Original subtitles

Yes, Festival Week, this is where I come into my own. I love a good festival.

I mean, it's not really Sandi's cup of tea.

Noel? Noel? Noel? What you doing in there?

Are we there yet?

I thought the bag felt heavy, I thought it was all the food I'd

packed. No, I've eaten that. I did, however, bring blueberries.

Why would you bring blueberries? It's a festival, I thought

there might be a jam session. Oh, no!

Can you not mention blueberries when we're backstage?

You'll ruin my cool reputation. Oh, too late.

Last time, it was Dessert Week.

New territory - again!

And Steph was crowned Star Baker for the third week in a row.

That's one of the best things I've had to eat for a long time.

Yeah!

Oh... what?!

A close race... I'm coming behind you, Priya, coming behind you.

..left Henry thinking his time in the tent was up.

I've spent the past hour prepping my little goodbyes.

But it was Priya...

The colour of the blueberry cream is horrible.

..who said her goodbyes.

Aww!

This week... Yes!

..it's celebratory baking. Don't look.

With festive buns from around the world.

What are you doing? My balls are out on the table!

Sicilian party pastries in the Technical...

No-one ever thought I'd need to sieve some cheese.

..and a colourful Showstopper... I don't know what temperature

to have it at. ..with layer... Burning, burning, burning.

..upon layer of pressure. Not good. What?

This is a disaster, isn't it?

I didn't think I'd make week one, never mind week seven.

I'm glad I got Star Baker before the rise of Steph.

The fact that I've been Star Baker three times -

it's pressure, but you're forever just on to the next thing.

I haven't practised as much as I'd have liked to.

I had to mark 180 exam papers and I've written 150 reports.

It's been a hard week!

Hello, bakers. Welcome back to the tent! It's Festival Week!

SANDI CHEERS

And for your Signature Challenge today,

you're gonna be making festival buns.

The judges would like 24 yeasted festival buns.

They should be your version of the celebrated breads

you might find at festivals, such as Eid or Christmas,

Hanukkah, Diwali. Basically, each bun must tell a story.

And that story is probably... "Oh, no, someone with blue eyes

"has eaten me!" OK, no spoilers, thank you, Noel. Sorry.

You've got three hours. On your marks. Get set. Bake!

Let the magic happen.

I've started activating my yeast. Smells really yeasty.

Smells like a brewery.

The bakers have got to produce 24 festival buns.

They can represent any country in the world,

they can have pretty much anything in, as long as

it's related to a festival. But they've got to get them

beautifully light, airy, and full of flavour, and pack a punch.

The most obvious festival bun to us is the hot cross bun at Easter.

These buns have to be yeasted but they could have spice in there

or other flavours. What I'm after is uniform, beautifully flavoured,

beautifully textured, absolutely delicious buns.

So I'm doing a take on a hot cross bun.

Orange and lemon zest and plenty of spice.

Eastertime...

Steph's festive buns will also be filled with cranberries

and sultanas. And when it comes to her flavours,

she's hoping to live up to her triple-Star Baker status.

So this will be the cinnamon going in.

I hope the spices come through enough in it.

I've made so many hot cross buns this week,

just to try and nail it, really.

Michael and Alice... Come on, do your thing.

..are also attempting their own spins on the Easter classic.

There's a few of us that have gone for hot cross buns this week.

I mean, Easter, to me, it reminds me of spending time with my

grandparents, just kind of like springtime, baking,

and I thought, something a bit fresh. Trying to put a

bit of a twist on it, so I'm doing yeah,

lemon, blueberry and almond hot cross buns.

Alice's buns will feature fresh and freeze-dried blueberries,

and they'll be finished with

a lemon curd glaze.

You're glazing it with lemon curd? Yes. How does that work, then?

So, quite like a... If I heat it up and it's runny enough

to spread over the bun. Is it gonna be sticky to hold?

Yeah. Which a good hot cross bun should be, yeah. Yeah.

OK, that's interesting.

All right, good luck. Thank you. Look forward to it, thank you.

Thank you.

Not content with just one festive celebration,

Michael's buns are a hybrid of two.

I am making sticky pudding hot cross buns.

So I'm pairing the festival of Easter with the

festival of Christmas.

Michael's hot cross between Christmas and Easter buns,

will be brushed with a brandy glaze.

Served with brandy butter,

and packed full of dried fruit.

Tell us your filling inside your dough.

So, I've got sultanas, cranberries, dates, and apricots,

and they're soaking in some brandy just now.

I thought figgy pudding had figs in it.

Oh, yes, I've got figs in it as well, sorry, forgot to say that!

LAUGHTER

So how much, in total, are you putting in, fruit?

500g! To how much flour? To 1kg of flour!

That's a lot of fruit. A lot of fruit.

It's a lot of fruit. Is that right?

Is it wrong?

Good luck, anyway. LAUGHTER

Thank you very much. Still, at least he's left you

feeling confident. I think that's the important thing

that's happened here. Good luck. Thank you! Oh, I need it.

When it comes to flavouring enriched dough...

The fruits that have gone in - sultanas, cranberries,

and mixed peel... ..careful balance is required.

This is mixed spice, just to give it a little bit of warmth.

As too much will inhibit the yeast. In practice,

they once came out and they were like bricks.

I'm just tight on time. I need to get these proving.

Resulting in tight, dense buns.

These are raisins... I'm just trying to make sure they get

nicely divided through the dough.

I am doing kozunak, which is a Bulgarian Easter bread.

David is adding traditional lemon and almonds to his

Easter bread plaits,

to honour his close ties

with Bulgaria.

So, my older brother and his wife live in Bulgaria.

And my partner comes from Bulgaria, so Nick's helped me

a lot in kind of talking about flavours,

but then also, my sister-in-law in Bulgaria,

cos she bakes them. There's actual competitions to see who

does the best kozunak. Mine is gonna win.

Whilst David's celebrating in Eastern Europe...

Get out, get out...

..Henry is heading north to Sweden.

I'm making chocolate kardemummabullar.

Which is my favourite word in the world.

And what's the festival? Cinnamon Bun Day is October 4th.

What are they celebrating on October 4th? Just the bun?

Just the existence of the bun itself. The existence of the bun!

The existence of the bun.

Henry's swapping cinnamon for

cardamom, almond and chocolate creme patisserie

to celebrate his Swedish buns.

And he'll be twisting them into classic kardemummabullar shapes.

I can see this as being your challenge,

Henry, Lord of the Buns!

Do you like festivals? I've never been to a festival!

Love that about you! Not even a book one.

I've been to a book festival!

This is now going to prove, so probably for about 30 minutes.

Go to bed for a bit.

As their dough goes in for its first prove...

So this will prove once like this and then I'll prove it again when they are in their bun shapes.

..the bakers must move on to their festive fillings

and decorations.

I'm just worried about this lemon peel.

It needs to hurry up cos it takes me ages just to chop it

up into little pieces.

Rosie is ensuring her rich buns will be oozing with even more

richness.

I'm making my namelaka.

Go back on namelaka. Namelaka.

Mm? It's a form of pastry cream made from milk, double cream,

gelatine, lemon zest, liquid glucose and white chocolate.

OK. Sounds good. I'm looking forward to these.

So these are not rich buns at all. No, there's no calories in them at all, no, no!

LAUGHTER

Diet ones, yeah.

As well as her Japanese-inspired lemon and white chocolate

namelaka, Rosie's buns will be filled with

raspberry jam and elaborately decorated to look like

Mardi Gras peacocks.

Festival peacocks. Yeah, obviously! Wow.

It's a thing. You're a vet. Have you ever worked on a peacock?

I've never treated a peacock. A peacock with a migraine.

It'd be great to have a peacock, wouldn't it?

And just... Take it for walks. Yes, like a '70s pimp,

with a big collar. Mm. Two peacocks. Please do this.

The thing about a mask, it makes you completely anonymous.

Sorry, who are you? I'm waiting for Sandi

to do a time call. Oh, sorry, Prue.

It's OK, Paul. Bakers, you are halfway through.

It is working, just slowly.

If the bakers don't prove their enriched dough for long enough...

It's not ready. It's still bouncing back.

..they won't achieve the light, airy buns

that Paul and Prue are expecting.

It helps if you watch it.

Has Paul gone? He's gone.

Not having Paul see me do this.

Under-proved dough will be too tight and is likely to crack

when baked.

All right, that's ready.

But the bakers are only halfway to achieving perfect, fluffy

festival buns. What a lovely dough to work with.

Before they can prove for a second time,

they need to shape the dough into 24 identical buns.

It's really hard to get them identical cos I twist them.

I can't get every twist the same.

I don't want any kind of blueberries sticking up.

What are you doing? Rubbing your buns?

My balls are out on the table!

Horrible doing the plaits.

It's cos I'm using a Paul Hollywood technique that I looked up

on YouTube.

Is she still there?

I don't like it.

What are you doing? I'm having fun, I'm twisting some buns.

You get the strip... Yeah...

Then I'm giving it, like, a little core. Yep.

And the I'll just go... like that. Wow.

You've blown my mind. Which one looks the least good?

Cos I've got a spare. I'd take that one out,

it doesn't look as even as the others.

You're out, mate.

OK, Sandi, I'm just gonna put you down here for a minute,

I'm gonna do a time call.

Bakers, you've got one hour left, one hour remaining.

Is that OK?

Oh...

I'm gonna use clingfilm just to keep it moist while it proves.

So they're just gonna stay here for a moment.

Panicking? Just... Breaking up? Yeah.

I've heard this on the grapevine that you've been marking

exams! Oh, my God! It's been the worst week!

Is it nice to get back in the tent, then?

It's... Do you know what? It's kind of a... break from marking.

Quite relaxing. Right, I'm so sorry. I'm just gonna...

All right, well, good luck!

Got to make brandy glaze. This is sugar syrup and spices.

I will just see that some flavour has come into it.

Right, need to make my lemon curd.

That's just honey, maple syrup, brown sugar, cardamom for

the glaze. It will be very strong.

I can't taste any cardamom. More cardamom? More?

Nah, back in.

Hi!

Are these real peacock feathers?

Yeah. This makes me so happy. We need a sort of

cape, though, as well, don't we? Please wear it.

What, wear this for the judges? Yeah. All right.

I'll wear it for you, yeah?

I can't work out whether they're ready or not.

Mm, there's a couple of quite wee ones in here.

Gonna egg-wash them...

Oh, wow, look at that egg.

This is just flour and water...

One's a bit squint, but I'll call it a Saltire.

A Scottish one. Your nose doesn't look right, you got a cold?

Hay fever. Oh, fair enough. Bakers, you have half an hour, half an hour.

Right, they're going in. They look all right,

they will be fine. OK, we're gonna go in.

My heart's racing.

Going in - 200 degrees for about 18 minutes.

Right, 15 minutes...

They're cracked a wee bit on the top. I think mine might

have been a little bit under-proved. Hide them.

Hide them at the bottom. They're normally really dark

by this point, at home.

That's the best thing I've ever done.

I'm just gonna give them another... 49 seconds.

I feel like I want to go in and get them.

Oh, they look baked! Yeah, I'm gonna take them out.

About that sort of colour, is what I'm aiming for.

OK...

I tried to keep them away from each other, but some of them

have stuck, so I'll just put the bad ones in the middle.

They are a bit messy, but they'll do.

Bakers, you've only got five minutes left...

Five, four... No, just... Just five. Five.

Right, we're gonna glaze in the tin cos we've not time

to do anything else.

The glaze, hopefully, will give a bit of a kick,

but a lot of the brandy evaporates off.

Some have exploded. Let's hope they taste all right, eh?

I'm covering my cracks up with some leaves.

Go, go, go.

Sugar, sugar, sugar.

Bakers, your time is up.

Please, take your buns and place them at the end of your stations.

I really want to eat one of yours.

SANDI: Paul and Prue will now decide

if our bakers' festive buns are worth celebrating.

Hello, David. Hello. Hi, David.

I think the plaiting and the shaping look very, very good.

Very good.

Couple of minutes less, perhaps.

It's just gone a little bit dark there.

Mmm.

I don't think they're bad at all. The shapes are amazing.

They look really good, I think.

It's nice texture there.

It's, um...

Springs softly. Mmm.

I love the flavour of saffron. It's really good with the sugar on top.

That's a well baked dough.

The structure's good, the flavour is fantastic. It just needs that...

..a few extra little bits of fruit in there. Mmm.

Very good, though. I'm impressed. Well done.

They are a bit uneven, aren't they? Yeah.

They will be slightly misshapen because of the volume

of fruit in there as well, because you get one with more

fruit in it, it can't grow as much as one that has got less fruit in.

But they're lovely and shiny and I like the glaze.

Yeah, the glaze looks good. The decoration's nice.

It's a little tough, actually. But I think your flavour is spot-on.

The spaces are nicely warming and balanced with the fruit.

It's very good.

It does taste like figgy pudding.

It's really delicious.

I do think they look very shiny and very attractive,

and my mouth's watering.

They smell amazing, don't they?

Let's have a look.

The fruit distribution's in there, actually,

and we didn't see it down the middle, but you can actually

see it properly in two halves when you cut it down the middle.

The texture's perfect. The texture is lovely.

Yeah, and they're sticky. I can feel it on the fingers.

It's not too much spice, and it's not too little. Mmm.

Well done. Well done, Steph. Well done, Steph.

They're nice hot cross buns, them. Well done, Steph.

Yes!

I think they all look similar to each other.

There's a bit more of a difference in the colours. Even side to side.

Wow. Well, you've got your blueberries in the middle. Yeah.

Nice texture.

Do you candy the lemon peel? Yes.

Took me quite a while. Yeah, it needed a bit more.

Quite bitter, isn't it, the lemon in there?

The sweetness hasn't come out in it.

I also think the lemon curd glaze is not as attractive,

because it's not shiny enough.

Mmm. I think you baked them well.

I just think there's a pretty irregular colour going on in there.

Mmm. And size.

Well, they look home-made.

They're a lovely colour.

They look great. Highly decorative.

I mean, they'd look great in a shop window, those.

The buns themselves look a bit flattish.

You can see they're sitting quite squat.

I think you've got pretty consistent on the colour.

And there's a bit of raspberry jam.

They're a nice flavour. I look at that crumb...

Now, this is where you've dug it out and you've put this in.

See how dense it is down there?

I did have to do it when it was quite hot, so I was sort of

cutting them and then pressing down with a fork when it was a bit hot.

So, it's condensed the dough down at the bottom.

It's really pleasant. It's like... sort of almost doughnut texture.

It's nice.

I think you've done a great job. I think they do look very, very smart.

Thank you very much indeed, Rosie. Thank you. Lovely. Excellent.

I feel like the mama peacock, and these are all my children.

I'm so happy you put that back on!

I think you've got a pretty stable colour, you know.

You have irregularities there in the size. A little bit, yeah.

Nice idea, though. But they really look interesting.

If I saw them in a bakery window, I'd want to try one. OK.

It is delicious. Oh, thank God. So, I think your flavours are good.

The proving's good.

The bake's good, the colour's good, the technique's good.

Flavour's lovely. Yeah, my only gripe is the size difference.

But nevertheless...

No... Shut up.

PRUE LAUGHS

Well done, Henry. I don't think you say "shut up" to the judges.

LAUGHTER

Sorry, sorry. No-one's ever told a handshake to shut up!

That has made my month. That was good.

I can go now.

I could leave this week and be happy with that.

I've just achieved a handshake. I won't wash my hands.

Buzzing that Steph and Henry have got handshakes.

I don't feel like I've done badly.

I just haven't done as well as other people.

But it's very unlikely that I'm going to do well in this Technical.

I'm not holding out any hope for this,

but let's just have fun anyway.

For subtitling services, contatct: waqas.zahoor89@gmail.com

NOEL: The bakers were able to practise their celebratory buns

but have no idea what Technical mystery lies ahead.

Right, bakers, welcome back. Time for your Technical challenge.

Today it's been set for you by Paul. Any words of advice?

This is about the perfect textures both inside and out.

Thank you for that. Off you pop. What are they up to today?

They're going to Paul's soft play area.

Wow, it's a funny thing to call it.

The judges would like you to make 12 Sicilian cassatelle.

So, cassatelle are typically served at Carnivale, which is

of course the Italian word for...

Slippers? No. Carnival, yeah. Oh, yeah. OK.

Your cassatelle are pastry crescents filled with a smooth

and creamy ricotta, flavoured with chocolate and orange,

and fried until crispy and golden.

They need to be uniform in shape and size, perfect for the Carnivale. Hmm.

You've got an hour and 15. On your marks...

OPERATIC: # Get set! # Bake!

ITALIAN ACCENT: Cassatelle.

No, I've never had these before.

Cassatelle. There we go.

Not even the foggiest clue what it is.

It's what looks like a pasta machine.

I guess almost like ravioli, but, like, fried and sweet.

Maybe. I don't know.

Cassatelle.

Basically they're Sicilian snacks that you'd have at a carnival.

So, inside these beautiful pastries we've got ricotta,

we've got chocolate and we've got orange in there as well.

Where the hard bit is, is getting the pastry nice and thin,

and overall filling this properly with the ricotta.

Because these look very well filled and well sealed.

And the other problem they're going to have is, obviously you've got to fry it.

If they don't roll their pastry and it's a bit thick, as soon as it hits

the oil, the chances are it's going to burst open,

the ricotta will pour out into the oil.

OK, would you like to try them, Prue? Yeah.

So, you can see from the inside it's full of filling.

I don't want to crack into one and have big air holes in there.

It must have the ricotta chocolate all the way through. No grittiness.

Nice and orangey. That is delicious.

Great with a cup of tea.

I was thinking it'd be great with a glass of Marsala.

Well, you would, though, wouldn't you?

Deep-fat fryer to 170!

This is scaring me, because last time I had to deal with one of those

I had this weird thing, so I'm just trying to make this a better memory.

So... "For the dough, make a stiff, pliable dough."

I don't know what kind of dough it is that I'm making,

and the ingredients don't help with it.

Maybe it's more like pasta dough, which I've never made before, so...

I'm just going to kind of bung it all in a bowl in some

sort of order and see what happens.

It doesn't say how much water.

I've put a couple of tablespoons in so far.

"Stiff, pliable." What does it mean?

Not crumbly. A bit of stretch?

I think this is quite pliable now.

So... "Knead until smooth."

Yes!

"Then divide the dough into four."

And that is chilling in the fridge.

I need to sieve the strained ricotta until smooth and make the filling.

This just takes me back to Dairy Week.

What are you doing?

I'm trying to get rid of liquid out of some cheese.

What does it look like I'm doing? Oh, yeah, of course. Ricotta, right?

Ricotta. Look at that, yeah. Yes.

Can you tell what I'm doing without looking at a sheet of paper?

Sicilian cassatelle. And what's that?

I don't know. No!

I wasn't listening when Sandi was explaining to you what they are!

So, that's a lot of the liquid's now gone, which is good.

In my head, it was just going, "La-la-la-la-la-la-la."

I'm going to sieve it. I've never sieved ricotta.

Ricotta has quite a cheesy, grainy kind of texture, doesn't it?

So, it might take a couple of sievings.

No-one ever thought, "I need to sieve some cheese."

This is the weirdest thing I've ever done.

Is it meant to do that?

I've put it through the sieve twice, so it'd better feel smooth now.

So, I'm just going to make the filling. I've got my sieved ricotta.

Then some orange zest.

Then icing sugar, and then add some chocolate chips.

I want to make sure the texture's right as well,

so I don't want any whole chocolate chips.

It tastes quite nice.

How are you? I'm stressed. What?

You got the old handshake. I know, but...

Come on, talk me through it. What did it feel like,

his big sausagey fingers? What are they like?

Soft but powerful?

Powerful. Powerful. Manicured? Soft, pampered...

I don't know about manicured. ..but strong. And then what happened?

When he was holding your grip like that,

did the tent start spinning around...

Yeah. ..and Prue levitated up?

HE LAUGHS

Bakers, you are halfway through!

What am I doing? What am I doing?

I like that, cos I think you took it seriously

and did it with purpose.

Yeah, I think it's about time we got serious on this show.

"Flatten one ball into a rough rectangle.

"Feed through a pasta machine."

Going to take a piece of dough.

I have used a pasta machine before to make pasta, but not pastry.

This is the first time I've used a pasta machine.

There could be harder things to use in the world, in fairness.

It's a handle.

Oh, sod it.

Oh, for goodness' sake.

I've made pasta at home once.

It was really good. I would make it again. Um... Yeah.

CLATTERING

That can happen.

How does one do this?

Oh.

Well, I think we can agree, this is wrong.

I think mine are quite thick.

Is that too thick? I don't know what I'm doing. What is going on here?

You can change the settings.

Going up one setting each time, gradually rolling it thinner,

like I would with pasta.

It's just that I need three hands.

Oh, Sandi's got a hand. What? Have you got a hand?

Can you crank? You crank. Which way?

Clockwise. Clockwise.

Yeah, that way.

I know what kind of clockwise, darling!

A bit faster. My, you're quite bossy.

SHE LAUGHS

Wouldn't be your girlfriend.

THEY LAUGH

"And then cut into rounds. Fill and seal. Crimp the edges with a fork."

How many are we making? 12, cool.

I need three circles out of every blob of dough.

See, I feel like that's a bit thick, maybe.

Fill and seal. Fill and seal.

I've just got to be careful not to overfill it.

I'm just treating it like a filled ravioli.

A little bit of water just to seal the dough.

Because you don't want it to burst out in the deep-fat fryer.

Oh, we've had leakage.

Too much. Oh, dear. Too late now, isn't it?

Now it says to fry. It's a one-word one.

So, we had one other Technical deep-fat fried. I came last.

This is time to redeem myself, yeah.

Right, these need to go on.

How hot is this? Don't know how long for yet.

Just going to go in with it.

The pastry's very thin, so three minutes, flip them.

It's trying to sink, so I'm kind of holding it. Breathe, Michael.

Just breathe.

I'm just going to try and look for colour.

I'm guessing it's meant to be golden brown, isn't it?

Oh, bloody hell, they puff up, don't they?

NOEL WHISTLES

Jiminy Christmas, look at that guy having a little splash about

in his Jacuzzi.

One looks all right.

Shall we take it out and see if it goes crispy?

No, keep it in, keep going. I don't want to just burn things!

Keep going. I've got such an adrenaline rush.

You're really sad.

You look done to me. I'm quite happy.

Do you know, in Whitby, we got the award for the best fish and chips in

the country one year, so I feel like I'm doing my town proud as well.

I mean, they don't make cassatelles, but... I mean, it is crisp.

I am designating this one as "Looks OK".

Oh, look, it's bursting open.

SHE EXHALES

Nothing I can really do now. I've not got time for this.

One of mine's burst as well, Alice. Mine has completely burst, Michael.

Look, one is, like, literally coming back into a circle again.

I've literally made a taco.

Let's put two more in as well.

I don't want to add any more, cos that'll lower the temperature

of the vat. I feel like I'm behind, but I don't know if I am.

How long have we got?

Bakers, you have 15 minutes, 15 minutes.

I don't think you're in the shot. Get a bit closer. Oh, sorry, thanks.

That's better.

15 minutes. These'd better fry quickly, that's all I can say.

Can we get two scarves next time? No.

I'm going to bung them all in.

Four there. I've got two here that are almost done, which makes six.

They are definitely not uniform. Stay calm.

I'm so far beyond salvage.

A lot of these have decided to open up.

If I do two at a time for a bit...

Turn that up to the highest it will go. Come on! Come on!

Far too thick. They're ruined.

Awful.

Just going by eye. We'll just start getting these out.

Four, six, eight, ten...

12. Look at them.

Desperation stations.

I'm going to fry them until the very last minute.

Right, bakers!

Take a long time, Sandi, take a long time.

OK, your time...

..is... ..which is spelt T-I-M-E...

..is... ..is still spelt T-I-ME...

And, erm, you are...

..done!

HE EXHALES

This is a disaster, isn't it?

Please bring your delicious Sicilian pastries and place them

on the table.

NOEL: Prue and Paul are looking for 12 beautifully filled,

sealed and fried cassatelle.

PRUE: Mmm.

And they'll have no idea whose is whose.

Now, these are OK. Fairly uniform and sealed.

PRUE: I think they look lovely.

Let's have a look at the filling on this.

Could do with a bit more, couldn't it? Yeah, big air holes in there.

Look. Great flavour.

I think it looks lovely, tastes lovely.

Could have more of a filling.

But they're a nice shape, and they're actually well fried as well.

Very good. Moving on to these. I like the crimping.

But you've lost a bit on some of them.

That filling is so delicious! It's really good.

It's got a bit of crispiness to the shell as well. I like that.

This one's pretty good.

OK, moving on. These haven't been sealed properly. No.

So, they've just popped open in the fryer. And puffed up.

Like some kind of seafood creature. Yeah!

You can see the big air pocket there.

This is very thick as well on the pastry.

And too over-fried. Very.

Right. Right, moving on, similar problem again. Not sealed.

A couple have opened up.

Not much filling in there either. It's all pastry.

The thinner the pastry,

you would have found it easier to seal as well.

Now, these are all over-fried.

But they're all sealed.

They're not actually uniform. They're not all the same shape.

Solid.

Yeah, you can tell straight away...

How thick that is... It's been cooked all the way through,

but they've had to leave it in there, cos the pastry's so thick.

But they are all sealed.

This one looks pretty good.

It's nice and light. However...

Same problem. They've burst again.

But they are quite neat, so it doesn't look too bad.

Oh, and they're quite full, look. Yeah.

Yeah, a decent amount of filling. Some nice, thin pastry as well.

OK, this will be interesting.

That'll be number one.

SANDI: Prue and Paul will now rank the cassatelle from worst to best.

In sixth place, we have this one.

That's me. Alice. They exploded, didn't they? I know.

Sorry. And very uneven.

Fifth spot, we have this one.

Exploded, and a little bit soggy as well.

SANDI: Steph is fourth and Henry is third.

And then, in second place...

..we have this one...

..which is really good, David. Very nice.

The only thing we found to complain about at all was that you had

lost the definition of your fork round the edge.

But otherwise they were really lovely.

So, in first place, Rosie.

Neat. Nice fork. All sealed and full of ricotta.

Perfect. Nice.

Yay! I finally won a Technical. Yay.

I've had a bit of a run of fifth.

Fifth, fifth, fifth, fifth, fifth, fifth, fifth and, yay, first,

so, yeah, super happy.

Second again. Steph asked me, she was like, "I think you've got first."

I was like, "No, I repel first.

"I think I've got second."

I knew I hadn't done very well.

I'm not particularly confident on tomorrow.

Tomorrow's Showstopper is by far the hardest challenge we've had

to do in the seven weeks.

Not a great end to the day.

It doesn't take a genius to work out that

I'm kind of sitting at the bottom, so...

..tomorrow it's going to be important that I do well.

Oh, it's warm already in here, isn't it?

Just one challenge remains

before Paul and Prue decide which bakers

will make it through to the quarterfinal

and who will be leaving the tent.

So yesterday, I think

I detected a change of atmosphere in the tent for the better.

You were almost smiling. Yeah. Almost.

Can I just say, Henry, though, and his Signature?

Yeah, just say that. He did really well again.

He told me to shut up. "Shut up!"

Shut up! Shut the door!

I think it was so sweet.

I thought the Signature was very good.

But to get it done properly, and it proved it in the technical,

to get it done properly is quite difficult.

Because of that technical, we've got Alice and Michael down,

surely, at the bottom.

Alice took a bit of a gamble and tried to do too much, almost.

She is getting more and more disorganised.

The benches that are clean means in their head, they're organised,

and under control. Hers is generally a crime scene. Yeah.

And David, he has little spells where he tidies everything up.

David is so good at it. He keeps everything neat as a pin.

I know, but he's neat as a pin.

Very nice buns.

THEY LAUGH

I never thought I'd hear YOU say that!

Oh, dear!

Hello, bakers. Welcome back to the tent.

It's time for your Showstopper Challenge.

Today, the judges would like to see your take on kek lapis Sarawak.

OK, so, this is a colourful cake

which originates from the Sarawak region of Malaysia.

It's often used in religious and cultural celebrations.

Your cake should display even and precise layers,

and be grilled.

Grilled? Grilled. Wow, the Great British Grill Off.

When your cake is cut and reassembled,

it should form intricate patterns that run through it.

You've got four hours and 15 minutes to do that.

That doesn't sound long enough. No!

On your marks... Get set... Bake. Or grill.

I'd heard of Malaysia before.

I hadn't heard of Sarawak or kek or lapis.

In the 1980s, it was very popular in Indonesia,

and they took it across to Sarawak in Malaysia,

where they added all the colour.

Imagine Battenberg but more layers.

Do I feel confident? No. Ha!

The Showstopper this week is a complicated one.

We've asked the bakers to do a Sarawak-style layer cake.

They have many, many layers

in many different colours and different flavours.

They put a thin layer of batter in a cake tin,

grill it for a few minutes, take it out, more batter, grill it.

However many layers they want.

And then cut it into any shapes they like.

Then they reassemble those pieces of cake

so that they make a fantastic pattern.

It's very difficult to do.

The bakers would never have made anything like this before.

I think this is one of the hardest cake designs to make.

And there's nowhere to hide, we WILL see the problems.

With multiple cakes to make,

each featuring layer upon layer of sponge...

I have 14 times three eggs, yes, that number.

..this is one of THE most complex challenges

ever attempted in the tent.

Waagh! Practising the Showstopper,

I got through 110 eggs in one day.

Hello, Henry. How are you doing, Henry? Hello! What are you doing?

I am doing a lemon and lime Sarawak cake.

So how many layers in each cake?

Actually, I've got a drawing because I can't explain it.

Should hopefully look like that. Oh, wow, come on.

That's the plan. Well, that is beautiful.

I'm just going to bring this up to the table!

It's probably a mistake to show it to us

because we might be disappointed if you don't achieve it.

There's a great likelihood of that, but you might as well know.

Do you know what you should do? Once the cakes come out,

redraw it so it looks exactly the same. Yeah.

And pretend you didn't see that.

SANDI: Henry is hoping to bring his design to life

with contrasting blocks of green and yellow coloured layer cake,

held together with raspberry and mint jam,

and flavoured with lime and lemon.

I'm doing six to seven lemons in each batch.

So if that's not enough lemon zest, I don't know what I'm going to do.

Not only do Prue and Paul want to see flawlessly designed cakes...

I'm doing a spice mix called Spekkoek,

and it's a mixture of cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and nutmeg.

..they're expecting our six remaining bakers

to nail their flavours.

I have found that when you're grilling the cake,

the flavours disappear more than in a baked cake.

First I was putting various liqueurs in it.

You couldn't taste a blooming thing. This is a spiced rum.

I've kind of got into my rums recently.

So I've googled kek lapises quite a lot,

and lots of them add, like, an almond liqueur,

so I thought, well, rum might work.

And we'll see in about four hours whether it does.

Michael's spiced rum will flavour

his sponge along with ginger and lime curd.

And he's hoping to colour and decorate his cake

with green, yellow and black,

to represent Jamaica's national flag.

So, how many layers altogether? I do six layers on each cake. Yeah.

So it should be 6 x 4. Yeah.

24. 24? Well done. Thank you.

THEY LAUGH

How tentatively we all... "24...?"

Michael's not the only baker who's hitting the bottle.

Orange liqueur is going into it,

which is my step-grandma's favourite drink.

I remember her drinking it and me drinking half of hers every time.

So I've got to get a bit of her in this.

Steph's using her step-gran Sheila's favourite tipple

to make an orange liqueur syrup that will hold together

her orange and chai spiced layered sponge squares.

I was trying to go triangles, but they were particularly hard

to manipulate so I've reverted back to lines.

We've all tried to do triangles, but triangles don't work.

But with her design, Rosie is going where no other baker has dared.

I've got two eight-layer cakes,

and they will be cut into a square cross-section,

then halved into a triangle, then halved again into another triangle.

And then reassembled into sort of a diamond-y pattern.

I'm probably taking on too much but I do that every single time,

so I don't learn.

Topped with her second delicate bird decoration this week,

Rosie's ambitious triangular-patterned cake

will be made up of multicoloured layers of lemon

and mixed spice sponge.

It's a balancing act because it either looks beautiful

but it's like eggy rubber... Eggy rubber!

Literally the first one I made,

you could do that with the whole thing...

That's a good name for a band.

If I form a band called Eggy Rubber, will you be in?

I'll sing, you play drums and guitar.

I don't think I want to be known as Eggy Rubber.

Come on, me and you, Eggy Rubber.

Like the new Simon and Garfunkel but a bit more electronic.

I'll book us some gigs in all the festivals.

Oh! We're supporting Radiohead, Eggy Rubber.

As well as perfectly flavoured sponge,

getting the colours of the cake layers right is just as crucial.

You can't do a dull one.

I mean, the whole point is they are really garish, bright,

over-the-top colours.

I'm going for pink, green and yellow.

That's lovely! Do you like it?

Well, see, pink, that's not what I thought pink tasted like, delicious.

Oh, good. I'll come back and clean the bowl for you.

Excellent. Do you want some of this as well? You don't need that.

I'll get that. Thank you. Prue?

One of my cakes is just two colours.

The other ones are going to be four different colours.

You've got to be careful because you want to get the colour throughout

but you want to mix as minimum as possible.

David's contrasting monochrome and multicoloured cakes

will be flavoured with a traditional

Indonesian spice mix,

brushed with tamarind and honey,

and formed into what he hopes will be

a post-modernist work of art.

So I wanted mine to be more like a sculpture.

I just love all these colours.

These ones are actually based on a Prue Leith necklace

from last season. I don't believe you.

Doesn't surprise me. It is!

And I'm doing one black-and-white cake and one with these colours.

Does that represent me? I like it already.

The grey. I mean, it did...

Prue, there's Noel, and there's me.

We can go with that.

Wow, I'm wallpaper paste.

This is the nerve-racking bit.

Just, like, a really thin spread.

This is quite scary, I'm like, "Oh, my God,

"I'm not going to have enough."

Hello, Alice. Morning.

How are you? Sarawak layer cake, what are you doing?

Yes, so festivals, I am doing a kind of carnival Sarawak cake.

So every year in my hometown we have a carnival

and at the end of that is a big fireworks display.

What's your hometown? Burnham-on-Crouch in Essex.

Essex, are you an Essex girl? I am an Essex girl, yes.

You don't seem like an Essex girl. Why? What are you trying to say?

Do you want a spade? Huh?

I think you could stop right there.

Let's come in again, yeah?

SANDI: Alice's homage to her hometown festival

will have sugar work fireworks exploding out of a chocolate, orange

and salted caramel cake, in a kaleidoscope of coloured layers.

Is this the first one you're going to build now? Yeah, the first one.

Always scares me, it looks so thin

but then it does puff up a little bit.

How long are you going to grill it for?

You have to be quite careful, just a couple of minutes, I think,

because it's still very thin.

Fantastic, good luck. Thank you very much.

Thank you. I'll be here layering.

Right.

I'm going into the oven.

My tins don't fit. Come on...

Yes, yes, they do!

With multiple cakes to make...

Right, I'm going in finally.

..and each one featuring numerous layers of batter,

grilling must be meticulous.

Don't look, don't look!

But the intense direct heat

can be tricky to control.

I'll try not to be scared,

it's just I don't know what temperature to have it at.

If they are over-grilled, the sponge layers will be rubbery and tough.

So, we're just winging it at the moment.

But under-cooking will cause the layers to collapse.

I think that's done.

Not good.

Ow! Hot.

I don't have enough cake mix.

I mean, yeah. It's a bit of a problem.

I don't want to wreck any more layers

because I kind of need all my mixture.

So I'm going to have half a cake at this point, I think.

HOOTER HONKS

Bakers, you're halfway through. Halfway through. Fun!

FEEBLE HONKING

Hope it's all right inside.

Too late now.

This is layer two...

..of 3,002.

I'm going to brush a tiny wee bit of rum onto every third layer.

I don't want to put too much in otherwise it will go wet.

I'm weighing out the layers so that they're all the same weight

and therefore depth.

So each layer needs to be identical for that pattern to work.

I think it's going OK, but until it's out of the tin

you don't know how it's done anyway.

I've got four more layers left on this cake.

Right. Next one.

Not only do the bakers need to keep an eye on the grill...

I burnt the first layers. You can see the remnants in the sink.

Oh, jam.

..they have to make their fillings...

I'm making the lime curd, which is going to be

the glue that holds my cake together.

..whilst also preparing their decorations.

This is just like blowing glass. It sets really quite quickly.

That may be OK.

I'm just making my marzipan.

Have like a bonfire, carnival, fireworks.

I don't know how Alice produces such good things

when there's stuff everywhere.

Nice and tidy around here as usual.

You don't look silly at all. If that drops on any of the eggs...

Oooh! My g...

We can do this. I can only move my eyes.

I feel like a painting in the background.

You know where the eyes follow you around the room? Mm.

Are you listening to me? I... I am...

On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you enjoy our chats?

11. Yes!

Burning, burning, burning, burning.

There's definitely burning going on.

Something is burning. I'm not, I'm not burning. Who's burning?

What?

What?

It's only had two minutes. There's nothing I can do with that.

No, I'm going to bin that.

But all my layers will have to be thinner now.

SHE GROANS

Right, my lovely Sarawak people. You've got one hour left.

Whilst Rosie has to start her last cake all over again...

I don't understand what happened.

I need to watch it really, really closely. I'm stopping now.

..the others have finally finished with their grills

and are about to find out if their layer cakes have been a success.

Yes! It's not raw, it's not raw!

I'm happy enough with that.

Definitely more rubbery than I was hoping.

Like, that's a rainbow, I think.

It's just the chopping up that creeps me out

because if you do it wrong, that's it. Game over.

If they don't cut and shape their cakes with accuracy...

3.5cm.

..and precision...

You want a really sharp knife for cutting this cake.

..their intricate pattern designs won't work.

This is my little cutting guide. My dad made it.

I told him the measurements in a bit of a panic, saying,

"I can't cut these things," so my dad made me one, I'm really lucky.

This is a bread-slicer. So you can do perfect slices.

It's all about the visual now, I need to get it right.

Trying to remember how I do my patterns now.

I want them to go together.

It's not perfect at all but it will have to do.

Considering how little cake I've got, I'm wasting quite a lot.

Do you think it's a little small?

No, I think that's all you want to eat of this sweet, rubbery...

Wow, not really selling grilled cake to me. No. No.

Nearly a drop.

Triangles are stressful. It's really, really hard.

Bakers! You have 15 minutes remaining.

Crack on. HE WHISTLES CHEERFULLY

I've got a cake, I've got a cake, I've got a cake.

I just need to get it decorated.

Quarter of an hour is not really enough time to finish

but I'm gonna have something.

Forgot to put lime curd on it before I lifted up the marzipan

like an idiot. It is what it is.

SHE SIGHS

It's messy but it's on.

Mine's so much smaller than everyone else's.

Not going to be anywhere near as neat as when I practised.

That is always very gutting.

If I was in the trenches, I'd say I'd lost a leg but I'm not dead.

This is just not fun, you know.

There's a small chance of a full recovery, perhaps.

Struggling a bit but I'm still going.

Right, bakers. Time is up.

Please place your kek lapis Sarawak

at the end of your work stations.

Well, it's something, isn't it? It's done.

Well done, kids. Well done, everybody. That was a long one.

Could have gone worse.

Come here, darling.

THEY GROAN

The bakers' Sarawak-style layer cakes

now face the judgment of Paul and Prue.

Steph, would you like to bring up your Showstopper, please?

The blocks that you've rotated needed more filling in between

because there's big gaps there, which shouldn't be there.

You almost want to grout round it and just make it neater, you know?

Yeah. I agree about the little gaps, but the pattern is very Sarawakian

and I think it looks lovely.

The sponges are delicious as well.

They're very good. They're soft.

I have to tell you, the marzipan is brilliant. Just delicious.

The decoration's good as well. I think you've done a good job.

Very good, Steph. Thank you, Steph. Thank you.

I think it looks a bit messy. Yeah. It's not neat at all.

You can see the colours, they're vibrant enough,

but I just want to see what it's like inside when we cut in.

That is a very complicated pattern to attempt.

That's got quite a toasty flavour, that. What is the jam inside?

It's nectarine jam. You can't identify it. You know it's there.

Gives it a little zing. It's very nice, the taste.

The idea's sound enough,

it just hasn't been executed to a better level to really shine off

what you've actually done, cos there's a lot of work there.

It's a shame you didn't add a little bit more colour into the top

and bottom layers because that bottom layer there looks

quite raw and rubbery.

I drizzled rum between the layers

so it has got a bit of moisture in it. Oh, did you? Yeah.

There are layers, but because they're all the same colour

or almost exactly the same colour, it looks just like one solid slab.

It is a little stodgy.

Very claggy, very stodgy in the mouth.

I think the soaking was probably a bad idea.

It's almost like all one now and a very dense piece

so when you eat it, it's a bit rubbery.

Overall, it looks wonderful, it's just a pity about the texture. OK.

Thanks, Michael. Thank you, Michael.

WHISPERS: It's all right, it's fine.

What's this? Just cake. Oh, the cake. There's a lot of cake there.

It's all cake. It's all cake? Yeah.

Well, I think that's really clever.

Looks like a stack of egg sandwiches at an afternoon tea. Yeah.

That's what I was going for. Is that what you were going for? Yeah.

Shut up!

LAUGHTER

Henry, I think that is a really nice-textured cake.

It's not stodgy, the lemon and lime comes through. It's really nice.

Actually, I'm quite impressed.

It's not perfect... No. ..but it's been executed pretty well and,

actually, you do get a nice flavour in the mouth and nice texture.

Certainly not rubbery.

It breaks apart like a cake would, even though

it's cut into so many different pieces.

I actually think you've done a pretty good job.

Well, I tell you, my first impression is that it's

architecturally very interesting.

I love the shape of it.

My next is that it's very small.

I mean, this was supposed to be for a party -

a big cake for a lot of people.

Is this for Sandi's family?

The Sylvanians still have to eat, you know!

There was meant to be more, but I had an issue with some of my layers.

I lost quite a bit.

The lines that you've managed to achieve

and the colour definitions that you've got here are pretty good.

Nice and spicy. I think it could be a bit sweeter, really.

It's a little bit rubbery.

It's perfectly edible if you had a piece like this,

you couldn't eat much more than that, but I quite like the favour.

I love the neatness of it. I think it's very neat.

I just think the whole thing is not quite sweet enough.

If you eat a tiny little bit of icing with it, it's great.

I think it's extremely neat.

The detail in it is incredible, the way you've gone to all this trouble

to get this pattern going, and then the lines on the top are beautiful.

The painting, the decorations of the fireworks look good.

It looks a bit dry and that's my only concern at the moment.

The layers are so thin and they're so small,

your little blocks or strips, that it almost looks like weaving.

That is pretty clever, isn't it? That is very, very good.

And the almond in there as well? Yeah. Tastes like marzipan. Mm.

That works really well.

The marzipan gives it that petit four almost texture flavour

in your mouth.

I think the detail in there is exceptional, it's fine, vibrant.

Very artistic. Very good.

I think it really works. Well done.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Well done.

Phew!

I mean, you never know, I did lose Technical...

My buns weren't amazing, but I think I might just have saved myself.

If I got Star Baker, it'd be nice

cos that's the final, like, tick list of being...

It would be a lovely little bonus to get that.

Paul did tell me to shut up, though, he got me back,

cos I told him to shut up in the Signature, so... fair play.

I was going to say I got a grilling, but I tried to hold that one in.

Did all right in the Signature, just wasn't as good.

Didn't do well in the Technical - surprise! - and I've done OK

in the Showstopper, but now OK isn't enough.

Myself, Alice, Michael and Rosie have all had positives

and negatives. Anyone could go. I could go this week.

It's really, really close, I think.

That was pretty good. I thought it was fantastic.

Rosie's was a bit messy.

I think she put herself down into a spot of trouble.

She was so ambitious.

I mean, the way she cut her cakes was much more complicated

and difficult, and she didn't succeed. It's a pity.

Thought Michael's was quite neat,

but you weren't as impressed with it were you?

Michael's chief problem was there were lots of layers

in there and they all run together cos they're squished, aren't they?

Blends in with the marzipan, doesn't it?

I think, point in question, is when you look at David's,

look how neat that is. Yeah.

It's a shame they were very small and they were a bit rubbery.

I liked the decoration with cake on cake that Henry did.

Oh, I loved it. The taste of Henry's was very good.

You've got that lime and lemon, perfect combination,

the colours balanced up beautifully.

As was Steph's. I mean, she had a problem with the filler on that one,

but you can see every single line,

every single colour in there as well.

I think Alice has done a great job on this challenge, actually.

She was in terrible trouble coming into the Showstopper. Yeah.

She must have saved herself, surely. That was such a good cake.

Who might be in line for Star Baker?

For me, I think Rosie and Michael are in a little bit of trouble.

I think Alice has saved herself

and I think any one of the other three could be Star Baker

and that includes Henry, Steph... possibly David.

Hello, bakers.

I've got the fantastic job of announcing who's won Star Baker.

And the person who's won Star Baker this week is...

..Henry.

"Shut up!"

So this leaves me with the horrible job and it gets so hard now.

I'm afraid the person who is leaving us is...

..Michael.

I'm so sorry. It's OK, it's OK.

It was my time. It's OK.

I feel OK.

My head is held high and I am so happy and so proud...

..and so tired!

I'm going out laughing, and that's brilliant.

It's totally fine, don't worry. Don't worry.

I wish I was a pretty crier,

you know, like in black and white French films when it's raining.

Instead I'm, like, crying cos I couldn't make a Kek lapis that well.

PAUL: It's pretty sad, Michael going.

He did OK, but, overall, the standard this week has got better

and I think from now on in,

we're going to see a different standard of baking.

Ha, well...

..that's my tick list now.

Don't need to do any more.

I've ticked everything off.

Alice has made me cry now.

Oh, no!

I'm just gutted, erm... that Michael has left, yeah.

He's just been so supportive.

I don't think I'd have got this far, to be honest, without Michael.

I'm so glad to be going through. I can't quite believe it.

I think it's going to take a while to sink in,

kind of... week eight of the Bake Off.

SANDI: Next time...

..it's the quarterfinals...

Ooh... ..and Pastry Week.

Never had a massive penchant for a pie.

The bakers face a savoury Signature Bake...

Over under, over, under.

..which turns everything on its head...

Hot damn!

..a brush-off in the Technical...

Ugh.

..and a towering Showstopper...

It's the pie of shame.

..which could leave their semifinal dreams...

Oh, for God's sake!

..as just pie in the sky.

It's like a shark, but with even less mercy.

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