Quarter Final The Great British Bake Off

It's the quarterfinal of the bake off and the tension is palpable.

-Bunting?

-Check.

-Sugar?

-Check.

-Eggs?

-Check.

-Flour?

-Check.

-Butter?

-Check.

-Nostril trimmer?

-Check.

-Gingham?

-Check.

-Yes, it is, five bakers desperate to make it to the semifinal?

-Check.

Can only be the Great British Bake Off.

-Tartan?

-Check.

-Yes, isn't it?!

Vaclav Havel? BOTH: Czech!

'Last time...'

Oh, no, my hand's shaking!

'Our six bakers put their twist on a signature suet pudding...'

That's perfecto.

'Survived one hell of a technical challenge...'

What an ugly bunch of nuns.

'And made 252 show-stopping puff pastries which put them in a spin.'

-Get a grip.

-Thank you.

-Just get a grip.

'Frances excelled...'

The flavour combinations inside are delicious.

'Finally being awarded Star Baker.'

APPLAUSE

'The bakers raced against time...

HE SIGHS

'..and Glenn became the eighth baker to leave.

'Now for the all-female quarter finalists, it's make or break.'

GLASS SHATTERS

It's like the Incredible Hulk!

'As they battle it out for a place in the semifinal.'

I've just got to concentrate on each task

and not think about what could go wrong.

'As the judges seek perfection.'

At this stage, I'm not afraid of being critical.

The disappointment is when you get into the cake, which is rather sad.

Too bland.

That was just brutal.

'Who will stay?'

I do feel that this is quite an important bake for me.

-I'm not convinced you weighed everything up properly.

-Really?

'And who will leave the Bake Off tent?'

# I'm coming out, woo!

# I want the world to know... #

THEY HUM

This week the bakers have been challenged with

the task of making everything free.

Not in a financial sense, but more gluten-free, wheat-free, dairy-free sort of a thing.

Yeah, we're not free, though. We're about £5 an hour to hire for parties.

I'm undercutting her, I'm four.

I'm starting to feel the pressure,

my parents have both aged ten years they keep on telling me.

They're more stressed than I am.

I still need to get that blinkin' elusive Star Baker, the only one

of the five who hasn't had it now, so it's really eating at me slightly.

I think this week, I'm not going to slag off my bakes to Mary

and Paul because if they've got a problem with it, they'll tell me,

there's no point in me putting ideas in their mind.

Nobody's really used the word "finals", actually, which is interesting,

no-one's actually said it.

We've just been talking quite normally, as we usually do

about which recipes you're doing this week.

Bakers, welcome to the quarterfinal.

Not even a sniff of a Y-chromosome in the tent.

That includes you, Paul.

Right, so today we'd like you to make a loaf.

Not just any loaf,

we'd like you to make a loaf using unusual flours, such as chestnut

or rye or rice, or you can use a grandfather grain which is

the same as a normal grain but it talks about the war and falls asleep

in front of a bar fire. Those are things like spelt, things like that.

Well done. You can use any flavours you want, of course,

they're up to you.

You should bake it freeform or in a tin, again the choice is yours.

You've got three hours on your Signature Bake, so on your marks...

-Get set...

-Bake!

'The bakers have already been tested on their conventional

'bread-making skills, now they face the even trickier task

'of mastering unconventional flours to create the perfect loaf.'

Each flour has a different gluten level.

This is the binding agent in all bread.

And so therefore the bread reacts in a totally different way -

is it going to affect the bake or is it going to affect the proving

or is it going to affect both of them?

It's got to hold its shape, it's got to cut well,

we're looking for a good texture,

a good rise and, above all, a good flavour.

My friend Elle, she's got a slight wheat intolerance, so we often

used to make spelt hot cross buns or spelt soda breads and stuff.

'Spelt flour has a wheat gluten structure

'and is being used by Frances, Kimberley, Beca and Ruby.'

Spelt flour's like a really old type of flour,

like an ancestor of conventional wheat flour.

'Because of its different gluten structure,

'spelt can be more unpredictable to work with than regular wheat flour.'

One thing spelt does, it tends to fall out more than rise up.

And my dough's quite a wet dough

which also means that the shape itself,

slightly sort of, I like to say blossoms.

'Frances is making a tear and share loaf in the style of a Chelsea bun.

'Her spelt Chelsea Flour Show loaf is flavoured with orange zest

'and decorated with honeycomb and bees.'

Is it going in a tin or are you doing it on a flat plate?

I'm going to prove it in one of these tins to begin with.

Is that a good idea to do that?

When you're dealing with spelt, it can flow,

that's the term that we use in the industry.

-I've found it's flowed, yes.

-And because of that, if you contain it,

the fact that you're doing a Chelsea bun will give it

rigidity as well. You've got to get the texture right.

It's going to be difficult.

So I'm just measuring this water quite precisely.

I'm making a spelt loaf, it's mango and nigella seeds,

so the idea is kind of like a mango chutney in a bread.

'Ruby claimed Star Baker using conventional flour in bread week,

'so is hoping to do the same with her freeform spelt cob.'

I don't feel as emotional a baker as I maybe was at the start,

but I've really built up my stress tolerance over the last few weeks,

I'm less easily panicked.

Because when I was doing my exams as well, I just went in

and did what I needed to do,

whereas before I would have been stressing out like crazy, so I think

it's actually been good for me being this stressed out for this long.

I think it's done a good thing.

'To help reinforce the structure of her loaf, Beca has a secret weapon.'

So my potatoes are ready, my rosemary's ready, the potatoes

add the extra stickiness from the starch that they obviously let out.

'Beca's using mashed potato, rosemary and spelt flour,

'mixed to make her version of an Italian focaccia.'

What sort of rise are you looking at and what sort of texture

are you going to get at the end? Cake-like?

When I was experimenting in the week, it had a nice uneven texture

with nice air holes and it's quite a wet dough.

It'll be nice to have something savoury.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

I'm using a completely gluten-free flour,

it's a mixture of tapioca, rice and potato.

'Christine's wheat-free loaf is the only one that's also gluten free.

'It will be topped and filled with pumpkin, sesame and sunflower seeds.'

When I made this loaf in the week,

I wasn't quite sure, because I hadn't made one before,

what it was supposed to look like,

or how tall it was supposed to be, so I went up to see my baker

at the local mill and took a chunk of it up there to show him

and he did tell me that it was just as a gluten-free loaf should be.

'While those using spelt gently knead their dough...'

You need to build up the gluten a little bit, so that's why

I'm working it a little bit more than I normally would.

'..Christine's completely gluten-free mixture needs a different approach.'

With a balloon whisk, you can see you couldn't possibly knead that.

Well, you could, but you'd get into an awful mess.

Right, now that's going to go in to prove

for about an hour and a quarter.

Shower cap and then in there.

I'll look at it in half an hour and then see if it needs more.

So I'm not going to put it in the proving drawer just yet,

I'm going to see how it goes because it's had raw mashed potato

and warm water in, it's already starting to...

And I don't want to over-prove.

I like a loaf that looks good on the inside.

'Kimberley's taking a risk

'as the only baker filling her dough before proving.'

I'm just wanting to make it so that

when you roll it up, there's an unbroken line of the ham.

'Her loaf is made with plain and wholemeal spelt

'and filled with Parma ham and freshly made wild garlic pesto.'

My boyfriend and my sister are my most reliable testers,

and my sister is now over several times a week.

She just comes in, she literally walks past me

into the kitchen to see what's there.

It does look exciting.

I held my breath all the way through!

Bakers, in latest grandfather grain news, you have one hour.

It's alive. Yeah, lots of bubbles, it's quite a wet and soft dough.

Yep, happy with that.

Doesn't look as big as it usually would, but I think it's proved

as much as I needed it to, so I feel happy about that.

If you press it and it holds the indent then it's proved enough.

Yep, if it springs back then it needs a bit more time.

Buongiorno.

Everything you do is aesthetically so pleasing. Colour coordinated.

I love working with colour

and I think food, as well, it's all about texture.

-Are your family being good?

-They've been incredibly supportive.

In fact, my sister, she lives over in Vancouver and she sent a photo

the other day of me when I was about five with one of my birthday cakes

and she said, "Look, you've always been happiest surrounded by cake."

You didn't make a birthday cake at five, did you? No.

I've just got this bit of dough which doesn't have any mango in,

for just tucking over like a protective cover.

Because the gluten is not as strong as in a normal flour,

if the mango's on the surface it can rupture

and mango burns on the surface anyway, so I'm hiding mango

and getting it all covered up. So it should make it rise more evenly.

It's hard to imagine, with our obsession with diverse and artisanal loaves,

that just 70 years ago, the Ministry of Food could have forced us

to eat just one - the national loaf -

which helped ensure health for the wartime nation.

'Before World War II, Britain imported over 20 million tonnes of

'food, but a key strategy of the enemy was to starve

'the nation into submission, so the Ministry of Food

'needed to come up with ways of keeping the nation fed.'

Wheat was in very short supply because 70% of our imports

were coming in from Canada, across the Atlantic.

And this route was very vulnerable to attack from German U-boats.

Hitler's intention was to very much destroy the docks,

stop the imports and to starve the country out.

'The Ministry of Food had to come up with a plan

'to make the grain we had go further.'

The white bread that people enjoyed eating was made using

only 70% of the milled wheat grains,

and this was seen as very wasteful in wartime.

The Ministry of Food figured out that by including the bran

and the germ of the wheat, they could reduce the amount of wheat

that Britain required by a whole 10% and even make the bread

more nutritious. This was then used to create the national loaf.

'But, for a nation raised on soft white bread,

'the government standard loaf proved hard to stomach.'

The national loaf was rough and coarse and hard,

and people were not used to it.

An added problem was the national loaf was often stale.

Bakers were not allowed to sell the loaf until a day after baking,

so that it would slice more thinly and so the loaf would go further.

'The public found it so grey and unappealing

'they even nicknamed it Hitler's secret weapon.'

The Ministry of Food tried very hard to persuade people to love

the national loaf and they put a lot of effort into publicity campaigns.

Lord Wolston is rumoured to have started a rumour that

because the national loaf had increased amounts of vitamin E,

which helps aid fertility, it was an aphrodisiac.

All of this government propaganda does seem ultimately to have worked.

By the end of the war, people were eating 20% more bread.

It seems that they had finally learned to love the national loaf.

OK, bakers, that's five minutes, or if you want a spelt version -

F-I-V-E M-I-N-U-T-E-S.

I'm just going to turn it around.

Nearly done. I'm just putting an egg wash on the top.

It looks like a beautiful cabbage.

Yeah, it's supposed to look like a rose.

Oh, sorry, was it a rose? I said cabbage.

No, no, cabbage is fine.

# I'm coming out, woo!

# I want the world to know... #

THEY HUM

It looks bronzed and cooked underneath. Oh, I don't know.

Oh, hello, cheeky! That'll do.

Bakers, that's one minute left.

It's not playing ball. I can't believe this.

It's got baking parchment underneath it, it should not have stuck.

Let's try and get it out in one piece

and just gently, gently put it on the top like a crown.

There we go, OK. Jigsaw.

It's cooked. Thank God it's the bottom.

Bakers, this bake is officially closed.

Well done, you.

Loaves on boards, please.

I mean, Lord, look at Frances',

a broken loaf will not compete with that.

'Each unconventional loaf will now be judged by Paul and Mary.'

I think the style is amazing, what you've done,

but it's got to taste good, so let's take a chunk out of here.

It's got a good bake on it all the way down.

It's full of flavour, I can taste everything from oranges to

apricots, I think it would be great to tear and share.

I think it could have done with more proving.

I think it's a little bit too dense, I probably wouldn't have put

any hindrance inside the dough because you added the orange zest.

Yeah.

OK, it's got a nice colour.

I'll leave that on there. That's pretty good!

When he says pretty good, I reckon that's really good.

Amazing!

I think it's absolutely scrummy, I think it's really lovely.

The potato has broken up the gluten slightly

so it's made it easy to chew. It melts in your mouth.

You've ended up with a good, uneven, irregular crumb

which is what you expect from a focaccia

and actually, that's a very good focaccia.

Thank you. High praise indeed. Gosh, thanks.

Nice crust on the top, that's the part I like.

Let's have a look inside.

-Oh, it's going to be so bad, oh, no.

-Ready?

-Oh, no.

-What's wrong with it?

It's under-proved, it's under-baked, it's horrible.

It's a winner for flavour, you've got a nice lot of mango in there.

The technique was good, it was freeform,

tricky to do with a flour like this.

However, it is under-proved, and it's under-baked.

-Beautiful pattern in there. Look at that!

-Isn't it just!

And of course, so often when you put Parma ham in a bread

it becomes crispy and hard.

This will have softened and, I hope, added some really good flavour.

SHE GIGGLES

I actually love the flavours.

The problem is, there's so much filling in there

and the fact it's a wholemeal and the fact that you've cut it

and the fact that you've twisted it, it's got nowhere to go.

The texture is all wrong because it's too dry inside.

-Dry?

-Yeah.

-Oh, OK.

-It's a mess round the side.

-I know.

The bake looks pretty good, I do like the look of it actually,

I like the seeds on the top.

Nice structure.

The seeds look evenly distributed in the middle.

I think the flavour's good.

I think the flavour and the texture are good and I do like that crust

round the outside, it's a lovely colour and I like a crusty loaf.

Well done, it's a tricky thing to do, but you've done well.

-Thank you very much.

-Well done, Christine.

-Thank you.

I'm pleased with that and I shall make some more because

I do have a couple of friends who are gluten intolerant,

and it would be lovely to give them a home-made loaf instead of a bought one.

And save me touring the supermarket looking for it.

That was a brilliant start for me.

What is wrong with me?

I was sitting in there like, this might be under-proved.

Why did I just take it out of the drawer and put it...? I'm just an idiot.

You're at the stage where you want everything to be perfect

so to get valid criticisms is just a bit disappointing.

I hope I've still got a chance to get through to the semis because

I don't even want to anticipate not being there next week, so yeah.

Prove. Prove, prove.

'For their second challenge,

'the quarterfinalists now face the unknown.'

So, bakers, welcome to the Technical Challenge.

Now, this particular challenge is one of Mary's recipes.

Seeing as this morning we've had some gluten-free

and some wheat-free, I'm suggesting this should be judge free.

So, with the best will in the world, please, jog on.

So what is it?

Well, Mary has left you with a decadent little recipe

which she likes to knock up for people who are on a gluten-free diet.

It's a French classic, it's a hazelnut dacquoise.

You've got two hours and 45 minutes to concoct

-this delicious little bake, so on your marks...

-Get set...

BOTH: Bake!

The instructions, I wouldn't say they were crystal clear.

I know what it is, I've never made it though. A dacquoise!

'The dacquoise is a dessert cake originating from the spa town

'of Dax in southwest France.

'And it comprises several layers of nut meringue and rich cream.'

It feels like the most complex technical so far.

I think it's just going to be a timing thing.

I at least know what one is, so that's the kind of terror,

like, what if I don't know what this is? At all?

Hazelnut dacquoise, this French classic of

three layers of meringue with hazelnuts in the meringue mixture.

If they roast them and they're too dark, they'll be bitter.

If they chop them too finely, this releases too much oil

and then the meringue will go runny.

So there's several things that could really go wrong here.

One would be on the meringue itself,

and I actually think in the construction of it,

to keep it nice and level. And finally, to put those

12 ganache piped swirls on the top, and then topped with the praline.

Absolutely gorgeous,

one of my favourite ones you've done there, Mary.

I've never done nuts in a meringue before, but I know you can.

'If the hazelnuts are chopped too finely...

'the excess oil released can deflate the meringue.'

The key thing is just to get these in the oven

to roast as quickly as possible.

Make the meringue.

'Meringue is the perfect foundation for a baked gluten-free dessert.'

I'm not that good at meringues, mainly because until recently

I didn't have any sort of electric whisk at home and I'm not going

to spend half an hour whisking up a meringue so I never really bothered.

Clearly I need to bother now.

'It's up to the bakers to decide

'when to add the meringue's additional ingredients.'

I'm just adding in the sugar now.

Glossy, stiff peaks should form.

I've never put cornflour into a meringue before.

I would imagine it gives it a bit of substance.

And once the meringue's all made, then I'll stir through

the hazelnuts. I might sieve them to get rid of the bigger bits.

I might stick these in the fridge for a little while.

I don't think it'll do them any harm.

I think I'm just folding these in, just fold.

So you've got to make sure that you don't let the air out.

Flake the mixture.

That looks blooming good!

There isn't much time to mess about with these ones.

If you make a mistake you'd have to work really quickly

because the oil in the nuts is starting already

to break down the egg whites.

Oh, I think that looks good. You've got no worries.

Slightly flatulent piping bag, got lots of air pockets.

It's quite rude, isn't it?

'Mary's recipe does not specify a baking time.'

I've no idea how long these need to go in the oven for

so I'll have to keep an eye on them.

'The meringue should be baked until just light and crisp.

'Any further and the hazelnut will become bitter.'

I just switched the meringues round because I am finding that

the ones at the bottom actually are browning a little bit quicker

than the other ones, just to get an even distribution of colour.

It says the next step on this is to make the ganache.

But I'd rather get the custard done and cooling, because then

that needs to have whipped cream folded in, and ganache won't take

as long to cool so I'm switching round the order a little bit.

I'm seeing how thick it needs to be, because it's a custard,

that's what I need to remind myself.

It's done.

'A coffee custard forms the base of the creme mousseline.'

So what's different about this custard?

Well, it's got the cream going through it

so it's almost like a slightly more mousse-y custard.

-It's mousse.

-Mousseline, ah! Got you.

'The bakers need to leave enough time for it to cool completely

'before adding the whipped cream.'

It just keeps on going on, so many steps to this.

OK, bakers, that's one hour before there's a mousseline

loosenine aboot this hooseline...

It didn't work but you can't fault me trying.

I don't think it's far off, to be honest with you.

I'm guessing.

My meringues are not looking good. They're not crisping up at all.

Oh, dear, I'm giving up.

'Whipped cream should be carefully folded into

'the cooled coffee custard.'

I don't really know. It looks quite thick, it looks like it's holding.

'If any air is lost from the mixture,

'it may not be able to support the layers of meringue.'

It might not be thick enough but we just have to hope.

'The meringues need to be out of the oven and given enough time

'to cool completely before the dacquoise is assembled.'

Yeah, I'm really happy with those.

The temperature of the oven's right, it might crisp up.

I'm going to make some praline now.

'Sugar needs to be melted until it just caramelises...'

I just want to make sure I don't miss anything.

'..Before stirring in hazelnuts and lemon juice.'

The way it says to do the thing on the spoon,

that's slightly flummoxing me.

'Each praline cluster should have three perfectly caramelised nuts.'

It's just fiddly because it's hot

and the caramel obviously hardens really quickly.

'And each dacquoise should have 12 clusters.'

I'm being really silly and using my fingers.

Bakers, you've got ten minutes left.

'Once assembled, each layer of the dacquoise should be distinct.'

You've got double piping action going on here, what's going on?

I think I'm going to pipe the coffee one in

just because otherwise I know I'll just splodge it on.

If I pipe it, it will be an even layer.

But then I don't want to squeeze all the air out.

So maybe we'll just splodge it on.

Will it take the air out if you pipe?

I think it might.

-Splodge then, mate, splodge.

-Yeah, I might do a splodge.

-Splodge.

It's just a little bit thin. I should have thickened it

a little bit more before I took it off the heat.

So I'm just going to try and neaten it up as much as I can.

Bakers, you've got five minutes on your nut clustering,

five minutes to go.

So, quite large nibbed nuts you've gone for.

Well, I've sort of done them by hand, yeah.

We're getting there.

That's got carpet tile written all over it.

-Asking for disaster.

-Oh! Beautifully done.

It just says, "Pipe swirls of ganache on top

"and then decorate with the praline."

That's good, that's good. Yeah, nice and generous.

Nice and generous.

Famous Five, your eighth technical challenge is now over,

please step away from your dacquoises.

If you'd like to bring them up,

pop them behind the photo of yourself, I'll start eating them.

'Mary and Paul will be looking for a delicate and elegant dacquoise,

'with even layers and firm mousseline,

'and light, crispy nut meringue.'

Well, we have five and they look good, don't they?

Right, we'll start with this one.

This one's got a decent meringue, it's quite tough, it's got a bit

of bite to it. You can tell, because it cracked all the way through.

The filling, it's holding quite well, the praline looks nice.

We've good definition between the meringue and the filling

all the way through, you can see the layers quite clearly.

I think the meringue's crispy enough

and the flavour's excellent all the way down.

Let's try the next one.

This meringue looks pretty poor, actually,

it's not crispy at all, although the filling's holding quite well.

The nuts are a little coarser, which gives a better texture.

The ganache is good.

-But the custard is not thick enough.

-No.

This is interesting. The layers are so thin in that meringue.

Look at it, it's lost all its definition.

-It's too chewy.

-It's been baked too quick.

It should have taken about an hour in the oven,

and I think that that would have had considerably less.

And that means that the meringue hasn't dried out.

It just looks untidy around the edge, you know.

We can still see the layers, which is lucky,

and on top the ganache needed to be left longer

to become cool to keep the definition of the piping.

The cream's quite wet, it needs to be stiffer.

It's still got some crunch there, though.

It has got some, yeah.

They're not very thick, are they, the layers of meringue?

It's quite neat at the sides, this one.

You can definitely see the three layers of meringue

and the two layers of filling.

-Good crunch.

-It looks good.

It's neat, it's neat. Yeah.

'Mary and Paul will now rank the dacquoises.'

In fifth place - this one.

Rather an uneven finish and the filling was rather runny.

Number four is this one.

Your praline's not very good, your ganache has probably been put on...

It was just not cool enough.

And in third place.

Good even piping, but the meringue itself, a little too runny.

And number two is this one.

It came down to the volume in the meringue between one and two.

And in first place, Ruby!

Well done, Ruby.

APPLAUSE

Good height, good definition of the meringue

and the filling held together very well. Well done.

One would have been better, but two's all right.

I'm astounded. I did not think I was going to win.

Could have been better, could have been not last.

Things haven't gone totally to plan, but tomorrow's a new day.

'One challenge remaining in the quarterfinal.'

All five bakers fighting it out for a place in the semis.

Let's start with Ruby.

Ruby always has a blip, and then instantly rectifies it.

Is she safe, though, do you think she's in the semis?

Coming first in the technical,

if she has a really bad day today it might not be enough.

Kimberley was second in the technical,

and she had similar problems with her signature loaf, didn't she?

The texture was a bit wrong.

And Frances, who was mid-way in the technical?

Her Chelsea buns looked so good, it looked so inviting,

you wanted to tear off a chunk.

And I think in the Showstopper today,

I hope she doesn't over decorate it.

Christine, she had a mix of sort of rice flour and potato flour

and possibly some tapioca in there, quite well baked, you thought?

I thought it was OK, I thought she was last,

she's got to come up today.

Finally Beca, who came fourth in the technical

but did very well in her focaccia.

The flavours that she got, it did look like a focaccia, the structure was all right.

Does that save her?

It depends on what she does today, this is the problem.

It's almost in reverse from signature to technical.

It could go any way.

-Well, now I'm on tenterhooks.

-So am I.

-I can't cope.

Good morning, bakers, and welcome to the Showstopper Challenge.

And what you bake today could secure your place in the semifinals,

so no biggy.

What we'd like you to bake is a 3-D novelty cake.

Now this could be in any shape you like - a shoe, a cat,

a pair of Paul Hollywood's budgie smugglers - we don't mind.

But it's got to be dairy-free - no butter, no cheese,

no milk inside or out, none of that.

Now, bakers, we'd like it to be a vegetable cake, please.

You can use any vegetables you choose,

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

-Get set...

-BOTH: Bake!

'Nearly all recipes for vegetable cake are dairy-free,

'as they traditionally feature oil rather than butter.'

Most cakes will have butter in, they'll have eggs,

they'll have milk in there

but by taking out the dairy, they've got to think outside the box.

Then they've got to think of the vegetables.

The vegetables release oil, they release a natural flavouring,

and it's about the quantity you put in there,

because it will restrict and retard whatever flour you're going to use.

So it's very tricky when you bring all those components together

to actually bake something that looks good and tastes good.

Most of them will have made a carrot cake,

they may even have made a courgette cake

but they've got to think beyond that.

It's difficult when you're using vegetables,

they're often a very close texture, very moist.

We are looking for a cake with a good base

and then they've got to be all out for a good decoration.

I am making a 3-D sweet potato cake

in the shape of a guitar.

I've made it twice, this cake.

And both times it's come out really good

so I don't foresee any problems.

'Christine is flavouring her sweet potato electric guitar with

'fresh pineapple, spices, and fresh passion fruit icing.'

It's quite a dense cake, it's a bit like a bread pudding texture.

It's got lots of spices, it is delicious.

So what are you using to cover the cake with?

I'm making a marshmallow fondant, which is quite quick to make.

And what are you thinking?

Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Brian May, Jimi Hendrix?

-Brian May. Every time.

-May, all the time.

-Jimmy Page.

-Page?

-Jimmy Page.

My 3-D novelty cake is going to be made into the shape

of a wooden board with a massive chunk of cheese sat on top.

'Beca's using butternut squash as the basis for her cheeseboard cake,

'flavouring it with peach jam and infesting it with fondant mice.'

I haven't practised this cake, so I don't know how it's going to go.

Winging it slightly, but, yeah, should all be fine hopefully.

'Kimberley's also using butternut squash in her cake,

'inspired by childhood memories.'

This toadstool cake is the cake my mum made for my brother when he was little,

so I remember being quite small and fascinated by it.

I thought it would be quite a nice little kind of tribute

to those memories.

'Her squash toadstool house is flavoured with spices,

'maple syrup and non-dairy buttercream,

'surrounded by fondant decorations.'

The plan is just to get the cake in as soon as possible.

I want to speed through this part, so I've got as much time as possible

to do the decorations properly

without having to feel like I'm rushing them.

I'm making a carrot cake in the shape of an allotment plot.

So there's going to be a shed and vegetable beds and stuff like that.

'Ruby's allotment will have poppy seed soil and pistachio grass,

'and a shed built with dark chocolate planks

'and a praline roof.'

So this is your basic cake mixture for the big cake?

I don't know if this is a big enough bowl for all of that.

-It's a big mix.

-It's a huge mix.

Is this the biggest mix you've ever worked with, Ruby?

I've never made a cake this big, this is really weird for me.

I can't wait to see how you get on with it.

Very exciting to do it, quite different

and I'm looking forward to it.

'Frances's 3-D novelty cake

'would look at home on Ruby's vegetable allotment.'

I'm making my hidden carrot cake.

It's going to be a sort of pot and then I'm having three carrots

hidden in there and then I'll have dill acting as the carrot top.

Then I'm going to make some edible bulbs and mini little edible plants

and then a little plant label topper and some sesame seeds.

It should look like a little horticultural garden, I suppose.

'Frances is making a beetroot and walnut cake for the earth part

'of her design, flavouring it with dark chocolate

'and orange zest and topped with a ground praline chocolate soil.'

Well, beetroot and walnuts are so good. And also, I find beetroot is

quite an earthy, soily taste anyway. It's not overpowering and also

it adds a real nice moistness to the cake because I can't use butter.

'Because they are high in moisture, vegetable cakes need longer to bake

'than usual cakes, so it's important to get them in the oven early.'

There's some good ideas there, I think.

We've got some really good ideas,

and they're using techniques they haven't used before.

When you're looking at Ruby,

it's the first time you're going to see her out of her comfort zone

and she's actually making something look very pretty and very different.

Frances, as usual, is doing lots of intricate things

in her vegetable garden.

And I just hope she doesn't spend too much time

on all things round rather than the actual cake.

Christine's will be finished impeccably,

but I don't like the idea when she said it's a bit like bread pudding.

The bake itself, the all-important part, well, it's got to be good.

Not quite, you can see a little bit of wet on the skewer.

I might give it another five minutes just to be safe.

Yep, very happy with my cakes.

OK, cakes...done.

'Vegetable cakes are heavy, so building them

'into 3-D novelty shapes requires a fair bit of precision.'

OK, this looks good. There's a lot of construction work on the shed.

There's quite a lot of construction work going on.

And can you remember all your measurements?

I can remember some of my measurements.

I just need to get them cooled in time, is the only thing now.

So I can ice them without the buttercream melting off

or anything like that.

It's one of those things where it looks really, really rubbish

until the last few moments when you put the final touches on.

So let's just hope I have time to do those final touches.

'Buttercream is often used to decorate and fill cakes,

'so to make a non-dairy alternative, Christine, Kimberley, Ruby

'and Beca are using sunflower or soya-based spreads.'

The problem with using the margarine is,

it's got quite a high water content

so it takes loads of sugar to get a decent consistency,

and what the cider vinegar does is just adds that real...

You only use a tiny bit

but it just adds that slight tang to make it more like a cream cheese.

'Frances is going one step further,

'by making a non-dairy dark chocolate fudge sauce.'

I use coconut cream with chocolate and golden syrup and orange rind.

It quite tastes like that famous lovely chocolate orange bar

at the end of it all.

I thought I was tidy before I came on here

and then it became very clear to me that I was anything but.

I guess I am just messy, I'm just messy.

GLASS BREAKS

I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry!

I'm so sorry! It's like the Incredible Hulk!

Oh, no, I'm too embarrassed to bake any more! I can't do it.

I'm just about to make my front door.

It's quite outside my comfort zone, this kind of baking. I don't do

cake decorating, I've never actually done any real cake decorating.

So it's a real step outside for me,

but hopefully I can do a good job of it.

'Like Kimberley, Beca is crafting her decorations out of

'ready-made fondant icing and modelling paste.'

It is quite a fun bit, this, it's quite fiddly,

it's quite therapeutic, I find.

I like little details and I've got an image of what this cake looks like

in my head and I'm just trying to replicate it as best I can.

'Christine, however, is creating her own fondant icing from scratch

'by melting down marshmallows.'

It's still sort of hot, it's lovely.

Yeah, but the more I knead it, it'll get cold,

then I can use it straightaway.

It is a messy procedure but it makes lovely fondant.

It is, I feel like I'm in a Kate Bush video in the late '70s.

'Ruby and Frances are channelling their inner chocolatier

'with varying degrees of success.'

I didn't know it was possible to burn chocolate.

I've achieved it, I've achieved it.

Look at this Vesuvian marvel. Gosh, that is quite a dense crust on that.

-That's not going to go in the soil.

-No, I think probably not.

I'm making the wooden planks from the shed and for the vegetable beds

and so I'm just moving the chocolate over the templates.

The chocolate that I may or may not have tempered successfully.

Bakers, you've got 18 minutes of novelty cakery 3-D-ness to go, 18.

So I'm just filling the cake with the carrots at the moment.

This whole thing is very pressurised but I've just got to

concentrate on each task and not think about what could go wrong.

I'm just making the roof for the shed, so it's basically

a caramel that gets poured over these almonds, and then basically

I cut that into two halves, so two rectangles for the roof.

Are those pebbles edible as well?

Yep, everything's edible because I know Mary's

-quite a stickler for everything on there being edible.

-Totally.

Is the board edible?

THEY LAUGH

Not far off. I've just got to string it, as yet it's not playable.

-Do you want to stay until next week? How much?

-So much.

This much?

No. The size of this tent and 20 million times more.

You're enjoying this, Beca, I can tell.

Love it. Absolutely love it.

-You thrive in a competitive atmosphere, don't you?

-Massively.

OK, bakers, five minutes left on your

three-dimensional vegetable challenge.

At the moment, it's obviously still got a way to go, but it's not

the mess I thought it would be halfway through this challenge,

because I was doing really badly and now I'm just doing quite badly.

I don't want to look.

I've just put the roof on, put the butterflies on

and see if I can make a bird's nest.

I do feel that this is quite an important bake for me.

Oh, there's more to do, there's always more.

What can I do, love? Tidy. I need to tidy.

It's OK because any of these bits might actually be vegetables.

OK. OK.

Ooh, my little knob's fallen out.

Bakers, your showstoppers have almost showstopped.

One minute to go.

OK, those turnip towers, those swede sponges are over,

baking has finished, so please, put your vegetables to the end of the bench.

Oh, Frances, what have you done?

I've gone crazy.

It looks amazing.

Yours does as well, Ruby.

Oh, it's a mess.

I've got a lopsided shed. Ridiculous, it's going to fall over.

If I haven't earned a place in the semifinal,

with that final bake, then I don't deserve to be there

because that's probably, at this stage, the best that I can do.

I think it looks great, great detail which I like anyway.

And very precise. I will go straight through the middle.

It is the texture that you expect from butternut squash,

pumpkin, they're always very moist

and this one's quite close textured, but it's a good flavour.

It's a good thing you've got that icing on it

because the actual cake itself is not sweet.

No, the filling's good, it's the filling that balances it all out.

It is baked, it's full of flavour,

the spices blend really well with it as well.

I think it's been executed perfectly.

I mean, you've managed to come up with something that looks

very good and the bake inside is excellent.

I feel pleased with what I've presented in there

and I hope it is enough to get me through to the semis.

I hope the taste comes across as much as the final look of it all.

Just looking at it, there's an element

that I'm not too happy about and that is that you've spent

an awful lot of time doing things

but you haven't made your pots.

Oh, right.

MEL: Oh, that's clever.

There's no icing in it.

The middle of that cake, the carrot is dry.

The outside of the cake is quite dense.

It's moist, but you couldn't have more than a thimble full

because your mouth would just seize up.

It's too bitter.

It's like sometimes when you eat a rich, expensive dark chocolate,

you can't eat a lot of it.

You can eat a little piece and then you're finished.

And I think on this occasion,

style and substance may come into play again.

To be honest, that is

the most highly finished thing I've ever made.

I've never done anything anywhere near that level of decoration before

so for me it's good, for me it's like a personal best.

I think you've done some very clever things here.

I think the caramel roof, I've never seen that before.

And that's what we're always looking for, something original.

I love the idea of the poppy seed.

I like what you've done to the top of the cake,

your chocolate work's good as well.

I do like the excess of pistachio nuts,

that really comes through.

The bake's great on the cake, it's got a great flavour.

Good amount of ingredients in there and textures.

Are you pleased with it?

It's probably the best-looking thing I've ever made.

Yay, you said something positive!

I know I was taking a bit of a risk making a cake

that I'd never made or practised before

but it looked exactly how I wanted it to,

if not actually better than

I had anticipated in my head. So really, really chuffed.

It's very simple, but effective.

I like...it's sharp, you know exactly what it is.

But for me that cake has to taste fantastic.

-Can I take that off?

-Yeah. Absolutely.

I'm afraid the cake for me doesn't have a great deal of flavour.

No flavour. The only flavour I'm getting is sweetness from the icing.

I'm not convinced you weighed everything up properly.

-Really?

-Mmm.

There's just no flavour, it's like an after-taste,

sometimes of ginger, but it's just bland all the way through.

I think it's such a wonderful looking cake, it looks such fun

but the disappointment is when you get into the cake

which is rather sad.

I'm really disappointed that it's not tasting as it should,

-and I can only apologise for that.

-Thank you very much.

I really, really enjoyed that bake.

The cakes came out superbly,

better even than I've made them at home,

so I'm pretty confident that Paul and Mary will like the cake.

I like the simplicity, I like the way you've shaped it yourself,

it's very effective.

The one thing I want to know is what it's like inside.

It's got to taste good.

Too bland.

Now the problem is, the outside is beautiful, that chewiness,

it's got sweetness to it, it's not too much, I think it's perfect.

I've never seen that before and it really does work.

The inside is quite...

It doesn't hit you between the teeth.

It's got quite a lot of spice in it.

Yeah, I'm getting some of that, it just doesn't overwhelm me.

It needed a point, one thing that ran through it to make it stand out.

If there had been a little more of the passion icing,

that would have helped.

I would have liked a bit more spice in the cake itself.

You don't get the passion fruit, it doesn't come through.

I had a couple of bites and it just didn't come through.

That line round the outside,

if you had more of that, then perhaps that was the answer as well.

I thought this was good.

And I put everything into it, so if it is me going today,

I feel I've done my best.

This just means so much and I would hate to go out on a cake that

actually means so much to me that I felt really fitted the brief.

You know, this whole style over substance thing.

I felt the substance was there and I can pack so much more substance in.

I'm really annoyed that I'm so upset about it

but that was just brutal, just really horrible.

It's just a waiting game now to see what's happening,

and it's horrible, it really is.

Some fairly harsh, uncompromising judging there.

You didn't pull your punches, judges.

It's the quarterfinals going into the semifinals,

you have to be honest with them. We praised where praise was needed

and we were critical, I think, where criticism had to be placed.

I tell you when Mel and I found it a little harsh, correct me

if I'm wrong, but particularly with Frances.

There's a lot of process there.

She is brilliant really,

but she will not concentrate on the main thing, the cake.

She often goes off on the fringe things,

the little additions that she puts on.

Again, you're looking at style/substance again

and how many times have we said that to her?

-About 11,000.

-She'd mid-way ranking on the technical bake.

Do you think because of your feelings about this cake

that's put her in trouble?

It's put her in trouble, but I'm going back to those wonderful

Chelsea buns, and gosh those were good.

Let's move onto boogie sponge-a-land, Christine's amazing orange guitar.

It needed one flavour to come through,

or something to lift it up and lighten it.

I didn't get any passion fruit at all. All I was interested in

was the icing around the outside because that is delicious.

She did come last in Technical

and her gluten-free bread actually was all right.

So where does that leave Christine then?

I think, for me, in the danger zone.

Now Beca's, you thought, was possibly a bit on the simple side.

Well, look at it, it is simple.

From your comments, you found that the blandest of all the cakes.

Yes, I did, you're right.

And she did come fourth in the Technical Challenge.

This has brought her right down from focaccia glory.

OK, let's turn our view to Ruby who, I think it's fair to say,

has had a pretty good weekend.

She was top of the Technical, and her loaf tasted good.

But this has taken Ruby into a new direction,

this allotment and shed cake, hasn't it?

There's a lot of techniques in there and overall, artistic at the end.

And she just got there, there was a huge mess on her table

and in the middle there was this delightful allotment.

Which leaves us with the magic mushroom.

Now, you thought the texture and taste was pretty good.

When you look at what Kimberley did, the textures, the structure,

the stability, the attention to detail,

the flavour of that, the cream running through it, all good.

So where does that leave Kimberley?

I think Kimberley's up there, you know, in line with...

she's up there, possibly Star Baker.

-OK.

-But having said that...

-Ruby?

-Ruby's up there for Star Baker as well.

OK, well, two at the top and three at the bottom,

a lot of decisions and discussions to have.

That's between Mary and I.

Bakers, very tough judging today and equally tough deliberations.

You are all so very good, it gets harder and harder.

Thankfully, this week I have the pleasant side of the deal

in that I get to award Star Baker.

And this week it goes to a woman.

THEY LAUGH

Do you need more clues?

OK, this is a woman who's mastered the dacquoise,

this is a woman who serves everything with a side order

of size, this is a woman who makes the best tasting roof I've ever had.

Ruby, congratulations, you're our Star Baker.

And I've got the miserable job.

Paul and Mary have said that this is the closest quarterfinal

we've ever had. One of you will have to go, and the person that

we have great sadness in saying goodbye to...

is...

..Christine.

Oh, Christine, my love. Have a big sandwich, come on.

You'll be so terribly missed.

I have learnt so much over these eight weeks,

it's been the best thing I've ever done in my life by a mile.

And I haven't had a boring life.

You are brilliant, you are brilliant.

It was very, very difficult to choose.

Ultimately it came down to taste, texture and appearance.

Ruby showed all the skills, she tempered her chocolate,

every item was made by her.

The whole finish was enchanting, she deserved to be Star Baker.

I think this weekend's really helped to build my confidence.

Up until now, I've focused only on the current week

but I guess I would like to get to the final.

All along I had week nine in my sights and I've got it now

so I need to really prove my worth.

I don't want to change the way I think,

the way I design in the kitchen.

It's been tough but hopefully it'll make me stronger.

Now the margin of error is, I don't think there is one actually.

The pressure now is about bringing perfection to every bake.

'Next time, the semifinalists take on the French.'

Bienvenue a la demi-finale de Great British Bake Off.

'The four remaining bakers bake savoury signature canape.'

Have you just gone freestyle?

-I haven't got time, really.

-You daredevil.

'A Technical Challenge that's enough to make their heads hurt.'

This is going to be a mess, it really will look like a brain.

'And a Showstopper that has to hit the right note.'

SING-SONG: Ground up something or other, I don't know what that is.

SING-SONG: It's grounded banana chips.

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