Great British Baking Show: Leave room for Dessert

Week 4 of this year’s edition of the Great British Baking Show had dropped on Netflix and that means it’s Dessert Week. A week filled with cakes, meringue and sweets as well as the chance for some pretty serious baking disasters.

Which is just what we saw. As a result, from the moment the Signature Challenge ended, it was blindingly obvious who was going to go home. No, the real competition was for the title of Star Baker and the winner just turned the whole competition upside down.

For the Signature Challenge the bakers were tasked with making a decorated pavlova, which is a type of meringue dessert. As anyone who has watched previous seasons of the Great British Baking Show knows, pavlovas can be incredibly fickle things that can go wrong in a hurry.

Jurgen, who had a down week during Bread Week, made a comeback with his Passover-inspired pavlova while Freya, George and Maggie all had issues. In Freya’s case, this was the first week where her vegan cooking methods seemed to cause a serious problem as the aquafaba she used instead of eggs proved to be an issue.

But the real star of the Challenge was Chigs, whose mango, passion fruit and chocolate pavlova was a huge hit and almost perfect. So perfect that he received the a much coveted Hollywood Handshake from judge Paul Hollywood.

Who will take Star Baker during Dessert Week on the Great British Baking Show?

For the Technical Challenge, the bakers had to create four sticky toffee puddings with tuille decorations, a sticky toffee sauce and crème anglaise all in an hour and a half. Jurgen and Lizzie came in first and second respectively with Chigs in third. Maggie, who somehow forgot to add flour to her puddings, came in last and it wasn’t even close.

A quick aside here to ask if anyone else is shocked by the fact Lizzie has suddenly made a massive turnaround? I had her pegged to be going home by Week 2 and instead she has proven to be an inventive, if messy, baker. Who knew?

Finally came the Showstopper Challenge and if Maggie wanted any chance to stay on the show she basically needed a miracle. Meanwhile the race for Star Baker seemed to be between Jurgen and Chigs. While Giuseppe had done well during Dessert Week, he was solidly in the middle of the pack after the first two challenges.

The bakers had to make a celebratory joconde imprime dessert. It is a layered dessert where the bakers could chose the layers wrapped with a joconde cake collar. Think a layer cake wrapped in a decorated sponge collar.

Amanda, Freya and Maggie all struggled mightily, especially Maggie who had to make her joconde collar twice due to taking the first one out of the oven too soon. Freya again had issues due to being vegan and Amanda’s collar broke causing the contents to spill out. Maggie’s collar also split causing a huge mess that tasted good but looked terrible.

Meanwhile, Jurgen and Chigs both excelled with Chigs creating a two-tiered Black Forest imprime that included a geometric design on the collar. It really was a work of art that the judges simply adored. In fact, they loved it so much he was awarded Star Baker while Maggie was sent packing.

Chigs winning Star Baker in such a commanding fashion has not only caused everyone to reevaluate just who the frontrunner of this season should be but it had also upended our Leaderboard. Jurgen returns to the top spot while Giuseppe falls from the top two for the first time.

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

Is Chigs the spoiler that could upset the great Jurgen/Giuseppe rivalry? Can Lizzie really go all the way? Can Amanda redeem herself and avoid going home before George? Will Crystelle be able to break from the middle of the pack? We’ll get some answers next Friday when a new episode of the Great British Baking Show arrives on Netflix.

What do you think Guilty Eaters? Can Chigs win the whole thing? Did Maggie deserve to go home? Leave a comment below and let us know or join the conversation on our Facebook and Twitter pages.