Who goes? We don’t decide (Picture: BBC)

The Great British Bake Off is back and promises to be as addictive as a Mary Berry signature scone. Prepare to expand your waistlines with another 10 weeks of the best baking competition in Britain.

The signature challenge

It’s the first week of the new Bake Off season and time for a new signature challenge. The twelve contestants were tasked with creating a Swiss Roll, traditionally a fatless sponge made of eggs, flour and sugar, lined with jam and cream and rolled up into a Catherine wheel of deliciousness.

Jordan immediately became my tip for the winner in his wacky shirt and loveable approach to baking using the Japanese ingredient Kawai or, as everyone at home asked, Ka’what?


Jordan’s swiss roll looked amazing but what’s Kawai? (Picture: BBC)

Norman too was up there with his ‘bold, fat and big’ Black Forest Gateau Swiss Roll, though he was sure to point out the Black Forest isn’t Swiss, it’s German, like his dog, Lucy, a schnauzer. His long, stoic stare at a slice of his cake will live on in Bake Off memory forever.



MORE: Meet The Great British Bake Off contestants – from Martha the 17-year-old student to Norman the caravanner

Norman was impressed with his Black Forest Gateaux swiss roll (Picture: BBC)

It was Richard though that came out top, shocking Paul with the revelation he’s a builder from North London, after constructing a beautiful and perfect pink pistachio roll with strawberries.

MORE: The Great British Bake Off recipe – Chocolate and salted caramel Swiss roll

The technical challenge

The technical challenge for the first week was Mary Berry’s cherry cake, a wreath-shaped bake full of cherries and covered in a thick icing and almonds. The biggest challenge with this confection is getting the cherries evenly spread and icing nice and thick.

While icing style differed what was unanimously apparent was some cherry –as opposed to soggy –bottoms.

Claire’s Cherry cake was nicely iced – but did it have a dreaded cherry bottom? (Picture: BBC)

Poor Jordan completely forgot to save any cherries for his decorative topping while Claire kept her cherries whole, too big for Paul Hollywood, who everyone knows favours the petite (yeah right!).

Nancy rocketed to the top with her cherry cake described by Mary as ‘perfect’.

The showstopper challenge

36 mini-British classics was a perfect way to end the first weekend of the competition, with many of the novice bakers recreating the eponymous Victoria Sponge.

Nancy had a novel way for ensuring all her mini-bakes were exactly the same size, using a home-made guillotine to slice them.

Martha, the youngest baker of the bunch at 17, also achieved conformity by using an ice-cream scoop to measure out her mixture for bite-size bakes.

MORE: The Great British Bake Off 2014 – 10 scrumptious facts about Britain’s favourite cookery show

Northern Irish hipster baker Iain’s eyes appeared to be bigger than his stomach with a giant three-tiered lemon and poppy-seed creation. Unfortunately quantity was not better than quality with Paul criticising the lack of flavour.

Star baker

It had to be Nancy for weekend number one consistently producing top quality bakes, and slicing the competition in half with her Jaffa orange show stoppers which looked like they could go straight into service at afternoon tea at the Ritz.

Oh crumbs!

Mary wasn’t that impressed with Iain’s method for getting a Swiss roll to, er, roll (Picture: BBC)

Iain was lucky to make it through to the second challenge with his Swiss Roll, when his innovative scoring the base method left him with a cracked and crumbling roll.



Mel and Sue’s bun puns

How do you make a Swiss roll according to Sue? Push Roger Federer down a hill. Boom boom!

And the slightly more risqué: ‘Pop Mary’s cherry – in the oven – and bring it out again!’ Ooh er.

Top tip

If like Mary Berry you want to make the perfect cherry cake, dry and flour the cherries first. This prevents them sinking to the bottom of your cake!

Say a Great British goodbye to…

Claire left with a smile (Picture: BBC)

Unfortunately Claire was first to crumble in the cake challenges and the first to leave the GBBO tent this year.

Claire’s showstopper fail stopped her progress in the Bake Off (Picture: BBC)

Next week…

Biscuits; sweet, savoury and seriously yummy!