French Week The Great British Bake Off

Welcome back to Somerset, the tension is mounting in the tent

-and also in my waistband. It's the semi-final of the Great British Bake Off.

-Inside that tent,

-four bakers are fighting for their lives...is that too dramatic?

-It's never too dramatic,

-it's cakes, biscuits and desserts we're talking about.

-Plus I let a tiger loose in there.

Welcome to the Great British Bake Off!

Last time, our quarter-finalists braved wheat-free loaves...

Oh, hello, cheeky!

..messy meringues...

It feels like the most complex technical so far.

..and novelty cakes.

It's quite outside my comfort zone.

Ruby was Star Baker for the third time...

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

..whilst Christine...

Can't believe this.

..left the tent.

Now, our all-female semi-finalists have just three French challenges...

We're baffled by the bavarois.

..between them at a place in the final.

This is going to be a mess!

Who will survive to tell the tale?

The person who will not be joining us for the final is...

THEY SPEAK IN FRENCH

-Bonjour!

-Bonjour, ca va?

-Tres, tres bien, Suzanne!

-Oui?

-Oui!

Oh-h! So close to the final!

I've been containing my competitive spirit.

At the minute, it's not quite at full pelt, but it's nearly there.

I am sort of taking it all like a marathon, so I'm just trying

to do each mile as it comes, but we're getting nearer to that end

so even if I hit that wall this week,

I'm just going to push on through it.

I think there's a lot of pressure this week.

To go out at this stage when you're so close would be really difficult.

I wouldn't call it at this stage, there's so much talent in that tent.

There's going to be a fight to the finish, I think.

Hello, semi-finalists, and welcome back to the tent.

Now, you are just three bakes away

from the Great British Bake Off finals.

So for your Signature Challenge,

we all know what makes a great drinks party.

Keys in a bowl.

Sadly, for legal reasons, we can't do that today,

so we're going to ask you instead to make savoury canapes.

So we'd like three types, one choux, one pastry-based,

the other one is entirely up to you.

We'd like 12 of each, please.

Now, these little canapes should be tantalising to the taste buds,

and visually very, very enticing.

You've got two and a half hours, so on your marks...

Get set.

BOTH: Bake!

There's lots to go on today, there's lots of elements that need to

be made and done to a high standard.

You know, they need to taste good and look amazing.

Just trying to get all the different elements

done in the time, it's going to be tight.

There's so much that can go wrong with canapes,

they've got to pace themselves, because they've got to make

choux pastry, shortcrust pastry and something else.

The finish has got to be absolutely perfect.

It's about precision, they've got to be all the same size.

It's about consistency throughout the batch, the flavours,

how you're going to incorporate those flavours,

because you want to pack a big punch in a small amount of space.

At the moment, I'm just making the pastry for the tartlets

and I'm going to put that in the fridge to relax for a while,

while I do some other stuff.

So I'm just starting my carrot pastry at the moment.

Outside of cooking cakes and sweet and buttery stuff,

I do actually love vegetables.

So I'm doing French legume canapes, it's already looking a bit

carroty in colour, because I've added the smoked paprika.

As well as spicy carrots,

Frances' vegetable garden

will feature choux pastry tomatoes

filled with smoked trout pate

and tiny cauliflowers made from scones

topped with cheese and cauliflower puree.

So what sort of pastry are you using?

It's almost like a shortcrust, really, I'm shaping it

around these little horns so it looks like a little carrot.

And then I'm filling it with hummus

cos you normally have carrot sticks and hummus together.

Now, I hope we're not having rabbits all round the outside

-or flowers or something.

-No rabbits. No, no, no.

-We're concentrating on the three canapes.

-Yeah.

Style over substance.

I want to put the style on the substance, Paul, this time.

I'm making little rye and poppy seed biscuits with some beetroot stuff.

Ruby's 'beetroot stuff' is actually

a jelly to top her poppy seed biscuits.

She's also making shortcrust

tartlets packed full of spinach

and quail's egg,

and choux buns filled with goat's cheese

and caramelised red onion.

This is the beetroot jelly.

So it's the juice that we're using?

That looks like good fun, Ruby.

-This is good fun.

-It looks slightly violent.

I look a bit scary at the moment, don't I?

Your little tart shells, what are you using for that?

I'm making little tartlets with spinach and Gruyere in them

and I'm cracking a quail's egg on top

and then they go in the oven for a short time.

So it'll be a cooked egg on the top?

Yeah, hopefully with a soft yolk still.

-Good luck.

-Good luck.

-See you later, Ruby.

To complete three different types of canape in just two

and a half hours, every minute must be used effectively.

A good pastry canape needs to be thin, crispy, no soggy bottom.

When I was making them in the week, they weren't thin enough.

To get everything made in time,

Kimberley's already preparing her fillings.

I'm doing the cooking sauce for the chicken

that's going inside my steamed Chinese buns.

It's a classic kind of Chinese dim sum.

She's making pea and Parma ham

shortcrust tarts,

elongated choux buns

filled with crab and wasabi mayonnaise,

and steamed buns filled with Chinese chicken.

Now, these look like dough balls.

It's a yeasted dough, pop the chicken in, close it up,

then turn it and then steam them.

-Do you get some growth with that in the steamer?

-A little bit, yeah,

I've worked it out so they should be roughly the same size.

-And are they going to have a decoration on them?

-The pickled lotus root,

I'm going to colour it a bit and tie that in a knot and put it on top.

You've got some serious multitasking on your hands, Kimberley.

-I've got a lot of work to do.

-Good luck.

-There's no holding back now.

I've been practising my behind off all week.

This savoury macaroon is a new thing.

I thought I needed to up my game a bit so I devised this.

To go with her Stilton and walnut macaroons,

Beca's making beetroot choux buns

filled with smoked salmon

and horseradish creme fraiche,

and surprise, surprise,

Welsh rarebit tartlets.

Can you tell us about the macaroons?

Stilton and walnut, Stilton that goes inside, how's that going to be put inside?

Is it mixed with anything or literally just a blob of Stilton inside?

I'll cut them into rounds

so they'll fit neatly within the macaroon shell.

-So you're not doing anything to the Stilton, just cutting it?

-I don't think it needs anything,

cos it's so strong and such a lovely flavour, and I don't want to add anything else to it.

To choose Stilton is going to kill any sweetness,

which is just what we want.

You like your macaroons, Beca, don't you? You like the old macaroon.

I think they're brilliant and versatile and fun.

You are Becaroon. That's your new name.

This is just water and butter for my choux pastry,

and I'm just going to add some plain flour and green tea powder.

Green tea powder, it's just for colouring,

it's not meant to add too much flavour.

That is beetroot powder, I've got beetroot juice for my choux pastry,

but this is just to give it a little bit more colour as well

cos it does lose a little bit

during the baking process.

Once the choux has thickened in the pan, it can be piped.

Mary and Paul will be looking for canapes that are identical in size.

And Frances is taking no chances.

I'm just giving them a bit of an egg wash, so it just gives them

a bit of colour and also it stops them ballooning too much

cos although I want them to puff,

I still want them to look like tomatoes.

It's important for these to be really small.

Actually, I do need to be careful because I want them

to be reasonably similar in size to the other things I'm doing.

Oh, brilliant.

That's my dough for the buns.

This is actually a cake pops tray,

I was trying to find a way

to get the buns uniform

to make sure they're all the same size

and all small cos, actually,

they do expand and rise,

and so I was experimenting with a few different methods.

Actually, this is the best way.

-Hello, Kimberley.

-Hello.

-This is a bad week to go, isn't it?

It would be really bad, no, there's no denying that. It'd feel...

Cos to say, "I'm a finalist," it's then...

You know, cos you'd love to say you'd won, but a finalist!

At this stage, you want to see it through, I think,

you want to have the opportunity to say, "You know what...?"

"See it through..." That actually means, "I really want to win,"

but, you see, you're very clever and have the way of couching it,

"I'd like to see this through."

SHE LAUGHS

SHEEP BLEAT

All-female baker semi-finalists of the baking sorority,

you have got one hour left on the clock.

One hour...

This is the cheese and chive scone for the cauliflower cheese scone.

They've kept their colour, which is good.

They're a lot more even than they usually are,

they've come up all right.

Compared to the size of the other things,

it's pretty much spot on, which is positive.

I might discard that giant one.

Oh, wow, look at those!

-They're like sort of strange talons, aren't they?

-I know.

Frances just takes everything to another completely different level,

it goes to planet Frances, where nobody can hitch a ride to.

I think that's a compliment.

I reckon it's better to be a mentalist than boring.

OK, bakers, you have 30 minutes on your posh canapes.

Posh pastry in 30 minutes, thank you.

So choux's under there, scones there, carrot talons...

It's now filling galore.

Piping, filling, boom.

Right, eggs.

It'd be really nice to have them

filled to the brim with stuff, but if that egg white

trickles down the side while it's in the oven, I will have soggy bottoms.

I'll have 12 soggy bottoms.

I'm just preparing the Parmesan crisps.

Have you just gone freestyle there? You're not going to weigh it?

I haven't got time, really.

-You daredevil, playing with fire.

-I'm off the scale!

You are bakery rock'n'roll, Frances.

These are...what are these poppy seed little things?

Yeah, little biscuits.

I'm making now the filling

for my Welsh rarebit.

So I've got some amazing Welsh cheddar.

My ale is from Felinfoel,

which is near Llanelli, in West Wales.

I don't know what rarebit means,

I think it's an olde-worlde term

for something thy spread on thy toasts, with cheese.

OK, bakers, that's ten minutes left.

This is the only time where chouxs are acceptable on the benches.

Oh, come on.

This is the beetroot jelly.

OK, bakers, one minute left.

OK, bakers, time is up.

Time for you to canape your dues to the judges.

Cool.

Well, for originality, ten out of ten.

They look most tempting.

Mmm.

The pastry is crisp,

the pea puree is delicious,

that's a beautiful canape.

They look great, by the way.

I think these are scrummy,

the choux pastry is crisp

and well dried out,

the crab is lovely.

You've kept the texture of the crab,

in fact, I'm going to eat the other half.

Let's go to the big ones, you could have done half the size of that.

Literally, half the size.

This might take two bites, even for me.

I think the size is wrong, for sure,

but I think the consistency from the bread to the filling is perfect.

I think all three of them are ingenious,

you've thought them through well, the flavours are great.

The best thing about these ones

is you can do a very good Marlon Brando impression.

So, Ruby, the collection looks

so attractive.

I think they look really good, quite different.

I'm going to start off with your spinach tart

-and that's your pastry example.

-Yeah.

If you're going to put a shell like that, you have to fill it up.

You can't leave half empty shells like that.

One of the things which you could have done which is poach

the eggs individually into little moulds and taken them out and cooled

them and dropped them in, that would have given you uniformity.

The pastry is beautifully cooked,

beautifully cooked, lovely and thin.

Needs just a little more seasoning for me.

So shall we go onto your beetroot ones?

I'm enjoying that enormously,

clever girl to get that base crisp.

They're clever, they look very neat.

I do like the flavour, it dissipates quite quick.

And then we're onto your choux pastry.

I think they're quite flat as a choux,

they're not as domed as you expect them to be, not as lively,

but let's try it.

That's the one, if I was going to go for one, that's the one I'd go for.

The onion is delicious, cream cheese great, really crispy choux.

-Thank you, Ruby.

-Thank you.

-Delicious, thank you.

I think the uniform, it hasn't got the wow factor, I'm not sure.

They look quite boring,

if I'm honest.

I'm a little bit worried about the beetroot ones,

they look to me a little over-baked.

-I'm not finding that memorable.

-OK.

Here we are, semi-final -

each one has got to have character,

that one for me doesn't have character.

Then we move onto the macaroon,

I think it's a very, very clever idea.

I was worried about the volume of cheese, basically,

you've got a macaroon with just a bit of Stilton inside,

I think the Stilton is too thick, if you're going to put a disc in,

a thin disc in and maybe melt it, just blast it with a blowtorch,

-so you've got a package, that's the point of a macaroon.

-Yeah.

-Now you're in your comfort zone, Welsh rarebit.

-Yes.

Well, the pastry's crisp.

HE CLEARS HIS THROAT

Wow, there's some alcohol in that!

Everything's dominated by the ale,

I can't taste anything else.

Thank you very much.

It's all right, thank you.

I do think it looks stunning,

I think your presentation

is what we were looking for.

-Oh, thank you!

-They look fantastic.

The flavour is delicious,

the basil is coming through.

Lovely shine on the icing, you've cracked it.

-Going onto your pastry one, the carrot.

-Yes.

I love the texture of it, it's great.

I love the look of it, there is too much heat,

there's too much paprika in there.

If it's for your drinks party, you'll have to supply a lot of drink

-because you're going to be very, very thirsty.

-That's true.

The cauliflower scones, they look fantastic,

they really do look great.

You've got a very good bake underneath.

Lovely, lovely, lovely.

You've got the creaminess coming from the cauliflower on top,

you've got the crispiness coming from the lettuce,

and that beautiful scone texture coming from underneath.

It's magical, very, very clever.

Absolutely scrummy.

-Well done.

-Thank you.

I was really sort of dreading whether the style

and the look of it may put them off, but I think they were pleased

and I got a Hollywood handshake.

It wasn't all bad, but it was a very mixed bag

and it can't be that now, at this stage in the competition.

It just has to be uniformly good feedback,

you can't just be mediocre, you've got to be doing really well.

That was pretty good, I'm really pleased.

I'm so pleased, the only criticism was about the size

of the steamed buns and I can deal with that, that's fine.

They said that they weren't memorable, which is frustrating

because at this stage, you need to be smacking them

with flavours between their eyes, pretty much.

I think the main thing why I'm frustrated is

because they just didn't love it as much as I hoped they would.

Pretty much.

SHEEP BLEAT

Bakers, boulangeres.

It's time for the Technical Challenge.

FRENCH ACCENT: Le challenge technique.

The recipe you're about to do is one of Madame Berry

-so, juges, il faut quitter la tente, s'il vous plait.

-Oui, allez.

-Directement allez.

-Allez!

-Pour longtemps.

Wow! Derriere, comme une peche!

Rrrr!

Right, let sanity prevail.

Technical Challenge, feared by many.

Now, it is upon you - today, we would like to you make...

a Charlotte Royal.

-Yes!

-Yeah.

I'd never heard of it either.

Anyway, what it is, it's basically slices of Swiss roll

that form a dome around a set fruit custard, called a bavarois, OK?

You have two and a half hours to complete this challenge,

we're going to do two hours this afternoon

and then you've got half an hour tomorrow.

Because it needs to set overnight.

All I'm going to say is, I've seen one, it looks like a brain.

Hope that helps. On your marks.

Get set.

BOTH: Bake!

I've never made one of these before,

I'm trying to create a picture in my head

of what it's meant to look like.

I know what it looks like but it's the sort of thing you see in a book

and think, "I'm never going to mess around with something like that."

And now look what I'm doing.

I think the challenge sounds like fun, actually.

Charlotte Royal is the perfect Technical Challenge

for a semi-final.

There are so many techniques,

you've got to make a perfect Swiss roll, tightly, very tightly packed

into the bowl so you don't see any of the bavarois peeping through.

There it is.

It does look good,

the sponge is nice and soft,

it's really packed together,

that mousse has got a little

bit of bounce to it from that gelatine too.

It's gorgeous, it's really nice.

And you've had it now, Mary, because next time

-I go round to your house, I'd better get this when I arrive.

-We shall see.

The first instruction is make the jam.

I'm just sort of going on how I make jam.

It's fruit and sugar ultimately, at the end of the day, isn't it?

I'll just get that going.

If you don't boil it for long enough, it won't set

and you'll just have a very sweet fruit compote or it will end up with

a toffee-like texture, which isn't very nice if you boil it too long.

While the jam's cooling, the bakers make the Swiss roll sponge.

So eggs, 150g of caster sugar.

The eggs and sugar should be whisked together before adding the flour.

Without adding extra fat, you're able to get the elasticity in it,

if you put the fat in, it makes it shorter and would crumble

and you wouldn't be able to roll it.

The basic instructions don't stipulate exactly how long

to leave the sponges in the oven.

Because the mixture is spread so thinly,

moments out could result in an under- or over-baked cake.

I really should check the time when I put stuff in the oven.

But whether or not the sponge is baked is just the first hurdle.

It's springing back.

Right, what do you do? What now?

I'm just making a little cut

that helps to start the roll.

I can't let them cool first,

because it will just crack.

So you kind of do this, so it knows...almost like muscle memory,

so it knows the shape that it's supposed to hold.

This is going to be a big design element of your Charlotte Royal,

the swirls, so you need to make sure it's a good one.

It needs to be rolled tighter, but I just don't want to squeeze

all the jam out of it, this is the problem.

Looks all right.

Yeah, I'm happy with those swirls.

This roll has really not been done justice.

Bakers, you've got one hour left

until you need to chill and set,

and put your puddings in the fridge.

While those Swiss rolls firm up,

the bakers face the most puzzling part of the challenge.

I know nothing about bavarois, frankly.

Bavarois, babarois, bavarois.

We're baffled by the bavarois.

A bavarois is a delicate cream made with custard

that's thickened with gelatine.

The eggs will start to set at about 84 degrees

and I don't want to take it too far over that, because it'll split.

The custard should be cooked to the correct consistency

so that when the gelatine is added, the bavarois will set.

If not, the dessert could collapse.

I don't think it wants to be as thick as a creme pate,

but at the same time, it wants to be fairly thick,

cos it's then going to have the

raspberries going through it.

Great colour.

The final step is to gently fold in the whipped cream,

which should give the bavarois its mousse-like texture.

I don't know what consistency it's supposed to be,

but I haven't really got time to worry.

OK, bakers, just half an hour remaining on this chunk

of the Charlotte Royal challenge.

'Once the Swiss rolls have cooled,

'they must line the bowl.'

I'm quite happy with that,

I think that looks really good.

I'm trying to keep them consistent,

to make sure they are neat.

It is all wrong, I'm getting progressively thinner slices

realising I'm never going to line the bowl.

Hang on, hang on, right, Frances is bang on the money.

She's using the clingfilm.

SHE WHISPERS: They need to line the bowl...

-THEY WHISPER:

-Why are you doing that?

-I don't want Beca to see.

It looks sinister.

If you don't line the bowl with clingfilm,

then it's very difficult to turn out, apparently.

Kimberley is very difficult to read,

she keeps her cards close to the chest,

although when we did the intro,

when we said the words "Charlotte Royal", she went...

"I was at school with her."

THEY CHUCKLE

"Excuse me, I must leave immediately."

I just want to make sure

that all the cracks are filled in,

so that the custard doesn't just spill out.

That's quite pretty, because aesthetically you need

to think about when it's turned out as well.

I've found a little hole...

..two little holes.

If I can see the light through it,

then it means the custard will get through it.

I should have lined it, I should have lined the bowl.

It's going to be a mess,

it really will look like a brain.

That there, that's all good.

-So...

-There's no panic,

there's a couple that you've got a bit annoyed with,

a couple of frontal lobes have suffered quite badly.

You'll be fine, you can just use those bits.

So don't worry, don't panic.

Tell me if you want me to slap you in the face, Ruby.

-What do you mean? You've never asked me before, you just went for it.

-I know, I know.

Ladies of the semi-final,

you've got five minutes left

on your right Royal Charlottes, five minutes.

Mmm, slop.

The cakes are not going to sit on top of that.

It's going to sink.

This is weird.

This is where we find out

whether we've got any holes.

It's looking OK.

It's a mess anyway,

if I can just maybe distribute the fruit a bit more evenly,

I don't know.

OK, bakers, you've got one minute to put the mush in the brain,

put the lid on the brain, put the brain in the fridge.

I'm not an expert.

Knocking it out...

How do I get this undone?

You can rely on foil.

Oh, sugar!

I've forgotten the fruit.

OK, that was very close,

I don't like that.

Little bit too relaxed there.

Bakers, that's it, the Technical Challenge is now closed,

Charlotte must go into the fridge.

Charlotte will come out of the fridge tomorrow morning,

she'll be furious. Night-night!

A new day dawns in the Bake Off tent,

and only 30 minutes remain to finish the Charlotte Royals.

Cool, let's do it.

Oh, dear.

She's not a looker.

I'm going to have to turn it out, aren't I?

Yeah, I think the film is just being very clingy.

Oh, there we go.

OK.

It's breaking... That's it.

It came out.

I'm just going to have to cover up all the mistakes.

There's only so much you can do.

And now for the finishing touches.

Dissolve arrowroot and sugar syrup

to glaze the Charlotte.

It's quite gloopy, jelly-like.

Mmm, appetising.

Here we go, Charlotte.

It's like glue!

Look at the gloop.

It's like Ghostbusters.

OK, bakers, one minute left, one minute, please.

OK, bakers, time to stop fiddling with Charlotte now, the bake's over.

All right, if you'd like to bring your gooey brains

over to the judging table and stand away,

let's just all stand away from them.

We'll have a look at this one first, I mean, this one is not too bad.

There are massive areas where the bavarois is coming through.

This person didn't get the tight roll of the Swiss roll.

It's a good distribution of fruit.

But it's a little bit too much

Swiss roll on the bottom.

Tastes very good, don't you think so?

It has got a good taste, that one.

This one's quite nice - not much, if any, bavarois coming through at all,

jam looks pretty good as well.

Nice tight roll.

Everything looks right on this one,

whoever's made it should be very proud.

This one, the jam looks OK in this one again,

lots of bavarois coming through.

Let's see how it is inside.

The fruit's not very evenly

distributed in this one.

It's not a bad effort, it just needs to have more sponge on the top

and more fruit inside.

And finally, the last one, this has got issues, hasn't it?

The jam is one of the biggest issues on that,

the height is the other one.

Yes, I think the Swiss roll

hasn't got the same volume,

it's a much smaller Swiss roll.

I don't quite know where all the mousse has gone.

The mousse is very solid.

It has problems.

Mary and Paul will now rank the bakes in reverse order.

The person in fourth place is obviously this one.

Oh, dear.

Right, and in third place, here.

Number two is this one.

Frances, not bad, but you haven't covered all of it.

And in first place...

-Well done, Kimberley.

-Well done, Kimberley.

We couldn't find fault.

Perfection, well done.

Um, yay!

It was nice.

I think that was everything I expected, wasn't it?

At least I was prepared for that,

I knew I was going to come last.

I got on the podium, the technical podium.

And I got a silver,

so, yes, that feels really good actually going into the Showstopper.

Kimberley and Frances have done well in both challenges,

Ruby and I have both had issues,

so it's pretty much down to the Showstopper.

It is win or home, pretty much.

Bonjour, bakers, and welcome to your French Showstopper Challenge.

Today, we would like you to make the most delicate

and complex of cakes - the opera cake.

Now, this traditionally consists of seven even layers of joconde sponge

with buttercream, ganache, syrup and glaze

representing the four acts of the opera,

-or a sort of Cosi Fan Fruity, if you will.

-Oh, she's good.

Now, the flavours in your opera cake are entirely up to you,

but Mary and Paul want the layers to be clearly defined,

they want the sides to be even and, most important of all,

when somebody looks at your opera cake...

# ..they should break into song! #

You've got two and a half hours to bake

and present these opera marvels.

So, ladies, on your marks...

Get your funk on, Brunhildes!

-# Bake!

-Aaah!

-#

This is a bit of a crucial bake for me,

but I'm not going to let that

bother my train of thought, I'm just going to crack on.

Opera cake is an elaborate French dessert, traditionally made up

of thin sponge layered with coffee and chocolate filling.

As always with these bakes, it's time. Time, time, time.

Could there be anything that is more grand than an opera cake?

First thing you see is that wonderful shiny top.

The main thing is it's very fine layers all the way up,

it's got to be sheer perfection.

The bakers can go wrong on any level on an opera cake.

Ooh, hello...

'It's actually all about timing,'

you've got to cool each layer down as you put it on.

If you try and put cream on a warm sponge, it will melt,

it's one of the hardest cakes to do properly.

This is the chance to shine.

Last-chance saloon.

An opera cake's sponge layers are individually baked joconde sponge,

made from stiffly beaten egg whites and ground almonds.

So I'm just sieving my almonds,

it's going to go in my joconde,

and I measured out more than I need because I want to use

the finest parts of them

so the sponge is kept as light as possible.

-Hello, Ruby.

-Hi.

Your opera cake, how is it different?

The buttercream is made with an almond praline,

and there's some saffron in it as well.

Ruby's not only adding saffron

to her almond praline

French buttercream,

she's also using it to flavour

her syrup and her chocolate ganache.

Why have you used saffron in this?

I just like saffron.

Saffron is going to be fighting with the chocolate,

with the pralines, it's going to be fighting with everything,

-are you actually going to taste it?

-You'll get a bit of it.

-Good luck.

-Thank you.

I'm folding the egg whites into the batter

so that you're incorporating it as evenly as you can without losing

too much of the volume that you've worked hard

to get into the egg whites.

The key to a successful opera cake is thin,

perfectly even layers of sponge.

I'm just weighing the mixture,

so there's roughly the same amount in each tin,

because I do have a tendency to dollop mixture into cake tins

and hope for the best.

These are probably going to go in now.

BEEPING

So, ganache.

The ganache layer of the opera cake

is usually made from dark chocolate,

but Frances rarely sticks to the rule book.

White chocolate sometimes is a little bit tricky to play with,

cos it's got more sugar in, so I don't want it to burn

so I'm just encouraging it to melt

by putting it over a bain-marie rather than straight back in the pan

so this way, I can control it a little bit more.

Frances' white chocolate opera cake

made with layers of lemon sponge

and lavender buttercream is based

on a different kind of opera.

I'm creating a soap opera cake,

so I'm using fresh flavours,

lemon and then French lavender and a white chocolate ganache.

So no carbolics?

No carbolics, no Fairy liquid, no.

-Lavender, such a pungent kick...

-Yes.

-..that in something as delicate

as an opera cake, I'm worried that that's going to overwhelm everything.

The syrup itself is very strong.

-Very body wash.

-Yeah.

But once it actually goes into the sponge

and you've got the powerful sharp lemon buttercream,

and the white chocolate and vanilla ganache, it tones it all down.

-Lovely.

-Sounds good.

-Good luck, Frances.

-Thank you very much indeed.

Worst comes to the worst,

we'll just add a rope, hang it in the shower, no bother.

-Hello, Beca.

-Hello.

Can you tell us about your opera cake, please?

My opera cake, I'm basing it on the flavours of banoffee.

I've got two different types of buttercream,

one will have caramel through it

and one will have fresh bananas through it

and then I'm going to do two layers of dark chocolate ganache.

This sounds awful.

Beca's banana and caramel

buttercreams will be sandwiched

with banana flavour sponge cakes

and topped with even more banana.

Is there any element of texture, something that's going to crack,

something that's going to give more of a texture to the whole thing

rather than just soft sponge all the way through and buttercream?

There are banana chips, dried banana chips in the sponges.

Are these banana chips which you've crushed or pureed?

Yes, they're really hard and I've ground them down.

-So you might get a bit of crunch off that.

-Yeah.

You don't really get much flavour from that, though.

Well, that's why I'm adding banana essence in to help

and that's why I'm using fresh bananas in the buttercream,

so you are getting a fresh element in there.

-Well, good luck, Beca.

-Thank you very much.

-See you in a little bit.

While Beca, Ruby and Frances

are sticking to the traditional elements of cake,

ganache and buttercream...

I'm just whipping up the egg whites now, I've put some lemon zest

in there as well to really help with the lemon flavour.

And then I've got a lemon syrup going on.

I'm just gradually adding icing sugar,

it needs to be thick but spreadable.

Kimberley is experimenting with more unusual layers.

And this is for the lime jelly,

I'm just going to warm a little bit of the lime

to dissolve the gelatine in, but keep most of it cold

so it doesn't all have to cool down,

it'll save me some time.

Going to colour that lime green, so it shows up in the layers.

Kimberley's jelly will sit in the middle of her chocolate opera cake,

which also features a thick layer

of dark tempered chocolate,

passion fruit mousseline

and a crisp polka dot topping.

Tell us how you're going to decorate this opera cake.

The plan is, time-permitting, to make some chocolate caramel twirls

which I'll roll into a hoop

and fill with truffles, if I can,

but maybe just the twirls, it depends.

How big are they going to be?

I'm going to wrap them round a little...this.

The truffles are going to go inside?

Yeah, so it's going to be like a little hoop

with a little ball of truffle inside.

It's all very enterprising, isn't it?

You're going to be a very busy girl, aren't you?

Sing me your ingredients, Beca.

-# Banana, banana!

-Banana!

-# But isn't it sponge...

-Sponge!

-..and then banana?

# Sponge, chocolate buttons

-# Chocolate buttons!

-Chocolate buttons!

-Caramel

# Ground up something or other I don't know what that is

-# It's ground banana chips!

-Ground banana chips!

-#

I'm not sure if I'm on track.

We've only got an hour and a half left, there's so much to do.

Before the challenge was given, I'd never made an opera cake,

but it's something that I've come to quite like, even though

it's quite a fiddly thing, which is not usually what I go for.

Number three is about to come out.

I am taking over cake corner.

Mine. All mine.

Some fascinating flavours going on, what we saw with Kimberley,

she's going for the passion fruit and lime,

if I was going to do it, I'd probably go down that route too.

I think she knows exactly what she's doing.

If everything goes to plan, she'll be all right.

Frances, she's gone for the lavender.

Now, I have a bit of an issue with this,

that lavender could kill or make that dish.

She's trying to make it very French. It could do well.

Beca's banoffee pie.

What I'm worried about is that banana flavour,

she's using banana essence, which I've never used before.

She's made wonderful caramel,

her sponges are good,

but are those layers going to have style and class?

Now, Ruby. She's making praline but she's also using chocolate,

using saffron as well, I'm not quite sure against those other

flavours what that'll bring to the table at all, you know.

She's usually so good on her flavours, it could work.

This is for the syrup that you brush the sponges with.

Put a bit of saffron in there for good measure.

Just to spite Paul, who thinks it's not going to work.

The opera cake story began in Paris,

with the opening of the beautiful Palais Garnier,

the famous opera house.

It was the most expensive building to be constructed

in the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte III, in 1875.

The opulent auditorium,

holding almost 2,000 seats in four gold tiers,

was a place for the French aristocracy to see and be seen.

'The decadence and design influenced French patisserie too,

'giving birth to this iconic dessert.'

Chef, who invented the opera cake?

The opera cake was invented

by Monsieur Dalloyau.

Dalloyau.

In 1955, for le Grand Opera Garnier, in Paris.

So that's why the name for the cake.

There's a lot of coffee, chocolate, inside.

Yeah, they decide to combine the chocolate and the coffee

to have a contrast between the bittersweetness

and also the acidity of the coffee,

so that's why and also to keep awake.

Oh, I see, so the caffeine in the coffee keeps people awake

if it's a very long opera.

And also, if you're looking at the layers, so the layers

are really thin and remind of the inside of the opera, all the seats.

-Layers by layers.

-Oh!

Now, I notice this one, a little bit different. We're missing something.

Yeah, because I wanted to show you,

the name of the opera cake how to write on it.

And you want me to do that?

I would like, yes.

-Right, OK, now...

-Yeah.

It's a bit like a fruit,

a rather stout fruit.

Oh, don't shout at me please, chef.

Oh, no, it's a Z!

What's happening? Hang on, there we go.

That's weak.

-Yeah, it's not really easy, you know.

-No!

No, it's fine, the most important question is can you read it,

-yes or no?

-Yes.

-So the job is there.

-Job's done.

Good.

Bakers, that's halfway, you're halfway through the opera.

I'm going to start my construction because I will feel better

in my soul knowing that I've got something together.

Precision is key.

I'm going to assemble the cake in the frame because it helps keep the

shape and it helps when I'm piping

and the buttercream gives me a neater finish,

so I may not need to trim much off on some of the sides.

Each layer should be equally thin and even.

I just want to get the buttercream really levelled,

because when I made one at home, somehow the buttercream

was at a very steep incline towards one side of the cake.

This is a banana buttercream.

This is the middle layer of ganache,

there's still one more layer of sponge, buttercream and chocolate

to go on, I'm just going to put it in the freezer for five minutes.

By firming up the individual elements,

the bakers can build the distinct layers of their opera cake.

This is the top layer, the decorative layer.

I'm going to pour my tempered chocolate over the top

so that you turn it over, you should get a kind of polka dot effect.

You are the only person in the room going for the soap opera cake.

I'm very proud of you and your wordplay skills, always.

I love a soap opera.

Are you going to be moulding Dot Cotton?

All right, Pat?

Frank. Janine!

-Janine!

-Janine!

SHE HUMS EASTENDERS' THEME

Lady bakers, you have got half an hour to get your fans

and binoculars ready, you're going to the opera in 30 minutes.

Really?

Get the buttercream layers very even.

Oh, I know, but they're not going to be, I can feel it.

-What's going on?

-Everything.

Oh, my days, it's beyond multitasking, isn't it?

It's a new level.

-It's uber-tasking.

-It's a whole new level.

Tempering white chocolate and I'm doing a ganache

and I'm assembling my cake. Oh, God.

So this is my ganache,

I'm adding a dash of lavender.

I'm going to put some crushed banana chips

for a little bit of added texture.

It's looking OK, not perfect, but you know...

What opera is your cake?

What's a tragedy?

One minute, bakers, let there be a wailing and ganaching, one minute.

You're brave to do it by eye, Kimberley.

THEY HARMONISE

These slightly chubby ladies have sung, bakers,

which means opera's finished.

Time to move your cakes to the end of your benches, please. It's over.

For one of these bakers,

this will be the last time they face Mary and Paul.

There's no more I can do,

hopefully, the flavours are going

to go down well with them.

So, yeah, everything crossed.

We knew you were arty anyway, but I mean, that looks very, very good.

The shine you've got on that ganache as well is good.

We can actually see the layers separately

and these lovely sharp edges, it does look very professional.

I think the flavour's OK,

I'm not getting the lavender,

so I then question why was the lavender there in the first place.

-It could do with more lemon.

-More lemon?

Yeah, needs more of a zing to it.

It just needs a sharpness.

It's quite sickly sweet when you go through the layers.

Considering the way it looks, I didn't expect it to taste like that.

Again, concentrate on your flavours.

Yeah.

I'm happy with what I did.

In terms of elements,

I got them all in and I hadn't even

been able to do that in practice.

So I did what I set out to do, for the most part.

The decoration's unusual, it's sort of modern.

It's very effective and very different.

It's a shame about the lustre on the top, the sheen's gone.

It's quite matt. The layers are defined.

It's always a bit of a problem

when you put tempered chocolate on the top, because of that reason,

as soon as you put any pressure on it,

anything that's soft underneath will just fall out.

All you get actually in flavour is dark chocolate.

You know there's something in there that's citrus, the problem is

you couldn't identify it in a million years, and that's because

the dark chocolate is so strong, it's the overwhelming flavour.

But you've certainly got some lovely textures there amongst the flavours.

OK.

Why can I not work at the same pace

as normal people?

I feel like I'm going full speed

and then, somehow, I'm just behind everyone.

I just feel disappointed, just so disappointed.

Yeah, I mean, there are issues with it, you know that,

you've got a nice shine on it, which is good.

I can clearly see the various layers,

not quite perfect on the side

and I like to see that sharp edge.

I like the praline in there.

Gives us just a little bit of crunch

because just the almond sponge and the creams can be awfully boring.

As a whole thing together, the textures are great,

the saffron does come through.

Well, it certainly does to me,

tastes very, very good,

but it hasn't quite got the finish that I would like to see.

I've always given it my all,

I just want them

to like the taste of it,

that's the one thing I want them to do.

Cos I know I can and they know that I can deliver on taste.

You can see the layers, although the layers do look a bit awkward,

I mean, they do look very thick, especially the sponge,

-they should be quite thin and delicate.

-Thinner... OK.

To me, it is very, very sweet.

It's not banana,

it's...artificial banana.

That's what it tastes like and it's a gravelly banana.

It's quite grainy in the caramel as well.

I wondered how you'd get that banana coming through

and it just isn't coming through.

-It's a shame, thank you very much, Beca.

-Thank you.

When we went into this particular challenge,

we thought that Frances and also Kimberley were doing very well.

Let's start with Frances,

cos she did achieve that good shine on the top, didn't she?

-Oh, she did.

-And the great layers.

-And the great layers.

I mean, that was the one that your eye went to,

we wanted a different opera cake and that was different.

It looks great, but does it taste as good as it looks?

-No.

-Too sweet for my taste.

And on the opposite side of the opera cake coin,

this you said tasted too bitter, Kimberley's.

She chose two flavours, passion fruit and lime.

Two powerhouses when it comes to flavouring,

both those two will bring a lot to the table,

but it was going to lose every step of the way

with a very rich bitter chocolate.

The bottom end of the spectrum, obviously Beca and Ruby.

Let's look at Ruby, it's not been a great challenge,

-has she done enough?

-If I had the choice of any one of these four,

I'd probably go for the flavour of that.

The textures were good too, you had that praline running through it.

-It's just unfortunate it looks the way it does.

-What about Beca's?

I actually quite like the way it looks, if I'm honest,

but the whole texture thing and flavour, no.

You wouldn't really know that there's banana in there

and it is just sweet and the actual sponge itself is very dry.

I do feel for whoever goes - it's very, very tough,

leaving at the semi-final stage.

As you know, bakers, every week Mel and I get

to alternate the role of good cop, bad cop.

I get the nice part today, I get to award Star Baker,

and this week's Star Baker goes to someone

who's really plumbed the depths of the human brain,

and they don't half do a bad sponge version as well.

Kimberley, congratulations, you're Star Baker.

ALL: Well done.

APPLAUSE

And congratulations to all four of you for reaching the semi-final.

As you know, this is a very tough one, and I'm afraid the person

who will not be joining us for the final next week is...

..Beca.

We're very sorry, Beca.

Come on, give us a big old hug, Beca.

-You'll be very sorely missed, darling.

-Thank you.

THEY SOB

-Well done, darling, you should be very proud.

-Well done, love.

I don't think I need to say how upset I am, but...

..I know that, in time, I'll be really proud of myself

to get to this point, I think it's just

so, so close to the final and, you know, we've done so much

and I've learnt so much,

but it's just been the most amazing experience as well.

Well done.

'It's always sad when you've got to say farewell,'

she'd got so far, she'd had some very good bakes,

but today, sadly, her opera cake

just didn't have the flavour we were looking for.

You, missus.

It must have been so close between us, I just can't imagine.

I think deep down I'm really excited

about getting through to the final,

but it might take a while for me to come to terms with it,

I just hope I come to terms with it before next weekend.

Oh, my God, I'm in the final!

I'm in the final from biscuit towers toppling over, I know...

Oh, Lord, I actually can't quite believe it.

I was hoping for it so much and now it's actually happened.

I'm through to the finals!

'Yeah! Congratulations!

'Wow! That's my girl!'

Next time...

Oh, the pressure gauge has hit three tiers high.

..it's the final...

Right, this is the crucial test.

..and the three remaining bakers...

No!

..face three final challenges...

-It's the battle of the baskets, isn't it?

-It is.

Spoon, spoon, spoon.

-Oh, God.

-What?

No, it's fine.

'..but who will be crowned champion?'

The winner is...

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