger.

Ooh!

Is the red meant to be, like, sort of undercooked burger?

No, it's the ketchup.

Oh, it's ketchup. Sorry. Sorry.

The wonderful thing about that is,

you could eat that the way we really all want to eat cake, which is...

We don't want little slices. That's fantastic.

It looks great. Thank you very much. Well done.

-Pamela, where are you?

-Here.

Oh, hi, Pamela. Now, tell us about your bake.

It's a banting cake. What's that?

It's a low-carbohydrate, high-fat blueberry and zucchini cake.

-So, define zucchini.

-Oh, courgette.

-Courgette.

-Oh, my God.

-And then it has a cream cheese... lemon icing.

-Right.

And the drizzle is blueberry and cassis.

-So a healthy cake.

-Very.

-With lots of vegetables and booze in it.

-Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

-Hal, do you want to go and get it?

-Yes.

Allegra, what do you think about courgettes in cakes?

Well, they do just disappear.

-It's a bit like they just give it moisture and some texture.

-Yeah.

So, it shouldn't really taste like courgettes.

It should just have a nice texture to it.

-Hopefully.

-That looks nice.

-Oh, I love the layers.

-Nice layers.

-Look at that. Ooh, yeah.

-It's a good cake. Really nice.

-Thank you.

-Really nice and moist.

-The icing's delicious.

-Mm!

-More booze.

-Mm!

-Oh, yeah.

-More booze next time.

Yeah, cos I'm not really tasting anything of the booze.

It's just a little in the drizzle.

-Need more drizzle.

-Oh.

-It's a hit, Pamela. Well done.

-Thank you.

Emma, where are you?

Hi there, Emma.

Now, your cake takes unusual flavour combinations

to a whole new level, I believe.

-It's a savoury cake?

-Yes.

-It's a savoury cheesecake.

-Right.

So it has one layer that is carrot and Cheddar,

and the top layer is Brie and courgette,

and it has a sweet chilli soft cheese icing

with red peppers on the top.

-Have you made it specifically for this panel?

-Yes.

-OK!

-Hal, would you like to go and get it?

-Do we have to?

-Yes.

-OK.

Allegra, what are your thoughts on savoury cake?

I'm in a place of blind panic at the moment.

I like the fact that you took the time

to make them into heart shapes.

-HAL:

-Yeah.

-That's nice.

LAUGHTER

-It's nice. No, it's nice. It's nice.

-That's nice.

No, I love... I love decoration, me. I love a good finish.

It does feel a lot lighter going through it than I thought it would.

It's like a rock cake, almost. Remember rock cakes?

-Oh, look at that.

-Yeah, it's nice.

-Nice, nice.

-That's not bad looking at all.

-Nice.

-Not bad looking at all.

-Stop prevaricating.

-Let's just eat it.

-Yes.

TAMEKA LAUGHS

-Hal, what's that like?

-Um...

It's... No, it's not... It... It...

It's not going to hurt you.

LAUGHTER

Proper bit of advice.

Make them separately into scones and ditch the sweet chilli

and they'd be delicious.

It's not as bad as we thought.

-Well done, Emma. Brilliant.

-Yeah.

Our final bake has been brought in by Bonnie.

-Where are you, Bonnie?

-Hello!

-Hello!

Now, it's very appropriate,

given that we've got a lot of washing-up to do

after tasting those bakes.

Tell us about your bake. It looks like washing-up sponge and liquid.

Yeah. It's sponge cake. They're sponges.

But they've worked really badly,

so I'm not going to lie, it's the worst tasting cake I've ever made.

Right...

But this is sort of sugar syrup.

Because it's so dry, that helps alleviate that a bit.

But that's not very pleasant either.

But it looks like sponges and washing-up liquid.

-I think it looks amazing.

-It does.

-Really fun idea.

-We think you're amazing.

-Thanks.

-We do.

Thank you, Bonnie, and thanks very much to all our studio bakers.

-Thank you.

-Yeah.

Back now to the tent,

and time to meet a man who drew inspiration for his drizzle cake

from the bells of St Clements, but as the saying goes,

"Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for Lee."

Let's give him a warm welcome.

CHEERING

Hi, Lee. Nice to see you. Please take a seat.

Hello.

Lee, welcome to An Extra Slice.

-How would you sum up your time in the tent, apart from quite short?

-Mm.

It was exciting. I enjoyed it.

I was only there a short time,

but, you know, we got a bond between us.

We all understood how each other felt.

They were supportive of each other.

And it was a really good time.

Now, for the Signature,

-you baked an orange and lemon drizzle cake.

-Yes.

-And there was a very specific inspiration behind it.

-Yes.

-So, oranges and lemons for the bells of St Clements.

-Yes.

Why did you do that? I do not know, said the great bells of Jo.

Ironically, you dropped a clanger early on in the bake

with your butter.

What happened with your butter, Lee?

I should have warmed it, really.

Paul came to me afterwards and he said,

"Why didn't you just put it in the microwave and warm it up?"

It was too hard, and I put it into the mixer,

and I thought it would be all right.

But I started to put the eggs in, and at one point, it seemed OK.

But when I started to fold the flour in,

it became evident that it wasn't.

And I'd gone past the point of no return, really.

There wasn't anything I could do with it then.

Well, let's just see, shall we,

what Paul and Mary thought of your St Clements bells-inspired drizzle?

You did have a total separation

when you creamed the butter and sugar together.

BELL TOLLS

-And that's why we've got quite an open texture.

-Mm.

-BELT TOLLS

-Flavour's good.

Texture's awful.

BELL TOLLS

-He just loves giving bad news, doesn't he?

-He does, he loves it.

Now, Paul wasn't overenamoured by the texture of your drizzle cake,

-but he did like the flavour.

-He did.

And, apparently, drizzle cake is Paul's favourite,

so was that nice to hear?

It was. It was encouraging. He liked...

He liked the orange curd that I'd done

on the lemon flavouring, the drizzle, in the sponge as well.

He thought that the drizzle had gone right through the sponge.

-So, there you go. Some positives.

-Yeah. Can take that away.

-Focus on that.

-Moving on to the Technical.

-Were you a fan of Jaffa Cakes before you went into the tent?

-Oh, yeah.

But I've never sat and looked at a Jaffa Cake and thought,

"What's the design on the top?"

Who does? I just sit...

You watch television or do something and eat it.

Er...

I know what you mean, because you can be chatting away

without even realising that you're eating one.

-You don't realise.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Weird, isn't it?

Your...

-Your Jaffa Cake landed you 11th place.

-It did.

MUMBLED: After the judges...

LAUGHTER

After the judges noticed that your chocolate didn't go to the edges.

-Yes.

-Was that how you remembered a Jaffa Cake when you pictured it?

Or did you think the hundred-year-old classic recipe,

loved by millions, needed improvement?

LAUGHTER

I thought the flavour was all right.

When I tried one afterwards, I thought it was good.

-And I think Jaffas should change.

-Do you?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Bolton Jaffa.

-Yeah! Yeah.

"Not as good as the original." No...

Let's see the moment

when you told the judges what you planned for your mirror glaze cake.

Let's have a look.

On the top of the first one, there'll be a ganache

with strawberries laid on top.

The next sponge will go on. That will have strawberry jam on top.

There'll be another sponge on top with a ganache and strawberries,

and then another sponge on top of that.

Was that the reaction you were hoping for?

No! No!

Because you called it your Strawberry Surprise Cake.

Was that cos, surprisingly,

you hadn't planned to put any cream in it?

Yeah...!

Well, the surprise in the strawberry

was actually on the top, which was in the rose,

which I didn't have time to make.

Well, he did give you quite a heavy hint, Paul, didn't he?

Have you got any cream in this, or is it just ganache and strawberries?

Just the ganache. So do you think I should change it and put...?

I don't think anything, my friend. That's entirely up to you.

Yes, he thought you should put cream in.

I should have done, really.

Mary did support me, though, which wasn't shown there.

-She did say, "He's got cream in his ganache."

-Oh.

-Is that a euphemism?

-I thought you were going to say...

-She was trying to be encouraging.

-Yeah.

But even for Bake Off, that was too rude.

-Yeah.

-We do give you the opportunity to have another go

at a bake that you did in the tent.

-Now, what have you decided to do?

-I did the mirror cake.

So, the question we're all desperate to ask...

-Have you put any cream in it?

-Yes!

CHEERING

So, shall we have a look?

Well... Mirror cakes don't travel very well.

-All right, get your cake out.

-When it left Bolton...

it was shiny bright.

And when it arrived here...

-Oh, well, are you still happy to have a go at it, kids?

-Yeah.

-OK.

-Right.

-This is the surprise, yeah?

-Yes, it is. If you... I had to...

-Got it. OK, got it.

-I had to make sure it didn't fall off.

Is the cocktail stick a surprise?

You sort of look at it and go, "Ooh!"

-It's a strawberry!

-Oh, it's lovely.

Technically, it's not a surprise, cos he did just tell us.

Anyway, it does look lovely.

I could do without the cream, actually.

LAUGHTER

Tell Paul!

-Really, really blooming yummy.

-Thank you.

-Really is yummy.

-You're very gracious.

-Tameka?

-Very nice.

It's a ten from me.

-No, genuinely, I really like it.

-It's lovely.

-Fantastic.

Well done.

I salute you.

-I salute you. Very lovely.

-Thank you.

APPLAUSE

-Now, we're really sorry to see you go so soon.

-Yeah.

And so as a little gift, we've made you one of our special cakes,

-which Hal is going to bring over.

-My God.

So there we go.

-Thank you very much, Hal.

-OK.

This is you with your orange and lemon drizzle cake

and the St Clements bells.

So there we go.

APPLAUSE

That's lovely.

So, ladies and gentlemen,

will you please give Lee a Great British Send Off?

CHEERING

Well done.

CHEERING

Before we go, I've found more evidence that Paul

has really got a lot tougher on the bakers since he joined the KGB.

Here he's got Mary to cleverly distract everyone's attention

while, off-camera, he deals with a baker

who didn't put their oven on at the right temperature.

The classic lemon drizzle cake

-is often done as a tray bake.

-GUNSHOT

And I think they're going to be much more inventive than that.

Not really.

Paul wouldn't hurt a fly.

Would he?

Uhh!

Whoa!

Thank you.

That's it for this week.

A big thank you to Lee, to all of our studio bakers,

and to our celebrity panel.

Allegra McEvedy.

CHEERING

Tameka Empson.

-CHEERING

-Thank you.

And Hal Cruttenden.

-CHEERING

-Thank you!

Next week, it's biscuits.

Will any of the bakers crumble, or even snap?

And who'll be the second baker to get dunked?

See you at our new regular time of 9.30.

Till then, goodbye.

CHEERING