Great British Bake Off recap: Here's what happened during biscuit week

There are countless biscuits to choose from for those shopping in the supermarket, and even more doors open for home bakers.

But in the Bake Off tent there were bigger things on the menu with a marshmallow biscuit signature, custard cream technical and an illusion based showstopper. Here’s what happened during biscuit week.

Signature Bake: Marshmallow biscuits

This week bakers were challenged with creating 12 identical marshmallow biscuits, such as a Wagon Wheel or Tunnock's Teacake.

Depending on which route the bakers went down they would either be hand dipping their biscuits or they would be utilising silicone moulds.

For those, like Keith, who were creating their own Wagon Wheels the careful balance of biscuit and marshmallow to the chocolate layer was key. But that wasn’t the topic of discussion between the baker and hosts as Alison Hammond quizzed him over his former stand up career before he dismissed her with a cheeky comment.

2018 Bake Off Winner Rahul Mandal. Image: Getty

In addition, Noel Fielding, while chatting with Matty, confessed to having a tattoo of former Bake Off winner Rahul on his bum – cheeky in a different way.

Other highlights from the creation process of this bake includes the news that Scottish baker Nicky has two dogs; Haggis and Bracken. However, she also talked the cameras through adding only a “wee” layer of jam to her biscuit which would lead the judges to quite literally hunting down the rhubarb and ginger jam they were promised.

Poor Rowan suffered from Parma Violet related nerves after both Paul and Prue shared that they didn’t like the flavour – a fundamental element of his bake.

One other wild element was Saku’s admission that she didn’t bake biscuits often – because once a week isn’t often to her.

Alison’s genuine cackle of delight after Noel cracked a dad joke was a breath of fresh air compared to the somewhat stilted scenes previously shared by hosts.

When it came to judging there were a few mishaps, Keith’s messy biscuits but good flavours included, however Tasha was awarded the first Hollywood Handshake of the series.

However, even after a slight disappointment during judging, Nicky said: “You can’t be worried about these things because they’re done. And I can’t be worried about it and so you just have to enjoy the moment, keep smiling. Because that’s what life is all about, isn’t it?”

Technical Challenge: Custard creams

Rather than walking to the shops and purchasing a perfect sleeve of custard creams, the bakers instead had to create 12 identical biscuits with a layer of custard sandwiched between them.

The contestants were given a neat little custard cream stamp, with very firm instructions over timings. A refrigerated dough would ensure definition on the treats so Prue made sure to cryptically share this with them.

With 90 minutes on the clock the bakers were off. The first scandal of the tent took place with Cristy accidentally rolling out Rowan’s dough instead of her own but thankfully that’s as far as they got – no Custardgate here.

However, what was the result here? Many bakers had doughs which were too soft and unable to hold definition. Under baking seemed to be a real problem alongside consistency with poor Saku curdling her custard.

Keith came last, with Rowan in third, Dan in second and Abbi in first for her custard creams which were “better than” the shop bought treats according to Prue.

Showstopper: Illusion biscuits of their favourite meals

Bakers were then asked to create a series of biscuits which looked like their favourite foods, whether that’s pizza – as in Dana’s case – or a charcuterie board in Cristy and Rowan’s case.

Rowan, who is a very typical student, even joked to Alison “you don’t want to see my overdraft” after the judges quizzed him on his relatively upper crust favourite.

Abbi created a Chinese inspired biscuit feast, including fortune cookies which included puns. Keith decided upon his seaside lunch but was off to a poor start when the biscuits he wanted to use for his tub of Pringles collapsed – however, he had prepared for this and his second chance worked out.

But when it came to judges Keith failed to impress, his tomatoes drawing a few chuckles for their lack of resemblance to the actual produce, especially compared to Josh’s incredible burger showstopper which was really lived up to the name of the challenge.

Crushed boiled sweets had been placed between his biscuit to create a thin see-through layer and double the resemblance to a tomato, leading Tasha to predict that he had just “pipped” her to Star Baker compared to her Katsu curry biscuit creation. Josh even received a Hollywood Handshake, meaning that two have been awarded this series so far.

Who was Bake Off’s Star Baker this week?

However, despite Tasha’s prediction that Josh would win Star Baker, the participation officer instead impressed the judges with her overall performance in the tent that week – much to her surprise.

Who left Bake Off?

Unfortunately for Keith, however, his under baking on his showstopper and near-disasters earlier in the week led to him leaving the tent.

Though he did reassure everyone that he would be talking about the experience for as long as he could afterwards.

Great British Bake Off recap: Here's what happened during biscuit week including who left the tent