Episode 6 The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice

The tent went back to nature.

-Bakes bloomed...

-That's what I call a Showstopper.

-..while bakers wilted...

-Whoa, whoa, whoa!

..when the Bake Off went botanical.

Mary liked my shirt and I kind of like her top, actually.

It's quite nice.

Well, they said wear something floral. Time for An Extra Slice!

CHEERING

CHEERING

Hello and welcome to the show. Did we all enjoy botanicals week?

ALL: Yes!

Inside the tent, everyone was getting into the spirit.

Mary wore a floral jacket.

Mel wore a floral shirt.

Selasi wore a floral T-shirt.

And Paul wore black.

LAUGHTER

But perhaps there was a reason why Paul wasn't looking as

cheerful as the others in a week full of flowers.

Tom, tell us all about your...

PAUL SNEEZES

Hay fever, sorry.

HE SNEEZES

Sorry. Hay fever again.

I've got hay fever. Brilliant cake.

LAUGHTER

Meanwhile, an unseen moment reveals how Paul and Mary got

a rare opportunity this week to watch someone stirring cake

mixture in a bowl, and they certainly made the most of it.

LAUGHTER

Andrew always likes to know exactly what the time is,

not only in the tent but also in Berlin, Cairo, New York and Mumbai.

And finally, it's been a nail-biting week for Andrew and Tom.

As they wonder which one of them will win the final.

Not of the Great British Bake Off - I've no idea who gets that far.

No, of the Bake Off tent table tennis championship.

LAUGHTER

So botanical week saw our sixth baker weeded out. It was Rav.

AUDIENCE: Aw!

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

-Hurray!

CHEERING

And I'm delighted to say you've been having

a go at some botanical bakes in your kitchens at home.

Alanna, who rather appropriately lives near Sandwich in Kent,

thought she'd bake a cake for her friend Sarah,

who's obsessed with cacti.

Here's what she was hoping to produce.

And here's what her friend Sarah was presented with.

LAUGHTER

Plenty more of those later.

Plus, we'll be taking a look at what you've brought along here to

the studio. Show us your bakes!

CHEERING

Now, I've picked a bunch of celebrity fans to discuss

botanical week.

First up, it's one of Britain's most acclaimed Michelin-starred

chefs and a man who says the smell of

a Chocolate Orange is enough to make him feel queasy.

It's Tom Aikens.

CHEERING

Next, it's a woman who says she has a shelf of cheese named after

her in a shop.

It's Liza Tarbuck.

CHEERING

-And finally, a man who says he hates curry. It's Danny Baker.

-Yes, I do!

CHEERING

So, Tom, why does a Chocolate Orange offend you so much?

Well, it was when I was a child. I was about ten years old.

I was rummaging around in the bottom of my Christmas stocking.

And it was a Chocolate Orange. And I unpeeled it, unwrapped it,

and just the smell of the Chocolate Orange put me off for life.

-I'm with you on that.

-Are you?

I don't know why they muck about with chocolate.

-My worst is raspberries and chocolate.

-Oh, that's even worse.

That's delicious. Lucky to get it! It's absolutely...

..beautiful.

Now, as ever, you've been busy in your kitchens at home,

and we've already seen a memorable cactus cake.

Karen from Somerset created another prickly character for her

daughter Becca's birthday cake.

It's that Extra Slice regular, the hedgehog.

Karen found inspiration on the internet,

set to work and effortlessly produced this delightful creature.

LAUGHTER

Slight difference.

Joni from Yeovil decided to make a cake as

a surprise for her grandad's 90th birthday.

She decorated it to look like a man's suit as her grandad is

known for always looking smart.

Here's the cake.

AUDIENCE: Woo!

And the great thing is that when Joni's grandad turned up at

his surprise party, he was wearing this!

LAUGHTER

APPLAUSE

Excellent work, Joni.

A number of viewers have been making cakes that look like their pet dogs.

Denise from Essex captured her dog Hugo in cake. Here's the real Hugo.

AUDIENCE: Aw!

Not an easy task, but Denise came up trumps. Here's Hugo in cake form.

LAUGHTER

And apparently those eyes follow you around the room.

Meanwhile, Martin from Maidenhead is the proud owner of

a Chinese-crested powderpuff, which I'm reliably informed is a breed

of dog and not something that would turn up on Antiques Roadshow.

Here's Martin's faithful friend.

AUDIENCE: Aw!

And here's Martin's pet recreated in cake.

LAUGHTER

Nailed it, Martin.

And finally, Richard, who lives near Sutton Coldfield,

decided to make a birthday cake for his wife, Catherine,

of her Yorkshire Terrier Scruff.

Here's the real Scruff.

ALL: Aw!

Having thought to himself, "How hard can it be?"

here's Richard's cake version of Scruff.

LAUGHTER

I love that!

It's going to bite your arm off.

He thinks that the choice of pick'n'mix for the teeth and

tongue might have been a mistake.

LAUGHTER

-Don't!

-I do love looking at your pictures so keep sending them in.

Details at the bottom of the screen.

Back now to the tent, and to remind ourselves what happened in

botanical week, here's a potted history.

Botanical week in the tent and just seven bakers remained.

Anything that grows goes.

In the Signature, the bakers had to perfect pastry,

crack curd and master meringue.

It looks horrendous.

The Technical was a French classic.

Herb fougasse.

Leaf-shaped loaves which had the bakers stumped.

I've heard of it, but never made it before so... Yeah, we'll see.

-But Tom's bake was top of the tree.

-I would buy this fougasse.

And he came first.

Yes!

The floral cake Showstopper filled the tent with

a different type of flower.

I wish I'd chosen fresh flowers now.

-Tom was crowned Star Baker for a second time.

-Rav!

And Rav became the latest baker to leave the tent.

I'm going to miss you all.

APPLAUSE

So the good news for Rav was that he broke his three-week run of

coming bottom in the Technical.

The bad news was he was asked to permanently leave the tent.

Tom, where did Rav go wrong?

To be frank and honest, as we all must be,

I think he was just trying to do too much or not enough.

The Showstopper... Sorry, I didn't mean to say that, but anyway...

LAUGHTER

The cake...

-Which one? Too much or not enough?

-Not enough.

-Right.

Not enough. Too plain Jane for me, I think, really.

And his meringue didn't really work either. Not for me. Runny, flat.

And again, blow-torched. Should have been baked.

-Mary was right in that instance.

-Mine are always flat.

-Are they?

-Yeah.

-You've got to really whip it, whip it, whip it.

-Whip it good!

LAUGHTER

And again, there's so many meringues that you can do.

You can have a French meringue, a Swiss meringue, an Italian meringue.

There's no British meringue, I don't know why,

but there are all the other parts of Europe.

Why don't we just invent the British meringue and just make it

-flat and runny?

-Yeah! Good idea.

Let's do that.

APPLAUSE

So, Danny, what did you think of poor old Rav, then?

-Did you think he was...

-I don't think he's poor old Rav.

I think he was one of the few people I've seen on this

who I actually thought, "Fair play to you there. That was nice.

"That was OK."

I think there comes a point in Bake Off where you look around at

the others and think, "Time to get... I'll get me own coat now."

And I think he had that about him.

That said, I don't think he should have gone.

Who would you have sent home then?

-Andrew, I'm afraid.

-Andrew?

-Yeah. Yeah, I think he's...

Ooh, look, muttering, muttering.

He was in tears outside, which is not a bad card to play ever anyway.

-He...

-Nothing like tears in a man. We all like tears.

He was sitting there and, "Oh, no, it's the most devastating

"thing that's ever happened to us," and there was Rav going, "Oh, well.

"That's the way it goes." And I thought, "Oh, no. Don't say that."

I actually thought Andrew had an absolute shocking week

and I was a little surprised when Rav came out.

Liza, what will you miss about Rav?

I think he was a really lovely presence.

And I can only imagine that you need somebody as...

You know, words like pleasant.

And actually, when you got to him, it's like, "Ooh,"

and a bit of an everyman.

So it's quite nice to have somebody that stabilising in there.

Now, Tom won Star Baker for the second time,

which puts him level-pegging with Candice.

Did Tom deserve to be Star Baker this week, Liza, would you say?

I think that pumpkin pie thing looked horrible.

And then going into his bread, which he's of course very good at,

I was quite impressed by that.

And then the cake, although I didn't like his icing colours...

I was gathering from the way Paul was reacting that to get tea

through a cake is actually quite a difficult thing.

-Yeah, it's difficult.

-Danny, do you agree?

No, I don't. I think it's an outrage and the whole decision stinks.

LAUGHTER

No, I don't. Making a cake that tastes of tea.

What do you have with cake? Tea!

LAUGHTER

No, have a cake that tastes of biscuits.

-Then you've got a cup of tea.

-His fougasse was very good, wasn't it?

If indeed a fougasse it was. It looked like garlic bread.

Suspiciously like garlic bread. Wasn't it?

Turns out Tom's very familiar with fougasse.

I love fougasse. I've never actually made a fougasse.

But it's one of my favourite things. It's actually my cinema snack.

LAUGHTER

His cinema snack? Really?

Although now I think about it, why not?

Now it's time for ice cream or maybe some nuts.

Popcorn? Why not try a hot dog?

Or better still, pop out to the foyer and ask

a member of staff for a freshly baked herb fougasse.

And just see what happens.

Quick, the film's about to start! Have you got your cinema snacks?

-Got your popcorn?

-Popcorn, yeah.

-Got your hot dog?

-Yes, I have.

-Great!

And of course...

I've got my usual fougasse.

LAUGHTER

APPLAUSE

What a sensation!

Cinema snack.

So the bakers had to present two loaves cut to

a classic leaf design, flavoured with...

# Sage, rosemary and thyme... #

And dried oregano.

The bakers were confused about quite a few aspects of the

Technical Challenge.

Mainly about what a leaf actually looks like.

And had to try drawing one to remind themselves.

Although it turned out that Candice was just making a shopping list.

LAUGHTER

LAUGHTER

I like her a lot. She's got that steely thing about her,

-and she's got a look in her eyes.

-She's growing every week.

She's growing every week and she looks like she's going to

deck someone before long.

Yeah.

You know when she gets more pursed. When she's like...

She's under great pressure, it's more...

Because she's got such a lovely dolly little lip as well,

it's all pronounced.

And she also likes to take herself out of her comfort zone.

She always wants to do something else extra. "Got to do this...

"Got to do another tier on my cake."

And it's nice to see that, that she wants to push herself.

Now, the botanical Signature was citrus meringue pie,

and the judges were looking for melt-in-the-mouth meringue,

perfect pastry and a zesty filling.

And there was something else Mary in particular was hoping to see.

The thing that I'm not too happy about is they're nearly all

using blowtorch.

For me,

the perfect way is to have it in the oven. I like them in the oven.

Tom, what's wrong with just using a blowtorch?

It's the cowboy way.

Cos, like, you know, if you haven't got time, just blowtorch it.

I mean, it's a bit lazy, to be honest.

Mary is right. Make a lovely meringue and bake it in the oven.

That's how it should be done. No other way.

Well, citrus flavours chosen by the bakers included lime,

lime and coconut and lime and coconut with lemongrass,

but Benjamina went for grapefruit.

As this unseen moment shows,

Mel had a special facial expression for grapefruit.

It can be very...grapefruit, can't it? Makes you go...

I find. Do you get that, Bez, with a grapefruit?

And having had that little bit of fun with Mel,

Mary got back to the serious business of banging on about crisping meringues in the oven.

They're nearly all using blowtorch,

and, to me, meringue topping is best

put in the oven to get a crunchiness.

You've done it in the oven and that's how I like my meringue done.

But I would like the meringue in the oven.

Andrew was keen to get on with HIS signature.

Just got to crack on with my meringue.

He wasn't going to let Sue delay him, was he?

A nifty little manoeuvre there. Let's have another look.

SOUND OF CAR ACCELERATING

Andrew decided to go with his mum's recipe, which had stem ginger

in both the pastry base and the curd and ginger syrup in the meringue.

His mother's clearly very fond of ginger.

She must have been delighted with Andrew's appearance when he arrived.

The judges said the curd was stunning but the pastry base and

meringue let it down.

Tom, what did you think of Andrew's Key lime pie.

The one thing, again, if you looked at his meringue,

it was flat and...not very good.

I like the flavour combination, the ginger and lime works well,

but I'm afraid the meringue...was poor.

-His curd looked good, though, didn't it?

-Yeah, very good.

Even I knew that and I don't like it.

But I did think that that looked like

a triumph and they lingered on it quite nicely.

Yeah, Danny, I think we know what you think, so...

Tipped too much.

Now, Jane was bitterly disappointed with her Showstopper

and, as we can see, was sure she wouldn't be surprised by

what the judges had to say.

I think there's nothing you can say that I haven't said myself.

-It's overbaked.

-Oh, is it? Oh.

"Shucks.

"It is!"

OK, let's find out if there are any winning bakes here in the studio.

-Dawn, where are you?

-Over here.

What have you created for botanicals week?

I've done four cactus in a greenhouse.

Ooh, wow, they look amazing.

Cos cacti cakes do seem to be quite the thing at the moment.

-What's the appeal?

-Erm, it was just easy to pipe.

What are they made of?

Erm, it's a sponge at the bottom, the crumb is Oreos and rich tea

biscuits, and then it's sugar paste and buttercream.

Well, thank you, Dawn. Mandy, where are you?

-Hello. You've made a coffee cake.

-Yes.

And how have you decorated it to make it look really tempting?

Well, I actually thought that botanicals meant bugs and

creepy-crawlies and things like that, and they don't!

Right. So...

-So then I added some lettuce.

-Lettuce and...

Oh, my God.

LAUGHTER AND GROANS

-What are the slugs made of?

-Oh, they're just fondant.

They have got a very realistic glisten to them.

-Look at that. TOM:

-Brilliant.

Thank you, Mandy, thank you for showing them to us.

Kath and Louise, where are you?

-Hi there. Now, you're sisters, aren't you?

-Yes.

-Yes.

-OK.

Kath, you first, what have you made?

Well, Louise came up with a theme of a holly, for Paul Hollywood,

and berry, for Mary Berry.

Ohh!

So, erm, I made just a vanilla cake with Paul and Mary to go on the top.

And then Louise...did hers as well.

Yeah, Louise, you decided to have a go. Let's look at yours.

LAUGHTER

I did send her a picture of mine. And then it obviously didn't...

And then that happened!

Oh, well, you've both put effort in, so thank you very much.

Pam, where are you? Hi, Pam. Your cake looks lovely, what is it?

It's a cake with lots of vegetables in it, so it has parsnip,

sweet potato, carrot and kale.

-Danny.

-All right, OK, all right.

-I can't apologise enough, I'm so sorry.

-No, I can't.

-Sitting there while I'm running down every ingredient in this.

-It's OK.

-So...

-All right. I'll be honest.

I mean, it looks absolutely spectacular, those are real flowers.

I mean, I'm hoping that the kale will be enough to get your interest

-but not enough to taste.

-It looks amazing.

The flowers are lovely and peppery, I like them in a salad.

-That is brilliant.

-That is delicious.

It's nice to know that we can get our five-a-day in a cake like that.

-Absolutely.

-Great. Good job.

-It's earthy and spicy and sweet.

It's got a hint of Christmas about it, which is really lovely.

-That is extraordinary. Bravo.

-Well done.

-Bravo.

-Thank you.

-Zoe, where are you?

-Here.

-Hi, Zoe.

So what have you brought for botanical week?

Erm, I've brought floral cakes with crystallised herbs and

-flowers on top.

-Oh, they look gorgeous, actually. As a plant!

-But... Danny, would you mind going and...?

-Erm... OK, here...

Man alive! This makes me feel like Monty Don. Look at that.

-That is extraordinary, again.

-What's all that stuff on top?

-Erm, herbs. There's rosemary...

-Oh, that's right, rosemary...

-..sage, mint and parsley.

-Isn't that brilliant?

And what are the flowerpots made of?

-Erm, they're silicone, they're just...

-Oh, so don't eat those, then?

-No!

Thank you very much indeed.

You expect it to be cold, don't you? It looks exactly...

-How should they eat them?

-Do we turn them out, or...?

-Erm, yeah, you can sort of squidge them out, I think.

-Tip them out?

-Yeah, tip them out.

-It's like a sandcastle.

-Here we go.

-Oh, there we go.

-Look at that.

-Oh, look at that! That is...

-You don't like to mess it up, do you?

-No.

-Oh, here we go. Here we go.

-This is delicious in anyone's language.

-Is that delicious?

-This is a whole new horizon of taste.

-It really is brilliant.

-What is that?

-Rose.

-What is it?

-Rose.

-Rose.

-Oh, I like that.

-Reminds me of Turkish delight.

-It is absolutely beautiful, that.

-That is...

-God, it's great here, isn't it?

-Do you like that, Tom?

-Thumbs up.

-You've got the next series right here.

Her, her, her, just get...

They said, don't mention the next series.

LAUGHTER

APPLAUSE

-Zoe, massive thumbs-up from everyone.

-Yeah.

-Thank you.

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

Beautiful. Bravo. Bravo.

Back now to the tent, and time to meet a baker whose yuzu

bamboozled the judges, but Paul thought his chocolate loaf

was the best thing since sliced bread.

Will you please give a warm welcome to Rav?

CHEERING

-Hi, Rav.

-Hello!

-How you doing?

-I'm good.

-So lovely to meet you,

and well done for getting all the way to week six in the tent.

-Do you feel proud of yourself?

-I am, I'm really, really proud.

I definitely had my ups and downs but to make it to week six

is quite an achievement for me.

Let's just remind ourselves how confident you were feeling in

botanical week.

This cake has to look good, and I don't do pretty.

I'm not much of a floral guy at all.

And I'm not the neatest of bakers.

-And here you are.

-Here I am, yes!

But, yeah, no, I don't do pretty with my bakes,

and I think that was my ultimate downfall, I'm afraid.

Well, your margarita meringue pie didn't quite go to plan,

and I found a bit of unseen footage which shows Paul really

struggling with the whole concept.

I'm going to be adding some tequila to my mandarin curd.

And it's going to give you a bit of a kick.

You've called it a margarita because it's got tequila and...

-And citrus fruit.

-..and citrus in there.

-Yes.

-Interesting, OK.

What did you think when Paul reacted like that?

When Paul reacts like that, you kind of don't know what to think,

cos he's not exactly giving anything away,

just kind of leaves you thinking, have you made the right decision?

But I thought it tasted good.

Well, you see, with Mary you'd say it's

a margarita meringue pie and she'd go, "That's tequila, isn't it?

-"Make mine a big piece."

-Yeah!

Erm...

Although there was one of your techniques, Rav,

that Mary wasn't happy with. Let's have a look.

-You're only blowtorching it?

-Yeah.

-Were you aware of Mary's dislike of blowtorching?

-See, no.

I thought I would get away with the blowtorching, because for

some weird reason I thought that we all had to use a blowtorch.

So when Mary was saying that you should have used the oven,

I instantly regretted my decision to use the blowtorch, because I would have used the oven.

-So you thought it was compulsory to use a blowtorch?

-Yeah.

I thought it was compulsory.

Well, that's a shame that you got the wrong message, there, isn't it?

Now, it is fair to say that you struggled with the Technical bakes

-while you were in the tent.

-Just a bit.

-You'd managed to come last three weeks in a row.

-Did I?

I'm afraid so.

Sorry to bring that up.

Until ironically doing quite well in the Technical the week you went out.

This week you managed a very respectable third place with your herb fougasse.

Were you pleased with that?

I was very happy with that third place,

because every time they were mentioning, like,

who came seventh, who came sixth,

I thought my name was going to come up, so when they said,

"Third place, Rav," I was very, very happy with that.

You set yourself quite an ambitious challenge with your

blossom-cake Showstopper by piping your own buttercream flowers

onto it, but you went with the same orange blossom,

almond and vanilla flavour for all three sponges. I mean, why was that?

I thought it would be easier to have the same flavours, but in hindsight

I should have taken more of a risk and had different flavours in there.

Because I agree with Mary, it was very boring.

But the buttercream flowers weren't that great either.

See, I thought the buttercream flowers would give me brownie points,

because I piped them myself, but obviously it didn't.

Well, let's talk about pastry week.

Your signature pastries, and especially your partially

collapsed Bakewell tart wasn't great,

but you were saved by your amuse bouche,

because the judges loved your beautifully proportioned

prawn tartlets and white-chocolate samosas and said they tasted

great, too, so you must have been really pleased, were you?

I think that was probably my highlight of being in the tent,

because after the first two challenges I was convinced I was going home, and I kind of relaxed,

thinking this is my last time in the tent so I'm going to enjoy my last few moments here,

and I think by relaxing it kind of put me in my zone

and I managed to pull it off with my Showstopper.

Well, in batter week your Thai tofu Yorkshire puddings

also went down a storm with the judges.

You even managed to convert Paul to tofu.

Quite an achievement, I believe.

It was, because during the cooking process Paul would walk past and

make these really, like, off-putting faces, as if he hated tofu!

So I'm thinking that I'm about to present to Paul something

that he's absolutely going to hate, and then when he said that

he actually would like another one it was, again, a highlight for me.

You went with an even more exotic flavour combo for your matcha

churros, serving them up with a white chocolate and wasabi sauce.

-I did.

-Paul wasn't convinced by that.

-He wasn't.

They're risky flavours, aren't they?

They are very risky, but I'm going to stand by it,

because I think it tasted delicious.

Now, here on Extra Slice we do give you an opportunity to have

another go at a bake that didn't go quite to plan in the tent,

so which one of your bakes have you brought along?

I've made my three-tiered floral cake.

So shall I lift this side for you? OK.

-AUDIENCE:

-Ooohh!

-APPLAUSE

It looks amazing. I'm just going to push that across. Oh, my God.

The bottom sponge is orange blossom and almond with an orange curd.

-The middle tier is rose and pistachio.

-All right.

And the top tier is lemon and lavender.

-MURMURING

-Very good.

And was the timescale working on that similar to what you're given there?

No, I took my time making this!

-Delicious. The rose one again...

-What do you think?

-Vastly improved, sir. Brilliant. Really...

-RAV:

-Thank you.

I have to say, we can taste all the flowers in there, I mean, it's...

-Liza?

-What's the middle one? That's the one that I've loved so far.

-It's the pistachio and rose.

-The rose is beautiful.

So I think three out of three there, brilliant.

-Rav, well done. TOM:

-Absolutely.

-RAV:

-Thank you.

So was it how you thought it would be in the tent?

-Oh, much better than I ever thought it would be.

-Was it?

-Yeah.

Oh, well, that's great.

Seriously, we've made friends for life, all 12 of us.

-We speak every day.

-Can I come to your reunion?

-You can, you can.

Because I should think there's going to be some quite nice cakes there.

-There we go. Saying nothing.

-Thank you, Danny.

-Here it is.

-None of us know what this is.

-We've made you one of our special cakes.

Right, that's you there.

APPLAUSE

I love it.

Will you please give the wonderful Rav a great British send-off?

Thank you.

CHEERING

Thank you, Rav.

That's it for this week.

A big thank-you to Rav,

to all of our studio bakers and to our celebrity panel, Tom Aikens...

..Liza Tarbuck...

Thank you.

-..and Danny Baker.

-Thank you. Mwah!

Thank you.

Next week, the bakers get their just "desserts". See you at 9.30.

Until then, goodbye!