The Great British Baking Show Recap: Getting Schooled

by

People often ask me what it’s like being American and living in the U.K. I usually explain it by describing a night out in London. I’ll be having fun, singing along to familiar ‘80s hits like Prince, Michael Jackson, or Madonna, and then a British song like Heaven 17’s “Temptation” will start playing. Suddenly, everyone around me is passionately singing every word, even though I’ve never heard it before! It feels strangely both familiar and disorienting, because it *sounds* like it could be an American song from that time.

The story highlights how similar cultures can be, until they suddenly aren’t. Watching ‘Back to School Week’ really showed me this. We’ve been looking at cookies, cakes, and bread – treats that are pretty much the same in America and the UK. But when it came to the baked goods that remind us of school days, it felt like Americans were experiencing a strong wave of nostalgia – like hearing a really familiar, upbeat song. (That song, by the way, is called ‘Temptation.’)

Let’s talk about flapjacks. In America, people often mistake them for pancakes, but they’re completely different! And forget what the British call pancakes – that’s a whole other story. A flapjack is similar to a granola bar, but softer and chewier, not crunchy. There isn’t really anything quite like it in the US. Imagine a chewy, rectangular oatmeal cookie with a lot more oats, and you’re getting close. You’d typically find these at schools, museums, or coffee shops – a classic snack!

This was a strong challenge because it asked the bakers to simply improve upon familiar recipes, without resorting to anything cheesy. I particularly enjoyed ‘Back to School Week’ – it was a simple concept, but the results were impressive. The theme also perfectly captures the heartwarming, quintessentially British feel that makes the show so enjoyable. Most viewers can relate to school memories and the foods they associate with those times, creating an emotional connection. Plus, the episode was packed with clever school-themed puns! A big thumbs up to the producers, especially for those puns.

Tom, always striving for perfection, was making a special treat for the teacher: apples with apple crumble inside, and a tiny flapjack hidden within. It was a surprisingly complex bake! When asked if he’d practiced at home, he gave a typically understated “Kind of,” which felt uncharacteristic for usually flawless Tom. This week, however, he wasn’t quite on top form – he ran out of time, leaving his apples looking good but a little rough around the edges, even missing the stem. Despite this, the judges, Prue and Paul, were impressed, calling his creation clever and well-made. He was only fifteen minutes away from receiving a coveted handshake.

Jasmine, similar to Tom, is still behind schedule with her raspberry and chocolate flapjacks. However, her finished product is flawless – perfectly baked, neat in appearance, and delicious according to the judges. They praised everything about them!

Aaron’s pancakes are also doing well. They’re topped with Earl Grey buttercream and lemon jam-a combination that sounds a little questionable, honestly. But he pipes the buttercream on in two thick lines, making them look like chalk, which fits the challenge’s theme. Paul says they actually taste fantastic, even though he’s not eager to try them himself.

Lesley had a tough time – she accidentally put shortbread beneath her flapjacks, throwing off the baking and decorating process, and ultimately leaving her frustrated. Nataliia’s flapjacks crumble when she tries to remove them from the tray, so she has to cut them into triangles, which Prue dislikes because she prefers a square shape. Iain made flapjacks that tasted like banana bread, combining two school desserts, but Paul found them too soft and underbaked. When Iain explained he was aiming for a banana bread texture, Paul, with a hint of sarcasm, said they were perfect and retracted his earlier criticism.

Nadia attempted to decorate her flapjacks with melted chocolate, but she used too much, and it didn’t harden properly. This made the flapjacks look and taste bad. Jessika’s red wine and poached pear creation seemed the most elegant, resembling a fancy dessert with a deep red pear topping. However, the texture was too mushy. Paul complained the pears made the dessert unpleasantly sticky, comparing it to glue – a classic school supply!

School Cake is a simple treat many British children grew up with – a sheet cake cut into squares, frosted with vanilla icing and covered in sprinkles. It was often served as part of school lunch, though the British oddly call lunch ‘dinner’. This cake was traditionally a Friday treat, likely to keep kids well-behaved throughout the week! It originally started as ‘Tottenham Cake’, given to children after the Tottenham Hotspur football team won a major championship. It’s a very British tradition, that’s for sure!

The bake is straightforward, so Prue makes things extra challenging by removing all modern kitchen tools and requiring the bakers to do everything manually. They even have to make their own sprinkles! It never occurred to me how sprinkles are actually made, and honestly, I prefer to keep it that way. I’d rather believe they magically appear from a sparkly planet or are something whimsical like fairy droppings. Sprinkles shouldn’t be *made*; they should just… exist.

I found out Tom is quite the gossip during our technical challenge, which I actually love! He joked that Aaron is hoping Paul Hollywood will call him a “naughty boy,” then revealed he’d be the one to say it. He also confessed he’d ask his baking partner if he could take things further with Paul if he ever got a handshake. Now I’m worried – is there competition for Tom’s attention? I need to win him over! I’m planning to ply him with Earl Grey and lemon flapjacks until he’s sick, then make my move and steal him away from Paul – and his perfect bakes – right under Paul’s nose.

The technical challenge went smoothly for everyone, with no major successes or failures. Unfortunately, Nadia, Natalia, and Jessika are still at the bottom, indicating they’re likely to be eliminated. Jasmine won the challenge, with Aaron and Iain finishing second and third respectively.

One of the most charming things about the school event is the “stall,” which Americans tend to say like “fate,” while Nataliia playfully says it like “fight.” A Summer Fête is basically a school carnival run by the parent-teacher association to raise money, so you’ll find games, food, and activities like face painting. However, the games are a bit different than what we’re used to. Nadia loves playing Tombola, which is similar to a raffle. Jasmine enjoys Quoits, which is a ring toss game. Perfect Tom is great at Coconut Shy – a game where you try to knock down coconuts by throwing another coconut at them. And almost everyone runs a Hook-A-Duck game – I initially had a funny misunderstanding about what that was, but it’s simply a game where you use a hooked stick to try and grab floating ducks from a small pool.

This season has been about bakers turning things around, and a few of them really impressed the judges with their elaborate creations, saving themselves from being eliminated. Nadia, instead of simply making the three required items, went all out and created four: donuts displayed on a board, a large vanilla cupcake with a meringue topping, sugar cookie pencils, and incredibly realistic (and delicious!) brownie ‘hamburgers’ served on donut buns.

Lesley is also using food to create illusions. She’s made a coffee and walnut cake designed to look like a steak pie, and instead of steak filling, she’s used brownies to trick the judges. It looks incredibly realistic and tasty! The judges were also impressed with her apple biscuits and meringue lollipops.

Nataliia surprised everyone by succeeding in the challenge, despite admitting she’d never been to a school fair and felt just as confused as viewers watching from abroad. Her incredible backpack cake, filled with citrus curd, really impressed the judges. It wasn’t a trick where food looked like something else, but all of her cake illusions were incredibly effective.

Iain had a clever idea: a Funfetti cake designed to look like a computer monitor. Unfortunately, the finished product looked more like an old computer that had overheated and was practically melting! He also made miniature Hook-A-Duck meringues, but the judges found them overly sweet. They could tell Iain really struggled, which reminded me of how I felt during my last math test. (And for the record, there’s only one kind of math, and I’m sticking to that!)

The judges were particularly critical of Jessika, whose initial idea – a chocolate triceratops rising from a thick cake – didn’t quite come together. The cake itself was too dense, took a long time to bake, and ended up looking more like a sticky, dark pit than a pleasant dessert. Although she continued with a dinosaur theme, creating marshmallow and jam footprints and chocolate eggs, the judges didn’t like any of it. Paul pointed out issues with the cake’s texture and taste, the underbaked biscuit base, and the overwhelming mix of flavors in the eggs. Unfortunately, Jessika was the only contestant who didn’t improve, resulting in her elimination from the competition. It seems she won’t be ‘graduating’ anytime soon, much like a character from a popular TV show.

Jasmine is the star baker for the second week running! She created an amazing Hook-A-Duck cake, a clever Quoits game using pretzels, and beautifully decorated biscuits that resembled a hopscotch board (though I’m not even sure hopscotch is a real game, or if it has rules!). Paul was particularly impressed, praising her baking for being both visually appealing and delicious. While Back to School week was a fun challenge, it’s definitely given me anxiety dreams about failing tests – just like Tom!

Read More

2025-09-26 11:56