Original subtitles

Last time... Here we go! ...for our new crop of bakers...

SHE SQUEALS ...it was cakes.

Looking good. As are you.

LAUGHTER

While Tom turned heads...

It's fabulous.

...and Gary made a good first impression...

You are a very, very good baker.

...Mo and his pet portrait stunned with simplicity.

That's spot-on. ..securing him the first Star Baker crown.

Perfect.

But while Molly... I'm gonna cry in a minute.

Oh, my God! ...and Danni almost crashed out...

Oh, no.

...Shannon had to leave the tent...

Get better, darling.

...meaning everyone was safe.

Oh, shut the front door! LAUGHTER

This time...

Ah, ha-ha-ha-ha!

...the bakers battle biscuits...

Oh, these are so bad.

...going for scale in the Signature

Who doesn't love a big old American cookie?

The bigger the better.

Tiny in the Technical.

Oh, my God.

And devise complex creations in the Showstopper.

Does it look like a mosaic?

Who will triumph?

Very good. It has great majesty.

And whose Bake Off dreams...

I'm gonna cry. ..will crumble?

Can I just give you a hug?

Sorry. Sorry, sorry.

It's biscuit wee-ee-eek!

I'm dead excited for week two.

I can't wait to just get stuck in and just get baking.

I'm nervous, but we got this.

I'm really happy.

I didn't think I was gonna make it through week one,

but here I am. Another day, another slay.

I absolutely love a biscuit.

Being British, being a tea lover,

it's in our blood.

I'm gonna bring my A-game. I've got this.

It's gonna be great.

Good luck everyone.

Everything's going to go right and nothing's going to go wrong.

But if it does go wrong, I've got 10,000 contingency plans.

Welcome back to the tent, bakers for Biscuit Week.

Now, for your Signature Bake,

the judges would like you to ask yourselves a question -

the question that my computer asked me this morning.

Do you accept cookies?

Well, I certainly hope so, Noel!

Because for your Signature Challenge,

the judges would love you to make 30 identical American-style cookies.

Your cookies can be any flavour,

but must have an appropriate decorative finish.

How'd you like to finish your biscuits?

I finish it like this... Hmm, mm.

Delicious!

In terms of texture,

you should be aiming for a cookie that is crisp to the bite.

But also have a chewy centre.

You have two hours.

On your marks... Get set.

Bake.

Look, Gary and Paul are matching.

Do you call each other in the morning?

Go, "Yeah, blue shirt."

LAUGHTER

This is all a bit of me. I do make cookies a lot.

Who doesn't love a big American cookie?

The bigger, the better!

For me, the perfect cookie should have

that crisp exterior and a good, chewy centre.

The hardest part of the challenge is not the cookie recipe.

The hardest part of the challenge is time management.

30 is a lot of cookies to make.

I don't think I've ever made 30 cookies

in one go before in my life.

So they need to utilise the oven.

And from the off, high temperature, less time.

That will give you not only the colour

but the interior that we're looking for.

There's going to be 500g of chocolate in the cookies.

I'm not messing about.

And we want them to decorate it as well.

It's basically asking them

to show off a bit some of their artistic

and creative skills on top of the cookie.

The most important thing about the decoration is

that it doesn't overwhelm the cookie.

I think it should enhance the cookie.

What it mustn't do is compete with it.

Morning, Shannon. Good morning. How are you feeling?

I'm very well. Did you miss me? We did.

Obviously. Well, thank you for having me back.

Tell me about your cookies. It's based on my nan, bless her.

Before she passed away, all she wanted to do was go to Wimbledon.

So I thought, well, what I'll do, I'll bake some cookies.

They are my strawberry and cream Centre Court dreams.

Shannon is hoping for a Grand Slam today

with a cream cheese filled cookies

made with a dough marbled with strawberry jam.

It's quite a wet mixture, isn't it?

It is a little bit,

but you want them to be,

like really gooey and texture-y in your mouth.

It just works really well. Good luck, Shannon.

Thank you.

So today I'm making a cookie

that is going to have some almond praline.

Almost if you think of like a Daim bar.

It's going to be that kind of filling.

So it's called a Nordic Crunch cookie

because the chocolate bar did originate, I think in like Norway.

Although he hasn't visited Norway,

Tom and boyfriend Alex love to travel

and have recently spent

several months backpacking around Southeast Asia.

Topped with roasted peanuts and delicately spun chocolate,

Tom's cookies will be packed with chewy almond praline,

and milk chocolate chunks.

So you've got crunch and goo? Yeah, exactly.

That's, that's what we want. That's what I want in a cookie.

It's a naughty cookie for naughty judges.

If the bakers are to present the required number of cookies...

30 of them in two hours - I actually think that's a bit mean.

...they need to get their first batch shaped

and into the oven as quickly as possible.

Good luck, my little cookies. That's eight.

So I need to do four more batches.

Morning, Connie. Morning.

Tell us about your cookies.

My cookies are chocolate and pecan with a banana caramel.

Wow. Yeah.

Banana caramel - explain.

I'm using a little something like this,

and I just want it to have a... Oh, it's a flavour?

Yes, yes, yes. I thought you meant like banana chips. Oh, no.

Would you prefer, like, a real banana, Paul?

Yeah. Would you? Anybody got a banana?

Connie can't remember a time she didn't bake.

A passion she's keen to pass down to her niece, Simone.

Right. Boy, you're messy, man! I'm sorry.

As well as her banana caramel, Connie will decorate her cookies

with more pecans and white chocolate,

although she's never practised them without being distracted.

One of the things that have held me back

in my practising is that I'm constantly washing up,

so I've never been able to time myself,

so hopefully I get it all done on time.

I don't want to have to be flapping around.

Good morning, Danni. Good morning.

So, Danni... Yes. ...tell us about your cookies.

So they are snicker snickerdoodles. Yep.

A snickerdoodle is a cookie that is made using cinnamon.

I've got a topping of peanut brittle.

It's one of my favourite flavours, actually,

so I'm curious to see what they're going to turn out like.

So it's using golden syrup and cream and butter and all that jazz.

Oh, so they're not vegan? They are not vegan.

But how do you taste them if they're...?

I don't. My sister and my mum are all massive fans.

Danni might be gambling on

the balance of flavours in her cookies,

but she's hoping that her choice

of peanut brittle topping will impress Paul.

I'm doing some of his favourite flavours.

So if I get them wrong, he will decapitate me.

Do you think that's how this show works?

Yes, absolutely. You don't know what happens behind the scenes.

I definitely do.

I have to wash his feet,

do his tax returns.

I need Speedo trunks when he goes to the be...

He goes to the beach.

I don't get paid for doing it.

He doesn't give me food, really.

But I go through his bin at night.

I think you're just describing being a raccoon at this point.

NOEL LAUGHS

A raccoon! Good morning, Star Baker Mo.

Tell us all about your cookies. What are you doing?

So I'm doing a lemon meringue pie inspired cookie.

And then I just thought, why not add coconut and mango to it?

Do they come out chewy, Mo? I think so.

Do they? I feel like the mango also gives a nice, er...

You're not convincing me, you know that, don't you? Yeah, I know.

I don't know if he's convincing himself. I know.

Mo is hoping to elevate his mango and coconut cookies

by topping with a lemon curd

and blowtorch Swiss meringue.

Do you eat biscuits? No. Not really?

They're really old people thing.

Like, if my friends were like to me,

"Oh, yeah, do you want to come round mine later?

"I'm going to be making some brandy snaps."

I'll just look at them like, "What are you on?"

You just have to go and delete their number from your phone.

Good morning, bro. Good morning. Hi, Gary.

How are you? Are you Gary? I don't know which...

Oh, no, don't say that. I don't know who's who.

So, Gary, tell us all about your cookies.

What are you doing? This is a chocolate chip cookie.

It's got... Classic. Yeah, it's got some dry, sour cherries.

Where did you get this idea from? Uh,

well, partly from one of your books. Right.

Yeah.

Back home in Nottinghamshire,

Gary likes to relax with a round of golf in the back garden.

As well as a sprinkle of extra salt, Gary will add pecans

for extra crunch in his chocolate cookies,

which are dedicated to a very special furry friend.

I've got some little pygmy goats at home.

One of the goats were called Choccy.

And unfortunately, she got asthma and she sadly died.

So that's why they're called Choccies from heaven.

Fortunately, Clara's cookie muse is alive and kicking.

Me and my fiance, Kieran,

instead of having a normal wedding cake,

we're gonna have, like, a giant tiramisu for everyone.

He is obsessed with tiramisu, but making tiramisu takes a while.

So I learned how to do tiramisu cookies.

And they are so nice!

Clara's fiance, Kieran, isn't the only one who loves her baking.

Did you eat the slice? You naughty doggy.

Flavoured with espresso powder,

Clara's cookies will be topped with vanilla mascarpone

and decorated with a Just Married stencil

to celebrate her upcoming nuptials.

I'm gonna have a country festival on my wedding.

Wow. OK. With mechanical bulls. Mechanical bulls.

Wow. So it's gonna be like a rodeo. Yeah.

I could be a rodeo clown.

Bakers! You are halfway through!

Got jealous.

Come on, babies.

Nigella and Paul are hoping for crisp yet chewy cookies

that are identical in shape.

We want all the cookies to look the same.

This is my Nana's chocolate chip cookie recipe.

It's not exactly the same as what Nana would have made.

Not that I would ever say

that my baking is better than my Nana's.

But you know, things need to be tweaked every now and then.

When she's not modifying her nan's recipes...

Yeah, take that! ...Molly likes to try

to improve her gaming high scores with friends.

I have to complete this level.

Hoping to level up today,

her cookies will be studded with milk and white chocolate chips

and decorated with hazelnut praline and white chocolate.

I've been making this as long as I can remember, so...

That's good. ..I have no excuses if it doesn't turn out right.

Yannis has also been pillaging his grandmother's recipe books.

This is jaggery. So this is unrefined cane sugar.

Traditionally, we use this

in our South Asian cooking and it's delicious.

Especially when my grandma used

to make desserts made out of the sugar.

As well as honouring his Bangladeshi heritage in his bakes,

Yannis also enjoys whipping up the old British classic.

I followed Paul's recipe once for a scone.

It's all right.

Yannis will be packing his cookies

with chai spice, dates and pistachios,

and topping with rose petals.

In the streets of Bangladesh, or all of South Asia,

there are tea shops absolutely everywhere.

And we love to drink tea, like almost every like half an hour.

Just as we do here.

As the first batches emerge from the oven...

Yeah, that's a good cookie.

...the bakers can see...

I think they're looking good.

...if they've achieved cookie perfection.

I'm just shaping them

so they've got like a nice uniform ring

to them rather than being all spread out.

These haven't turned out - they're too soft, too gooey.

I don't know what's gone wrong. Oh, dear!

But with 30 cookies to bake...

Next batch is in.

...there is no let up for our bakers.

I don't know what's happening with the oven.

I've turned it up, but it's...

They're just, I don't know.

They're just not baking.

Good morning, Moyin. Morning. OK, tell us all about your cookies.

What are you doing?

So I'm making some chocolate chip cookies with

a bit of miso and espresso in the batter.

It's unusual to use miso in these.

I thought it was quite normal, to be honest. Yeah, it's on TikTok.

Young people are doing it a lot.

Yes, babes. Ah.

Moyin and sister Somi have recently taken up golfing lessons together.

Oh! But it went straight into the sky. Straight to Jesus.

Moyin wowed his American cousin Moriyike

with his miso and caramel cookies.

He's hoping to elevate them

for the tent with a sprinkling of sea salt.

Why are you adding the salt?

I was going to add them before, but Nigella likes salt, so you know.

Remember not to go overboard. I won't. It's about a little touch.

Yeah.

Moyin's cookies might be a hit across the pond...

Gosh, this is so hot.

...but Nikki's hoping hers

will pass muster down under.

So I'm making a cherry chocolate cookies inspired by

a quite popular chocolate bar in Australia.

My partner Tom, when he travelled in Australia,

that's the kind of go-to chocolate bar.

Nikki first met Tom when they locked eyes on

the stairwell of the building they both worked in.

23 years later, and they still make each other laugh every single day.

She'll be adding coconut and hazelnut to her cookies,

which will be packed full of cherries.

I'm really hoping they don't say, "there's not enough cherries."

I've only got one in here.

I've put a little bit of extra in here, so cherry galore.

Also using cherry as a hero flavour is Gabe.

So I'm making some sort of Cherry Bakewell inspired cookies.

It's my favourite bakes. Lovely! Yeah, I know,

last week you said about personality my bakes.

And, like, this is nutty and fruity. So it's me all over.

Back home in Birmingham,

Gabe loves introducing his friends to new flavours.

What's the like, big square pieces like that? Carrots.

Carrots. Stop it!

LAUGHTER

He's just shocked because he's never seen a carrot before.

Gabe's Bakewell inspired cookies will be packed

with cherries and almonds and decorated

with freeze-dried cherries and chocolate.

I'm also like cooking them on pizza stones

because I want the bottom to really, like, crisp up. That's clever.

I just want to hit all the briefs, you know what I mean, like.

Stone baked cookies. Yeah.

Stone baked cookies. Oh, well, good luck, then, Gabe.

Look forward to these. Thank you very much.

With the cookie production line in full swing...

Look good, don't they? ..and final batches hitting the heat...

Go on, babies. ..Connie's second tray of cookies has suffered

the same fate as her first.

They're not cooked. They're not... They're not done.

Just got to hope

that these ones come out, and then I'll have something.

Bakers, you have 15 minutes left.

Stressful, isn't it? I know.

Yeah. They look nice and tasty, them. They're getting like a nice

little drizzle of chocolate.

When it comes to decoration, less is more.

I am giving my biccies a good old twizzle in them.

As too much can detract from the cookie itself

or cause them to go soggy.

We are filling up the crack with gooey goodness right now.

If these come out, I'll have a... a decent amount.

I'm just adding the peanut praline on top.

Just a nice blob.

His cookies are insane. I just want to go...

What do you want to do?

They look better than the last lot.

It's whether they cooked.

Leave them in for one more minute.

Bakers, you've got one minute left.

Just adding a crunch.

Oh, these are so bad.

I think it's a bit runny, but, um. Oh, well.

They are awful.

American cookies, yeah.

Come on, let's help. Come on.

What about these ones over here?

We having these as well? Get the spray.

No, those ones are horrible. Those ones are no good.

OK, bakers, your time is up.

Can you believe it? I've actually finished something.

Step away from your cookies.

Oh, look at them.

Oh, everyone's got such lovely cookies.

I've got no cookies.

The bakers' cookies will now be judged by Paul and Nigella.

Hi, guys. Clara, hello.

The cookie is quite thin.

And the other thing is that there's so much topping.

I'm hoping that hasn't dampened its texture.

Mm. I've got a chocolate chip base with coffee

and then mascarpone cream with vanilla.

I would have given you a handshake for that.

Sorry, what did you say? I would have given you a handshake for that.

Why are you not giving me one? The cookie is spot-on,

coffee level perfect. The topping flavour,

perfect. There's just too much of it. The cookie's wonderful.

You've just... You've slightly swamped it in the mascarpone.

I love the look of them

with your rose petals strewn all over them.

So, they are spiced chai cookies with jaggery caramel.

I love these flavours. To me, they're the flavours of a rather

divinely aromatic ginger nut.

But it doesn't really feel like a "cookie" cookie, because there isn't

quite enough contrast between the outside and the inside.

Too much caramel. I don't mind a little spinning on the top

of caramel, but inside that'll overwhelm

not only the bake but the flavour as well.

I like the look of them, to be honest.

You've got 30 of them. They all look pretty uniform.

What I put inside them is sour cherry, and it's got pecan nuts.

Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of it. There is nothing wrong in restraint.

Restraint is a very good partner to indulgence.

I love the taste. I don't know quite what's happened.

There's a slight toughness, but the taste is really heavenly.

Just slightly overbaked, I think. But it's marginal,

because you have got a chew and you have got crispy on the outside.

Good job there, Gary. Oh, thank you. Yeah.

I'm enjoying the Jackson Pollock. That was at the end.

It was just like... Desperation decoration.

Absolutely. Yeah, they are like two completely different batches.

Yeah, they are. This is what they should look like.

These are the ones that didn't turn out so well.

Anyway, it's vanilla with chocolate and pecan nuts

with caramel and banana topping.

The balance of these is good. I think the flavour

of these particular ones are good. They're all over the place. Yeah,

those were the ones that came out wrong. Yeah. I was very doubtful

about your banana flavouring. Because it's a very modest amount,

I really thought it worked in the caramel. Really did. Thank you.

I'm glad I was able to put SOMETHING out for you. I'm glad, too.

They look gorgeous, and I can see

that some of them do have a good, crisp edge. OK.

So you've got a... almond cookie, and inside are some sour cherries.

They're topped with a dark chocolate and some freeze-dried cherry.

I like the chew and the crisp edge. Beautiful.

I think you've done a decent job with the flavour.

Great. For me, I think you've just gone slightly over with that.

That's my only criticism. Otherwise, great cookie. Thank you.

They look like rocky roads. OK! They do.

Which is not a bad thing. It's not a bad thing.

The icing sugar looks like the marshmallows from here.

So, my cookies are chocolate, cherry and desiccated coconut.

The flavour is stunning. Oh, thank you.

However... Yes. ..they needed longer in the oven.

Because you've got the whole fruit, the liquid content has been a bit

too high, and that's stopped them having that cookie texture. Noted.

They look rather pretty. I think

they're a bit flatter than you might have wanted. Because you had jam,

you know, moisture is the sort of enemy of a cookie.

I agree with you. So I've got a strawberry

and cream cookie with a cheesecake centre.

Massively underbaked, straight away. Yeah.

It's a pity, because the flavour's good. I like the strawberry

coming through. I think maybe you've spent a bit too much time

thinking about the adornment than the... chemistry, if you like.

Right.

I like the look of them. Nice, strong colour on the base.

Pretty, like a flower. So, it's a lemon cookie with coconut

and mango topped with lemon curd and blowtorched Swiss meringue.

I love the flavour. The crispness is good on the outside,

but the interiors are a bit cakey rather than chewy. Yeah.

I don't know that I need the mango, because it's a bit leathery.

Yeah. I agree with Nigella. I don't think the mango's needed at all.

They don't look like an American classic. They look very different.

So, these are like a chocolate chip cookie, but they've got a bit

of miso and espresso in the dough, a salted-caramel dark-chocolate

ganache, and then some candied peanuts on top.

There was a bit too much salt. The flavour is probably slightly

too salty. Yeah. It is underbaked, which is making everything sodden.

But your flavours... You're nearly there. It's OK. OK.

I think your flavours are better than OK.

What I think is you need much less on top. OK.

I like the look of them. Probably got to do them a little bit longer

in the oven. I have made a classic chocolate chip cookie

with milk- and white-chocolate chips. There is a hazelnut praline

on the top and then a white- chocolate drizzle over all of them.

I have to say, I think they taste more successful

in terms of the texture, for me, than they look. Yeah, yeah.

A cookie should be quite indulgent and naughty. That's not naughty.

I don't approve of talking about food as naughty.

We need to take our pleasures where we can in life. Very true.

But overall, a nice idea and I like the look of them, to be honest.

But a little bit more colour. Fine.

I like the way you've decorated them.

That's about your colour, isn't it, Paul? Very similar.

It's very similar.

That's too... There is a bit too much cinnamon and too much bicarb.

Oh! It's impossible to know what you're baking if you don't taste it.

The cookie itself's overbaked and it's very powdery.

The nuts itself were a little bit too salty. Other than that...

Sensational. Other than everything...!

They look lovely. I mean, I like the fact that there is something a bit

sort of jumbly about them. So, they are flavoured with, like,

an almond praline, milk chocolate, and then salted peanuts,

drizzled with dark chocolate

and then finished off with the peanuts on top.

Flavour-wise and texture-wise, it's great.

You've got crispiness, chewy on the inside.

And you've got salt and sugar

so perfectly pitched, it just lets all the different flavours emerge.

I mean, I really love this. Overall, I think you've done a very good job.

I think you've got cookies bang on target. Thank you!

Well done, Tom. Thank you. Thank you.

It did go well! I can't believe it. I was so shocked.

It's the best start to biscuit week I could have asked for,

really. I almost got a handshake!

For me personally, I would have put a little bit more coffee.

But if Paul said it was fine,

it's because it is fine, and I respect him.

When you present your bakes to your family, they're like,

"Oh, these are nice." "Oh, these are nice."

It doesn't tell you anything.

So I'm taking some notes whenever I'm getting feedback,

because I really want to get them really nice-tasting.

Do you reckon they've got us recipes this time round?

The bakers could practise their signature cookies.

Oh, no! There's two little ginghams.

But they've no idea what new challenge they face

in today's technical. It's under that.

I reckon this one's going to get us bad.

Welcome back, bakers, for your Technical Challenge.

Now, this one has been set by the biscuit boffin himself,

Mr Paul Hollywood. Any words of wisdom from your Biscuit Bible?

It's all about consistency in flavour, texture and colour.

Mm! Ooh!

As always, this is judged blind. So, judges, you may now leave the tent.

Thank you so much. And keep your filthy mitts out of the biscuit tin!

For your Technical Challenge,

Paul would love you to recreate that childhood classic,

the iced gem.

Paul will be looking for 24 exquisitely baked

orange shortbread biscuits

topped with a rainbow-coloured star of royal icing.

This is a taste and bake challenge.

A few pristine iced gems are underneath your tiny gingham cloths.

Not the regular gingham cloths, the miniature ones, the offcuts.

You'll have five minutes to look,

taste and do whatever you like with them.

Within reason.

Reveal the iced gems now!

Oh, my God, they're so cute.

Awww!

With no recipe, the bakers need to rely on their palates.

The bottom is an orange shortbread.

The royal icing is nice and crisp. Do you bake the icing?

I don't know. I love an iced gem. Don't know how to make them,

but I eat them all the time. They were saying it's the childhood,

like, memory. Well, not for me, because I'm Portuguese.

I'm stressing out already.

Paul, I have eaten many an iced gem in my time,

but I've never actually made one. They look so sweet and innocent.

But you haven't given them a recipe, so it's quite a brutal challenge.

Absolutely. It's simple enough when you break down the stages.

I think they'll know how to make a shortbread. Hard to bake a biscuit

that teeny-tiny well, though. Yes, they will bake quickly,

then they've got to think of the icing. This should be very stiff.

Yeah. If they don't whisk the egg whites enough,

they're not going to be able to make that wonderful rosette.

That's what makes these iced gems iced gems.

Once you've piped straight onto the biscuit, pop them all into the oven

and then dry them out. Grab your iced gem. Gladly.

They look great, don't they? They look enchanting!

Mm. Mm! They're lovely. The royal icing gives

a good texture to contrast with that soothing, buttery, melty shortbread.

It comes down to the setting of that icing.

Will they know to put it in the oven?

I don't think they will. No, I don't think they will.

I think it IS cruel. You're right. It's a great challenge.

OK, bakers, your five minutes is up.

You now have one hour and 30 minutes.

Are you ready? Yeah. On your marks... Get set...

Bake!

A shortbread is literally the easiest biscuit to make.

It's three ingredients. Going with the three, two, one method.

300g of flour, 200g of butter and 100g of sugar.

I just wish that I could remember how to make shortbread.

To begin with, I'm going to cream the butter and the sugar together.

So, I want to get it really nice and fluffy.

And now I'm adding the orange zest. I have a pinch of salt.

One pinch. And then what I shall do is sieve the flour in

and blend it till you get a dough. And we're going to start

working this a little bit to see if we can

get it into a rollable state. Very gently.

I don't want to overwork it, because then it'll just be, like, tough

and hard. I have formed my shortbread dough,

so I am rolling out. We don't want it too thick,

but we also don't want it too thin, that the icing overpowers

the biscuit on the bottom. Now I'm going to start cutting 24 circles.

T to the O to the M, Tom. Tom, are you into iced gems?

Not since I was about ten. Well, you're the winner of the first

technical. Surely you've got this down. You're the technical queen.

Stop it!

So, I'm actually going to stick these in the freezer for, like,

five minutes before I put them in the oven.

So you want it to be chilled. You want them to be firm.

And we also want them to keep that iced gem circular shape

and not go super flat.

Bakers, you are halfway through. How long?

So it's one hour... Seven. ...and 50... One hour and 30.

So that means they've got 30 and then... 45.

That's 45 minutes you've got.

Right, going in to bake now. We're going in!

I'm just hoping now my biscuits don't let me down.

But I have no clue how long they're going to bake for,

I'll be honest with you. They're so small.

Let's try eight to start off with.

Right, ten minutes. Now we're on to the... royal icing.

I've whipped up my egg whites

and I've been slowly adding in sifted icing sugar.

The aim now is to bring that up to very stiff peaks.

Howdy-doody. Howdy-doody. How long have you been baking?

My entire life. Have you? Yeah. Came out of the womb baking.

Yes, I did. Yeah. My mum had me and she, you know,

she had a mixing bowl right there for me.

Straight into a mixing bowl. Straight in there. Is your mum

a good baker? Yes. So, my mum is where I learnt everything I know.

Does she go foraging with you as well? No. She hates the kind

of thing I forage. Why? "Why would you want to eat that?

"Oh, that's disgusting!"

It's crucial the bakers' royal icing is whipped until stiff.

I want it to be really thick, because it needs to hold its shape

and stand up in that lovely little star.

That should pipe really well. So I'm happy with that.

So, it's really nice and thick. I might do something crazy and add

a few drops of orange juice to the royal icing, just because...

Bakers, you've got 30 minutes left.

Yeah, gorgeous. You're a gem.

And so are you.

They don't look too bad, to be fair. Great.

The biscuit they showed was quite pale.

Not confident, but could be worse.

And I'm just going to start colouring the icing.

So, we've got pink, blue, yellow and orange.

The colours are quite pastel. I've gone a little bit more vibrant.

The blue is probably a bit too bright, but Paul quite likes blue.

I've colour-matched it to his eyes.

Throwing all the colours into a piping bag.

To achieve a neat rainbow effect, the bakers need to ensure

the colours are separated in the piping bag.

Just trying to get them to all even up at the moment.

Failure to do so could result in muddy, undefined colours.

Trying to put two teaspoons of each

round the inside of the bag and then squeezing it down.

And then what you've got to hope for... Can you see, you get all

the different colours coming down?

I'm just piping me royal icing onto me iced gems now.

One!

Yay! That's not bad. I'm happy with the colour.

Ta-da! It's like an ice cream man's poo, isn't it?

Getting them all looking the same, that's gonna be tough.

That's highly like... It's definitely very bright, isn't it?

Look at t'colour of mine.

This is still quite wet. Disgusting, this is.

Consistency is awful. It's not good. I'm redoing my royal icing.

I'm not giving up.

Bakers, you've got 15 minutes left.

Oh, my God. The royal icing had a nice, hard shell on the outside,

but it was still quite soft in the middle. The royal icing

is nice and crisp. Let's put them in the oven so they harden up a bit.

I love you, guys.

I've just put them back in the oven for them to crisp up.

So I'll chill it in the fridge just to kind of firm off.

The consistency is way too liquid, but I'm gonna try it and see.

I'm just trying to, like, really go as fast as I can.

We're not gonna stay long. We're just giving you a boost.

You've got this. It's all right. Just take your time.

Breathe. You've got enough time. You can do this.

How long have we got left? We don't have enough left. Five minutes.

Sorry?! I need to move quick.

Yes! And they're getting harder and harder.

Oh, lovely. It's got a nice crunch on the top.

It's hard!

It's not perfect.

Oh, I'm not giving up. Bakers, you've got one minute left.

I don't even have time to bake it.

It was 24, wasn't it? 23, 24, 25. I've lost count now.

I won't have to go to the shops any more. I can make me own.

I'd say that was quite an easy technical, assuming you know

the recipe. Bakers, your time is... up.

Awful. Please bring your iced gems and place them

behind your photographs.

Oh! God!

Why do they look savoury to me? Look terrible, don't they?

Let's welcome our judges back.

Paul and Nigella are expecting 24 uniform iced gems

with buttery shortbread biscuit and set rainbow royal icing.

Interesting. They have no idea whose bake is whose.

OK, let's start with these over here.

They're a bit stronger in colour than pastel.

But they're rather beautifully done.

Ice cream's too soft. The base is too overworked.

Yeah, it's not butter enough. Orange flavour, good.

I quite like the colours on this. The peaks aren't too bad.

Slightly under on the biscuit. I mean, they are a bit thicker.

Moving on to number three. I quite like the colours on this.

The peak is beautiful.

Ooh, it's got some resistance on that icing. Got proper crust.

Biscuit's lovely. Delicious. Moving on to number four.

The pipework is good, but they're a little bit bright.

Flavour's good. It's both crisp and melty.

Moving on to this, they've lost all their definition.

It just wasn't whisked enough.

The topping is very, very soft. It's a really lovely biscuit.

This looks rather Halloween. Not many peaks on this.

The biscuit tastes sweeter than the others.

It feels like the ratio is out a bit.

It's not buttery.

Moving on. They look terrible.

The icing is soft. It's more like a marshmallow.

Slightly overbaked. You can taste the burnt, can't you?

This is pretty good. It really is.

It's got some resistance on the icing. Yeah.

And the colour is beautiful.

Mm! And that orange in that shortbread is spot on.

This is very good. It's a chirpy little thing. It is, yeah.

OK. The icing on this is nice.

Yes, it is. It's defined. It's strong. The colours are good.

It's neat. They're very uniform.

The biscuit's very, very tough. Probably need more butter in it.

It's sort of all over the place, the piping.

You know, you look at the sizes. The colour's not bad.

The colours are lovely. Not bad.

Nice orangey flavour. Mm.

Moving on to this. That's a very odd one. Strange colouring.

Very autumnal. The icing on this is soft.

That biscuit's tough as old boots.

Tough and chewy a bit. Mm.

These are not very consistent, but I like the colour.

Yes. A lovely little fluted shape. Yeah.

Got resistance. Yeah, it's got something there.

Not sure I want my biscuits to resist me but...

Needs more butter. A bit floury.

The judges will now rank the ice gems from worst to best.

In 12th place is this.

Gary. It's leathery and the colours were not right.

OK. In 11th spot, we have this one.

Danni. Tough as old boots

and the icing was all over the place.

Clara takes 10th, Nikki ninth,

Yannis eighth, Molly seventh,

Gabe sixth, Shannon fifth,

Moyin fourth, and Tom takes third.

Right, now we're getting to second place.

Whose is this?

These were really good. Well done. Thank you.

So, in first place, we have this one.

Connie.

Your biscuit was lovely. It's crumbly

and the icing on top was excellent as well. Well done. Thank you.

After this morning, I knew that whatever it was, I had to dig deep.

But to be the winner of the challenge, it's like...

SHE SQUEALS

I actually have only the second worst ice gems in the tent,

thank you very much!

I came 12th. I don't feel too good about it.

Brings a lot of pressure to me tomorrow.

Honey, I'm home!

One challenge remains before we reveal

who will be biscuit Star Baker and who has to leave the tent.

Well, what a week so far.

You know, I was so delighted to see Connie come out on top...

Oh, me too! ..you know, at the Technical Challenge. So good!

She was annoyed with herself after the Signature,

and she came back strong. Yeah.

I thought Mo and Connie just went, bang,

cos they started really badly in the Signature,

and they both did well, one and two, in the Technical.

And likewise, Clara and Gary started well,

and then in the Technical slumped down the bottom.

When you look at Tom, for instance,

he's the one that's been the most consistent. Yeah.

His Nordic crunch was fabulous. Yeah.

Who is in danger?

I think you're looking at Yannis, Shannon and Danni.

My favourite. I love Danni! The problem was she was baking a cookie

she couldn't taste. The four hour Showstopper today

is going to be the one. It's a big challenge.

It's a difficult challenge. And Biscuit Week has, you know,

caught a couple of people out, I think.

Hello, lovely bakers. Welcome back to the tent.

It's time for your Showstopper Challenge.

Now, the judges would love you to bake

a visually striking biscuit mosaic.

Now, your biscuit mosaic must depict an image or a pattern,

but it can be anything you like.

It could be a combine harvester.

It could be a wallaby in dungarees.

It could be a wallaby in dungarees driving a combine harvester.

It's up to you. The image on your biscuit mosaic must be created

using an array of smaller biscuits.

And fixed with an edible glue on a delicious biscuit backing.

You have four hours. On your marks.

Get set. Bake!

So excited I'm here.

I've got to redeem myself. First Showstopper.

I've got to do this one well.

I love a mosaic,

so I'm rather hoping for a very exuberant jumble

of colours and flavours.

I think this is going to challenge our bakers

because you have to be quite artistic. creative,

know your biscuit, know not to overwork the biscuit dough,

know when to bring it out of the oven,

because the problem is, when you're baking very small pieces,

you can overbake them really easily.

Yes, baking is about rules,

but baking can also be about, you know, expression.

Morning, Danni! Morning!

Right, Danni, tell us all about your mosaic biscuit.

So it is called Love Letter Dot TXT Dot VSB.

And that is a funky little virus. I'm going to give you guys a virus!

I mean, I take it you mean a computer virus?

Yes, a computer virus.

Never one to shy away from a challenge, Danni spends her weekends

attempting to bring vintage computers back to life.

Ugh! You can see that there's been some absolute mank going on here.

Danni's colourful laptop will be

created from a cherry biscuit base,

onto which she will pipe cherry jam

and buttercream to attach a screen,

complete with virus pop-ups

and a keyboard made up

with almond-flavoured biscuits -

flavours she thinks are to die for.

The flavours are inspired by cyanide! OK.

So, yeah! Are you planning to kill the judges?

Is that what's happening? Yes. Well...

When the blackthorn tree - you might know it better

as the sloe tree - comes into season around spring time,

it lets out this lovely, lovely almondy scent

and, unfortunately, I can't use those

cos they've got cyanide in them, so I'm using almond.

Right. Er... I'll leave you to it, Danni. Thank you, thank you!

You're not like anyone else, and that's why you're great.

Danni might be aiming for high-tech mosaic,

but Gary is sticking to analogue.

My bake is a mosaic clock. It's important I do well today

cos last challenge wasn't that good.

I think if I do a reasonable one, I'll be safe.

If I can do a really good one, that's even better.

Gary's clock will be assembled from

a mix of gingerbread and chocolate

tiles, which he'll decorate with

royal icing in his bid to get back

into the judges' good books.

I want to see a bounce-back, Gary.

I don't want to be disappointed again. No.

You were surprised, weren't you? Very.

He's your champion. He loves you... because he is you.

But if you make a mistake, I'll come down on you like a ton of bricks.

I know you will!

Also hoping for biscuit redemption today is Clara.

We're doing shortbread.

And to not commit the same mistakes as yesterday,

I'm really taking my time.

Clara's lemon tree vista will be

packed with lemon flavours from her

shortbread base to her sugar cookie

tiles, which she'll be decorating

with a royal icing that's hopefully

more successful than the one

she made yesterday!

No stress today. No. Just a bit of biscuit.

Honestly, I decided to be calm Clara today.

Aw! Well, I'm going to be your cheerleader today.

Give me a B! B!

Give me an A! A!

Give me a K! K!

Give me an E! E!

What do we got?

Bake! Yay!

That's what you call cheerleading.

Right, Nikki, tell us all about your mosaic biscuits, please.

It's called a lickle ray of sunshine!

No, the lickle ray of sunflower.

So the idea is sunflowers are my favourite flower,

and I think it exuberates like positivity.

Like you! I hope.

To create her colourful

sunflower mosaic, Nikki will use

royal icing to dip her tiles,

which will be a mix of gingerbread

and lemon and lavender shortbread.

Lavender is often tricky. You go overboard, it's like soap.

I always think of lavender, I think of my nan.

Are you calling me your nan?!

Nikki's biscuits might appeal to the older generation.

I do love a bit lavender,

but sometimes it does smell like an old lady.

But Tom is aiming for a younger demographic.

So my biscuit mosaic is based on the burn book from the movie Mean Girls.

Have you ever seen the movie Mean Girls?

No. So basically it's a book where they write a bunch of mean things

about people in. I'll watch the film with you. You've probably got one!

Mounted on a lemon shortbread base,

Tom's Burn Book will be constructed

from over 70 individually iced

raspberry biscuits.

It's difficult when you're colouring it with the raspberry colour

to be able to denote when it's going to be baked.

So that all comes down to practice. Well, to be honest with you,

I might be cooking it in a bit of a slab anyway

and then taking it out when it's like slightly under,

then cutting them and then putting them back in for a second bake.

Yeah. That's exactly what I'd do, yeah. Oh! OK.

I will do that then! All right. It's a good idea.

But before the bakers can tackle their tiles...

In they go.

...they need to bake the bases of their mosaics.

I'm going to bake it for about ten minutes.

So I'm baking it at 160 so it goes nice and slow.

But there is no time to sit and watch their ovens...

Oh, it's a beautiful colour of sky blue.

...as the bakers have a multitude of biscuit tiles to cut.

I'm roughly aiming towards about 200 tiles today.

My mosaic is called the Norfolk Broads Reflections.

I spent a long time studying medicine in Norwich,

and I've got lovely memories over there with my friends.

Made up of four different

flavours of sable biscuits mounted

on a brown butter shortbread,

Yannis will create an idyllic

scene of a windmill beside a river,

in an homage to the place where he

started his journey into medicine.

I always think, you know, like if I was a doctor... Yeah?

...and I went on a plane,

I'd literally tell them all that I'm a doctor

because I'd want to sit in first class. Does that happen?

Is that true? It can happen. I mean, I've had incidents

where I've had to step up and actually, like, do stuff.

Don't tell me you delivered a baby! Yeah, it was. On a plane?!

Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah.

Whilst Yannis is planning to deliver over 200 biscuit tiles,

Moyin has made his life a little easier.

My mosaic, it looks like a horizon behind a pyramid.

It's kind of like Afro-modernism art. I'm literally only doing

two colours, which is very helpful cos it's keeping it quite simple.

Moyin's simple yet stark design

will be made up of a vanilla

shortbread base topped with

contrasting shortbread tiles,

flavoured and coloured with black

cocoa and espresso and turmeric,

lemon and ginger - flavours

that are part of his heritage.

Lemon, ginger and turmeric biscuit is based on like

the teas that they drink in Nigeria,

and then like obviously cocoa beans, a lot of them are grown in Africa.

Morning, Connie! Morning! Tell us all about your biscuit mosaic.

What are you doing? So my biscuit mosaic is a little homage to, um...

You know we had a hurricane in Jamaica? Yeah.

And I just wanted to just do a flag of Jamaica

just to say we haven't forgotten you.

Yeah. And, unfortunately, where it happened,

it decimated where my mum comes from,

so it really hit hard there. Yeah.

Connie's tribute to her

beloved Jamaica will be made up of a

spiced cinnamon biscuit base adorned

with orange shortbread tiles,

which she will dip in royal icing

and glue down with coconut rum

and orange ganache.

And have you got a bit of a spring in your step

after doing well in the Technical?

Yes. I wanted to redeem myself, you know,

and I just wanted to show you that I can bake, I can cook.

Obviously you can bake. You wouldn't be here if you couldn't. Yeah.

Also flying a flag today is Molly.

Obviously, I'm very proud of who I am as a disabled person,

so I am recreating the disability pride flag in biscuits.

Molly will use an

almond-flavoured royal icing

to stick her tiles onto a chocolate

and cherry base before icing them

in the six colours

of the disability pride flag.

Look at that!

This is one of the bad sides of baking in a wheelchair

is your lap gets absolutely covered!

Bakers, you are halfway through.

Halfway through? No drama. No drama.

Oh, thanks, Noel!

With the mosaic bases baked...

I mean, that looks great. Yeah.

...the first batches of tiles can hit the heat.

Let's do four minutes.

These are my strawberries.

I've got a lovely big garden. I'm very, very proud of it.

And the bottom half of it is just

all for fruits and vegetable growing, and I thought,

you know what, I'll bring a little bit of me to the tent.

Back home in Gloucestershire, Shannon loves to tend to her garden

with the help of sisters Hannah and Georgie.

I think we need a tea break.

Her lemon biscuit base will lay

the groundwork for Shannon's garden,

filled with orange sugar biscuit

strawberries, carrots and lavender,

and a cobbled path

complete with doggy footprints.

Do you ever go out and have a little dance

or a boogie out in your garden? All the time. Do you?

I feel so sorry for the neighbours.

It's not very family... friendly.

That's your thing? We can do a little...

Oh, no. That's too... too much for my knees!

Shannon isn't the only baker celebrating a fruitful harvest.

When I was growing up, we used to go to my Uncle Tom's garden.

Me and my siblings would pick all the fruit,

and we'd just sell it to people that were walking past,

mainly so that we didn't have to eat fruit

and we could afford to go and buy sweets.

Gabe's fruity bounty will

sit on a gingerbread base with

a buttercream and fruit jam forming

the ground for his biscuit

strawberries, blackberries

and apples.

So the only thing I'm really worried about with this bake is

that for the apple one I'm using apple extract.

It's really hard to impart apple flavour.

It's just going to work how it works.

And if it doesn't work, I'll be going home, so!

Good morning, Mo! Hello, Mo. Good morning, Mo. Morning.

Tell us about your biscuit mosaic.

I'm going to do a toucan.

Why a toucan? Growing up, I had loads of parrots and I just thought

toucans look really cool. You've grown up with parrots?

Yeah. Do they talk? Yeah. What words do they say?

They just say hello, and that's... And that's all they said?

That was the... That was the extent of their conversation?

When Mo's had enough of all conversation,

he seeks refuge in the library.

Mo is hoping his flavours will do

the talking today with his toucan

made up of chocolate orange zest

and almond shortbread tiles,

all mounted with royal icing

on a cinnamon biscuit base.

Have you still got parrots and toucans about the place?

No? I've got one parrot. How old is that parrot?

I don't even know. Like seven or something. Seven?

Yeah. It died once, I think.

It died once?!

It's turning into a Monty Python sketch.

I used a hairdryer to resurrect it.

A hairdryer?! Yeah, and just started...

NOEL IMITATES HAIRDRYER WHOOSH Just stood there with a hairdryer.

Did its hair look really good when it came back to life?

Um... yeah.

Bakers, you've got one hour left.

Will you crumble under the pressure?

Do you see what I did there, Noel? Beautiful work.

Beautiful, beautiful work.

With the tile production line in full swing...

Oh, they smell great. Oh, my days!

...the bakers need to prepare the icing and edible glue.

So the glue is our jammy jam over here.

So this is a cherry jam.

I'm making my white chocolate and coconut ganache.

And ensure the bases are cool enough to begin assembly.

Right. This should be cold.

Oh, this is lovely.

In the next hour we're going to put all the tiles, the million tiles

I have on top of this base.

But there's a problem with Danni's.

They are underbaked. Tragically underbaked.

That's practically still dough, baby!

I wanted to be able to stick stuff onto my bases and stuff,

but they are underbaked, so I can't.

So everything's turning out swimmingly, as you can tell.

Oh, bother!

Most of the bakers have begun to assemble their biscuit mosaics.

Have to guess where the centre is.

This is the most important part - the heart.

I'm laying some garden paths.

Practice for when I redecorate the garden.

♪ Doo, doo-doo, doo-doo, doo... ♪

But Danni's underbaked base...

So I'm checking these back in.

...means mosaic construction is delayed.

And Tom is also falling behind with his ambitious,

super-sized Burn Book.

Just going to hammer out this cutting now. I'm doing it quick.

I always expected it to be quite a rush towards the end

of assembling them, but that's why I've made it like

quite an easy job and haven't got too many pieces.

Right. So all my biscuits are glued.

I need to go in with the design, and it needs to be fast.

Bakers, you have half an hour left.

Yeah. Good luck to me.

You can do it. I'm gonna try my best, obvs,

but I don't think I'll have time to get it all done.

We're baked! Can you believe that?

We actually have a bakeage on our hands.

Does it look like a mosaic?

Whilst those who have pre-coloured their dough

are on the home straight...

I'm feeling good.

I could get this done.

It is coming together.

There's a couple of bits that are a bit messy,

but I'm gonna tidy it up at the end.

The bakers who've chosen to ice their mosaics

have a long way to go.

I'm trying to move as fast as I can.

Obviously, I want it to look perfect,

but I also want it to be finished,

so I've just got to try and crack on.

I've never done such terrible icing in all my life.

That's the space-bar going down.

I'm a bit nervous cos I don't know if I'm gonna make it,

but... we'll try, I guess.

My lovely bakers, you've got ten minutes left.

It's nearly done now. I'm happy.

The keys are going to get slapped on a little bit more now.

Just got to get this green on.

I'm actually finding this very therapeutic.

How you doing, Tom?

You all right?

No. You gonna get it done?

No, I'm not.

Oh. I'm gonna cry.

Oh, Tom.

So now I do little paw prints of the dogs walking.

I'd love to have done neatness, but neatness is not happening.

It could be neater, but it is still fairly neat.

Bakers, you've got one minute left.

Oi, oi. Can I do this?

I think I'm done.

It's gonna look rubbish. Go on, Tom, go on.

What a mess.

I don't even know what else to do now.

Bakers, your time, sadly, is up.

Oh, it just looks BLEEP.

I have no idea what they're gonna say.

I think they're just gonna be disappointed

in the way that it looks.

It just feels so humiliating that I just couldn't do it.

The biscuit mosaics now face the judgment of Paul and Nigella.

Shannon, it's time for your showstopper.

It's really charming. It's really lovely.

I know how much you love your garden.

I love the shapes of everything.

You know, obviously, it's a carrot shaped like a carrot strawberry.

There's a bit of care been taken over the shaping.

It's hopefully got a lovely, zesty flavour of lemon in the base.

Then it's royal icing, and that's lemon and orange flavour.

And then it's topped with sugar cookies

what are orange extract flavour.

The orange and lemon really comes through. Thank you.

A treat to look at and a treat to eat.

Very good. Thank you.

I think you've done a great job with that.

The sugar snap biscuits are just delicious.

I mean, they snap, they break, they melt, they're full of flavour.

Yeah, exceptional. Well done. Should I dust off my hand?

THEY LAUGH

Come on, I've moisturised it for a few weeks.

That's what I would call a mosaic.

It's like a rather jaunty stained glass window.

It has such charm.

Now he's going to ruin it.

The flavours are lemon shortbread on the base,

sugar cookies on the top.

For the glue, white chocolate and coconut ganache.

I think you've got your flavours spot-on.

The base is beautiful. It's crumbly, it's light.

Your edible glue with coconut and lemon is rather lovely.

The coconut, which can easily be overwhelming, is rather mild.

This is really lovely.

Well done. Thank you very much. Thank you, guys.

It's not neat, but I love it.

Everything you do is so full of ebullience and joy.

And I look at that and I smile.

I love the colours. Yeah. It's vibrant, in your face.

Your grouting is awful.

Yeah, I agree. Let's see.

I've made for the base...

And the majority of the mosaic pieces are gingerbread.

Sorry, Paul. Yeah, your grouting is... Maybe it's real grouting.

...concrete. And the sunflower head

is like a lemon and lavender shortbread.

The ginger level is spot-on.

I love being kicked between the eyes,

but the bake is all wrong. It's just too soft.

The shortbread is really... quite underbaked. OK.

It's very soft. The lavender...

Oh, dear! Very artificial. It's not pleasant.

OK, great.

Neat as a pin. Could have done a little bit more.

I love it. It's elegant.

It's a ginger and chocolate mosaic biscuit.

It's been bedded down with ganache.

I love the flavours of the gingerbread.

The piece I had was perhaps a bit overbaked,

but the flavours were wonderful.

The chocolate one needed a little bit longer.

It's really difficult to bake something that colour

because you never know that it's actually baked properly.

I think you've done a decent job. Well done.

I love the blues. There's something a bit dreamy about it,

which I like. I did a lightly spiced cinnamon base.

The top parts are all shortbread.

The beak is an orange zest shortbread.

The blue bits are almond,

and then the black part is chocolate shortbread.

All the top biscuits are delicious.

Texture, flavour, bake - tick, tick, tick.

The base is terrible.

It's more like fudge. It's a bit compacted.

You know, it has a denseness.

Whereas your tiles really are perfect.

Thank you very much, man. Thank you.

It's not very neat.

I'm not very neat.

That's not your style, is it? No.

And the flavours, again, remind me. It's almond, isn't it?

Yes. It was... Yes, it was... it was essence of cyanide.

You eat it first, Paul.

THEY LAUGH

So is it basically all the same? They're all the same,

apart from, the top ones are almond and the bottom ones are cherry.

It's a bit tough, but it's got a nice flavour to it.

I love this jam. I want the jam and the buttercream on a scone.

They're a lovely pairing, but I think, in terms of the texture,

you really gave that dough a hammering.

It's stark. It's a little bit untidy, though.

But the important thing is to find out what it tastes like.

The biscuits are lemon and ginger,

and then the black ones are black cocoa and espresso.

And then there's a vanilla shortbread at the bottom.

Your black cocoa... Mm-hm.

...I like the coffee coming through a lot.

Black cocoa I like. Mm-hm.

The yellow one, however, it's underbaked.

It's very soft. Oh, yeah.

It's very artistic, actually.

I like the fact that there's small pieces.

That's what a mosaic, to me, screams. Mm.

In terms of the base, it's made with a brown butter shortbread.

The reeds are made with pistachio.

The windmill is made with cocoa and malt powder.

The sky and the river is made with honey from Norfolk and lemon.

And the grout is made with ganache and honey.

I love the honey.

I can't say I can taste the other flavours very much.

Everything has got the texture of fudge and it's not pleasant.

You sabotage yourself a bit

by making things a little too complicated.

Simplicity, when done well, it has strength. Mm-hm.

Neat as a pin, isn't it?

It looks like I've just walked into a sweet shop.

I like that. The base is a chocolate biscuit with cherry extract,

and the mosaic tiles are a sable biscuit,

and the glue is a royal icing with some almond flavouring.

The top biscuits, probably a little bit longer in the oven.

The base itself is one of the best

chocolate biscuits I've had for some time.

SHE EXHALES HEAVILY

It's almost bitter. It is bitter.

It's almost what real chocolate is like. Proper chocolate.

It doesn't just dance on the edge of bitterness,

it goes right through and over the top.

That is stunning.

Well done, Molly. Thank you so much.

It's very modernistic in its approach.

It's simple but effective.

So it's a gingerbread base with a vanilla custard buttercream,

and then apple, bramble, and strawberry biscuits.

I'm loving the bramble, both the texture and the taste.

Strawberry, I love. So they work. Great.

The apple doesn't.

I mean, it's artificial,

so I'm afraid I didn't enjoy the apple.

The bramble and strawberry, I like. The base is a bit tough, though.

The base doesn't work. Thank you.

Did you drop it?

No, I just ran out of time.

Yeah, it looks unfinished.

And there's a lemon shortbread on the bottom,

raspberry jam, caramel in-between.

And then a raspberry biscuit on top.

As a flavour, I adore this. The raspberry is great.

I agree. I think the flavour on the base

and the top, and the texture and the bake,

big ticks all the way down.

But it looks a mess.

Earlier on this year, there was a really horrible hurricane

which kind of destroyed quite a bit of, um, Jamaica.

So I just kind of wanted to do a flag

with a little heart in the middle,

just to say that we haven't forgotten you

and, uh, our hearts are with you.

The mosaic's a lemon. Um...

And, um... Can I just give you a hug?

Sorry. I'm sorry. It's so emotional.

Sorry. I'm so sorry. No, it's all right.

But you mustn't apologise for having emotion.

You've managed to say an awful lot

in what is a simple but really powerful design.

It has great majesty, but there's also joy in it.

I think it's great. I like it.

So, it's a cinnamon shortbread

topped with an orange shortbread biscuit.

Added a little bit of rum and a little bit of coconut in this,

but in the, um... Just to bring out some of those Caribbean vibes.

I love the flavour.

It's a vibrant biscuit, and the citrus is really coming through.

Do you know what, Connie? I love it.

Oh, God! If you're going to put that sort of citrus level in,

then make it work. And it does, and it sings.

But what I particularly like is,

that cinnamon biscuit is absolutely delicious.

You've executed that beautifully.

Thank you so much. Thank you very much, Connie.

You're welcome, Connie. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Ah, my girl.

Connie.

I didn't honestly feel that I was going to be emotional about it,

but it just came, and I couldn't stop it.

And, yeah, I just feel really overwhelmed

and just so proud that I was able to do it.

Obviously, it was not finished.

I got emotional about the fact that it was not finished,

but I know I got them comments, but it's still just a bit like, mm.

I'm so happy with that, honestly.

NIgella said, "A little treat to eat."

Very happy with that.

And the funny thing is, it's actually a sugar cookie recipe,

so I knew I was going to win her over.

I think that turned out to be quite a good showstopper in the end.

I thought they were really fabulous.

What about Connie? Cos that really got me today.

I found that so emotional. Connie's been brilliant.

She struggled in the signature,

but she has bounced back in the technical and the showstopper.

She was brilliant in the technical. Yeah, yeah. And...

Brilliant in the showstopper.

She was really brilliant in the showstopper as well.

For me, the best individual biscuits,

just for flavour and texture, were Tom's.

Yeah. The problem with Tom's is,

it was unfinished, it was messy, it was all over the place.

We couldn't believe that.

He's a talent, but I don't think he'll make that mistake again.

If he stays, he's not going to make that mistake again. ALISON: Yeah.

So who's in line for Star Baker, do you think?

Tom.

Connie, definitely. Clara's probably up there as well.

So whose weren't you as keen on?

Danni's I wasn't particularly keen on.

Yannis, I didn't like.

I think Shannon's sort of saved herself to a point

cos that was a great showstopper.

How are we going to actually decide who goes?

Probably an arm wrestle or...

ALISON LAUGHS I mean, you know I'd win. #S

I know. Um... I'd let you win.

No, you wouldn't. Listen, I'm the one who lifts weights.

You're just... you're just sitting around.

I would... I wouldn't pick a fight with me.

Congratulations, bakers. What a week Biscuit Week has been.

I have got the wonderful job of announcing

who is the Star Baker this week.

So our Star Baker is...

...Tom.

THEY CHEER

Congratulations. Well done. Thank you.

Sadly, that leaves me with the horrible job

of announcing the person that's leaving us.

The person that we're sending home is...

...it's Danni.

Oh, don't.

Thank you so much.

It's been so lovely with all of you. Danni... It has.

Oh, my goodness. I'm really happy that I was the first one out

because I know everyone in there is more skilled than me,

but I think I've learned something about myself,

which is that, in the right circumstances,

I can make quite a few friends.

Danni! Danni! Danni!

Finding love in a group of strangers -

that's just beautiful,

that there are people who do appreciate you

and can appreciate you and will be your friend.

Hey, hey, no tears, no tears. Come here.

We got so close to each other. It's so sad.

She's so amazing.

And I'm just upset she's going, but someone has to.

We've gone through the first goodbye,

and it was emosh.

Proper emotional.

At least I've got waterproof mascara on.

Well done, Tom. Yeah!

Hello, Thomas.

I've had a very hard day today.

Are you OK? It's been awful.

Oh, has it?

But I won Star Baker.

Did you?!

Bloody hell! Yes, Tom!

Oh, I was gonna say,

"Oh, Tom, it's OK. Just come home."

Come and see me.

Do you want a chum hug?

I got a Nigella hug. Oh, go on, Tom!

I'm just at work, so I have to go, OK?

All right. Bye. Well done. Thanks!

Aww.

Next time... Come on!

...in a Bake Off first, the bakers face challenges chosen by you...

I'm very nervous about this one.

...with surprise guests in the signature...

This is going to be carnage.

...a cabinet of curiosities in the technical...

There's no method. This is just madness.

...and a fashion-forward showstopper.

CHEERING

Who will be runway ready?

Working!

And whose fashion faux pas...

The stress!

...will see them leave the tent?

Oh! CAKE THUDS ON FLOOR #S

Are you a Star Baker in the making?

If you'd like to apply for the next series of Bake Off,

visit channel4.com/takepart.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media