The Great British Baking Show season 4 recap: Episode 8, ‘Tudor Week’
To even have a shot at the semi-finals, the final five of this season of The Great British Baking Show had to go back in time.
The only way that Sue and Mel could have improved Tudor week on this season of The Great British Baking Show would have been to wear period accurate costumes. Alas, Sue brought a tuba instead for a visual (and noisy!) pun to kick the quarter-finals off.
And yes, it’s the quarter-finals! Who needs a standard theme when this show can get weird?
To kick things off, Mary and Paul, in their infinite baking wisdom, set a “display of shaped pies” in three hours as the signature challenge, which meant individual pies with any kind of pastry (many opted for hot water crust) but savory fillings a must.
Signature Tudor Shaped Pies. Selasi presenting his pies. Production photo from The Great British Baking Show. Courtesy of Tom Graham via PBS press room
Signature challenge judging results:
"Jane: Tudor Rose Pies. High-tier.”First-rate” filling, per Mary, and well-baked.Benjamina: Mexican Adventure. Mid-to-low tier. Some pastry errors, but the filling was deemed delicious.Candice: Cheesy Cheeky Fish Pies. Mid-to-high tier. One of her pastries was underbaked, she had some leaking on the second, but both were pretty delightful.Selasi: Bouquet of Flowers. Mid-tier. Ranked well on presentation, missing some filling on one, a little thick pastry on the other, but “pretty good” flavors, said Paul.Andrew: Da Vinci Inspired Geared Pies. High tier. As per usual, best presentation. A “good flavor,” said Paul, although a slight lack of filling."
Mel called upon “Sir Paul of Hollywood” to deliver his advice in the technical, which turned out to be focusing on the directions for shaping. As the challenge itself was to make a dozen jumbles — which are cookies — 6 apiece of two very specific designs, a Celtic knot and a knot ball.
Technical challenge results:
"5th: Jane. Thick Celtic knots, and a mishap with the sugar spelled defeat.4th: Benjamina. A bit funky, shape-wise, and the ball cookies were a bit light in color.3rd: Selasi. Uneven Celtic knots, but tasted good.2nd: Andrew. Good flavor, decent bake too.1st: Candice. Most distinct designs, and well-baked."
JANE SHOWSTOPPER – JANE’S SWANS. Production photo from The Great British Baking Show. Courtesy of Tom Graham (via PBS press room)
To wrap up Tudor week, the showstopper gave the bakers three and a half hours for a completely edible, 3D marzipan display. However, the bakers could and did also make cakes to go with their marzipan.
Showstopper results:
"Jane: Swans. A little issue with melted marzipan, but Paul was quite impressed with her flavors.Andrew: Jousting Knights Marchpane. “A little bit on the clumsy side,” said Mary, and there was a bit of an issue in his currant distribution.Benjamina: Tudor Garden. The cake had a bit too much apple, and the maze didn’t come out as well as it could have."
BENJAMINA SHOWSTOPPER – BENJAMINA’S TUDOR. Production photo from The Great British Baking Show. Credit: Courtesy of Tom Graham (via PBS pressroom)
"Candice: Peacock. Paul’s first word was “wow.” Mary opened with “You’ve really cracked it.” Paul then finished with “exceptional.”Selasi: Fruity Tudor Marchpane. The inside of his crown didn’t earn much praise, and Mary wanted more baking on the cake."
In the judging tent, Mary had some excellent judging face with regards to Andrew, but she smiled at Candice’s peacock centerpiece. Paul brought up Selasi and Benjamina for the danger zone. Indeed, Candice won Star Baker, while Benjamina didn’t make it through to the semi-finals.
Next: Game of Thrones: 5 predictions for S7E3
Next week, it’s a double dose of The Great British Baking Show in the form of the patisserie semi-final and then the final round.