The Great British Bake Off/Baking Show – Week 4 – Caramel 2024

Last week John was defeated by bread and left the tent. Caramel was the theme for week four. There were fails and successes all around and many bakers were repeating the caramel process because of difficulties.

Signature: 12 caramel biscuits in 2 1/2 hours

Jenny: Andy and Nelly need their own show. They make me smile. I loved when Andy said his friends call him “Willy Wonka – or maybe they just called me a wanker”. Several bakers had to start their caramel over and Illiyin had a flowing long sleeve top that made me think of Sandra Lee – of Semi-home Meals with her long flowing lace sleeves. I always feared she would go up in flames. Mike was funny as well when Noel mentioned that his biscuits were Jackson Pollock like – and Mike replied maybe just bollocks. Mike’s biscuits were good but Paul said they were bulging out of the side when Prue left the table she told him to work on his bulge. Prue, you vixen. Gill’s were judged a little large and she replied again that they were her “Northern portions” – Paul deemed them a great millionaire’s shortbread and corrected himself to billionaire’s. Most of the bakers received good comments and Georgie nearly received a handshake – but she was missing a biscuit or two. Paul enjoys teasing her.

Darcie: As we see this week, caramel can be a fickle mistress. Most of the bakers proceeded with a dry caramel while Mike and a couple of others opted for a wet caramel, where you start off by adding water to help the sugar dissolve evenly. A chef friend of mine once scolded me for relying on wet caramel but I stand by that method. The end result is the same and it is more failsafe so I’ll stick with it. I have successfully made a dry caramel but I’ve also failed with it, with the results exactly like Illiyin’s and other bakers, where the sugar crystallizes and clumps like mad. Overall I thought the bakers did well, and I would have happily eaten any of their creations but especially Andy’s and Georgie’s. I hope Georgie eventually gets a Hollywood handshake because she’s been so close twice.

Technical: Prue set the challenge. Pear tarte Tatin and walnut ice cream in 3 hours.

Jenny: It is caramel week, Prue. You are having the bakers make a rough puff pastry and two caramels one for the tarte and one for the ice cream. You are a beast. Noel knocked over Nelly’s bowl of caramel to which Nelly replied – “if she goes home he owes me a ride in a posh car.” The judging saw mixed reviews – some caramel was too dark, some too light, pastry not done well.

Darcie: I was taken aback by the lackluster results of this challenge. None of them looked great and several were disasters. Maybe it was the time crunch or perhaps it was due to temperatures in the tent, but most of the rough puff looked doughy or short. I think that the judges may have felt like having only a Tarte Tatin would be too simple so they threw in the curve ball of the ice cream to provide more difficulty. If so, I guess they achieved their goal! Poor Andy had been riding high on the signature only to be crushed in the technical. Gill’s shaky performance had me worried about her ability to remain in the competition.

Judging: Last place found Andy, followed by Gill and then Mike. Third went to Sumayah, second to Christiaan and first went to Georgie.

Showstopper: A caramel mousse cake with sugar work decorations in 4 1/2 hours.

Jenny: Mike, Illiyin and Gill had their mixtures split and had to start over. I thought most of the cakes were spectacular. Nelly’s cake was elegant and tasted delicious. The judges loved Christiaan’s cake and the sharpness from the lime jelly. Sumayah’s mirror glaze had too much gelatin and was gloopy and disappointing. Andy’s tree themed cake had a brilliant design and tasted great – except the dacquoise was too stodgy. The judge’s missed that Mike’s mousse split and renamed his cake a tiramisu cake. Georgie’s looked very professional but was too small and Dylan’s was named the flavour king but his cake was a bit too small as well.

Darcie: Is this a Mandela effect or do I remember correctly that in previous seasons, the judges said they couldn’t take into account anything other than what happened that week when deciding who would be sent home? This week, Paul explicitly stated that they needed to consider who would perform better going forward and I would have sworn on a stack of The Cake Bibles that they did not do that in earlier seasons.

Back to the challenge: this was nerve-wracking for me because I am terrified of mousses and mirror glaze. Knowing how much gelatin to use is tricky business! I’m so happy that Nelly pulled off an elegant and delicious dessert so we get to hear her sassy commentary another week. The bakers who chose fancy entremet moulds were marked down for the size being too small and several contestants suffered from not having a good balance between their mousse(s) and other layers. Sumayah’s Chihuly-inspired decoration looked good, and I also like Christiaan’s wave although it was a bit clunky. The judges were split on the flavor of Andy’s apple candy floss (cotton candy). If we are going to spend enormous sums of money and use gobs of energy on a technology, I say let’s ditch most AI and LLM and invent smell-a-vision and taste-a-vision so we can judge these challenges for ourselves.

The star baker was Georgie and Mike was sent home.

Jane’s translation service: Apologies for the delay in me posting this! Wispa is a chocolate bar that has lots of little air bubbles in the chocolate. Paul quipped about Bungle when a contestant mentioned the flavour was zippy – these were characters in Rainbow, a long running children’s TV series. And finally stodgy is a very bad thing in your baking – it’s thick, gluey, and dense.