Cakes The Great British Bake Off

It's the moment every cake, bread and pie lover has been waiting for.

The tent's up, the ovens are pre-heated

and 12 of Britain's finest amateur bakers are ready to do battle.

This year, the challenges are tougher

than Ross Kemp on a paintballing weekend

plus the portions are even larger, matron.

Welcome to The Great British Bake Off.

From thousands of entries,

a fresh batch of 12 hugely talented home bakers from all over Britain

have made it to the Bake Off tent.

Winning's definitely the top of my mind. I just want to beat everybody,

really, and just say that I'm the best, as cocky as that sounds.

They've been practising for months

to tackle a totally new set of challenges

that will push their skills,

creativity and determination to the limit.

My kids haven't seen me without being covered in flour and with an apron on

and meringue in my hair and stuff for a very long time.

Their battle for bake off survival...

-Ow!

-Argh!

..will be judged by the king and queen of British baking...

Go on, say something nice.

..legendary cookery writer, Mary Berry,

and master baker, Paul Hollywood.

I hope they know that things are advancing now,

techniques are moving on.

They're going to have to really raise the game.

If all else fails, I can say I've built the Coliseum.

All the challenges this year are considerably harder.

Right, this could go horribly, horribly wrong.

Don't kid yourself, we'll be on their backs from the very first off.

You respect Mary, but you fear the Wood, yeah

Those piercing blue eyes, it's quite scary.

Those that fall short...

Stop dripping.

..will have to leave.

You're cutting through my heart.

And only one...

-There's no going back!

-..can be crowned the winner...

-Yes!

-Yes!

-..of the Great British Bake Off.

If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.

CLAPS HANDS Yay!

Honestly, I've completely lost it.

The Bake Off has travelled west to Harptree Court,

deep in the Somerset countryside,

for this year's search for Britain's best home baker.

Up until last year,

the word "chicken" was the most searched for term on the internet.

-Really?

-Food term, anyway.

-OK.

But it's now it's been usurped with the word "cake",

which is useful because today's episode's all about cake.

-Mmm.

-Yeah?

-And it doesn't taste like chicken.

Which is strange, cos it's actually a giblet sponge.

Tastes like cake.

The bakers face two days of baking.

After three challenges, one will be crowned this week's star baker

and another will have to leave the Bake Off.

A very warm welcome, bakers, to our Bake Off tent

and to this, your signature challenge.

This is your opportunity to demonstrate

one of your tried and tested home recipes.

So what we're looking for is your own personal spin

on an absolute classic, the upside down cake.

Or, as the Australians call it, cake.

So this is a simple sponge, just topped with a fruit of your choice.

You've got two hours to bake and present your cake,

so for the first time...

On your marks...

-Get set...

-Bake.

-Bake.

A classic British upside down cake traditionally features

a sponge baked on top of a layer of fruit.

It's flipped once it comes out of the oven

so the fruit bottom becomes the top.

They could do all sorts of things with different fruits,

different flavours, and the fruit must hold its shape,

it mustn't all fall apart and become mushy.

The bake is crucial.

You're adding liquid to a batter and baking it so the top roasts

and cooks properly and the sponge bakes properly,

creating an upside down cake that's moist, light and full of flavour.

Really nerve-wracking. I haven't had any breakfast this morning.

My hands are still a bit shaky,

but I'm just trying to be calm and...methodical,

which is not me at all.

27-year-old mum of two Cathryn works at a motorway service station

near the village where she lives in Sussex.

If she manages to find any free time,

she bakes with seven-year-old Maisy and three-year-old Ambrose.

Her signature upside down cake features apple, vanilla,

calvados, hazelnut and caramel.

-That's a very busy cake.

-Oh!

-Have you had any problems with it before?

-No.

-You can be honest with us.

-Not really. I don't know!

-He's just trying to put the wind up you.

-It's working!

Just make sure that your timing is perfect. All about timing.

I feel the need just to reach across very briefly.

-Unclench your hands. There we go.

-Thanks.

-Breathe.

-Thank you.

-And relax.

-Thank you.

-Good luck.

-Thank you.

Normally, I mean, you can eat kumquats with the pips,

but for a competition, I'll go that extra bit

and just take the pips out.

38-year-old Ryan lives in Bristol with his wife and two children.

Coo-ee!

Now a photographer, he grew up in kitchens

honing his skills in his parents' Chinese takeaway.

He's the only baker not using a traditional sponge mix

for his kumquat upside down cake.

I make this with polenta and it's very crumbly.

It's nice in the mouth, the texture's very nice,

but there's a risk that, as I turn it over, it'll just fall apart.

It's dangerous, using polenta on a cake that you will have to turn out.

But I'm looking forward to this

cos that sourness coming from the kumquats is fantastic,

it should come through well.

Most bakers are using a simple caramel made of sugar and butter

to help keep their fruit in place at the bottom of their tins.

I think a lot of people are going to do round,

so I thought I'd do a square one because, you know,

it's a bit more pleasing to the eye, really, these days.

It's a bit more modern.

So it's 10.30, 11.30, 11, 12.30.

But, worried about time, Manisha is using a caramel substitute.

So you're having golden syrup underneath, yeah?

When I turn it over, it'll look golden brown.

That's quite unusual to use golden syrup underneath it.

-It'll make it very sweet, won't it?

-Yeah.

-Are you going to be lining that at all?

-No.

-Have you had any problems with using golden syrup?

-So far, no.

After work at a nursery in Leicester, Manisha rushes home

to cook all the family meals for her dad and brothers.

Her quick and easy golden syrup topped sponge also features

fresh raspberries and peaches.

I've tried this recipe out with my dad and my two brothers.

They seemed to love it, so... I'm really nervous now, a little bit.

Unlike Manisha, Victoria isn't taking any short cuts.

Roasting her own pecans and making pear rings by hand.

I think it's very easy, because you're cooking fruit or vegetables,

for them to sort of mush, and I thought,

if I at least attempt to have some structure,

then that adds a visual component that perhaps will make it

attractive when it's tipped out.

Career-driven Victoria has risen to CEO of a charity

dedicated to preserving wild plant life in Britain.

Baking at home in Somerset

is a welcome break from her huge responsibilities.

She's aiming to impress the judges

by giving her upside down cake bite,

by adding finely chopped stem ginger.

Normally baking is something I do in private

and then what I really want to do is share it with people,

take it into work and then that's the bit I get tense usually,

cos I go, "Oh golly, I thought this was great,

"but what did other people think?"

Whereas this is the other way round in a way,

because it's all about, you know, how you actually prepare it

so definitely a different experience,

but baking's still in there somewhere.

While some are hoping to succeed with traditional ingredients...

Everyone associates pineapple when they think of upside-down pudding,

but I've put a Caribbean twist on.

..others are aiming higher.

I'm going for a tomato upside down cake.

So it sounds a bit odd, I know,

but it does work, I've tried it, so...yeah.

26-year-old PE teacher Stuart works and lives in Staffordshire.

He was taught how to bake from just four years old

by his grandmother, a domestic science teacher.

His tomato upside down cake also features a ginger sponge.

Can we have a look at what you've done with the tomatoes?

Yeah, so at the moment it's an unfortunate colour

cos of the type of ingredients like the black treacle, for example,

so it comes out looking a bit dark.

I've tweaked it by making it a little bit more tomatoey,

by adding some tomato jam with it as well.

-Well, he's original anyway. We're waiting.

-He's a maverick.

But there's more than one maverick in this year's Bake Off.

It's maybe slightly surprising, parsnip.

Like a carrot cake,

it doesn't actually taste too radical.

Everyone has loved it so far.

I just need to keep that up.

21-year-old medical student James grew up in the Shetland Isles

and is the youngest baker in the competition.

He treats his kitchen like a laboratory

and his experiment with parsnips

also involves comice pears and pecans.

I've just added the parsnips and the pecans and I'm just folding them in.

I've already added the flour so I don't want to over mix.

I hope they all blend together and work.

Just check my recipe.

Yep, I think we're ready to rock and roll.

Dirty dozen, you are halfway through your first signature bake.

You have one hour to go.

The bakers have faced the point of no return.

Once the sponge mix goes on top of their fruit,

the fate of their upside down cake is sealed.

I'm quite worried, actually. I'm the first one in.

TIMERS BLEEP

Praying, I think, is the next stage.

Fingers crossed, people, fingers crossed.

I forgot to put my tomato jam in.

-What?!

-Yeah. Gutted. Stupid error.

I kind of made a bit of an error, it's kind of a major one, I think.

In a blind panic,

I put the cake in the oven before putting the tomato jam on.

It adds to the flavour of it.

Other than that, it's just a cake with just tomato decorations on top.

They're quite tricky to cook all the way through, upside down cakes,

cos you don't want to overcook it so the sponge is dry,

but you need to cook it enough so the fruit is cooked.

At home, all the numbers are worn off around my dial,

so it's always a guess as to whether anything's going to cook or not!

28-year-old mum of two Sarah-Jane is a vicar's wife

and regularly bakes for her husband David's congregation in West Sussex.

Her pear, chocolate and hazelnut upside down cake

is a parish favourite.

-TIMER BLEEPS

-That's my timer. I'm just going to check.

Oh, we came at the right moment.

It might need a little bit longer.

We'll have a look and see.

How are you judging when it's ready?

It's still got a little shake in the middle at the moment.

I don't want it to collapse when I turn it out.

So you'll know when it's ready when it doesn't shake?

Yeah.

Oven timing is critical.

Still feels a little bit undercooked in the middle.

One or two minutes can mean the difference

between a burnt fruit topping or a liquid, underdone sponge.

It's not supposed to leak.

It's bubbling over like a volcano

and all the golden syrup is coming out.

Oh, golden syrup, why you have to leak for?

Maybe I should take it out, I don't know.

Don't underestimate this lady.

She keeps on saying how nervous she is,

but actually she's very determined.

TIMER BLEEPS

Oh, heavens. I've got too much going on now, look.

I'm making the spiky hazelnut decorations.

Oh! Hopefully it will look nice when they're done.

OK, bakers, that's just ten minutes on the upside downs.

Ten minutes, please.

The bakers need to factor in

not just enough time for their cakes to bake

but also for the delicate process of turning out.

OK, let's do it now. Help.

Kind of got a bit stuck at the moment.

Fingers crossed, everybody.

Yep, happy with that.

Very pleased, absolutely. Went to plan.

Oop. Yes.

Messy, isn't it?

Pretty happy...apart from the one component, obviously.

Just spread it on top.

It turned over. I'm not complaining. I won't tempt fate, you know.

It's a disaster.

We can save this.

11 signature cakes are upside down

but James' parsnip sponge experiment is still in progress.

-Oh, keep it in there.

-Normally it's well cooked by this time.

So do you think the fruit is just a little bit more juicy?

A little bit more moisture's gone in?

Yeah. I've got absolutely no idea, to be honest.

-Bakers dozen, you've got five minutes to go.

-Five now? That's good.

-Five minutes.

-You've got three minutes in the oven

-and then two minutes to turn it.

-Four minutes in the oven.

-That's a speedy turn, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-It's going to be, "boom!"

It's all going to be good, it's all going to be good.

This could be...horrific.

I'm going to take it out at the very last minute and pray.

Bakers, this is your 60-second countdown.

Not great.

Countdown is complete.

Move your cakes to the end of the benches.

Time to leave the cakes well alone. No more touching.

It's judgment time.

-Hiya.

-Right, so remind us of the topping of this.

Well, the topping is kumquats, but it's a polenta cake.

The idea is all about texture, really.

-It's a little solid for me.

-It's far too dry.

The texture of an upside down cake should be moist and hold moisture.

As soon as you add polenta, it's going to dry,

because that's the nature of the beast.

The decoration has worked. You've done what you told us you'd do.

I rather like the way that you've coarsely chopped the nuts

round the outside

and then we have the nut with its spike at the top.

It's really lovely.

The texture, the flavour, the crunch...are gorgeous.

-I think it's a beautiful cake.

-Thank you.

-It's scrummy.

The decoration I think is lovely,

but that ginger cake to me is slightly over baked.

-At least there are no soggy bottoms.

-Yes, thank you very much for that!

You don't want one of those.

He lives in fear of that.

-It's over-baked.

-Is it?

-Yeah.

But you can really taste the pears, which is a good thing.

That's good, I'm pleased.

The chocolate cake is delicious, but I can't taste the pear.

The pear doesn't have a very strong flavour anyway.

-That's why I poached it in the wine.

-Unfortunately, we've lost the wine.

Sure you didn't have a little tipple before you started?

I love the way you've built the structure of the pears on there.

Very professional when you look at it.

-You've actually managed to hold the pear flavour.

-Oh, really?

-It's so delicious.

-Oh, good.

The decoration you've managed to get is quite even and well structured.

I had a worry that it would be too sweet.

-It's not at all too sweet.

-Thank you.

-Doesn't it look tempting?

-I love that.

The passion fruit you put in at the beginning?

Well, I just made a syrup with the passion fruit,

then I did the pineapple.

Pretty unusual to have passion fruit heated.

-It loses some of its flavour.

-Yeah, it's not as intense, is it?

It does look so inviting.

Everything is in the right proportion.

That's delicious.

-It tastes really good.

-I'm actually struggling to find something

to have a go at - flavour, texture, colour, well done.

I'm going to bundle him out before he can say anything negative.

I think it looks... I think it could be better.

-Looks can be deceiving.

-It's a very, very close texture.

The tomato has added moisture, but hasn't added any taste.

It's almost immaterial that it's there.

That's what the jam was there for, but I forgot to put it in.

That's probably why the taste isn't there.

-It's just predominately a very dense ginger cake.

-Yeah.

So how do you think it went then, Professor Cake Maker?

-It might be under-baked.

-Why do you think that?

Because it was raw five minutes before I took it out!

It's fine underneath.

I think it's actually baked all right.

I don't think there's a problem with that.

-Actually, the parsnip is not coming through strongly as parsnip.

-No.

But very brave to put that parsnip in, even though we can't find it.

-I just got a lovely bit of parsnip.

-Did you?

-It was really nice.

Mmm. It's tasty.

It was cooked. It was cooked! Who'd have thought?

I just thought, it being the first bake, try and push the boat out.

Unfortunately, this time it's not gone according to plan.

They didn't have any criticisms, which just blew me away.

A real fillip, as one might say.

Mary Berry said it was scrummy,

which is amazing. Really properly amazing.

The worst our bakers can expect

is a dressing down from the baking silverback Paul Hollywood

or a frown from Mary Berry,

so spare a thought for the 13th century baker who,

if they produced a sub-standard loaf,

would face imprisonment or being pelted with rotten fruit.

800 years ago, ordinary people didn't have ovens at home

and were at the mercy of bakers for their daily bread.

In 1266, the government introduced a new law

called the Assize of Bread and Ale

and any baker seen to be flouting this would be sent here,

to the Bakers' Hall, to face trial at the Court of Halimote.

The law spelled out exactly what a loaf should weigh, cost,

and the quality of bread expected.

So, if you were a medieval baker,

this would've been the last place you wanted to end up.

The court beadle was in charge of tracking down the culprits and bringing them to justice.

The position still exists today, but his role is now purely ceremonial.

So, Neil, I'm a bad baker.

My scones are scandalous, my cottage loaf is a crime against gluten,

but it's my first offence. What's going to happen to me?

Well, the Beadle of the day would have summoned

a man with a horse and a stretcher,

or a hurdle, and they would have been tied to the hurdle

by their wrists and feet

and dragged through the city

so everyone can see that you've been caught producing illicit bread.

Just one duff loaf and suddenly

you're strapped to a gurney and being paraded around...?

You are, but the fact of the matter

was that people were putting things like cobwebs and sand

and all sorts of illicit products in the bread, which could kill someone.

For bakers that continually flouted the law,

being dragged through the streets of medieval London

was just the beginning.

Neil, why have you brought me here?

This would be the place where, for the second offence,

they would be brought,

where the pillory would be set - at the Royal Exchange -

and a pillory always had to be on a junction.

You could come from north, south, east or west.

To get the maximum amount of people to stare and laugh?

No, just to throw the rotten fruit.

So we know that the second offence you basically get a face smoothie.

But the third offence, what happens then?

The third is the most extreme and that would be myself

and a bailiff going round to the errant baker

and smashing their ovens

so they were no longer able to operate in the city.

-How many ovens do you smash nowadays?

-None.

-There's real disappointment there, isn't there?

-There is.

It wasn't until the 19th century that the law was repealed,

bringing an end to such punishments.

Nowadays, an icy glare from Paul and Mary

is more than enough to bring our bakers into line.

For the second test,

all the bakers will be given the same surprise recipe,

allowing the judges to directly compare their results.

Bakers, adopt the brace position,

this is your first technical challenge.

The challenge is judged blind,

so Paul and Mary please retire to your secret tepee.

Now, this technical challenge is actually Paul Hollywood's recipe -

no pressure - and this recipe is for a classic 1970s' staple,

rum baba, OK?

So what we're looking for are four perfect babas

with cream in the middle and perfectly sliced fruit on top.

So you've got three hours to bake and present your babas.

-On your marks...

-Get set...

-Bake.

-Bake.

All the bakers have the same ingredients

and the same very basic recipe, so they'll have to rely

on their baking instincts

to produce baba perfection.

Could be hit and a miss with this.

The baba is believed to be a descendant of a cake called babka,

Polish for "grandmother".

It's unusual, as it uses yeast as a raising agent.

I'm quite afraid of this recipe.

The bakers should be used to working with yeast in bread making.

I've got no idea what I'm doing!

But applying these techniques to a cake mix

could be a step into the unknown.

It's a tricky one. It's basically a yeasted cake.

We've filled it with Chantilly cream and then topped it with fresh fruit.

Those are absolute perfection. Where could they go wrong?

I reckon there's going to be a few heads scratching on this one.

It is a hybrid between bread and cake

and the batter/soft dough is extremely difficult to make.

So this is quite confusing for our bakers.

I think a lot of them will be perplexed

and I'm sure that most of them

wouldn't have made anything quite like this before.

And I hope you've given them lots of instruction.

I've given them some.

Once the ingredients of flour, yeast, eggs,

sugar and butter are combined, the mixture requires kneading.

It's just, like, strange really.

But the high liquid content from the beaten egg means

the texture of this thick dough might be unfamiliar.

Oh, my God, get off. Oh, my God.

This is not going to go well, is it?

The dough is so delicate that 16th century pastry chefs

were said to rest it on an eiderdown before baking.

One of my favourite cookbooks is an old dairy cookbook of Mum's

back from the '70s and there's a big glossy picture of rum babas

so I instantly thought of that cookbook

and thought, "Gosh, I wish I'd have read it now!"

37-year-old Natasha is a midwife who lives and works

in Tamworth in the West Midlands.

Now her two daughters are teenagers,

she aims to spend more time raising cakes.

-Do you find it relaxing, working with dough?

-Yes.

I suppose I've got to say that, Mr Hollywood might be listening.

-Have you ever made one of these before?

-No, no.

But are you good in a crisis?

Ask me in an hour's time and I'll tell you.

I was very happy to see this recipe come up.

Can I explain how happy?

I'm obviously setting myself up for a fall now,

but I made a really big rum baba last week.

Or actually, I used whisky, I didn't use rum, but I'm Scottish.

Once kneaded, the dough has to prove...

Good luck.

..until it's doubled in size...

..which gives the bakers time to line their baba tins.

I covered my tins with butter and flour

and it's meant to be butter and sugar, so... Completely stupid.

Once proved, the dough should be soft enough

to be piped into its mould and then proved for a second time.

I have a firmer dough and so I'm rolling it, rather than pipe it.

Maybe it should be more liquidy, I don't know.

Now, I'm thinking, Brendan, that, like myself,

-you might have been around in the '70s?

-I was.

I made these about 25 whatever it was, years ago.

You've actually made a baba?

Oh yes, but it's so long ago, I don't think it counts!

Were you a bit of a groovster?

No. I mean, I liked Gloria Gaynor.

I was very good with my dips at the discos, so...

Show me a dip, please.

-But I've been...

-Brendan, dip for me, please.

-There's a little wiggle you have to do!

-Oh, one of these?

-Exactly.

-Like this.

-You shimmy a bit.

-Yeah!

63-year-old Brendan is a semi-retired recruitment consultant...

but now has the time to indulge his passion for music and baking,

which he first discovered as a child growing up in rural Ireland.

You have a disaster.

I put a damp towel over them to protect them and it's stuck to it.

It's not going to plan, as it were.

-Hi.

-Danny.

-Yes.

-Two words.

-Yeah.

-Rum baba.

Yeah. And a completely foreign language to me.

Does this feel slightly exam-like?

You know, when you wake up in the middle of the night sometimes

-and you think, "I haven't revised"?

-Or you have no pants on.

-Yes, yes. This is everybody's looking at me and I'm naked.

-Yes.

This is a no pants moment, Danny.

Raised in Manchester, 45-year-old Danny

is an intensive care consultant working in Sheffield.

A keen traveller, she's researched baking from all over the world.

I would try a new recipe, but this is different

because somebody's going to judge it and I can't put it in the bin.

So...here's hoping.

Paul's recipe only states that babas should be baked in a hot oven,

leaving some bakers room to experiment.

I'm stuck.

I don't know whether just to bake them or to do a bain marie,

I'm just not sure.

Something's telling me to do a bain marie,

but it might be the wrong decision.

It's a big decision, this is.

It could all go wrong, couldn't it? If I take the wrong path.

What the hell, I'm going to do the bain marie.

I don't think it'll do any damage.

All done now. I can't turn back.

So you seem very, very relaxed. It's all under control?

My mum always said that stress in baking tastes terrible,

so I'm going to apply that principle

and just try and be cool, calm and collected.

But some people think maybe baking is, you know,

-traditionally maybe as a more sedate, older person's thing?

-Yeah.

So why are you so drawn to it?

I think that baking is the biggest fashion there is at the minute.

I still go out to clubs and I can come home and make a cake.

What's wrong with that?

Big sponge, little sponge. Big sponge, little sponge.

Exactly, that's how we do it!

22-year-old law student John left Oxford University

to study in Manchester, so he could live nearer his family.

He was taught to bake by his mum

and has always relied on her advice when trying new recipes.

I'm just worried cos I didn't put any sugar in the actual dough

and I think a few people have, but it wasn't very clear.

But...I should have known, I should have known.

They're going quite brown quite quickly...

so I turned it down. I don't want them to collapse.

An enriched dough needs a high heat to rise,

but the added sugar means they're more sensitive to burning.

I think that's a bit of sugar

that's perhaps caught around the edges there,

you know, when I lined the tin?

Mmm.

One hour remaining.

Always happens.

Hmm, how does one get this out?

But this is just stuck fast.

Removing a baba from its tin is a delicate operation.

Come on, you beauty.

Please come out.

If the soft texture isn't treated with enough care,

it's liable to rip.

Uh-oh.

Oh dear, that's not good.

Oh, oh.

Just kept it together.

Oh.

Oh, I've...messed up big style here.

I've put salt in with the tin, rather than sugar.

That is disgusting.

That's going to put me in the bad books from the start, really.

It's going, you know, John's the boy who...messed around with salt.

Oh. It's all gone wrong!

My gamble didn't pay off.

They're all stuck into the dish.

It's all gone wrong, Mel. It's all gone wrong.

What's going on? Tell me.

They're all rubbish.

Oh.

I've made the wrong decision, haven't I?

So, could be all over for me now, so... Oh, well!

I'm just trying to slice off the saltiest part of the baba.

I'm fighting for my place in the competition now.

When everything goes right and everyone's getting along,

it seems like it's not a competition.

But as soon as something goes wrong,

you realise that you could lose your place here.

The syrup for the baba is made from sugar, water and rum.

Quite a lot.

It should be heated long enough to burn off the alcohol, whilst keeping

the distinctive flavour that gives the baba its name.

Most of the alcohol is going up into my face at the moment,

so if I start to stop making sense, then stop me!

This is just quite an easy way to soak a baba.

I'll just chuck them back in the tins and they slowly soak up all this goo.

Oh, dear!

They're a mess. Oh, I'm embarrassed.

I can't serve these.

Natasha isn't the only baker concerned about presentation.

I'm thinking that, if I can make a caramel cage to go over the top,

it might look quite nice and I've got a bit of time.

From a presentation perspective, it should look pretty good,

but also it's going to give it some real nice crunch.

43-year-old father of two, Peter, is a sales manager from Windsor.

His cakes are in constant demand at meetings

and at birthday parties

for his son Harry's school friends.

Now, that is what I call gilding the lily!

We asked for rum babas, they're not difficult enough for you, are they?

This is, what, you've had two minutes off?

It hinges on the fact that I have not got a clue on what I'm doing

in terms of making a rum baba.

So it's smoke and mirrors?

So I'm thinking, nice presentation may hide a multitude of sins.

Bakers, five minutes to go. Time to primp and slightly panic.

Each baba must be filled with a chantilly cream

and topped with fresh fruit.

I'm trying to...make them look presentable.

Some kind of miracle.

Barbapapas and Barbamamas, you have one minute left.

I know this is not going to be good.

I'm happy with that.

It's a disappointment and even worse

cos it's Mr Hollywood's recipe, so he's just going to annihilate me,

you see, cos I've just destroyed it.

Bakers, time is up, so if you'd all like to bring your babas over

to the altar and place them behind the photograph of yourself.

Technical challenges are judged blind, meaning that Mary and Paul

will have no idea whose baba they are biting into.

This particular recipe I've had for over 20 years

and I'm very proud of it.

OK, Mary, shall we try from this side?

The colour's not bad, quite even.

They look quite attractive.

Taste isn't too bad.

This one's had some serious issues.

They've had problems with the dough.

They probably haven't blended it together properly, worked it.

I'll talk to this person later.

This has been trimmed to fit. This has been over-proved.

When you say over-proved, you can see there's a ridge here

and that means that it's come above and it should be sort of level.

Right, this one, someone's decided that my recipe wasn't quite

good enough and decided to put a sugar cage on the top of it.

It's well done, come on.

No, you're covering up cos you're trying to hide something.

Now, that really does taste of a rum baba.

It's got a nice flavour there, the texture's good.

Now, just don't. Isn't he unkind?

Let's have a look at this one.

This has had a good soaking.

-That's what I like.

-It's got a bit of a ridge round the outside.

That's over-proving again.

It's over-proven again.

This one's been over-proved again.

Big fat bottom on that one as well.

The structure's quite dense, but it's not bad, though.

It tastes all right.

This is an interesting one, cos it's all been cut, look.

The tops have all been cut off.

It's a bit dry here.

The syrup has only got halfway down.

-Oh, jeez.

-What is it, Paul?

There's too much salt in there.

-It is dead salty.

-Urgh.

Oh!

This one, there was a problem getting it out of the tin,

-wasn't there?

-Mmm, that was stuck.

The syrup has gone through.

It's not bad.

Oh, no.

It's been over baked, this one. It's got such a dense crust on it.

Let's move on to this thing. It's had a few issues, this one.

I know he's not going to say nice things.

They've stuck, they haven't risen,

they haven't fermented it. They've had serious timing issues.

This one isn't too bad. It's soaked, which is good.

The cream's been kept in the middle.

It's not over proved. Yeah, it's not too bad.

But all of you, well done for trying it anyway.

We're now going to mark you 12 to 1.

That's that one, isn't it?

This one?

-That one's pretty bad.

-That's pretty bad.

This one here was very good.

That one's quite nice.

Right, the person in last place is...

this one.

This is me.

Something drastic has gone wrong with the dough

and it's been boiled to death.

-And number 11 is here.

-That's me.

Dusting the tins, I put salt in the tin instead of sugar.

Tenth place is this one. What happened?

I couldn't get it to pipe,

so I put a cloth over it for the second prove and it stuck to it.

Yeah. You'll know now for next time.

Then we come to number nine and that was the one that was...

Yeah.

Ryan, Danny, Manisha, Cathryn and Victoria

all produced decent enough babas to keep them out of the spotlight.

And number three is right here.

You got a really good ticking off for that, didn't you?

But, you see, you came quite high up with your rum baba underneath.

Number two is this one.

And number one, in all its glory.

SHE LAUGHS

Oh, my God.

But you've all done...

not bad. Some better than others.

But tomorrow's the big one.

Do you know what? I know it's only four little cakes,

but it's, like, monumental to me. It's amazing.

I was just begging for the ground to open up

and just swallow the babas down.

The most important thing about this process is to learn things.

That's what I'm going to say, anyway.

I suppose I've wanted to play safe in this whole process

and I thought, "Come on, take a bit of a risk."

Look where it got me.

In order to do well, tomorrow's got to go without a hitch.

It's just got to be perfect.

There's one cake challenge remaining,

a last opportunity to claim the crown of this week's star baker.

And a final chance to avoid having to leave the Bake Off.

Victoria and Sarah-Jane really came out on top.

These two have basically started to step away from the pack.

This then causes a little bit of rift amongst all of them. They're all quite friendly at the beginning,

-then this competition steps up.

-He lives for this bit.

-He loves it.

It's about the pressure and which one of them

is going to really start pushing it.

Who's not quite got the technical expertise?

Ryan and Stuart are the two that I think are in a bit of trouble.

Stuart's main problem was that tomato cake.

He'd really tried to be original, but it just didn't work.

And then, when you move to Ryan, that upside down cake,

the textures were very, very wrong.

I'd throw Natasha in there as being the lowest part

-of the technical challenge.

-She had totally the wrong method.

The most spectacular fall from grace was John,

who had that fabulous toffee apple upside-down cake

and then put salt instead of sugar.

You tasted first and your face.

But the show stopper today is full of surprises

and full of things that can go wrong. I can see trouble today.

-You can see trouble ahead.

-I can.

On that positive note, let's enjoy the show stopper.

Morning, all.

Now, today we're going to ask you to do a hidden design cake.

So, when you slice into it, reveals a hidden design or pattern.

Now, you've got five hours on the clock. So...

-On your marks.

-Get set.

-Bake.

-Bake.

To create a cake using different layers and shapes of coloured sponge

that reveal a hidden design when it's cut

requires meticulous planning.

Divide by four.

What is hidden inside must be something that,

the very first time you see it,

you think, "Oh gosh! Oh, isn't that special?"

They won't know what it looks like until we cut into it,

that's the tricky bit.

They have to be well rehearsed.

This has got to be perfection.

Recipes are placed alongside blueprints

and diagrams that the bakers have measured up at home.

I'm not good at 3D.

When I did mechanical and spatial awareness at school,

I'm rubbish at it.

It's a nice concept, but it's really a menacing task for us bakers,

so whoever invented it, I'm cursing their name right now.

Most of the bakers are using a basic Victoria sponge mix,

then adding food colouring to create their hidden design.

I'm trying to avoid using food colouring as much as I can,

but this strawberry layer with the, kind of, natural red food colouring

gives it a kind of orangey tint, which is quite nice

but, if you use too much of it, you can get a beetroot flavour,

which is what it's made from, partly.

James is using all natural flavours and colourings

to create a sunset ensconced inside his Simmer Dim Sunset Cake.

So you've actually used proper flavours,

-quite strong flavours in the Genoese?

-Yeah.

-Impressive.

-Yeah, the only thing about it is it is very large.

-It is extraordinarily large.

-That's never an issue here.

James, could you have a try at opening that for me?

-Cos it's just...

-Yeah.

-Would you mind?

I'm going to start and colour the gradients of sponge now

in different colours, so I'm starting with the light pink,

then I'll put some more sponge batter back in, whisk it up

and add more colouring, so I've got four different shades of colour.

-No?

-No.

Natasha's baking four different coloured sponges.

She's going to soak them in rose syrup and hide them

under butter icing, piped into the shape of roses.

When I originally compiled the recipe,

I wondered if it was too simple,

but I think after my technical challenge yesterday,

I'm glad to have something that's got less chance of failure

and isn't too complicated.

I played around with a few ideas and,

cos it's the Jubilee year, go quite patriotic.

It's the Queen's Jubilee,

it's the Olympics in Great Britain, it's the Great British Bake Off.

I'm going for a Union Jack cake.

I'm doing a Union Jack hidden design cake.

Peter and Stuart have to bake red, white and blue sponges,

slice them into perfectly proportioned pieces

that will reveal the Union Flag when the cake is cut.

Peter's mix is simple, but Stuart's flavouring his with lemon

and he's replacing some of the flour with almonds and pistachio nuts.

It's all about the consistency of the sponge.

At the end of the day, flavour's part of it.

The construction is going to be difficult enough.

Well, because of the nature of the cake, there's not much flour in it,

so it's actually a bit tricky to kind of carve as well,

-so that's going to be...

-I'm in agony already.

-..the pressure point.

Well, I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Oh, good. Well, hopefully I'll give you something to behold.

Timing is critical. The bakers will struggle to construct their designs

without perfectly risen pieces of cake.

Because the sponge is so thin, I'm only baking it for eight minutes.

If you're half a minute out in the baking,

it'll just crack and break up.

Ryan's making an Italian meringue mousse set around pieces of sponge.

When his cake is cut into,

it should reveal multi-coloured and flavoured flowers.

This one I can't use. This is a bit too bubbly.

A little bit tense cos there's more pressure on today to get it right.

They're done.

It's sunk a little bit too much than I actually anticipated,

so I'm going to struggle getting the bits off.

I've taken the nursery rhyme Four And Twenty Blackbirds

and so I'm making a pie and then when you cut into it there should,

touch wood, be the blackbird's head and the beak and the maid's nose.

You're making a pie with cake.

Yes.

Sing A Song Of Sixpence is the inspiration

for Victoria's show stopper,

where four different coloured sponges should reveal

a blackbird holding a maid's nose.

Here's the beak.

And the nose.

And the head.

All looks a bit revolting, sort of like a Dr Who set,

but in there lies a nursery rhyme.

Whoa.

I know it looks a bit messy, but it's all under control,

even though it doesn't look like it.

I'm going to have a image of a cupcake inside,

which is going to be three different colours

and three different berry flavours.

Cathryn has to scoop out the centre of her sponge,

colour it, flavour it and then replace it.

I'm packing it in quite densely so that when it cuts,

it doesn't all crumble away.

Sarah-Jane is using little cakes to make a big cake

with a crown in the middle.

How you getting on?

-The cake going up the side makes the edges.

-Yep.

And then that makes the middle.

I've only got one of these, so if I mess it up - a bit of a disaster.

We've moved out of baking in a sense

-and into kind of...

-Into joinery.

-It's joinery, isn't it?

-Yeah.

John's using a pastry cutter to cut a romantic design

that should appear in every slice of his cake.

I love this pink sponge.

It's like the texture, and I mean this with all respect, of a muppet.

-Let's hope it doesn't make a muppet out of me.

-No, it won't do.

Mary, have you ever seen anything as precise as this in your life?

It's a work of beauty.

It's a work of precision.

I'm having to, kind of, construct loosely a blue bit

just from the remains,

so it's a bit frustrating and a bit confusing at the moment.

-Testing stuff, eh?

-Yeah, making a mess as well.

Bakers, you've got half an hour left for your insidey-outy cakes.

Ah! You're kidding me!

Right, OK, I'm on it, like a car bonnet.

The saucepan's heavy and I just want some pressure on

so that those layers will stick together.

I need this to go right, so, yeah.

Well, with classic British understatement, that's not too bad.

Looking over at Peter's,

just because it's a different type of cake.

Mine's less, erm, sturdy is the correct word.

Ryan's been waiting by the fridge for half an hour.

He needs his mousse to be completely set

before he can begin to decorate it.

-Ryan.

-Yeah?

How's yours coming along?

Very long time, it's not cold enough.

Oh, it's not cold enough?

-What's that you've got? What's that?

-It's a sort of spray.

-What for?

-It's the colour, it's just a spray to make it red.

-Ooh.

OK, everyone, there's ten minutes left. Just ten minutes now.

Oh, my Lord.

Getting a bit... I don't know if I'm going to finish.

It's a bit patchy.

Maybe the mousse is not cold enough.

Ahh.

If it was my last bake, I'd be pretty gutted.

I don't think I've been able to show my full potential, really.

I know how cliche that kind of sounds.

The mousse is not set enough.

That's one minute of hot piping action left. Just one minute.

Oh, my goodness.

This is the black bit.

I want the outline before I run out of time.

Five, four, three, two, one. Time is up.

Please step away from your cakes.

Time is up.

From the outside, it's a bit messy because of the last minute rush.

But inside, I think I made it very well.

Hopefully, they'll like the taste and that'll get me through.

I think Mary will probably like the roses,

cos she's all pretty and delicate herself,

but I just hope it's just as good inside as it looks on the outside.

Maybe mine tells a story, but all I can see are the imperfections,

so I think, basically they'll be saying it's a nice idea,

but not executed well enough.

To be brutally honest,

all I was doing was focussing on what I had to do.

I can't remember who was doing the Union Jack cake,

but I think I did as well as I could with my design.

Peter's just looked amazing compared to mine.

Ah. # Memories. #

The bakers have no idea how the cakes have turned out

until the judges cut them open.

What they reveal will decide their future in the Bake Off.

It looks very smart.

What is it going to reveal?

Hopefully, a nice, pink heart in every single slice.

I feel like you're cutting through my heart.

Well, we've got two beautiful, pink hearts.

It's moist. It's a nice cake.

-Thank you so much.

-I think it's a very clever concept.

I don't think I can look when you do that.

What? You worried?

A very clever effect of that crown.

The flavour, as it is, is not there, it's quite bland.

You're a bit worried as that knife's going down.

-Just massaging the temples in stress.

-Remind us what's inside.

It should be an image of a cupcake.

Yeah, it's a cupcake, excellent.

And it looks a lovely and fruity cupcake, too.

That flavour, the fruit really lifts it up.

Cos if it wasn't there, it'd be quite bland.

But overall, technically, that's a nice cake.

-Thank you.

-Lovely.

As a novelty cake which looks like a pie,

-I think you've done extremely well.

-Very clever.

PAUL LAUGHS

It tells a story. Anybody could guess what it is, couldn't you?

Very impressed.

I mean, the design inside the cake, that's got that little step further.

Thank you very much, indeed.

You've based it on the Union Jack, so if we cut it down the middle...

-Goodness gracious.

-That's impressive.

Most impressive. It's very sweet, it's moist.

You've got there.

-Yeah, well done.

-Thank you.

-Thank you, Peter.

-Is that the Queen's head on top?

-It was meant to be,

-but I ran out of time, unfortunately.

-OK, OK.

If you cut round about the neckline,

-you'll probably get the best...

-About there?

-Off with her head.

-It's treasonous. It's pure treason.

-Are you absolutely certain about this?

-Yes, yeah.

It's gone a bit awry on the structure of it, technically.

-The flavour's all right, actually.

-Mmm, it's really good, the flavour.

And we do take note of what things taste like as well as they look.

You've had an issue with the mottling from the spray.

-Yes. Whoa, whoa, it's this way, Paul, please.

-Right.

-This way.

-I thought the raspberry line meant follow the raspberries.

It was, but I put the rolls in the wrong way, it was a bit too late.

OK. What are we expecting to see when we cut down the middle?

Red and yellow flowers.

-Ha-ha.

-It looks very, very pretty.

They do look very good. It's very modern.

-I think you've done really well, actually.

-Thank you.

That is one monster of a cake, isn't it?

It's very bold.

I think I've got to be bold now, to be honest.

Have you got a shovel or anything? I could just lift this up.

Can you tell me what we're expecting to see inside?

A sun.

Well, we've got the sun in the bottom.

-And this is Genoese?

-Yeah.

-It is quite heavy.

-No, I think what it is, is...

-The weight of it crushing down.

-There's so much weight, yeah.

-Yeah.

Try and think a little bit smaller sometimes.

It's the first cake we've ever had you can see from space as well.

THEY LAUGH

That looks so pretty.

I haven't seen this double-tone filling a bag

and it is so effective, isn't it?

Ooh, it's heavy.

You've got some under baked.

It looks more like a paste than it does a sponge,

because it's concertinaed up.

It looks as though it has been over soaked as well.

-Yeah, it might have been.

-It looks absolutely solid.

The texture is way, way out there.

Technically, it's raw.

Mary and Paul will look back over the weekend

to decide who will be this week's star baker

and who will leave.

Who do you think's really excelled? Who's in contention for star baker?

Cathryn has been pretty good.

Victoria, I thought, has done quite well.

-We have...

-We have spoken about this

and one person has stepped away from the whole pack, substantially.

-You mean you agree?

-Yes.

-No!

-No! I'm amazed.

Well, that leaves us with people

who have performed badly and who are now facing

removal from the competition.

Both Natasha and Stuart have had issues.

Let's start with Natasha.

Having done an interesting finish on the top,

her cake is really solid and it's just gone into one mass.

Stuart's cake today, the decoration wasn't fantastic.

-Yeah.

-Peter's looks absolutely meticulous and perfect.

-Pristine.

-But Stuart's cake is not so pristine.

And when you look back at Stuart's upside-down cake

with the tomato, the tomato was sort of wasted.

It just created too much moisture, which made the cake very dense.

Stuart came ninth in the rum baba technical challenge.

But when you look at Natasha's, her baba was boiled to death

and, sort of, it had lack of colour, no flavour,

it needed a lot of sorting out.

It just comes down to you guys deciding what the cardinal error is.

Is it ketchup cake or is it boiled baba?

-And that's something that only you guys can really think about.

-Yep.

Bakers, huge congratulations.

It's been an immense weekend

and you've shown the judges stamina, style and skill.

And you've also given us the largest cake ever seen

by the naked human eye.

Now, we'd like to focus on the person that has really shone out.

Our star baker this week is...

Victoria.

-Woo-hoo!

-Well done. Congratulations.

Now, as you also know,

for one of you the journey is going to stop here.

And the person that is going to leave us this week is...

Natasha. I'm so sorry, darling. Thank you.

-I'm so sorry, sweetheart.

-I think that's fair.

I hate to say it, I hate to see you go.

I think it was the right decision. I suppose I just didn't do my best.

It's been a wonderful experience.

Baking's a huge part of me, has been for years.

You know, I'll just return to baking how I enjoy it,

baking for the family, baking as a therapy, baking to relax,

baking to share, and that's what it's all about.

You pulled it back from the brink, mate.

-Thank you.

-That's what the Bake Off's all about.

HE LAUGHS

My God. I think I've barely scraped through.

I've got to just step up my game.

Well done, guys, all of you.

I was pretty thrilled to be staying,

so just still taking it in, actually.

I could be out next week, so I can just enjoy this moment.

PHONE RINGS

Guess what?

-'What?'

-I got through to the next round, to the next episode.

Don't swear. Don't swear, because we're...

SHE LAUGHS

Next time.

It's sticking.

-It's Paul's passion.

-Get in there.

Bread.

That's brave.

With signature flatbreads.

There's no turning back now.

A twisted technical challenge.

I'm going again, I'm going again.

-And 24...

-Got it. Oop!

..show stopping bagels.

I think I'm in trouble today.

But who will be crowned star baker?

Like the curate's egg, good in part.

And who...

He's going to hate it.

..will be the next to leave...

Ha-ha-ha. I don't know.

..The Great British Bake Off?

-Done!

-Looks good to me. See? Perfect, no bother.

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