The Bake Off is back for another year, welcoming the tent's youngest-ever baker and the oldest. All 12 bakers will be challenged on their baking skills from every angle by judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, all the while helped - or hindered - by Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins. But their first hurdle is cake. As they enter the tent for the very first time, their first Signature Challenge is to make a swiss roll. But with such a seemingly simple challenge comes a risk - who will have the tightest roll? Whose roll will split? Should the bakers go for the classic or push the boat out to impress? Recovering from their first challenge, they face their first ever Technical Challenge. It's cake week... it's a Mary recipe... it's a classic cherry cake. But will the bakers be able to suspend the cherries and ice their cakes to the exacting standard of Ms Berry? As the next day dawns so does the Showstopper. The bakers must make classic British cakes... in perfect miniature... all 36 of them...
One week down. Having survived cakes, the remaining 11 bakers are tested on biscuits. Serving up signature savoury biscuits, the bakers must push themselves on flavour to create biscuits that go well with a cheese course, and Sue learns the dirty secret behind the invention of the ice cream cone and the start of the UK ice cream industry. In the technical challenge Mary sets the bakers her recipe for florentines. With their chewy caramel sauce and lacy brandy snap texture covered in tempered chocolate, the bakers must follow Mary's basic instructions, adding up to a more exacting bake than expected. And finally a showstopper like no other - in the most ambitious biscuit challenge to date, the bakers are challenged to create three-dimensional biscuit scenes. They can make any scene they like as long as it is made entirely from biscuits and doesn't fall over... easier said than done in the Bake Off tent. The bakers are really put under scrutiny as the biscuits must taste as good as they
In week three, the remaining ten bakers get ready to brave bread. The boys are confident that this is their week, but the girls have other ideas. Knowing that Paul will be watching their every move and prove, the bakers must bake 12 perfect rye bread rolls, shaped in any way they like and using as much rye flour as they dare. Paul is enigmatic in the technical challenge, telling the bakers to 'be patient' with his recipe for ciabatta loaves. But which bakers will listen to his words of wisdom and which ones will lose their nerve? The bakers have their work cut out for them in the showstopper challenge, making a filled centrepiece loaf that will make an impact on a table as well as on the judges. Mary and Paul are looking for real talent and natural instinct, creativity and baking brilliance - but which one of the bakers has what it takes?
It's week four in the tent and the baking is getting serious. Having seen the bakers make cake, biscuits and bread, Mary and Paul up the ante - for the first time, we see how the bakers cope with multi-tasking across several baking skills at once. For their signature challenge the bakers must bake saucy puds - delicate sponges hiding a gooey saucy filling or a saucy surprise at the bottom. If baked for just a fraction too long the sauce won't ooze upon cutting, but they won't know if it has worked until they are judged. Sue explores the origins of the Paignton pudding - a pudding larger than a cow that caused a riot in Paignton in the 19th century. For the technical challenge, Mary sets the bakers her tiramisu cake. It's a new kind of tiramisu requiring the bakers to temper chocolate, bake beautifully thin coffee-soaked sponges and assemble to create perfect layers of sponge, cream and chocolate... but only if they read the recipe properly. For their final flourish the bakers are chall
Almost halfway through the Bake Off and the remaining bakers are facing pies and tarts. No self-respecting home baker is complete without being able to make all kinds of pastries, and today the bakers are challenged to do just that. Starting with a signature custard tart that gives more than one of them a wobble, the bakers must make sweet custard tarts of their own invention, ranging from 'rhubarb and custard' to 'chocolate and coconut' to a 'tropical Manchester tart' (a tart with tropical flavours made by a Mancunian). Paul sets the bakers mini pear pies; one of the more unusual technical challenges that the Bake Off has seen. The bewildered bakers get in a twist as they attempt to wrap poached pears in a spiral of rough puff pastry, whilst Mel investigates the ancient wedding centrepiece that was the aphrodisiac known as bride pie. Finally the bakers battle their biggest bake yet; three-tied pies. In just four hours they must create a towering collection of pies from any pastry or p
Past halfway in their baking marathon and the remaining six bakers face three European cakes. For their signature challenge the bakers are asked to bake yeast-leavened cakes; a tricky cross between cake and bread that sees some of the bakers opting out of Europe... Mary sets the bakers their most demanding technical challenge yet in which they must make a Swedish princess torte. With 24 different stages and only two-and-a-quarter hours to do it in, the bakers have their work cut out for them, while Sue explores the events that led to the huge array of Danish cakes and pastries in the Danish cake table tradition. And finally, a showstopping finale that puts the hungry into Hungary... The bakers must make their own contemporary version of the dobos torte. Traditionally a multi-layered Hungarian cake, the bakers must go one step further and make a two-tiered dobos torte with an emphasis on all things caramel in every way they can imagine... but whose Bake Off will come to a sweet but stic
Presenters Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins set the remaining contestants three tasks involving pastry, beginning by asking them to make signature savoury parcels. For the technical challenge, they must prepare a cake that hails from the Brittany region of France - the kouign amann, which none of the bakers has ever heard of - before creating two different types of eclair in the showstopper round. Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood judge the hopefuls' efforts before deciding who is star baker and who is going home.
The nation's favourite baking contest is about to get a whole lot hotter in the kitchen, as it reaches the quarter-final stage, and just five amateur bakers remain. They've all impressed to various extents during Bread Week - at least sufficiently to make it through - but now their skills are thoroughly tested as they take on enriched doughs. They have a signature bake in which they must work with soft dough to create artful works, a technical that sees them recreate an Eastern European cross between bread and pastry, and a showstopper involving doughnuts.
It's Patisserie Week, and the remaining four bakers will need to demonstrate that they have skills worthy enough to see them through to this year's final. The bakers are challenged to make a signature baklava - two types of any flavour they like, before the technical challenge demands they knock up a German Schichttorte, a cake cooked in stages under the grill to create 20 layers of different coloured sponge. Finally, the showstopper sees the semi-finalists baking non-stop to create two entremets in which they should demonstrate as many personal skills and techniques as they can.
The three finalists face a Signature Challenge in which they have just three hours to prove they have mastered a pastry technique that usually takes a whole day. They then have to tackle a Technical Challenge without the aid of a recipe, before rustling up a Showstopper that turns sponge, caramel, choux pastry and petits fours into a winning combination.