The Great British Bake-Off, Season Four Episode Three Recap

My goodness, episode three already! We are getting into the swing of things! Things are already starting to hot up in the GBBO kitchen after the relative ease of episode one. This week, the remaining eleven bakers tackle all things sweet and petite, and everyone’s waistlines continue to expand.

First up is trifle, which seems a little easy for our contestants, but I guess they are making the sponge, custard, etc all at once – and its important to Paul and Mary that the layers are defined and visually attractive. Mary is a fan of crunchy toppings on trifle, aren’t we all (amaretti biscuits yesss).

As you’d expect from the Bake-Off contestants, there are lots of adventurous flavour combinations going on – Deborah is even including cointreau in her trifle, which Paul decides to use as a breath freshner spray, very nearly incapacitating Mary Berry with a dangerous amount of alcohol for her tiny frame.

Lots of the bakers are trying to go above and beyond with their trifles – Ali is making macaroons to go on top of hers, while Kimberley made homemade amaretti biscuits.

Meanwhile, Howard’s custard has been pilfered by Deborah… which I’m entirely sure was an innocent error…

Judging time, and Ruby’s trifle with the palm tree sponge goes down a treat, while most of the other contestants get some constructive criticism from the judges. Exceptions are Christine, Ali and Kimberley who all meet with high praise.

Time for this weeks educational segment! This week we’re looking at the beginning of cookery books and the art of cooking to appear better off than you actually are. Author Hanna

The technical challenge is up next, and meringue floating on custard (or floating islands) is this weeks hard to master technique. The contestants run through meringue making tips (add the sugar gradually, make sure you don’t get any yolk in your whites!). Needless to say, forming the meringue quinelle’s and poaching the meringues causes consternation among our bakers. Howard and Frances both struggle with timings on their floating islands…

Judging time, and Mark does particularly poorly with pancake meringues while Rob’s technical skills help him to do very well, a nice turnaround from his performance of last week. Glenn is number one in the floating islands stakes – go Glenn!

Next up, the contestants have three hours to produce Petit Fours perfect enough for pixie-mouthed Paul, who recommends keeping the base Petit Fours basic and adding lots of interest with toppings and fillings.

Their Petit Fours must be completely uniformly perfect – evenly baked and browned. Deborah gets stressed out by some cake pan stickage, while Beca’s Petit Fours look absolutely DELICIOUS.

The moment of truth for the contestants, and Glenn scrapes through with one delicious and one less delicious (and unevenly sized) Petit Fours. Christine is up next, and Mary describes her brandy snap cones as ‘scrummy’. Bless Mary, I love her so!

Mark’s turn… and he’s blaming the GBBO TENT for impeding his baking. Paul and Mary are fairly kind, but I think there’s no doubt this will be his last time in the tent. Ali also does poorly, along with Howard and Deborah while Kimberley, Rob, Frances, Beca and Ruby all do well, with a little warning for Ruby from Paul and Mary that she should do better with her forward planning in the future.

Who could be star baker this week? Frances, Christine, and Ruby are all in contention, with Christine taking the prize!

So WHO is banished from the Bake-Off tent forever? TWO will be going this week – Mark finally goes home (I’m sorry, he was terrible), along with Deborah, showing just how quickly things can go downhill in the Bake Off tent.

Next week, its time for autumnal pies and tarts. Place your bets now – how many times will the words soggy bottom have been uttered by this time next week?

This weeks Bake-Off Link Round up

• Inspired to give them a go? Floating Islands recipe and tips
• Great British Bake Off, the workout – how many calories can you burn baking? Spoiler alert, not many!
• Mel and Sue – the glue that holds together the Great British Bake Off (TOTALLY)
• Looks like the Bake Off will be moving to BBC1 from next season

 This weeks GBBO recap was brought to you by my emergency GBBO snack – digestive biscuits spread with tangy lemon curd. Yum!

See you next week!

x Kerry

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