Apparently Paul's written the script this week. As if there's a script.
Yeah, well, he feels we haven't been setting the right tone. Really? Hmm.
OK, uh... "Hi, I'm Sandra Thompson."
"And I'm Neil Folding."
Wow, this is terrible.
Er, let's get on, Sandra.
It's Sandi.
Whatever. Action!
BOTH: Welcome to Paul Hollywood's Great British Bake Off,
starring Paul Hollywood.
Perfect. Cut!
Is that it? Er, yeah. You going to the tent?
No, I've got to do some chores for him.
I've got to hoover his glove box. Wow, that's personal.
Neil, make mine white with one, please.
THEY LAUGH
Last time...
Curdled cheese, yum.
..the bakers faced dairy week...
Oh, my God.
..and the wrath of Paul...
They're awful. They're really bad.
..in one of the most disastrous technicals...
Not even gonna look at that one.
..in Bake Off history.
Argh.
But after a not-so-sweet Showstopper...
The texture's a bit like rubber.
..it was Phil and Norman the gnome who went home.
Now... Right, meringue.
..we go back in time to the roaring '20s...
You've managed to make these flapper girls look quite flirty.
..where the bakers have old-fashioned fear.
Michael, you OK? I'm freaking out.
Keep doing the smiley face.
That's disgusting.
As the pressure builds...
If Priya doesn't have a really strong Showstopper,
Priya may not be here next week.
Slide, slide my pretties, slide.
..to a period drama in the tent.
SPLAT
Oh, no, she's dropped her tart.
CHATTERING
I'm can't believe I'm still here, to be honest.
I thought I was a goner last week.
I actually thought it was as easy as, turn up for a weekend
to bake in a tent, and going home to a normal life. It's not like that.
I am living, sleeping, dreaming, everything Bake Off, and it's tough.
Last week, we let the judges down a bit.
This week, we're going to show them why we're all here.
Hello, bakers.
Welcome back to the tent.
Today we are going back to the roaring '20s,
the time famous for jazz, the Charleston, flapper girls...
Uh, the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact.
It's fantastic, international peace treaty, but... Sandi...
Sorry, yes, baking.
Uh, 1920s, custard pies, very popular during that decade.
So for your Signature Challenge, the judges would like you to make
four individual highly decorative custard pies.
Your pies should be open-topped
and the custard should set during baking.
You have two and a half hours.
On your marks. Get set. Bake!
Custard pies were a slapstick staple in the 1920s.
Hopefully, there's no custard pies being thrown around today.
I don't think I'll throw this in anyone's face.
Unless I get bad comments, I might just like, pfft!
Shove it in, er, shove it in Paul's face. Don't tell him I said that.
Unlike the stunt pies in the silent movies,
which were made using thick heavy pastry,
the bakers will be making a delicate shortcrust.
With shortcrust pastry, you want it to melt in the mouth
and that's the critical thing.
Overwork it, makes it too rubbery.
So the best thing to do with the pastry is just bring it together,
chill it down.
Now it goes to rest.
I want to see a beautifully-formed custard pie, silky smooth,
but it must contain a theme of the 1920s.
It's a lovely period to be thinking about, because you think of
Art Deco, flapper girls, so we want the decoration to reflect that.
While the pastry is given time to rest, there's no respite...
Sorry, darling. ..for the bakers.
Right, orange curd.
If they are to achieve the highly decorative finish Paul and Prue
are expecting, every second counts.
This mousse needs to set in the freezer,
and the pastry's just resting in the fridge, chilling,
so I can do this while I have the time.
I know they're going to say I'm nuts, but, hey,
I already have the reputation, might as well live up to it.
Helena. Hey, good morning.
Helena, I'm really looking forward to your custard pies...
That's fantastic. ..cos they're bound to be weird. They are.
They are decorated with an ancient Greek sea creature,
coming out of the... Like a gorgon? Yeah.
Originally, I had them in the shape of lemons
and then I thought, "It's just not me, I'm going with a monster."
Helena's mythical sea creature will be emerging from a
bed of meringue sea foam,
standing guard over her lavender and lemon custard pies.
Is this, uh, remotely 1920s do you think?
Yeah. SANDI: I think it sounds fantastic. PAUL: Yeah, lovely.
PRUE LAUGHS
Helena is not the only baker drawing inspiration from 1920s pop culture.
I looked up that the drink Kool-Aid was founded in America during
the '20s, and one of the original flavours was lemon-lime.
Hence I'm doing lemon and lime custard tarts,
and then one of the other original flavours was raspberry,
so there's gonna be little raspberry curd hemispheres at the top.
They will hopefully be mirror glazed yellow and green cos lemon and lime.
'Tis the plan.
In addition to his ambitious domes,
Henry will be decorating his lemon and lime custard pies
with candied lemon slices, fresh raspberries,
and delicately piped Italian meringue.
I'm gonna stick to the schedule and all will be well.
That is the best part of this challenge, is doing that.
Also hoping to wow the judges with their impressive domes is Rosie.
What is the smell we're getting? Um, this is elderflower jelly.
Oh, it's lovely. There's going to be little hemispheres of jelly,
and then I'm injecting a few different colours into them
just to make flowers. Cos you're a vet,
have you brought the needles from work? I brought them from work,
they are horse vaccine syringes, but they are new.
OK, good. They are brand-new.
Finally we're getting you some horse vaccine, darling. Phew.
Rosie's elderflower domes will inject a touch of 1920s glamour
to her blackberry and custard pies.
I need to just not drop these everywhere.
While Rosie creates flowers in jelly form,
Michelle has allowed Mother Nature to lend a helping hand.
You've made a small garden. Do you know what?
This is, what...? I love flowers.
I love 'em. I grow them in the garden.
With edible flowers resting on a bruleed top
above a blueberry compote and white chocolate custard,
today, Michelle's hoping to come up smelling of roses.
Do you think it was quite hard last week?
Very hard last week. It was brutal, weren't it?
Paul was a savage, and I was just... He is a savage though.
Really? Yeah. He's part wolf.
Er, what am I doing? Getting the pastry.
Once the pastry is sufficiently chilled, it can be rolled out
ready for blind baking.
You want chilled pastry, but you also want to be able to roll it.
Argh, this is so hard. Ugh.
If the bakers roll their chilled dough too thin,
it runs the risk of breakage.
Once this is baked, a tiny bit of pressure will just crumble it
or snap it and, yeah, I'm pretty clumsy.
However, if their pie cases are too thick,
there won't be enough room to hold the required amount of custard.
Shortcrust definitely isn't a favourite of mine.
Always my biggest nemesis.
Oh, hello.
Probably shouldn't be saying that in such close proximity to the judges.
Should Steph manage to conquer her fears,
her sweet rich shortcrust will surround her zesty custard,
which will be flavoured with lemon, lime, and orange.
I'm trying to take the classic tarte au citron
and add a bit more zest.
So they are going in at 180 degrees for 15 minutes.
It's going in for about 12 minutes.
Not enough time in the oven during the blind bake,
and the pastry will be raw.
You need to bake it more than you perhaps would,
were you putting not a soggy filling in it.
Too much time...
20 minutes.
..and when they go back in, filled with custard,
the cases will overbake.
They only want a tiny bit of colour cos they're so delicate.
What could go wrong?
Everything.
What's the theme again today?
Can't remember. Bakers, you are halfway through.
I'm making the custard now.
This is actually really hard.
I've not got a very long time to do all of this stuff.
Need one more egg.
I've got eggs. I've got eggs.
A basic custard is made up of egg yolk, sugar, cream, and vanilla,
but the judges will be expecting the bakers to pimp up their pies.
It has got some orange extract just to give it an extra orange kick.
You will taste the orange in this.
Alice will be hoping her orange-infused custard
will pack a punch, alongside a rich, chocolaty pastry.
How do you know when your custard's baked in the oven?
So it should be kind of just set,
with a little bit of a wobble in the middle.
Just set with a bit of a wobble in the middle sounds like my physique.
THEY LAUGH
I'm making a blackberry custard.
So, yeah, mine is dark purple. Why not?
I just added purple food colouring cos it's lavender.
And I'm doing something completely different.
Not everyone is being quite so adventurous.
I'm actually doing a classic vanilla custard and that's it.
Basically, when I was looking at custard tarts, I found out that
in the 1920s, they used to do bone marrow and dried fruit
in the custard, which didn't light my fire.
And the judges hopefully won't have any bones to pick
with David's classic vanilla custard pie,
topped with on theme flapper girl biscuits.
I went to Matt Lucas' 30th birthday party as a flapper girl.
Nice. I felt... I've never felt so alive.
Now if you can just punch them in the face with flavour,
you're a shoo-in.
Well, I haven't, really. I've gone for no flavour at all.
The judges haven't come round yet, and that's freaking me out.
There's so much going on.
It could all fall apart at any moment.
Hello.
Right, tell us all about your custard pies.
I'm making mango, lime, and ginger.
So, there's mango and lime in the custard,
and then there's ginger in the pastry.
Well, from the smell of it, there's a lot of ginger in there.
Yeah.
Michael is complementing these flavours with mango gelee discs
and a decoration of meringue kisses,
white chocolate soil, piped dark chocolate ganache,
ginger honeycomb, and sugared lime peel.
Wow, is there room?
How big's the tart? It's 15 centimetres wide.
Wow, that's not very big to fit all that in.
No, but they're all quite small. They're all quite little bits.
OK, then. Look forward to this one. Thank you. I hope it works.
Well done. Thank you.
Michael may have given himself a lot to do
but one of the bakers is doing twice as much work as everyone else.
I'm making two custards, a lemon custard and a raspberry custard.
The raspberry's quite sweet and the lemon's sharp but creamy.
Priya's custards will be decorated with meringue shapes
and piped chocolate,
and sit within a lemon shortcrust.
Right, I'm taking my pastry out.
My heart is racing. There's so much going on.
I don't know how long we have left.
Bakers, you've got half an hour left...
..until I cut all your fringes.
Pray for me.
For the perfect balance of custard to pastry,
the pies should be filled to the brim.
I don't like a very deep tart.
I like a shallow tart.
I'm just being very careful cos I'm so clumsy.
But now they're so full, there is a danger of any spilt custard burning
around the edges, so they need to be moved with extreme caution.
Oh, God.
Slide, slide my pretties, slide.
Yes, right, meringue.
The bakers now have only a small window of time
to finish off their decorations.
Can we make this snappy?
I've got three minutes and... Oh, yeah, go on.
She's one of the dancing girls from Bugsy Malone.
Just adding the suckers onto the...tentacles.
SHE GIGGLES
I almost said testicles.
What are you doing? Um, I'm injecting jelly.
Is that how you put the horses to sleep?
This is a horse needle. Oh, it is? Well, it's quite long.
Which animals are the most difficult?
I find rabbits the most difficult. Rabbits?
They just want to die. They just...
That shouldn't be funny, but it is.
Rabbits are not my thing.
Give me an angry stallion or a snake any day.
Or a crab with herpes.
HE LAUGHS
Yeah, herpes.
There's your outline, see you later.
They get chlamydia, not herpes anyway.
This is the mirror glaze, which is going to go on top of the mousse,
which is setting in the freezer.
A classic Henry.
Loves a mirror glaze.
Urgh.
Neither of them have set, the curd or the mousse.
My freezer hates me.
Going in.
They're all right.
It's a little bit over, but it's got a wobble to it still.
♪ My custard is not baked. ♪
I just want a thin layer so I can blowtorch it.
It's gonna be very quick decoration.
How long have we got left?
Bakers, you have ten minutes left.
Crunch time.
Need to get them out the tins.
I mustn't stress or I'm going to drop them.
Just being very careful cos I'm so clumsy.
I'm just going to go with that.
This is not fun.
The moving bit is not fun.
Oh.
SHE SNIFFS
Oh, no, she's dropped her tart.
Well, I can't really salvage that.
Henry, don't bother, like...
Let's get it off the floor anyway. Oh, darling.
What's happened?
Don't turn around.
Are you OK? That's crushing.
I'm going home.
Bakers, you have five minutes left.
Feeling the pressure now.
Oh, my days.
What I'm doing now is the decoration that can be thrown on
when I have one minute left.
I'm almost there.
It's coming up quite cloudy, isn't it?
Yeah, it's looking good.
Will the entire jelly melt? That is the question.
Bakers! You have one minute left, 60 seconds.
It's definitely been quite stressful, this one.
Kind of just, er, making it up as I go along, to be honest.
God, I can't get it off.
That jelly is melting.
Everything is just going wrong in the world right now.
Bakers, your time is up.
Please place your custard pies at the end of your benches.
I don't think there's the possibility of anything
going any worse in my life right now.
It's judgment time for the bakers' Signature custard pies.
It looks like a custard pie you'd see in a French patisserie shop.
Yup. Very professional.
Very neat on the outside.
It is absolutely exquisite.
You've managed to make these flapper girls look quite flirty.
The base to the amount of custard, perfect.
Beautifully cooked. That's cooked.
That's a custard pie.
It's silky smooth, delicious.
Yes.
Hey, yeah!
It's a perfect custard pie.
The base - crumbly, crispy. The custard - baked to perfection,
beautifully level, filled to the top.
And then the design - impeccable.
Wonderful, David.
Thank you!
I like the decoration, I think the decoration's very good.
It's not full enough.
You could've had more filling in there.
That custard texture looks perfect.
It looks lovely and silky.
The balance with the ginger is perfect.
It's baked beautifully.
If you'd had more custard in there
and a little bit neater on the top, you're looking at perfection.
It's a beautiful pie.
Wow. Well done. Thank you. Thank you.
Oh, dear.
What happened with the decoration?
Well, surprise, surprise, I ran out of time.
You could've had a little more custard in there too. Yes.
You've boiled it, basically,
and so what's happened is it's bubbled up,
and as you've brought it out, you bring it out, and then it sinks.
Yeah.
Tastes amazing.
Problem is, you've boiled your custard,
and your pastry's too thick.
Yeah. Far too thick.
Mm, is there booze in there? No.
Um, so orange juice, orange zest, and a bit of orange extract as well.
Celebrate the orange with the zest. Mm-hm.
And not with an extract. Yeah.
For me the flavour has been overwhelmed by that extract. OK.
The decoration, it's simplistic but quite effective.
The colour of it looks good. OK.
It looks like the perfect colour, it's golden.
And I think the custard looks beautifully set.
The flavour's beautiful.
The pastry is fantastic as well, cos it's flaky.
It's delicious because you've got lots and lots of citrus.
OK.
Are you getting the blueberry?
I've just had a mouthful of blueberry and didn't get anything.
I don't think blueberries have much taste. That's a shame.
OK. The sugar top hasn't quite worked like a creme brulee.
But nice idea, and they do look very neat, though.
Thank you. Thank you. Well done. Thank you.
Um, they look quite neat. Mm-hm.
Very thick, that base.
Yeah, it's... There's more base than there is filling.
Yeah.
Your flavour of the custard's good. There's a lovely zing of zest.
The flavour's OK? It's good.
It's overbaked because there's so little of it.
This is Helena all over, isn't it?
It's amazing.
I think the design is incredible.
What a colour!
It's got lavender, so I thought I could get away with purple.
That is so much, too much of lavender.
Oh, really? Mmm.
It's a little bit soapy. OK.
It's not bad. It's not brilliant, but it's not bad.
All right, I'll take that, Paul.
I did have an accident.
You've lost one. With one of them. Yeah.
It's down there. You can... You can... Yeah.
These are incredible.
Yeah, they're absolutely exquisite, the jelly that you've injected.
Was the plan that these would've looked like that on top?
Yeah, they were on top.
And they melted.
It looks a bit sad on the top, cos it's not finished.
Pastry's quite damp.
It isn't crisp.
The matcha sort of does come through.
It's not one of my favourite flavours, matcha, but...
Fair enough. I love the blackberry. I love that flavour.
Flavour of the custard is delicious.
Thank you.
I am never baking a custard pie again, no.
I despise pastry. I despise custard.
That could've gone better.
The pastry -
Paul said it was thick. It felt thick when I was rolling it out,
but I thought, "I haven't got time to roll it thinner."
Should've done that.
Yeah.
I got a handshake.
1920s has been all right so far, but there's still two challenges.
The Technical will be a disaster.
Just always is.
With only mystery ingredients and a deep-fat fryer as a hint,
the bakers can only guess what fate awaits them
in the Technical challenge.
Right, my lovely bakers, time for your Technical challenge,
which today has been set for you by Prue. Any words of advice?
Yes, there are four basic skills needed for this challenge,
but you need to get them all right.
Now, as ever, this challenge will be judged blind, so we're gonna have
to ask you two lovelies to leave the tent - off you pop.
Uh, what are they up to today?
I think they've gone fracking.
OK, I need to have a chat with them.
Uh, right, today, Prue would like you to make 18 beignets souffles.
What's that?
Noel?
I've got nothing.
OK, basically it's a fried choux ball
filled with a smooth raspberry jam. It needs to be crispy on the outside
and light and fluffy on the inside.
I'm imagining they need to be uniform in size and shape.
Yep, served with...a sabayon.
Sabayon. Yeah.
Exactly. Yeah.
I mean, what is a... Souffle.
..without a...? Sabayon.
OK, you've got an hour and a half.
On your marks. Get set.
Bake!
Urgh.
I have never heard of it in my life.
I don't know what it is.
I assume it's like profiteroles, kind of.
There's literally six instructions.
Your guess is as good as mine, mate.
Prue, beignets souffles?
It is 1920s week and these were very popular then.
They should all know how to make choux pastry,
so that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
I reckon most of them wouldn't have fried choux pastry before.
Because you usually bake choux. Normally bake choux.
But the most difficult thing is how you're going to get it
into perfect balls and drop it in the fat.
I think the best way to do it is to do it with two spoons.
The quenelle. Yeah,
but try and get it round rather than quenelle shaped.
So what do we expect to see inside this?
Lots of air and some soft, almost stretchy, dough.
I just want to see what it's like with the sabayon as well.
They're delicious and the jam gives that nice richness to it -
nice and smooth. And the sabayon, it's like a little cloud
which carries a little bit of flavour to it as well.
I just hope we get
some fantastic, light, airy beignets souffles in the tent.
With the perfect sabayon.
Not much to ask, is it?
"For the beignet batter, make pate a choux."
What the hell's a pate a choux?
Well, I assume it's choux pastry.
Choux pastry I made once upon a time
but I've kind of forgotten everything.
I think I might just literally chuck everything in,
and see what happens.
We've got all the measurements - it's just how they go in.
Melting the butter in the water, cos I feel like that's right.
And then I'm getting ready to shoot the flour in and beat a lot.
Not entirely sure why I need to shoot it in,
but I remember hearing that.
From what I remember with choux, I've got to cook off the moisture
and this should come cleanly away from the side of the pan.
This looks fine but I... I know I've got to add the eggs,
but I'm concerned if I put them in now, will they scramble?
But I don't know when to put them in.
Not while it's hot, cos that'll cook the eggs.
Maybe it needs to cook the eggs.
I just...
I'm adding the egg bit by bit.
I don't want to shock it all and add all the moisture in one go.
How happy was your face? Beignets souffles, sabayon...
Keep doing the smiley face.
Oh, what, really?
Well, it's just not, like, looking like a choux should look.
OK, and what should it look like? It should drop.
And it's so...
I mean, it's dropping, but it's not dropping nicely.
I think this is what it's meant to look like.
It's pipeable but it's like... It's runny.
Put a little bit more in.
Let's see what that does.
I might just take it off the heat now.
Maybe let it sit for a bit?
I have no idea.
OK. "3. Work in batches,
"and piping directly onto an oiled dessert spoon,
"pipe 18 round balls of choux
"and carefully drop into the oil and fry."
Obvious.
Deep-fat fryer on 190.
I'm going to try and pipe my choux and just hope for the best.
But this feels quite runny.
This looks lovely, doesn't it?
How the hell do you make a ball out of them?
I'm just going to put a bit of dough in.
Let's go.
It's gone straight to the bottom.
Come on, float, float, float.
Blow up, get crispy and float.
Ooh.
I mean, it's puffed into something, hasn't it?
Why won't it flip over?
Is that really hot, that fat?
Watch your face. It's 190 degrees.
This could be like a Face/Off thing... Have you seen that film?
..where our faces get burnt and we have to swap our faces
and I have to become a vet, and you have to go and do stand-up.
How would you feel about that?
I think your audiences will be a little disappointed.
I think there are some angry stallions
getting pretty riled as I put the wrong hands up their bums.
The wrong hands? How can you put the wrong hands?
Oh, is it either hand?
Surely... You've got to be an ambidextrous rectaler.
That could be a ball, you know.
I don't know how people are making balls. This need to be round.
Makes me want to cut one open
and just see what the hell's going on inside.
What's it meant to be like again?
Crisp on the outside, soft on the inside.
That's disgusting.
It is just totally raw in the middle.
I'm going to remake the choux to make it stiffer.
Maybe I didn't whisk it enough.
Hmm...
..interesting.
Time for a time call, Noel.
OK, I got this, don't worry. Halfway through.
Bakers, you are halfway through, halfway through, halfway through.
You know, even without batteries, these are working brilliantly.
I'm going to make the choux pastry again.
It needs to be stiffer, but I don't know how to make it stiffer.
I'm starting my pastry again.
The problem is, I don't know how to make choux.
That's the basic problem.
How many are these am I meant to make? 18?
I seem to be getting maybe a technique here.
Basically, the choux's just not stiff enough to pipe.
See, it's runny again.
This is embarrassing.
Second batch - looks the same as the first one.
That one looks like a round one.
The rest don't.
Mine are burnt.
It's too soft, I know it's too soft.
See, it just doesn't hold together.
At this point, I don't think I'm going to have anything to present.
Michael, are you OK? I'm freaking out.
I'm finding it really hard.
Keep going. Keep going, Michael.
HE SIGHS
Come on, come on, come on. Please, please, please, please.
Bakers, you have half an hour left, half an hour!
I can't, I can't. It's too much.
These aren't looking too shabby.
They're deflating, Noel.
I don't think I can do this any more.
Why don't you get those two out,
have a little quick walk for five minutes and then come back?
No, I need to keep going, otherwise I'll stop.
But you're doing really well, you're good at this.
Imagine me doing this.
I've got nothing.
We're nearly there.
You can do this.
I'm happy with the balls.
Better than David's, that's for sure.
They look like Scotch eggs.
11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. 18.
We've got 18 things.
I'm just wondering whether to get the jam on.
Nothing on the instructions, just, "Make a jam."
I'm just going to chuck in the berries and the sugar together.
I've not stopped, and that's really good.
Anything at this point, I've won.
I'm getting there.
OK, jam is looking jammy.
We're going pips out, cos we were asked for smooth jam.
So I'm making jam. I'm just seeing if I can get something to present.
Bakers... You have 15 minutes left.
I'm going to make the sabayon.
What is a sabayon?
I'm going to assume a sabayon is a custard.
Caster sugar, egg yolks and masala.
Ooh.
At the moment, I'm thinking whisk the egg and sugar over a bain-marie.
It's raw egg yolk, so I've got to somehow cook it
and I thought this might be the best way to do it.
Well, I'm guessing it's gotta be quite thick to dip in.
I am going to get this to ribbon stage
and then I'm going to put some of this in.
I just don't know if this is done or what it's meant to be like.
This is not a sabayon.
Let's try it.
It's looking nice and thick.
Oh! That's all right.
How long's left?
Bakers, you have five minutes left.
I need to pipe jam into these bad boys.
I can do anything for five minutes, I can do anything for five minutes.
Don't want to go too much because probably haven't got enough.
I can't actually fit any jam in this, cos it's solid.
I have to scoop some stuff out of it first.
They've deflated, but at least it's something.
OK, I'm going to pick my 18.
Can you count them for me, Noel? Yep.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.
COUNTING UNDER HER BREATH It's 18, isn't it?
You got 14 there. Thank you.
Then it's the sabayon.
Need every little bit of this.
Ooh, sprinkle with icing sugar!
They look appalling.
Last one, 18.
Come on.
Bakers, your time is up.
I have finished.
That's for sure.
Right, everybody, uh, up to the table, please.
Bring your beignets souffles
and place them behind your photograph on the table.
Prue and Paul are looking for 18 perfectly formed beignets souffles
filled with raspberry jam and served alongside a beautiful sabayon.
Shall we start at that end?
Absolutely.
They look good, the balls.
They're all fairly round and they look fairly light.
Not a bad filling. No, and... The structure's there.
Yes.
Tastes good.
Mm-hm.
Well, that is a very interesting sauce
but it's not what we asked for.
Now, these are interesting.
They look like potatoes.
The colour's not bad.
No, the colour's OK.
Very good jam, but they are too doughy inside.
How's the sabayon?
It's got the flavour of it.
It's not quite there on the texture. It needs to be much fluffier.
Moving on. Now these - way too dark.
They're fairly even.
The texture inside is pretty good.
Mmm, nice and light.
Although the sabayon's split as well.
Now, moving on.
I've got a few issues.
They're more like blinis, aren't they? Yeah.
They just never got the volume in the choux.
Although the sabayon... Looks very, very good.
Taste good? Yeah, it is good.
These are round, aren't they?
And the colour's not bad. It's a little bit dark.
They are cooked inside, though, these beignets.
A little bit too much jam, but they taste OK
and they are baked all the way through.
Unfortunately, the sabayon is just not whisked enough.
No, it's not, it's split really badly.
These beignets, you've gone from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Hmm, I wouldn't call that sublime but it's...
But it's sublime-ish. Compared to that. Compared with that one. It is.
They seem all baked through just. Yeah.
Too much jam. Although the sabayon's flavour's OK.
Right, this is not a happy sight.
It's like a churros that hasn't quite opened up, slightly.
Yes.
They're raw inside. Yeah.
And that is not a sabayon.
Now these don't look too bad.
They're a nice colour.
I hope when you cut into it that we see a nice aeration inside,
which we do.
Not too much jam.
They're delicious. Mmm.
They are good.
The sabayon's not there. Sabayon's split. Yeah, it's a bit thin.
Now, moving on to the last one.
Bit of variety of different colours here. Mm-hm.
These are all cooked inside. Oh, they look rather nicely done.
The structure's good.
It's just a pity that they are so uneven.
That's very thick and very dark.
It's like a cream, isn't it?
Prue and Paul will now rank the beignets souffles
from worst to best.
Right, bakers.
Well, in ninth place, we have this one.
♪ Bom, bom, bom, bom! ♪
David. Sorry. Well, it was a fair old disaster.
Yeah. Wrong shape, raw in the middle, not good.
In eighth spot we have this one.
Whose is this?
Burnt and raw.
Michelle is seventh,
Alice sixth,
Rosie fifth,
Steph fourth
and Henry's in third.
And in second place is...
..this one.
Whose is this? Mine.
These were actually not bad at all.
I don't know what happened with your sabayon.
Which means that in first place...
Yeah!
Your actual beignets were perfect.
The structure was lovely, the jam was lovely, but you did
split your sabayon, so you only just scraped into top place.
I'm taking it, Prue. I don't care.
Can you believe it? Oh, my God!
Bless all the bakers.
They genuinely wanted me to win it
cos I've struggled every week with the Technical.
Screw the handshake, I want a hug please.
After such a high in the morning and having a really good Signature,
it is a shame to have done so badly in the Technical.
I could've gone outside to have a walk,
but I knew that I wouldn't come back.
So, I'm not bothered about coming eighth out of nine
because I still managed to make them.
I'm so excited! Yay.
That's enough.
Just the Showstopper challenge remains
before we discover who will be Star Baker...
Good luck. ..and who will be leaving the tent.
I don't think I've ever seen such a flip-flop as we've had.
It has been extraordinary. With David?
Well, David... Is that a term, flip-flop?
It is, flip-flopping, yeah.
Uh, so David, first of all. Amazing - handshake.
Signature - fantastic. And then ninth in the Technical.
But then also at the other end, if you get somebody like Helena
who didn't do so well in the Signature
and then first in the Technical.
I really fear for Priya.
She has to do something amazing in the Showstopper.
She didn't do very well at all in her signature.
The whole thing had sunk. She boiled it, basically.
I'm not a baker but the way you say she boiled it, I'm imagining
that's not a good thing.
No. I think ultimately, this challenge is going to
be the maker or breaker of people.
We were worried about Michael being so emotional
but Michael shouldn't be so worried. He's doing all right.
Yeah. What's all this emotion?
I'm missing this, obviously, in the tent, cos...
You've never had emotions. It's not your area.
Darling, you steely alpha male.
You're like a marine. You've never had an emotion.
Do you ever get a funny feeling in your tummy when you like someone?
Just sort of tingle?
I thought that was the curry.
ALL LAUGH
Hello, bakers. Welcome back to the tent.
Now, continuing our celebration of the Roaring Twenties,
you'll be making a Prohibition-era cake.
So, obviously, Prohibition was the time
when alcohol was banned in America.
It was sold only by gangsters like Al Capone.
So just think of yourselves as Al Capone
but in an apron, with no Mafia connections.
OK, thank you, Noel. Uh, basically, Paul and Prue would like you to make
a 1920s-themed two-tier cake.
Your flavour should be based on your favourite cocktail
and the design should be a visual spectacle of the era.
Bring back the Roaring Twenties cocktail culture.
You have four hours. On your marks. Get set. Bake.
Eggs.
It's gone quiet. I hate the quiet.
I love it.
That's surprising from you, Helena. Yeah.
We've given the bakers four hours to produce this Prohibition cake
so you've gotta think backwards.
How long is it going to take to decorate the cake?
Allow yourself at least an hour, maybe more.
Your sponges should be in and out of the oven within the hour
and that gives you plenty of time to produce real baking magic.
I want three things. I want wonderful design, a delicious cake
and it will taste of a recognisable cocktail.
I need to get the hashtag #RealMenCry trending this year.
Hashtag #ManTears.
For their sponge tiers the bakers must choose flavours that
celebrate their chosen cocktails.
I'm putting a little bit of coconut extract in to make sure that
it's quite coconutty.
Coffee liqueur, vodka, chocolate caramel
and cream is the cocktail, so, yeah, what is not to love about that?
Most of the bakers will be introducing alcohol
in the form of a drizzle,
which cannot be added until the sponges are baked.
Once this cake's in the oven and once
this cake's out of the oven,
I'll feel a lot better.
Hello, Michael. Hello, good morning.
So, Michael, tell us all about your Prohibition cake.
So it's based on a bramble, which is gin and lemon
with a blackberry syrup that trickles through it, and I want
when you cut into it, hopefully...
I shouldn't say this because you'll look for it now. But I'm hoping...
Careful. ..that you'll see in the layers the syrup trickling through
the sponge like in a bramble.
Michael will also be replicating the bramble cocktail around
his drizzled sponge with an ombre-effect buttercream coating.
Trying to do a simple and elegant '20s.
Whether I achieve that or not we'll discover in about
three hours and 43 minutes.
As Michael counts down the time, true to form,
Helena has a far more ghoulish count in mind.
The inspiration for the cake is based on Bram Stoker's first
adaption of... Nosferatu. ..Dracula.
Dracula. That's right. And that was in 1922.
So the sponge is red velvet, obviously, cos I'm thinking blood.
Hold on one second. I just need to get a fly off you.
They come to me cos I'm dead. Um...
Helena's dead - sorry, red - velvet sponge will be
soaked in a home-made raspberry vodka.
Isomat bat wings will protrude from the top of her cake
above white chocolate fangs inspired by her cocktail of choice,
a vampire's kiss.
Is a vampire's kiss a real cocktail or did you make it up?
It is a real cocktail.
Have you heard of vampire's kiss?
Don't want to talk about it.
It's between me and Noel.
Right. I just need to get these in.
My oven's at 180. I'm going to put them in for about 25 minutes.
With multiple sponges in varying sizes, the bakers now face
an epic test of their ability to multitask.
They will take different times to bake just
because there's three different sizes.
I just feel like I've got so much to do.
While this is cooking, I'm going to make my curd.
The filings give the bakers another opportunity to
supercharge their cocktail flavours.
I'm adding the booze.
I hope they like coconut rum.
Just making the raspberry coulis.
I'm going to put raspberry liqueur in there.
Now, my darling boy. I wish to discuss with you your progress.
So, yesterday. Let's re-enact for ourselves a handshake.
Excellent, excellent. Now, let's think about the Technical.
Honestly, it looked something the dog had done.
It was a weird Tech... Hero to zero, literally.
But it was a weird Technical, wasn't it? Was it? Wasn't it?
Uh, yours is the only one that looked like the dog had done it.
Yeah. So I don't know if you're optimistic today or miserable.
I'm optimistic. Yes.
David is confident his highly decorated cake will contain
the correct amount of Amaretto
and aromatic bitters to represent
his chosen cocktail, an Amaretto sour.
I've still not actually had one yet. I don't really drink.
I mean, every now and again I'd have a glass of prosecco at a wedding
but I'm not really an alcohol drinker, no.
Someone who's a little bolder when a wedding is involved is Michelle.
We went to Liverpool for my sister's hen do. Oh, my God.
That was some crazy weekend and we drunk copious amounts of cocktails.
So I've actually made this cake for my sister.
Michelle is recreating the classic flavours of a pina colada
by layering her coconut sponge with a pineapple filling.
The bottom tiers' rum buttercream textures are inspired
by Impressionist painters,
whereas the top tier will feature
a more up-to-date, geode-effect fault line.
I love pina colada. I do too.
I mean, coconut and pineapple are a marriage made in heaven.
It seems Michelle isn't the only baker pursuing a tropical taste.
Mine is inspired by, uh, pina colada.
So this is the Swiss meringue buttercream.
Now, that is going to be coming from a white rum.
I think there's, like, four pina colada cakes.
Uh, yeah, we, uh... We didn't get the memo, uh, not to do...
..all do the same thing.
Alice's interpretation will have pineapple and rum sponges
sandwiched with coconut buttercream and a rum pineapple filling,
giving a classic pineapple upside-down cake
a pina colada twist.
I was doing my research and I found out
that pineapple upside-down cakes were a massive thing in the '20s.
Is that right, Prue, in the 1920s?
When you were dining out around that time, did you...?
He's so rude.
I mean, I like the idea of a pineapple upside-down cake cos
there's a few people doing these pina colada cakes
and this is a different way of doing it. Yeah. It's a popular drink.
You've got to be the best out of the pina colada gang.
Ooh, pressure, pressure.
One of the baker's 1920s research has seen her raiding the pantry.
Apparently, tinned goods were all the rage in the 1920s -
flavours like pineapple and pineapple upside-down cake.
Um, yeah, so, yeah, we're using the tradition.
But the point of this as well is that apparently you can get
a considerably better curd with canned pineapple juice.
Steph's curd will sandwich alternating lime
and coconut sponges, inspired by a family holiday in the Caribbean.
I remember us all sat on a sunbed in the sea drinking pina colada.
I think it was one of those all-inclusive hotels where
they probably water it down quite a lot but it was good.
The little ones can probably come out.
I'm not expecting the big ones to be done yet.
Oh, that should be fine.
This is the top tier.
The big cake is in the oven but I need to get some other stuff
done in the meantime, so getting my coffee liqueur syrup made.
This is the strongest coffee I could find in the world.
Well, in Waitrose.
Henry will be using his strong coffee
throughout his White Russian cake
in a coffee sponge drizzled with coffee liqueur.
His three tiers will then be coated in Italian meringue
coffee buttercream
and decorated with chocolate geometric shapes.
This looks good. This bit here.
If it looks anything like this, I'll be so happy. Honestly.
Right, bloody calm down.
Flip these cakes over and let's go.
I'm not dropping anything today.
There are enough ways I can mess it up
without throwing things on the floor.
Rosie is coating her coffee liqueur sponges with a chocolate ganache
before decorating with a mirror glaze,
pulled sugar feathers and piped gold royal icing.
Rosie, this is an amazing lot to do.
I just hope you pull it off.
I blooming need to. You do need to.
Good luck. Thank you, Rosie.
Thank you.
I think that's code for, "Better be bloody brilliant
"or you're out of here."
OK, Sandi, we're going to have a sack race.
Basically, you're in the sack and I'll just be
using my own legs. Actually, I'll give you a head start.
Bakers, you're halfway through.
They're done. That's all cake done now.
This is my caramel and coffee liqueur syrup.
But I'm trying not to make the cakes too wet with it.
Just brushing on enough to add a bit more flavour.
A heavy hand at this stage could result in a soggy unstable sponge.
Going a bit liberal with the Amaretto.
It's a bit of a nightmare if you're doing a cocktail cake
and they can't even taste the alcohol.
But not enough alcohol runs the risk of the cake being dry
and flavourless.
It's a bit of booze but it's not very boozy.
I'm not looking for a boozy flavour in my cake.
Ooh, loving the colour.
It's vampire inspired. Oh, really?
Yeah. No.
I made my own raspberry vodka.
You want to try it? Give it a sip.
OK, let's just give this a go.
How much do we love this stopper?
Sandi, you actually go for it. Go for it.
OK, I'm just going to lie in a dark room for a bit
and I'll be right back. OK.
Whoo!
The only baker abstaining from the demon drink is Priya.
I'm coating it with a passion fruit syrup.
I guess mine's a proper Prohibition cake
cos it has no alcohol in it.
The fourth member of the pina colada gang is sandwiching
passion fruit sponges with coconut buttercream
and pineapple curd in an alcohol-free mocktail cake.
If Priya doesn't have a really strong Showstopper,
Priya may not be here next week. So, yeah, I kind of want to be here.
It's nice.
Bakers, you have one hour left. One hour.
Assembling their multi-tiered cakes quickly is crucial...
This is so time-consuming.
..if the bakers are to leave enough time
for their all-important decoration.
Just don't want to be shoving decoration on with
like a minute to go.
I would love to just spend my time decorating it nicely.
It is a dark chocolate ganache.
Slightly thicker than I wanted.
All my cakes have slightly sunk in the middle.
Are you going to be all right for time today?
At home I'm generally really quick, cos I have to be.
Cos you got kids? Cos kids...
Are you going to let them watch this on telly?
Yeah. They'll find it really odd. I'm sure they will.
They'll think you've been kidnapped.
"Mum, why has that vampire kidnapped you in the tent?"
"What's happening? Who is this?" "And that Ewok." "Who's that guy?"
"And that angry polar bear?
"And that glamorous posh lady?"
I must say, I think there are no flavours here that I fear.
Well, there seems to be like four different techniques of making
a pina colada cake, so that's going to be quite interesting too.
It's a question of who's going to do the best bake
and who's going to do the most interesting 1920s design.
It's all down to this Showstopper.
This is probably going to be the one, the challenge.
I want them all to do well and then we can judge it from there.
Which will make it difficult.
Fairy cake.
Oh, you're too good at this game.
Bakers, you've got half an hour left, half an hour.
I'm really scared to move it.
Like, really scared.
I've gotta put that on there
and I just don't know how stable it is at the moment.
Whoa. BLEEP.
That was close.
That's so near the edge.
Oh, Christ.
It's a mess.
At the moment, I feel like the fear is making me very, ooh, sloppy.
With their tiers safely assembled...
I've got a cake.
..decoration can now begin in earnest.
This is a hot job.
God, I've got such a sweat on.
It's so hot in here. Buttercream's melting.
I'm shaking.
You seem very calm. Yeah, well... You don't get flustered, do you?
You know it's going to be fine... Things are always... ..ultimately.
And if they're not, then you can't change it, can you? So...
Wow, you're like the Dalai Lama.
You need to chat to Michael.
Bless him. Is he all right today?
He's very quiet today.
He's silenced the screaming in his mind with gin.
Yeah.
That's what I do. Definitely.
This is the first tiered cake I've made in my life.
And possibly the last.
Bakers... You have... Ten minutes... Left.
I feel some pressure in this challenge
cos it's a lot about decoration. It has to look spectacular.
I've done it better than this
but I'm happy that I'm getting there, if that makes sense.
Just going to remind myself that I do actually enjoy this.
It's melting.
These are just like falling down.
Henry, do you need any help?
I'm having triangular misbehaviour over here.
Do you want me to move these?
Could you? Oh, this is... Got a place reserved in heaven for you.
You know I like decoration.
It's stained glass so it's supposed to be a bit rough.
Just doing kind of extra things now.
Any chance I thought I might have had of surviving is gone.
Bakers, your time is up.
Please place your Showstoppers at the end of your benches.
OK, I'm done. I Think less is more, isn't it?
Yours looks beautiful, like really cool.
Why the hell did I do that?
NOEL: It's time for the Prohibition-era cakes
to face the judgment of Paul and Prue.
I must say, Michael, it's really neat.
It's original, nicely done.
And it's stark because you've got the blackberries
with the black icing.
It's really unusual.
Your piping's pretty good. It's pretty accurate.
You know, you had this idea that you'd have the drizzle running down
like... Yeah. ..you do in the drink.
Yeah.
Sort of hasn't worked. It looks like a smudge.
I like the lemon.
I think the sponge is good,
but I'd love to have had that fruit coming through,
that sharpness coming through.
You may have got the colour, but you certainly haven't got the flavour.
OK.
Nice cake, though. Thank you. Well done.
Er, you know, it's such a mixture of sinister and very pretty.
That's me.
THEY ALL LAUGH
I don't like the outside of it and I tell you why. Why?
I think your piping work is not good.
OK, let's have a look inside.
That's a red cake.
It's a bit bland inside.
Bland? Yeah, it's quite dry.
You get the vodka.
You don't get much raspberry.
But, I must say, I find it a pleasant cake.
If you shut your eyes, it's a nice sponge cake.
Thanks, Prue.
It's quite an elegant-looking cake.
It looks really dramatic and very '20s.
I like that.
Lovely flavour.
Really good flavour.
I think it's a little dry.
Yeah, it's...it's a bit dry. OK.
But the design, structure and flavour is very good.
Thank you.
I think that's one of the most interesting-looking cakes
I've seen for a long time.
That took a bit of getting through.
It's the ganache, it...
I wanted it really firm-set so I could Chromacake it.
Wow. Wow.
That's not a ganache, that's a bar of chocolate.
Can certainly taste the alcohol.
I like the sponge inside. I think the flavours are beautiful.
My biggest complaint is the thickness
of the outside of the cake. OK.
I think it's a really good cake.
But you know it's not perfect.
I like the sort of naked cake look.
Are they meant to be dropped into each other?
No.
SANDI: Could've got away with that, David. I know.
No, it definitely weren't.
Hmm, it's fine.
Nice and lemony.
Good strong flavour.
The buttercream's quite grainy. Hmm.
And I don't like that in a buttercream.
It should be absolutely silky smooth.
But the sponge is baked well and I like the lemon.
Close up, it does look a bit of a mess.
I think the drawing on here's not good. Hmm.
It could be a lot neater than that.
There's some really big pieces of pineapple in here.
The flavour's nice.
I just think the pieces are a little bit clumsy.
It's a really good cake. It could be fantastic. Yeah.
I think the decoration has been rushed.
It needs to be much more vibrant.
Yeah.
It's quite a delicate flavour.
Very nice.
I'd like perhaps a little more passion fruit.
I think overall the cake's nice. Yeah.
But your fondant on the outside's a bit too thick. Yeah.
I suppose, if you're thinking of pina colada as a cake,
I think you've got one. OK. And it tells you what's in there.
Yeah. Pina colada.
But let's see how it tastes. Hm.
Wow.
That just dropped through. Is that good or bad?
SANDI: I don't know.
That looks really appetising.
I like the different colours.
I love the lime sponges.
They're delicious, aren't they? I've never had anything like it.
That's a first for me. And it works, doesn't it?
It's really good. Clever.
Thank you, Steph.
Michelle, I think this decoration and the way you've tackled it
is really interesting and it's actually quite pretty.
But I think you've overthought it.
It's... There are too many concepts here.
That doesn't go with that and that doesn't go with that.
Right, let's have a look inside.
The sponges are nice and equal.
They look nice texture. Yeah.
You've got shavings and flakiness of coconut in there,
which don't work in a cake. OK.
And I think that cake's slightly too dry as well.
You're getting a lack of flavour in there, you see.
A smaller cake with more of the pineapple in
with none of the coconut, you would've ended up with a cake
that's slightly shorter but full of flavour all the way through.
It couldn't get any worse, could it? I had a roasting.
I felt like I was being told off by teachers from school.
ROSIE: I mean Prue said this morning,
"I hope you pull it off, you need to."
And then she said to me, "Not perfect."
PRIYA: I so badly want to stay for another week.
But might be the end of the little Bake Off dream for me. Who knows?
Every week I've nailed the Showstopper, it's what saved me.
This week that I don't nail it,
thankfully I came top on the Technical,
did OK in the Signature.
Gee, I hope that's enough.
Let's start with the ones you really particularly like.
So Steph is looking good. I think Steph's looking good, yeah.
Steph has been a very consistent baker.
She had a good week. The lime knocked you out. You thought that was great. Yeah.
Henry, Henry I think did a decent job.
Oh, his flavours were really good.
I liked it, it was...again quite an elegant cake.
Henry normally misses that, slightly.
David's, you liked?
I thought it was a great decoration, very well thought through,
very artistic and he did back that style up with a little
bit of substance as well. Yeah.
So, who might we be saying goodbye to?
Wow, uh, there's...
There's quite a lot, to be honest.
There's an awful lot. I think you're looking at Michelle,
uh, Helena, Priya, Rosie.
But on this point, I think,
when you look over the three challenges closely, I think
there are two people that are beginning to fall away.
OK.
Well done, bakers, for getting through the roaring '20s.
Now, fortunately, I've got the wonderful job of announcing
the person who's won Star Baker.
The person who's won Star Baker this week is...
..Steph.
Hey.
So, that means I have the horrible job of sending home,
I'm afraid, two of you... Oh. ..this week. OK...
And the two people who are going home are...
..Michelle and Helena.
I'm so sorry.
Oh, Helena.
Oh.
At least we go together.
I'm so sorry, sweetheart.
It's all right.
No surprise, is it? To be fair. Oh, darling.
I'm so happy getting to week five.
I never thought I'd actually get here so to be here,
to get Star Baker and to leave on week five, perfect.
I'm bringing the geode cake to Extra Slice cos I love it.
I love the fallout.
I've loved it. It's been fun.
It's been emotional. It's been emotional...
I have enjoyed it and I've made some really good friends.
Friends for life, yes.
What? What's happening here?
PAUL: I'm sorry we got rid of your sister, mate.
Family.
Brutal.
I'm actually OK about it.
I've had an amazing time.
Also I've learned that I can take criticism.
I can have a laugh with it and just like, take the positives out of
everything, which is, like,
hopefully something that I'll carry on doing.
I definitely feel like I've dodged the biggest bullet in the world.
Cat with nine lives.
I was ready to like, hold hands together and w...and skip out.
I thought I was going. I'd accepted it. I'd moved on.
I'd come to terms with it and so now it's like, wait, what?
I don't understand.
But it's all right, Prue came over and told me that
it was really close, I did nearly go so, you know. Yeah.
You legend, twice in a row.
Steph has been the Star Baker two weeks running.
Um, she doesn't know how good she is.
I literally feel like the person that's always been
middle-of-the-road.
And it just all feels a bit weird.
Ah, I'm just so speechless.
I'm like, what?
I just, yeah, lost for words.
SANDI: Next time...
Chocolate time.
It's dessert week and the bakers "whisk" it all.
Oh, that's bad. ..get to grips...
New territory, again.
..with a puzzling tiered Technical Challenge.
What? What? No idea.
And a first in the tent sees the bakers defy all odds...
This is madness.
..and demonstrate that the proof is in the pudding.
If this comes away,
I'm converting to some other religion.