The Great British Baking Show struggles to balance surprise and satisfaction in “Roaring ’20s Week”
Season 10 has been an interesting one. Challenge and theme
fatigue has set in, with the producers stretching to find new ground, with mixed
results. The bakers themselves are lovely—they’re supremely watchable and
clearly talented—but the showstopper bakes in particular haven’t lived up to
the high bar set by previous seasons and this season’s bakers have surprising
blind spots. Noel and Sandi are in fine form as hosts and Prue in particular
seems very comfortable in her role as judge, but several episodes this season
have suffered from a lack of narrative build, with the eliminations feeling arbitrary,
not adequately supported by the preceding commentary and judging. “Roaring ’20s
Week” highlights each of these conflicting traits, putting the season’s contradictions
into stark relief.
The episode kicks off with the bakers for once not concerned
with the theme of the week, still smarting from their poor showing in the “Dairy
Week” technical. The tone at the beginning of the episode is almost
apologetic, and not just from the bakers, but the show itself. “Roaring ’20s
Week” begins with a signature challenge that would have been more at home in
the previous episode: custard tarts. The bakers must make four highly
decorated, open-top tarts that set while they’re baking. They must use short
crust pastry and keep to the episode’s ’20s theme for their decorations. Most
of the bakers opt for citrus flavors, with lemon and lime the most popular, but
a few go another way. Rosie goes with blackberry, Michelle chooses blueberry
and white chocolate, and David goes with a classic: vanilla.
The signature is a fun one. Each of the flavor combinations
sounds absolutely delicious and for a signature bake, the decorations are
surprisingly detailed. There’s also plenty of delightful baker and host interactions.
With fewer contestants, there’s more space for the episode to breathe, and that
allows for more personal moments, like vet Rosie’s digression into not liking
to work on rabbits, who “just want to die.” Rosie has flown under the radar
this season, consistently delivering on her flavors but winding up just outside
of Star Baker contention. Her blackberry tarts with decorative flower domes
seem poised to put her over the top, until she misjudges her force while moving
her tarts and one goes sliding off the counter, splatting across the floor. The
editors do a wonderful job of building suspense throughout the tart de-tinning sequence,
but it’s the extra connection viewers feel with Rosie that makes this moment
all the more devastating. She breathes a tiny, “Oh.” and freezes for a moment,
before returning to her work. The other bakers try to comfort her, but they
know there’s nothing they can do or say, and a pall hangs over Rosie, and the
audience, for the rest of the segment.
When judging comes, Paul and Prue barely mention her missing
tart, though, focusing instead on her misjudged decorations—the jelly flower domes
melted—and under-baked matcha tea pastry. She’s not the only baker to get mixed
reviews. Helena’s sea monster tarts look amazing, but her heavy hand with the lavender
leaves them tasting soapy. Alice and Michelle also struggle with their flavors,
Henry’s tarts are over-baked, and Priya has a particularly hard time of it,
having boiled her custard. On the other end of the spectrum, Michael seems to
have just missed a Paul Hollywood Handshake, having under-filled his delicious
and delicately balanced tarts, Steph packs lots of citrus punch into hers and
is commended on their flavor, and David’s simple vanilla tarts are deemed “exquisite”
by Prue and “perfect” by Paul, earning him the second handshake of the season.
For the technical challenge, Prue again dips into the past,
keeping to the episode’s theme. The bakers must make 18 beignet souffles, along
with a sabayon sauce. Beignets, apparently very popular in the ’20s, are small fried doughnuts made from choux
pastry, filled with jam and dusted with powdered sugar. As in “Dairy Week,”
every single baker is lost. None of them have even heard of beignets. Several
of the bakers are familiar with choux pastry, but no one seems confident with
how to get the right consistency for their dough. It needs to puff up when
fried, creating air pockets for the jam to go in, but only a few manage to get
the chemistry right. Michael’s having a particular time of it, his batter
(rather than dough) refusing to fry. Noel comes over and is able to comfort and
reassure Michael, who powers through his frustration and tears and finishes the
technical, presenting a complete, if somewhat sad, plate for the judges.
Helena nabs first place in the technical, followed by Priya and
Henry. Each of them deliver decent to good beignets, but fail on their sabayon.
Down at the bottom, David’s bakes are raw on the inside and closer to churros than
beignets, and Michael’s are closer to blinis, though he’s one of the few to
deliver a good sabayon. Everyone else muddles in the middle, and for the second
week in a row, the judges seem perfectly happy to throw out the technical.
Helena is over the moon with her first place finish, and the other bakers are
pleased as punch for her, but when Noel and Sandi ask Paul and Prue about their
rankings going into the showstopper, Priya doesn’t seem to have been given any
boost by her number two finish, and Michael doesn’t seem to be in any trouble
for his second-to-last placement. In what has become an increasingly irritating
staple of the series, everything will come down to the showstopper.
For their showstoppers, the bakers are tasked with creating
a two-tier Prohibition Era cake, a cocktail-flavored cake with ’20s-themed
decorations. The judges emphasize that the cakes need to be elaborately
decorated, but none of the bakers seem to have gotten the brief. They look
fine, but none have the elegance and finish viewers have come to expect from Baking Show showstoppers. This is one of
the weakest showings of the season, and the challenge itself seems more suited
to a signature challenge, given the emphasis on cocktail flavors.
Four bakers take inspiration from piña coladas, and of them,
Steph knocks her cake out of the park, impressing Paul with her lime sponges.
Alice’s pineapple-heavy recipe is dinged for looking messy, but at least comes
together into a good, but clumsy cake, and Priya’s passion fruit bake looks
rushed and incomplete, though Prue appreciates her delicate flavors. Michelle
gets knocked for having overly-complicated decorations—a surprising critique in
a showstopper challenge—and Paul doesn’t like her inclusion of coconut in her
cake. Rosie edges past Henry in the battle of the White Russians, though
neither hits it out of the park, David gets high marks for his Amaretto Sour
cake despite it starting to collapse in from its weight, and Michael’s Bramble
cake is complemented for its flavor if not its design. Paul is not fond of
Helena’s Vampire’s Kiss cake, calling it bland and dry, and Prue wants more
raspberry flavor, but she at least seems on board with Helena’s sinister, yet
pretty design.
The judges and producers seem intent on delivering suspenseful,
dramatic eliminations this season, but rather than making for more exciting
episodes, the hard-to-read critiques wind up making the eliminations feel
arbitrary. This episode, despite a first place finish in the technical and
mixed comments for her signature, Helena is cut for her showstopper, apparently
for prioritizing look over taste. Her elimination, though, feels more
driven by a lack of interest and respect for her spooky aesthetic than her
actual baking. Michelle also gets the chop, the judges deploying their
double-elimination powers this episode. She also got mixed reviews for her
signature, and admittedly lower marks than Helena, and struggled in the
technical. Her elimination comes out of the blue, though, because of the judges’
comparatively even comments on her showstopper. Were coconut flakes really enough
to put her over the edge?
With such a likable and even field of bakers, the judges
need to do a better job of demonstrating their thought processes. This is the
third episode with a somewhat surprise elimination, and that makes for
frustrating, rather than exciting reality competition TV. That being said,
congratulations are in order for Steph, who is awarded Star Baker for the second
week in a row. She’s starting to get an insecure-frontrunner edit, and there’s
nothing Baking Show loves more in a
winner than some cathartic validation. Fortunately, she has the baking chops to
deserve a place in the finale. David is right there with her at the front of
the pack, but the other two spots will come down to endurance and creativity. With
a return to the more standard “Desserts Week” next episode, hopefully the landscape
will become a bit clearer, and the results and overall viewing experience will
be more satisfying.
Stray observations
Seriously, how have none of the bakers heard of beignets? I
am not used to knowing more than the Baking
Show contestants; it feels very strange. Granted, my associations with
beignets are all tied to New Orleans cuisine, but still. Anyone curious about
this topic, and up for a thrilling but at times devastating glimpse into post-Katrina
New Orleans, particularly the food and music scenes, check out David Simon’s Treme.
I’m with you Helena. A Noel Fielding Hug is much more
meaningful than a Paul Hollywood Handshake.
Paul doesn’t think coconut flakes belong in cake? Has he
never had a good coconut cake? Shout-out to Alton Brown’s delicious, though
time-consuming, coconut
cake recipe.
Michael’s emotions may get the better of him eventually, but
good for him for pushing through this episode. Plenty of people respond to
stress with tears, and as he rightly says, #RealMenCry.