Tears,tantrums and trendy tea as Bake Off blasts off
THEY say it’s no use crying over spilt milk.
But what about a dry sponge, shoddy Jaffa cakes and an icing that just won’t thicken?
Well, if the Bake Off tent is anything to go by, it seems tears are very much the done thing.
There were tantrums aplenty last night as the Great British Bake Off made a dramatic return to our screens.
The new batch of amateur bakers struggled to control their emotions as they were put through their paces by Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood – with one even throwing her botched cake at the tent wall after it failed to rise.
Luckily presenters Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc were on hand to lighten the mood with their signature mix of risque humour and comforting words. The first episode saw the contestants asked to create a drizzle cake, followed by Jaffa cakes for the technical challenge and a mirror glaze cake as their showstopper.
However the showstopper, which required a reflective icing on top of a Genoise sponge, proved too much for many of the bakers, and several were forced to toss their first attempts in the bin. Glamorous PE teacher Candice Brown, 31, literally flung her cake away – confessing that when baking at home she threw them ‘out the window’.
Despite fervent attempts to rescue her cake she was reduced to tears by Hollywood, who told her: ‘I don’t think you’d be able to throw it because I think it would bounce back...It looks good but your plain Genoise is awful’.
Teaching assistant Benjamina Ebuehi, 23, also broke down when she thought the topping for her cake was too thin.
Welsh hairdresser Louise Williams, 46, was left looking emotional after Hollywood told her that her cake was ‘great inside, terrible outside’.
Even compliments were met with wobbling lips. Garden designer Jane Beedle, 61, nearly lost her composure after Hollywood was impressed with her chocolate and orange cake, saying: ‘The whole thing looks beautiful’. But the judges were unimpressed with one contestant’s attempt to bring a trendy new ingredient to the Bake Off tent.
When student Michael Georgiou, 20, added matcha green tea – a highly-caffeinated bright green drink much-loved by celebrities – to his Genoise, he was met with disgust from Miss Berry.
Pursing her lips, the 81-year-old said she didn’t ‘really like the flavour’ – and that the cake tasted largely ‘of grass’.
At the end of the show Miss Beedle was crowned star baker. But it was goodbye to the oldest contestant Lee Blanfield, 67, after he was let down by his Jaffa cakes and mirror glaze.
The church minister said: ‘I’m disappointed to be the first off but I’ve always enjoyed baking.
‘I won’t show the congregation how to make a Jaffa cake, I am not going to repeat that experience – I’ll buy them a pack instead.’