The Final The Great British Bake Off

Over the last nine weeks we have seen the world's biggest cake,

twisted plaits, collapsing caramels, naked beef Wellington's,

boiled salty babas, a gingerbread Coliseum, a wonky Big Ben,

and a Key lime pie that broke all the rules.

All in the name of finding Britain's best amateur baker.

And in there are three bakers who've gone the distance.

Three bakers who are about to do battle,

and only one can be victorious.

Welcome to the first all-male Great British Bake Off final.

Nine weeks ago...

I don't know whether to bake them or to do a bain-marie.

..12 of Britain's best home bakers...

I'm doing a Union Jack hidden design cake.

..from all over the country...

-That's got that little step further.

-Thank you very much indeed.

-..first arrived in the Bake Off tent.

-Urgh. Plop-a-dops.

Facing Paul and Mary's toughest challenges...

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

Stop dripping.

..in a bid to stay.

Psyching myself up.

I'm not serving Mary Berry cream carpet.

Yes! Yes! Sorry. Yes!

But just three...

Hello, are you in there?

..prove they have what it takes...

-I'm just prepping my cloots.

-..to be a finalist.

The male will have a coxcomb.

Now Brendan, John and James face two final days of baking.

It might be one step a little bit too far.

Preparing for a traditional British summer fete.

-Dip it, I'm dipping, mate.

-Only one of them...

The rest won't be as messy.

..can be crowned the winner...

- We've never had a situation like this.

-..of the Great British Bake Off.

-There's nothing to it really.

The road to this year's final has not been easy.

-James has triumphed by taking risks.

-Never ever do this.

Constantly experimenting.

I like the lavender, and I think you have really conquered that.

-And treating baking as a science.

-You're such a clever thing, you are.

It is in my nature to look to reach the pinnacle of what can be done.

Brendan has impressed by being this year's most knowledgeable baker.

It's a beautiful thing. Brendan, you've done it again.

-His finishing has always been precisely executed.

-They look so beautiful.

And his recipes have always celebrated nostalgic home baking.

I think you've done a good job there,

but keep away from the '70s decoration.

I think my track record has to make me a very, very strong contender to win.

-John's huge passion for baking...

-I feel like you're cutting through my heart.

..has been revealed in his bold and modern designs.

I think it's a magnificent construction.

And recipes influenced by classic French patisserie.

-Cooking with flavour. Well done. That's proper.

-I had a nightmare this week.

The Bake Off tent, it was absolutely pitch black, and there were

spotlights on Brendan and James's desk,

I was in the dark, shouting, "Can you put the lights on?"

So I've been really, really worried about the whole thing.

James, Brendan, John.

Welcome to this,

the Great British Bake Off all-male final.

And I have to say, the musk of testosterone

and icing sugar in the tent is very, very heady.

Your first challenge, the Signature Challenge

will put you through your pastry paces one more time.

We've decided to set you the challenge of making a French

decorative pie classic, called...

-SHE LISPS

-A Pithivier.

-A Pithivier?

-Yes, a Pithivier, it's a special recipe.

We'd like your choice of savoury fillings,

plus we'd like obviously the puff pastry top and bottom.

We are looking for really good flake, and impressive layers.

You got two and a half hours.

-On your marks...

-Get set...

-Bake.

Named after the northern French town it's said to originate from,

Pithivier is a simple round pie, made of two discs

of golden rough puff pastry, with a dome of filling sealed inside.

Usually that is sweet.

They are making a savoury one, quite a challenge.

When you're actually making the filling,

you must think about the blend of ingredients together

that's going to go with the rough puff pastry.

You've got to be careful with that, because it releases juices

which will then sit on the pastry underneath,

and cause a line of moisture.

And it is important to have, for me, the classic decoration of that

half circle going all the way round in a very regular pattern.

The nerves are going to play a huge part in this.

This is the last of their signature challenges.

The finalists have to perfect a rough puff pastry.

Today is going to be massive, because the Pithivier is such

a visible pastry presentation. It has to be good.

Where chunks of butter are added to flour to create crucial layers in the baked pastry.

I have been practising my puff quite a lot, so to speak!

I'd never made rough puff pastry before this week,

and I had to learn it specifically for the final.

It does worry me a little bit, that this is something

that I've not done before, and the other bakers have.

James is giving this French classic a Spanish twist,

filling his Pithivier with chorizo, chicken and red pepper.

When I met my girlfriend's grandparents for the first time I brought this pie.

I think I made an all right first impression!

James learnt to bake as a boy

with his grandmother at home, in Shetland.

I'm not sure I can quite join the dots from applying to now.

Absolutely brilliant.

I thoroughly recommend for everyone to apply next year.

Now studying medicine at Glasgow University,

he lives with housemate, Julia, and girlfriend, Fenella.

-I think we made you apply, did we not?

-Yeah, you pressured me into it.

I don't think any of us ever

thought it was actually going to come to this.

We were just like, it will be a laugh.

Just fill it out, send it off and see what happens.

I think it's fantastic he's got this far.

Throughout the Bake Off, he's been studying for his end of year exams.

For his final bakes, he's hitting the books again.

I was astounded actually, at the amazing classical texts that

you can get pretty much any library to do with baking.

You kind of want to push the boat out, because it's the final,

and take a lot of risks, but at the same time you can't risk a disaster.

And hopefully knowledge is power!

Basically I've both rubbed in the butter and cubed the butter

and combined it with the wet mixture.

I think it just gives it a little bit more puffiness,

a bit more flakiness.

The finalists now have a huge time management issue.

What you're doing is trying to achieve layers of

butter between the dough.

They need to roll and fold their pastry dough.

I'm going to do Paul's technique of folding the pastry,

the book fold, which actually worked really well the last time I did it.

And use every minute while it rests in the fridge

between folds to perfect their filling.

I won't let myself get carried away, like last week,

and stressed out, because it just ends up making it taste rubbish.

John's Pithivier is a taste of Italy.

His book turned rough puff will cover

salsiccia Italian sausage, Taleggio cheese,

lardons, roasted vegetables and caramelised onions.

Your key flavours in this are fantastic.

How you getting on with your pastry at the moment?

Obviously, I've done rough puff before,

but it has been hit and miss here,

but I'm going to try your method of putting it in lower,

and getting the butter to melt, so it rises.

I'm going to give that a try today.

-I just hope your rough puff rises to the occasion.

-Thank you. Me too!

Leave a pause round that pun, it needs to be savoured.

When I applied, never thought I would get onto it,

never mind the in the final.

I just said I want to get through week one.

Law student, John, shares a flat in Manchester with his best friend Hollie.

Sometimes I wake up, get up for work,

by nine o'clock he's all ready made, like, lemon curd.

He's made a brioche.

Since I finished uni last weekend

I been practising every day for the final, because I really, really want to win it.

I want to be a baker when I grow up.

But John's family have always seen him

having a glittering legal career in the city.

We were all a size ten before he started on

The Great British Bake Off!

-That's not true!

-I don't think you were born a size ten, mum!

When he first started, I thought he might be out on week one,

I didn't get too panicked, thinking,

"Oh, well he might not be in it for very long,

"and then he can do his revision and things like that."

As the weeks went on, I was thinking, "Oh, my goodness.

"He's doing quite well."

I think he's got a 33.33 percent chance of winning!

Then we can be really proud of him for the first time ever.

-That's nice.

-He's never won anything before. No.

Three-legged race at school, perhaps!

I'll miss being here in the Bake Off tent to be honest, next week.

At home, people just eat it, and they don't really say,

"You need to work on your lamination," they eat it, and then go.

Whereas here, you get the appreciation

that you look for as a baker, because we all do.

People think that bakers are these dainty little housewives, but they're not,

they are quite controlling people who want

to be told they're loved, so, that's why I'm in it!

OK, bakers, that's half-time. Half way through.

Mel, strip off, get the orange segments out.

Oh, she's already naked!

With filling still cooking, the rested dough must be folded again.

The butter should form a faint marbled pattern

on the dough's surface.

Shouldn't see any butter by this point, but you can.

Now, if it doesn't work, that's you.

The dough must then be rested again, allowing James, Brendan,

and John, to return to their fillings.

I've roasted all my veg off,

and then I just tried to dry it off a little bit

on some kitchen roll, to try and prevent a soggy bottom.

I don't want it to be reduced too far, it will just go a bit dry.

Need it to retain some moisture in the filling.

There is a danger of the moisture in the spinach making

the bottom soggy, but I've drained it very, very well.

I've also bound it together with some goats' cheese and egg.

Brendan is the only baker making a vegetarian Pithivier,

with new potatoes, red pepper and caramelised garlic.

-Good Lord!

-Is there enough garlic there?

-Clove upon clove.

There will be a hundred metre radius around me...

But actually, by the time it's blanched and reduced

in its syrup, and so forth, you have a much sweeter result.

It won't leave you reeking of garlic for days afterwards.

Have you had a good practise at this? You sound so confident about it.

The neighbours have been delighted

that they were getting something savoury for once,

as opposed to something sweet.

Brendan's calm and steady progress to the final owes a great

deal to his Buddhist faith,

and the constant support of his friends and partner, Jason.

When I get overanxious, he's able to keep me grounded.

And I might not even be at the final stage

if he hadn't been there in the background.

My role is general kitchen porter and washer-upper.

Particularly become expert at cleaning out piping bags,

I would say that is my speciality.

For many people, baking is often a way that they connect

with their childhoods, and with happy memories,

and with recipes from mothers and grandmothers and aunties, and so on.

For Brendan, it's really quite the opposite, because he didn't

have that kind of background growing up in rural Ireland.

So, for him, baking, and doing well at baking is really

a sign of how much he's managed to overcome in his life.

As well as having the knowledge, I believe the one who can

keep their emotions in check is the one who's going to win.

Something else for washing up.

Am I expected to do that?

It feels good this morning, and it's going to plan.

So I'm actually enjoying it. And you just feel, "Is that arrogance?

"Will I be struck down for it in the afternoon or something?"

I come from a background of high-quality guilt,

so of course I feel guilty!

Bakers, finalists, men,

you have got one hour left on your Signature Final Challenge.

While the consistency of their fillings is crucial...

I've just chucked the filling in the warming drawer,

because of it's too cold, then it will take ages to cook.

..the bakers still need to leave enough time

to construct and bake their Pithivier.

There is enough time, basically, it's just getting them all together.

The various elements. But they need to be cool when they go in.

HE HUMS

To form the Pithivier, the pastry's cut into two discs

and the filling placed in a neat mound in the centre of the base.

I think I've got a bit too much!

The upper layer, which will form the classic dome, is cut larger

to cover the filling and give room to seal the edges.

If not completely sealed the pie could leak,

and ruin its appearance.

I know Brendan and John are both scalping the edges,

which is the traditional way, but this is a much easier way.

I'm creating a sunbeam, sunray pattern.

My presentation is stronger than James's, it's an area

I'm sure he will strengthen, like everything else he does.

I'm worrying that if I score the top, I'll just go right through it.

The Pithivier's time in the oven requires careful judgement.

The surface must be flaky and golden.

It's catching around the edge,

so I'm just going to have to wrap some foil around the edges

of the Pithivier, just because I don't want the edges of it to burn.

-That's looking good.

-That's looking very good. It's like a big sun, isn't it?

The concealed filling cooked through, and the hidden pastry base crisp.

I'm thinking that it looks all right.

Probably should have waited another minute to take it out.

OK.

OK, bakers, that's it. That's time. I mean it.

I'm not taking the PITHIVIER! It's over.

It's judgment time in the final Signature Bake.

The appearance is most attractive.

You are meticulous to get that all the way round,

and it certainly looks absolutely lovely.

Just a little bit caught on the side, a difficult thing to do,

because it was almost to the edge of the oven.

-Great base.

-How about that?

-I'm delighted with that, thank you.

That is a great base.

That's lovely, Brendan.

The spices aren't too much in it, and the garlic,

funnily enough, I mean I can taste it, but it's not overwhelming, which is nice actually.

And you didn't make the mixture too runny,

-because that would have made the pastry soggy.

-Excellent.

Thank you, that's great. Thank you very much.

I think it looks great. I love the detail.

Again, you've got this rich, dark brown colour around it,

which is key.

-I hope that the underneath is done.

-Me, too.

-Oh, yeah!

-Hello!

-It's good. It's crispy.

John, the flavour of that is very, very good indeed.

Such a lovely flavour. Taleggio cheese, your lovely sausage.

The pastry's very buttery, which is lovely. And it has got a good flake.

-The look of it, I think, is excellent.

-Stunning.

I think it looks quite attractive. A nice colour to it.

You could have gone bit further with it.

It's got a very good flake on the side, that looks very good.

I'm just wondering, when we cut into it, whether it's going

to be a little under done,

a little bit underneath, I don't know.

-Oh, no.

-You've got a bit of a soggy bottom there.

It's only where the moisture's sat on it.

-It's a little bit underdone there, too.

-Yeah.

It's a seasoned well. It's cooked really well.

There's a huge temptation, particularly with using

breast of chicken, when you have fried it, you didn't over fry it,

you just lightly browned it, and the chicken is perfect in there.

And the chorizo gives it real flavour.

But you only have to go through the first layer,

that's gone a bit soggy there again.

-Yeah. That's annoying.

-That is annoying.

-It's just prevented the flake.

-Yeah.

It's a shame about that pastry.

Wow. Actually that was a real surprise. That was disappointing.

I think we could say that was a ten out of ten really

because I can't subtract anything.

So there's a ten out of ten.

Now there's this afternoon, and then there's tomorrow.

So, I'm on a very good footing.

I'm really pleased with myself, definitely.

And it's given me the confidence now to go into the next round fighting.

Because I want to win this. I really want to win it.

It's time for that favourite challenge of yours,

the revered Technical Challenge.

Now, you should know how this works by now.

You've done it for nine weeks, it is judged blind,

so Paul and Mary, off you trot.

Literally a trot, please, Mary. Rising trot. Good girl.

She can still do it! Won several gymkhanas. Good girl.

Lovely filly!

Didn't expect that.

What we're asking you to do is to make and ice 25 fondant fancies.

Proper artisan, beautifully done, fondant fancies.

You need a square of delicate light sponge, a dome of buttercream...

-Stop it.

-..all encased in a glossy fondant.

All the very best. This is your last technical challenge. On your marks...

-Get set...

-Bake.

For today's technical challenge,

Paul and Mary's recipe contains even fewer instructions than usual.

I haven't made them before, but at least you're working with

sponges, and accuracy and so on, which, you know,

I do have some skills.

How long have we got for this?

I'm trying to remember what a fondant fancy actually looks like.

A very tricky technical challenge.

They've got to bake their cake absolutely level and evenly.

They've then got to divide it into 25.

Buttercream all the way round each square.

We were really rather kind, you know.

We could have asked them to split each one,

and put buttercream in the middle, but we didn't.

Kind, Mary! Kind!

We're giving them 25 perfect squares of sponge to do,

top them with marzipan,

put apricot jam on it, put buttercream round the outside,

put fondants on the top, and spin it with chocolate.

All in two and a half hours. That is difficult to do.

Following the recipe to the letter.

I'm doing it the old traditional way Mum would teach me back in 1997.

It's a fairly simple Victoria sponge we're making,

or lemon and Victoria sponge.

Sometimes I've been given stuff to do,

and it's embarrassing what it ends up with,

but at least this is familiar territory.

You can trip up at any stage but you've got to try and be focused,

which isn't always easy

when you're in the final of a baking competition.

It seems like a slightly thick dough. Oh, well.

I'll put the final egg in it.

Could've been disastrous.

A little bit of uncombined flour there. Can't have that.

Cover me, I'm going in.

25, 30 minutes, I'd say, for a cake of that size.

Right.

Now for the buttercream.

I'm breaking these up with my hands to break it down. It's a bit firm.

I'm just softening the butter on the lowest microwave temperature,

just so that it's easier to blend in with the icing sugar.

One use is to coat the sides and one is to pipe a rosette on top.

We need to keep this buttercream nice and smooth

because we need to ice tiny squares.

If it's hard, it'll drag them and break them.

Nothing to it, really.

(One miss.)

It's still sinking a little bit,

so I'm going to leave it for another minute or two.

Though...

Yeah. Just another minute.

Right, we're ready.

Right, so I'll leave that to cool and cool quickly.

90 minutes to go.

I would not normally set my jam. This is a special occasion.

Apricot jam is used to stick a thin layer of marzipan

to the surface of the cooled sponge.

That'll do.

Which must then be divided into 25 identical cakes.

And for that...

..I'm going to need a ruler.

Mary and Paul's recipe doesn't specify the size of the cakes required.

I'm going to have to sit and do the maths

cos I'm totally, totally gone blank in my head.

Just the quantity.

They're meant to be cubes I think, aren't they?

That's three centimetres up.

If that's the case, there will be quite a lot of off-cut.

There will be, like, this much off-cut

and then I might get slated for them being too small.

I can't really make my mind up with this.

Yeah, I'm going to just do it.

If the worst comes to the worst, it's just not big enough, is it?

It's working out well at the moment.

5, 10, 15, 20, 25.

They're very small, perhaps a little bit too small.

Mr Kipling would turn in his grave!

The sides of each cake must be covered with a smooth layer of buttercream.

I'm happy with them. Whether they're good or not is yet to be determined.

I think the judges will be looking for accuracy

and attention to detail.

These sorts of fancies require that, otherwise, why bother?

The recipe states that the fondant should be flavoured with rose-water...

..and coloured.

My recollection of fondant is that it's a delicate pink

rather than a deep one.

So we're going to have a deep one.

Finalists, you've got 30 minutes left on these fondant fancies.

My intention is to pour it over it.

I think it would be a mistake to dip it in fully, bodily.

I'm dipping, I'm dipping, mate.

I'm dipping.

Oh, I've lost it!

I might just drop it in, you know. Hand is always the best method.

To be honest, it's just quicker.

BRENDAN GROWLS

The rest won't be as messy, I promise you.

It does actually...

It feels remarkably...fun.

Right. Let me rethink this.

Maybe I should just dip it.

Dipping is the good idea.

Ah!

(Help.)

I'm going to have to use my fingers for this, you know.

Well, it's messy.

Maybe there is a simpler way but I don't know of it.

I haven't done this before.

-How hard can a fondant fancy be?

-Yeah.

-Turns out, harder than and eight-plaited stranded loaf.

-Is it?

-Eight-strand plaited loaf, yeah.

-Harder than baba?

-Harder.

There's more generation game, this, the bijou French patisserie.

Bijou was not what comes to mind.

Does this cut you to the quick,

that this is getting a bit messy and slapdash now?

-It's not my style.

-I was going to say.

Bakers, you've got ten minutes of fondant fancy fondlage.

Ten minutes to go.

To decorate, melted chocolate should be piped in clean lines on top

and down the sides of the fondant.

Would you say that this is the definition of stress now?

Now, yes. I was fine up until we got to the dipping point.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Not bad, eh?

To complete the challenge,

25 fondant fancies must be arranged on a three-tiered cake stand.

That's two minutes, bakers. Two minutes.

What's the point?

They are semi-set.

What a mess.

What's done is done and cannot be undone.

That looks very tight but for some reason I felt totally relaxed.

It's not my finest work, is it?

Should we start from this side, Mary?

There's obviously issues with the fondant here.

Buttercream, I can see a little bit on some of them.

The chocolate looks, frankly, a bit of a mess.

That looks a very even bake.

Nice, thin layer of marzipan on the top.

It tastes quite nice.

The application of the buttercream is poor,

and if you don't have lovely smooth cut buttercream

round the outside, you cannot get the fondant to look sharp on the corners.

Then we come to these.

I don't quite know why they're so small,

because in a 20 centimetre tin,

if you cut squares, they're bigger than that.

The fondant is too wet, although they are fairly equal in size.

The chocolate on the top's a bit neater.

It's a lot of buttercream on the top of that one, isn't it?

They're so small, the buttercream's overwhelmed it.

Texture's all right though.

Right. This one. Actually, the colour's not bad.

The chocolate's OK.

The fondant looks a little bit thicker, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

-Nice sponge.

It's quite pungent, isn't it?

The rose-water is a little too strong.

The fondant does look marginally better than the other ones,

but again, it is too thin.

But can Paul and Mary pick a winner of the final Technical Challenge?

That was quite tricky, because they've all got their faults.

But the person in last place is...

..these two.

This one looks terrible. Whose is this one?

It was a time issue and part of it was the fondant.

It's just felt messy and it's not how I work.

What happened to the rest of the sponge?

I got a bit trigger happy with the knife, I think.

So, first is James, who had a very good rise in the sponge.

You had difficulty like everybody else with your fondant,

but it's a little more even than the rest.

But I wouldn't say that this was a very high standard at all for all of you.

Consider yourself chastised.

But actually, what it does is make tomorrow all the more important.

I am gutted, because obviously,

that's the final technical challenge.

And well, I messed it up.

I got a very, very good bake in the morning.

Pants in the afternoon.

I really want to do well tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day

that I really want to show a perfect set of cakes.

There's just one final challenge in this year's Bake Off.

It seems to me that the playing field is uncannily level.

It's very odd, because actually, John and Brendan had stepped away slightly from James.

His pastry wasn't as good as I thought it would be.

-And yet, when we come to the technical challenge...

-Reverse.

Brendan, he let us down.

And John, I just couldn't really get the hang of why he'd cut them down so small.

James's strengths are his flavours and his technical ability.

So what you've got is a recipe for a showstopper

that has never happened before, that it goes down to the last challenge.

-This is so tense. I don't think we've ever had a situation like this.

-No, we have not.

The great thing is, that we can also ask James to prescribe beta-blockers for us!

-So that's good.

-Can we?

-Yes!

-Because he's a doctor.

-Exactly.

Morning, bakers. Of course, it's the Showstopper Challenge.

And we're going to get fiendish with you.

So today, we'd like you to create the perfect chiffon cake.

And we'd like you, for your inspiration for this final Showstopper cake,

to pick your personal highlight of 2012.

For example, if I was making my own inspirational cake,

I'd put a large 30 on it.

Because I reached that landmark this year.

So, you've got four hours on the clock.

It's the final, and whatever you create

is going to be served at our village fete.

Complete with limp bunting and torrential rain.

So, on your marks...

-Get set...

-Bake!

Chiffon is baking's most notoriously fickle sponge.

It's cloud-like texture stems from its oil and egg white based batter.

John, James and Brendan are free to create any fillings

or any decorative touches they wish.

But the chiffon's delicate structure can be easily overpowered by flavour.

It's also vulnerable to sinking

and often too light to support a tiered cake design.

My concept for 2012 is family reunion.

So I want this cake to capture the importance of healing family rifts,

maybe, or family reunion, the importance of sustaining that.

Brendan's Showstopper is an almond-coated raspberry chiffon,

topped with another heart-shaped chiffon and decorated with fresh raspberries.

About a year ago,

I made a determination to bring two streams of the family together.

And that's going to happen in the next weeks.

And so I'm calling the cake a family reunion cake.

-These people haven't met up for well over three decades.

-Wow.

And I just want to bring them together.

It seems a shame to keep rifts alive and so forth.

-So bringing them together...

-Bridging the gap with cake.

-You've practised this?

-Yes.

-And was it successful?

No, the first chiffon cake I made, it just phleugh, they collapsed,

they looked like a horrible pancake like things and I had to bin them!

The volatile chiffon sponge mix uses only the air

trapped in whipped egg whites to help it rise.

It's about batter, it's about beating,

it's about judgement, really.

And to ensure its light texture, it contains no butter.

That's just the oil, so that's the fat, instead of butter.

Just got to try to get it folded in nicely.

But the light texture of John's Showstopper could be disappearing.

This cake's not gone wrong for me before.

It's been a nice, tender cake with a great crumb, great flavour.

It's quite a dense cake because of the chocolate in there.

John's biblical bake consists of a dark chocolate

and orange chiffon cake, hell.

And a heaven made of lemon and coconut meringue cakelets.

-I feel like my 2012 has been up and it's been down.

-OK.

I've had, you know, time at uni and stuff, doing my exams,

it's been really tough.

-Then my nephews have all been born, so that's heaven.

-Aw!

There's been more heaven than hell,

but funnily, it's going to be a bigger hell cake than a heaven cake!

The whole structure sounds amazing. How high are we looking at here?

About this high. So it's not giant, but the bottom cake is so big

that it looks like a centrepiece.

-But John's Showstopper won't be the biggest.

-I'm making five cakes.

I was going to incorporate fruit into the cakes.

It's something I've never done before. I thought it would be a nice thing to do.

But actually, I don't think it's worth it. I'll just get it,

instead of having fruit in the cake mixture, I'll just, you know,

have loads of fruit in and on the cake.

James is making five chiffon cakes

covered in mascarpone and honey icing.

Four will be individually flavoured with Turkish delight,

pistachios, blueberries and raspberries.

The fifth aims to bring them together in happy union.

2012 is a big year for the United Kingdom

and so I decided to do a cake that emphasises the "United".

-The idea of my cake is the whole is better than some of the parts.

-Aw!

And so we have a central Union Jack cake

with components from each of the four surrounding cakes.

Each one is going to have a specific flavour as well,

pistachio, blueberry, raspberry?

-And rose, English rose.

-Oh!

-English rose? Yeah, very clever.

-You're happy with the timings?

-I'm pretty short on time,

but I can fit three cakes in the oven at a time.

Have a good time, James. I'll see you later.

Three hours remaining...

This is the critical part of it, getting the sponge right.

I'll relax a wee bit more when that comes out of the oven.

Even though they've finished their sponge mix,

every move the bakers now make can still radically alter their chiffon's texture.

Because you don't want to deflate the egg whites,

so get it as close to the tin floor as possible.

The complicated bit is dividing it up into three equal cakes' worth.

The final of the Great British Bake Off, is it time for exact measurements?!

It's good enough.

You do that to get rid of any air pockets.

If there are any air pockets,

it will develop large holes like you have in bread.

I'll just bang it on the counter top,

just to expel any larger air bubbles.

There is a risk, doing a massive cake, an 11 inch cake,

especially a chiffon cake, it's huge.

Because it's sort of unsupported in the middle,

especially a perfectly round one.

John is also making smaller, plainer chiffons.

Could you ask if there are any Q-tips?

Which will form heavenly clouds on the top of his cake.

Brendan's reunion cake will have a heart-shaped second tier.

But James's nation cakes are already proving tricky to unite.

This is the mixture for the rose and pistachio.

He can only bake three at a time.

Oh!

-CRASHING

-Oh!

That's my cake!

I'm just thinking about what to do. How much time have we got?

What happened, James?

Och, it was silly, it was sitting on the stool and I knocked it and threw it all over the floor.

-I threw it away.

-You can make a new one, eh?

-I think I can.

-Of course you can.

-Erm, how do we make a new cake?

-So, you've got...

-I need eggs.

-Let's get you eggs.

He'll pull it back, I know he will. I've got every belief in him.

It's the one thing you dread happening.

I will try, and I will try, and I will try again.

Everything John, James and Brendan have baked will be served

to family and friends at the Bake Off's very own summer fete...

It's been strange because, honestly, I wasn't looking forward to coming back because, you know,

I was very, very disappointed when I left the Bake Off.

But coming back, actually, I'm thinking of the fond memories

and it's been a really happy experience, coming back.

..where this year's winner will be crowned.

When I think of what I've seen all of them bake,

I don't see how you could put a Pithivier between them.

I think from the very beginning,

Brendan was the person who stood out the most.

I would love it if John won, because he's really worked so, so, so hard.

James has done really well, and so has Brendan.

He's done super well as well. So, yeah, any out of them two!

I would say probably Brendan would edge it.

Today, I've got a feeling in my tummy that James is going to be the winner.

Second time. It's in the oven!

Yeah, I'm going to let it cool now upside down for five or ten minutes.

That just allows the sponge to keep its form

and it doesn't sort of concertina in on itself.

If you were to turn them upright now, they would start to collapse.

-While their sponges cool...

-Ten minutes.

..the bakers turn their thoughts to fillings and toppings.

The glaze is made by boiling sugar and water to make a syrup

and then you add cocoa powder and gelatine to that.

It's like a ganache, but it's very, very shiny. Very beautiful.

Not as bitter as a chocolate ganache.

This is raspberry jelly jam, if you like.

I'm looking for soft set jam, rather than firm set.

It's going to be used to flavour the buttercream

and it will also be used to glaze the raspberries on top.

James is hoping to decorate his English cake with home-made Turkish delight.

-I don't really know what I'm looking for.

-Rosewater, gelatine, sugar,

and cornflour are gently simmered with water

until the mixture only just starts to thicken.

I can just hope that this is right.

James needs to allow enough time for it to cool...

No! It's gone down the sides.

..to achieve its elusive soft-set jelly texture.

Because Turkish delight is pink, I thought it would be nice to have a pink St George's Cross.

-This is the moment of truth with this cake.

-HE WHISTLES

GENTLE TAPPING

It shy because it's been watched so closely.

The bake is good.

JAMES LAUGHS

All the chiffons are out of their tins. The decorating can begin.

It's made of butter, cream cheese and raspberry jam.

And I've given it extra whipping to take it more like a mousse

so it will be light and airy.

I have done the top of one cake, the sides of none.

Presumably this is

because you want a cake that looks like it's stepped out of a salon!

I need to re-melt it to get it nice and smooth.

That's the best I can do with that.

It's not as smooth as I would have liked.

Lovely, I will come by later for a cut and colour.

Free of charge for you!

In 45 minutes, the finalists must face the judges.

You've got three distinctive characters here.

Brendan is traditional, it looks quite a normal -

if you can call a chiffon cake a normal - cake.

It will be tricky enough. But the flavours he's got are interesting.

He's using the almond extract.

I think John is technically so good.

I reckon he's made that four times over the week last week

and he's doing all sorts of new techniques.

James, the great innovator.

-He is using the idea of the flag in the middle.

-He's pushing himself.

He's always shown us he can pull it together at the end. I reckon he might be short of time.

This, we know, is the standout piece that could win the Bake Off.

No pressure.

Turkish delight is a bit more like that putty

you put in your shower to stop it leaking.

-No!

-Have you done this before?

-No.

-You haven't done it before and it's a final.

-He's danger.

It's amazingly elastic, isn't it? Look at that.

-I don't know what to do.

-We will leave you to it, James.

-Yeah.

-It tastes delicious.

-I don't know how to rectify this.

This might be one step too far.

OK, bakers, you've got 15 minutes to go in this,

your final Showstopper Challenge.

The final push of the Bake Off. Let's do it.

It could be tricky to balance on the chiffon.

Really, really tricky.

It's fairly stable.

We are a bit short of time. Rather than make the cross out of Turkish delight,

I made the cross out of raspberries.

My girlfriend said I was crazy for doing five cakes.

-What does Tartarus mean again?

-The offspring of Chaos.

-I love that.

That's me!

There's five minutes, bakers.

Shall we take it to the wire yet again?

I've just got to be gentle.

And delicate.

It's going to be not delicate but presented.

Three, two, one. Bakers, that's it.

The Final Challenge in the 2012 Bake Off is done.

Step away from your Showstopper Challenges.

James!

If in doubt, cover it in icing sugar.

I am happy. I came, I saw, I baked.

Hopefully I conquered, who knows?

I think the winner could be James. Brendan has been consistent but James has the quality,

that edge to him. He has baked five massive cakes.

I think mine ultimately shows less skill than the others

but hopefully some good baking.

I think to achieve the title would be an extraordinary

endorsement of what I've achieved in...

Yes, in what I've achieved in my baking over the decades, really.

You know, in sp...

Quick, sabotage him while we can!

It's the final judging of The Great British Bake Off.

John, if you would like to bring heaven and hell to the altar.

Well done, John. Tell us all about it.

It's a chocolate and orange sponge base

and some ganache running through. The top cakes are individually injected with lemon curd,

rolled in marshmallow meringue and rolled in desiccated coconut.

Well, it really does look stunning.

We have a lovely shine on top.

You should be praised for the look of it.

-It's very professional.

-Thank you.

What I like about that cake is when you cut it,

and you see it on the plate, it looks beautiful.

It's got a lovely line where we've come through the icing,

the texture of the cake looks perfect.

It's rich. It's absolutely lovely. Mm.

That really works.

You've got a beautiful blend of the chocolate, it's quite difficult to do on a chiffon cake.

Add the chocolate and remain having a decent structure.

As you took the slice, Mary is right, it held together.

And you have a perfect slice of cake.

Now, that looks a nice even-textured light chiffon cake.

A lovely strong lemony flavour in the middle of that.

It's light, it's full of flavour, the coconut works well.

-Well done.

-Thank you very much.

Brendan, bring the family up.

I called it a family reunion cake.

The two dominant flavours are raspberry and almond.

The coating is a raspberry and very light mousseline light coating.

It's elegant, as always, Brendan you've been the constant.

And again, you've come up with another one.

I like the way you always go that extra mile.

You've made the raspberry jelly

and I'm glad it's not over decorated. I like simplicity.

Ooh, nice.

Ooh, that's worth reuniting with your family for!

You've got your layers beautifully even, as you always do.

It's got a nice bake all the way through it.

That sponge is like a cloud.

You get a hit of raspberry and the after effect is the almond coming through.

For the almond to come through and give you a hit of almond

but not overwhelm it is quite tricky.

It is absolutely delicious. And I love the fresh raspberry topping.

-The gingermen are gorgeous and delicate, crispy.

-Nice texture.

-It's so good.

-Not too much ginger in there but enough. Well done.

Thank you very much.

Well done, Brendan.

Five cakes, we've got a rose chiffon, a pistachio chiffon,

a vanilla chiffon with raspberry in and out and vanilla with blueberry.

There's plenty of cake for a party and we are having a fete

so you are the main contributor to our fete, thank you very much!

-Is that a good thing?

-It's a very good thing.

I don't know what to say, really.

The problems for me is there's five individual cakes.

The criteria is to create a cake.

If you join them up somehow, join them up

so it became a sequence that joined together in one cake,

the problem is which one do you want us to judge?

To judge all five would be tricky.

-The Union Jack.

-We will go for the middle one.

-This has got all the bits in.

-Pistachio sponge.

I can taste the rose.

What am I going to say, James?

Bad crumb.

-It's far too dry.

-Is it?

-Hm.

-It's welding my mouth together, unfortunately.

-Oh, no.

It really is too cakey. It really should be light.

-Can we try England, Scotland?

-Have a go for Scotland.

That one is slightly lighter but it still a bit cakey

and not light and spongy.

The density is too much.

It's got a beautiful flavour, better than the middle one.

-But the problem for me is the structure is wrong.

-Right, OK.

You've had such a lot to do in five cakes,

I think in fact if you'd made one big square one and then divided it

in sections as one cake you'd have had had more time to give a smarter finish.

We can still sort of see the cake coming through your covering.

It's a shame that, James.

As the finalists take their Showstoppers

to their guests at the fete,

Paul and Mary have a decision to make.

Let's look at them individually. Let's start with James first of all.

I think James has coped jolly well with all that's gone wrong

like we've always found in the Bake Off when disasters happen they cope.

They are all home bakers.

They don't make scenes and he smiled through the lot.

United Kingdom was his idea

and yet nothing was united about that at all.

He did well in the technical though. He came first yesterday.

He did well on the technical.

It's a shame James had such a difficult weekend

because if you look at the Star Bakers

he has won three times, Brendan twice and John once.

So, it all goes to show, as you've said many times,

it's hitting your stride the right moment.

-Which leads us on to John.

-He started all right.

He did quite well the first few weeks.

-Then, he tailed off as if he had lost his mojo.

-He's very emotional.

He is and that dictates his bakes.

That glossy icing on top of the chocolate cake,

he said it would mirror.

It did mirror.

Let's talk about Brendan, Mr Consistency.

He was very good at things he could practise at home

like the Showstoppers and the Signature Bake.

But when it came to the technical, sometimes he didn't do so well.

But he was outstanding in all other fields.

His knowledge, his ability in making cakes, breads, unbelievable.

Do you know who you think deserves to be crowed Bake Off champion?

Do you know, we had a chat before and we both looked at each other

and said the same name.

-Really? Did you go one, two, three and...

-Like scissor, papers, stone.

-Not everyone decides things like we do.

-OK. We have agreed.

-Oh, tense.

Bakers, family, friends.

Welcome to another hypothermic British summer afternoon.

And to you, our lovely three finalists, what can I say?

You've given us whisky-soaked mega-bakes that made us feel like a Borrower in comparison, James.

Brendan, you've offered up psychedelic slices of perfection.

And John, you've created the iconic building from the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.

You are all brilliant and you should be incredibly proud of yourselves.

It's time for you to come forward. If our bakers could come forward.

So, Paul and Mary have made their decision and we are very, very pleased

to announce that the winner of the Great British Bake Off 2012 is...

John.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

John was fantastic.

He's had his ups and downs through the whole series

but overall when he nails it, he absolutely nailed it

and today that was fantastic.

He showed us that he could bake to an exceedingly high standard.

He knows how to design a cake, he has a modern twist.

His thought processes,

his design and baking for the first time is joined up.

And the passion the guy has is just phenomenal. I'm very proud of him.

He did exceptionally well.

-Is this real?

-It's very real.

In a minute, your blood pressure will come down to normal.

I feel faint, really, really queasy. It's not sinking in.

I cannot believe it. I really cannot believe it, I'm so happy.

I was a reluctant applicant when I filled out the application form,

but I'm really pleased I did it because I am self taught

and it's been great to take it to this level.

So, that in particular now I will value and hold onto really.

It does genuinely feel like everyone's a winner.

It feels brilliant. There's no real commiserations going around.

It's all congratulations, well done. A really fun atmosphere.

Overall, one of the best experiences of my life.

I'm not going to be a banker!

My mum is so proud. That's the biggest prize I've got. My mum is happy with me and...

I just feel like I've finally done something that I've wanted to do to please her.

Do you know what I mean? It just means the absolute world to me.

Oh, God. Shut up, John!