Episode 4 The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice

Week Four in the tent and just nine bakers remained.

Emotions ran high... Oh, dear. Oh, dear.

..as Yorkshires failed to rise...

They're not going to allow me into Yorkshire, ever again.

..when The Great British Bake Off tent got battered.

I wanted to take Yorkshire on holiday.

Ee up, Andrew, that'll be grand!

Time for an extra slice.

WHOOPING AND APPLAUSE

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Hello and welcome to the show.

Who enjoyed watching the bakers take a bit of a battering?

AUDIENCE: Yes!

Yes, we did.

Now, Paul was keen to reassure the bakers

that although he has to be tough, he's no tyrant.

Here's how he summed himself up.

A beautiful, brown, crispy exterior,

with a lovely, soft interior.

LAUGHTER Aww.

I think that's fair enough.

And he also took the opportunity to show us what he'll be wearing

in Barbados this winter.

LAUGHTER

As the always stressful Technical Challenge was about to be revealed,

Rav calmed his nerves by playing the piano.

CHIRPY PIANO MUSIC

LAUGHTER

While Jane decided to wait outside the tent and only pop up

at the very last minute.

BOING!

There she is!

Batter Week saw our fourth baker whisked out of the tent.

It was Kate.

AUDIENCE: Awww!

But the good news is she'll be joining us a bit later on.

AUDIENCE: Yay!

Kate, of course, made some sad-faced churros bunnies in the tent,

but here's a more cheerful batter bake,

courtesy of Cath from Lincolnshire,

a Yorkshire pudding she served up recently

that's positively beaming with happiness.

LAUGHTER

Plenty more viewers' pictures to come

and I can see that our studio audience have been busy too.

Show us your bakes!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

There's a couple out there that look very unusual.

Still, that's the Extra Slice audience for you.

Now, our celebrity panel will be trying a few later on,

so let's meet the lucky trio.

First up, she's the tough-talking judge

on MasterChef: The Professionals

who says she can't say no to a packet of salt and vinegar crisps.

It's Monica Galetti.

CHEERING

Next, it's the former Cabinet minister and Shadow Chancellor

who says he loves an overcooked Yorkshire pudding with jam.

It's Ed Balls.

CHEERING

And, finally, a comedian who says English cakes are dull.

It's Henning Wehn.

CHEERING

Now, Ed, you're quite a keen baker, aren't you?

I am. I'm good at doing kids' birthday cakes.

I do one for each of our children every year.

I have done ever since they were old enough to ask for them.

I've done pirate ships, a Norwich City cake,

Coca-Cola cans... Wow. ..Curly Wurlies...

Oh, I'm coming round. ..Jelly Babies, everything.

What's your favourite thing to make using batter, Monica?

For me, it's very simple - pancakes.

Weekend is pancake time in our house.

My husband and I tend to compete who makes the best.

It's probably... I always win, yes.

LAUGHTER

Henning, you've had a go at baking something for us. Oh, yes.

This time it's a sugar-free, egg-free... Lovely(!) ..vegan...

And you say our cakes are boring?

Yeah, exactly, I want to beat you at your own game.

I want to make the dullest cake the world has ever seen. Let's see.

Yes, it is.

Blimey, that came out a lot better than anyone would have guessed.

It's burnt. I'm well chuffed.

What? It's burnt.

That is well edible.

You eat it. I will!

What's it called? Is it supposed to look like that?

Well, I've never made it before, but... LAUGHTER

..that's the benchmark for now, so...

This isn't to cut the cake -

I've had a look at it and I want to stab myself.

You know, Jo, I think you should invite me on here

when you're actually going to give me

something nice to eat for a change.

You haven't even tasted it yet. I can see it.

LAUGHTER

AUDIENCE GROANS

It's alive!

It's got a life of its own.

You first.

It's totally disgusting.

LAUGHTER

I'll eat it myself, then.

Anyway, thank you, Henning, for making that lovely cake.

Pleasure. APPLAUSE

Shall we have a look at some more pictures

of our viewers' home baking?

AUDIENCE: Yes! Yes, let's.

OK, now, Beverley of Frimley Green made a cake

as a centrepiece for a retirement party and several guests

attempted to dig in with a spoon.

Well, everyone loves a paella.

AUDIENCE GASPS

It's actually a Madeira sponge with the seafood created

from modelling chocolate and everything else from fondant.

That's brilliant, Beverley, isn't it?

Yeah. WHOOPING

Amy from Beaconsfield often makes birthday cakes for children,

but this time was the first time she'd made one

in the shape of a spider.

It was requested by a three-year-old...

LAUGHTER

..who won't make that mistake again.

Meanwhile, in a kitchen in Aylesbury,

Jenny was busy creating a cake for her husband Jason's birthday

inspired by his beloved pet rabbit.

Here's Misty in the garden.

AUDIENCE: Aww!

And here's Jenny's version.

LAUGHTER

APPLAUSE

I mean, as you can see, Jenny's managed to recreate a pair

of beautifully silky ears by jamming two Twixes into the rabbit's neck.

Now, Highland cattle have proved a regular feature

of our viewer bakes

and three more have come flooding in.

Rebecca from South Yorkshire made a Highland cow cake

for her brother-in-law's birthday.

AUDIENCE: Ooh! ED: That's good.

Andy from Shropshire made a Highland cow cake

for his daughter Ceren's 16th birthday.

LAUGHTER

And Charlotte made a Highland cow cake for her mother Libby's 60th.

AUDIENCE: Aww!

They're amazing.

It seems like we finally found an animal cake that you can all do.

Oh, no, hang on.

Apparently, we've just had one from a Pippa in Birmingham.

LAUGHTER

And let's end with the efforts of Hannah and Louise

from Barrow-in-Furness, who made some cake pops in the shape of bees

to sell at a charity event.

Here's what they were aiming for.

And here are the ones Hannah and Louise made.

BUZZING, LAUGHTER

I love looking through your pictures,

so do keep sending them in,

from the heart-warming to the health and safety nightmares.

Details at the bottom of the screen.

Back now to the tent and let's remind ourselves what happened

when the bakers battled batter.

Week Four in the tent and a Bake Off first.

Let's get battered!

For the Signature, the bakers had to produce 24 Yorkshire puddings.

SHE WHIMPERS

How can Yorkshires make you feel so nervous?

Some of the fillings were traditional,

some were spicy.

You've got tofu in this, haven't you?

SUE: Come on, Paul, you can do it.

JO: But in the end, it was all about the batter.

I'd have another one of them.

In the lace pancake Technical,

the bakers got out their frying pans,

and their pencils,

and Benjamina's skilful designs won her first place.

The Showstopper was a Spanish classic,

churros. Never eaten one.

Really, really wish I had.

And the bakers had to beat, pipe and fry their way through to the finish.

Not as strong as I used to be. Benjamina was crowned Star Baker

and it was adios to Kate, who became the latest baker to leave the tent.

It's fine. I had a shocking week.

So we saw flat Yorkshires,

overcooked pancakes and chewing churros.

Were you surprised, Henning,

that something as simple as batter caused such chaos?

Yeah, I think they've all done well, they just have got the problem -

they've got very, very fussy customers, innit?

I know exactly how they feel.

They churned out top-notch stuff and then everyone was poo-pooing it!

That is just the way it goes.

Now, Ed, in the General Election, of course,

you experienced what it's like to be voted out.

Yep. I'm sure you feel...

LAUGHTER Thank you for reminding me. Sorry.

Just to say that I'm sure you can identify with how Kate was feeling,

but do you think she was the right person to go?

I thought it was very close.

I thought Tom, but also Rav and Selasi all had quite difficult days

and none of them did great in any of the challenges.

I didn't think it was going to be her.

I was rather hoping she was going to stay in.

Do you agree with that, Monica? No, I thought Kate was going to go.

LAUGHTER

Her Yorkshire puddings, that needs to be very hot,

the pan and the oil needs to be very hot

and not enough mix as well was the problem there.

The pancakes were odd in colours because of the variation in heat

and then the churros, which became too oily,

if it's too hot, they burn, if it's not hot enough,

they just soak in the fat,

so I think just her control on the temperature is what cost her.

I'm delighted that she'll be joining us later,

although I hope she doesn't talk at the speed she does

in this bit of unseen footage,

or the chat won't last more than a minute.

Kate, what was the problem with your batter?

My batter was too wet. At home, I've had a very stiff batter that was holding its shape,

you didn't really need to chill it that much,

because it was holding its shape.

The batter I produced today was much wetter.

At home I tried adding a bit more water to the batter because

it was too stiff and it was then the perfect consistency.

Recreated the same thing today and it was sloppy.

LAUGHTER

Now, let's talk about Tom.

He was Star Baker last week, but was in the danger zone this week.

Last week, he went for a snake design

for his show-stopping bread centrepiece.

This week, he went for something completely different -

a snake design for his show-stopping churros.

Let's have a look.

That's a great imagination with the snake.

Yes, uh, as in,

"You need a great imagination to work out that that is a snake."

Ed, let me ask a question

Strictly viewers may soon be asking about you -

was he incredibly lucky not to be out of the competition this week?

LAUGHTER

Well...

I thought he tried really, really hard

and you have to be really sympathetic.

Aww!

That's the correct answer. That's the correct answer.

Is he just trying too hard to push the boundaries,

do you think, Monica?

Um, Tom seems to come across very experimental with his food.

Um, I think if you're going to enter something like Bake Off,

you're going to be sure of what you're doing

and to use chickpea flour for something

that needs to be very light and airy is a big error on his part.

What advice would you give Tom, Henning?

Goodness me!

I can always send him a recipe.

LAUGHTER

Now, Selasi's approach was - the bigger the batter, the better,

but some of them were even bigger than Selasi himself was aiming for.

They're humungous!

They're massive!

I've actually got one of the Yorkshires Selasi made in the tent

and he wasn't exaggerating.

Here is a normal-sized Yorkshire, OK?

And here's Selasi's Yorkshire.

LAUGHTER

I'm having that later.

What did you think of Selasi's pork tenderloin and apple sauce

and crackling Yorkshires?

I thought his Yorkshire puddings looked really good

and he's obviously creative.

He's quite relaxed and I'm not sure at the moment he's quite showing

he cares enough - he's kind of like, "whatever," and I'm not sure whether

you can impress Paul and Mary with that sort of "whatever" attitude.

You've actually got to get on it,

so I think he's got to concentrate a bit more.

Meanwhile, Andrew wanted to take Yorkshire on holiday.

Let's watch a bit of unseen footage

and see if it was somewhere Mary wanted to go.

So I'm making...

It's basically "Yorkshire goes on holiday," so Yorkshire tapas.

DRAMATIC BOOM, LAUGHTER

But in the end, Andrew's well-risen Yorkshire tapas puddings

went down well with the judges.

Andrew put the rise down to using four eggs to 250g of flour,

having clearly done some in-depth research.

There seems to be a lot of debate in the Yorkshire pudding community

about how much rise that gives you.

We asked for a statement from the Yorkshire pudding community,

but unfortunately, it doesn't exist.

Was it abolished under New Labour, Ed?

LAUGHTER

Onto the technical and the judges were looking

for 12 heart-shaped lace pancakes.

Have you ever attempted a lace pancake, Henning?

I don't know why I'm asking you that question, but you never know.

Only ever by accident.

LAUGHTER

And, Ed, I have to ask you this - are you a tosser?

LAUGHTER

I'm going to make you demonstrate your technique now. Ooh! Ooh!

You may stand if you want to. You want me to toss it? Yes, please.

It's sort of... It doesn't really move.

Wa-hey! CHEERING

Do you know what?

I think you're in with a chance of being Prime Minister after that.

It's Henning's go now.

Now, this week's Showstopper brought a touch of Spain to the tent

with the bakers having to produce 36 Spanish churros.

I love the idea of bringing a touch of Spain

into the Extra Slice studio,

but I couldn't be bothered to bake churros,

so I organised this instead.

HE SINGS IN SPANISH

CHEERING

CHEERING

Now, where were we? Oh, yes, churros.

One of the oiliest challenges ever seen in the Bake Off tent.

Ed, what did you think of the churros challenges?

I think that is one of the hardest things I've ever seen on Bake Off.

I think, although you can get distracted

by all the toppings and fillings,

to actually get choux pastry through a deep-fat fryer into something,

which tastes good and has the ridges and is right inside,

is really hard and I thought it was a very difficult challenge.

Is it difficult, Monica? No, not really, but...

LAUGHTER

It would be for me and Henning, wouldn't it? Speak for yourself!

They made it difficult by putting the fact

they all have to be the same size.

Normally you just squirt it into a deep-fat fryer, like Rav was doing,

but because it all had to be uniform in size,

that made it more tricky.

But I was really impressed with the different shapes and flavours.

Not all of them worked out, of course,

but some of the shapes were amazing.

Now, Val was in a world of her own, as usual.

It's standing up like caterpillar legs, if you know what I mean.

No, Val, we don't.

LAUGHTER

On to Selasi - he flavoured his churros with lemon and star anise

and then burnt them, or at least Paul said they were burnt.

Mary played good cop to Paul's burnt cop

and was prepared to give Selasi a second chance.

Perhaps they'd picked the one burnt churro out of the 36.

Shall we just check that they're all the same? They'll all be the same.

Well, if we do, that's the 37th. We might find that all the rest...

No, no, they're all the same.

LAUGHTER

Selasi does seem to have a habit of burning his bakes.

This week's churros,

last week's chocolate bread, and his dampfnudel,

but I've found a bit of unseen footage lying around in the tent

that shows us that he's started burning other things as well.

Take a look at this.

I think I burned the carpet a little bit.

Let's hope there are no burnt bakes here in the studio.

We're going to take a closer look at some of them now.

Right, we'll start with one or two

that have been inspired by the theme of batter.

Rebecca, where are you?

Hi, Rebecca. What have you brought along?

I have brought the Colosseum made of waffles and pancakes.

AUDIENCE: Ooh!

Ooh, seemed to be a general impressed murmur there.

That looks amazing.

Jill, where are you?

Jill... Oh, right, you've gone for a lemon drizzle cake

livened up by the decoration on top of it.

What's that?

It's a Paul Hollywood. Oh! Ohh!

Can I say, he looks like a complete psycho there, doesn't he?

I didn't put pupils in the eyes, cos I did it originally

and they kept following me around the room.

I mean, it is actually a pretty good likeness, I think,

and it does lend your lemon drizzle an air of menace.

So, well done. Fantastic.

Now, Jackie, where are you?

Oh, hi, Jackie. Hello. Now, what have you made?

I've made a fish and chip supper. Right.

With fondant peas, white chocolate and cream cheese mayonnaise.

What's the fish actually made out of?

It's flapjack, and then kind of basically battered

with peanut butter and dulce de leche.

Yum. AUDIENCE: Ooh!

Gosh. What about the chips?

The chips are my granny's shortbread recipe.

Cos I was going to say

if they're made out of chips, I'll have them, but it's...

That looks incredible. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Right, now... Yes, we're going to taste a few now.

Henning, if you could bring them up here for us.

Now, Jane, where are you?

Hello. Hi, Jane.

What has Batter Week inspired you to bake?

I made lemon and blueberry pancakes, but they're actually cake inside.

Let's confiscate that right away.

Thank you.

What's the butter made of? It's made out of fondant. OK.

So are the blueberries as well.

If you could cut one massive slice, Monica,

then you can have three forks.

It's like a wedding cake. Do you think we should do it together?

I can't see.

LAUGHTER

APPLAUSE

Oh, that's really good. Oink-oink.

It does look amazing. That is an actual cake.

Does it taste good, Monica? It's amazing. Really great. Thank you.

I'm going to enjoy eating this on the way home in the back of the car.

So, well done, Jane. Absolutely brilliant. Thumbs up from everyone.

Now, Joyce, where are you? Here.

Oh, right, Joyce, hi.

Now, I have to say that your bake looks incredible.

What is it? It's Taiwanese beef noodle soup cake.

Everything is made of a sugar paste,

apart from the chopsticks and beef.

The beef is made of beef jerky.

The cake itself is a chocolate chilli cake.

Henning, do you want to go and...? Yeah.

So, Joyce,

how did you get the noodles and the chopsticks to do that?

It's a secret. It's a secret, OK.

It does look absolutely incredible.

Monica, what do you think? That is impressive.

Oh, wow, look at that. Turn it around.

It's a chocolate chilli... Chocolate chilli, wasn't it?

Chocolate chilli cake? Yes. Henning... Thank you.

What do you think, Ed?

I think...

to make a beautiful cake and it taste nice is really...

Oh, my gosh, it's got chilli in!

LAUGHTER

It's actually quite strong.

Is it really strong?

I'm sorry!

Blimey! Henning, what do you make of...?

Just to make... We're eating a pot of noodles and, I mean...

There is a lot of chilli in it.

Creeps up on you.

I like spicy food, so for me, it's only just warm.

Monica, you appear to be harder than everyone else.

Joyce, I think that's brilliant. Thank you.

And thanks very much to all our studio bakers. Thank you.

But now to the tent, and our fourth baker has left.

She's the Brown Owl who gave us butterfly biscuits

and a bright blue bake.

Will you please give a warm welcome to Kate.

CHEERING

Hi, Kate. Lovely to see you. Please have a seat.

Hello. Hello.

Kate, how has life been as a Bake Off baker?

Oh, it's been really exciting.

It's absolutely exhausting.

I didn't think I could crowbar anything else into my life.

I thought it was full enough already.

But I was determined to give it a go,

and we've managed to fit it in somehow.

So, Batter Week was sadly your last.

I mean, how were you feeling about it when you went in?

Yeah, batter's not really my thing. I'm quite tight on what I do.

I'm quite a creative person and I like to be in control.

And batter can be a bit of an unpredictable beast, really.

You know, what had worked at home didn't work in the tent so well,

and it definitely wasn't my thing.

Now, I have noticed you have a very unique relationship with your bakes,

because you think they're human,

you talk about them as if they're actually alive.

Look, let's have a look.

I'm happy now I've got some cake for company.

Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, Benjamin.

I want to be a happy baker, cos then I have happy biscuits, so...

The children are cooked now.

Sorry, blackberries.

APPLAUSE

Did you realise you were doing that?

I didn't realise to what extent I humanised my bakes.

I think I may humanise a lot of things.

When you're practising for Bake Off,

you spend a lot of time with what you're baking,

so you do develop a relationship with it, really.

By the time you get on set, you and your cake are really quite involved.

It's really quite an intimate relationship, really.

Which is why I think sometimes

the Technical bakes aren't quite the same,

cos you've only just met them, so...

You know.

Now, one of your standout bakes from the tent was your corn maiden.

Paul was impressed by your plaiting and beautiful flavours,

and Mary loved your corn maiden so much,

she said she wants to go to your next picnic.

That must have been a high point for you, was it?

Can you imagine taking Mary Berry on a picnic? It would be lovely.

I now go to bed with visions in my head of, like,

sitting in a cornfield with Mary Berry and my children and my husband,

and Paul coming towards us with a combine harvester!

Biscuit Week, that was another good week for you, wasn't it?

I loved your Brownie-inspired gingerbread Showstopper.

Were your daughters pleased to see themselves depicted in gingerbread?

It's quite exciting for them to see themselves on telly,

even if it is in gingerbread form. I hope they enjoyed it.

Although I'm not sure about the point

where Paul bit their head off,

whether that's a good thing or a bad thing,

or whether I've just scarred them for life.

Sort of I cook children and then I get scary men to bite the heads off.

I'm not...!

Well, one thing I especially liked

about your swallowtail butterfly biscuits

was that you deliberately flavoured them

with two things Paul Hollywood hates.

Lavender and bergamot.

What was your thinking there?

Well, I was aiming the biscuits at Mary,

so they weren't really meant for Paul.

He was sort of collateral damage, really.

Fair enough. I was hoping Mary was going to enjoy them.

But then I think she said she wasn't sure about lavender either,

at which point my heart sunk.

I took a risk, and I liked them. And, yeah...

Mary described the icing as a little "informal".

But, overall, she said the biscuits were a winner.

And speaking of icing, another memorable bake

was your swallow-decorated mirror glaze cake.

Were you pleased with how it turned out?

Yeah, the actual genoise inside that blue glue

was nice, it was light, it wasn't overbaked, it wasn't dry,

so when I took them out of the oven, I thought,

"Oh, I've made two really nice genoise sponges,"

and then I spoilt it by smearing blue stuff over them.

Well, here on Extra Slice, we do give you an opportunity

to have another go at a bake you did in the tent.

What have you actually decided to do?

I've made the biscuits. They didn't turn out...

In the tent, they were a little informal,

so these are slightly more formal butterflies.

OK, let's pass them over. There we go.

So, guys, here we go, help yourself.

There is a bit of blue icing on them, actually.

I sneaked it in just for good measure. Let's all have a go, then.

Ed? They're totally gorgeous.

Beautiful. They're sort of...

They're not hard. They're not all gooey.

They're sort of beautiful crumbly biscuit.

I think they're great.

Mm, they're good for you, they're excellent.

Good for you. He's from Germany.

LAUGHTER

Monica? After that horrible cake we had in the beginning...

When was that?

I've erased it from my memory.

Everything's been wonderful. These are stunning. Thank you.

I think Paul and Mary completely got it wrong,

and you should not have been sent home.

Aww! Aww, thank you. I just want you to know,

I've made you, like, a special Brownie badge, right,

to say well done for getting Paul to like lavender.

So just pop that on. Aww, thank you. There you go.

And...

APPLAUSE

We've also made you one of our special cakes to take with you,

which Henning is bringing over.

It took me all day to make.

Aww! There we go.

That's you, as you can see, with your corn maiden

and your gingerbread daughters lending a hand.

Ladies and gentlemen,

will you please give Kate a great British sendoff.

CHEERING

That's it for this week.

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

and to our celebrity panel.

Monica Galetti.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Ed Balls.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

And Henning Wehn.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Next week, the bakers get a pasting from pastry.

See you at 9.30. Until then, goodbye.

SOUNDS TO THE TUNE OF: In The Hall Of The Mountain King by Grieg

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