Arts & Culture

Great British Bake Off Week 2: Battle of the Biscuit

27 September 202227 September 2022By
Great British Bake Off Week 2: Battle of the Biscuit

Following Great British Bake-Off tradition, week two in the tent was dedicated to biscuits. Carrot Magazine is back to give you this week’s rundown!

Last week 12 new bakers entered The Great British Bake-Off tent and conquered cake week. With Janusz winning star baker, it was Will who became the first baker to leave the tent.

This week Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith tasked the 11 remaining bakers with making an illusion macaron signature, a feathered technical and a 3D masked showstopper. 

A French signature:

For the baker’s second signature challenge, Paul and Prue tasked the bakers with adding a little bit of La France into the tent by making a batch of identical decorative macarons, with the biscuit flavour and and filling left down to the bakers. 

“Yep, that’s Macaron like the biscuit, not Macron, the president of France,” joked Matt Lucas. 

But it wouldn’t be a bake-off signature without a twist… they also wanted them to focus on their decorations, making their biscuits look like something other than a macaron.

“For instance, the president of France?” suggested Lucas.

As the bakers got their whisks at the ready, Prue gave them her baking words of wisdom, “A perfect macaron should be light and perfectly shaped. Outside smooth and shiny and crisp, and inside chewy.”

“We want to see colourful, vibrant, and a little bit of the baker’s personality come out,” added Paul. 

Some bakers took food as inspiration, like Carole and Sandro, while others focused on nature and animals, like James and his Racoon macarons. 

But mixing up the traditional sweetness of macarons was Syabira, who decided to create a savoury version inspired by Satay Chicken but using tofu instead of chicken.

After a tense couple of hours, the illusion macarons faced the judgement of Paul and Prue, with Rebs facing them first… after struggling to perfect her biscuits due to timing issues. 

“Overall, I think the design is very good. You can tell it is a black cat. But the interior looks a mess!” judged Paul. 

But it was Dawn, and her ‘Toy Shop Yarns’ which received the first legendary Hollywood handshake of the series!

“The macaron is perfect, absolutely perfect!” said Hollywood. 

 A flying Technical:

For the biscuit technical, the bakers were asked to bake 12 Garibaldi biscuits – also known as squashed fly biscuits – in an hour and a half, a task set by Prue, who called it an “absolute classic!”

All following the same instructions, it was down to personal opinion to know how long to cook and how much filling should go into this technical bake. 

After some playful confusion filling the tent, it was time for each baker to place their technical challenge behind their photo, awaiting their fate from the judges.

 Abdul came 11th, as Leith called it was a total “mess”, while Rebs came out on top with her bake and feathering being “perfect”.

The Masked Showstopper:

Just the showstopper remained before a decision was made on who would be leaving the tent next and who would be crowned star baker. 

For this week’s showstopper challenge, the judges wanted the bakers to make a “beautifully crafted 3D biscuit mask”. 

The bakers could use any style of biscuit but had to make sure their biscuit mask could stand upright on the stand by the end of the challenge. With just four hours to bake the perfect not-so-crumbly mask, stress was in the air!

“We are asking for extravagance, ostentation, and showstopper madness with this bake,” announced Prue, while Paul pointed out the importance of choosing the right biscuit so the mask is able to stand up. “Most will got for a ginger or sugar biscuit,” he guessed. 

For this challenge, some bakers took inspiration from the mascara theme, like Dawn. Others went for an animal theme like Abdul and his parrot mask.

But one baker, Syabira, made the challenge one step harder by attempting to make over 100 biscuits with her split personality mask, which contains split flavours in one bake – truly adopting the ‘more is more’ approach. 

Unlike Syabira, Maisam went for a simpler approach with two kinds of biscuits, hoping to win over the judges with her extravagant decorations.

But for all the bakers, the true worry was making their dough withstand the mask test; and for this, the bakers had to judge when the biscuits have truly baked to perfection.

After four hours, 11 masks were presented to the judges, some withstanding the mask test and others not quite. 

James impressed the judges with his horror movie-themed mask. 

“Absolutely fantastic. Lots of thought, lots of different techniques, quite effective,” said Paul. 

But the baker that created the biggest burst of happiness on the British Bake Off tent this week was Maxy, with both of the judges complimenting her design and flavours. 

“Overall fantastic,” commented Paul.

Decision time: 

Star Baker: Maxy

“I can’t believe I got star baker and got a handshake in the same week,” she said.

The 2nd baker to go home: Maisam

“I think I’m definitely proud I’m only 18. This is only the start of my baking career,” she assured.

Next week on The Great British Bake Off: Bread Week

Read More: What you need to know about coeliac disease.