The newest season of the popular baking show The Great British Bake Off premiered this past September to expected acclaim. Known as The Great British Baking Show in North America due to copyright, the show premiered in 2010 on BBC and recent seasons are easily enjoyed on Netflix.
Free of the typical drama of some American cooking shows, The Great British Bake Off (or GBBO) focuses on the challenges of baking and the delicious feeling of getting the sweet or savory dish just right. With any cooking contest, however, there are going to be challenging items to prepare. For some, too challenging.
Marie's Campbell's Technical Bake (Season 6, Episode 2)
Marie had a strong start on GBBO, winning star baker in the first episode. Famous and acclaimed baker Paul Hollywood, one of the show's judges, said her Madeira cake from the signature challenge was "perfect." Her technical challenge was ranked third out of twelve, and her showstopper was loved by the judges. Unfortunately for her, episode two did not go well at all.
Both her signature and technical challenges underwhelmed the judges. Her technical challenge, however, was her biggest and simplest mistake. Her arlettes were never baked because she forgot to turn the oven on. By the time she realized, it was too late to complete the challenge leading her to eliminated that episode.
John Whaite's Technical Bake (Season 3, Episode 1)
John took star baker in episode two and eventually won the season, having some of the most memorable showstoppers in GBBO. This is remarkable considering he was almost eliminated in episode one due to a simple mistake.
Tasked with making rum babas, John made a critical error. He added salt instead of sugar. He realized this quickly and tried to salvage them somewhat by slicing off parts of the salty crust. The damage, however, was already done. After tasting them Paul was visibly shaken and exclaimed, "Jeez...there's too much salt in there."
Terry Hartill's Showstopper (Season 9, Episode 2)
Terry had a rough start in episode one, with both his signature and technical challenge turning out horribly. He barely baked his way into episode two because of a standout self-portrait dessert inspired by Van Gogh during the showstopper challenge.
In episode two contestants had to make a collar cake in the sweltering summer heat with only GBBO's iconic white tent to shield their cakes from the sun. Terry daringly tried to make a collar cake in the shape of the Eiffel Tower, but the top scaffolding tilted and then collapsed when he tried to salvage it.
Ruby Bhogal's Showstopper (Season 9, Episode 7)
Ruby had quite the run on GBBO. She was only the second person ever to receive a Paul Hollywood handshake during the showstopper portion of the show, won star baker twice, and made it to the finale of season 9. This is particularly impressive because season 9 is the most competitive GBBO season. However, for all of her excellent bakes, she also had some definite errors.
Tasked with making a vegan celebratory cake, only two of the six remaining bakers succeeded in both style and taste. Ruby was not one of them. Not only did her cake look sloppy to begin with, but she put the lighter lemon tier below the heavier chocolate tier. As the contestants were walking away several of her peers watched in horror from outside of the tent as her cake toppled over.
Manon Lagrève's Showstopper (Season 9, Episode 7)
Manon, like Ruby, made her biggest blunder with the vegan celebratory cake. First impressions of her cake were excellent. "It's absolutely beautiful," Prue said, "very elegantly done." However, there could not have been more disparity between the cake's look and taste. While she wasn't eliminated until the next episode, it was the first time she didn't feel like a frontrunner.
As the judges tasted the cake it was obvious from their faces that something was off. Knowing Manon could have done better, they didn't hold back with their comments. "It's not good. Looks great, tastes awful," said Paul, and went on to describe it as "rubbery," "overmixed," and "underbaked." While briefer with her comments, Prue agreed, saying "It's really heavy, gluey."
Everyone's Technical Challenge (Season 8, Episode 4)
Sometimes in GBBO there are only a couple of good bakes in a challenge. However, in this case, there were none. Tasked with making stroopwaffels with syrupy caramel to hold the two thin waffles together, none of the nine submissions succeeded. Some of them had the flavors correct, some of them had the waffles correct, but all of them had grainy caramel.
"I'm really looking forward to getting one right," Prue remarked after judging several that were all grainy. She was to be disappointed.
David Atherton's Showstopper (Season 10, Episode 3)
An international health advisor, David Atherton put a healthy spin on a lot of the challenges. Although he never won star baker, he would go on to be the winner of season 10. Episode three's showstopper was a decorative loaf display and many contestants had very strong submissions. David's, however, was not one of them.
His idea of three loaves of bread decorated as African masks was strong but he accidentally damaged the crust of the third mask, ruining the overall appearance of the three masks together. To make matters worse, the inside of the loaves were not thoroughly baked. Prue did a taste test of the unfinished bread and pointed out that there was not enough salt in it. Paul said, "The idea was sound enough. Disappointed." A great baker, a great idea, a great blunder.
George Aristidou's Showstopper (Season 12, Episode 6)
George Aristidou made it all the way to episode seven of season 12 despite having low opinions from judges throughout the show. In episode 6, he actually received mostly positive comments on his chouxnuts for the signature challenge but then botched his baklava for the technical challenge. However, and as it almost always does, the worst was to come with the episode's showstopper challenge.
Having to make a terrine pie, the contestants had mixed results. Not only was George's misshapen because of the sides concaving out, but it was also too fragile to even remove from the pan. The worst aspect came with the taste test, however. Paul had to ask the question if the sausage was raw. George insisted he checked the temperature three times and the judges agreed to meet him in the middle and say it was "mushy."
Dorret Conway's Showstopper (Season 6, Episode 1)
Dorret is responsible for one of the most well-known baking diasters on GBBO. She ran into difficulty when her black forest gateau did not set correctly resulting in a very chocolatey, very runny mess. She was visibly upset but, despite the black forest blunder, she received overwhelming from fans on Twitter.
While it was close, Dorret was not sent home after the first episode. Sadly, her departure came the very next episode when her 3D Bread Challenge for the showstopper was disliked by the judges.
Marc Elliot's Showstopper (Season 11, Episode 1)
Episode one of season 11 had a particularly difficult showstopper. The contestants had the challenge of making a cake bust in the form of a celebrity they ired. While the likenesses of David Attenborough, Chris Hoy, and especially Marie Antionette were excellent, most of the others were mediocre. Three, in particular, were appalling.
The bust of Freddie Mercury had the bottom part of its face collapse, and the bust of Bob Marley was awkwardly colored and mouthless. Marc's bust of David Bowie was certainly the worst, looking like a neckless, lumpy creature. Prue reacted by saying, "Um, that's about as far away from David Bowie as you could get," and the baker himself comically agreed with her and said it looked like Jabba the Hut. Even among a series of cake busts that were underwhelming Marc's creation sticks out badly.