The 10 Best Bakes from Great British Baking Show Season 3

4 Paul’s King of the Jungle

In six seasons of the Great British Baking Show, the production has always handed out two things at the end of every episode. A Star Baker goes to the winner, and an elimination to the the loser. What the show has never done is given out a “Special commendation.” All that changed when contestant Paul turned in this lion Showstopper, which Paul Hollywood called ‘the best thing he’d ever seen in bread.”

It was a stunner of a creation, and unlike Ian, Paul didn’t have a mold. Instead he simply used his knowledge of how breads rise to sculpt and craft a lion’s face out of raw dough and have it bake up exactly as he needed it to create the lion’s face perfectly. The problem, and the reason that Paul couldn’t win, was that this was the only time during Bread Week that things went right. He failed badly in the Technical, and his Signature was merely middling. He couldn’t win Star Baker over Ian, who had aced both. It was too bad, because it really was the best thing in bread ever seen on the show.

Next: Mat's Raised Venison & Pigeon Pie