The Great British Bake Off recap: Spice spice baby

Welcome to Botanical Week on The Great British Bake Off, which is what happens when an edict is handed down that the dodgy national weeks have to go, and no one has any ideas until someone spots a vase of half dead flowers in the corner of the conference room. Imagine what the other options were.

Anyway, let’s bake!

Signature

As the bakers arrive, Saku tells us Botanical Week “is quite different.” Matty says he had to Google botanicals, and Cristy adds that they’re not something she usually works with. Nobody seems to be over-enthused about botanicals, apart from Alison, who is doing her best to make it cool by giving botanicals a nickname: “botty.” This nickname doesn’t last.

The signature challenge is to celebrate spice through a batch of 12 perfectly fragrant spiced buns, made in two hours and 45 minutes. Prue says spice is the hero, so she wants to taste it, while Paul pines for 12 beautifully sweet, spiced sticky buns. Prue also points out that Paul will be looking for consistency, with all the buns being the same size.

All of the bakers are making enriched doughs, and a lot of ’em are putting fruit inside them. Both of these things mean the doughs will take a longer time to prove than usual, so there’s a risk of underproving, which could result in a tight texture in their finished buns.

Still, at the beginning there are plenty of laughs, mostly from Saku, who bursts into giggles as soon as explains that she’s making Swedish cinnamon buns with a lot of cardamom. Prue tells her that she’s so used to Saku bringing Sri Lankan flavors to the tent that it’s a real surprise she’s going for something different. I honestly think Prue is a bit clueless, but this comment carries the spirit of nationals weeks with it.

Tasha is going for a Christmas-inspired bun with flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, and mulled wine in her dough and egg wash. On seeing the mulled wine and egg mix, which is a grey-ish color, Alison tells Tasha, “That is absolutely vile, babes.” The “babes” really softens the insult, I think.

Matty is the only baker not to use a filling and is instead putting spiced buns in his dough, while Cristy is making maple-, pecan-, and cinnamon-spiced buns with a maple syrup glaze. Dana is using cardamom, which she used in a challenge a few weeks ago; the judges told her she used too much then, so she’s hoping to rectify that now. And then Josh is making lemon and blueberry buns, with a lemon curd filling, while Dan is going for lemon and orange, with a topping of fresh figs. He describes them as the “type of buns you buy to eat outside a Greek taverna with a lovely espresso,” which sounds delightful.

In the first 10 minutes, we’ve heard Paul talk about uniformity and consistency enough times that it’s already boring, but that really is key to the task. A few of the bakers achieve a uniform look, including Tasha, Josh, Cristy, and Matty, while the others are less successful.

Paul likes the maroon color of Tasha’s buns. Prue thinks they’re a bit big, but on tasting she declares they do taste like Christmas, which is exactly what Tasha set out to do. Paul says she’s created “something that is really pleasant in the mouth.” (That sounds weird, doesn’t it?)

Prue likes the shine of Dan’s buns, and both judges like the taste, but Paul says his “only big issue is the consistency, shape, and size.” So a pretty big issue then.

Unfortunately, after too much cardamom in a previous challenge, both Paul and Prue think Dana hasn’t put enough cardamom in her spiced buns. And I didn’t realize I was watching a retelling of Goldilocks within Bake Off.

Paul thinks Saku’s buns look nice, even if they are inconsistent. Saku confesses her math was off; and Paul reminds us that Saku works in accountancy and she tells him to shush, which should be the default response to many of Paul’s comments.

I think Josh’s buns look great with their (unintentional) optical illusion icing. His bread and glaze are beautiful, according to Prue, but Paul thinks there’s not enough blueberry. Cristy’s buns are “pretty consistent,” according to Paul, and they look great on the inside too. Both judges love the flavor.

Finally, Matty’s buns look lovely and shiny, but they’re too dense because they’re underproved. On top of that, Prue isn’t getting the ginger, and Paul says they need more fruit. Uh oh. I think Matty could be in trouble.

Technical

Prue has set the technical and tells the contestants to be bold with the botanicals before she and Paul disappear to the mini tent. The bakers have one and a half hours to make a lemon and thyme drizzle cake, with the judges after a light, moist sponge soaked in syrup with a sprinkling of crystallized lemon and thyme. I know I’ve been down on Botanical Week, but this sounds good; I love lemon drizzle cake, and this is basically a fancy version.

Prue also uses the word fancy; the cake is baked in a ridged tin, so as well as needing to put enough thyme in, the contestants needs to make sure they grease their cake tins thoroughly, otherwise their cakes will get stuck.

No measurements for the thyme have been given, so Dana says she’s only going to put a little bit in, completely ignoring Prue’s earlier advice. Luckily, when she mixes it in, she can’t smell it at all, so she adds more in. Josh isn’t taking any chances with not being able to get his cake out of the tin, sprinkling it with flour after greasing it.

Apart from Matty getting a little lost with how to use the egg whites to crystallize the lemon peel and thyme, this task is pretty straightforward and, dare I say, slightly boring. It’s so boring that Noel institutes a game of kick the lemon, which results in him trying to hit a saucepan across the room and instead shattering what I assume is a bowl from the shards of glass all over the floor.

After that excitement, it’s back to baking, and everyone trying to get their cakes out in one piece. They all make it out in one piece, with maybe a few small breakages on the way but on the whole they look decent, although Prue and Paul are much pickier than I am.

They place Tasha in last place and Dana just ahead of her, while Josh and Cristy take second and first respectively. Cristy was star baker last week, and she’s had two great challenges so far this week. Could she be in line for her second star baker in a row?

Showstopper

In the pre-showstopper judging chat, Cristy is unsurprisingly in the running for star baker. Tasha has had a good task and a bad one, while Dana and Matty are in trouble. Paul says Matty’s signature was “a bit boring” while the shape of Dana’s spiced buns were all wrong.

To save themselves, they need to make an excellent floral dessert. The dessert can be anything but must have a significant baked element and of course must include lots of florals. They could go for jellies, bavarois, mousses…anything as long as it’s layered. The trouble with using flowers for flavor is that too little means not enough flavor and too much means they taste like soap.

There are two contestants taking huge risks. It won’t shock anyone to learn one of them is Tasha, who is going for a whopping 10 layers, which Prue in an understated way describes as “a bit ambitious.” I really, really hope Tasha pulls this off. The other person flirting with danger is Cristy, who has got a really intricate mold which she’ll be using to set a white chocolate ganache that will cover her dessert. It’s a hot day in the tent, so I don’t need to say more at this stage.

There’s a lot of hibiscus going on in the tent thanks to Saku, Josh, and Dana, while elderflower is also a popular flavor choice, with Dan, Matty, Cristy and Tasha all incorporating it. Everything sounds lovely, but I do worry that it’s all going to taste slightly soapy.

Dan has dropped his sponge, and has to remake it. He is very good, but also week after week tends to have to start elements again, either through clumsiness (not his fault) or because he’s missed something. It frustrates me.

Nearly everyone is making a jelly of some sort, and since they’re doing it from scratch and not out of a packet like most of us would, they have to use gelatine. Too much gelatine will both taste bad and give a rubbery texture, and no one likes rubbery food.

Tasha is just about keeping on top of her million different elements, but she’s self-aware enough to know how she might come across. “I’m the person that I shout at when I watch it on TV,” she says. I am yelling, Tasha, but I’m also hoping you succeed.

Despite her 10 layers, Tasha is not the one having a nightmare in the tent. Cristy’s chocolate mold has not worked properly. Even as she pulls it off, she says she can feel something is not right, and there are tears when she sees it’s broken. She decides to remake it, but has to take a break from the tent because she’s so upset. Somehow, she gets a second white chocolate layer done, and it comes out in one piece and looks solid. If I was even half as good as doing things while crying as Cristy is, I’d get a lot more done.

First to the judging table is Tasha, who has a really lovely tree design baked into her sponge and whose jelly is wobbling appropriately. There’s a slight jelly leakage, but it’s fine and more than made up for all the layers you can see when the judges cut through the cake. Prue says it’s “absolutely heavenly,” and Paul loves all the flavors and think they work well together.

Saku’s dessert is “very pretty,” according to Paul, and while the textures are good, her flavors are lacking. Dan’s is the opposite flavor-wise; it’s very perfumed with too much floral in it, says Prue, and the elderflower is too strong, even if the dessert looks good.

Matty has the least fancy-looking dessert; essentially it’s a glazed cake with flowers on it. Both Prue and Paul say they’re not sure it’s a showstopper. Inside, he’s got good layers but Prue thinks it’s more of a lemon cake and doesn’t meet the brief. Plus, his custard is rubbery. I think Matty could be going home.

Josh’s Charlotte Russe-inspired dessert looks very pretty, even if it has a split on the side. The judges love the rhubarb, raspberry, and hibiscus flavors and think the textures are great too. Meanwhile, Dana has housed her dessert in a huge sugar work and flower box, which looks stunning. She’s got good layers in the dessert itself, but the judges aren’t getting the rose flavor she included, and the raspberry is stronger than the hibiscus. Paul asks if it’s a case of style over substance. So Dana is joining Matty in the danger zone.

Cristy is last to be judged and starts explaining everything that’s gone wrong, which Paul puts a stop to. He instead tells her the dessert looks good, and while the setting of the ganache is messy, the strawberry and elderflower flavors are good. I think Cristy has lost star baker with this last task, but she’s still had an excellent week. I hope her confidence is building, because she’s a great baker.

“Look at my face for the last time,” says Saku after the task. “I’m going home tonight.” She’s somehow so deadpan and so dramatic, and it’s brilliant.

Prue says Botanical Week has been surprisingly successful, which goes to show no one really thought this theme was a good idea. Josh and Tasha are in line for star baker, while Matty, Dana, and Saku struggled with either (or both) of their flavors or looks.

Star baker goes to…Josh! Well deserved. He’s such a quiet force; I think he could go all the way to the final.

Going home is Dana, which I’m really, really sad about. I think Dana is a great baker and has such a fun outlook. She’s more upbeat than I am about her leaving, proud she has made it to week six, as she should be.

Matty and Saku both get through by the skin of their teeth, as Matty says, while Saku says she’ll need to email her manager Charlotte to ask for more time off. We’re pretty sure Charlotte won’t say no.

Next up: Dessert Week—and it looks like everyone’s serving up raw technicals. Fun times ahead.

Stray observations

• Bun puns: too many.
• There have been sketches at the beginning of every episode, but I’ve been ignoring them in these recaps because they’re bad.
• This is the week I’ve had to use spellcheck on the most. I’m hoping there are fewer bavarois, jocondes, and crémauxs next week.
• We’re in the business end of things now, with just six bakers left. I think Matty and Saku have their cards marked, much as it pains me to say, while the other four are our contenders for the final. I’d love to know your predictions for who is going all the way. Let me know in the comments.