Who left The Great British Bake Off tonight? Recap series 16 episode 4 as fourth baker leaves tent
Recap what happened in back-to-school week on The Great British Bake Off 👀
- The Great British Bake Off has eliminated another star.
- A fourth baker has left the tent after being ‘expelled’ in back-to-school week.
- But which star flunked the tests this week?
In a brand new theme, The Great British Bake Off sent the contestants back-to-school this week. Coming shortly after kids returned to the classroom across the nation.
Paul Hollywood was ‘terribly excited’ for the new theme because cake and custard was on the menu. Remind yourself why viewers were complaining about the ‘consistency’ of judging last week.
Heading into this week’s episode, three bakers had already been eliminated from the tent. But school would soon be out for another amateur.
Recap what happened in the Bake Off tent this week. Including who got Star Baker and who had to pack their aprons.
Who left The Great British Bake Off tonight?
Spoilers for GBBO series 16 episode 4 to follow. Don’t read further if you haven’t watched the episode on Tuesday, September 23.
The first bake of the week was a school days classic in the form of a flapjack signature break. Unfortunately for some of the bakers, this old favourite landed a few of them in ‘detention’. (I will not stop the school puns and you can’t make me).
Nataliia was not familiar with flapjacks before the challenge and she may not want to bring them back to Ukraine. She had a bit of mixed feedback to start the week, while a few others like Iain and Jessika also had critiques around being a bit soft in the texture department.
Lesley also struggled in the flapjacks and got perhaps the worst feedback of all in the signature bake. But there were still two more exams to sit, I mean challenges to face.
Prue had lesson planned a very tricky technical challenge in the form of a school cake, with everything having to be handmade. It proved to be a rather savage test and the bakers couldn’t revise for it.
Nadia had a hard time in the technical and was in last place with the cake overbaked and troubles with the custard as well. Nataliia was in the second bottom spot in the judging - continuing a tough week for her.
But fortunately, the bakers still had the showstopper challenge to impress and potentially save their spot in the competition. Nadia, Nataliia, and Jessika were identified by the judges at being at risk before the final test.
Iain once again had a bit of a hard time with the showstopper, with his bakes being overly sweet, and he overly relied on props. After her struggles on day one, Nataliia really pulled it out of the bag and did a great job in the final challenge, and so did Nadia.
Jessika’s design ‘underwhelmed’ with Paul saying that it ‘didn’t pop’. The texture of her cake was ‘all wrong’, Prue said, and the baker declared it was ‘brutal’ after getting the feedback.
The final decision was between Jessika and Iain, Prue and Paul said in the last debrief of the episode. It was decided that Jessika would be leaving.
Who was Star Baker on GBBO this week?
So far three different bakers had scooped the gong, but would that trend continue again in week four? Despite his fancy apple flapjacks not 100% working from a style point of view, the judges loved the flavours.
Reigning star baker Jasmine was another who impressed with her flapjacks, with flavour and technique both being praised. Aaron’s lemon flapjacks went down really well and even Paul ‘loved it’.
Jasmine and Aaron impressed again in the technical, finishing in first and second place in the blind ranking. Could Aaron be the latest new name etched on the Star Baker award?
Tom impressed with his school fete creation, with almost all of his elements working. Jasmine’s showstopper also lived up to the name and Paul called it ‘style with substance’.
Toby also saved his best for last with an excellent showstopper. Aaron did have enjoyable flavours but the design didn’t live up to expectations and he was now out of the running.
Star Baker went to Jasmine for the second week in a row.
What were the challenges in back-to-school week?
The Bake Off team introduced a brand new theme into the famous tent this week. In the spirit of the end of summer, it was time for a ‘back-to-school’ special - even though classrooms have been open for a fair few weeks already.
First up for this week’s signature bake, they had to come up with 12 flapjacks with a classic oaty base. Might have been on that took you back to being in food tech - or whichever name it went by in your school!
Prue did warn in a VO that the bakers had to be careful with flavours as they could overpower the oats. Paul wanted to see some ‘school magic’ from the amateurs in this challenge.
Up second was the blind judged technical challenge and they had to make a school cake - including white icing, custard, sprinkles and vanilla flavouring. They also had to make everything from scratch with no modern equipment - oh and the custard had to be lump free.
It might be a blasphemous act to admit this but during primary school, I absolutely hated having custard on my cake. Fortunately, I have since seen the light and my life is immeasurably better as a result.
The showstopper they had to produce a spectacular summer fete stall display. It had to have at least one large bake and smaller creations as well.
Paul warned that with multi-baking it could go wrong in ‘every single area’. Which is a vote of confidence if I have ever heard one.
Plenty of school fete games featured in the showstoppers, with hook-a-duck being particularly well represented. No goldfish were being handed out as prizes, unfortunately.
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