The Great British Baking Show: A week of success and disaster

It was all about pastry on The Great British Baking Show this week

This week’s episode of The Great British Baking Show was all about pastry and the bakers were very confident. Whether that confidence was warranted or not depends on who the baker was and how they actually ended up doing in the three challenges.

It all started how it usually does with the signature challenge. They had to make Cornish pasties (which I totally thought was something invented in the Midwest…). Most of the bakers did amazing and almost all the pasties had me drooling in front of the television. There was even a handshake, although it was only from host Matt Lucas so it doesn’t hold as much weight as Paul’s.

Next, the technical challenge! I don’t know what it is about “easier” recipes that cause this season of bakers to completely lose it but it happened in the brownie challenge and it happened once again in the eclair challenge.

The fillings were too thin, some had separated (yikes), and others didn’t bake their shells enough (or they didn’t finish the challenge at all like Linda). Peter ended up winning the technical but the judges did think his eclairs were a bit fat. An eclair can never be too fat. It’s impossible.

Pasties and caged tarts were made on The Great British Baking Show this week

On to the showstopper challenge! This was a truly brilliant challenge. The bakers had to make a tart (easy enough, right), but it had to have a decorative cage over it. Anything to do with baking and building a structure is always very difficult.

That being said, quite a few bakers did an extraordinary job. Lottie’s cage was a thing of legend. While they didn’t think her tart was actually a tart, her cage was absolutely gorgeous.

Mark L. and Linda, unfortunately, had their cages collapse when they tried to place them on top of their tarts. And because of this and her past mistakes in the other challenges, Linda was the one to go home.

Laura got Star Baker due to her gorgeous caged tart and her delicious pasty. Next week, is something completely new (or at least I don’t remember them doing it before). It’s Japanese week! I cannot wait to see what the recipes are and how the bakers do. With this group, it could go either way.

What did you think of this week’s episode of The Great British Baking Show? Let us know in the comments below!