Flora Shedden with Mel in the Bake off tent. There were many cutaways of Paul Hollywood and his signature “good luck”; code for “you are going home”. Elsewhere in the tent, there’s an odd trend for people serving their biscotti with alcoholic drinks for no real reason.
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These unusual biscuits are Paul’s choice for the technical challenge.
The Technical Challenge is to whip up some arlettes – French puff pastry delights with cinnamon swirled in.
“I started baking because in the Fire Brigade you do a four days on, four days off shift pattern”, he explained.
The Great British Bake Off contestant Marie Campbell has come under intense scrutiny, after it was revealed that she is not quite the amateur baker the BBC show claims.
Marie said: “We had a great party for episode one with the children and grandchildren at my daughter’s house, and she had put up bunting and balloons”. Oh, and the biscuit box must be made of different biscuit to the biscuits that are inside the biscuit box.
There’s a steely mystique about Paul – not least because he looks a lot like his namesake Mr Hollywood.
The bakers had to make 36 identical biscuits. She didn’t mill her own flour either, the lazy so-and-so. This year we have already witnessed anaesthetist Tamal syringing his cake with lemon syrup and I’m sure Alvin, the nurse, thermometer in hand, had no problems ensuring his tempered chocolate reached the magic number of 32 degrees.
Scottish grandmother Campbell, 66, said competing in the Bake Off had been on her bucket list. Who comes off looking like a Hob Nob, and who crumbles under the pressure? Presumably that isn’t a Lithuanian tradition. They’re nothing compared to Nadiya though, who is getting in a complete state.
No, it was because presenter Sue Perkins stuck her mitt in.
The showstopper challenge, meanwhile, was something out of week eight or nine – not two. Is everyone else’s not?
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In the end, Ian Cumming was crowned star baker for his rosemary biscotti.
