The Great British Bake Off episode 4

   
Warning: Spoilers if you haven’t seen The Great British Bake Off episode 4

This week on Great British Bake Off was caramel week, and my word did things get sticky. With explosive showstoppers, grainy technicals and Noel Fielding making ice cream covered blouses look attractive, it certainly was interesting.

The signature

Caramel weeks signature bake was millionaire’s shortbread, each with their only little twists. Both Julia and James opted for a nutty shortbread. While the judges weren’t impressed with James’s, they both seemed to love the nuts in Julia’s base.

Scottish architect Tom struggled from the off in his signature as he ran out of time and had to serve his shortbreads still in the tins, much to the dismay of the judges, and put himself in a pretty dismal position for the rest of the show.

However Liam shone through with his Tetris theme shortbreads. Having a 2:1 ratio of caramel to shortbread, he earned himself a hearty Hollywood handshake. We all know Paul only gives his hand after an exceptional bake, so he must’ve been very impressed with Liam’s sugar handiwork.

The technical

This weeks technical faced the bakers with making twelve stroopwafels, a Dutch delicacy. They’re an extremely thin waffle, filled with a thin layer of caramel, requiring the gentlest of hands so as not to break the waffles into pieces. The caramel was bit of a pain on this one too. It needed to be heated to exactly the right temperature, otherwise it’d be ruined in an instant and result in a grainy mess, which is essentially what happened to everybody.

Fan loved history videos explaining the technical bake were back this week, featuring host Noel Fielding travelling to Holland to make stroopwafels in a factory. Noel has certainly come out of his, probably literal, cocoon as the weeks have gone on. He’s back to his wonderfully strange similes, he’s calling himself a wasp and he’s falling off hedges. Oh and his dress sense is still on par. Seriously now, who would’ve thought an ice cream blouse would look THAT attractive on a man?

Coming to the judging of the stroopwafels saw the judges disappointed with everyone’s caramel, as host Sandy says “so even if somebody wins it’s not going to be a complete triumph.” Julia was placed ninth while Stacey won the best of a bad bunch.

The showstopper

The showstopper this week was to make a caramel cake, kicking off with James telling the judges he planned to “dip (his) nuts” in caramel. Don’t quite think that’s how you go about a Hollywood handshake there, pal.  Bakers were being extremely ambitious with their caramel work, but with only three hours to bake it in they couldn’t afford to waste a minute, though both James and Tom felt they had enough time to re-bake their cakes, which certainly showed in the result as the judges were disappointed with both. You can’t play with time in this tent!

The judging

It certainly looked like Liam was making his way to star baker as the judges loved his flavours,  texture and the design. All until Kate took her explosive firework cake up for judging. Producing a sticky toffee apple cake topped with brightly coloured sponge-sugar fireworks, Kate received nothing but praise from the judges and was crowned star baker this week. The true Queen of caramel. It tasted so fantastic, Prue even asked for the recipe!

Poor Tom was set to go home from the moment he gave the judges shortbread served in the tin. Upon trying his show stopper cake, Prue let out an “oh Tom!” exclaiming it was gooey and under baked, while Paul questioned how he took beautiful ingredients and “made.. that.” It was clear from the moment the judges faces winced putting his cake their mouths that Tom was heading home, which was sadly the result for the young architect.

All in all, caramel week was a success. Now I wonder what blouse Noel will wear next week…

The Great British Bake Off continues on Tuesday nights on Channel 4

By Alice Jones