The Great British Bake Off 2014 - Episode 7

After last week's fiercely fought stalemate it was time for more of the same from week 7 of the Great British Bake Off.

The girls were now outnumbering the boys four to two, however it was up to the best to show off their pastry skills in a week which brought a mixture of excitement and apprehension to the marquee, as well as a dollop of bafflement.

The signature challenge was comprised of making a dozen savoury pastry parcels of the bakers' own choice in just 1h 45mins. Chetna plumped for lentil kachoris, Luis for a family favourite Spanish empañada and Martha chose the unusual miniature beef Wellington. The key was good crimping to avoid any chance of the parcels leaking.

Richard's pastries were a real success, as were Chetna's. Nancy's spicy duck creations were, disappointingly, underbaked and lacked a sufficient amount of filling, and Kate had an unfortunate mishap with the deep fryer.

To say the technical bake left the competitors perplexed would be understating it slightly. The judges set them one of Paul's recipes, with him dubbed 'the Queen of Mean' by Sue. The fiendish task was to produce 12 kouign amann, a Breton pastry that no one had ever seen or heard of, and the bakers certainly couldn't pronounce it!

The making process had many complexities to it that needed to be followed or else an inferior end product would be the result. 3 and a half hours to work with 6 ingredients sounded generous, and at many points the waiting game did have to be played, but it also left plenty of time to fret over the recipe.

Chetna left her dough to prove for much longer than the others, whilst Kate was the only baker to put hers in the fridge. Luis tried an alternative folding method and a general sense of stepping into the unknown resounded around the tent. The next point of contention surrounded how to interpret the very ambiguous instructions regarding the addition of sugar.

When the extended mental torture drew to a close it became a sorry affair for Luis who finished 5th and Chetna, last week's star baker, who brought up the rear. Nancy was awarded second place and Richard continued his good form by claiming first position.

So it all hinged on the showstopper, which was to make 24 choux pastry éclairs with two different flavour combinations. Paul demanded innovation whilst Mary emphasised the need for a perfect bake. 4 hours gave the bakers plenty of time to be original, and three of them chose to flavour the pastry. A wide variety of interesting and unconventional fillings were attempted, but by the end of the challenge Kate was convinced her time in the tent was up.

Luis gained top marks for both presentation and taste but the appearance of Kate's éclairs let her down. Similarly Martha didn't shine like she we have seen her whilst Chetna had even found time to make one more éclair than was necessary.

The judges and presenters discussed and debated everyone's pros and cons, before letting the group know. Unsurprisingly, after a 3 rounds of high quality baking Richard was named star baker, the third time in the series for him. Kate did correctly foresee her own downfall and was duly voted off this week.

Tune in next week when we will find out if it can actually get any closer between the contestants as the quarter finals are here.

By Mark Savile