The Great British Bake Off 2024: cake week recap
The Great British Bake Off is officially back for its fifteenth series and twelve new bakers have entered the white tent. Howard Middleton fills us in on everything that went down during cake week.
‘There’s a tent, right over there… and it’s very scary,’ whispers Gill, a marketing manager from Lancashire, who’s just clocked the iconic canvas home of TV baking.
Once inside, this year’s youngest baker, Sumayah questions its authenticity. ‘I feel like it’s not the real Bake Off… we’re just on a fake version,’ she says. However, she’s soon met with an icy blast of reality as temperatures plummet during the bakers’ first signature challenge of an ‘elevated’ loaf cake. ‘Baking in a tent is just mad,’ concludes John as he and Georgie unsuccessfully attempt to whip up decorative macarons and the normally glamorous Hazel resorts to squirrelling a less than flattering hot water bottle under her apron in a vain attempt to keep warm.
By the time judging commences, the bakers have given up pretending this is the height of summer and reached for their winter coats. In cream and powder blue mohair checks, fashion designer Christiaan is a clear winner in the style stakes. His equally daring creation of an umami apple cake with miso and cinnamon looks great but garners a grimace from Paul. ‘I like people working outside the box, but it’s a box I don’t particularly like,’ is his cryptic critique.
Dylan fares slightly better with his sticky mango rice cake, inspired by a gap-year trip to Thailand, which gets ‘good’ for flavour and decoration but is still ‘quite dense.’ Hazel’s raspberry and ruby chocolate creation is deemed ‘overbaked,’ whilst Essex mechanic Andy helpfully suggests the judges may need a cuppa to wash down his ‘heavy’ lemon cake.
Hiding raspberry stars in his almond and lemon cake, Jeff gets a gold star for his ‘spot on’ flavours but is marked down for appearance. ‘Like a lava flow that’s picked up a couple of buildings’ is Paul’s brutal observation. It’s a common problem. The bakers may be shivering but their cakes have refused to cool in time for topping. Gill’s chocolate orange loaf is judged to be ‘beautiful’ but let down by its molten buttercream, as is Georgie’s vanilla and chocolate marble cake.
‘It looks like scrambled egg on top,’ says Paul of Mike’s lemon and linseed cake. ‘And you have a big crack as well,’ he adds. The Wiltshire farmer musters a smile and tries not to take it personally.
‘Not the most attractive looking thing,’ says Paul of Nelly’s retro-style coconut and pineapple cake, but he goes on to confess he could sit and eat the lot.
Admitting defeat on his macarons, John still serves a crowd-pleasing and well-risen chocolate cherry cake which Prue says has a ‘lovely flavour’ and ‘perfect texture.’
‘One of the most interesting cakes I’ve ever eaten’ is Prue’s verdict on Sumayah’s coconut loaf with a carrot halwa centre. Paul agrees it’s ‘so delicious.’
Finally, midwife Illyin safely delivers a beautiful cinnamon and pecan roll from its intricate braid-shaped loaf tin. Prue coos with delight and Paul congratulates the thrilled baker with the series’ first arrival of a big bouncing handshake.
On to the technical, and poor Jeff isn’t feeling well, so it’s left to the remaining eleven to tackle the Bake Off’s first ever ‘taste and bake’ challenge. This fresh format ditches any hint of a recipe in favour of five minutes in which the bakers size up and taste an exemplary mini-Battenberg before recreating eight such cakes in two hours and fifteen minutes. As expected, there are varying degrees of success.
‘Look at Christiaan’s… they’re like Mr Kipling’s,’ says John enviously, but it’s self-confessed ‘instinctive’ baker Georgie who beats him to the top spot, whilst ‘overworked’ and ‘clumsy’ examples from Mike and Hazel send them to the bottom of the pack.
It’s showstopper time and the bakers have four hours to create a hyper-realistic illusion cake. Prue warns that anything too delicate, like a chiffon cake, will not have enough structure to be shaped successfully. Dylan duly ignores that advice, whipping up a spiced chiffon cake with sesame dacquoise and tahini buttercream. He also opts for an unusual subject matter, in the form of an ancient-Egyptian-style canopic jar. Prue eats her words and declares the organ pot ‘so unusual and delicious.’
Clearly not a light traveller, Paul initially questions the size of Andy’s overnight bag but is won over by its meticulous leather finish. Under packed it may be, but the coconut and raspberry luggage look-alike is also slightly overbaked.
Still in the same department, Hazel proudly models a new addition to her impressive collection of designer handbags, carrying her lemon and mascarpone cake on her arm. It’s a smart bit of engineering but the cake itself is judged to be ‘a bit solid’ and the finish ‘not very neat.’
Nelly accessorises with a chunky chocolate nineties-style shoe filled with raspberry curd. ‘I love the flavour,’ says Paul, but he’s ‘just not getting the raspberry.’
‘Exceptional,’ is Paul’s verdict on the design of Christiaan’s vintage sewing machine but he frowns upon the flavour combination of chocolate, orange, olive oil and thyme. Conversely, Illyin’s flavours of chocolate and peanut butter are said to be ‘amazing’ but her simple vase of colourful rice paper flowers is sadly ‘slightly flawed.’
Gill scores with her set of bowling balls. Packing them with Irish cream liqueur flavour, they’re a winner for Prue.
Having struggled in the first two challenges, Mike redeems himself with a stunning stack of chocolate and espresso books, filled with butterscotch buttercream. ‘A beautiful cake and a fantastic idea, executed really well,’ says Paul.
Having spent most of the challenge’s four hours in a bit of a flap, Georgie finally finishes the three hundred fondant feathers needed to cover Fanny the chicken – a fairly faithful facsimile of her favourite farmyard fowl. And in response to Alison’s question ‘How does Fanny taste?’ the answer is fragrant, with hints of lemon and elderflower.
Swan-like Sumayah serenely serves up Pato the duck – ‘a beautifully baked cake,’ flavoured with orange and balsamic strawberries that Prue says, ‘could flutter off at any minute.’ However, it’s John’s blue jeans, made of coconut sponge with margarita curd and coconut Swiss meringue buttercream that secure him the season’s first Star Baker. ‘That’s a really well executed cake,’ says Prue, and Paul agrees it’s ‘lovely.’
In Jeff’s absence, the judges agree it’s only fair that nobody should leave. As for Sumayah – she might have thought she’d done enough to bag this week’s prize spot, but at least she can console herself that it’s not the real Bake Off.
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