The Great British Baking Show Recap: Trifilin’

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Dessert Week feels out of place compared to the other themed weeks. Cake, biscuit, and bread weeks focus on specific types of baking, but ‘dessert’ is so broad – it could include anything! It’s unclear what actually defines a ‘Dessert Week’ bake, and why these treats couldn’t be featured during other challenges. It feels a bit like a local talent show where you get a random mix of acts – maybe a child tap dancing, someone imitating bird sounds, or the preacher’s wife singing “Hallelujah.” (Seriously, can we please retire that song from every talent show? It’s become a cliché and deserves to be legally banned!)

This competition features a new cast of characters – no Suzie, Marty, or the preacher’s wife this time. Instead, we have Aaron, a seemingly perfect contestant, Toby, a WWII pilot, Iain, who’s fun-sized but fierce, Tom, tall and charming like a Disney prince, and Jasmine, who’s simply unforgettable, at least according to Noel. Their first challenge? Making a Basque cheesecake, which technically qualifies as a dessert. Honestly, though, it’s so good I’d happily eat it any time of day – for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or even after a workout! If you think cheesecake is only for dessert, you’re either lacking imagination or haven’t seen every episode of The Golden Girls.

The baking is generally going well, but Toby keeps messing up the white chocolate cream for the cheesecake topping – which is frustrating! Our baker, who seems constantly stressed, has said “This is stressful” while doing everything from grocery shopping to watching TV and even relaxing with a sound bath. Iain also has a moment of panic when his cheesecake nearly falls apart while moving it, and surprisingly, he asks Toby – the one known for his own baking mishaps – for help.

Iain’s cardamom and orange cheesecake looked good, but Prue felt he’d added too much orange zest, which made it bitter. Everyone in the tent kept making a joke about him getting the “pith” in there – a pun they really loved and couldn’t stop repeating. Ultimately, the judges weren’t impressed with his cheesecake.

Everyone loved Jasmine’s cheesecake, which was beautifully decorated with a large mango rose and a creamy passion fruit layer. Prue commented that it had the perfect, slightly burnt top that a good cheesecake should have. Aaron also did well with his orange cheesecake, topped with plum and sake gel, which sparked a playful punning contest between him and Noel – a contest that seemed to be about more than just plums! Honestly, the desserts were so good, I couldn’t quite follow what was happening.

Toby and Tom were eliminated this week. Tom, despite his good looks, really struggled throughout the episode. Toby created passionfruit and white chocolate marbled pastries, but the marbling effect was lost after baking. The judges enjoyed the look of his bake, but found the flavors disappointing – Paul thought it lacked citrus, and Prue felt it was too rich. They did praise his decorative passionfruit, which were white chocolate shells filled with passionfruit curd. Honestly, the combination sounds a bit much!

Tom’s cheesecake is visually stunning – a dramatic black color with blackberries on top. It’s flavored with black sesame and features a black-dyed chocolate-lemon shell filled with bright yellow lemon curd, which is the only splash of color you’d see when you cut into it. Noel loved it, calling it a perfect dessert for someone with a dark aesthetic and offering Tom a special handshake. However, Paul Hollywood abruptly stopped him, stormed off to his Ferrari, and spent 25 minutes revving the engine to show he was in charge. Despite its impressive appearance, the judges agreed that the sesame flavor was subtle and the cheesecake was more appealing to look at than it was to taste.

I’m not sure why we’re making this dessert, honestly. It’s a gluten-free orange upside-down pudding, and I don’t get the point of making it gluten-free – was there a sudden allergy? It feels like someone went overboard trying to accommodate a dietary restriction. And the recipe itself is needlessly complicated! Why take a simple cake and add all these extra steps – the foil, the tiny string, the water bath? It just seems like a lot of unnecessary work for no good reason.

It’s funny that ‘Crème Anglaise’ means ‘English cream’ in French, especially when we’re in England! And get this: English muffins are just called ‘muffins’ here! It’s a bit confusing, isn’t it? Why not just call it ‘cream’? It’s like going to Paris and finding they call French fries ‘French fries’ – it doesn’t quite add up!

So, about the technical challenge results… the rankings were Aaron, Jasmine, Toby, Iain, and then Tom, who took first place again – it feels like he deserved it! It seems the judges simply ranked the dishes in the order they were presented on the table. Interestingly, this is the opposite of how they ranked things in the Signature round, with Tom and Iain at the top then, and Aaron and Jasmine at the bottom. Toby landed comfortably in the middle – just right, as Goldilocks would say!

The big challenge this week is creating a trifle that stands on its own – no bowl needed! I initially thought this test focused too much on building a stable structure instead of delicious flavor. But when I look at the results, most bakers end up with creations that are both structurally unsound and don’t taste good. It makes me wonder – is the challenge itself flawed, or are the bakers just struggling? Honestly, I’m still stuck thinking about how one baker made their Crème Anglais.

Jasmine continues to impress and is a strong contender. While Tom is also talented, Jasmine is currently ahead. Her trifle, featuring lemoncello sponge, strawberry jelly, and vanilla bavarois (a nod to Aaron’s drag name!), looks beautiful – perfect for Dessert Week – but isn’t particularly groundbreaking. It’s technically perfect, like something straight from a baking textbook, but lacks the creativity of the other contestants’ desserts. Despite this, the judges clearly enjoyed it, securing Jasmine her fourth win. She’s now close to tying the record of five Star Baker wins in a single season, held by Richard Burr from season five. (There won’t be a Star Baker awarded in the finale, though.)

Aaron, who clearly doesn’t believe in overly fussy desserts, created a trifle and decorated it with a striped chocolate band around the side. He topped it with juicy plums, detailed chocolate designs, and champagne jelly. While it looked amazing, the judges only enjoyed the jelly – and that was likely because it contained a lot of champagne, even more than Paul Hollywood is known to enjoy during Greek Easter, as fans of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City would know.

Toby’s bake is completely Christmas-focused – he’s always enthusiastic about the holidays, just like the Hallmark Channel. He made a sherry trifle inspired by his grandmother’s traditional recipe, featuring elderflower. The showstopper was supposed to be a jelly dome with a poinsettia flower inside, but it unfortunately stuck to the bowl during creation and ended up looking rather gruesome – he compared it to something from the movie Alien. The sponge surrounding the jelly, decorated with Santas and ornaments, looked good, though a bit cheap. Paul Hollywood found the sponge itself to be very dry and hard, and Prue Leith only enjoyed the elderflower jelly.

Tom’s latest cake, though visually stunning – it looks like something you’d see featured in the New York Times cooking section, complete with a beautiful jelly dome and olive branch – unfortunately missed the mark on taste. Inspired by a trip to Greece and featuring honey, yogurt, and figs, it unfortunately tasted overwhelmingly of almond extract, overshadowing all other flavors. The judges pointed this out, as they have before. Hopefully, Tom isn’t all show and no substance, just like the desserts he’s been creating – beautiful to look at, but lacking in flavor.

I expected Tom to be eliminated, especially since he almost made it to the semi-finals. However, the judges surprisingly sent Iain home instead. His trifle looked beautiful, with a sponge layer resembling wallpaper you’d find in a fancy Italian hotel, and even had a sun-shaped jelly on top. But the judges said it tasted bland – like water – and that went for everything, including the surprisingly firm sponge. So, the ‘short king’ archetype is heading home instead of the WWII pilot or the tall, princely baker. At this point in the competition, it seems like all the male bakers are just competing for second place.

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2025-10-24 11:56