The Great British Baking Show: 2020 Final Recap

All season long we’ve complained about the many shortcomings of the latest offering from The Great British Bake Off. The challenges were too desperate. The bakers were too bland. The global pandemic continued and no one knew how to make brownies. Paul Hollywood was not the ideal emissary of Japanese culinary traditions. Every week was a hot week. Ermine has been eliminated. The president did not concede his election and the days became very short.

But there are powers greater than despair; one of them is Prue Leith. The finale is a celebration of perseverance. No, of course it was not the Pastry that we wanted. It would have been pleasant if Sandi Toksvig had not left to host a Channel 4 special on Great British Literacy, if Sura had stayed longer, if Dave had at some point developed distinctive characteristics, if Paul had not insisted on rainbow bagels. And yet if this last episode taught us anything, it’s that Pastry is, at bottom, always Pastry: a show about future accountants whipping cream in a tent.

In theory, there are three finalists, but really there are only two: Laura is not going to win Great British Cooking. Unless … ? But no. The signature challenge is to make custard slices, which are custard slices. “When we cut the pastry cream slices, you want a crispy puff pastry, followed by a silky pastry together custard, ”warns Paul Hollywood. “I just can’t afford not to put it in place today,” Laura murmurs anxiously. The only thing you need to know about a slice of custard is that the custard should be taken.

The only thing you need to know about Laura is that her cream hasn’t set.

After receiving a heartwarming video message from his girlfriend, unborn child, and Stoic Shiba Inu, Dave unveils a slice of creme caramel latte which Prue says is delicious and Paul says it’s slightly heavy. . “It’s still pretty delicious,” Prue says. Peter, backed up by his family’s Scottish accents, offers a slice of Cranachan Raspberry Whiskey Custard, which Paul says is “very professional actually” and Prue agrees it’s “a really nice slice of custard. “. Laura presents a puddle of yuzu cream. Plus, its puff pastry is bad. “You had a bad morning,” Prue soothes, “but you could still have a great afternoon!”

But Laura is not having a good afternoon. The problem, I think, is that she’s worse at baking than Dave and Peter.

Yet how can you not support her after all this time? Laura, who is very good at flavor but less gifted with detail; Laura, who carved a terribly disastrous cake bust of her hero Freddie Mercury; Laura, who is sometimes capable of shine, like that once she made an exquisite pastry cage, and other times puts her head in the freezer and cries. She is an outsider, facing two shiny coated Afghan dogs. It represents the reality of home baking, which is messy; Dave and Peter, with their expertly feathered Florentines and perfect Battenbergs, are like Instagram – too neat to be interesting. Laura, she embodies the struggle and the joy of real life.

Especially the fight part, however, as evidenced by this week’s technique: eight tiny ‘nut swirls’, a complicated little candy with a hazelnut cookie base, a coffee ganache filling, a marshmallow swaddle and a chocolate shell temperate. This is exactly the kind of project that is going to go wrong on a hot day, which it does. It’s so hot. It is 34 degrees in the tent, which is European for “93.2 degrees”.

Everyone’s nut swirls are too soft, and two out of three are melted, but Laura’s is the worst. Peter is second worst, or second best, if you prefer your glass half full, and Dave’s “good piece of cookie” puts him first.

In the morning it rains – but don’t worry, it’s still hot. Is there any chance, at this point, that Laura, a populist hero, can still win? “We’ve seen strange things in the tent before,” Paul offers half-heartedly. In the background, the thunder claps. Circle of crows.

For their Showstoppers finale, the bakers will each build a ‘Candy Tower’, with a giant cake on the bottom and layers of other desserts on top, featuring at least three different baking disciplines to pay homage to their time. on this show. It can be choux pastry or pudding or even raspberry, for all of Paul’s care! “All I want,” he humbly suggests, “is the perfection of whatever they choose to do.”

Laura gets to work on a “Rainbow Dessert Tower,” which, she explains, is based on her favorite GK Chesterton quote, about how without rain there would be no rainbows. That means she’s making a carrot and nut cake base with chocolate orange chelsea breads, lemon macaroons and mini versions of the lime tarts that won her Star Baker this time. Careful observers will note that at this point in the show, “Oh, Laura” was all the rage on UK Twitter. Oh, Laura, I think.

Peter, meanwhile, is building a “Bonkers Bake Off Bubble Cake” that will reflect his experience by being “a bit random” and Christmas-themed. It will feature a cone-shaped Rice Krispies Christmas tree decorated with tiny Christmas puddings and “gifts” of orange and chocolate plaid cookies, atop a festive sea of ​​blackberry and lemon choux buns, which in turn is balanced on a Victoria sponge. This, he explains, will represent uncertainty but also joy.

Dave takes a different approach and builds a “Tower of Redemption,” made up of all the baked goods he’s failed this season. A base of strawberry cake. A layer of new and improved chocolate babkas. Profiteroles with raspberries, to compensate for its dull éclairs. Revisited brownies, to make up for his other brownies. “The definition of insanity,” he said with steel eyes, “expects different results by trying the same thing.” It’s obsessive. It’s awesome. It may be deeply misguided. I love it all. It’s an emotional roller coaster, the Pastry; you may need to rethink your favorites anytime.

Instead of friends and family and eliminated bakers, the final picnic is attended this year by an army of production staff, who have spent these weeks together in the bubble, doing Pastry happen. And they did. That’s exactly when I realize I’m going to cry.

While all of the individual pieces of Laura’s Rainbow Tower are triumphant – the carrot nut cake is ‘heavenly’, the lime ‘tangy’, the macaroons ‘delicate’, the Chelsea buns ‘squash’ – it does not come together in a coherent way. dessert, and she doesn’t win. “You are such a good bakerPrue said to her, as two nations, an ocean apart, sigh together: Oh, Laura.

Ultimately, it comes down to the showdown we all knew it would be: Peter’s random bonkers bubble in Christmas extravagance against Dave’s monument to past disappointment. Peter’s blackberry choux buns are exquisite, but her Victoria sponge is drier than Prue would like. Dave’s strawberry cake is as luxuriously light as any other strawberry cake, but its babka dough is tough. Peter’s Battenberg-inspired cookies are adorable, but his friends are heavy. Dave’s brownies are elegantly gooey, but his profiteroles are flat. It’s anyone’s game at this point – except Laura’s.

But there can be no tie in the tent, so there isn’t, and in the end the title and the cake plate go to Peter, who is the youngest winner of Pastry history, and also the most Scottish, and everyone is happy for everyone. “I wanted this very much,” says a shocked and serious Peter, a tender newborn who is surprisingly good at baking. “We Are Young” swells and we catch up with our old friends. Mak’s son got married! Rowan has taken on his legitimate hobby, which is to make his own vests! Sura and Mark and Laura and Dave were hanging out around the foyer of Lottie’s house, and Hermine went to visit Marc, and Peter went back to college, and Dave had his baby, then, like Laura in the freezer, I cried real tears for the first time in the whole season.