The Great British Bake Off, Patisserie Week: did Hermine really deserve to go?

Hermine on The Great British Bake Off - Love Productions
Hermine on The Great British Bake Off - Love Productions

It was Patisserie Week for the penultimate episode. Hands trembled. Heat rose. But who would bake their way into the final and who would fall at the last hurdle?

Hermine exits. But have they got the wrong finalists?

Many viewers were outraged that fan favourite Hermine was eliminated, while the erratic Laura Adlington survived. Was it the wrong decision? Well, we can't taste the bakes so we'll never know for sure. The judges insisted that Laura's flavours were superb, even if her presentation was a disaster. A near-inedible showstopper is what ultimately cost Hermine.

Matt Lucas jokingly promised to cancel the final if she wasn’t in it but we’re afraid that’s beyond the co-host’s purview.  Bake Off isn't a popularity contest, it's a cooking competition. One bad week can prove fatal. Based on the series overall, was Hermine better than Laura? Yes. Unfortunately, she had a honker at the wrong time.

There was a similar outcry in Eighties Week when the similarly popular Lottie Bedlow was sent home, but, again, she made a mistake too big to stay with that melting mixtape ice-cream cake. A fortnight ago, we would have confidently predicted that Lottie would be battling Hermine in the final but in a series full of surprises, neither have made it.

The upshot is we're left with a slightly disappointing final three. Last year's finalists (and eventual winner) were pretty dull. This year's trio are better and more characterful, but not by a whole lot. In a parallel universe somewhere, there's an alternative final three of Hermine, Lottie and... We would say Rowan Williams based on personality but he was incapable of delivering a bake on time. So one of the Mark/Marcs instead. Perhaps they can screen that fantasy final on More4?

Patisserie pressure got to in-form Hermine

She not only seemed to be hitting form at the right time, having won two Star Baker prizes in a row, but this was supposed to be Hermine’s week. As fellow semi-finalist Dave Friday said: “Hermine is patisserie.” Did the pressure of expectation get to the usually cheerful trainee accountant?

In a cruel twist, the tent’s most consistent baker chose week nine to suffer her first wobble. Her signature Baba au Rhum savarins looked typically elegant but were under-proved, tough and bread-like - partly because Hermine abandoned her first batch and hurriedly started again. She recovered to finish second in the Danish cornucopia technical. However, it was the showstopper that put paid to her hopes.

Hermine changed her plan the previous day, so hadn’t practised. Her “Best Of Hermine” cube cakes, showcasing her favourite flavours, didn't set in time. She presented a melting, sagging structure and, to seal her fate, used far too much gelatine, meaning they were stodgy and rubbery in texture.

In a close call between her and Laura Adlington, Laura’s flavours narrowly had the edge over Hermine’s classical style. Hailing from Benin, via France, Hermine’s highlights were that gorgeous poppy jelly cake and a Hollywood handshake for her flavoured soda breads. It was bittersweet to say au revoir.

Despite winning Star Baker the past two weeks, Hermine was the latest to leave the tent - Channel 4
Despite winning Star Baker the past two weeks, Hermine was the latest to leave the tent - Channel 4

Another fine mess but Laura somehow survived

Is butter-fingered flavour queen Laura Adlington the luckiest finalist of all time? She’s flirted with the exit so often, it’s a miracle she’s made it all the way.

Her bakes might be delicious but her presentation is erratic, to put it kindly. Her tropically-twisted rum babas were wonkily iced and inconsistent in size but with lovely light sponge. “The usual comments,” shrugged Laura. “Taste nice but look a mess. Getting a bit bored of that, to be honest.” How do you think viewers feel?

Poor Laura suffered a Scandi meltdown during the Danish cornucopia technical, struggling with the convoluted instructions and forgetting to turn on her oven amid all the tears. The result was messy, raw and unsurprisingly came last. “Worst technical yet,” she said. “I thought matcha pancakes were bad. That was an abomination.”

Laura managed to avoid elimination once again - Channel 4
Laura managed to avoid elimination once again - Channel 4

Escape artist Laura has often saved her skin with the showstopper and did it again, although only just. Her Black Forest Gateau cube cakes worked well apart from the chocolate mirror glaze which slid off, spilled across her worktop and left it looking like a post-apocalyptic hellscape once again. The judges cut her some slack for the heatwave. Her five-layered creations were delicious and deemed “worth the calories” by Prue – her highest compliment.

Thanks to those flavours, Laura squeaked into the final. Paul Hollywood said she was “a rough diamond who just needed polishing”. She’d earned that big glass of gin and sambucca chaser after all. Please don’t drop anything next week, Laura. We’re not sure our nerves can take it.

Perfect Peter now looks the one to beat

He had his worst week yet in the quarter-final, coming perilously close to a surprise exit. Now Scottish student Peter Sawkins bounced back in style, winning his first Star Baker award since way back in week one. With Hermine out, he now looks the frontrunner.

He got a Hollywood handshake for his “mouthwatering” (albeit booze-free) elderflower, creme diplomat and strawberry babas – becoming the first male handshake recipient of the series, incredibly. “Welcome back to the tent, said Paul Hollywood as the baby-faced assassin recaptured the high standards he’d set early in the series.

Peter completed a fairytale first day by winning the horn-of-plenty technical – a challenge that suited his unflappable precision. His showstopper of Chocolate Raspberry & Pistachio cube cakes was a complicated creation involving three different sponges, mousses and glazes. He not only pulled it off in time but it all worked beautifully together.

At just 20, Peter becomes the joint youngest finalist alongside series four’s Ruby Tandoh. Only two contestants have ever been Star Baker in the semi-final, then gone on to be crowned champion – namely Nadiya Hussain and Sophie Faldo. Can Peter make it three?

Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood - Channel 4
Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood - Channel 4

Team spirit stronger than ever this year

It was lovely that even in the heat of battle (not to mention the heat of, er, actual heat), there were still cockle-warming displays of in-tent camaraderie.

Matt Lucas has formed a bond with Laura Adlington and gave her a sweetly supportive pep talk when she became tearful, reassuring her: “You can do it. That’s why you’re here. You’re going to smash it. Not literally.” “Bless you,” said a grateful Laura, her resolve renewed. “You’re the best.” Later the pair punched her savarin dough, pretending it was Paul’s face.

Laura repaid the favour by encouraging the despairing Hermine. “Come on, you can do it,” she told her buddy. “I believe in you.” Noel Fielding also whispered words of support.  Being in the Bake Off bubble, living together for six weeks, has brought this bunch even closer than in a normal year. Friendships have formed and Bake Off has got its warmth back.

Fast-improving Dave coasted through

In a week where the male bakers dominated, Dave Friday cruised through alongside Peter Sawkins. Intense security guard Dave shoulders were wiggling with delight yet again.

He fell back on his mango and Mexican obsessions in the savarin signature (we get it! you went on holiday once!) but they looked “sensational” and the flavours worked well. His horn of plenty suffered a snigger-inducing case of brewer’s droop and he came third in the technical.

Dave had another strong week in the tent - Channel 4
Dave had another strong week in the tent - Channel 4

The showstopper sealed it. His "celebration of chocolate" cube cakes looked great, were deliciously fudgey and deemed “a triumph” by Paul. Dave was also the only baker to pull off an edible stand. He ran Peter close for Star Baker but will be more than content with his berth in the final.

Prue borrowed Paul’s nasty role

Had the judges secretly undergone some kind of body swap? Steely silverback Paul Hollywood was the kind, impish one this week – sweetly complimenting the bakers, teasing them and even cracking his own innuendoes (“Prue, do you want to try some of my horn?”).

By contrast, the usually maternal Prue Leith moved into stern teacher mode and was particularly harsh on Hermine. During the technical, Prue described Hermine’s decoration as “really awful” but she saved her most withering comments for the showstopper: “Doesn’t look great, does it?… I’m really disappointed… By your standards, it’s a failure.”

Don’t soft-soap us, Prue, say how you really feel.

Presenters’ partnership finally hit its stride

It has sometimes felt like co-hosts Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas were competing for laughs, rather than working as a team. This week, though, they were on the same page.

Yes, they did their own thing at times. Matt ran through his repertoire of daft voices, doing Cockney, French, Scottish, Pingu and clingy toddler. Meanwhile, Noel teased the bakers, riffed about gelatine and fantasised about visiting Narnia via Prue’s wardrobe.

Noel and Matt - Channel 4
Noel and Matt - Channel 4

Yet there was plenty of interplay too. See that opening skit with Noel’s Patisserie Song (“I like patisserie, sometimes in my lingerie”) – a fiendish ear-worm dismissed by Matt as “needlessly surreal”. Their time-calls recalled a vaudevillian double act. This comic partnership has grown as the contest has progressed.

And now for the big one…

Hard to believe there’s only one episode remaining but the grand final is upon us already. Next Tuesday’s 75-minute finale finds “Praul and Poo” testing every aspect of our surviving trio’s baking skills.

Who will walk off with that coveted glass cake-stand? And how will the first final work in the Bake Off bubble, which presumably rules out the traditional friends-and-family garden party? Meet you back here to chew on the action one last time.

Did the right baker leave the Bake Off tent this week? Tell us in the comments section below