Great British Baking Show: Welcome to Biscuit Week

This is the second week of the new season of The Great British Baking Show and that means, as fans well know, it’s Biscuit Week. When I first started watched the series I didn’t understand that biscuits was what the British called cookies. I kept waiting for someone to make biscuits and wondered why everyone was making cookies.

Anyway, as you may remember from last week’s Leaderboard, Jurgen and Giuseppe were the clear favorites after Week 1 with Maggie and Freya both in the mix as well. Would the standings change after a weekend of biscuits? Read on to find out.

For the Signature Challenge, the bakers were tasked with making brandy snaps. They had to make 24 identical snaps all filled with a tasty filling. Overall most of the bakers came out of the Challenge with at least some positive words. Jurgen, last week’s Star Baker, really impressed Paul and Prue with his spiced chai snaps while the flavor of Jairzino’s passionfruit snaps was too strong.

However, it was Maggie who got the worst of the criticism due to having a soggy biscuit. Which was shocking considering how well she did during Cake Week. Her traditional snaps were the only ones to receive overwhelmingly negative comments.

Which baker went home during Biscuit Week on the Great British Baking Show?

The Technical Challenge was Jammy Biscuits. It is essentially a sandwich cookie with two shortbread cookies filled with jam. While they aren’t necessarily complicated to make, the heat in the tent and the pressure of the Technical can provoke some intense emotions.

In the end Rochica found herself at the bottom along with Crystelle and Jairzino, who really needed a strong performance. At the other end were Giuseppe and Jurgen, who are quickly becoming the bakers to beat in the Tent.

For the Showstopper, the bakers are tasked with making a 3-D recreation of their favorite toy out of biscuit and just to make things more interesting, it has to have a interactive element. This is where some of the bakers really shined while others dealt with one disaster after another.

In particular it was Amanda who had a terrible day when her rocking horse completely collapsed as she was assembling it. This was likely due to her using sugar cookies to make her Showstopper while everyone else used ginger bread. The sugar cookie was just too fragile to hold together and while it tasted great according to Paul and Prue, that was about it.

Jurgen went with a windmill that was as tall as it was impressive. Giuseppe made a game board that looked great but lacked ambition and Jairzeno tried to create a sailboat with limited success.

Overall most of the bakers receive high marks for taste with a few, like George’s airplane, really getting compliments for the technical wizardry the pulled off with biscuit. Jurgen walked away with his second Star Baker and in a bit of a surprise, (Spoiler alert if you haven’t watched the episode yet!) it was Jairzeno who went home, and he almost looked relieved.

After Biscuit Week our Great British Baking Show Leaderboard sees a bit of a shakeup, with some bakers falling down a few places and a new baker taking the top spot..

1. Jurgen
2. Giuseppe
3. Freya
4. Chigs
5. Crystelle
6. George
7. Amanda
8. Maggie
9. Lizzie
10. Rochica

Can Jurgen win three Star Bakers in a row? Will his rivalry with Giuseppe get more heated? Can Freya break through and move to the top? How long before Lizzie and Rochica go home? Next week should be Bread Week so expect another shakeup as this season of The Great British Baking Show continues.

What do you think Guilty Eaters? Did Jairzeno deserve to go home over Maggie or Amanda? What do you think of the season so far? Leave a comment below and let us know or join the conversation on our Twitter and Facebook pages.