Season 15 of the Great British Baking Show is now streaming on Netflix, and with it comes every sweet treat you could ever want. Airing as “Collection 12” on the streaming platform and available for streaming three days after airing on British television, the Bake Off brings back its signature humor, good-natured competition, and heart-warming moments.
This season — or series, to the Brits — begins with co-host Alison Hammond floating down to Barbie-esque Bake Land, to join co-host-Barbie Noel Fielding, judge Barbie Paul Hollywood, and judge Weird Barbie Prue Leith. Then, the newest bakers are welcomed into the iconic tent-turned-kitchen.
Episode 1 is Cake Week, bringing the bakers and the audience three challenges: 1) A signature loaf cake, baked to perfection, with enough time to cool and decorate; 2) The technical round, recreating eight, perfectly symmetrical, mini Battenberg cakes, with five minutes to taste and no recipe; and 3) A show-stopping hyper-realistic illusion cake — basically, anything that could be on a TikTok of “Is It Cake?” Cue 12 of Britain’s best amateur bakers.
The Challenges
1. The Signature Challenge: An Elevated Loaf Cake
The judges are looking for “the baking holy trinity,” in these loaf cakes: Sponge, texture, and flavor. This means the right amount of mixing and baking. Because aesthetics are also important here, the judges were concerned with time management: If it took too long to bake the cake, it would be too warm to decorate without the icing and other decorations melting off. Of course, that’s exactly what happened for some of our contestants.
Illiyin is a midwife, mother, and one of eight siblings. She created a cinnamon roll cake, using a swirled pan that, despite worries that the cake wouldn’t come out of the pan easily, slipped out perfectly. “The midwife in me was so happy with a smooth delivery,” she said. Prue quickly complimented her cake but Paul was silent for a few extra seconds. Then he smiled and gave her a handshake — a big deal in the Bake Off world.
Gill, close with her mother and sister, used the signature challenge to pay homage to her sister who “bullied” her into applying: Gill created a chocolate, orange loaf cake. Her cake looked beautiful and had a great marble, although it was clear by the decorations that the cake did not cool enough before decorating.
John, an NHS manager, created a cherry and chocolate marble loaf cake, topped with a dark chocolate ganache. Despite the cake looking like a mess, the flavors were good for the judges.
Andy, a mechanic, baked a lemon drizzle cake that he called “‘My First Bake’ Cake” because this was one of the first things he learned to bake. Unfortunately, Andy’s cake was dense and heavy.
Mike used produce grown on his family farm for his lemon and linseed cake. However, his cake turned out to be strong in color and flavor.
Georgie baked a vanilla and chocolate marble cake, what the pediatric nurse called a “Nonna Cake,” meaning she didn’t measure any of the ingredients — just like her Nonna. Georgie’s cake also didn’t look pretty but had some good flavor…with room for improvement.
Sumayah, an 18-year-old dentistry student — the youngest baker in the tent — channeled her South Asian roots into a Carrot Cake with a surprise: Halwa. When finished, her cake looked very nice and had a great texture (meaning it wasn’t overmixed). She was also awarded the compliment that her cake was, “one of the most interesting cakes [Prue has] ever eaten.”
Jeff, a Bronx-native, baked a raspberry, lemon, and almond cake, with a star shape in the middle. The retired lecturer called this cake his “guiding star” cake, in honor of his wife. Though the design didn’t turn out perfectly, the cake itself had good height, texture, and flavor.
Nelly created a pineapple and coconut cake, what the Slovakian care assistant called a “comfort” cake. When tested by the judges, her cake was very soft, almost pudding-like, and though it didn’t turn out so pretty-looking, the judges called it tasty.
Dylan baked a sticky mango rice loaf cake, remembering a favorite food from his gap year in South East Asia. His cake also had good height and though it was a bit dense, the flavor was good.
Christiaan, a Dutch fashion designer, put together an umami apple loaf cake. He used miso to create the umami flavoring. Sadly, the miso flavoring did not work in his favor.
Hazel is a retired nail technician and grandmother and baked a raspberry surprise cake. Unfortunately though, the surprise turned out to be that the cake was overbaked and therefore dry.
2. The Technical Challenge: Eight Technically Perfectly Mini Battenbergs
Up next are perfect mini Battenbergs. The bakers were given their own for five minutes to taste and study them before they were taken away. From those few minutes with the Battenbergs the challenge was to remake them as perfectly as possible…without the recipe.
These cakes are checkered with two colors, held together with jam, and enveloped by a layer of marzipan, almost like fondant. Some of the contestants knew exactly which direction to go in. Others were totally daunted, not knowing how to make marzipan, what other ingredients were needed, or where to start.
Luckily for Georgie, her cakes were most identical to the original ones and she won the technical challenge.
3. The Showstopper Challenge: Hyper-Realistic Illusion Cake
Not only did the Show-Stopper Challenge cakes need to have a good, well-made sponge cake, they also needed to be hyper-realistic items. The sponge on the cake for this challenge, needed to be a soft-delicious sponge, that wasn’t too soft — otherwise, it couldn’t hold the hyper-realism together.
Georgie has chickens and sculpted her favorite chicken, Fanny, out of cake. Though she had some mishaps with her butter and her batter, the taste turned out okay.
Sumayah, also going in an avian direction, crafted her pet duck out of an orange and balsamic strawberries cake. The judges loved Sumayah’s cake, including taste and texture, and her duck turned out to be relatively hyper-realistic.
Dylan created an ancient Egyptian sculpture out of chiffon cake. Though chiffon is a very light and soft cake, perhaps not the best for this type of sculpting, he was complimented on his choice of cake and the ability for his piece to stay together.
Christiaan, whipping up a bright-green, life-sized vintage sewing machine, created a chocolate, orange, olive oil, sponge cake. Again, the judges were not a fan of Christiaan’s flavor combinations.
John channeled his inner brunch, creating a tequila and lime curd with a margarita cake. The boozy treat created a pair of blue jeans. Luckily the margarita flavor was great for the judges because the jean design did not have enough detailing for them. The detailing troubles did not impact him too much, though: John was named star baker!
Gill, drawing again on relationships with her family, created balls from a game that she plays with her mother. The cake had Irish cream batter, Irish cream icing, and Irish cream filling.
Mike, the nerdy farmer that he is, put together a stack of sweet bottles: Espresso and buttercream. The leather on the book looked really good and the judges called it a “beautiful cake.”
Andy carved the tiniest leather overnight bag out of coconut sponge with raspberry jam and coconut buttercream. The beautifully detailed bag tasted good but the cake was unfortunately overbaked because he didn’t hear his timer going off.
Hazel, a lover of luxury, carved a luxury handbag, complete with a real handle that she used to walk the cake over to the judges. Though the detailing on her bag was…fine, her cake was overbaked.
Nelly created a huge retro black leather shoe with raspberry curd — it had a “lovely” chocolate flavor but not enough of the raspberry flavoring.
Illiyin crafted a blue vase with flowers. The secret to her hyper-realistic flowers is dropping small circles of rice paper into the flowers. Her cake texture and flavors were great, but the vase was not hyper-realistic enough.
When John was named star baker, the other contestants were about to be put through the heart-wrenching act of learning who would be asked to leave from the series. However, Jeff was sick and had to take some time off. So instead, everyone got to stay! There is a possibility that two contestants will have to leave in the second episode. With the announcement that no one had to leave, the entire crew of contestants brought us the characteristic good-hearted excitement that this series is loved for. The rest of the season is sure breaking down to be sweet, in more ways than one.
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