This week’s theme was the 1970s, meaning paisley prints, retro-styled designs, and funky sunglasses. The 1970s marks the quarterfinals: “I definitely didn’t think I’d make it this far,” Dylan said, at the beginning of the episode. “But I feel like now if I go home, at least I can be like, quarterfinalist! … or whatever.”
“I think that it is absolutely insane that I am here, in the quarterfinal, of The Great British Bake Off,” Illiyin said. “And now I’m like, ‘Right, babes, get to the final.’”
“I think I’m the only baker left that was alive in the 70s,” Gill added, with a laugh. “But unless we’re doing pineapple and cheese on sticks or jelly and ice cream, I don’t think it’s gonna do me a lot of good.”
The Signature Challenge: Profiteroles
The judges, Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith, requested a 1970s classic— profiteroles which are puffs of choux pastry, filled with cream. They also requested a decorative stack of at least 30 of them. The flavor was up to the baker’s discretion, they were just told “think 1970s.”
“So, prawn cocktail, coal,” co-host Noel Fielding said, making co-host Alison Hammond laugh.
“Food in the 70s gets a bad rap today,” Leith began. “So, our idea today is that we should revive some of those classic 70s bakes and see what the bakers make of it.”
The key to profiteroles, according to Hollywood, is getting the choux, the type of pastry correct, and getting the consistency correct. This means not too much egg and the right size of the pastry so they don’t go soft when filled with cream. The bakers must rely on their baking experience to decide how much egg to add while creating the choux in order to have the correct consistency to pipe.
Christiaan, channeling a Black Forest gâteau, creating a chocolate choux pastry that he planned to fill with a Kirsch (type of brandy) and cherry jam, and a Kirsch and chocolate namalanka (across between a ganache and a mousse). He also decorated with fresh cherries and kirsch Chantilly cream. He created a croquembouche: a stack in a cone shape. He decided he needed to remake his choux, as his first pastries did not rise correctly. Luckily, Dylan was able to give Christiaan a hand. Despite the drama, Christiaan was able to complete his 1970s tower and present a beautiful creation to the judges. Though his creation was a, “bit boozy,” the flavors worked well, especially with the cream on the outside.
Dylan took inspiration from Star Wars, the 1970s most famous film. His profiterole stack is droid-inspired, with a nougatine stand (“precision engineered”) and filled with banana crème pâtissière and salted caramel. For the second week in a row, Hollywood awarded Dylan with a handshake because of how well his signature turned out!
Georgie, also creating a croquembouche, was inspired by 1970s bands, Queen and Freddie Mercury. She topped her tower with a white chocolate Freddie Mercury silhouette. Her profiteroles will be filled with a white chocolate and coconut crème pâtissière and also a dark chocolate and salted caramel crème pâtissière. The judges loved her flavors.
Illiyin used two flavors: White chocolate diplomat with raspberry jam and a brown butter caramel with hazelnut and amaretto diplomat. She used her signature challenge as an ode to the Afro, with, “bright, 70s colors.” The colors turned out amazingly, although her tower did begin to lean over a bit. The judges thought the flavors were absolutely delicious.
Gill was inspired by a Christmas tree that her parents bought when they first got married in the 1970s. Her croquembouche is a Christmas tree, made of chocolate and hazelnut crème pâtissière, coated with red and green craquelin, and finishing it off with the tree being held together with caramel. The judges thought her tree turned out nicely and Hollywood called her creation, “simple but effective.”
The Technical Challenge: Banoffee Pie
Paul Hollywood set this week’s challenge and gave the tip that although they’ll know the bake, it is, “all about the textures.”
Banoffee pie is a, “buttery,” shortcrust pastry, filled with caramel and slices of banana, all topped by piped Chantilly cream. Except, instead of giving instructions to the 1970s treat, Hollywood only provided quantities of ingredients. According to Hollywood, they needed to be careful about how much water to add or else the pastry will end up, “like rubber.” The bakers also needed to be careful about the length of cooking the caramel.
Though Gill remarked that, when she walked into the technical challenge, she said, “Please don’t let it be caramel again.” But all of the bakers worried about their caramel setting properly and how their creamy-piped flowers turned out.
As always, the technical challenge is judged blind. Here are the results:
- Georgie
- Christiaan
- Dylan
- Illiyin
- Gill
The Showstopping Challenge: Gâteau
For this 1970s-themed Showstopper, the judges are looking for a gâteau— a cake, usually including layers of cream or fruit, with at least two tiers made of, “delicious sponges, feather-light fillings, and intricately piped decoration.”
“For me, a gâteau is all about softness,” Hollywood said. “A nice, soft sponge, lots of cream… almost trifle-like but without being a trifle.”
Leith recommends a génoise for a really light gâteau, made by whipping the eggs to, “incorporate as much air as [you] can,” Christiaan explained.
Because a gâteau includes cream, Hollywood also recommended dowels and boards in the cake to prevent a soggy, collapsing mess. And the key to proper decoration is a properly cooled cake, of course.
Illiyin decided to go for a “two-tiered peach melba, vintage-style gâteau,” for her 1970s showstopper. Using eight layers of génoise sponge and layered with peach Chantilly cream, peach and champagne compôte, and a raspberry compôte. All eight layers, made into two tiers, were covered in white chocolate whipped ganache (to prevent as much collapse as possible). Unfortunately, she didn’t have enough ganache and had to add some buttercream as well; and her cake began to slant over. She ended up doing some of her piping work in the fridge in order to let it all set— but when she took it out of the fridge the top tier fell off.
Despite the tragic nature of how her cake ended up looking, “it tastes like heaven,” Leith said.
Christiaan, inspired by his grandma, created a lemon, hazelnut, and advocaat gâteau. His layers include a boozy advocaat (something like a Dutch eggnog) curd and a hazelnut génoise, covered in decorative buttercream (brown, pink, orange, and yellow). His, “psychedelic,” cake was definitely 1970s but was way too boozy, so the flavors were slightly off.
Gill, going with the Black Forest for her 1970s cake, made black cocoa sponges, layered with cherry and mascarpone filling, covered in a, “shagpile,” buttercream. Her three-tiered cake is a tribute to Saturday lunch with her dad. Leith called her cake, “a real showstoppers.” They loved the flavors and the chocolatey-ness of the sponge.
Georgie was also inspired by Black Forest flavors, decorated like her aunt’s bathroom. She used a chocolate, Kirsch-soaked sponge and a mascarpone and cherry jam filling with vintage buttercream pipe work on the outside. She also included amareno cherries. Her bright pink and green cake (intentionally “hideous” to emulate the 1970s) ended up, “very boozy,” as there was a whole bottle of Kirsch in it, but delicious.
Dylan decided to go for a mint chocolate chip flavored gâteau. His four tiers of chocolate sponge is filled and coated with a peppermint buttercream. Though he was a bit worried about decorating his cakes. Dylan was hoping for half an hour to decorate his cake but ended up only having ten minutes to pipe. The bright green cake looked perfectly 1970s, however his cake was a bit too pepperminty and not chocolatey enough.
After getting through 1970s week, Georgie was named Star Baker!
But, unfortunately, Illiyin was sent home.
“It’s a funny thing. I can feel, like, I can feel my shoulders drop a little bit,” she said, through tears and a little laugh. “Well, at least you don’t have to go and practice patisserie.”
But she ended the journey with, “an immense bit of pride,” thankful for Bake Off.
Heading into the semi-finals, Patisserie Week is next!
What's Your Reaction?
