The Great British Baking Show (2010–…): Season 12, Episode 5 - German Week - full transcript
The bakers attempt to perfect traditional German biscuits in the Signature, followed by a Technical torte fit for a prince. Finally, they must rise to the challenge by creating a tiered cake using yeast.
[electronic dance music playing]
[in German accent]
⪠Welcome to the Baking Show âª
⪠Baking Show, Baking Show âª
⪠This week it is German week
German week, German week âª
⪠Thank you for explaining me
Explaining me, explaining me âª
⪠We are baking in the tent
In the tent, in the tent âª
⪠Welcome to the Baking Show⦠âª
[music dies down]
It seems we has been unplugged
⪠Been unplugged, been unplugged âª
[both] Welcome to
The Great British German Baking show.
Ja!
[Matt in normal accent] Nowâ¦
I can hear the Bake-Off
"rushing" music in my head.
â¦it's German week.
It's time to get fingers dirty. [chuckles]
[Matt] A Bavarian biscuit Signatureâ¦
-[George] Come on!
-[Matt] An uber tricky Technicalâ¦
-They're all going.
-This is getting stressful.
[Matt] And a yeast-leavened Showstopper
will determine
who will rise to the occasionâ¦
That's beautiful.
I've never had anything like that before.
-[Matt] And who will getâ¦
-Oh, no!
[Matt] Das Boot.
Come on! You got this.
-I hope so.
-Not as much as Jürgen, but you got it!
[chuckles]
[theme music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
I'm so excited to be halfway through.
I'm feeling good, yeah!
The weather's really nice.
I'm feeling positive.
For now, anyway.
German week this week.
What is German week? I've got no idea.
I've never baked German stuff.
Jürgen's week. Just another
one of Jürgen's weeks. [chuckles]
We're just here for the ride. [chuckles]
How do you say "good luck" in German?
-Viel Glück.
-Viel Glück.
But on a show like this you would say,
Hals- und Beinbruch, which means
"break a leg and break your neck."
-Oh, good God!
-That's brutal. [chuckling]
[all laughing]
There's certainly a bit of pressure
being here in German week as a German.
You might argue Jürgen is in a favourable
position because of his heritage,
but it's a competition
at the end of the day,
so I'll give it my best shot.
German week,
I don't usually bake German stuff
but we'll see how it goes.
If it goes like my GCSE in German
then I'm out of here.
Good morning, bakers!
Welcome back to the tent.
Now, this week is a first.
It is German week.
And we can reveal
the Star Baker is Jürgen!
[Crystelle laughing]
It is German week,
and it's your Signature Challenge
and the judges would love you to make
two batches of 12 German biscuits.
Your two batches
should be exquisitely finished
and dipped, coated or decorated.
You have two hours, 15 minutes.
-On your marks!
-[sing-song] Get set!
Backen.
[Chigs] All right, let's go.
Doing 24 biscuits in just over two hours
is quite difficult.
I don't know what I'm doing.
I'm just baking a biscuit
I think is relatively German.
[chuckles] But we'll see.
One of the most important things
about German biscuits
is that they're
usually produced for Christmas.
So people take a lot of trouble
about the decoration,
so they are intricately iced.
What we want
are two different types of biscuit,
one with butter, shortbread type biscuits
which are very crumbly.
And one with ground almonds
that creates a macaron-style biscuit
which is crispy on the outside
and slightly chewy on the inside.
I wouldn't like them to step
too far away from the original.
They might change the flavour,
they might change the icing,
but they should still be recognisable
as German biscuits.
I think a lot of bakers are going to be
watching Jürgen to see what he does.
But I think they need
to concentrate on their own game.
[birds chirping]
It's time to get fingers dirty. [chuckles]
[Noel] For their first batch,
most of the bakers have chosen
a shortbread-style biscuit.
Shortbread should be quite crumbly.
Erm, I think the key
is not to overwork it.
If you overwork the dough, the biscuit
becomes really tough and not short.
[Noel] And whilst
the technique may be familiar,
the language is not.
Springurle? Springuler?
Haus⦠freud⦠dun⦠Hausfreudun?
And that means house of friends?
I'm making glu-vine-plakton.
Glühweinplätzchen.
-Glu-vine-platchin?
-Glühweinplätzchen.
-Plat-zchen.
-Very good.
There is a bonus to him being here.
Apart from the fact
he's going to get Star Baker.
Star Baker already
before starting, that's harsh, yes.
[chuckles] Got two days to get through.
[Matt] For his shortbread batch,
Jürgen is recreating
his brother's favourite almond horns.
But giving them a caffeinated
kick with espresso powder.
He'll decorate both sets
of biscuits with white and dark chocolate
in his bid to claim
German week's Star Baker crown.
This is weird for you, isn't it?
'Cause you have to do well this week.
[chuckles] Everyone's expecting you
to do really well.
I have to do well because I like
this bunch of people and want to stay.
And also you want to be able
to go home again?
No one watches
the show in Germany, do they?
-Er, they have their own version--
-They have a German version of me?
Er, no, they have one host.
[whispers] One host.
-So efficient!
-Very efficient.
I've been here longer
than Matt, remember that.
-Yeah.
-If they cut it down to one hostâ¦
-Just saying.
-[both chuckle]
[Matt] Jürgen may have
the home advantage this week,
but one bakerâ¦
-Good morning.
-Good morning.
â¦is hoping to spice up
his German biscuits the Italian way.
I will be flavouring the dough with pisto,
which is a--
-[Matt] Gravy?
-[laughs]
With gravy?
That's going to make it savoury.
-Pisto.
-Oh, pisto.
[Noel] Giuseppe's pisto spice mix
contains cinnamon, aniseed,
black pepper and cloves.
He's hoping it will compliment
the strawberry jam of his Linzer Augen,
which he'll decorate
with candied orange stars.
You would think biscuits
are relatively easy,
but we got two batches to make,
they have to be highly decorated,
so time, as usual,
is not working in our favour.
[Noel] Paul and Prue
will also be expecting consistency
across both batches.
I'm just weighing them out
so they're sort of somewhat the same.
To be honest, I am just winging this.
[Lizzie] It's quite a sticky dough,
so I just find it easier
to use a cheesecake thing.
It's all weighed out
and then just flatten it.
-Hello!
-[Matt] Hello.
Tell us all about your German biscuits.
Erm, my first ones areâ¦
Is it worth me
pronouncing these, honestly?
-I think the Liverpool accent will agree.
-Lends itself.
[Matt] Helps 'cause you got thatâ¦
[makes guttural sound] â¦sound.
It's called Spitzbuben.
[all chuckling]
And that means cheeky boys, apparently.
[Matt] Said to resemble
the face of a mischievous child,
Lizzie's cheeky boys
will be made even cheekier
with the addition of mixed spice
and an apple and cardamom jam.
[Lizzie] I don't know whether
to pipe on eyelashes and lips.
Or if that's going to be too wacky.
They don't seem
to like my colourful wackiness. [laughs]
[exhales] It's getting hot in here.
[Noel] Working with a butter-rich
shortbread dough in a hot tentâ¦
The fact that I'm shaking doesn't help.
â¦means the bakers will need
extra resting time before baking.
[gasping]
[Amanda] If you put it in the oven
at room temperature,
it will just spread out,
so if you put it in the freezer,
get it really cold, it'll hold its shape.
[Noel] But Crystelle
has a different strategy
for ensuring her biscuits
will retain their shape in the oven.
[Crystelle] So these are brown butter
shortbread, that'll chill for 15 minutes
and then I'm gonna bake them
like this and cut out rounds,
I find it's the best way
to get them uniform.
How do you ensure
that it's all equal in there?
In height. You're gonna
get a thick biscuit and a thin biscuit.
Erm, I'm using a little cake scraper
just to kind of scrape that across.
And I'll say a little prayer
and hope they're all the same height.
[Matt] Crystelle is aiming for
12 perfectly round shortbreads
which she's flavouring
with cardamom and pistachio
and decorating with spun white chocolate.
Small state of panic now,
because there isn't a lot of time
and these should be
in the freezer already.
[Matt] And Crystelle isn't the only one
racing to rest their biscuits.
[George] I've got to get my skates on.
[Matt] George's biscuits have
an intricate embossed design,
which could lose definition in the oven
if not chilled for long enough.
Really, you need to let them
rest for like ages, like 24 hours.
I don't have that time.
[Matt] Not only do George's
embossed aniseed biscuits
require a lot of resting time, once baked,
they're traditionally left to mature
to achieve their characteristic
honeycomb texture.
So it might be a bit softer
than it would be in two days' time.
Maybe not the best biscuit choice
in the tent, but I like 'em.
-We'll see. Thanks.
-[George] All right.
Thanks, guys!
-You can speak German?
-Yeah!
-Why don't you do the time call--
-Okay, all right, I will. Here we go!
[in German accent]
Bakers, you're halfway through!
-And that's German, is it?
-[normally] Yeah.
[Noel] The first set of biscuits
might be restingâ¦
Right. Next.
â¦but there's no respite for the bakers.
When one biscuit dough's chilling,
you move onto your other biscuit dough,
and while that's baking,
you do something else, and it's nonstop.
Need to keep moving.
[Matt] For their second batch, the bakers
have all chosen almond-based biscuits.
[Jürgen] This is actually
very simple to make
because it's just
a paste of almond, sugar and egg white.
It's grim, innit? It's sticky dough.
[Chigs] This one's pure marzipan.
They're called almond horns.
I'm going to infuse this with orange.
I'm always told
they can't taste my flavours.
I'm gonna ramp it up a little bit more.
[Matt] With the zest of three oranges,
Chigs is hoping to pack a punch
with his Marzipan horns,
which he'll decorate with spun chocolate
and flaked almonds.
So I've never ever
tried these biscuits before.
It's supposed to be crunchy outside
with a very chewy interior.
I want to make sure
you can taste the orange.
With the amount of zest you put in there,
no doubt we will.
[laughs]
[Matt] Also giving her
almond biscuits a fruity twist is Freya.
I've added in some glace cherries.
A bit like a cherry Bakewell.
So it's kind of like a British version.
[Matt] Inspired by
the Christmas classic cinnamon stars,
Freya's cherry-laden version
will be topped with a thin layer
of intricately decorated vegan meringue.
These are going in for 15 minutes.
[Chigs] Right. Let's go!
[Matt] With such a short bake timeâ¦
I'm putting 'em on for ten minutes.
To start with. That should be okay.
â¦the bakers have a small window
to prepare any jams
or filling for their biscuits.
What are you doing now?
I'm going to measure out some jam
and mix it with the marzipan.
-That sounds like baking to me.
-Yeah.
-That sounds like German baking.
-Proper German baking.
-[Noel] Come on.
-Yeah.
You've got this.
Not as much as Jürgen, but you got it!
[Amanda] That's going to be
the mulled wine jam.
Mulled wine is my favourite drink
when I go skiing.
And that sounds like I'm really good,
but I'm the worst skier on the planet.
So I normally drown my sorrows
with a couple of glasses of Glühwein.
[Noel] Amanda's après ski-inspired jam
will be bursting with Christmas flavours
and will sandwich
her iced vanilla shortbread hearts.
That jam sounds delicious.
It is delicious.
If nothing else, you'll like the jam.
No, we're planning
on liking everything, Amanda.
[all chuckle]
-[Paul] Thank you.
-I'll do my best.
Hopefully, they'll come out okay.
In fact, I hope they come out perfect.
-[Noel] But every minute in the ovenâ¦
-[George] Come on.
Gonna give 'em another two minutes.
â¦means less baking and cooling time
for their second batch of biscuits.
This is getting stressful now.
Are you excited for German week?
Nope. Why would you
be excited for German week?
I'd be excited for German week
because I was raised by a German family.
-Was you?
-[Noel] Yeah.
-In a forest in Munich.
-In a forest?
I say family. It was a family of wolves.
[both laugh]
[Amanda] I'm taking them out.
[Matt] As the first batch of biscuitsâ¦
-My coffee horns are ready.
-Perfect.
[Freya] I feel like these are definitely
not gonna come off of the paper. [sighs]
â¦make way for the secondâ¦
-[George] Two, four, six eight.
-Who do we appreciate?
German biscuits.
These go in.
Multitasking to the max.
â¦the bakers must juggle
preparing their decorative elementsâ¦
[Giuseppe] I'm creating some little
decorations for the Linzer Augen.
[Jürgen] I'm going to
temper some white chocolate.
[gasps dramatically] In this weather.
-â¦with keeping a watchful eyeâ¦
-One more minute.
â¦on the biscuits still in the oven.
[Amanda] They're spreading out,
but what can you do?
It's fine.
[in German accent]
Bakers, you have 15 minutes left!
-[normally] That is not actual German.
-It is. I've seen 'Allo 'Allo!
I'm just gonna highlight
some of the design.
They look German, ja?
[Lizzie] I'm gonna pipe
some eyelashes onto these,
and some lips.
Like cheeky girls you can be.
[Jürgen] I believe the temper is okay.
[Crystelle] Those all look
like the same height.
I think these are ready.
[Jürgen] Coming out.
Nice uniformly baked.
They look okay. Some of them have cracked.
[Freya] They look all right.
I might peel the burned raisins off
'cause Paul's not gonna love that.
[Amanda] Gotta get those decorations on.
Now it's time to put them together.
[George] Glue. Glue together, baby.
-[Lizzie] This is just my jam.
-It's nice and thick.
Would dribble out of the biscuits
if it wasn't.
[Amanda] Oh, dammit.
I need to get a move on.
[Freya] I'll just put the icing
on the burned bits, that's fine.
How long have we got now?
Bakers, you have one minute left.
Oh, God.
[exhales]
[Amanda] Ugh! Gosh.
I can hear the Bake-Off
"rushing" music in my head.
[Jürgen] Wonderful.
[Lizzie] They're cheeky and they've
just been found out doing something.
[Giuseppe] It is Christmas. It's snowing.
[Jürgen] Messy. Messy, messy.
Bakers, your time is up.
[exhales]
[Jürgen] Chocolate isn't setting.
But it was not a surprise in this heat.
[George] Don't worry about that.
[Amanda] Oh, I've got one missing.
[Noel] The bakers' two batches
of German biscuits
now face the judgment of Paul and Prue.
[Prue] They all look lovely.
[Paul] Let's start with
the orange and strawberry, shall we?
[Prue] That is beautifully done.
Really beautiful.
[Paul] The orange
in the shortbread is delicious.
Blends beautifully with the strawberry.
And the spice that you've got in there,
it's just perfect. Right.
Coffee and pecan, eh?
They're going to be lovely, I'm sure.
Unusual and delicious.
And the pecan, that nuttiness
that it brings to the coffee is perfect.
-Really lovely.
-Thank you.
Thank you.
[Paul] They look very nice.
[Prue] Let's see if they taste
half as good as they look.
[Crystelle] I have done
brown butter shortbread
with pistachios and cardamom.
I love the flavour.
It's quite unusual, too.
The second biscuits
are hazelnuts and orange zest
with a chocolate hazelnut filling.
So delicate, the orange. It's just right.
The amount of chocolate is perfect.
You've got that chew in the middle.
They're really interesting.
Beautifully made.
-Think they're a triumph. Well done.
-Thank you. [sighs in relief]
[Chigs] So that's a vanilla shortbread
with raspberry jam and a disk of marzipan.
And the bottom ones are purely marzipan
with some orange.
[Paul] Your textures are beautiful.
-The marzipan you get, but can't taste.
-[Chigs] Okay.
[Prue] This one is nice and chewy
in the middle, crisp on the outside.
-Very good orange.
-[Paul] Your flavours are good,
but it's a shame
we didn't get marzipan coming through.
-But good job.
-Thank you.
[Prue] I just love your cheeky girls.
I mean, their little astonished mouths
and eyelashes going out the side
is just beautiful.
[Paul] It needed
slightly longer in the oven,
because it looks like raw paste.
The flavour with the cinnamon,
with the apple, is delicious.
The jam is spectacular.
I like the colour of these,
but they're all over the place.
I think they're a bit too big.
For me, there's too much chocolate.
If you manage to avoid the chocolate,
the almond flavour is delicious.
[Paul] If you'd made them half-size,
bake them properly,
you'd have been getting a handshake.
So if I'd just done it
completely different.
-[Paul] Yeah.
-[all laughing]
I think the mulled wine biscuits are nice,
all 11 of them.
The orange and chocolate one,
it's lost its definition.
The biscuit tastes beautiful.
It's such a delicate, buttery biscuit.
-Let's have a look at these.
-[Noel] These are called hearts, Paul.
-Most normal people have them.
-[Prue chuckles]
-Never seen one before.
-[Noel chuckles]
-This is an astonishingly good biscuit.
-[Amanda] Thank you.
Biscuit is very short and buttery
and delicious.
The jam is sensational.
I mean, it really is worth every calorie.
-Thank you so much.
-[Paul] Thank you very much.
[Prue] I think that's lovely.
What's so good is that the kirsch
and the cherry acidity
makes the whole thing lighter.
And these ones should be quite crisp.
Is that right?
[George] They should be
crispy on the outside.
As they age,
they get crispy on the inside too.
-I mean, it's tough.
-[George] Yeah.
It's so tough,
it's offering me out for a fight.
But I love the flavours of both.
You've done really well.
I question whether that was
the right choice to use on this challenge.
I completely agree.
-[Prue chuckles]
-[Paul] But well done.
-Thank you.
-Thanks.
It's not supposed to be like that.
The bottom of the biscuits stuck.
Well, they're certainly chewy, Freya.
And they're delicious.
[Paul] Let's try this Christmas pud,
shall we?
I love the flavours.
But it is certainly overbaked.
-Yeah, yeah.
-[Prue] It is overbaked.
Fruit has got a bit burnt.
But the flavour's lovely.
Especially the lemon.
I think they look lovely.
You've got some uniformity here,
which I like to see.
I think they do look very nice.
I can't add anything to that.
I think they look absolutely perfect.
-Let's try the star one first.
-[Jürgen] Yep.
-I flavoured them with Earl Grey tea.
-[Prue] Tea?
-It really comes through nice and strong.
-[Paul] Mmm. Yeah.
Really like it. Right.
[Prue] The horns. Shall we do the horns?
The coffeeâ¦
You can smell the coffee, can't you?
That is the crumbliest,
buttery-est biscuit
I think I've ever eaten,
it is just perfect.
Thank you.
That's delicious.
I think you've done well there, Jürgen.
[contestants applauding]
[Jürgen] Thank you.
-[Paul] Good job.
-Wow. [laughs]
It was pretty overwhelming,
judging and a handshake.
I nearly started to cry right there.
Underbaked. I don't know.
Should I really trust Paul?
Because I done them
for 15 minutes yesterday
and Jürgen said they were overbaked.
So I done them for 12 minutes today,
and Paul's saying they're underbaked.
I think Jürgen's right. Just saying.
[Matt] While the bakers
could practise their Signature bakes,
they have no idea
what they'll be asked to make
in today's Teutonic Technical Challenge.
Hello, bakers. Welcome back to the tent.
It's time for your Technical Challenge,
which today has been set for you
by the lovely Prue.
Any words of wisdom?
Don't panic and try to be methodical.
As ever, the technical challenge
will be judged blind,
so we're gonna have to ask these two
to sling their hooks. Off you pop.
[in cockney accent]
Yeah, go and put your feet up.
Don't worry about us.
Oh, you must be exhausted
coming here for 30 seconds,
eating a load of biscuits.
I don't know how you do it.
[Noel laughs]
Now, for your Technical Challenge,
Prue would love you
to make Prinzregententorte.
Which is basically Prince Regent cake.
[normally] Your cake should be comprised
of eight thin layers
of light German genoises.
Sandwiched with a smooth chocolate cream
and coated with a shiny chocolate ganache.
Your torte should be regally decorated
with rosettes
and tempered chocolate crowns.
[Noel] Very regal.
Have you met anyone from the royal family?
-Yeah. Ralf Little.
-[all laugh]
You have two hours, 45 minutes.
-On your marks.
-Get set.
Bake.
I ain't got a Scooby Doo.
I've never heard of this cake before.
I'm making something
that I can't even pronounce. [chuckles]
Prinz-regen-ten-torte.
[mumbles]
Ask Jürgen.
Prinzregententorte.
So, Prue. Prinzregententorte.
Basically, it's eight layers of genoises
sandwiched together
with a chocolate custard,
covered with really smooth, shiny ganache.
Well, I think it looks great.
It's highly effective.
And I think the temperatureâ¦
I think today being quite warm
will only be really affecting
the tempered chocolate.
Should be all right as long
as they chill things down in stages.
[Prue] They ought to be able to get it
perfectly straight on the sides
because they're putting it into a tin
to layer it up.
-[Paul] Let's have a look inside.
-[Prue] Yeah. Let's have a look.
I always love these layered cakes 'cause
they're so exciting when you see inside.
[Paul] The layers
look beautiful and stark,
and you can see the chocolate custard
in there all the way through.
[Prue] And it's the right proportion
of custard to cake, isn't it?
-They're about equal.
-[Paul] Let's see how it tastes.
It's delicious. Almost melts on the mouth.
But then you get that
light chocolate come from the inside
and that little bit
of dark chocolate ganache on the outside.
I think it's a great cake
to make on German week.
And I can't wait to see
how Jürgen deals with this.
[Matt] Hello, Jürgen!
So I'm assuming that you're
the only person to have made this before.
I haven't made one, I haven't eaten one.
-I can loosely remember how it looks like.
-Oh, you haven't even eaten one?
That's a waste of being German.
[Jürgen] Yeah, it's terrible.
[Noel] The first step in Prue's recipe
is to make the genoise sponge batter.
We have to make a meringue first, it says.
[Freya] I don't want the egg whites
to be like overly whipped.
I'm thinking sort of, like,
soft, stiff peaks.
I'm folding the meringue
into the egg yolk mixture.
You got to be gentle when folding,
because if you knock all the air out,
sponge is not gonna rise when you bake it.
I sound like I know
what I'm talking about, don't I?
"Spoon the batter into circles
on prepared baking sheets."
[Matt] If the bakers are to achieve
the consistent thin layers
of sponge that Prue is expectingâ¦
[groaning] Don't do that, Freya.
â¦then the batter must
be portioned out with precision.
[Giuseppe] Want to have all
the eight sheets in front of me.
Give it a bit of consistency so
the layers are all the same height.
I want it to be not thicker
than five millimetres.
'Cause if there's eight⦠Gonna be
about a centimetre thick each?
Probably shouldn't have been
wasting precious mixture
to glue my things down.
But⦠I think it'll be all right.
Batch-bake until you have eight sponges.
There were three shelves in the oven.
So we can bake three layers at a time.
Up here for thinking,
down there for dancing.
[George] Great!
Go! Where's the timer? Quick!
There's no timing in there or anything.
I'm gonna go in for 10 to 15 minutes.
Seven minutes
and I'll swap the top and bottom
and another three minutes after that.
[Crystelle] I'm gonna bake one
to gauge the time.
I don't know if that's right,
but I'm going with it.
There's a look of Frank Zappa about you.
Yeah, Frank Zappa/Einstein?
I can see the sort of
Einstein thing, definitely.
-Fair enough.
-Yeah!
-[Matt] Yeah, there you go!
-[laughing]
-You've been a bit of an Einstein here.
-Have I?
That was a beautiful segue, come on!
-I hope you're applauding at home.
-[chuckles]
[Noel] With such thin layers
of delicate genoise spongeâ¦
Er, no, not yet.
â¦a perfect bake
demands absolute precision.
[Freya] I'm just popping a skewer in
to see if it comes out clean.
[Matt] Underbake even slightly,
and the sponges won't hold
their shape when assembled.
Let's take out this bad boy
and see how he's doing.
He kinda looks like a pancake.
[Matt] But overbake
and they'll be dry and brittle.
Give it one more minute.
I think I'm ready to take these out.
Let's take that one out.
[Amanda] My first three are
coming out now. It's a little bit rubbery.
It might be okay.
[Noel] With two more
batches to bake and coolâ¦
Second batch. In.
â¦the genoise production line
continues in earnest.
Oh! Golly gosh!
That's not what we want to see, is it?
Three sponges have come out
and three sponges have gone in.
Erm⦠Two more to spread out.
[George] I'm a little bit short on batter.
I'm still hopefully gonna
have enough to make do.
Maybe someone on the radio can tell me
how long the bakers have got left.
[radio static crackling]
[Matt over radio] Radio 1, Ed Sheeran,
"The Shape of You," and coming up next--
-Hang on.
-[radio static crackling]
[Matt over radio] And the bakers
are halfway through the task
and we wish them all the very best.
-Let's see what else in on.
-[radio static crackling]
[Matt in woman's voice] I was watching
that baking show the other day.
-Noel Fielding is an absolute--
-That's enough of that.
[Crystelle] I'll take
my last two sponges out.
Sponges done.
Look at that! It's so thin it could almost
pass for a poppadum.
-There's a bit of a variation here.
-Oh!
I take it back.
[George] I used more mix initially
and then I ran out.
-That's a happy accident, then.
-Yeah.
Now I need to make
the chocolate cream filling.
"For the chocolate cream,
make a chocolate custard."
Ay! Lots of detail in there.
I can pretty much make a custard, sort of.
[Jürgen] Same thing as vanilla custard,
just add a bit of cocoa.
[Crystelle] It's a bit dark but it's fine.
It's thick.
That's done.
Bakers, you have one hour remaining.
One hour!
These are relatively cool now.
Think we're going
to sort of start assembling, maybe.
[Matt] The cooler their sponges,
the more chance they'll hold when stacked.
[Crystelle] I thought my layers
would have cooled by now.
[Matt] But the longer the bakers wait,
the less time they'll have to achieve
a flawless decorative finish.
I started a bit slower to make sure one
was baked well before I did the rest.
I'm just going to hope for the best.
I don't think I've got time.
So, have I made these small enough?
I'm picking a better cooked one
for the bottom so it doesn't stick.
Sponge, cream, sponge, cream.
[Amanda] It should be a silky,
smooth filling.
It's not anywhere near it.
[sighs in exasperation]
It's hard to spread this flat
because there is a dome forming,
which isn't ideal.
Sponge, cream, sponge, cream.
Keep it equal all the way.
This is the last layer now.
And chill.
[Chigs] I'm gonna put it in
as long as I can.
We're now onto the decoration
which is the scariest part for me.
"Part 12: Chocolate crown shapes."
[Crystelle] It's the little crosses
that are so hard to pipe.
Giuseppe, how wide
is your stance right now?
-That's what giraffes do, isn't it?
-[Giuseppe chuckling]
When they bake.
Right. Ganache, ganache, ganache.
Does it just say
to make the ganache? Of course.
I know you're not supposed to, but do you
ever cast your eyes around the tent?
Yeah. I do like to
because sometimes Chigs is very irrational
and starts jumping around like a maniac.
Crystelle starts to talk to herself.
Wait, am I doing this right?
There's no point looking
over at Jürgen becauseâ¦
He's just cool as a cucumber.
-An average day for him, isn't it?
-Yeah.
[Jürgen] That looks like ganache.
[Chigs] That is a good ganache.
Bakers, you have 15 minutes left!
It's turning out.
[Lizzie] Oh, God!
It's just getting stressful. I'm sweating.
[Crystelle] Oh, why is it so wonky?
[Jürgen] The ganache
will cover the whole cake.
It's like pouring a mirror glaze.
I might do the edges first.
[Chigs] It's not bad at all.
[Jürgen] It's just a bit bubbly,
not perfect.
[George] Oh, this is so messy.
My wife would kill me if I was at home.
Bakers, you only have five minutes left.
"Using the remaining chocolate cream,
pipe 12 rosettes."
I overwhipped it.
I can't pipe that on there.
How many are we at? 12!
[Lizzie] Cream.
I'm just whipping out some plain cream
so I've got something to put on top.
[Crystelle] I'm gonna have to do thisâ¦
No! [chuckles]
What the hell? How long do I have? Oh, no!
Bakers, you have one minute left.
-[yelling quietly]
-[exhales]
Oh, my God! They're all going.
[Amanda] At least I've got something
to put the crowns into.
The chocolate is melting
at the speed of light.
[groans]
The crowns have melted.
[Crystelle, sing-song] The chocolate
is melting in my hand.
Well, I've done what I can.
Bakers, your time is up.
Very naughty of Prue, that was.
Please place your Prince Regent cake
behind your photograph
on the gingham table.
Why have we all put different cream
on top of our cakes?
It's supposed to be white cream.
You've all done it wrong.
[Matt] Prue and Paul are looking
for majestic prinzregententorte
with even layers of German genoise
and chocolate cream,
shiny ganache and perfectly piped rosettes
and chocolate crowns.
Okay. Shall we start over here?
[Prue] Rosettes look as if
they've melted,
but it's a lovely shiny ganache.
[Paul] Let's have a look.
[Prue] The layers look thicker
in the middle.
They're certainly a bit compressed
towards the edge.
-It's domed rather than flat.
-[Prue] Yeah.
-It does taste good, doesn't it?
-It does.
Erm, this is more like it, actually.
-[Prue] It's also flat on top.
-[Paul] Nice sides.
-It's got a nice chocolate flavour.
-Excellent.
[Paul] I like this, it's quite neat.
The effect is quite nice, but you could
just run a palette knife around there
and just straighten that off a little bit.
Let's have a look inside, shall we?
That's very nice
and mousse-y, the chocolate filling.
Nice texture to that sponge.
Chocolate comes through well.
-Ganache is lovely.
-Mmm.
Moving on to number four.
You have a nice shine on this.
Nice straight sides.
Although, what happened to the rosettes?
-It's a nice sponge.
-[Prue] Mmm-hmm.
-[Paul] It's well-baked.
-[Prue] It's nice and fluffy.
But it's got a bit of bite to it.
[Paul] Okay, moving on again.
-Quite small, this one.
-[Prue] Yeah.
It's either very compressed
or the layers were very thin.
You have a hugely thick layer,
very thin. Thin, thin, thin.
Big and erratic on the chocolate.
Tastes great though.
It just doesn't look as consistent
as some of the others.
Why is there cream on the top?
And there's something really
seriously wrong with theâ¦
ganache. It's not quite smooth.
[Paul] All the filling is split.
-Oh, yeah.
-Probably why there's cream on top.
-It's a bit tough as well.
-Very tough.
[Prue] This one's a bit wobbly.
[Paul] Instead of straight sides,
it is domed, isn't it?
[Prue] It's domed
and the outside is a bit uneven.
[Paul] Yep.
Mmm. Nice flavour.
[Paul] It's a shame
it looks the way it does.
-[Prue] Yeah.
-[Paul] Finally, the last one.
-[Prue] Ganache is a bit bubbly.
-[Paul] But the sides are quite neat.
And we're missing a few, erm, crowns.
-[Paul] Very equal sponge.
-[Prue] Yeah, nice sponge.
-That's delicious. Beautiful.
-[Paul] Mmm.
Ah! Interesting. Okay!
[Noel] Prue and Paul will now rank
the Prinzregententorte from worst to best.
Okay, in eighth spot we have this one.
Whose is this? Amanda?
You had a lot of bubbles on the top.
The inside was all split.
-And cream?
-Sorry.
In seventh spot, we have this one.
Crystelle, the top has melted a little bit
and it's pretty messy.
[Matt] George is sixth, Freya fifth.
Jürgen's fourth and Lizzie comes third.
In second spot, we have this one.
Whose is this?
Pretty good, Chigs.
The layers are beautifully soft.
-I think it looks pretty good.
-Thank you.
Which meansâ¦
[contestants clapping]
[Prue] Giuseppe.
The ganache is absolutely beautiful,
the sponge is lovely.
The layers are absolutely even.
Takes an Italian to make a German cake.
[all chuckling]
[laughs]
I was really, really surprised.
I was not expecting that.
The first placeâ¦
I'm not so much into chocolate cakes.
When I go to German cafes,
I usually have cream cakes
or black forest.
Because everyone's Signature
was so good this morning,
I feel like I'm treading on
thin ice now, which is quite scary.
There's still tomorrow.
Hopefully I'll pull it out of the bag
on the day, and everything will be okay.
[Matt] One challenge remains.
One last chance
to secure a place in the tent.
Hello, bakers.
Welcome back to the tent
for your Showstopper Challenge.
Today, the judges would love you
to make a spectacular yeast-leavened cake.
[Matt] Now, your cake
should be a minimum of two tiers,
and should be inspired
by one of the many yeasted cakes
that are so popular in Germany.
-Ever been to Germany, Noel?
-I have, actually.
Lots of times. I'm actually German.
-Really?
-Yeah. My dad invented the Kinder Egg.
-Did he?
-No, of course he didn't.
If he did, I wouldn't be here.
I would be on my luxury private yacht
as we speak.
[Matt] You'd have to build it yourself
first, wouldn't you?
Get all the pieces
and put the stickers on.
-[Noel] You have four and a half hours.
-[Matt] On your marks.
-Get set.
-Bake!
This is a first for me.
I've never done a yeast-leavened cake.
I genuinely don't know
what it's supposed to be like.
It's a bit like bread.
It's all about rising times.
-And proving.
-It's a bit of a faff, isn't it?
If you want to make a Victoria's sponge,
an hour, it's done.
This could take all day.
Or four and a half hours.
Traditionally, cakes as we think of them
are raised with baking powder.
Now, in Germany,
you do make cakes using yeast.
[Prue] The perfect yeasted cake
has the stretchiness of bread,
but it's still rich and cake-like.
It's quite difficult to get.
They've got four and a half hours.
A lot of that will be
down to proving the dough.
It's not a cake where you just produce it,
put it in the oven, bake it up.
But they've got to allow time
to produce a highly decorative cake.
What we're asking them to do
is to zizz it up,
make it something really festive or funny,
just generally over-the-top.
We want something amazing.
-[Paul] Morning, Jürgen.
-Morning, Paul.
-Hello, Jürgen.
-Morning, Prue.
Jürgen, will you tell us
about your yeast cake, please?
Yes. So, in Germany,
you wouldn't do a tiered yeasted cake.
No, we've anglicised it.
-[Jürgen] Yes. Yes.
-Which I apologise for.
It's like being asked to make
a three-tier apple crumbleâ¦
-[laughing]
-â¦or a three-tiered trifle.
[Matt] The three braided tiers
of Jürgen's yeasted cake
will be packed with chocolate raisins
and apricot jam,
and he's flavouring his dough
with a healthy dose of Bavarian booze.
Now, I've made dough with stouts
and it tends to slow it up a bit.
How are you combating that?
I didn't have a problem with that.
-No.
-Hopefully, it'll pack a punch.
-Look forward to it.
-Thank you.
[Matt] Jürgen might be
taking his dough for a quiet pint,
but Lizzie's hitting the hard stuff.
So I'm soaking my raisins
in orange blossom and Mandarin gin,
and it's got a gin syrup as well.
They'll be just off their faces.
[Noel] Lizzie's gin-soaked raisins will be
folded into a cinnamon-yeasted cake.
Cream cheese frosting
and pineapple flowers
will complete a three-tiered rendering
of Hansel and Gretel.
Your flavours have been getting really
good recently, so it's about decoration.
-It's about that little bit of finesse.
-Yeah. Which I lack.
-It's aboutâ¦
-Paul, look at all these colours.
It's going to be a colour explosion.
You're quite lucky, because Paul's
just told us he's colour-blind.
[all laughing]
[Matt] Lizzie's not the only baker
using boozy berries
to give her cake a kick.
You do need to keep it moist,
so I have been forced
to use a whole kilo of raisins
soaked in a litre of very good rum.
[Matt] Amanda's rum-soaked raisin cake
will be enhanced
by a layer of caramelised spiced plums
and decorated
with ornate Edelweiss flowers.
Edelweiss, there's a song about it
in The Sound of Music.
George knows all the words.
George, isn't that right?
You know all the words to Edelweiss
from The Sound of Music?
Well, yeah,
you've been playing it since we got here.
[chuckling]
He's such a liar.
[Jürgen] It's going to get noisy.
I have quite a powerful kneading method,
which is called the French Slap.
[Amanda] I think I'm going to take
a victim statement from that dough.
Violent.
[Matt] However vigorously
the bakers choose to handle their dough,
kneading it is crucial.
I want it to be, like, tacky
and, like, relatively sort of smooth.
[Matt] But it's a tricky balance.
[George] Doughy goodness.
[Matt] Knead too forcefully,
and they risk a texture
that's more bread-like than cake.
If you do this reasonably,
it helps creating the structure
within the dough that holds the air.
[Matt] But too delicate,
and their dough will collapse
as it proves.
[Crystelle] Mine is kind of
like a brioche dough.
I don't really over-knead it
because it ends up being really sticky.
But again, I just don't know
what the texture's supposed to be like.
So maybe I should be working a bit more.
[Noel] Layers of caramelised apple
and vanilla and chocolate creme diplomat
will separate the three tiers
of Crystelle's brioche-style bake.
It's the bread we're judging
and I do think brioche is the best bread.
It is a hybrid between bread and cake.
It's very difficult
and I've never had one before,
so I don't know
if it's just a dry cake or a weird bread,
-but hopefully you'll like it.
-Good luck.
Thank you very much. Thanks.
[Matt] While Crystelle's hoping to give
her cake the texture of a French classic,
Giuseppe is attempting to mimic
an Italian favourite.
The closest Italian relative
to the yeasted cake is the pandoro,
so I've used that as a baseline.
I'm trying to get as close as possible
to a pandoro texture.
[Matt] Piped with amarena-soaked cherries,
Giuseppe's yeast-leavened cake
will be soaked in honey and filled
with a vanilla creme patisserie.
Imagine if you get Star Baker this week
in German week,
Jürgen's going to be fuming.
How will that manifest itself?
[mimicking Jürgen]
"Very disappointed, Giuseppe."
[Giuseppe laughing]
He's a really lovely guy.
He gave us all private tutoring sessions
for German names.
That's really nice.
Because he could have just gone,
"Oh, this is to my advantage."
If they have Italian week,
will you be doing that for everyone?
-No way.
-[laughs]
Of course I would. Why not?
-Cut them dead.
-[both chuckle]
[whistling]
Matthew, hold this.
The next time call's in that jar.
Whatever you do, don't open the lid.
-I'll be back in a minute.
-Okay.
[Noel's voice echoing]
Bakers, you are halfway through.
Matthew, I will kill thee.
Right, next.
[Matt] While the bakers' dough
will demonstrate a mastery of texture,
the fillings are a chance
to show off flavours.
Chocolate filling done.
This is going to be messy.
I want a nice, equal distribution
of the filling
and it's always a little bit of a gamble.
[George] This is my one of my wife's
favourite flavours.
She's obsessed with chocolate,
so I'm going to fill it,
one layer, with, like, full chocolate.
The next one is going to be tahini,
because she loves tahini.
And then the top, I'm just gonna do
a chocolate-tahini combo,
kind of mix them together.
[Noel] George's three-tier
chocolate and tahini cake
will be glazed in a vanilla icing
and decorated with sugar paste roses
as a belated wedding anniversary
gift for his wife, Oslin.
This is really nice.
How long have you been married?
Erm, fif⦠Fourteen years.
-Shall we ask you that again?
-Fourtâ¦
I got married in 2008.
Why are you doing this to me
on camera, Paul?
-[Paul] I'm not.
-Why, Paul?
-I'm just trying to getâ¦
-My wife watches this.
Should we do it again,
pretend it didn't happen?
Yeah, I need to know this stuff.
So, George, how long you been married?
-I just asked you that question.
-I know, is it 14?
-I'm not feeling well.
-[all laughing]
[Noel] Thirteen.
[Matt] While George's focus is fillings,
Chigs' attention has turned to toppings.
[Chigs] So this is going to be
the mixed nuts topping.
So that's honey and butter
and crushed almonds,
pecans and walnuts,
and that will sit on each level.
So you'll have a crunch on the top.
[Noel] Chigs' crunchy topping
will give way to
a honey and mixed peel cake
filled with lemon creme diplomat
and decorated with white chocolate
honeycomb and marzipan flowers.
So this will go on top, we'll have
a soft, pillowy dough in the middle.
-Filled with fruit.
-Mmm.
-Soft, pillowy dough.
-Yes.
-You're talking like this show talks.
-[laughs]
"We would like a soft, pillowy dough."
Really? Do you really
want it to taste of pillows?
-Ermâ¦
-"Quite dry, quite clothy."
-I won't be trying your bake.
-Erm⦠Okay. sorry.
[Noel] Chigs might be planning
a nutty crunch for the top of his bake,
but Freya's gambling
with an intentional soggy bottom.
I'm kind of making it
like an upside down plum cake.
So I'm pouring the red wine in the bottom.
Not a wine connoisseur,
to be honest with you,
but 'cause it's German red wine,
I feel like
that probably means it's fancy.
[Matt] The three tiers
of Freya's yeasted cake
will be topped with poached plums
and soaked in a spiced wine syrup.
[Freya] The goal is
kind of to, like, stretch it out
on top of the red wine,
so it should soak it up perfectly.
Otherwise, it could
all just run everywhere.
All right, that's all ready.
[Matt] With yeasted cake batter plaited,
packed with fillings or soaked in alcohol,
the proving can begin.
So this is where the timing becomes
critical, because it's going to beâ¦
I'm going to be more than
halfway through the challenge,
and I haven't even started baking yet.
[Freya] Right,
they're going in for half an hour.
[Noel] While the dough rests,
the bakers must labour onâ¦
I'm now gonna start to make my flower.
â¦making decorations that will elevate
their cakes to Showstopper status.
I'm doing pineapple flowers,
put the pineapples on,
and then heat them low,
and they should turn into flowers.
Well, I've never made flowers in my life.
It's a little bit fiddly for me.
[Freya] Oh, I absolutely love doing this.
[chuckling] To be honest,
I make it up as I go.
You know, we're nearly halfway
through this competition.
-I know! How crazy is that?
-[Noel] And you're still here.
I said that to my mum
and she was like, "Don't worry, Freya,
your dad can come and get you on Tuesday."
[both chuckling]
I've never heard a cuter sentence.
[slurred] Bakers,
you've got one hour left.
[Noel laughing]
Ay, and we have dough.
So my dough has risen, which is great.
Just arranging my caramelised plums.
Gonna sprinkle some more sugar
and cinnamon on top
so it caramelises
a little bit in the oven.
All that needs to be done is egg washing
before it goes in the oven.
[Matt] Multiple cakes of varying sizes
means managing
individual bake times is tricky.
[George] This is going to overflow.
And requires precision planning.
I'll take the first one out
after 20 minutes, the smallest one.
And the next one I'll leave
for a further five minutes.
The other one I'll leave
for another five minutes.
[Matt] But Freya's got other ideas.
[Freya] There we go.
To be honest with you,
they do actually bake like pretty similar
because the little one is so small,
but it's a bit deeper.
So, yeah,
they're not that much different at all.
Just a nice little break, isn't it?
Yeah, the very first we had in this tent.
Yeah, this bit's kind of, like,
chilled at the moment, but we'll see.
Listen, I think the secret to
a good yeasted cake is being patient.
I'm just saying that
to make myself feel better.
[Noel] What did you just say to me?
"Don't bring
your erratic behaviour in here."
-Yeah. Over here.
-In this zone.
-Created a little calm zone.
-Yeah, I'm quite chilled.
I can be calm.
-Can you?
-Yeah.
I feel like your mum and dad
used to play that competition a lot,
like, "Who can be
the quietest the longest?"
"Let's go."
You'd just be sat there shaking,
bottling it up.
[laughing]
How very dare you!
I'm just checking on it.
It should be coming out in two minutes.
[Matt] While most of the bakers
are managing to hold their nerveâ¦
-[George] Let's take these babies out.
-â¦George can't wait any longer.
[Chigs] Are they baked?
[George] I don't know.
But I need to start decorating.
Bakers, you have half an hour left.
[Chigs] I'm gonna give it
another couple minutes.
[Giuseppe] In 40 seconds,
I'm going to be taking the large one out.
I keep questioning this big one
because it's so big.
The last thing you want
is him saying, "It's raw."
They look fine on top. Gotta make sure
they're done all the way through.
[Lizzie] Paul said, "Show finesse."
Oh, no!
"Finesse."
Can you have much finesse
with a broken cake?
Bakers, you have ten minutes left.
Amanda, you've got nine.
Wonder if I overdid the wine.
As long as the middle is cooked.
I think we're gonna try and assemble this.
Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it.
Needs more time.
I'll give it another five.
[Chigs] So this is gonna be
the chocolate honeycomb.
Melted already, I can feel it.
Done.
Right! It's too hot
to put the butter icing on.
[Giuseppe]
This is the cream in the middle.
[George] Come on, come on. I'm shaking.
[Amanda] It's too hot.
-[Lizzie] My pineapple flowers.
-[Crystelle] Okay, roses, roses, roses.
Done!
[Amanda] I thought for once,
I'd have a tidy bench.
[groaning] Why is it falling?
Oh, my gosh!
Bakers, your time is up.
Please step away from your bakes.
[Freya] Oh, look at that. Wow!
I think I went⦠You know
when we were like, "Oh, do more wine"?
-Yeah.
-You should see it.
It's dripping in wine.
I think that's better.
[Matt] The bakers' yeast-leavened cakes
now face the judgment of Paul and Prue.
Okay, bakers, Noel is feeling
a little under the weather.
But we're going to carry on
and invite Lizzie up to the front.
With your Showstopper, please.
[Paul] I like it.
I think you've made a real attempt
to create that finesse
that we're looking for. All right.
[Prue] Let's have a look.
[Paul] You ended up
with something very, very nice.
So you don't get that chew.
You get a cake-like quality.
I think it needs a little more sweetness,
either in a glaze or an icing.
But it's very nice and very pleasant.
-Well done.
-[Paul] Thank you, Lizzie.
I like the look of that.
The roses coming all the way down.
I like the uniformity of it.
As a package, it works together.
[Prue] This is the apple one?
[Crystelle] Yeah.
The cinnamon apples are in the centre
and the cream is piped 'round the outside.
[Prue] This is about as fattening
a mouthful as you could get.
The cream, the apple and cinnamon
work beautifully together.
I love the structure as well,
because it's quite light on the mouth.
Delicious.
Good job, Crystelle.
[Prue] Very good job.
[Paul] It's quite pretty.
It's a bit dark. It's been overbaked.
Okay.
You can see how dark that is in places.
But I like the design though, it's clever.
[Prue] I like the crystallized candy peel,
it's really good.
But it's quite a tough eat, isn't it?
It's dry. Flavours are good, idea's good.
It's the overbaking that's done it for me.
-Thank you, Chigs.
-Thank you, guys. Thank you very much.
It's quite effective.
Not very neat down at the bottom.
But you can cover up a world of problems
with almonds on the outside.
But its dependent on the flavour.
[Prue] That's a lot of fruit.
-Flavour's fantastic.
-That's beautiful.
The structure is perfect.
The bite is perfect.
The bake is spot-on.
I've never had anything
quite like that before.
Thank you.
[Paul] It's not
the best-looking thing I've seen.
But it's one of the best-tasting things
I've had for a long time.
Thank you so much.
[Paul] There's so much bleeding
coming from the plums.
[Prue] It is a bit messy-looking.
[Paul] If you had water icing
around the outside of each one,
it'd look neater.
[Prue] Should we taste it?
[Paul] Let's have a look.
The syrupy topping
is delicious, unusual and lovely.
But there's an awful lot
of dough to topping.
And I think it could have done
with a little more baking.
-[Paul] Yeah, it's too doughy.
-Yeah, it is underbaked.
-Yeah, it is.
-Got it.
-Thank you
-Thank you.
[Matt] Well done.
[Prue] I think it's very pretty.
It does look like an anniversary cake.
-[Paul] You need a stronger colour there.
-[George] Yeah.
See the colour you managed
to achieve down here?
You want the same up there.
You can see how light that is.
It's almost been treated like a soft roll.
-[George] Yeah.
-[Paul] All right.
[Prue] Let's have a look.
I love the flavour.
Chocolate-tahini balance is perfect.
[Paul] That's, erm⦠That's a raw dough.
-Oh, is it?
-[Prue] The middle is raw.
I think it's a bit clumsy,
it's been rushed.
-Thank you.
-Thank you
[Prue] I think it looks absolutely lovely.
I really do.
And it's holding very well.
It doesn't seem to be squashing.
[Paul] I wanna go
straight down to the bottom.
-[all exclaiming]
-Well held.
[Giuseppe] Thank you.
Well, I ain't letting no cake go to waste.
Not on my watch.
[all laughing]
[Prue] That looks really lovely.
Light, it's almost like a panettone.
It's better than a panettone, that.
It's almost like a whisked sponge.
The cherries are delicious.
Nice and tart, but they're sweet
at the same time.
It's delicious. I think you've
done an amazing job.
-[Prue] Well done, Giuseppe.
-[Paul] Thank you, Giuseppe.
[Prue] I must say,
I think it looks really beautiful.
It's a lovely colour.
[Paul] I can't wait to see
what it looks like inside.
It's quite a breakfasty bake.
You think it's too bready?
It is very bready.
It's a little bit dry.
You have to be really delicate with this
sort of thing to get the air in it.
That could have opened up
considerably more to make it much lighter.
But the flavour is good.
Overall, I like it.
But I don't love it, which is a shame.
It probably could have been lighter.
It could have been in the oven less,
but I feel proud of what I've produced.
[Freya] I just loved it.
To be totally flat-out honest,
that's what I hoped it'd look like.
In fact, I wouldn't have
wanted it to look any different
[George] I'm gutted. I'm really gutted.
Definitely feel I'm in danger.
Like, more than ever.
Yeah, I feel a bit sick.
Let's talk about
who's in line for Star Baker.
Giuseppe's done really well.
I mean, he's really beginning
to get into his stride now.
Could be one to watch.
I think overall Jürgenâ¦
Jürgen's done all right, actually.
-He had a handshake yesterday.
-He did.
I was a little bit disappointed
with his Showstopper.
But it looked so beautiful.
Because we think Jürgen is so good,
when he doesn't do something perfectly,
we bang on about it.
-That's still a very good yeasted cake.
-Yeah.
[Paul] I was a little bit
upset with George.
You know, they were doughy.
I think Freya's down there as well,
because Freya's Showstopper
wasn't as good as I was expecting.
[Prue] It was such a pity because
the actual syrup was delicious.
But it was that much cake
and a tiny bit of topping.
[Paul] In Star Baker position,
you've got Giuseppe, Jürgen,
and George and Freya down at the bottom.
Well, bakers,
thank you so much for joining us
for two gruelling days in this hot tent.
Now the Star Baker this week isâ¦
-Is Giuseppe, congratulations.
-[all clapping]
[murmurs indistinctly]
And now we have to lose someone.
This gets harder and harder.
And the person
that we are losing this week
is someone who's brought
their own ideas into the tent.
And we're very, very sorry to see them go.
I'm afraid the person
who is leaving us this week isâ¦
Is Freya.
-Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.
-[sobbing]
I'm really sad Freya's going.
My God, she is so talented.
You are literally
the most put-together 19-year-old
I've ever met in my entire life.
That wait was agonising.
I thought, "I'm waiting
for my name to be called,
I'm waiting for my name,"
and then, you know, poor Freya.
Really gutted for her.
[Paul] It's very sad that Freya had to go.
She's done an amazing job.
She's 19 years old, vegan baking,
and she came halfway.
There you go. That's how good she is.
Should be really proud of yourself.
-Thank you.
-[Paul] Really proud of yourself.
Genuinely, I think it's the best
experience of my life.
[Prue] You know, you've done so well.
I was feeling
the lack of experience quite a lot.
So, you know, I am 19.
So I do feel really proud
to have even just been able to keep up.
So, like, to get to week five
and do it vegan,
erm, I just feel like I really have
done what I wanted to do being here.
[all] It's only vegan chocolate cake!
Giuseppe, he's done it again.
Giuseppe absolutely deserved
Star Baker. Yes. [chuckles]
Second Star Baker.
I can't⦠[clicks tongue]
I can't believe that.
I want to think only of the next step,
so next week, it's gonna put me under
a lot of pressure to perform well,
and that's, ermâ¦
A difficult position to start in.
[in German accent]
⪠Welcome to the Baking Show âª
⪠Baking Show, Baking Show âª
⪠This week it is German week
German week, German week âª
⪠Thank you for explaining me
Explaining me, explaining me âª
⪠We are baking in the tent
In the tent, in the tent âª
⪠Welcome to the Baking Show⦠âª
[music dies down]
It seems we has been unplugged
⪠Been unplugged, been unplugged âª
[both] Welcome to
The Great British German Baking show.
Ja!
[Matt in normal accent] Nowâ¦
I can hear the Bake-Off
"rushing" music in my head.
â¦it's German week.
It's time to get fingers dirty. [chuckles]
[Matt] A Bavarian biscuit Signatureâ¦
-[George] Come on!
-[Matt] An uber tricky Technicalâ¦
-They're all going.
-This is getting stressful.
[Matt] And a yeast-leavened Showstopper
will determine
who will rise to the occasionâ¦
That's beautiful.
I've never had anything like that before.
-[Matt] And who will getâ¦
-Oh, no!
[Matt] Das Boot.
Come on! You got this.
-I hope so.
-Not as much as Jürgen, but you got it!
[chuckles]
[theme music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
I'm so excited to be halfway through.
I'm feeling good, yeah!
The weather's really nice.
I'm feeling positive.
For now, anyway.
German week this week.
What is German week? I've got no idea.
I've never baked German stuff.
Jürgen's week. Just another
one of Jürgen's weeks. [chuckles]
We're just here for the ride. [chuckles]
How do you say "good luck" in German?
-Viel Glück.
-Viel Glück.
But on a show like this you would say,
Hals- und Beinbruch, which means
"break a leg and break your neck."
-Oh, good God!
-That's brutal. [chuckling]
[all laughing]
There's certainly a bit of pressure
being here in German week as a German.
You might argue Jürgen is in a favourable
position because of his heritage,
but it's a competition
at the end of the day,
so I'll give it my best shot.
German week,
I don't usually bake German stuff
but we'll see how it goes.
If it goes like my GCSE in German
then I'm out of here.
Good morning, bakers!
Welcome back to the tent.
Now, this week is a first.
It is German week.
And we can reveal
the Star Baker is Jürgen!
[Crystelle laughing]
It is German week,
and it's your Signature Challenge
and the judges would love you to make
two batches of 12 German biscuits.
Your two batches
should be exquisitely finished
and dipped, coated or decorated.
You have two hours, 15 minutes.
-On your marks!
-[sing-song] Get set!
Backen.
[Chigs] All right, let's go.
Doing 24 biscuits in just over two hours
is quite difficult.
I don't know what I'm doing.
I'm just baking a biscuit
I think is relatively German.
[chuckles] But we'll see.
One of the most important things
about German biscuits
is that they're
usually produced for Christmas.
So people take a lot of trouble
about the decoration,
so they are intricately iced.
What we want
are two different types of biscuit,
one with butter, shortbread type biscuits
which are very crumbly.
And one with ground almonds
that creates a macaron-style biscuit
which is crispy on the outside
and slightly chewy on the inside.
I wouldn't like them to step
too far away from the original.
They might change the flavour,
they might change the icing,
but they should still be recognisable
as German biscuits.
I think a lot of bakers are going to be
watching Jürgen to see what he does.
But I think they need
to concentrate on their own game.
[birds chirping]
It's time to get fingers dirty. [chuckles]
[Noel] For their first batch,
most of the bakers have chosen
a shortbread-style biscuit.
Shortbread should be quite crumbly.
Erm, I think the key
is not to overwork it.
If you overwork the dough, the biscuit
becomes really tough and not short.
[Noel] And whilst
the technique may be familiar,
the language is not.
Springurle? Springuler?
Haus⦠freud⦠dun⦠Hausfreudun?
And that means house of friends?
I'm making glu-vine-plakton.
Glühweinplätzchen.
-Glu-vine-platchin?
-Glühweinplätzchen.
-Plat-zchen.
-Very good.
There is a bonus to him being here.
Apart from the fact
he's going to get Star Baker.
Star Baker already
before starting, that's harsh, yes.
[chuckles] Got two days to get through.
[Matt] For his shortbread batch,
Jürgen is recreating
his brother's favourite almond horns.
But giving them a caffeinated
kick with espresso powder.
He'll decorate both sets
of biscuits with white and dark chocolate
in his bid to claim
German week's Star Baker crown.
This is weird for you, isn't it?
'Cause you have to do well this week.
[chuckles] Everyone's expecting you
to do really well.
I have to do well because I like
this bunch of people and want to stay.
And also you want to be able
to go home again?
No one watches
the show in Germany, do they?
-Er, they have their own version--
-They have a German version of me?
Er, no, they have one host.
[whispers] One host.
-So efficient!
-Very efficient.
I've been here longer
than Matt, remember that.
-Yeah.
-If they cut it down to one hostâ¦
-Just saying.
-[both chuckle]
[Matt] Jürgen may have
the home advantage this week,
but one bakerâ¦
-Good morning.
-Good morning.
â¦is hoping to spice up
his German biscuits the Italian way.
I will be flavouring the dough with pisto,
which is a--
-[Matt] Gravy?
-[laughs]
With gravy?
That's going to make it savoury.
-Pisto.
-Oh, pisto.
[Noel] Giuseppe's pisto spice mix
contains cinnamon, aniseed,
black pepper and cloves.
He's hoping it will compliment
the strawberry jam of his Linzer Augen,
which he'll decorate
with candied orange stars.
You would think biscuits
are relatively easy,
but we got two batches to make,
they have to be highly decorated,
so time, as usual,
is not working in our favour.
[Noel] Paul and Prue
will also be expecting consistency
across both batches.
I'm just weighing them out
so they're sort of somewhat the same.
To be honest, I am just winging this.
[Lizzie] It's quite a sticky dough,
so I just find it easier
to use a cheesecake thing.
It's all weighed out
and then just flatten it.
-Hello!
-[Matt] Hello.
Tell us all about your German biscuits.
Erm, my first ones areâ¦
Is it worth me
pronouncing these, honestly?
-I think the Liverpool accent will agree.
-Lends itself.
[Matt] Helps 'cause you got thatâ¦
[makes guttural sound] â¦sound.
It's called Spitzbuben.
[all chuckling]
And that means cheeky boys, apparently.
[Matt] Said to resemble
the face of a mischievous child,
Lizzie's cheeky boys
will be made even cheekier
with the addition of mixed spice
and an apple and cardamom jam.
[Lizzie] I don't know whether
to pipe on eyelashes and lips.
Or if that's going to be too wacky.
They don't seem
to like my colourful wackiness. [laughs]
[exhales] It's getting hot in here.
[Noel] Working with a butter-rich
shortbread dough in a hot tentâ¦
The fact that I'm shaking doesn't help.
â¦means the bakers will need
extra resting time before baking.
[gasping]
[Amanda] If you put it in the oven
at room temperature,
it will just spread out,
so if you put it in the freezer,
get it really cold, it'll hold its shape.
[Noel] But Crystelle
has a different strategy
for ensuring her biscuits
will retain their shape in the oven.
[Crystelle] So these are brown butter
shortbread, that'll chill for 15 minutes
and then I'm gonna bake them
like this and cut out rounds,
I find it's the best way
to get them uniform.
How do you ensure
that it's all equal in there?
In height. You're gonna
get a thick biscuit and a thin biscuit.
Erm, I'm using a little cake scraper
just to kind of scrape that across.
And I'll say a little prayer
and hope they're all the same height.
[Matt] Crystelle is aiming for
12 perfectly round shortbreads
which she's flavouring
with cardamom and pistachio
and decorating with spun white chocolate.
Small state of panic now,
because there isn't a lot of time
and these should be
in the freezer already.
[Matt] And Crystelle isn't the only one
racing to rest their biscuits.
[George] I've got to get my skates on.
[Matt] George's biscuits have
an intricate embossed design,
which could lose definition in the oven
if not chilled for long enough.
Really, you need to let them
rest for like ages, like 24 hours.
I don't have that time.
[Matt] Not only do George's
embossed aniseed biscuits
require a lot of resting time, once baked,
they're traditionally left to mature
to achieve their characteristic
honeycomb texture.
So it might be a bit softer
than it would be in two days' time.
Maybe not the best biscuit choice
in the tent, but I like 'em.
-We'll see. Thanks.
-[George] All right.
Thanks, guys!
-You can speak German?
-Yeah!
-Why don't you do the time call--
-Okay, all right, I will. Here we go!
[in German accent]
Bakers, you're halfway through!
-And that's German, is it?
-[normally] Yeah.
[Noel] The first set of biscuits
might be restingâ¦
Right. Next.
â¦but there's no respite for the bakers.
When one biscuit dough's chilling,
you move onto your other biscuit dough,
and while that's baking,
you do something else, and it's nonstop.
Need to keep moving.
[Matt] For their second batch, the bakers
have all chosen almond-based biscuits.
[Jürgen] This is actually
very simple to make
because it's just
a paste of almond, sugar and egg white.
It's grim, innit? It's sticky dough.
[Chigs] This one's pure marzipan.
They're called almond horns.
I'm going to infuse this with orange.
I'm always told
they can't taste my flavours.
I'm gonna ramp it up a little bit more.
[Matt] With the zest of three oranges,
Chigs is hoping to pack a punch
with his Marzipan horns,
which he'll decorate with spun chocolate
and flaked almonds.
So I've never ever
tried these biscuits before.
It's supposed to be crunchy outside
with a very chewy interior.
I want to make sure
you can taste the orange.
With the amount of zest you put in there,
no doubt we will.
[laughs]
[Matt] Also giving her
almond biscuits a fruity twist is Freya.
I've added in some glace cherries.
A bit like a cherry Bakewell.
So it's kind of like a British version.
[Matt] Inspired by
the Christmas classic cinnamon stars,
Freya's cherry-laden version
will be topped with a thin layer
of intricately decorated vegan meringue.
These are going in for 15 minutes.
[Chigs] Right. Let's go!
[Matt] With such a short bake timeâ¦
I'm putting 'em on for ten minutes.
To start with. That should be okay.
â¦the bakers have a small window
to prepare any jams
or filling for their biscuits.
What are you doing now?
I'm going to measure out some jam
and mix it with the marzipan.
-That sounds like baking to me.
-Yeah.
-That sounds like German baking.
-Proper German baking.
-[Noel] Come on.
-Yeah.
You've got this.
Not as much as Jürgen, but you got it!
[Amanda] That's going to be
the mulled wine jam.
Mulled wine is my favourite drink
when I go skiing.
And that sounds like I'm really good,
but I'm the worst skier on the planet.
So I normally drown my sorrows
with a couple of glasses of Glühwein.
[Noel] Amanda's après ski-inspired jam
will be bursting with Christmas flavours
and will sandwich
her iced vanilla shortbread hearts.
That jam sounds delicious.
It is delicious.
If nothing else, you'll like the jam.
No, we're planning
on liking everything, Amanda.
[all chuckle]
-[Paul] Thank you.
-I'll do my best.
Hopefully, they'll come out okay.
In fact, I hope they come out perfect.
-[Noel] But every minute in the ovenâ¦
-[George] Come on.
Gonna give 'em another two minutes.
â¦means less baking and cooling time
for their second batch of biscuits.
This is getting stressful now.
Are you excited for German week?
Nope. Why would you
be excited for German week?
I'd be excited for German week
because I was raised by a German family.
-Was you?
-[Noel] Yeah.
-In a forest in Munich.
-In a forest?
I say family. It was a family of wolves.
[both laugh]
[Amanda] I'm taking them out.
[Matt] As the first batch of biscuitsâ¦
-My coffee horns are ready.
-Perfect.
[Freya] I feel like these are definitely
not gonna come off of the paper. [sighs]
â¦make way for the secondâ¦
-[George] Two, four, six eight.
-Who do we appreciate?
German biscuits.
These go in.
Multitasking to the max.
â¦the bakers must juggle
preparing their decorative elementsâ¦
[Giuseppe] I'm creating some little
decorations for the Linzer Augen.
[Jürgen] I'm going to
temper some white chocolate.
[gasps dramatically] In this weather.
-â¦with keeping a watchful eyeâ¦
-One more minute.
â¦on the biscuits still in the oven.
[Amanda] They're spreading out,
but what can you do?
It's fine.
[in German accent]
Bakers, you have 15 minutes left!
-[normally] That is not actual German.
-It is. I've seen 'Allo 'Allo!
I'm just gonna highlight
some of the design.
They look German, ja?
[Lizzie] I'm gonna pipe
some eyelashes onto these,
and some lips.
Like cheeky girls you can be.
[Jürgen] I believe the temper is okay.
[Crystelle] Those all look
like the same height.
I think these are ready.
[Jürgen] Coming out.
Nice uniformly baked.
They look okay. Some of them have cracked.
[Freya] They look all right.
I might peel the burned raisins off
'cause Paul's not gonna love that.
[Amanda] Gotta get those decorations on.
Now it's time to put them together.
[George] Glue. Glue together, baby.
-[Lizzie] This is just my jam.
-It's nice and thick.
Would dribble out of the biscuits
if it wasn't.
[Amanda] Oh, dammit.
I need to get a move on.
[Freya] I'll just put the icing
on the burned bits, that's fine.
How long have we got now?
Bakers, you have one minute left.
Oh, God.
[exhales]
[Amanda] Ugh! Gosh.
I can hear the Bake-Off
"rushing" music in my head.
[Jürgen] Wonderful.
[Lizzie] They're cheeky and they've
just been found out doing something.
[Giuseppe] It is Christmas. It's snowing.
[Jürgen] Messy. Messy, messy.
Bakers, your time is up.
[exhales]
[Jürgen] Chocolate isn't setting.
But it was not a surprise in this heat.
[George] Don't worry about that.
[Amanda] Oh, I've got one missing.
[Noel] The bakers' two batches
of German biscuits
now face the judgment of Paul and Prue.
[Prue] They all look lovely.
[Paul] Let's start with
the orange and strawberry, shall we?
[Prue] That is beautifully done.
Really beautiful.
[Paul] The orange
in the shortbread is delicious.
Blends beautifully with the strawberry.
And the spice that you've got in there,
it's just perfect. Right.
Coffee and pecan, eh?
They're going to be lovely, I'm sure.
Unusual and delicious.
And the pecan, that nuttiness
that it brings to the coffee is perfect.
-Really lovely.
-Thank you.
Thank you.
[Paul] They look very nice.
[Prue] Let's see if they taste
half as good as they look.
[Crystelle] I have done
brown butter shortbread
with pistachios and cardamom.
I love the flavour.
It's quite unusual, too.
The second biscuits
are hazelnuts and orange zest
with a chocolate hazelnut filling.
So delicate, the orange. It's just right.
The amount of chocolate is perfect.
You've got that chew in the middle.
They're really interesting.
Beautifully made.
-Think they're a triumph. Well done.
-Thank you. [sighs in relief]
[Chigs] So that's a vanilla shortbread
with raspberry jam and a disk of marzipan.
And the bottom ones are purely marzipan
with some orange.
[Paul] Your textures are beautiful.
-The marzipan you get, but can't taste.
-[Chigs] Okay.
[Prue] This one is nice and chewy
in the middle, crisp on the outside.
-Very good orange.
-[Paul] Your flavours are good,
but it's a shame
we didn't get marzipan coming through.
-But good job.
-Thank you.
[Prue] I just love your cheeky girls.
I mean, their little astonished mouths
and eyelashes going out the side
is just beautiful.
[Paul] It needed
slightly longer in the oven,
because it looks like raw paste.
The flavour with the cinnamon,
with the apple, is delicious.
The jam is spectacular.
I like the colour of these,
but they're all over the place.
I think they're a bit too big.
For me, there's too much chocolate.
If you manage to avoid the chocolate,
the almond flavour is delicious.
[Paul] If you'd made them half-size,
bake them properly,
you'd have been getting a handshake.
So if I'd just done it
completely different.
-[Paul] Yeah.
-[all laughing]
I think the mulled wine biscuits are nice,
all 11 of them.
The orange and chocolate one,
it's lost its definition.
The biscuit tastes beautiful.
It's such a delicate, buttery biscuit.
-Let's have a look at these.
-[Noel] These are called hearts, Paul.
-Most normal people have them.
-[Prue chuckles]
-Never seen one before.
-[Noel chuckles]
-This is an astonishingly good biscuit.
-[Amanda] Thank you.
Biscuit is very short and buttery
and delicious.
The jam is sensational.
I mean, it really is worth every calorie.
-Thank you so much.
-[Paul] Thank you very much.
[Prue] I think that's lovely.
What's so good is that the kirsch
and the cherry acidity
makes the whole thing lighter.
And these ones should be quite crisp.
Is that right?
[George] They should be
crispy on the outside.
As they age,
they get crispy on the inside too.
-I mean, it's tough.
-[George] Yeah.
It's so tough,
it's offering me out for a fight.
But I love the flavours of both.
You've done really well.
I question whether that was
the right choice to use on this challenge.
I completely agree.
-[Prue chuckles]
-[Paul] But well done.
-Thank you.
-Thanks.
It's not supposed to be like that.
The bottom of the biscuits stuck.
Well, they're certainly chewy, Freya.
And they're delicious.
[Paul] Let's try this Christmas pud,
shall we?
I love the flavours.
But it is certainly overbaked.
-Yeah, yeah.
-[Prue] It is overbaked.
Fruit has got a bit burnt.
But the flavour's lovely.
Especially the lemon.
I think they look lovely.
You've got some uniformity here,
which I like to see.
I think they do look very nice.
I can't add anything to that.
I think they look absolutely perfect.
-Let's try the star one first.
-[Jürgen] Yep.
-I flavoured them with Earl Grey tea.
-[Prue] Tea?
-It really comes through nice and strong.
-[Paul] Mmm. Yeah.
Really like it. Right.
[Prue] The horns. Shall we do the horns?
The coffeeâ¦
You can smell the coffee, can't you?
That is the crumbliest,
buttery-est biscuit
I think I've ever eaten,
it is just perfect.
Thank you.
That's delicious.
I think you've done well there, Jürgen.
[contestants applauding]
[Jürgen] Thank you.
-[Paul] Good job.
-Wow. [laughs]
It was pretty overwhelming,
judging and a handshake.
I nearly started to cry right there.
Underbaked. I don't know.
Should I really trust Paul?
Because I done them
for 15 minutes yesterday
and Jürgen said they were overbaked.
So I done them for 12 minutes today,
and Paul's saying they're underbaked.
I think Jürgen's right. Just saying.
[Matt] While the bakers
could practise their Signature bakes,
they have no idea
what they'll be asked to make
in today's Teutonic Technical Challenge.
Hello, bakers. Welcome back to the tent.
It's time for your Technical Challenge,
which today has been set for you
by the lovely Prue.
Any words of wisdom?
Don't panic and try to be methodical.
As ever, the technical challenge
will be judged blind,
so we're gonna have to ask these two
to sling their hooks. Off you pop.
[in cockney accent]
Yeah, go and put your feet up.
Don't worry about us.
Oh, you must be exhausted
coming here for 30 seconds,
eating a load of biscuits.
I don't know how you do it.
[Noel laughs]
Now, for your Technical Challenge,
Prue would love you
to make Prinzregententorte.
Which is basically Prince Regent cake.
[normally] Your cake should be comprised
of eight thin layers
of light German genoises.
Sandwiched with a smooth chocolate cream
and coated with a shiny chocolate ganache.
Your torte should be regally decorated
with rosettes
and tempered chocolate crowns.
[Noel] Very regal.
Have you met anyone from the royal family?
-Yeah. Ralf Little.
-[all laugh]
You have two hours, 45 minutes.
-On your marks.
-Get set.
Bake.
I ain't got a Scooby Doo.
I've never heard of this cake before.
I'm making something
that I can't even pronounce. [chuckles]
Prinz-regen-ten-torte.
[mumbles]
Ask Jürgen.
Prinzregententorte.
So, Prue. Prinzregententorte.
Basically, it's eight layers of genoises
sandwiched together
with a chocolate custard,
covered with really smooth, shiny ganache.
Well, I think it looks great.
It's highly effective.
And I think the temperatureâ¦
I think today being quite warm
will only be really affecting
the tempered chocolate.
Should be all right as long
as they chill things down in stages.
[Prue] They ought to be able to get it
perfectly straight on the sides
because they're putting it into a tin
to layer it up.
-[Paul] Let's have a look inside.
-[Prue] Yeah. Let's have a look.
I always love these layered cakes 'cause
they're so exciting when you see inside.
[Paul] The layers
look beautiful and stark,
and you can see the chocolate custard
in there all the way through.
[Prue] And it's the right proportion
of custard to cake, isn't it?
-They're about equal.
-[Paul] Let's see how it tastes.
It's delicious. Almost melts on the mouth.
But then you get that
light chocolate come from the inside
and that little bit
of dark chocolate ganache on the outside.
I think it's a great cake
to make on German week.
And I can't wait to see
how Jürgen deals with this.
[Matt] Hello, Jürgen!
So I'm assuming that you're
the only person to have made this before.
I haven't made one, I haven't eaten one.
-I can loosely remember how it looks like.
-Oh, you haven't even eaten one?
That's a waste of being German.
[Jürgen] Yeah, it's terrible.
[Noel] The first step in Prue's recipe
is to make the genoise sponge batter.
We have to make a meringue first, it says.
[Freya] I don't want the egg whites
to be like overly whipped.
I'm thinking sort of, like,
soft, stiff peaks.
I'm folding the meringue
into the egg yolk mixture.
You got to be gentle when folding,
because if you knock all the air out,
sponge is not gonna rise when you bake it.
I sound like I know
what I'm talking about, don't I?
"Spoon the batter into circles
on prepared baking sheets."
[Matt] If the bakers are to achieve
the consistent thin layers
of sponge that Prue is expectingâ¦
[groaning] Don't do that, Freya.
â¦then the batter must
be portioned out with precision.
[Giuseppe] Want to have all
the eight sheets in front of me.
Give it a bit of consistency so
the layers are all the same height.
I want it to be not thicker
than five millimetres.
'Cause if there's eight⦠Gonna be
about a centimetre thick each?
Probably shouldn't have been
wasting precious mixture
to glue my things down.
But⦠I think it'll be all right.
Batch-bake until you have eight sponges.
There were three shelves in the oven.
So we can bake three layers at a time.
Up here for thinking,
down there for dancing.
[George] Great!
Go! Where's the timer? Quick!
There's no timing in there or anything.
I'm gonna go in for 10 to 15 minutes.
Seven minutes
and I'll swap the top and bottom
and another three minutes after that.
[Crystelle] I'm gonna bake one
to gauge the time.
I don't know if that's right,
but I'm going with it.
There's a look of Frank Zappa about you.
Yeah, Frank Zappa/Einstein?
I can see the sort of
Einstein thing, definitely.
-Fair enough.
-Yeah!
-[Matt] Yeah, there you go!
-[laughing]
-You've been a bit of an Einstein here.
-Have I?
That was a beautiful segue, come on!
-I hope you're applauding at home.
-[chuckles]
[Noel] With such thin layers
of delicate genoise spongeâ¦
Er, no, not yet.
â¦a perfect bake
demands absolute precision.
[Freya] I'm just popping a skewer in
to see if it comes out clean.
[Matt] Underbake even slightly,
and the sponges won't hold
their shape when assembled.
Let's take out this bad boy
and see how he's doing.
He kinda looks like a pancake.
[Matt] But overbake
and they'll be dry and brittle.
Give it one more minute.
I think I'm ready to take these out.
Let's take that one out.
[Amanda] My first three are
coming out now. It's a little bit rubbery.
It might be okay.
[Noel] With two more
batches to bake and coolâ¦
Second batch. In.
â¦the genoise production line
continues in earnest.
Oh! Golly gosh!
That's not what we want to see, is it?
Three sponges have come out
and three sponges have gone in.
Erm⦠Two more to spread out.
[George] I'm a little bit short on batter.
I'm still hopefully gonna
have enough to make do.
Maybe someone on the radio can tell me
how long the bakers have got left.
[radio static crackling]
[Matt over radio] Radio 1, Ed Sheeran,
"The Shape of You," and coming up next--
-Hang on.
-[radio static crackling]
[Matt over radio] And the bakers
are halfway through the task
and we wish them all the very best.
-Let's see what else in on.
-[radio static crackling]
[Matt in woman's voice] I was watching
that baking show the other day.
-Noel Fielding is an absolute--
-That's enough of that.
[Crystelle] I'll take
my last two sponges out.
Sponges done.
Look at that! It's so thin it could almost
pass for a poppadum.
-There's a bit of a variation here.
-Oh!
I take it back.
[George] I used more mix initially
and then I ran out.
-That's a happy accident, then.
-Yeah.
Now I need to make
the chocolate cream filling.
"For the chocolate cream,
make a chocolate custard."
Ay! Lots of detail in there.
I can pretty much make a custard, sort of.
[Jürgen] Same thing as vanilla custard,
just add a bit of cocoa.
[Crystelle] It's a bit dark but it's fine.
It's thick.
That's done.
Bakers, you have one hour remaining.
One hour!
These are relatively cool now.
Think we're going
to sort of start assembling, maybe.
[Matt] The cooler their sponges,
the more chance they'll hold when stacked.
[Crystelle] I thought my layers
would have cooled by now.
[Matt] But the longer the bakers wait,
the less time they'll have to achieve
a flawless decorative finish.
I started a bit slower to make sure one
was baked well before I did the rest.
I'm just going to hope for the best.
I don't think I've got time.
So, have I made these small enough?
I'm picking a better cooked one
for the bottom so it doesn't stick.
Sponge, cream, sponge, cream.
[Amanda] It should be a silky,
smooth filling.
It's not anywhere near it.
[sighs in exasperation]
It's hard to spread this flat
because there is a dome forming,
which isn't ideal.
Sponge, cream, sponge, cream.
Keep it equal all the way.
This is the last layer now.
And chill.
[Chigs] I'm gonna put it in
as long as I can.
We're now onto the decoration
which is the scariest part for me.
"Part 12: Chocolate crown shapes."
[Crystelle] It's the little crosses
that are so hard to pipe.
Giuseppe, how wide
is your stance right now?
-That's what giraffes do, isn't it?
-[Giuseppe chuckling]
When they bake.
Right. Ganache, ganache, ganache.
Does it just say
to make the ganache? Of course.
I know you're not supposed to, but do you
ever cast your eyes around the tent?
Yeah. I do like to
because sometimes Chigs is very irrational
and starts jumping around like a maniac.
Crystelle starts to talk to herself.
Wait, am I doing this right?
There's no point looking
over at Jürgen becauseâ¦
He's just cool as a cucumber.
-An average day for him, isn't it?
-Yeah.
[Jürgen] That looks like ganache.
[Chigs] That is a good ganache.
Bakers, you have 15 minutes left!
It's turning out.
[Lizzie] Oh, God!
It's just getting stressful. I'm sweating.
[Crystelle] Oh, why is it so wonky?
[Jürgen] The ganache
will cover the whole cake.
It's like pouring a mirror glaze.
I might do the edges first.
[Chigs] It's not bad at all.
[Jürgen] It's just a bit bubbly,
not perfect.
[George] Oh, this is so messy.
My wife would kill me if I was at home.
Bakers, you only have five minutes left.
"Using the remaining chocolate cream,
pipe 12 rosettes."
I overwhipped it.
I can't pipe that on there.
How many are we at? 12!
[Lizzie] Cream.
I'm just whipping out some plain cream
so I've got something to put on top.
[Crystelle] I'm gonna have to do thisâ¦
No! [chuckles]
What the hell? How long do I have? Oh, no!
Bakers, you have one minute left.
-[yelling quietly]
-[exhales]
Oh, my God! They're all going.
[Amanda] At least I've got something
to put the crowns into.
The chocolate is melting
at the speed of light.
[groans]
The crowns have melted.
[Crystelle, sing-song] The chocolate
is melting in my hand.
Well, I've done what I can.
Bakers, your time is up.
Very naughty of Prue, that was.
Please place your Prince Regent cake
behind your photograph
on the gingham table.
Why have we all put different cream
on top of our cakes?
It's supposed to be white cream.
You've all done it wrong.
[Matt] Prue and Paul are looking
for majestic prinzregententorte
with even layers of German genoise
and chocolate cream,
shiny ganache and perfectly piped rosettes
and chocolate crowns.
Okay. Shall we start over here?
[Prue] Rosettes look as if
they've melted,
but it's a lovely shiny ganache.
[Paul] Let's have a look.
[Prue] The layers look thicker
in the middle.
They're certainly a bit compressed
towards the edge.
-It's domed rather than flat.
-[Prue] Yeah.
-It does taste good, doesn't it?
-It does.
Erm, this is more like it, actually.
-[Prue] It's also flat on top.
-[Paul] Nice sides.
-It's got a nice chocolate flavour.
-Excellent.
[Paul] I like this, it's quite neat.
The effect is quite nice, but you could
just run a palette knife around there
and just straighten that off a little bit.
Let's have a look inside, shall we?
That's very nice
and mousse-y, the chocolate filling.
Nice texture to that sponge.
Chocolate comes through well.
-Ganache is lovely.
-Mmm.
Moving on to number four.
You have a nice shine on this.
Nice straight sides.
Although, what happened to the rosettes?
-It's a nice sponge.
-[Prue] Mmm-hmm.
-[Paul] It's well-baked.
-[Prue] It's nice and fluffy.
But it's got a bit of bite to it.
[Paul] Okay, moving on again.
-Quite small, this one.
-[Prue] Yeah.
It's either very compressed
or the layers were very thin.
You have a hugely thick layer,
very thin. Thin, thin, thin.
Big and erratic on the chocolate.
Tastes great though.
It just doesn't look as consistent
as some of the others.
Why is there cream on the top?
And there's something really
seriously wrong with theâ¦
ganache. It's not quite smooth.
[Paul] All the filling is split.
-Oh, yeah.
-Probably why there's cream on top.
-It's a bit tough as well.
-Very tough.
[Prue] This one's a bit wobbly.
[Paul] Instead of straight sides,
it is domed, isn't it?
[Prue] It's domed
and the outside is a bit uneven.
[Paul] Yep.
Mmm. Nice flavour.
[Paul] It's a shame
it looks the way it does.
-[Prue] Yeah.
-[Paul] Finally, the last one.
-[Prue] Ganache is a bit bubbly.
-[Paul] But the sides are quite neat.
And we're missing a few, erm, crowns.
-[Paul] Very equal sponge.
-[Prue] Yeah, nice sponge.
-That's delicious. Beautiful.
-[Paul] Mmm.
Ah! Interesting. Okay!
[Noel] Prue and Paul will now rank
the Prinzregententorte from worst to best.
Okay, in eighth spot we have this one.
Whose is this? Amanda?
You had a lot of bubbles on the top.
The inside was all split.
-And cream?
-Sorry.
In seventh spot, we have this one.
Crystelle, the top has melted a little bit
and it's pretty messy.
[Matt] George is sixth, Freya fifth.
Jürgen's fourth and Lizzie comes third.
In second spot, we have this one.
Whose is this?
Pretty good, Chigs.
The layers are beautifully soft.
-I think it looks pretty good.
-Thank you.
Which meansâ¦
[contestants clapping]
[Prue] Giuseppe.
The ganache is absolutely beautiful,
the sponge is lovely.
The layers are absolutely even.
Takes an Italian to make a German cake.
[all chuckling]
[laughs]
I was really, really surprised.
I was not expecting that.
The first placeâ¦
I'm not so much into chocolate cakes.
When I go to German cafes,
I usually have cream cakes
or black forest.
Because everyone's Signature
was so good this morning,
I feel like I'm treading on
thin ice now, which is quite scary.
There's still tomorrow.
Hopefully I'll pull it out of the bag
on the day, and everything will be okay.
[Matt] One challenge remains.
One last chance
to secure a place in the tent.
Hello, bakers.
Welcome back to the tent
for your Showstopper Challenge.
Today, the judges would love you
to make a spectacular yeast-leavened cake.
[Matt] Now, your cake
should be a minimum of two tiers,
and should be inspired
by one of the many yeasted cakes
that are so popular in Germany.
-Ever been to Germany, Noel?
-I have, actually.
Lots of times. I'm actually German.
-Really?
-Yeah. My dad invented the Kinder Egg.
-Did he?
-No, of course he didn't.
If he did, I wouldn't be here.
I would be on my luxury private yacht
as we speak.
[Matt] You'd have to build it yourself
first, wouldn't you?
Get all the pieces
and put the stickers on.
-[Noel] You have four and a half hours.
-[Matt] On your marks.
-Get set.
-Bake!
This is a first for me.
I've never done a yeast-leavened cake.
I genuinely don't know
what it's supposed to be like.
It's a bit like bread.
It's all about rising times.
-And proving.
-It's a bit of a faff, isn't it?
If you want to make a Victoria's sponge,
an hour, it's done.
This could take all day.
Or four and a half hours.
Traditionally, cakes as we think of them
are raised with baking powder.
Now, in Germany,
you do make cakes using yeast.
[Prue] The perfect yeasted cake
has the stretchiness of bread,
but it's still rich and cake-like.
It's quite difficult to get.
They've got four and a half hours.
A lot of that will be
down to proving the dough.
It's not a cake where you just produce it,
put it in the oven, bake it up.
But they've got to allow time
to produce a highly decorative cake.
What we're asking them to do
is to zizz it up,
make it something really festive or funny,
just generally over-the-top.
We want something amazing.
-[Paul] Morning, Jürgen.
-Morning, Paul.
-Hello, Jürgen.
-Morning, Prue.
Jürgen, will you tell us
about your yeast cake, please?
Yes. So, in Germany,
you wouldn't do a tiered yeasted cake.
No, we've anglicised it.
-[Jürgen] Yes. Yes.
-Which I apologise for.
It's like being asked to make
a three-tier apple crumbleâ¦
-[laughing]
-â¦or a three-tiered trifle.
[Matt] The three braided tiers
of Jürgen's yeasted cake
will be packed with chocolate raisins
and apricot jam,
and he's flavouring his dough
with a healthy dose of Bavarian booze.
Now, I've made dough with stouts
and it tends to slow it up a bit.
How are you combating that?
I didn't have a problem with that.
-No.
-Hopefully, it'll pack a punch.
-Look forward to it.
-Thank you.
[Matt] Jürgen might be
taking his dough for a quiet pint,
but Lizzie's hitting the hard stuff.
So I'm soaking my raisins
in orange blossom and Mandarin gin,
and it's got a gin syrup as well.
They'll be just off their faces.
[Noel] Lizzie's gin-soaked raisins will be
folded into a cinnamon-yeasted cake.
Cream cheese frosting
and pineapple flowers
will complete a three-tiered rendering
of Hansel and Gretel.
Your flavours have been getting really
good recently, so it's about decoration.
-It's about that little bit of finesse.
-Yeah. Which I lack.
-It's aboutâ¦
-Paul, look at all these colours.
It's going to be a colour explosion.
You're quite lucky, because Paul's
just told us he's colour-blind.
[all laughing]
[Matt] Lizzie's not the only baker
using boozy berries
to give her cake a kick.
You do need to keep it moist,
so I have been forced
to use a whole kilo of raisins
soaked in a litre of very good rum.
[Matt] Amanda's rum-soaked raisin cake
will be enhanced
by a layer of caramelised spiced plums
and decorated
with ornate Edelweiss flowers.
Edelweiss, there's a song about it
in The Sound of Music.
George knows all the words.
George, isn't that right?
You know all the words to Edelweiss
from The Sound of Music?
Well, yeah,
you've been playing it since we got here.
[chuckling]
He's such a liar.
[Jürgen] It's going to get noisy.
I have quite a powerful kneading method,
which is called the French Slap.
[Amanda] I think I'm going to take
a victim statement from that dough.
Violent.
[Matt] However vigorously
the bakers choose to handle their dough,
kneading it is crucial.
I want it to be, like, tacky
and, like, relatively sort of smooth.
[Matt] But it's a tricky balance.
[George] Doughy goodness.
[Matt] Knead too forcefully,
and they risk a texture
that's more bread-like than cake.
If you do this reasonably,
it helps creating the structure
within the dough that holds the air.
[Matt] But too delicate,
and their dough will collapse
as it proves.
[Crystelle] Mine is kind of
like a brioche dough.
I don't really over-knead it
because it ends up being really sticky.
But again, I just don't know
what the texture's supposed to be like.
So maybe I should be working a bit more.
[Noel] Layers of caramelised apple
and vanilla and chocolate creme diplomat
will separate the three tiers
of Crystelle's brioche-style bake.
It's the bread we're judging
and I do think brioche is the best bread.
It is a hybrid between bread and cake.
It's very difficult
and I've never had one before,
so I don't know
if it's just a dry cake or a weird bread,
-but hopefully you'll like it.
-Good luck.
Thank you very much. Thanks.
[Matt] While Crystelle's hoping to give
her cake the texture of a French classic,
Giuseppe is attempting to mimic
an Italian favourite.
The closest Italian relative
to the yeasted cake is the pandoro,
so I've used that as a baseline.
I'm trying to get as close as possible
to a pandoro texture.
[Matt] Piped with amarena-soaked cherries,
Giuseppe's yeast-leavened cake
will be soaked in honey and filled
with a vanilla creme patisserie.
Imagine if you get Star Baker this week
in German week,
Jürgen's going to be fuming.
How will that manifest itself?
[mimicking Jürgen]
"Very disappointed, Giuseppe."
[Giuseppe laughing]
He's a really lovely guy.
He gave us all private tutoring sessions
for German names.
That's really nice.
Because he could have just gone,
"Oh, this is to my advantage."
If they have Italian week,
will you be doing that for everyone?
-No way.
-[laughs]
Of course I would. Why not?
-Cut them dead.
-[both chuckle]
[whistling]
Matthew, hold this.
The next time call's in that jar.
Whatever you do, don't open the lid.
-I'll be back in a minute.
-Okay.
[Noel's voice echoing]
Bakers, you are halfway through.
Matthew, I will kill thee.
Right, next.
[Matt] While the bakers' dough
will demonstrate a mastery of texture,
the fillings are a chance
to show off flavours.
Chocolate filling done.
This is going to be messy.
I want a nice, equal distribution
of the filling
and it's always a little bit of a gamble.
[George] This is my one of my wife's
favourite flavours.
She's obsessed with chocolate,
so I'm going to fill it,
one layer, with, like, full chocolate.
The next one is going to be tahini,
because she loves tahini.
And then the top, I'm just gonna do
a chocolate-tahini combo,
kind of mix them together.
[Noel] George's three-tier
chocolate and tahini cake
will be glazed in a vanilla icing
and decorated with sugar paste roses
as a belated wedding anniversary
gift for his wife, Oslin.
This is really nice.
How long have you been married?
Erm, fif⦠Fourteen years.
-Shall we ask you that again?
-Fourtâ¦
I got married in 2008.
Why are you doing this to me
on camera, Paul?
-[Paul] I'm not.
-Why, Paul?
-I'm just trying to getâ¦
-My wife watches this.
Should we do it again,
pretend it didn't happen?
Yeah, I need to know this stuff.
So, George, how long you been married?
-I just asked you that question.
-I know, is it 14?
-I'm not feeling well.
-[all laughing]
[Noel] Thirteen.
[Matt] While George's focus is fillings,
Chigs' attention has turned to toppings.
[Chigs] So this is going to be
the mixed nuts topping.
So that's honey and butter
and crushed almonds,
pecans and walnuts,
and that will sit on each level.
So you'll have a crunch on the top.
[Noel] Chigs' crunchy topping
will give way to
a honey and mixed peel cake
filled with lemon creme diplomat
and decorated with white chocolate
honeycomb and marzipan flowers.
So this will go on top, we'll have
a soft, pillowy dough in the middle.
-Filled with fruit.
-Mmm.
-Soft, pillowy dough.
-Yes.
-You're talking like this show talks.
-[laughs]
"We would like a soft, pillowy dough."
Really? Do you really
want it to taste of pillows?
-Ermâ¦
-"Quite dry, quite clothy."
-I won't be trying your bake.
-Erm⦠Okay. sorry.
[Noel] Chigs might be planning
a nutty crunch for the top of his bake,
but Freya's gambling
with an intentional soggy bottom.
I'm kind of making it
like an upside down plum cake.
So I'm pouring the red wine in the bottom.
Not a wine connoisseur,
to be honest with you,
but 'cause it's German red wine,
I feel like
that probably means it's fancy.
[Matt] The three tiers
of Freya's yeasted cake
will be topped with poached plums
and soaked in a spiced wine syrup.
[Freya] The goal is
kind of to, like, stretch it out
on top of the red wine,
so it should soak it up perfectly.
Otherwise, it could
all just run everywhere.
All right, that's all ready.
[Matt] With yeasted cake batter plaited,
packed with fillings or soaked in alcohol,
the proving can begin.
So this is where the timing becomes
critical, because it's going to beâ¦
I'm going to be more than
halfway through the challenge,
and I haven't even started baking yet.
[Freya] Right,
they're going in for half an hour.
[Noel] While the dough rests,
the bakers must labour onâ¦
I'm now gonna start to make my flower.
â¦making decorations that will elevate
their cakes to Showstopper status.
I'm doing pineapple flowers,
put the pineapples on,
and then heat them low,
and they should turn into flowers.
Well, I've never made flowers in my life.
It's a little bit fiddly for me.
[Freya] Oh, I absolutely love doing this.
[chuckling] To be honest,
I make it up as I go.
You know, we're nearly halfway
through this competition.
-I know! How crazy is that?
-[Noel] And you're still here.
I said that to my mum
and she was like, "Don't worry, Freya,
your dad can come and get you on Tuesday."
[both chuckling]
I've never heard a cuter sentence.
[slurred] Bakers,
you've got one hour left.
[Noel laughing]
Ay, and we have dough.
So my dough has risen, which is great.
Just arranging my caramelised plums.
Gonna sprinkle some more sugar
and cinnamon on top
so it caramelises
a little bit in the oven.
All that needs to be done is egg washing
before it goes in the oven.
[Matt] Multiple cakes of varying sizes
means managing
individual bake times is tricky.
[George] This is going to overflow.
And requires precision planning.
I'll take the first one out
after 20 minutes, the smallest one.
And the next one I'll leave
for a further five minutes.
The other one I'll leave
for another five minutes.
[Matt] But Freya's got other ideas.
[Freya] There we go.
To be honest with you,
they do actually bake like pretty similar
because the little one is so small,
but it's a bit deeper.
So, yeah,
they're not that much different at all.
Just a nice little break, isn't it?
Yeah, the very first we had in this tent.
Yeah, this bit's kind of, like,
chilled at the moment, but we'll see.
Listen, I think the secret to
a good yeasted cake is being patient.
I'm just saying that
to make myself feel better.
[Noel] What did you just say to me?
"Don't bring
your erratic behaviour in here."
-Yeah. Over here.
-In this zone.
-Created a little calm zone.
-Yeah, I'm quite chilled.
I can be calm.
-Can you?
-Yeah.
I feel like your mum and dad
used to play that competition a lot,
like, "Who can be
the quietest the longest?"
"Let's go."
You'd just be sat there shaking,
bottling it up.
[laughing]
How very dare you!
I'm just checking on it.
It should be coming out in two minutes.
[Matt] While most of the bakers
are managing to hold their nerveâ¦
-[George] Let's take these babies out.
-â¦George can't wait any longer.
[Chigs] Are they baked?
[George] I don't know.
But I need to start decorating.
Bakers, you have half an hour left.
[Chigs] I'm gonna give it
another couple minutes.
[Giuseppe] In 40 seconds,
I'm going to be taking the large one out.
I keep questioning this big one
because it's so big.
The last thing you want
is him saying, "It's raw."
They look fine on top. Gotta make sure
they're done all the way through.
[Lizzie] Paul said, "Show finesse."
Oh, no!
"Finesse."
Can you have much finesse
with a broken cake?
Bakers, you have ten minutes left.
Amanda, you've got nine.
Wonder if I overdid the wine.
As long as the middle is cooked.
I think we're gonna try and assemble this.
Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it.
Needs more time.
I'll give it another five.
[Chigs] So this is gonna be
the chocolate honeycomb.
Melted already, I can feel it.
Done.
Right! It's too hot
to put the butter icing on.
[Giuseppe]
This is the cream in the middle.
[George] Come on, come on. I'm shaking.
[Amanda] It's too hot.
-[Lizzie] My pineapple flowers.
-[Crystelle] Okay, roses, roses, roses.
Done!
[Amanda] I thought for once,
I'd have a tidy bench.
[groaning] Why is it falling?
Oh, my gosh!
Bakers, your time is up.
Please step away from your bakes.
[Freya] Oh, look at that. Wow!
I think I went⦠You know
when we were like, "Oh, do more wine"?
-Yeah.
-You should see it.
It's dripping in wine.
I think that's better.
[Matt] The bakers' yeast-leavened cakes
now face the judgment of Paul and Prue.
Okay, bakers, Noel is feeling
a little under the weather.
But we're going to carry on
and invite Lizzie up to the front.
With your Showstopper, please.
[Paul] I like it.
I think you've made a real attempt
to create that finesse
that we're looking for. All right.
[Prue] Let's have a look.
[Paul] You ended up
with something very, very nice.
So you don't get that chew.
You get a cake-like quality.
I think it needs a little more sweetness,
either in a glaze or an icing.
But it's very nice and very pleasant.
-Well done.
-[Paul] Thank you, Lizzie.
I like the look of that.
The roses coming all the way down.
I like the uniformity of it.
As a package, it works together.
[Prue] This is the apple one?
[Crystelle] Yeah.
The cinnamon apples are in the centre
and the cream is piped 'round the outside.
[Prue] This is about as fattening
a mouthful as you could get.
The cream, the apple and cinnamon
work beautifully together.
I love the structure as well,
because it's quite light on the mouth.
Delicious.
Good job, Crystelle.
[Prue] Very good job.
[Paul] It's quite pretty.
It's a bit dark. It's been overbaked.
Okay.
You can see how dark that is in places.
But I like the design though, it's clever.
[Prue] I like the crystallized candy peel,
it's really good.
But it's quite a tough eat, isn't it?
It's dry. Flavours are good, idea's good.
It's the overbaking that's done it for me.
-Thank you, Chigs.
-Thank you, guys. Thank you very much.
It's quite effective.
Not very neat down at the bottom.
But you can cover up a world of problems
with almonds on the outside.
But its dependent on the flavour.
[Prue] That's a lot of fruit.
-Flavour's fantastic.
-That's beautiful.
The structure is perfect.
The bite is perfect.
The bake is spot-on.
I've never had anything
quite like that before.
Thank you.
[Paul] It's not
the best-looking thing I've seen.
But it's one of the best-tasting things
I've had for a long time.
Thank you so much.
[Paul] There's so much bleeding
coming from the plums.
[Prue] It is a bit messy-looking.
[Paul] If you had water icing
around the outside of each one,
it'd look neater.
[Prue] Should we taste it?
[Paul] Let's have a look.
The syrupy topping
is delicious, unusual and lovely.
But there's an awful lot
of dough to topping.
And I think it could have done
with a little more baking.
-[Paul] Yeah, it's too doughy.
-Yeah, it is underbaked.
-Yeah, it is.
-Got it.
-Thank you
-Thank you.
[Matt] Well done.
[Prue] I think it's very pretty.
It does look like an anniversary cake.
-[Paul] You need a stronger colour there.
-[George] Yeah.
See the colour you managed
to achieve down here?
You want the same up there.
You can see how light that is.
It's almost been treated like a soft roll.
-[George] Yeah.
-[Paul] All right.
[Prue] Let's have a look.
I love the flavour.
Chocolate-tahini balance is perfect.
[Paul] That's, erm⦠That's a raw dough.
-Oh, is it?
-[Prue] The middle is raw.
I think it's a bit clumsy,
it's been rushed.
-Thank you.
-Thank you
[Prue] I think it looks absolutely lovely.
I really do.
And it's holding very well.
It doesn't seem to be squashing.
[Paul] I wanna go
straight down to the bottom.
-[all exclaiming]
-Well held.
[Giuseppe] Thank you.
Well, I ain't letting no cake go to waste.
Not on my watch.
[all laughing]
[Prue] That looks really lovely.
Light, it's almost like a panettone.
It's better than a panettone, that.
It's almost like a whisked sponge.
The cherries are delicious.
Nice and tart, but they're sweet
at the same time.
It's delicious. I think you've
done an amazing job.
-[Prue] Well done, Giuseppe.
-[Paul] Thank you, Giuseppe.
[Prue] I must say,
I think it looks really beautiful.
It's a lovely colour.
[Paul] I can't wait to see
what it looks like inside.
It's quite a breakfasty bake.
You think it's too bready?
It is very bready.
It's a little bit dry.
You have to be really delicate with this
sort of thing to get the air in it.
That could have opened up
considerably more to make it much lighter.
But the flavour is good.
Overall, I like it.
But I don't love it, which is a shame.
It probably could have been lighter.
It could have been in the oven less,
but I feel proud of what I've produced.
[Freya] I just loved it.
To be totally flat-out honest,
that's what I hoped it'd look like.
In fact, I wouldn't have
wanted it to look any different
[George] I'm gutted. I'm really gutted.
Definitely feel I'm in danger.
Like, more than ever.
Yeah, I feel a bit sick.
Let's talk about
who's in line for Star Baker.
Giuseppe's done really well.
I mean, he's really beginning
to get into his stride now.
Could be one to watch.
I think overall Jürgenâ¦
Jürgen's done all right, actually.
-He had a handshake yesterday.
-He did.
I was a little bit disappointed
with his Showstopper.
But it looked so beautiful.
Because we think Jürgen is so good,
when he doesn't do something perfectly,
we bang on about it.
-That's still a very good yeasted cake.
-Yeah.
[Paul] I was a little bit
upset with George.
You know, they were doughy.
I think Freya's down there as well,
because Freya's Showstopper
wasn't as good as I was expecting.
[Prue] It was such a pity because
the actual syrup was delicious.
But it was that much cake
and a tiny bit of topping.
[Paul] In Star Baker position,
you've got Giuseppe, Jürgen,
and George and Freya down at the bottom.
Well, bakers,
thank you so much for joining us
for two gruelling days in this hot tent.
Now the Star Baker this week isâ¦
-Is Giuseppe, congratulations.
-[all clapping]
[murmurs indistinctly]
And now we have to lose someone.
This gets harder and harder.
And the person
that we are losing this week
is someone who's brought
their own ideas into the tent.
And we're very, very sorry to see them go.
I'm afraid the person
who is leaving us this week isâ¦
Is Freya.
-Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.
-[sobbing]
I'm really sad Freya's going.
My God, she is so talented.
You are literally
the most put-together 19-year-old
I've ever met in my entire life.
That wait was agonising.
I thought, "I'm waiting
for my name to be called,
I'm waiting for my name,"
and then, you know, poor Freya.
Really gutted for her.
[Paul] It's very sad that Freya had to go.
She's done an amazing job.
She's 19 years old, vegan baking,
and she came halfway.
There you go. That's how good she is.
Should be really proud of yourself.
-Thank you.
-[Paul] Really proud of yourself.
Genuinely, I think it's the best
experience of my life.
[Prue] You know, you've done so well.
I was feeling
the lack of experience quite a lot.
So, you know, I am 19.
So I do feel really proud
to have even just been able to keep up.
So, like, to get to week five
and do it vegan,
erm, I just feel like I really have
done what I wanted to do being here.
[all] It's only vegan chocolate cake!
Giuseppe, he's done it again.
Giuseppe absolutely deserved
Star Baker. Yes. [chuckles]
Second Star Baker.
I can't⦠[clicks tongue]
I can't believe that.
I want to think only of the next step,
so next week, it's gonna put me under
a lot of pressure to perform well,
and that's, ermâ¦
A difficult position to start in.