The Great British Bake Off/Baking Show – Back to School Week 4 – 2025

Sharpen your pencils – for the first time ever, it is back to school week in the tent.

Signature Challenge: Twelve identical flapjacks with an extra filling or topping in two hours.

A flapjack (also known as a cereal bar, oat bar or oat slice) is a baked bar, cooked in a flat oven tin and cut into squares or rectangles. We have over 150 online recipes for flapjacks.

Comments from the judges included: Tom’s abstract apples (minus a stalk) were deemed very clever – and absolutely was apple crumble. They loved it. Jasmine’s raspberry chocolate and hazelnut flapjacks were decorated brilliantly and neatly. Chewiness, texture and flavor – all checked! Iain’s banana bread type flapjacks with caramelized banana slices were a bit soft – and needed more walnut flavor and judged to be slightly under baked.

Nataliia’s were not very neat and were chewy with the chocolate ganache being overpowering and were a bit dry. Nadia’s cherry & coconut flapjacks were varying in size and had too much chocolate and was lacking in coconut flavor. Toby’s carrot patch bakes looked lovely but the spice level was quite high with the cinnamon and needed more of a carrot cake taste. Jessika’s red wine flapjacks had good flavor but the texture was gluey. The pear really softened up the oats.

Aaron’s flapjacks looked beautiful and were delicious. The lemon gave it a nice lift and the Earl Grey was perfect. Lesley’s cherry Bakewell flapjacks didn’t cool down enough to cut they had real Bakewell flavor but was too sweet. The icing was too thick and with the cherries being sweet – it was off-putting. She also used shortbread as a base which was a mistake.

Darcie: Some of the bakers needed to heed the adage of ‘less is more’ – particularly when it came to the icing. The balance was tilted too far toward the topping on several of the bakes, resulting in demerits for Lesley, Nataliia, and Nadia. The only reason Tom was able to pull off having more topping than flapjack is because he put a unique spin on it and hit the flavor notes exactly. A few bakers tried for an extra flavor punch but did not get gold stars.

Technical Challenge: School cake and custard set by Prue in two hours. Everything should be made from scratch including the sprinkles!

Homemade sprinkles and a jug of custard! They should be given a jug of rum to drown their sorrows. Many negative comments – cakes were dense, custard had lumps, some not risen, icing all over the place, overbaked and so forth. Aaron and Jasmine has positive comments and did a great job overall.

Coming in last – was Nadia, followed by Nataliia. In second place was Aaron and Jasmine came in first. Jasmine may be our star this season.

Darcie: I cannot think of the last time I made a cake by hand – I think my arms might fall off if I had to cream butter and sugar with a spoon. I’m spoiled by having a stand mixer and in fact have a backup in case mine ever dies. The bakers took it all in stride, however, and gamely made everything with ‘old-school’ methods. They were not provided with measurements, either, but at least there were not any decoy ingredients provided as in the first technical. While this was a simple cake and icing, plus a poured custard, not being able to use appliances and having to make the sprinkles from scratch meant it was far from easy. Most of the bakers managed to turn out something passable, if not fantastic. Jasmine seemed well on her way to a repeat for star baker, while Nadia and Nataliia were struggling.

Showstopper Challenge: Create a summer féte* stall display with an array of decorative themed treats. It needed to have at at least one large bake and two batches of differing smaller bakes. All this in 4 1/2 hours.

*In the UK, a fete (pronounced “fate”) is a traditional public festival, often an outdoor event held in a village or community, featuring games, food stalls, raffles, and other activities, and often serving as a fundraiser.

• Tom made a science fair-inspired display that featuring a chemical reaction to provided added drama. His red velvet cake was judged delicious, the petri dish crème brûlée was lovely and his coconut mousse with a sponge inside was too liquid but clever.
• Jasmine chose her favorite games as her theme – hook a duck, quoits, and hopscotch. Her sponge cake with orange and lemon extract was deemed a bit “fake tasting” but was baked well. Her pretzel was delicious and her biscuits were neat as a pin. Paul commented that she had “style with substance”.
• Toby also chose a hook a duck pool as part of his theme, but the sides looked a mess. However, his lemon blueberry cake had a beautiful sponge. The tennis balls were strawberry and cream and delicious and the judges loved the Parmesan and rosemary sandwich biscuits.
• Iain went with his beloved favorite school computer, but the final product had too many added non-edible bits like the keyboard and mouse. The computer cake was funfetti with vanilla and raspberry but his buttercream was gritty. His chocolate-coated biscuits were very sweet and his pâte sablée was too sweet as well due to the meringue.
• Aaron’s 4-hour relay display was a bit flat and untidy. His flavors were good but they wanted his work to be neater. His buns were also under proved.
• Nataliia’s handbag-inspired display was loved by the judges. Her cake was vanilla with cream cheese and citrus curd, her biscuits were crumbly (in a good way) and her apples were beautiful and delicious.
• Lesley’s happy memories of the 70s looked great. Coffee and walnut cake was delicious, her biscuits and meringue lollies were great as well.
• Nadia’s lemon drizzle cake was slightly overbaked but with nice flavor. Her vanilla doughnuts had a fake strawberry taste from the glaze but the donut “burger” sandwiches were well received.
• Jessika’s theme was “prehistoric pantry” which felt a bit out of place and left Paul underwhelmed. Her stout cake’s texture was all wrong and the flavor was bitter.

Darcie: I am just mad that we never had summer fétes where I went to school – maybe the next closest thing would be the county fair. I echo Jenny’s comments above. Nadia and Nataliia saved themselves by doing well in the showstopper – Nadia went beyond the brief and made four items instead of three. Jessika was doomed by choosing something large that took far too long to bake considering the time frame involved. Her theme ended up being a dud because the colors were drab, plus the judges did not care for her flavors.

I think Iain would have been better served to make the components that he added as decoration – the keyboard and mouse – as cake and instead had a monitor as a backdrop prop. It was disappointing to see Aaron struggle since he did so well in the signature and showstopper. Lesley continued her mid-pack performance – I thought she might have a breakout week but maybe that won’t come to pass.

Jasmine was crowned star baker for the second week in a row, while Iain narrowly avoided getting sent home after Prue and Paul elected to eliminate Jessika.