Bake Off Breakdown: the final bake.

Well we have reached the final of this year’s bake off and we have no idea who the winner this year will be… unless you read Prue’s twitter account this morning where she prematurely announced the winner before the show even began. Oh well we might as well all watch it and see how the final goes.  This week the final three bakers, Stephen, Kate and Sophie, started off by creating a collection of 12 small loaves of various types.  Next up Prue set a technical challenge of ten ginger biscuits of differing shapes and all intricately iced.  Lastly for this year the bakers had to make an entremets - a multi-layered mousse cake - with different layers and textures such as jelly, meringue and sponge.  It was truly impressive to see the amount of work each of the bakers put into this last piece of baking!  They all looked like they deserved to be in this final.

This series has proved a lot of people, including myself, wrong. The worry that all Channel 4 had bought was a big white tent has absolutely been smashed this year.  The viewing figures have been absolutely sensational for Channel 4 and well deserved.  The format has stayed the same but Sandi and Noel, although not conventional casting on paper, have absolutely lifted the show and brought a different sense of humour. Prue has also been great casting as her judging style is honest and fair and she can easily hold her own against Paul.  I know I have felt far more interested and involved this year and I am really looking forward to it coming back in its various guises in the near future.

Roll on the Stand Up to Cancer Celebrity Bake off!

In a week of lovely loaves and unfinished ginger biscuits the highlights were:

Light mousses of the week:

• Sophie’s loaves all looked lovely and tasted delicious.
• Kate’s did well with her loves and her filled loaves “tastes divine”.
• Stephen’s decoration was excellent and his biscuits tasted good.
• Sophie’s biscuits looked decent and tasted lovely.
• Sophie’s Ode to the Honeybee entremets looked “absolutely stunning” and tasted “amazing”.
• Kate’s entremets has great flavour combinations.

Ruined announcements of the week:

• Stephen’s loaves all split open and looked “pretty terrible” and “awful”.
• Kate didn’t finish her biscuits. In the final. Not good.
• Stephen’s entremets looked “unfinished” and the layers were not set properly.

Sandi and Noel highlights of the week:

• Noel’s inventive roman names - Stuart.
• Sandi boring Stephen with talk of the Monkey’s fist knot. It’s not QI!
• Noel’s down with the kids reference to Mork and Mindy.
• Sandi and Noel looked genuinely emotional after the final bake was finished.

How Sophie won The Great British Bake Off 2017. #GBBOFinal pic.twitter.com/OYmd9PuKb4

— British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) October 31, 2017

And this year’s winner is… not Liam seeing how he cruelly wasn’t actually in the final.  Sophie was crowned the 2017 winner.  Her baking in this final was wonderful to see and I really wished I could have tasted that entremets!

Contributed by Graeme Thomson-Gold