WWW.MY-SUBS.COM
So, how many bakers are left? Nine. But we had nine last week.
We WOULD have had nine last week, but one was sick,
but he's returned, so we're back up to nine. But we send someone home
every week, so that would take us down to seven,
and with a baker coming back, that would be eight.
Except Paul and Prue went rogue last week
and didn't send anybody home. So, there'll eight next week?
No, no, cos we're sending two people home this week,
and two from nine is seven. So, are you clear?
Yeah. Let's start the show.
Welcome to The Great British Bake Off.
So, will there ever be eight? I've got some great eight jokes.
Like what? Why is eight scared of seven? Don't know.
Because seven ATE nine! Oh, that is good. That's a loss!
Got to get that in. Yeah. Maybe I could speak to the producer.
What's he like? I don't know, I've never met him.
Last time... Roll, baby, roll!
..desserts were on the menu... Look how lovely that looks.
What can I say? It's called talent.
..with a Hollywood handshake and a peach of a Showstopper.
Yeah! Bravo!
Dan was crowned Star Baker.
Karen... This is so rubbish. ..and Briony...
It's going, it's going! ..collapsed under pressure.
You've got to laugh about these things.
And cry a little bit. I'm all right!
But with Terry ill, they were let off the hook.
The person going home is...
..nobody.
You...!
This week... Right, here we go. ..things get spicy.
Smells really good.
It's a sticky Signature Challenge... Why does he look wonky?
..a doubly exotic Technical...
Oh, my goodness me. They've melted!
..and the Showstopper leaves everyone hanging...
It's going to be really tight.
..as two bakers... Come on, come on, come on, come on!
..are set to leave... Oh, God, I'm shaking! Ohh!
..The Great British Bake Off.
Uh-oh! Crack on. Unbelievable! Crack on. How did I do that?!
I'm just excited about Spice Week.
Last week, I was not well at all,
so to come back today, it's a lovely feeling,
and whatever happens, at least I'll stay or go on merit,
rather than on something out of the ordinary.
Two people go this week, which is on everyone's mind.
So, the odds are high.
If I were a cat, I was maybe down to maybe four lives, maybe less.
I just don't know.
Maybe three, and we'll see how these three challenges go!
Hello, bakers, and for the very first time in Bake Off history,
we are lost in spice!
For your Signature Challenge today,
Paul and Prue would love you to make a ginger cake.
Your ginger cake can be made using any form of ginger that you choose -
fresh, dried, stem, syrup.
You can use complementary flavours...
But ginger must be the dominant flavour.
You knew that? I did know that. Yup.
Your ginger cake needs to be a suitable size for a family tea-time.
I didn't know that.
You have two hours to make your ginger cake.
On your marks... Get set... Bake!
Ginger is my favourite spice,
and we are looking for a ginger cake.
It's about finding that balance of heat, spice, flavour, warmth.
I mean, if you want a sort of fudgy, sticky kind of cake,
then stem ginger would be good.
It's a mistake to think the answer is to use fresh ginger.
If ginger stays in the oven
for a very long time, it loses its flavour.
Ginger does complement well with a lime or a lemon,
but you've got to find those levels
where ginger is still that gorgeous flavour that comes pouring through.
Good morning. Hello! Hello, Briony. Hello.
What's going on here, then? Right, so, I am making
a honey and apricot ginger cake. OK.
Is it a particular honey? Bee honey! It's honey from bees.
Wow, there's nothing you don't know, is there, Paul?
Briony's honey and ginger sponges will be decorated
with dark chocolate ganache and honeycomb,
and filled with an apricot jam.
Where's the ginger? There's fresh ginger
and ground ginger in the sponge.
I'm going to have honey buttercream icing. Any ginger in there? Um, no.
Have you got any ginger in the apricots? No, I haven't.
She's just got ginger in the cake. Oh, have I missed a trick here?
Good luck, Briony. Thank you.
I think Paul was a bit worried
that there wasn't quite enough ginger, maybe.
But, you know, there's ginger in the cake.
The foundation of a deliciously sticky ginger cake
is a liquid mix of fats, sugars and syrups.
Excuse you!
I didn't like to say anything. Bit nervous!
Basically, it's going to give this gooey...
..gooeyness of the ginger cake.
But unless the mix is warmed gently...
OK.
..the milk and eggs will split...
Oh, God, just melt! ..and the batter will be ruined
before the ginger has even been introduced.
Butter, treacle, golden syrup,
eggs are about to go in, and something else.
Milk, milk! I knew there was something else.
So, it's just like the sort of sticky, heavy ginger cakes
like my mother used to make for me when I was a kid.
Dan is recreating his mum's recipe four times
for a towering ginger cake
filled with lemon Swiss meringue buttercream.
Come on!
I'm just trying to get my cakes in the oven as quickly as possible.
They'll be quite deep and they'll need
as long to cool as possible before I start assembling.
These cakes will probably end up in the freezer!
Now the wet ingredients need to be carefully combined with the dry...
Quite a strong ginger taste, I would say!
..and whilst all of the bakers are adding ground ginger...
Nobody's going to say they can't get my...ginger!
..to guarantee the dominant ginger kick the judges are looking for...
I'm getting me chopper out! ..some are going further.
I am using crystallised ginger.
I'm putting in stem ginger. I love the ginger flavour,
so I always just keep adding more and more all the time.
What is the ginger in the cake?
Dry ginger, as well as chopped stem ginger.
When I tell my mum, she was quite surprised at why people
would have ginger in a cake, because in India, we normally use ginger
for savoury things, we cook curries and stuff with it,
so she was quite surprised.
Rahul's mum has never tried
his triple-layered ginger and caramel cake with cinder toffee,
inspired by a very British tradition.
The first time I had ginger cake is during a Bonfire Night celebration.
Did you like it the first time you tried it? Yeah.
I didn't really think these flavours can actually work,
because in India, sweet things means extremely sweet.
So, this is like a learning curve for me, so I'm learning.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Cheers.
Rahul is not the only baker hoping for fireworks in Spice Week.
When I was a kid, Bonfire Night was a big annual gathering,
and all the neighbours brought something,
ginger cake being one of them, or parkin.
Karen is updating a traditional Yorkshire parkin,
with crystallised ginger and cinder toffee,
and to warm everyone up on Bonfire Night,
there's brandy in the sponge and the cream cheese frosting.
You know who's going to like brandy, don't you? Prue?
Prue, yeah. She loves a bit of brandy. In the bag, then!
She's got a hip flask. I have to keep it topped up.
Is that your job? Yeah, it's a big job as well!
Prue and Karen won't be drinking alone.
Even in general cakes, I love putting rum into the cake batter.
It just tastes so good.
Why bother baking if you can't make it boozy?
Ruby's adults-only Jamaica ginger cake will have even more rum
in her piped cream decoration,
but the booze should be balanced with a triple hit of ginger.
I've got some stem ginger and ground ginger going in there,
then I'm using the stem ginger syrup to drench it as well.
So after all that, if it still doesn't taste of ginger, I give up!
For her ginger cake batter...
Ow! I got some ginger in my eye!
..Manon's taking a fresh approach.
It smells really good.
I use ginger when I cook Asian food, and I've always used the fresh one.
You just really have the essence of the ginger.
Manon's sponge will be coated in a lemon and ginger
Italian Meringue buttercream, and there's fresh ginger in her
lemon curd filling as well as her sponge better.
Is lemon curd something they have in France,
or is it a very British thing? Not really, no.
Even ginger cake is not really a thing that we do.
Have you practised this?
A little bit.
You haven't, have you?
This week was quite busy at work, so I'm improvising a little bit.
Just a bit worried that my cake batter is a bit runnier than normal.
The higher liquid content in a ginger cake batter can make
baking times unpredictable.
I should have put 40ml of milk in with the eggs.
I didn't put any milk in, I've put 40ml of brandy in.
Right, here they go.
Just a few minutes can be the difference between a cake
that's deliciously sticky... 165 for 50 minutes. Low and slow.
..and one that's dense and claggy. Do your thing!
Going in for 25 minutes.
Oops!
But the perfect baking time...
What's going on?
..could be the least of Dan's worries.
What the hell is that? It looks like cheese!
Dan's batter has split.
That's literally never happened before, ever.
Hello, Dan. How's it going? Oh, mate, I am a hot mess.
You're a hot mess? Why? I don't know what happened.
I ended up with, like, lumps of cheese in my cake batter.
Yeah, I know, I don't understand what the hell happened!
Well, I don't know anything about baking, so I can't help you,
but that doesn't sound good. I'm assuming the milk got overheated.
I mean, I don't know how I would have made curds in my cake batter.
What sort of milk is it - breastmilk?!
Yum, yum, yum! That's what lemon curd should look like.
And then I'm going to start making the meringue...
While most of the other bakers move on...
I'm just making my caramel buttercream.
..Dan has a crucial decision to make.
I'm making brandy Alexander cream cheese frosting.
So, I'm making my jam.
These are dried apricots that have been soaked in water overnight.
I'm going to have to start again. I don't really have any choice.
I'm actually screwed now.
That's half an hour gone and I'm back to zero.
Curse of the Star Baker!
But he's not the only baker who had to get a sponge in the oven.
# Take good care of me
# I don't want your love any more...#
I'm making a caramelised pear and ginger cake,
like an upside-down cake.
I'm just letting the caramel cool in the tins now with the pears in,
then the batter will go on top.
Terry's caramelised pears will sit on top of two ground and
stem ginger sponges, which will be sandwiched and decorated with
a vanilla cream and cheese frosting.
The batter looks the right consistency.
It's quite a slow bake, so I need to get it in the oven quickly enough
so that it can cool to put the cream cheese on.
Bakers, you are halfway through.
Oh, kill me now!
I wasn't in shot then, was I?
Just get those in... There we go.
Whilst Terry and Dan finally begin baking...
Right, no cheese this time! Still got so much to do.
..everyone else's dilemma is when to stop.
Do you smell the ginger? Smells good!
Every minute fresh ginger spends in the heat of the oven...
Okey dokey. ..it loses flavour.
Just so nervous about undercooking them.
Tick-tick!
But stem ginger will release moisture...
Should be all right.
..which can drastically increase how long it takes to bake.
It's a bit of a nervy time, just waiting for the cake to come out.
OK, so they can come out and start cooling.
If they're not cool, you can't get the frosting on,
cos it just melts, then it's a mess.
If that wasn't enough to worry about...
So, we've got the caramel here,
and we've got the pears poaching here,
and I'm making biscuits over here.
Kim-Joy won't just be baking cakes.
It's my little gingerbread house.
I really like, um, miniature things.
The smallest gingerbread house Bake Off has ever seen
will sit atop crystallised ginger sponge
with cream cheese frosting and salted caramel drizzle.
Ginger is homely, and it makes me think of being at home.
You can picture yourself in the house.
And there's pears in the background, and they're kind of like trees.
Yeah.
For his decoration, Jon is also thinking of home.
Well, they're my kids.
That'll be Hannah and that'll be Lucy, that's James and Emily.
Look at Hannah! There's me. Hello, Hannah.
Ooh, I dropped Hannah on her side!
That's the one thing I do know about children -
don't drop them on their... Yeah, that's the tip,
don't drop your kids! Good luck. See you later, mate.
I need him at times, don't I?
Jon's gingerbread family will live on top of a stem ginger sponge
with Italian meringue buttercream,
and he's planning to surround Hannah and the gang
with a touch of bling!
That's my lemon, water and agave solution,
which will be dripped into my oil to create my lemon tiny balls.
The whole thing sort of forms a jelly, it melts in your mouth.
And I hope they go all right,
because I can't afford for anything to go wrong.
Especially when there could be two going out this week.
So, no time to relax and have a cup of tea or anything, you know.
45 minutes remaining.
Come on, cake!
I want to get the dome tops off them,
then I'm going to get them chilled in the fridge.
Da-daah! They're ready for out.
Ow!
They're going straight in the freezer.
They're not thoroughly cooled, but I don't want to risk the time.
It's important to get it level.
Kind of just got to get it on, as well.
Look at this tiny house! Is that Sandi's house?
It could be, yeah! Could be Sandi's house.
Why does he look wonky? It's gone suddenly very hot in here!
They're still really hot.
Bakers... You have ten minutes remaining.
You can do this. We believe in you!
Some of you.
Time to get started, then, isn't it?
I can't assemble until that's cool.
That's just going to melt the cream cheese.
No, don't eat... Noel! Did you eat any? No!
Still too hot. Going to have to go for it
and put it in the fridge, I think.
Come on!
It's so unstable. It's terrifying!
Bakers, you've got one minute left. 60 seconds!
It's sliding everywhere. Too hot.
It's gone a bit...
Bakers, your time is up!
Please place your ginger cakes at the end of your work stations.
Oh! I give up.
That's a proper drip cake. That's what you need...
You're wobbling it! You're wobbling the floor! I want to taste. No!
You're wobbling the floor.
Jon, it's seriously going to collapse. Don't!
The bakers' Signature ginger cakes are about to face
Spice Week's first judging.
Hi, Jon. Hello. Right, Jon.
A very concise little cake.
The little balls on the top look quite cute. Nicely executed.
That's his family you're just mutilating!
It's a LITTLE claggy.
A little too...
But the flavour... When you do hit one
of the little lemon gels, it's beautiful because you've got
a lovely blend between the two.
And they were surprising, I've never had those little lemon goldy balls.
They're so good. Oh, cheers.
It's quite a hard cake, that.
I put some, um... Oh, Karen.
No? Too much booze. Too much booze. Too much booze.
I've never heard Prue say "too boozy".
I know. I never thought I'd hear me say that either!
Well, thank you... Thank you. ..for your appraisal of that.
The colours are beautiful. They look very pretty.
The drizzle looks great as well.
You get the rum.
Yeah. It's delicious. Good.
The rum is the overwhelming flavour,
but it ain't no ginger cake, for sure. Oh, really?
I think it looks amazing. Thank you.
Your pipework is very good. It's very pleasing to look at.
It's lovely.
Mmm. Lovely and gingery. Good texture.
You, my friend, are a little genius, aren't you?
Because you surprise me every week. Every week.
The sponge is perfect.
The stem ginger is awesome.
I mean, I have never liked honeycomb.
With ginger in it, it's lovely. You are one hell of a baker. Well done.
Thank you. Amazing. Thank you.
Yes! I told ya!
Quite annoying, really.
Sorry? You've made him angry. Why?
Said it was too good. Sorry.
It looks quite impressive.
It's a lovely-looking cake.
Nice, shiny chocolate.
It's very dry. Oh. It didn't taste very gingery or very sweet.
The apricot tends to overwhelm it. To be honest,
apricot and the ginger together doesn't necessarily work.
OK.
It looks a mess.
I think it is down to the temperature of the cake.
Interesting texture.
It's very gluey. And the ginger's not overwhelming either.
It's definitely a winter one with loads of custard, for sure.
Which ironically is what it looks like. Yeah, it is!
The gingerbread house looks incredible.
The attention to detail looks fantastic.
That is the most beautiful-textured cake. Ah!
The flavour from the ginger in the powder is beautifully
balanced and it's got a nice warmth that comes through.
That is, um... It's good.
..beautiful.
Ah! Thank you! Well done, Kim!
Got such sweaty hands! Thank you so much.
Well done, Kim-Joy. Wonderful. Thank you.
Well, obviously there's an issue to the lean. Yep.
The Leaning Tower of Ginger.
But I think it comes down to timing because the sponge is
probably still too warm.
It's gone more and more condensed.
So, as you start at the top, it's lighter, slightly less so,
slightly more dense. And very. And then dense.
It's such a pity because being too warm when you were putting it
together has affected everything.
Very elegant-looking cake. Very elegant.
And a little touch of chocolate. Again, you blowtorched it.
Nicely done.
Ooh, it got a bit all together. Such a rich colour in there.
Certainly get the ginger and the lemon.
It's so beautiful, how soft the sponge is.
And because the lemon curd is so strong, the Italian meringue
makes it less so.
Yeah, it's one of the best ginger cakes I've had for some time.
Yay!
Thank you. Can I have one, Prue, too?
That actually reminds me of my nan's cake,
which is full of ginger, but it's the bake.
It's so good. Thank you so much. Thank you. Great job, Manon.
So happy. Got a handshake.
And a Prue pat as well.
Kim-Joy...
I got a handshake!
In my head I was like, "This is really cool.
"I hope they think it's cool." And they thought it was cool.
Are you happy? Yeah, yeah. I'm trying. You're trying.
I'll probably give the recipe to my mum, so that she can make it.
I'm not sure whether they will like it or not.
You don't want it to look like you don't know what you're doing.
I just need to be safe. There's no reason why I can't still be safe.
Spice Week's Technical Challenge is twice as mysterious as any of
the bakers have faced before.
We've got this.
Now, your Technical Challenge today has been set for you by Paul.
Paul, any words of advice or wisdom?
This challenge is all about delicate baking.
That can't be it?
That's it. As ever, it's judged blind
so I'm going to ask you two lovelies to leave the tent.
They're going to go and play Fortnite.
What? It's an online survival game.
It's not going well. Prue keeps killing Paul. Oh, OK.
Anyway, for your Technical Challenge,
Paul would like you to make two batches of six ma'amoul.
Come again? Ma'amoul - you know,
the delicious ancient pastries from the Middle East.
One batch must be filled with walnuts and shaped with a mould.
The other batch must be filled with a date paste and must be
decorated by pinching the dough with ma'amoul tongs.
There you go. Never before have I known less
about what I'm saying right now.
You've got an hour and a half. On your marks... Get set... Bake.
Ma-mool? Ma'amoul. Ma'amoul.
Ma'amoul? I don't know what a ma'amoul is.
No idea what they look like. No idea what they taste like.
So whatever I make, I'll be happy with. I hope!
Paul, I'm really ashamed to say that I have never heard of ma'amoul.
What are they?
Traditionally, it's Middle Eastern pastry,
eaten at the end of Ramadan, and it's really celebratory.
So you have two different types here. You have the date
and you have the walnut. They're so beautiful.
So we've got some pretty punchy flavours going on inside these.
We have mastic, basically a resin,
and it smells a little bit like aniseed.
Now, this is mahlab.
This is the seed that sits inside the cherry kernel, but as soon as
you grind them down, this becomes a very potent flavour.
It's quite like almonds and cherries at once. Yes.
These two spices are in the pastry itself. It sounds wonderful.
The tricky part is, actually, you want definition on the pastry.
Now, overhandle it, it becomes too rubbery,
becomes too oily and you're going to lose it.
If we start with the walnut.
It's really lovely.
It's very, very delicate. That's the orange blossom and the cardamom.
But in the date one, it's a little bit more pungent.
You have cinnamon in there, you have rose water in there.
So there's so many big, big flavours they've got
to be careful of. Are we telling the bakers how much to put in?
We are for the dough, but not for the filling. You are unkind, Paul!
So we've got, for the dough, "Put the mastic in a mortar with one
"teaspoon of the sugar and grind to a powder."
I've never cooked with mastic before.
I don't really know what it tastes like. Well, I've come across mastic.
It's an ingredient in tsoureki, the Greek bread.
"Combine with the remaining dry ingredients."
"Add the ghee and rub together to form a breadcrumb consistency."
Tablespoon of orange blossom. Tablespoon of rose water.
Exactimondo. In there.
And then knead until smooth. Oh, very, very crumbly.
What does it look like? What, the thing? Yeah, what is it?
What does it look like? I have no idea.
I'll tell you, at no point did Noel and I know what we were saying.
At no point. So you don't know either? No.
I've absolutely... I'm looking forward to seeing them. OK.
Jolly good. So the recipe says, "Knead until smooth." I've kneaded.
It's pretty smooth. So I'm now going to make the date filling.
Rose water. Ground cinnamon. Mahlab.
There's no, like, quantities.
It's a guessing game.
Quite fun.
That's the mahlab.
Wow. How much do I add in?
I'll start little and then add.
You don't want to overload it.
I'm putting one quarter of a teaspoon.
It doesn't say how much rose water.
It's very fragrant.
It doesn't smell unpleasant. Quite nice.
Middle Eastern food, it's to do with the softness.
It's not fire cracking.
It's got a lot of rose in it.
I'm going to put some more spices in there.
But the date and mahlab filling is only half the story.
Walnuts, hello. Where are you? There.
Walnuts, golden raisins, orange blossom honey
and some ground cardamom.
It's a funny flavour, cardamom, it can overpower things.
It'll be fine. I'm tasting it as I'm making the filling.
Wow. How perfect, you're back to make ma'amoul.
Just the thing you'd hoped for! Just...
Yeah, just what I was dreaming of.
"I know what I want - ancient pastry from the Middle East,
"that's the one for me."
That's much better.
Bakers, you have one hour left to finish your ma'amoul.
"Flatten each ball of dough in the palm of your hand
"to form a little cup." Right.
So crumbly, though, this pastry.
So it kind of just falls apart in your hands.
"Fill six of the pastry cups with a ball of the date filling
"and the remaining six pastry cups with a ball
"of the walnut filling, and seal."
Interesting.
And by interesting I mean awful.
Is that sealed?
Hello. How are you doing? Look at your stance.
I'm loving this, it's like...
What are you trying to do, put a walnut in your casing?
I have no idea!
Ah, that's why you don't handle it long, the ghee becomes wet again.
"To shape, press the walnut-filled balls
"into the flower-shaped mould."
These are definitely walnuts.
So these need to go in the flower-shaped mould.
It seems like a terrible idea but, all right.
So I guess the date filling.
That's the date filling.
Please work.
Oh!
I'm trying to get it out the mould but I can't get it out.
There you go.
Oh, love, yours look really tidy. They do look nice.
I'm happy with these.
Oh, that doesn't work.
Guess what? I've done the wrong thing in the wrong mould.
I can't do anything about that now. You can't... Don't worry, just...
Uh-oh. ..crack on.
Unbelievable! Crack on.
How did I do that?!
"For the date filling, shape the remaining six pastry into balls.
"Use the ma'amoul tongs." What are they?
Hello. Oh, hello. You have your ma'amoul tongs.
Tiny robot arms clapping.
Hey, Briony's made a cake.
"Pinch the pastry to make six identical designs."
I really don't know what I'm looking for here.
It says, "Do a ball."
I think I'm just going to go with this.
Something like that.
It's just a really short pastry. Very delicate.
Hopefully the impression will stay in when it's baked.
Bakers, you've got half an hour left!
That was very good. I know. Quick!
Going in.
OK, I'm just going to put it in.
And now you just hope for the best.
It's more like biscuit than pastry, really.
So I don't think it'll take too long.
I'll check on them in 10 minutes.
Erm, 20 minutes?
If you need me, I'll be down here.
The problem is I don't know what I'm looking for.
I'm going to open my oven.
They look beautiful.
These ones are opening.
Who blooming knows?
I might put it a tiny bit more.
You don't want them to be dark.
It looks like the pastry's actually melting.
You know what? I might take mine out.
I've increased the temperature.
They really don't look any different from, like, when you put them in!
They've got to cool, though, haven't they?
I think they're going to have to come out, you know.
They're coming out, no matter what.
Oh, my goodness me, they've melted!
It's a disaster, this. These look terrible.
I just wish the design was a bit better.
I'm going to be taking it out in one minute.
That's it, whatever happens, happens.
How long have we got left?
Bakers, you have one minute remaining.
These are going to have to come out.
What a mess.
Oh, dear!
Bakers, your time is up.
Rubbish.
That's so disappointing. My fault entirely.
Please bring your ma'amouls and place them behind your photo
on the table!
I made ma'amoul! Does anyone want any?!
Paul and Prue are looking for 12 beautifully baked pastries
with the perfect balance of spices -
six filled with date, six with walnut.
But as they judge, they have no idea which bakers
have made which ma'amouls.
Right, we'll start down here.
The walnut - they have split,
you see some of the filling coming through.
Although, the bake looks OK.
It's quite potent. Too potent? Yeah.
Right, let's have a look at the date.
Slightly deflated balls!
Some taste of dates. That's spicy. It's too strong.
I think they've gone slightly overboard there with the flavours.
Moving on to number two. Not much decoration on the date one again.
It's more like a flat biscuit than a ball. OK.
I like the pastry.
The bitterness, is that the...? Mastica. Mastica.
Yeah. A bit too much.
This has had serious, serious problems with the pastry.
It's just falling to pieces.
I think it's got too hot and the oil came out.
But there's no definition in this at all.
That's poor pastry.
Nice flavour, though.
OK, now moving on.
There's no pattern on this.
Not much filling either, is there?
Mmm.
Nice. It's good, that. Delicious.
There is definition on this one. There is.
You can see it on the walnut and you can see all the ridges.
It's quite well baked.
You get that floral hint coming from the rose water.
I think that's pretty good.
So obviously you can see the filling coming through in this.
This is meant to be the walnut one. They've got the wrong shape.
It is a little over-baked. It's quite dry, isn't it? Yeah.
Wrong shape, very dry, filling coming through.
Right, a good bit of definition here. Neat.
Icing sugar on all of them.
The pastry and the flavours are good. Quite delicate, the spices.
Yeah. They're not so potent.
And even again, fairly uniform.
It's just a shame none of them have got the real shape on the top.
Let's start with the walnut. Buttery pastry.
I love that filling.
It's almost toffee-like.
Right, moving on to the last one.
There is a nice definition actually in the walnut one
where you see the little flower coming through on the top.
The flavour's good, the pastry's good.
A very good filling.
Paul and Prue must now rank the ma'amouls from worst to best.
OK, in ninth place is this one.
Whose is this? It's mine.
Karen, the wrong way around. Yeah.
In eighth place we have this one.
Oh, Terry, a bit of a mess, weren't they?
I must have put too much ghee in because the pastry melted off them.
John is seventh, Briony sixth,
Manon fifth, and in fourth place Kim-Joy.
In third spot is this one.
Rahul. Not bad at all.
You did have some definition on the walnut ones.
It just comes down to neatness.
And then we have in second place...
..this one. Dan.
Quite good definition but not on all of them,
but the flavour was fantastic.
So in first place...
The pastry and the flavours together were very good. Well done.
Thank you. Well done, Ruby.
Me! You're so good at this.
I mean, what?!
I mean... I just... What?!
Happy days because the Signature was, like, a shocker.
So, yeah, relieved because I feel that sort of pulled me
back to the middle.
Not happy about that one.
I just thought, "It's Spice Week, let's go for it."
And I killed it.
I didn't come last, I think it should have come last.
Yeah, that was just a disaster! They looked so...
Well, everything felt right until they went in the oven.
To pull anything back from this,
I've got to have a corking great Showstopper tomorrow.
One Spice Week challenge remains
and the bakers face a day in the tent like no other.
So, our lovely Prudence under the weather this morning -
I'm gonna blame those spices yesterday.
You seem fine, though.
I've got the constitution of a rhino.
Yeah, she's a bit under the weather today,
so I'll be flying solo.
What you're looking at, at the moment, for Star Baker
is Rahul, Manon, Kim-Joy.
And I also would have to put Ruby in there, mainly because
she won the Technical.
There are two people who are in a very precarious position -
Karen and Terry.
Briony has to be introduced to that, as well.
Dan and Jon, at the moment, are very much in the middle.
But having a bad day today would naturally bring them down to
the bottom and put them in a little bit of trouble.
God, you're handsome.
I was just thinking that. Yeah.
I'm on the turn. You, too.
We're both on the turn now.
Morning, bakers, and welcome to your Showstopper Challenge.
Unfortunately, Prue is not with us this morning.
But that doesn't mean it's going to be any easier for you.
Now it's just bad cop, bad cop. Yeah, so...
Paul would like you to make a spiced biscuit chandelier.
It must be a breathtakingly beautiful, deliciously fragrant,
edible spiced biscuit structure,
that can be hung as a centrepiece over a table.
The flavour and type of biscuit is entirely up to you.
You have four hours. On your marks...
Get set... Bake!
Oh! It does make me nervous that it's just Paul judging today.
Yeah.
This is the grandest challenge of the competition so far.
The bakers must perfect huge batches of deliciously spiced biscuits...
Ground cinnamon.
..plus design spectacular structures strong enough to hang them from.
We've had biscuit challenges before.
I've seen the Colosseum in biscuit.
But this is slightly different,
they're all built from the bottom up.
We're asking for something to be built from the top down.
This is slightly unusual.
This is all about spiced biscuit, and there's loads of things
they could use - cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg.
I want that gorgeous feeling of warmth that comes from the spice.
Now, although the chandelier's got to be pretty robust,
if they over-bake, it's going to be too hard.
Or if they under-bake their biscuit, chances are it's gonna collapse.
Could be making upwards of 50, 60, 100 biscuits.
So, again, consistency throughout it all and perfection, obviously.
Good morning. Good morning.
Right, tell us all about your biscuit chandelier.
What are you doing? The spices are - possibly controversially -
liquorice and cardamom.
I love liquorice.
Karen's future in the competition rests on her highly unusual
liquorice and cardamom biscuits,
which will be hung in tribute to her old school friends
back in her hometown.
Pontefract is where, traditionally, we've grown liquorice.
And I went to a Pontefract girls' school.
The uniform was brown.
We used to be called the Brown Knicker Girls.
The Brown Knicker Girls? I think that's too much information.
Is that because of the liquorice?
No!
Whichever spice they've chosen, the balance of ingredients
in their biscuit dough could ruin the bakers' chances
in this final challenge.
It's not the easiest thing to make biscuits hang, funnily enough.
Too much butter and the biscuits may crumble before they can be held.
I think it's quite sticky.
Too much sugar and they'll be so brittle, the components of
their chandeliers will crack, destroying their Showstoppers.
I'm putting marshmallow and things in there, I think I can afford
to go a little bit more crispy on the biscuit.
The main thing is structure on this, I don't want it falling apart.
Jon's hoping to pull clear of trouble with
a marshmallow and raspberry chilli jam filled cinnamon biscuit.
It's his second family themed bake of Spice Week.
For my daughter's 21st birthday, I thought I would do this for her.
She loves cinnamon.
Jon's daughter won't be the only one celebrating with
a cinnamon chandelier.
I thought it'd be a fun thing to do for, like, a kids' birthday party.
My daughter will be turning six, so it's pink and purple
and butterflies and very girly.
Constance will celebrate her sixth birthday
with flying butterfly-shaped cinnamon biscuits,
ornately decorated with apple icing.
Apple itself, you're not gonna really taste that in an icing.
So it's made with apple juice and I'm boosting it a little bit
with a bit out of a bottle.
When you're adding icing, it also affects the texture of a biscuit,
and it's gonna be hanging.
It's a ridiculous idea. No offence, Paul.
Hang on a minute, hang on a minute.
Are you saying that the challenge itself is a ridiculous idea?
I wouldn't start there, Dan.
If you do an internet search for biscuit chandelier,
do you know what comes up? Nothing. Nothing.
Exactly, that's why it was chosen.
Three more bakers are celebrating a special occasion.
But for their Showstoppers, Christmas has come early.
I imagine this at a Christmas party with people picking off biscuits
as they're chilling and doing whatever.
Kim-Joy's bid for her first Star Baker crown has seen her add
extra nutmeg and cinnamon to her Christmas biscuits,
shaped as snowflakes and featuring intricately iced festive scenes.
Time is the biggest factor.
For hanging biscuits, I'm making 28.
So, not too many, cos I want to decorate them quite a bit.
Yes!
Manon is also throwing a Christmas party.
Mine would be like a Great Gatsby style party.
So, I went for Art Deco style.
Her Art Deco chandelier will feature
chocolate and tonka bean checkerboards,
inspired by her Christmases back in France.
Every year at Christmas, my mum and dad get this amazing chocolate
from a chocolatier.
And he always uses so many different spices and I think that's
from there that I've learned about tonka.
So, yeah, I went with it.
Hoping to avoid leaving the tent...
My dough has become very wet.
..Terry is throwing the biggest Christmas party he can.
My chandelier is a Christmas chandelier based on the song,
The 12 Days of Christmas. OK.
Characters 12, 11, ten, nine, eight, seven, six...
That's a lot.
78 characters. You've got your work cut out.
I have. Cut out literally with a cut-out. But, yeah!
As well as taking on 12 verses, Terry's baking two flavours
of biscuit - a cinnamon, clove and pepper,
and an allspice and vanilla.
And he plans to decorate all 78.
It's all about timing. I know. It really is.
Try and rein it in today, Terry.
Yeah, I'm down to my maids a-milking now,
so onto number eight.
It's a great sentence - "I'm down to my maids a-milking."
What you doing? Well, with Prue not here to interpret,
we're gonna have to learn to speak Paul.
Oh, good point. What you got?
"Narky - state of anger and irritation."
Perfect. Bakers, you've had one hour, you have three hours left.
If baking huge quantities of different sized biscuits
wasn't complicated enough...
So, the colour it goes in initially, it's always dark.
So it's quite hard to tell,
and sometimes they look a little bit burnt.
..the bakers will now have to start planning
the large biscuit structures that they hope will support them.
So, this is what my dangly bits will hang off of.
Whilst they can use materials to strengthen them...
Perspex holds much better than just plain biscuit.
..they must be invisible and covered in biscuit.
My sister said, "You're a trained architect, you should know
"about the structure."
Erm, no, love.
Ruby's peacock themed chandelier will need to support the weight
of 50 pistachio and cardamom biscuits,
sandwiched with a thick raspberry and white chocolate ganache.
My only query is because it's quite warm today... Quite warm, yeah.
..and you're using a ganache base, which is chocolate,
if that softens, it will drop.
Oh! I didn't think of that.
It'll be fine. I actually left it hanging overnight
and it was fine. There you go. So...
Where did you do that, though? At home.
In a freezer. In a freezer! Iceland.
With supports and everything.
I hung it up overnight to see if it would hold and it did,
so I'm hoping it'll be all right today.
But you never know cos in the tent, everything's completely different.
Making it to the next round will mean Briony's structure will support
40 highly decorated biscuits with mixed spice, clove,
and an Eastern kick straight from her local coffee shop.
So, I am doing a turmeric latte biscuit chandelier.
Just when I thought this couldn't get weirder. I know, right?
It's a really nice flavour. It's quite unusual.
And are you ever going to get the turmeric stains off you?
I look so ill after I make these!
My mum's like, "Are you all right?" I'm like, "Yeah, don't worry,
"it's just turmeric."
I hope it's going to look like a chandelier.
That's the whole plan.
Rahul is also heading East.
Mine is for a Durga Puja party.
It's like a worshipping of this ultimate goddess,
mother goddess or something.
Rahul will celebrate the Hindu festival of Durga Puja,
with a structure that must support six hanging rows
of individually decorated and filled orange and cardamom biscuits.
How many biscuits?
I'm making about 150 biscuits.
What? Yeah. I know, I'm crazy.
150 biscuits? Yeah.
I know, I'm crazy. I'm just going to try my best
and see as far as I can go. OK, good luck.
What do you think of the judging?
Ah, nobody will know the difference.
Bakers, you are halfway through.
You always think there's plenty of time and there never is.
It just seems to...evaporate!
Oh, that needs to come out the oven, doesn't it?
Yep, they're done.
That is just starting to colour, so it's good.
Where am I going to put it now? Oh, my gosh.
Just need to get those cooled.
Damage.
It's puffed up a little bit.
They've got, like, a crack along the top.
It's such a weird thing.
I've lost count. Genuinely lost count of how many biscuits
I've got going on.
This challenge is about to get even more complicated.
This is the other batch.
With time tight, the bakers will now have to start decorating
the baked biscuits...
I'm putting some apple juice.
So, I will use some synthetic assistance - essence in a bottle.
We'll keep that to a minimum.
..while constantly preparing and baking even more.
I think I'm still behind.
I just hope I'm doing this as fast as I would at home.
All the icing needs to be set before the biscuits can be hung.
I'm scared of running out of time and having nothing decent to show.
Otherwise it will smudge or, even worse, run off the biscuits.
This is just like a classic wet-on-wet technique.
Either they dry in time, or they don't.
Time, I'm just concerned now, I've got to get some decoration on these.
I've still got 21 little biscuits to make.
It does actually look like I've had some sort of psychedelic disco.
They look better with decoration, I promise.
Oh, these are good. What flavour can you get?
Cardamom.
Oh, that's good. And?
I don't even know what cardamom is.
I just said that. I know that.
So this is just to go on the top.
Oh, no!
Just not great.
I'll make this again.
What is burning?
Oh. I think I might have burnt my biscuits.
Those are rubbish.
Bakers, you've got half an hour left.
Half an hour to complete your biscuit chandeliers.
That is not a lot of time.
OK. Showtime.
The bakers now have the terrifying task of assembling
their delicate chandeliers.
It's a case of making sure it all hangs equally.
This is just like icicle, like, drips.
These are gonna have to go up sooner than I'd like.
Oh, God, I'm shaking.
So quiet, innit? Scary.
I just realised the biscuits are so soft.
So much pressure.
Keep going, keep going.
Ah!
I would have liked longer for decoration, but I'll get
something decorated. Did you get your maids a-milking done?
I did. All my maids are milked.
I don't think you should milk a maid. No.
I don't know. Not at this point. No.
Oh, no. Just looking rubbish now.
Argh!
I don't know what the hell has gone wrong with these.
The biscuits are breaking as I'm pushing them down.
I'm just sandwiching the biscuits.
It's just not thick enough.
The ganache has let me down, it just wouldn't hold.
Right, not getting sandwiched.
There's nothing else I can do about it.
Bakers, you have...
Five minutes left!
Ah!
Just going to be really tight with time.
Turtle dove broke its neck!
Little girl's dreams, such a big man piping them. Yeah!
Eight maids milking.
We're down to seven, one's dropped on the floor.
Finishing touches.
This looks so messy.
Four verses to go.
Most of them say "Emily".
Oh, that doesn't.
Bottom one's a bit of a mess, but never mind.
She's on, she's off, she's on.
Bakers...
..your time is up.
Please step away from your biscuit chandeliers.
Pff!
There are biscuit chandeliers in this room! Yeah, there are!
I didn't think there would be one! You're so annoying.
What did I do now? You're so annoyingly good.
Come on, Ruby, you can't say that to me.
It's judgment time for the spiced biscuit chandeliers.
Manon, please will you bring up your Showstopper?
Ah, this is a delicate business!
What could go wrong?
I think it looks amazing. Thank you.
I think the detailing round the top is very good, but what's impressive
is the fact that you've given it all the same shade all the way down.
Now, the chequerboard effect, did you build it all up and then chop...
Yes. Oops!
And then...
Wow, we're under attack.
It's all about the spice, for me, and I'm not getting much in the
way of massive amounts of flavour, which I would have expected.
But as the biscuit goes and the design, it's very, very impressive.
The pattern on the butterflies is exquisite.
But what does it taste like?
I don't get any cinnamon in that biscuit.
All the flavour comes from the icing,
which is almost a synthetic flavour that I'm getting.
They were meant to be sandwiched,
but unfortunately, with the heat, as you suggested, it wouldn't stay.
Pistachio's lost, but the cardamom in there's delicious.
It's a beautifully baked biscuit. Thank you.
Rahul, please bring up your chandelier.
Don't drop that, please.
I think what you've done is beautiful.
I think the colours are amazing.
You've got the sugarwork inside there as well, which is fantastic.
It's a bit messy in places. It's almost like time was against you
all the way. How many biscuits did you make? 150?
The flavour of that cardamom, the way it melts in the mouth,
the butter in the biscuit is beautiful.
You've even got the bit of blossom,
that little hint at the back, as well. It's a fantastic biscuit.
You need to pull something back, cos it's nearly there.
It's just a little bit messy in places.
The biscuits look solid, you know, chunky.
We're big girls in Pontefract.
Still are! Sorry!
What's weird is the liquorice and cardamom together
taste like ginger!
Liquorice is one of those flavours
that has to be quite pure to come through.
I'm curious about the texture of this biscuit.
It's almost got a skin on the top. Yeah, it's kind of cracked, yeah.
Yeah. I've never seen anything like it. Oh!
OK, well, I hope you like it!
Mixed spice, a little bit of clove...
Turmeric?
Possibly.
It is unusual. I've never had a biscuit like that before. OK.
Kim-Joy, would you like to bring up your spiced biscuit chandelier?
Well, that is exquisite. Ah! Your piping is phenomenal.
These little biscuits down the bottom,
I mean, look at the detail on that. It's absolutely gorgeous.
I love the little icicles with the ice melt, as well.
Very, VERY clever. Thank you.
The spices you've got in there really work together.
It's a classic Christmas combination.
Have you got a bit of nutmeg in there, as well? Oh, yeah, nutmeg.
Got a lovely warmth to it. That is very, very well
thought through. Thank you so much!
It was stunning.
Did you finish it? Did you get it all done? No. No.
The biscuits look quite dark, some of them.
This tree at the bottom looks a bit...
Black. Yeah. Run by the flavours again for me.
There's cinnamon, mixed allspice and black pepper.
It's quite bland. Really?
Considering what you put in there, all the spices and the pepper,
I expected it to be full of flavour, and it just isn't. Mm-hm.
The maids here are a slightly different biscuit?
Not getting it, again. No? I think the idea was very good.
And you've got a lot of the detail on there,
but I think you took on far too much. Yeah.
Jon, would you like to bring up your biscuit chandelier, please?
It's a bit messy. It is, very. It feels like it needs finishing off.
As far as the flavour goes, the cinnamon is the king there.
It is like a shortbread. It's such a delicate, buttery biscuit.
If I was blindfolded, it would have been fantastic. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Cheers. Thanks, Jon.
Right, my lovely bakers, nothing left for you to do while Paul has
to decide who is the Star Baker and who are the two people who are going
to be leaving us this week.
That's, like, nine down to seven. It's just such a big jump, you know?
I'd like to think that I did well. But, yeah, I don't know.
Paul's very diplomatic - a gentleman, I think.
Very kind, actually.
I can bake better than that.
Hopefully, with the flavours in my biscuit, it'll keep me
through to Week Six, cos that's all I'm hoping for at the moment!
Clearly, I'm one of them. I am going home. Of course!
You've lost your double act partner. How was it for you?
I missed Prue, actually, today.
I missed her, there's too much testosterone at this table.
What, from you and Paul? Yeah.
So, the Showstopper.
Has that shifted things dramatically?
I think when it comes to Star Baker,
I think Rahul is in the running.
Again. His biscuit, unbe... I mean, it melted in the mouth.
You have to put Kim-Joy in the mix for Star Baker,
because that Showstopper was superb.
Karen and Terry were struggling a little bit
coming into the Showstopper. Still struggling?
There was no real spice coming through.
Briony did quite well. Yeah.
She saved herself? It was a strange one.
She used a lot of different spices, didn't she?
She did, and I think, probably, if I'm honest, too many.
I will put Jon in there as well.
It was a bit all over the place and a bit messy.
As Prue's not here, did you want our help? Cos we could, we could
absolutely help you make your decision.
No. OK.
That's a no. I think that's a no. Is that a no?
Well done, bakers, that's the end of the very first ever spice week,
and what a fragrant success you made of it.
This week I have the great job of announcing
Star Baker.
And it was quite tight.
But the Star Baker this week is...
..Kim-Joy.
So I get the rotten job, I'm afraid.
It's a really unusual week, we are sending home two people.
And the two people who will be leaving the tent...
..are Karen and Terry.
Yes, well...
It's all right. Thank you. No problem.
Sorry, love. Hey.
It was great to get halfway through.
What a crazy, crazy few weeks I've had here.
Yeah.
Outside of having your family,
as a personal achievement,
nothing will ever top this, I don't think, obviously.
You did really well, mate.
You're a gentleman.
I said I wouldn't get upset.
Um...
It's funny when you're on your own.
Thank you!
My wife and I were very happy.
And that was a massive loss.
And there wasn't anything that filled that void for a long time,
so it did give me a focus.
I'll miss you. I'm gonna miss you.
I've met some lovely people.
I'm sure we'll keep in touch for a long time.
Yeah. It's been a big help.
Sorry, it's been a big help.
And, um...
..one I'll remember for a long time.
I'm gonna miss you!
I won't stop baking, I'm very much
looking forward to more adventurous projects...
..carried out in a bigger time frame.
No baking for a bit. I'm going away in the caravan.
Well done. Good job.
So happy!
I was hoping, hoping, hoping and it happened and I'm over the moon.
It's not the week that I'd expect it to happen -
spice week - when my flavours have been a bit...
But it makes me feel like I've learned things.
It's so nice, but then I feel like maybe
the pressure's on for next week, and I'm going to have to practise a lot.
Next week...
..pastry is on the menu.
Mix, mix, mix, mix, mix.
The signature gets temperatures sizzling.
Damn it, damn it, damn it.
Hearts flare up for a technical all about love.
How has this happened to me?
And the bakers shape up showstopping banquet pies
as we enter the final half...
Sack it, I'm doing it.
..of the Great British Bake Off.
I'm too, like, embarrassed to take mine out.
Oh, man.