Great British Bake Off 2018 episode 9 semi-final: The biggest talking points from Patisserie Week
Briony crashed out after confusing her sugar with her salt
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Your support makes all the difference.We reached The Great British Bake Off‘s semi-final this week, but Briony made a mistake that would have been unforgivable in week one, accidentally confusing her sugar with her salt.
The rookie error cost her a place in the final, which will now be a battle between Kim-Joy, Rahul and frontrunner Ruby.
It was Patisserie Week in episode 9, which saw the contestants thrown off balance by some tricky glazes and decorations. Here are the main talking points from the episode:
Ruby stages a comeback
Bookies’ favourite Ruby was slow out the blocks this week, her Madeleines being described as a “bit of a mess” by Paul Hollywood and leaving her trailing the quartet of contestants after the first ad break.
She recovered, however, with the best – or at least most passable – torta sette, which placed her first in the blind taste test on the technical bakes. She then compounded this with an impressive array of Parisian patisserie works in the Showstopper round, going on to win Star Baker.
Ruby looks tough to beat in the final now, a task that likely rests on the quivering shoulders of Rahul.
Rahul is unimpressed with Paul’s puns
This week’s Madeleine round was all about getting the perfect “hump” on the cakes, a dome that forms during baking.
Rahul struggled with this, with Paul suggesting he’d in fact “got the hump”. “Can I ask you something,” Rahul later said to the camera crew, puzzled. “Why are people laughing about hump?” Bless him.
Sandi Toksvig and Noel Fielding in a battle of the gaudy shirts
Noel’s loud shirts have become expected, nay, demanded in Bake Off by this point, and tonight saw him an eye-popping, psychedelic, asymmetrically printed purple number.
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Sandi gave him a run for his money however, sporting a rather special two-tone shirt covered in gleaming fish.
“It tastes a bit.... salty,” Prue concluded of one of Briony’s patisserie works. “I wouldn’t be surprised if I mixed up the sugar with the salt, after the day I’ve had,” Briony joked.
During the judge’s deliberations however, Paul said that he thinks this is exactly what happened.
The Showstopper was a bit of a disaster all round for Briony, who also ran out of time to fill one of her items, so she had essentially just served pastry on a plate.
Next week, the final. Catch-up below with the rest of the events of this week’s GBBO as they happened (please allow a moment for the liveblog to load).
Patisserie Week follows, in order from the start of the series, Biscuit Week, Cake Week, Bread Week, Dessert Week, Spice Week, Pastry Week, Vegan Week and Danish Week.
The Great British Bake Off airs on Channel 4 on Tuesday nights at 8pm.
I hope someone has been feeding Kim-Joy's (presumably 12,000) cats all these weeks.
And that someone will feed Rahul if he gets sent home tonight. Poor kid will be a wreck.
Rahul's madeleines get the thumbs up, but Rahul's are pronounced "a little bit of a mess".
"Why are people laughing about 'hump'?" Rahul is too pure, even for this show.
Let's hear it for Sandi's two-tone fish shirt. The real loud shirt MVP.
Next up the contestants have to make this, which I'm pretty sure I saw in the Saatchi gallery...
Amazes me when the contestants have no idea how to make one of the Technical's elements but then just correctly guess it.
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