54 Thoughts I Had Watching GBBO - Series 7 Episode 6

1. Seven bakers left and this week it's meringue-stuff, dough-stuff and flowery-stuff. 'Botanical week' they say.
2. Rav's a bit apprehensive about the theme, understandably. I can't get the horrible idea of an aloe vera cake out of my head.
3. Challenge 1: a citrus meringue pie. The bakers can apparently add "anything that grows" for decoration. Hair? Dandelions??
4. Selasi is using grapefruit, orange and mint. Yum yum yummity yum.
5. Love that shot of Paul perched on the tabletop looking like a bored, sad kid. "no - no more sweets Paul or you won't eat your tea later"
6. Flirty McShirty situation going on with Selasi and Benjamina. The first lasting Bake Off relationship could be blossoming before our very eyes (not counting Ruby and Paul's...whatever was going on there).
7. Rav is using mandarin and making an Italian meringue on top of his pie. He's also using..
   
8. Tom - pumpkin....he's going all Vampire Weekend hipster on us, getting his inspiration for his next album 'pumpkin (meringue) pie', all in lower case.
9. Benjamina and Selasi are, oddly, both using grapefruit. Some same-wavelength romantic baking shiz right there.
   
10. Jane's using lime flavoured pastry and a coconut meringue. Stealing Rav's signature flavours I see.
11. Candice is making a lime and coconut meringue too... What is happening here? Tom might actually be saving himself a little bit by picking an unusual flavour.
12. Bezza isn't happy with the fact that the bakers are using blowtorches. She wants crispy, oven-baked meringues. Tut tut. Meanwhile Andrew's chatting to himself as always.
13. Tom's got his eyes on the no-soggy-bottom prize. Always an excellent idea.
14. I thought the green colouring on Jane's pie was nice but Candice's is close to looking radioactive. Bright baking, I like it.

    

    a biscuit I ate in New York (for the record it tasted gross but it looked too jazzy to resist)

15. Sounds like Selasi is going to please Bezza with his oven-baking instead of using the blowtorch. And it's judging time!
16. Benjamina's grapefruit and ginger bake is going down well with the judges. Proportions great and overall "a very very good job" says P. Hollywood.
17. Selasi did well too but his curd was too dry and the meringue peaks weren't soft enough for Mary. His Bake Off lover just gave him a knowing look.
    
18. Elsewhere, Rav's flavours aren't strong enough, Andrew's pastry is too thick and Tom's is underdone with no citrus coming through.
19. Jane did pretty well. Candice, meanwhile, is paying the price for not wearing one of her lucky bold lipsticks. Her "meringue tastes ok looks awful".
20. Challengio numero two...-io. The Botanical Technical: two herb fougasse...?! Ya wot
21. Rav's eaten it!!!! He knows at least something about this, hallelujah.
22. Leaf-shaped bread, shallow, bit springy. That's what Paul wants, he says. Sounds easy, right?
23. Ok Tom says fougasse is his "cinema snack". Who is this man and where the heck does he get fougasse from to go to the cinema with?!
    
24. Dough-slapping time. Now some dough-abandoning time. Proving, yes, the technical term.
25. Tom is now trying to sketch a fougasse with difficulty. He must buy his fougasse from the ticket checker, in the dark.
26. More proving. Now the breads are out, oiled and going into the oven to bake. Selasi thinks his is going to be underbaked. This isn't stopping him from being possibly the most chilled baker on Earth, though. Ok I say this and he's now lying face down on the floor.
    
27. Wafting time, shortly followed by the announcement for judgement time. Some mixed results, with Selasi's correct prediction of his bake being too spongey and undercooked, like a "floury bap" Paul adds.
28. Last place: Selasi :( :( :(
29. Third place: Rav, Second: Benjamina, First: Tom! So he DID remember what his cinema fougasse looked like. And tasted like.
30. According to Paul Blue-Eyes, Selasi, Andrew & Rav are in danger. Oooh and Tom, because he did a doo-doo in round one with his failure of a pumpkin pie.
31. A three-tier flowery showstopper cake using flowers in some way = Challenge No. 3. I would be so excited for this one but as it's so far into the competition the judges' expectations will be high.
32. An all-in-one mix for Jane to save her time. G'wan Jane. Clever thinking.
33. Andrew is using elderflower for his bake. Base: cherry and almond. Middle: lemon & elderflower drizzle. Top: "hidden strawberry vanilla cake". Basically a hella lot of ingredients.
34. Rav's BLOSSOM CAKE aahhhh that sounds beautiful. Orange blossom.
35. Tom is using chamomile. Sending everyone to sleep with his cake, hopefully to a dreamy doze state where they all think his bake is great for his sake.
36. Candice is making a Four Seasons cake and if it's anything like the illustration it will be gorgeous. 

    

    She's making four tiers...alright

37. Turns out Jane's making orange cake with chocolate ganache and crafting paste flowers to go on top.
38. Selasi is building a three-tier ombre masterpiece. One layer carrot, one strawberry & vanilla and one lemon & poppyseed. My heaven.
39. Benjamina is creating a Floral Tea Cake with two chamomile-infused sponges. Sue's hilariously intrigued by her use of the adjective "semi-naked" to describe her icing style.
40. One of Candice's tiers is chocolate. She's using a lot of decoration by the looks of it.
41. I think it's safe to say that Rav is hating life right now. I remember this type of pain from doing Art at A-Level - thinking of an amazing idea and then having to execute it with a time limit and then thinking WHYYY
42. Am praying for Jane that her cake-wrap works out - she's basically creating abstract artwork to decorate with.
43. Tom's cake looks like a fluffy pastel masterpiece.
    
    So does Selasi's. Have the lads taken over at the last hurdle?
44. Results...
45. Mel and Sue are looking at each other with open mouths in reaction to Candice bringing her bake up. It's gorgeous. Paul likes it all except the carrot cake layer.
46. Andrew's cake looks like a pretty, amateur wedding cake. Dry cake. Paul said the words "not good", oh that's got to hurt.
47. Benjamina's poppy seed layer was not quite done. Her orange layer was better though.
48. Rav's icing is a tad messy, and with a slightly sickly pastel colouring. 
49. Jane's up next. What is Paul going to say? ahhh the tension........... right, he says it looks a mess but I think it looks abstractly gorgeous in the way a nice vintage shirt does.
    
    It's overbaked... yikes! Bless Mary, saying "only just" for reassurance.
50. Selasi holy cr*p holy holy holy cr*p I am in love. That cake is stunning.

    

    *gazes longingly...at the cake..*

    Judges are very impressed by all three layers.
51. Tom's cake is gorgey. Elderflower layer yum, chamomile great, green tea & jasmine layer "beautiful" says Paul. Geloise sponges aced too.
52. Now the discussion part. Rav & Andrew are in the danger zone. Jane had an "off day" according to Mary, will that be excused?
53. And it's time for the announcements. Duh duh duh.... star baker this week is Tom! Woahhhhh. I wish Selasi had got it but well done to him.
54. Oh and Rav is leaving...! Ohhhh. Am going to miss his loveliness.

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