Great British Baking Show: It’s Free From Week

After last season’s edition of The Great British Baking Show I wrote about how the show really needed to get away from the gimmick theme weeks and get back to straight forward baking. While fun, they aren’t really a good test of what the bakers can do in my opinion.

Well, apparently no one got the message because for the Quarterfinals the show decided to do Free From Week, which has the bakers create desserts but without one key baking staple. This is actually the second time they’ve done something like this, but the last time it was called Alternative Ingredients Week. I’ll admit that Free From Week does sound a lot better.

For the Signature Challenge the bakers had to create eight ice cream sandwiches without dairy. The bakers could use eggs (hence why this isn’t a vegan challenge) but that was it.

Overall all five remaining bakers did fairly well. Giuseppe, who used tofu as his dairy substitute, had the best comments even though his ice cream came out too dense. Chigs and Crystelle stood out for their sandwiches looking neat and uniform while Lizzy and Jurgen had some issues. Lizzie’s sandwiches were huge and lacked finesse, which has become her modus operandi over the season.

Who was sent home this week on The Great British Baking Show?

That led to the Technical Challenge where the bakers had to make eight vegan sausage rolls with a red onion chutney. Again, the majority of the bakers do okay in the Technical with Chigs coming away with the win. Giuseppe came in second followed by Lizzie, Jurgen and Crystelle bringing up the rear.

The highlight of the episode turned out to be seeing Paul make Crystelle try the chutney she made, which was ridiculously hot. Despite saying how she enjoyed spicy food it seemed it was to hot even for her.

Finally we had the Showstopper Challenge which was to make a celebration cake without the benefit of any gluten. It had to have at least two layers and had to have a theme. Going into the Challenge Paul mentioned that Star Baker was Giuseppe’s to lose if he could maintain his momentum.

It turned out he couldn’t. His Black Forest cake looked great but was an overall disappointment to Paul and Prue. It turned out stodgy and the texture was very unpleasant. Chigs, Crystelle and Jurgen all turned in cakes that both tasted amazing and looked incredible, with Crystelle’s cake done in the form of her grandmother’s dress in particular standing out.

But the real winner of the Challenge was Lizzie. She called her cake the “Extraordinary Cake” and it was a celebration of those that are different. It honored those with ADHD, Dyslexia and other Special Educational Needs, or SEN.

Visually the cake was stunning, with bright colors done in the style of a shag carpet and with bold, intense flavors. Paul was so impressed he asked her to make one for his birthday. Lizzie was finally able to combine finesse and flavor to create a cake that fans will not forget anytime soon.

However, despite a strong Showstopper it wasn’t enough to save her and Lizzie was sent home. With Giuseppe floundering during the last challenge the title of Star Baker went to Chigs and the Final Four going into the Semifinals of this season of The Great British Baking Show is set.

Our Great British Baking Show Leaderboard only has four names on it, with Jurgen and Giuseppe taking the top two slots.

1. Giuseppe
2. Jurgen
3. Chigs
4. Crystelle

Unless something catastrophic happens, both Giuseppe and Jurgen are shoe-ins for the Final. The question is who will be wearing that third apron? Either Chigs or Crystelle could be that final baker depending who has the better weekend. We’ll find out when the next episode drops on Netflix.

What do you think Guilty Eaters? Are you sad to see Lizzie go home? Did Crystelle desere to make the Semifinal? Leave a comment below and let us know or join the conversation on our Twitter and Facebook pages.