Original subtitles

GERMAN ACCENT: # Welcome to the baking show, baking show, baking show

GERMAN ACCENT: # This week it is German week, German week, German week

♪ Thank you for explaining me, explaining me, explaining me

♪ We are baking in the tent, in the tent, in the tent

♪ Welcome to the baking show, baking show, baking... ♪

♪ It seems we have been unplugged

♪ Been unplugged Been unplugged. ♪

BOTH, IN GERMAN ACCENTS: Welcome to the Great British German Bake Off.

Ja!

Last time... Whoopsy daisies. ..the bakers duelled with desserts.

Everybody's terrified about collapsing cakes.

And while Chigs cruised to victory...

It's amazing. Wow. Well done.

..Freya floundered. Oh, no, today's just not my day.

But a traumatic Technical... You've gotta laugh.

..and a shocking Showstopper... It's going to completely collapse.

..saw Maggie become the latest baker to leave the tent.

We might as well go out with a bang.

Now... I can hear the Bake Off rushing music in my head.

..it's German week. It's time to get fingers dirty.

A Bavarian biscuit Signature... Come on.

..an uber-tricky technical... Oh, my God, they're all going.

This is getting stressful now, huh? ..and a yeast leavened Showstopper

will determine who will rise to the occasion...

That's beautiful. I've never had anything quite like that before.

..and who will get... Oh, no! ..das boot.

Come on. Yeah. You've got this. I hope so.

It's not as much as Jurgen but you have got it.

I'm so excited to be, like, halfway through.

I'm feeling good, yeah. The weather's really nice.

I'm feeling positive. For now anyway.

German week this week. What is German week? I've got no idea.

I've never baked any German stuff in my life. Jurgen's week.

Just another one of Jurgen's weeks.

We're just here for the ride, aren't we?

How do you say "good luck" in German? Viel Gluck. Viel Gluck.

But if you go on a show like this you would say...

HE SPEAKS GERMAN

..which means break a leg and break your neck. Oh, good God.

That's brutal. LAUGHTER

There's certainly a bit of pressure

being here in German week as a German.

You might argue that Jurgen is in a favourable position

because of his, you know, heritage but, uh, it's still a competition

at the end of the day so I'm going to give it my best shot.

German week, yeah, I don't usually bake German stuff

but we'll see how it goes. If it goes anything like my GCSE German

then... I'm outta here.

Good morning, bakers, welcome back to the tent.

Now, this week is a Bake Off first.

It is German week and we can reveal the Star Baker is Jurgen.

LAUGHTER

It is German week and it's your Signature Challenge

and the judges would love you to make

two batches of 12 German biscuits.

Your two batches should be exquisitely finished

and dipped, coated or decorated.

You have 2 hours 15 minutes.

On your marks. Get set. Backen!

Right, let's go.

Doing 24 biscuits in just over two hours is quite difficult.

I don't really know what I'm doing I'm just kind of baking

a biscuit that I think is relatively German. But we'll see.

I think one of the really important things about German biscuits

is that they're usually produced for Christmas

so people take a lot of trouble about the decoration,

so they are intricately iced.

What we want are two different types of biscuit,

one with butter, shortbread-type biscuit which are very crumbly,

and then one with ground almonds.

That creates a macaron-style of biscuit which is crispy

on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside.

I wouldn't like them to step too far away from the original.

They might change the flavour, they might change the icing

but they should still be recognisable as German biscuits.

I think a lot of the bakers are going to be watching Jurgen to see

what he does but I think they need to concentrate on their own game.

Now, it's time to get fingers dirty.

For their first batch, most of the bakers have chosen

a shortbread-style biscuit. So, shortbread should be quite crumbly.

Um, and I think the key is basically not to overwork it.

If you overwork the dough, the biscuit becomes really tough

and not short.

And whilst the technique may be familiar, the language is not.

Spring-le? Sprin-gle? Haus...freu...den? Hausfreuden?

And that means house of friends.

I'm making gluwein platzchen.

Gluwein platzchen. Gluwein platzchen. Platzchen.

Very good. There is a bonus to him being here apart from the fact

that he's going to get Star Baker.

Star baker already before starting, that's harsh, yes.

Got two days to get through.

For his shortbread batch, Jurgen is recreating his brother's

favourite almond horns

but giving them a caffeinated kick

with espresso powder.

He'll decorate both sets of biscuits with white and dark chocolate

in his bid to claim German week's Star Baker crown.

I mean, this is weird for you, isn't it, cos you have to do well

this week. Cos everyone's expecting you to do really well.

I have to do well because I like this bunch of people

and want to stay in. And also you want to be able to go home again?

No-one watches this show in Germany, do they?

Uh, they have their own version.

Do they have their own German version of me? Uh, no.

They have one host. One host. So efficient. Very efficient.

I've been here longer than Matt, just remember that. Yeah, yeah.

If they cut it down to one host, just saying.

Jurgen may have the home advantage this week but one baker...

Giuseppe, good morning. Good morning.

..is hoping to spice up his German biscuits the Italian way.

I will be flavouring the dough with pisto which is a... Gravy?!

With gravy? That's going to give it a very savoury taste. Pisto, pisto.

Oh, pisto. Oh.

Giuseppe's pisto spice mix contains cinnamon, aniseed,

black pepper and cloves.

He's hoping it will complement the strawberry jam filling

of his Linzer Augen which he'll decorate with candied orange stars.

You would think that biscuits are relatively easy

but we've got two batches to make. They have to be highly decorated

so time, as usual, is not working in our favour.

Paul and Prue will also be expecting consistency across both batches.

I'm just weighing each of them out

so they're sort of somewhat the same.

To be honest with you, I am kind of just winging this.

It's quite a sticky dough so I just found it easier just to use, like,

a cheesecake thing and it's all weighed out

and then just flatten it.

Hello, Lizzie. Hello. Lizzie, tell us all about your German biscuits.

Um, my first ones are... Is it even worth me pronouncing these?

Honestly. I think the Liverpool accent, Paul do you agree...

Lends itself. ..helps it cos you've got the yeutch sound.

Yeutch. It's called Spitzbuben and that means cheeky boys, apparently.

Said to resemble the face of a mischievous child,

Lizzie's cheeky boys will be made even cheekier

with the addition of mixed spice and an apple and cardamom jam.

I don't know whether to pipe on eyelashes and lips

or whether that's going to be too wacky for them

because they don't seem to like my, like, colourful wackiness.

It's getting hot in here.

Working with a butter rich shortbread dough in a hot tent...

The fact that I'm shaking doesn't really help.

..means the bakers will need to factor in extra resting time

in the fridge before baking.

SHE GASPS

If you put it in the oven and it's at room temperature it'll just...

The cookie'll just spread out so if you put it in the freezer,

get it really cold, it'll hold its shape.

But Crystelle has a different strategy for ensuring her biscuits

will retain their shape in the oven.

So these are brown butter shortbread. That's just going to

chill for 15 minutes

and then I'm going to just bake them like this and cut out rounds.

I find it's the best way to get them more uniform.

How do you ensure that it's all equal in there? In height.

So you're going to get a thick biscuit and a thin biscuit.

Um, I'm, I'm using a little cake scraper just to kind of scrape

that across. And then I will just say a little prayer

and hope that they're all the same height.

Crystelle is aiming for 12 perfectly round shortbreads

which she's flavouring with cardamom and pistachio

and decorating with spun white chocolate.

Small state of panic now because there is not a lot of time left.

These should be in the freezer already.

And Crystelle isn't the only one racing to rest their biscuits.

I've got to get my skates on.

George's biscuits have an intricate embossed design which could

lose definition in the oven if not chilled for long enough.

Really, you need to let them rest for, like, ages, like 24 hours.

I don't have that time.

Not only do George's embossed aniseed biscuits require

a lot of resting time, once baked, they're traditionally left

to mature to achieve their characteristic honeycomb texture.

So it might be a bit softer than it would be in two days' time.

Yeah. Maybe not the best biscuit choice in the tent but I like 'em.

We'll see. Thank you very much, George. Yeah, thanks, guys, thanks.

So you can speak German? Yeah.

Why don't you do the time call in German? Oh, OK, all right I will.

Here we go. GERMAN ACCENT: Bakers, you're halfway through.

And that's German, is it? Yeah.

The first set of biscuits might be resting... Right, next.

..but there's no respite for the bakers.

When one biscuit dough's chilling, you move onto your other

biscuit dough and then whilst that's baking you do something else and it's all a bit non stop.

Need to keep moving. For their second batch,

the bakers have all chosen almond-based biscuits.

This is actually very simple to make

because it's just a paste of almonds, sugar and egg white.

It's grim, innit? It's sticky dough.

This one's pretty much pure marzipan. They call it almond horns.

I'm going to infuse this with orange. I always get the feedback

they can never taste enough of my flavours hence why I'm going to

ramp it up a little bit more.

With the zest of three oranges, Chigs is hoping to pack a punch

with his marzipan horns which he'll decorate with spun chocolate

and flaked almonds.

So, I've never, ever tried these biscuits ever before but I know

it's supposed to be crunchy on the outside with a very chewy interior.

Want to make sure you can taste that orange in there as well...

The amount of zest you're putting in, I've no doubt we will.

Also giving her almond biscuits a fruity twist is Freya.

I've added in some glace cherries, you know, a bit like, erm,

a cherry bakewell. So it's kind of like a British version.

Inspired by the Christmas classic cinnamon stars,

Freya's cherry laden version

will be topped with a thin layer

of intricately decorated vegan meringue.

These are going in for 15 minutes.

Right, let's go.

With such a short bake time...

I'm putting them on for ten minutes to start with. That should be OK.

..the bakers have a small window of opportunity to prepare any jams

or fillings for their biscuits.

What you doing now? Well, I'm just going to measure out some jam

and then mix it in with the marzipan.

That sounds like baking to me. Yeah. That sounds like German baking.

Yeah, proper German baking, man. Come on. Yeah. You've got this.

Not as much as Jurgen, but you have got it.

That's going to be the mulled wine jam.

Mulled wine is my favourite drink when I go skiing.

And that sounds like I go skiing all the time, I'm really good,

but I'm the worst skier on the planet so I normally drown

my sorrows with a couple of glasses of gluhwein.

Amanda's apres ski-inspired jam will be bursting with Christmas

flavours and will sandwich her iced vanilla shortbread hearts.

That jam sounds delicious. It is delicious.

If nothing else, you'll like the jam.

No we're planning on liking everything, Amanda.

Thank you, Amanda. I'll do my best.

Hopefully, they'll come out OK.

In fact, I'm hoping for better than that I hope they come out perfect.

But every minute in the oven... Come on.

Going to give 'em another two minutes.

..means less baking and cooling time for their second batch of biscuits.

This is getting stressful now, uh?

Are you excited for German week?

No, why would you be excited for German week?

I'd be excited for German week

because I was raised by a German family. Was you? Yeah.

In a forest in Munich. In a forest?

I say family - it was a family of wolves.

That's it, taking them out.

As the first batch of biscuits...

My coffee horns are ready.

Perfect.

I feel like these are definitely not gonna come off of the paper. Oh.

..make way for the second.

Two, four, six, eight.

Who do we appreciate?

German biscuits.

These go in.

Multi-tasking to the max.

The bakers must now juggle preparing their decorative elements...

I'm...creating some little decorations for the Linzer Augen.

I'm going to temper some white chocolate...

HE GASPS ..in this weather.

..with keeping a watchful eye...

One more minute.

..on the biscuits still in the oven.

They're spreading out, but what can you do?

It's fine.

IN GERMAN ACCENT: Bakers, you have 15 minutes left.

That is not actual German.

It is, I've seen it on 'Allo 'Allo!

I'm just gonna highlight some of the design.

They look German, ya?

Er, I'm gonna pipe some eyelashes onto these and some lips.

Like cheeky girls they can be.

I believe the temper is OK.

They all look like the same height, don't they?

I think these are ready.

Coming out.

Nice, uniformly baked.

They look OK. Some of them have cracked.

I think they look all right. I might just peel the burnt

raisins off cos Paul's not gonna love that.

Just gotta quickly get those decorations on.

Now, it's time to put them together.

Glue, glue together, baby.

This is just my jam.

It's nice and thick -

it would dribble out of the biscuits if it wasn't.

Oh, dammit. I need to get a move on.

I'll just put the icing on the more burnt bits, that's fine.

How long have we got now?

Bakers, you have one minute left.

Oh, God.

Oh, gosh.

I can hear the Bake Off rushing music in my head.

Wonderful.

They're cheeky and they've just

been found out doing something, aren't they?

It is Christmas, it's snowing.

Messy, messy, messy.

Bakers, your time is up.

Chocolate isn't setting, but that's not a surprise in this heat.

But they taste delicious. Yeah. Exactly. Don't worry about that.

Oh, I've got one missing.

The bakers' two batches of German biscuits now face

the judgment of Paul and Prue.

They all look lovely.

Let's start with the orange and strawberry, shall we?

That is beautifully done.

Really beautiful.

The orange in the shortbread's delicious.

It blends beautifully with the strawberry

and the spice that you've got in there, it's just perfect.

Right, coffee and pecan, hey?

They're gonna be lovely, I'm sure.

Unusual and delicious.

And the pecan, that nuttiness that it brings to the coffee -

it's perfect. Really lovely.

Thank you. Thank you.

They do look very nice.

Let's see if they taste half as good as they look.

So I have done brown butter shortbread with pistachios

and cardamom. I love the flavour.

It's quite unusual, too.

And the second biscuits are hazelnut

and orange zest with a chocolate hazelnut filling.

They're so delicate, the orange is just right,

and the amount of chocolate in there is perfect,

and you have got that chew in the middle.

They're really interesting, they're beautifully made.

I think they're a triumph. Well done. Thank you so much.

So that's a vanilla shortbread with raspberry jam, then

a disc of marzipan,

and the bottom ones are purely marzipan based with some orange.

I think your textures all the way through are beautiful

and the marzipan you get, but you can't taste it. OK.

This one is nice and chewy in the middle,

crisp on the outside.

Very good orange.

Overall, your flavours are good,

but it's a shame we didn't get that marzipan coming through. OK.

But good job. Thank you.

I just love your cheeky girls.

I mean, their little astonished mouths and,

and eyelashes going out the side is just beautiful.

I think it needed slightly longer in the oven

cos it looks like raw paste.

The flavour of that, with the cinnamon,

with the apple, is delicious.

The jam is spectacular.

I like the colour of these, but they are all over the place

and I think they're a little bit too big.

Lizzie, for me, there's too much chocolate.

If you managed to avoid the chocolate,

the almond flavour is delicious.

If you'd made them half size, baked them properly,

you'd have been for sure getting a handshake.

So if I'd just done it completely different. Yeah.

I think the mulled wine biscuits are nice, all 11 of them.

The orange and chocolate one, it's lost its definition.

The biscuit itself tastes beautiful.

It's such a delicate, buttery biscuit.

Let's have a look at these.

These are called hearts, Paul, most normal people have them.

Never seen one before.

This is an astonishingly good biscuit. Thank you.

The biscuit is very short and buttery and delicious.

The jam is sensational.

I mean, it really is worth every calorie.

Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you very much.

I think that's lovely.

What's so good is that the kirsch and the cherry acidity makes the

whole thing lighter and these ones

should be quite crisp, is that right?

They should be crispy on the outside...

..and, as they age, they get crispy on the inside, too.

I mean, it's tough. Yeah.

You know, so tough it's offering me out for a fight.

But... I love the flavours of both. I think you've done really well.

I just question whether that was the right choice to use on this

particular challenge. I completely agree.

Erm...but well done. Thank you. Thanks.

It's not supposed to obviously be like that.

The whole bottom of the biscuit stuck.

Well, they're certainly chewy, Freya, and they're delicious.

Let's try this Christmas pud, shall we?

I love the flavours, but it is certainly over baked.

Yeah, yeah. It is over baked and the fruit has got a bit burnt,

but the flavour is absolutely lovely - especially the lemon.

I think they look lovely.

You've got some uniformity here, which I like to see.

I think they do look very nice.

I can't add anything to that. I think they look absolutely perfect.

Let's try the star one first. Yeah.

I flavoured them with Earl Grey tea. The tea... Hmm.

..it really comes through nice and strong. Yeah.

Really like it. Right...

The horns, shall we do the horns?

The coffee, you can smell the coffee, can't you?

That is the crumbliest, butteriest biscuit I think I've ever eaten.

Hmm. It is just perfect.

Thank you. That's delicious. I think you've done well there, Jurgen.

Good job. Wow.

It was pretty overwhelming, judging.

And a handshake, I nearly started to cry right there.

Under baked, I don't know.

Should I really trust Paul?

Because I done them for 15 minutes yesterday and Jurgen

said they were over baked, so I done them for 12 minutes today

and Paul's saying they're under baked.

I think Jurgen's right...

..just saying.

While the bakers could practise their Signature Bakes,

they have no idea what they'll be asked to make in today's

Teutonic Technical Challenge.

Hello, bakers, welcome back to the tent.

It's time for your Technical Challenge, which today has been

set for you by the lovely Prue.

Any words of wisdom?

Don't panic and try to be methodical.

As ever, the technical challenge will be judged blind,

so we're gonna have to ask these two to sling their hooks. Off you pop.

Yeah, you go and put your feet up. Don't worry about us.

Oh, you must be exhausted, coming here for 30 seconds,

eating a load of biscuits. I don't know how you do it.

Now, for your Technical Challenge, Prue would love you to make

Prinzregententorte, which is basically Prince Regent cake.

Your cake should be comprised of eight thin layers

of light German genoise.

Sandwiched with a smooth chocolate cream

and coated with a shiny chocolate ganache.

Your torte should be regally decorated with rosettes

and tempered chocolate crowns.

It's very regal. Have you ever met anyone from the royal family?

Yeah, Ralf Little.

You have two hours, 45 minutes.

On your marks. Get set.

Bake.

I ain't got a scooby doo. I've never heard of this cake before.

I'm making something that I can't even pronounce.

Prinze-genten-torte.

Pruz gen... Ask Jurgen.

Prinzregententorte.

So, Prue, Prinzregententorte.

Basically, it's eight layers of genoise sandwiched together

with the chocolate custard, covered with really smooth, shiny ganache.

Well, I think it looks great and it's highly effective,

and I think the temperature, I think, today being quite warm will

only be really affecting the tempered chocolate.

They should be all right with everything else,

as long as they chill things down a little bit in stages.

But they ought to be able to get it perfectly straight on the sides

because they're putting it into a tin to layer it up.

Let's have a look inside, shall we? Yeah, let's have a look.

I always love these layered cakes

cos they're so exciting when you see inside.

The layers look beautiful and they're stark and you can see

the chocolate custard in there, can't you, all the way through.

And it's the right proportion of custard to cake, isn't it?

They're about equal. Let's see what it tastes like.

It's delicious, but it almost melts on the mouth,

but then you get that light chocolate coming from the inside

and then that little bit of dark chocolate ganache on the outside.

I think it's a great cake to make on German Week

and I can't wait to see how Jurgen deals with this.

Hello, Jurgen, so I'm working on the assumption here that you're

probably the only person to have made one of these before?

I haven't made one. I haven't eaten one.

I can loosely remember what it looks like.

Oh, you haven't even eaten one?

Well, that's a waste of being German. Yeah, it's terrible.

The first step in Prue's recipe is to make the genoise sponge batter.

So we have to make a meringue first, it says.

I don't want the egg whites to be like overly whipped,

so I'm thinking just sort of like soft, stiff peaks.

I'm folding the meringue into the egg yolk mixture.

You've gotta be gentle when you're folding because you knock all

the air out, the sponge is not gonna rise when you bake it.

Wow, I actually seriously sound like I know

what I'm talking about, don't I?

Spoon the batter into circles on prepared baking sheets.

If the bakers are to achieve the consistent thin

layers of sponge that Prue is expecting...

Ah, don't do that, Freya.

..then the batter must be portioned out with precision.

Want to have all the eight sheets in front of me,

give a bit of consistency so that the layers are all the same height.

I want it to be no thicker than five millimetres.

Cos if there's eight, they're gonna be what about a centimetre

thick each, I think.

I probably shouldn't be wasting precious mixture to

glue my things down, but I think they'll be all right.

Batch bake until you have eight sponges.

They are three shelves in the oven.

I guess we can bake three layers at a time.

See, up there for thinking, down there for dancing.

They're in.

Go.

Where's the timer? Quick.

Right, there's no timing in there or anything,

so I'm gonna go in for ten to 15 minutes.

Seven minutes, then I'll swap the top and the bottom

and another three minutes after that.

I'm just gonna bake one to gauge the time.

Don't know if that's right, but I'm just going with it.

A sort of look of Frank Zappa about you.

Yeah, a bit of F...Frank, Frank Zappa slash, uh, Einstein.

I can see the sort of Einstein thing, definitely.

Fair enough. Yeah. I do. Yeah, there you go.

Well, you've been a bit of an Einstein in this tent so far.

Have I? Oh... That was a beautiful segue.

Come on, come on. Indeed, indeed.

I hope you're applauding at home.

With such thin layers of delicate genoise sponge...

Uh, no, not yet.

..a perfect bake demands absolute precision.

I'm just popping a skewer in to see if it comes out clean.

Under bake even slightly and the sponges

won't hold their shape when assembled.

Right, let's take out this bad boy. Let's see how he's doing.

It kind of looks like a pancake.

But over bake and they'll be dry and brittle.

I'm gonna give them one more minute.

I think I'm ready to take these out now.

Let's take that one out.

My first three are just coming out now.

It's a little bit rubbery. It might be OK.

With two more batches to bake and cool...

Second batch in.

..the genoise production line continues in earnest.

Oh, golly, gosh.

That's not what we wanna see, is it?

Three sponges have come out and three sponges have gone in.

Erm...two more to spread out.

I'd say I'm a little bit short on batter.

I'm still hopefully gonna have enough to make do.

Maybe someone on the radio can tell me

how long the bakers have got left.

RADIO FEEDBACK

Radio 1, Ed Sheeran, The Shape Of You, and coming up next we've got...

Hang on, hang on. RADIO FEEDBACK

And the bakers are halfway through the task,

and we wish them all the very best.

Let's see what else is on.

I was watching that baking show the other day,

Noel Fielding is an absolute... That's enough of that.

Gonna take my last two sponges out.

Sponges done. Look at that.

That's so thin that could almost pass for a poppadum.

I mean, there's a bit of a variation here. Oh. I take it back.

I used more mix initially and then I run out.

Well, that's a happy accident, then, in that case. Yeah.

So now I need to make the chocolate cream filling.

"For the chocolate cream, make the chocolate custard."

Hey. Lots of detail in there.

I can pretty much make a custard, sort of.

Same thing as vanilla custard - just add a bit of cocoa.

It's a bit dark, but it's fine. It's thick.

So that's done now.

Bakers, you have one hour remaining, one hour.

So these are relatively cool now.

Think we are going to sort of start assembling, maybe.

The cooler their sponges, the more chance

they'll hold their shape when stacked.

I feel like my layers surely would've cooled by now.

But the longer the bakers wait, the less time they'll have to

achieve a flawless decorative finish.

I started a bit slower because I just wanted to just make sure

that one baked well before I did the rest.

I'm just gonna hope for the best

because I don't think I've got time.

So...have I made these small enough?

I'm picking, uh, a better cooked one for the bottom

so that it doesn't stick.

Sponge, cream, sponge, cream.

It should be a silky smooth filling.

It's not anywhere near it.

It's very hard to spread this flat

cos there is a bit of a dome forming,

which is probably not ideal.

Sponge, cream, sponge, cream.

Keep it equal all the way.

This is the last layer now.

And chill.

Right, I'm gonna put that in there as long as I can.

So we're now onto the decoration, which is the scariest part for me.

Pipe 12 chocolate crown shapes.

It's the little crosses that are so hard to pipe.

Giuseppe, how wide is your stance, right now, do you reckon?

That's what giraffes do, isn't it, when they bake?

Right, ganache, ganache, ganache, ganache.

Does it just say to make the ganache? Of course it does.

I know you're not supposed to, but do you ever cast your eyes

around the tent and see what everyone else is doing?

Yeah, I do like to because sometimes Chigs is very irrational and starts

jumping around like a maniac and Crystelle starts talking to herself.

Oh, wait, am I doing this right?

There's no point even, uh, looking over at Jurgen, is there, because...

He's just cool as a cucumber.

Just an average day for him, isn't it? Yeah.

That looks like ganache.

That is what we call a good ganache.

Bakers, you have 15 minutes left.

Turning out.

Oh, God.

This is getting stressful. I'm sweating.

Oh, why is it so wonky?

The ganache will cover the whole cake -

it's like pouring a mirror glaze.

I might do the edges first.

It's not bad at all.

It's just a bit bubbly - not perfect.

Oh, this is so messy. My wife would kill me if I was at home.

Bakers, you only have five minutes left.

"Using the remaining chocolate cream, pipe 12 rosettes."

I've over-whipped it. I can't pipe that on there.

How many are we at? 12.

I'm just whipping up some plain cream,

just so I've got something to put on the top.

Gonna have to do this... No!

What the hell? How long do I have? Oh, no.

Bakers, you have one minute left.

Ah.

Oh, my God, they're all going.

At least I've got something to put the crowns into.

The chocolate is melting at the speed of light.

Ah!

The crowns have melted.

The chocolate is melting in my hands.

Well, done what I can.

Bakers, your time is up.

Very naughty of Prue, that was.

Please place your Prince Regent cake behind your photograph

on the gingham table.

Why have we all put different cream on top of our cakes?

It's supposed to be white cream, you've all done it wrong.

Prue and Paul are looking for majestic Prinzregententorte,

with even layers of German genoise and chocolate cream,

shiny ganache and perfectly piped rosettes and chocolate crowns.

OK. Shall we start over here?

The rosettes look as if they've melted a little bit,

but it's a lovely, shiny ganache.

Let's have a look.

The layers look thicker in the middle.

They're certainly a bit compressed towards the edge.

They are. It's domed rather than flat. Yeah.

It does taste good though, doesn't it?

It's pretty good though. It does, yeah, it does.

Um, this is more like it, actually. It's also flat on top. Nice sides.

It's got a nice all-round chocolate flavour, hasn't it? Excellent.

OK. I like this - it's quite neat.

The effect is quite nice, but you could've just run a palette knife

round there and just straightened that off a little bit.

Let's have a look inside, shall we?

It's very nice and moussey, the chocolate filling.

Nice texture to that sponge. Hmm.

Chocolate comes through well.

Ganache is lovely. Hmm.

Moving onto number four.

You have a nice shine on this, nice straight sides,

although what happened to the...the rosettes?

Mm-hm. It's nice sponge, that. It's well baked.

It's nice and fluffy, but it's got a bit of bite to it.

OK, moving on again.

Um, quite small, this one.

Yeah, it's either very compressed or the layers were very thin. Yeah.

You have a hugely thick layer, very thin, thin, thin, thin, thin,

big and then erratic on the...

Yeah. ..chocolate. Tastes great though.

It just doesn't look as consistent as some of the others.

Why is there cream on the top?

And there's something really seriously wrong with

the ganache - it's not quite smooth. All the filling is split. Oh, yeah.

Probably why they've gone for the cream on the top.

It's a bit tough as well. Very tough. This one's a bit wobbly.

Instead of straight sides, it is domed, isn't it?

It's domed and the outside is a bit uneven. Yeah.

Hmm. Nice flavour.

It's a shame it looks the way it does. Yeah.

And, finally, the last one.

Ganache is a bit bubbly.

But the sides are quite neat.

And we're missing a few...crowns. Very equal sponge.

Yeah, nice sponge.

That's delicious. Yeah. Beautiful.

Um, interesting. OK.

Prue and Paul will now rank the Prinzregententorte

from worst to best.

OK, in 8th spot, we have this one. Whose is this?

Amanda, you had a lot of bubbles on the top

and, actually, the inside was all split. And cream? Sorry.

In 7th spot, we have this one.

Crystelle, the top has melted a little bit and it's pretty messy.

George is 6th, Freya 5th, Jurgen's 4th and Lizzie comes third.

In second spot, we have this one. Whose is this?

Pretty good, Chigs.

The layers are beautifully soft and I think it looks pretty good.

Thank you. Which means...

CHEERING

Giuseppe, the ganache is absolutely beautiful.

The sponge is lovely.

The layers are absolutely even.

Takes an Italian to make a German cake.

I was really, really surprised.

I was not expecting that - first place.

I'm not so much into chocolate cakes.

When I go to German cafes, I usually have cream cakes or black forest.

Because everyone's signature was so good this morning,

I feel like I'm kind of treading on thin ice now, which is quite scary.

There's still tomorrow.

Hopefully I'll pull it out the bag on the day

and everything will be OK.

One challenge remains -

one last chance to secure a place in the tent.

Hello, bakers, welcome back to the tent for your Showstopper challenge.

Today the judges would love you to make

a spectacular yeast leavened cake.

Now your cake should be a minimum of two tiers and should be inspired

by one of the many yeasted cakes that are so popular in Germany.

Have you ever been to Germany, Noel? I have, actually - lots of times.

I'm actually German. Really?

Yeah, my dad invented the Kinder egg. Did he?!

No, course he didn't. If he did I wouldn't be here -

I'd be on my luxury private yacht as we speak.

You'd have to build it yourself first, though, wouldn't you?

Get all the little pieces and then put the stickers on.

You have four and a half hours. On your marks.

♪ Get set. # Bake.

Right.

This is a first for me. I've never done a yeast leavened cake.

I genuinely don't know what it's supposed to be like.

It's a bit like bread.

It's all about rising times and proving.

It's a bit of a faff, isn't it?

If you want to make a Victoria sponge - an hour, it's done.

This could take all day. Or four and a half hours.

Traditionally, cakes as we think of them, are raised with baking powder.

Now, in Germany, you do make cakes using yeast.

The perfect yeasted cake has the stretchiness of bread

and it's still rich and cake-like. It's quite difficult to get.

They've got four and a half hours on the clock.

A lot of that time'll be down to actually proving the dough.

It's not like a cake where you just produce it,

put it in the oven, bake it off.

But they've got to allow time to produce a highly decorative cake.

What we're asking them to do is to zizz it up,

make it something really festive or funny.

Just generally over the top. We want something amazing.

Morning, Jurgen. Morning, Paul.

Hello, Jurgen. Morning, Prue.

Jurgen, will you tell us about your yeast cake, please?

Yes, so, uh, in Germany you wouldn't do a tiered yeasted cake.

No - we've Anglicised it. Yes. Which I apologise for.

Yes, it's like being asked to make a three-tier apple crumble

or a three-tier trifle.

The three braided tiers of Jurgen's yeasted cake will be packed

with chocolate raisins and apricot jam

and he's flavouring his dough with a healthy dose of Bavarian booze.

Now I've made dough with stout, and it tends to slow it up a bit.

How are you combating that?

I didn't have a problem with that. You're all right.

Hopefully it will pack a punch. Look forward to it. Thank you.

Jurgen might be taking his dough for a quiet pint -

but Lizzie's hitting the hard stuff.

So, I'm soaking my raisins in orange blossom and mandarin gin

and it's got a gin syrup, as well.

They'll be just off their faces.

Lizzie's gin-soaked raisins will be

folded into her cinnamon yeasted cake.

Cream cheese frosting and pineapple flowers will complete a three-tiered

rendering of Hansel and Gretel.

Your flavours have been getting really good recently, so... Oh, ta.

It's about decoration. It's about that little bit of finesse.

Uh... Yeah, which I lack. It's about...

Well, I've... Look at all these colours.

It's going to be a colour explosion.

You're quite lucky cos Paul's just told us he's colour-blind!

LAUGHTER

Lizzie's not the only baker using boozy berries

to give her cake a kick.

You do need to keep it moist, so I have been forced to use

a whole kilo of raisins

soaked in a litre of very good rum.

Amanda's rum-soaked raisin cake will be

enhanced by a layer of caramelised spiced plums

and decorated with ornate Edelweiss flowers.

Edelweiss - there's a song about it in The Sound Of Music.

George knows all the words. George. Yeah. Isn't that right -

you know all the words to Edelweiss from The Sound Of Music?

Well, yeah - you've been playing it since we got here!

SHE LAUGHS

He's such a liar.

It's going to get noisy. I have quite a powerful kneading method,

which is called the French slap.

I think I'm going to have to take a victim statement from that dough.

Violent!

However vigorously the bakers choose to handle their dough,

kneading it is crucial.

I want it to be, like, tacky and, like, relatively sort of smooth.

But it's a tricky balance.

Some doughy goodness.

Knead too forcefully

and they risk a texture

that's more bread-like than cake.

If you do this reasonably

it helps creating that structure

within the dough that holds the air.

But too delicate, and their dough will collapse as it proves.

Mine - it's kind of like a brioche dough.

I find that I don't really over-knead this stuff

because it ends up being really sticky.

But, again, I just don't know what the texture's supposed to be like

so...maybe I should be working it a bit more.

Layers of caramelised apple and vanilla and chocolate creme diplomat

will separate the three tiers of Crystelle's brioche-style bake.

It's the bread we're judging, and I do think brioche is the best bread.

It is that hybrid between bread and cake.

Yeah, it's very difficult

and I've never had one before so I'm like, I don't know

if it's just a dry cake or weird bread, but...hopefully you like it.

Well, good luck, thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks.

While Crystelle's hoping to give her cake

the texture of a French classic,

Giuseppe's attempting to mimic an Italian favourite.

The closest Italian relative to the yeasted cake is the pandoro

so I've used that as a baseline.

I'm trying to get as close as possible to the pandoro texture.

Piped with amarena-soaked cherries, Giuseppe's yeast-loving cake

will be soaked in honey and filled with a vanilla creme patissiere.

Imagine if you get Star Baker this week - in German Week.

Jurgen's going to be fuming.

How will that manifest itself?

Very disappointed Giuseppe.

He's a really lovely guy.

He gave us all private tutoring sessions for German names.

Wow. And how to pronounce them. That's really nice, isn't it?

Because he could've just gone, "Oh, this is to my advantage."

If they have Italian Week, will you be doing that for everyone?

No way. Of course - yeah, of course I would - why not?

Cut them dead!

MATT WHISTLES

Matthew, hold this, the next time call's in that jar.

Whatever you do, don't open the lid. I'll be back in a minute. OK.

Bakers.

You are halfway through.

HE CHUCKLES

Matthew, I will kill thee!

Right, next.

While the bakers' dough will demonstrate

a mastery of texture, the fillings are a chance to show off flavours.

Chocolate filling done.

This is going to be messy.

I want a nice equal distribution of the filling.

And it's always a little bit of a gamble.

This is one of my wife's favourite flavours.

She's obsessed with chocolate,

so I'm going to fill it one layer with, like, full chocolate.

The next one is going to be tahini because she loves tahini.

And then on the top I'm just going to do a chocolate

and tahini combo just to kind of mix them together.

George's three-tier chocolate and tahini cake will be

glazed in a vanilla icing and decorated with sugar-paste roses

as a belated wedding anniversary gift for his wife Ozlin.

This is really nice. Yeah. How long have you been married?

Um, fif... 14 years?

Shall we ask you that again?

Fourt... I got married in 2008.

Why are you doing this to me on camera, Paul?

I'm not. Why, Paul? I'm just trying to get you...

My wife watches this, right?

OK, shall we do it again? Pretend it didn't happen.

Yeah, I need to know this stuff. She'll... So... So, George,

uh, how long have you been married?

I've just asked you that question. I know - is it 14?

I'm not feeling well.

13.

While George's focus is fillings,

Chigs' attention has turned to toppings.

So this is going to be the mixed-nut topping.

So that's honey and butter.

Um, and crushed almonds, pecans and walnuts.

And that will sit on each level so it'll have a crunch on the top.

Chigs' crunchy topping will give way to a honey

and mixed peel cake filled with lemon creme diplomat

and decorated with white chocolate honeycomb

and marzipan flowers.

So this will go on top and have a nice soft pillowy dough

in the middle filled with fruit. Hmm. Soft pillowy dough. Yes.

You're talking like this show talks.

We would like a soft pillowy dough.

I think, really, do you really want it to taste of pillows? Um...

Quite dry.

Quite clothy.

I won't be trying your bake.

OK. Sorry.

Chigs might be planning a nutty crunch for the top of his bake,

but Freya's gambling with an intentional soggy bottom.

I'm kind of making it like an upside-down plum cake.

So I'm pouring the red wine in the bottom.

I'm not a wine connoisseur, to be honest with you.

But cos it's German red wine,

I feel like that probably means that it's fancy.

The three tiers of Freya's yeasted cake will be topped with

poached plums and soaked in a spiced wine syrup.

The goal is kind of to, like, stretch it out

on top of the red wine, so they should soak it up, hopefully.

Otherwise it could all just run everywhere.

Right, that's...all ready.

With yeasted cake batter plaited,

packed with fillings, or soaked in alcohol,

the proving can begin.

So this is where the timing becomes critical

because it's going to be...

I'm going to be more than halfway through

the challenge and I haven't

even started baking yet.

Right, they're going in for half an hour.

While the dough rests, the bakers must labour on.

I'm now going to start to make my flower.

Making decorations that'll elevate their cakes to Showstopper status.

I'm doing pineapple flowers.

Put the pineapples on and then heat them low

and they should turn into flowers.

I have never made flowers in my life.

It's a little bit fiddly for me. Oh, I absolutely love doing this.

To be honest with you, I kind of just make it up as I go.

You know, we're nearly halfway through this competition.

I know - how crazy is that. And you're still here.

Yeah, I said that to my mum and she was like

"Oh, don't worry, Freya. Your dad can come and get you on Tuesday!"

I've never heard a cuter sentence.

SHOUTS, SLURRED: Bakers, you've got one hour left!

NOEL LAUGHS

Hey, we have dough!

So my dough has risen, which is great.

Just arranging my caramelised plums.

I'm going to sprinkle some more sugar and cinnamon on the top

so it caramelises a little bit in the oven.

All that needs to be done is egg washing before it goes in the oven.

Multiple cakes of varying sizes

means managing individual bake times is tricky...

This is going to overflow.

..and requires precision planning...

So the first one I'm going to take out after 20 minutes,

which is the smallest one

and then the next one I'm going to leave in there for a further

five minutes and the other one in for another further five minutes.

..but Freya's got other ideas.

There we go.

To be honest with you, they do actually bake, like, pretty similar

because, uh, like, the little one is so small

but, like, it's a bit deeper.

So, yeah, they're not, like, that much different at all.

Just, uh, nice little break, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah, the very first we have in this tent.

Yeah, this bit's kind of, like, chilled at the moment but we'll see.

Listen, I think the secret to a good yeasted cake, yeah,

is being patient.

I'm just saying that to make myself feel better.

What did you just say to me?

"Don't bring your erratic behaviour in here."

Yeah, over here. In this zone.

Yeah, I'm quite chilled. You've created a little calm zone.

I can be calm! Can you? Yeah.

I feel like your mum and dad used to play that competition

a lot, you know, like, "Ah, who can be the quietest the longest?

"Let's go."

And you'd just be sat there, like, shaking, bottling it up.

How very dare you?!

So I'm just checking on it.

It should be coming out in two minutes.

While most of the bakers are managing to hold their nerve...

Right, let's take these babies out, then.

..George can't wait any longer.

Are they baked?

I don't know, but I need to start decorating.

Bakers, you have half an hour left.

I'm going to give it another couple more minutes.

In 40 seconds, I'm going to be taking the large one out.

I keep questioning this big one cos it's so big.

The last thing you want is him saying it's raw.

Yeah, looks fine on top.

Got to make sure they're done all the way through.

Paul said, "Show finesse."

Oh, no. Finesse.

Can you have much finesse with a broken cake?

Bakers, you have ten minutes left.

Amanda, you've got nine.

Wonder if I overdid the wine?

So long as the middle is cooked.

I think we're going to try and assemble this.

Let's do it, let's do it, let's do it.

Needs more time. I'll give it another five.

So this is going to be the chocolate honeycomb.

Melted already - I can feel it.

Done. Right.

Just worries it's too hot to put the butter icing on.

This is the cream in the middle.

Come on, come on, come on. I'm shaking.

Oh, it's all... It's too hot.

This is my pineapple flowers.

OK roses, roses, roses.

Done.

I thought for once I'd have a tidy bench.

Why is it falling?

Oh, golly gosh.

Bakers, your time is up.

Please step away from your bakes.

Oh, look at that.

Wow.

I think I went... You know when we were like, "Oh, do more wine"?

Yeah. Should see it.

It's all dripping in wine, but I think that's better.

The bakers' yeast-leavened cakes now face the judgment of Paul and Prue.

OK, bakers, Noel is feeling a little under the weather

but we're going to carry on and invite Lizzie

up to the front with your Showstopper, please.

I like it. I think you've made a real attempt

to create that finesse that we were looking for.

Right. Let's have a look.

I think you've ended up with something that's very, very nice.

So you don't get that chew, you get a cake-like quality.

I think it needs a little more sweetness

either in a glaze or an icing.

But it's very nice and very pleasant, well done.

Ta. Thank you, Lizzie.

I like the look of that.

The roses coming all the way down.

I like the uniformity of it.

As a package, it works together.

This is the apple one.

Yeah, so the cinnamon apples are in the centre

and then the cream is piped round the outside.

This is about as fattening a mouthful as you could get.

The cream, the apple and the cinnamon work beautifully together.

I love the structure as well cos it's quite light on the mouth.

Delicious.

Good job, Crystelle.

Very good job.

It's quite pretty. It's a bit dark.

It's been over baked. OK.

You can see how dark that is in places,

but I like the design, though - it's clever.

I like the crystallised candied peel - it's really good.

But it is, it's quite a tough eat, isn't it? Hmm.

It's dry. Flavours are good.

Idea's good but it's the over baking that's done it for me. OK.

Thank you, Chigs. Thank you, guys. Thank you very much.

I think it's quite effective.

It's not very neat down at the bottom but you can cover up

a world of problems with almonds on the outside.

But it's dependent on the flavour.

That's a lot of fruit.

Hmm, flavour's fantastic. That's beautiful.

The structure is perfect. The bite is perfect.

The bake is spot on.

I've never had anything quite like that before. Thank you.

I mean, it's not the best looking thing I've seen.

But it's one of the best tasting things

I've had for a long time, yeah. Thank you so much.

There's so much bleeding coming from the plums.

It is a bit messy looking.

If you had water icing round the outside of each one,

it'd look neater. Shall we taste it?

Let's have a look.

The syrupy topping is delicious.

Unusual and lovely, but there's an awful lot of dough to topping.

And I think it could have done with a little more baking.

Yeah, it's too doughy.

Yeah, it is under baked, isn't it? Yeah, it is. Got it.

Thank you. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Well done.

I think it's very pretty.

It does look like an anniversary cake.

You need a stronger colour on that. Yeah.

You see the colour you managed to achieve down here? Yeah.

You want the same up there.

Look you can see how light that is. Yeah.

It's almost been treated like a soft roll. Yeah.

Right. Let's have a look.

I love the flavour. Chocolate-tahini balance is perfect.

That's... That's a raw dough. Oh, is it?

I should have tried it out!

I'm Philippe Abrams.

Name's Lebic. Just a few questions about your transfer request.

Of course.

Those brats.

School kids slashed my tires. I won't miss them.

- Need help? - I must do it myself.

Sit down. I already am.

What can I do for you?

How long have you been handicapped, Mr. Abrams?

It's hard for me to remember.

I was little. It's all a blur.

Reliving it is traumatic.

Sorry.

Muscle spasms.

It's over. I'm fine.

Mr. Abrams. I have two transfer requests in your name.

One, recently, for a limited-mobility person,

for the Sanary spot.

The other, for Cassis, 6 months ago. No handicap.

Did you make both requests?

I made both requests.

Yes.

The first,

as non-handicapped,

because I wanted to be treated as normal.

Like anyone else.

It's important to us,

the handicapped,

to be seen by people like you as deserving more than pity.

That's very laudable.

Of course, if my transfer depends on it …

No, not at all.

This is just an obligatory verification.

You know, I often get false declarations

in requests for sought-after posts, like the Riviera.

- No! - It's rampant.

How shameful!

You can say that again.

You'll love Sanary.

I won't bother you anymore.

Not at all. Goodbye, Mr. Lebic.

How shameful.

Nut job.

You're a total nut job.

You're my friend. You'll fix this.

I'll fix nothing.

Don't you dare say we're friends. Not here.

Not a handicap imposter.

I only did it for Julie. I'm terribly sorry.

All right.

Good news and bad news.

I've been suspended?

Worse.

Fired?

Worse.

- Worse than fired? - Transferred up north.

North? Not Lyons!

No, not Lyons. The north north.

Not Paris. Don't tell me.

Not Paris.

Farther north.

Belgium?

No. Before Belgium, there's …

The North region. Near Lille.

Little what?

No! The city of Lille.

Lille? That's horrible.

Starts next Monday.

This coming Monday?

I can't. I have no warm clothes. No place to live.

There's an apartment for the local manager.

What's the place?

Bergues.

I'll refuse it.

Can't. It's disciplinary.

What's the good news?

That was it.

What's the bad news?

You stay there 2 years.

- Two years? - Minimum.

Two years in the north. No!

It's the north or you're fired. Sorry.

How can I tell Julie? She thinks it's Sanary.

You leave when the coast is clear.

Now!

Hi, honey.

I'm looking at apartments in Sanary. Great.

We must hurry.

Don't worry, it's off.

It fell through.

Another handicapped guy?

Sort of.

- I can't believe it. - Hang on.

They offered better.

You scared me. Where?

- Bergues. - Where?

Beautiful Bergues.

In the north. Isn't that wonderful?

What did you do?

Me? Nothing.

I'm not an idiot.

If you do well, you stay south. You must've screwed up big-time.

No, it's just the opposite.

They offered me 2 years up north. I earn points,

get priority for all the Riviera jobs.

In terms of index, after 2 years in the north,

it's like I'm handicapped!

Turn it down. I won't freeze.

Who's going to freeze? We're not living outdoors up there.

Dad,

I'll lose my toes.

Why would you?

Not the North Pole.

Not the North Pole. The north!

The truth. What did you do?

I got a great promotion. I don't get this.

I'll call Jean.

To get the Sanary job, I said I was handicapped.

You pretended you were handicapped?

I'm sorry.

Go to the North Pole alone!

What is it?

Recognize me? I married Julie, your niece.

Right, she said you'd come bug me. What do you want?

I have to go to the North region.

A transfer.

Julie said you know the area near Lille.

In 1934, my mother slept with a Sheutemi.

What?

I said, in 1934,

my mother slept with a Sheutemi.

A shut-in?

Not a shut-in!

A Sheutemi.

That's what they call people up there. Men, women, children! Sheutemi!

Shutemies?

Even animals are Sheutemi! Dogs …

Cats are sheutemi.

Cows, chickens, calves are all sheutemi.

And the language is sheutemi, too.

They say O instead of A,

SHKA instead of SH, and they say SH …

but instead of S. They're crackpots!

Just when you think you got it,

they tell you a "mop" is a wassingue!

And what's life like there?

Pretty easy?

Rough! Very rough!

Only the ones in coal live well.

The others are just …

miserable.

They die very young there.

Good thing my mother came back south.

I was ten. I couldn't stand the cold.

It's cold up there?

Summer's all right. About thirty degrees.