This Sunday, The Great British Bake Off for Stand Up to Cancer was back again, with a fresh batch of celebs taking on 3 culinary challenges in a chance to win the coveted Star Baker Apron. Our fourth round of celebrities saw Greg James (radio and television presenter), Fern Brady (stand up comedian, podcaster and writer), Mel B (Scary Spice) and Dermot O’Leary broadcaster and TV presenter, take on the Great British Bake Off tent.
For today’s Signature bake the celebs had 2 hours and 15 minutes to bake a batch of 8 identical, soft, sweet buns, adorned with beautiful icing. This week the celebs had to get personal, with the baked goods reflecting a meaningful period/person in their life. According to Paul this challenge was a “tricky bake as it’s bread”, the key to a light and fluffy bun was a perfectly executed prove and knead.
Up first to receive Prue and Paul’s judgment, were Mel B’s ‘Rum and Raisin’ Iced Buns, which drew on her Caribbean heritage using her Dad’s favourite Rum and Nevis inspired piped icing. While extremely tasty, with a gorgeous Rum kick the bakes were just slightly underproved. Next, Greg’s ‘Custard’ Iced Buns, which celebrated his favourite food, custard. According to the master bakers, the shapes were odd, and the icing was all over the place, but had a lovely flavour. Then onto Fern’s ‘Cardamon and Orange’ knotted buns, a Swedish-inspired bake, complemented by orange icing. These received praise for their look and taste, yet were slightly inconsistent in size. Last but certainly not least, Dermot’s ‘Fruit of the Forest’ Iced buns, drew inspiration from childhood memories. The buns were filled with forest jam and a light Chantilly cream and adorned with shattered berries and gold leaf. These were praised for their overall good look, and delicious taste, bagging Dermot a handshake from Mr Hollywood himself.
The mystery Technical this week was set by Paul. The celebrities were tasked with crafting the perfect chocolate and raspberry roulade, rolled perfectly to form a Chantilly swirl decorated with piped cream and berries. As the cousin of the Swiss roll, the roulade has a mousse-like texture with meringue in the middle. The first task was to whisk the all-important flourless sponge. Egg whites whisked, and bowls bravely placed above the celeb's heads, it was time to crack on with baking the mixture. With the bakes out the oven and ready to cool, the celebs had to carefully use the paper to roll the bake and roulade filling into a beautiful swirl.
Now the swirly bakes were ready to receive judgment. Up first, Gregs bake, deemed more a sandwich than a swirl which tasted lovely, but looked terrible, according to Paul, bagged him 4th place. Next, we had Mel B’s trifle-like bake, in the words of Paul ‘a bit of a mess’ placed her in 3rd. Onto, Dermot’s impressive attempt, with a perfectly balanced raspberry-to-cream ratio, bagged him 2nd place. Then onto the winner, Fern’s bake, a beautifully light and tasty roulade, crowning her queen of the Technical challenge.
Finally, onto the main event, the Showstopper. This week the celebrities were tasked with creating a biscuit portrait of their celebrity Doppelgänger. It was all to play for in this challenge which enabled lots of room for creativity in flavour and colour. Fern’s ‘Boy George’ Doppelgänger biscuit, sandwiched with cheese filling and decorated in vibrant royal icing, impressed the judges with its gingery taste, yet was critiqued for its thickness. Onto Mel B’s ‘Only one’ biscuit saw a slight misinterpretation of the brief, creating her face in biscuit form. Her bake was decorated with crystalised gingerbread and filled with mango puree and wowed the judged with a “sensational” from Paul. Greg’s ‘Clare Balding’ was an ambitious bake that used both lemon shortbread and Italian Ricciarelli. The bake was praised for its flavour yet critiqued for its slight aesthetic deviation from Clare Balding’s face. Finally, onto Dermot’s ‘James Norton’ bake, was a silhouette made of edible ink and placed in fondant icing gold frame, rested upon custard-flavoured buttercream. Likened to art of that of Banksy, with a slightly thick bottom biscuit, Dermot bagged himself Star Baker, showing excellent consistency throughout the challenges.
Catch up on all Stand Up To Cancer Bake Off episodes now here.
Good news, you can get your very own Star Baker apron like winner Dermot from the Stand Up To Cancer shop, plus more Star Baker merchandise to look the part while baking up a storm. 100% of the profits go to Cancer Research UK in support of the Stand Up To Cancer campaign.
