Bake Off’s Candice takes the biscuit... now she’s the hot favourite to win
GYM TEACHER Candice Brown was the toast of The Great British Bake Off last night after producing a pub-themed triumph.
Last week she was so upset at the consistency of her effort she flung a soggy sponge out of the Bake Off tent window.
But her gingerbread “pub” complete with a sticky carpet, moved her into pole position as an early favourite to win the show.
And she was all smiles as she was named the show’s coveted star baker of the week.
After her nightmare start to this year’s series the 31-year-old from Bedford might have crumbled during a testing technical challenge.
But viewers saw why she is the red-hot favourite for the title, with a near flawless display in the kitchen.
Instead of Candice, it was Welsh hairdresser Louise Williams who saw her time on the show cut short.
The Cardiff crimper, 46, due to marry fiance Simon next year, was given the chop, becoming the second to leave the show.
Louise wanted to impress judges Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry with a selection of lip-smacking delights from Wales but a disastrous technical blip saw her efforts fall flat.
She said: “My worst moments were my disasters – the gingerbread house was an A1 disaster – it absolutely completely self-destructed and I just had to take a mess-up to Paul and Mary. I laugh at it now but it was devastating at the time, I think I could have got top marks for a cake disaster award.
Plaudits
“My sheep biscuits were uneven, I made a lot of them, I dropped the tray and they ended up on the floor. I bake them absolutely perfect at home and I think I just had a bad day. I will be getting married next year but I won’t be making a gingerbread cake.”
While Candice took the plaudits for her faultless baking, Louise was left wondering what might have been.
She said: “I was disappointed because I didn’t get my chance to shine.
“My real passion is bread, I bake it all the time but my weakness as a baker is biscuits, so I am sorry Paul didn’t get to taste my speciality – focaccia. I avoid negativity and I always try and look on the brighter side rather than the bad.
“You pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start off all over again, like the song. It’s the way I have been brought up – keep calm and carry on. So I really enjoyed my ride on the bake off even though I got off early.”
Louise, whose love affair with baking started with cakes made for charity coffee mornings, left the competition because she failed to impress Paul and Mary with a Welsh fruit cake and the selection of sheep-shaped biscuits. Paul said: “Louise struggled with her sheep in the signature, she was 10th in the technical and in the show stopper there were huge problems.”
Mary added: “Poor Louise, she had a disastrous day, but full marks for carrying it off with a big smile.”
Meanwhile Candice said of her showstopper: “I’m making a gingerbread pub. This is because I was brought up in a pub. I’m making sticky ginger cake for my sticky ginger carpet as the carpet is always sticky in a pub. Always.”
The King William was made of three types of gingerbread – traditional biscuit for the walls and roof, sticky ginger for the carpet and ginger thins for the bar, locals and dartboard.
Co-presenter Sue Perkins was missing from last night’s episode because of a family bereavement, leaving Mel Giedroyc to host the show alone. Sue will return next week.
The seventh series of the smash-hit BBC One show started last week with an audience of more than 10 million viewers.