Warning: there are spoliers in this blog – who won star baker, who left the show, who did Paul give a handshake to, which necklace was Prue wearing, things along those lines….

Whilst watching the opening titles of the show this week, a couple of thoughts struck me…. number one – how old would the little girl in the opening titles be now? I would guess she’s in her mid-teens, I wonder if she does any cooking?

Number two was a random thought about the washing up, I’m sure the contestants don’t do their own. Is there a few dishwashers that are put to use? So I looked it up and lo and behold I found out that there is a lady who washes everything up – by hand. Apparently dishwashers are too noisy to use during filming so the tent has two enormous sinks where this lady can spend up to 16 hours a day washing dirty dishes.

Whilst watching GBBO, I have always admired the sketches of the cakes, etc., that the contestants are making and this is the man who does that. He is a Welsh freelance animator has has sketched over 1000 of the bakes since the show began. He receives the pictures from the set after the show is filmed and if a bake has failed he uses his artistic licence to imagine what it should have looked like.

The first round in Biscuit Week is to make a decorated chocolate biscuit bar, a Penguin immediately comes to my mind, but no, the bakers are intent on something a bit more inventive than that! As usual, time runs out and the contestants rally to help Jamie and Priya finish theirs in time, thus showing that the spirit of support is always there in the tent.  Jamie struggles with his chocolate biscuit and I already feel the urge to shout, “Taxi for Jamie,” but not quite yet!

The technical is the fig role, apparently a favourite amongst the Hollywood family, we won’t go into the debate of it is a cake or a biscuit as highlighted by Noel, but this is the formal description of it:

“The fig roll or fig bar is a biscuit consisting of a sweet roll

filled with fig paste in the middle.”

Helena is last in this challenge, mistakenly making 11 instead of the required 12 fig rolls and Jamie is in 11th position, putting egg-wash on his biscuit, for some unknown reason! That taxi is warming up its engine in the taxi rank!  Alice wins this technical and with a favourable verdict on her signature chocolate biscuit, is in line for star baker this week.

Lastly we have the showstopper challenge, where Henry decides to make an organ, no, not a heart or lung or anything else that comes to mind, but a church organ! Unfortunately Jamie’s biscuits fall apart when he retrieves them from the oven and the taxi driver has engaged first gear, looking in his mirror and pulling out…

Rosie and David’s designs are hits with the judges, but Henry’s organ and Jamie’s guitar underwhelm the judges.  Time for the star baker award, which quite rightly went to Alice, the georgraphy teacher, while I’m afraid it is time for us to all shout out as one, “Taxi for Jamie,” as Jamie makes an almost Apprentice style departure from the tent.

I’m still sticking to my guns on who I think will be there in the final, Henry, David and Michelle, but with bread week next week, who knows?