Great British Bake Off Recap: This is why you should never call Paul Hollywood a Whitewalker
The Great British Bake Off is back. Picture: Channel 4
The GBBO tent is back in the Berkshires and a delicious clutch of exceedingly good bakers have come together to give us exactly what we need as the weather turns colder. Week one was Cake Week and while definite favourites emerged, we had all the drama that we’ve come to expect from GBBO – soggy bottoms, split buttercream and an incredible amount of booze.
In the first five minutes of episode one, Irish woman Rebs compares Paul Hollywood to a Whitewalker from Game Of Thrones, thus setting herself up for disaster. Her Hollywood curse begins with leaky caramel in her mini sandwich cakes, moves into an undercooked sponge and then becomes almost catatonic (“I just need a minute to myself”) in her showstopper round when she realises that her cakes are not cooked – while constructing the thing.
The bakers start with what Prue calls ‘quite a simple challenge,’ creating twelve identical sandwich cakes with whatever filling and toppings they liked. The nerves are evident among the most sensitive of the group, with charity director Will wringing his hands from the get-go. From split buttercream to forgetting to put on his oven, Will’s first bake is a disaster, cemented with the doom of Prue calling his ginger and caramel squares “a bit disappointing” and Whitewalker labelling them “bland”. Shout out here too to the baby of the group, 18-year-old Maisam who splits her buttercream, cuts her cake while it's still hot and still manages to pull it back.
Sandro, a gym bunny who is also a nanny, displays immense calm throughout episode one. His incredible chocolate flower pots put him at the front of the pack, almost side-by-side with Polish Janusz who is giving him a run for his money. Malaysian-born Syabira is an immediate fan favourite when her lurid green pandan sandwich cakes impress the judges, but it’s her red velvet cake that proves a major hit, with Prue labelling it “just fantastic.” A sunbeam in human form, Syabira makes all of us go wibbly when she declares that this makes her “heart just melt.”
25-year-old James is both a nuclear scientist and an immense flirt, but that does not mean that he is immune from potential elimination. He sails through the first two rounds, but his showstopper cake – a replica of his London flat made with alternating layers of chocolate and orange sponge – fails to impress the judges.
Rebs redeems herself in the showstopper round ('hon the Irish) with her country cottage inspired by the Pina Coladas she enjoyed with her parents during Lockdown. Hollywood declares that it looks great and that the flavours come through beautifully. Maybe winter isn’t coming after all.
In the end, Will is the man to get the axe. He is dotey, but the pressure is too much for this man.
On his way out of the tent, he says “Someone’s got to go first and obviously I’m disappointed but I’m proud to have made it. There’s a lovely bunch of people I’ve met and I’ve got an experience that I can definitely talk about and share. I’m proud of that.”
Janusz is crowned star baker, and we all have a tear in our eye because his showstopper cake was dedicated to his Mam and how her balcony was the only one that looked happy in a very sad block of flats. Winning star baker this week is “everything to him,” he says. And just like that, we're crying again. It's good to be back.
