Service centre administrator Danni has been eliminated from The Great British Bake Off after failing to impress during biscuit week. The first elimination of the latest season of the Channel 4 baking series was announced on Tuesday night’s episode, where the bakers were tasked with making American-style cookies, recreating iced gems and creating a “visually striking” biscuit mosaic.
Star Baker and Elimination
After the three rounds, hairdresser Tom, from West Yorkshire, was named star baker while Danni from Dorset was told they would be leaving the tent. Following their elimination, the 25-year-old said: “Thank you so much, it’s been so lovely, it has! Oh my goodness, I am really happy that I was the first one out because I know everyone in there has more skills than me.
“But I think I’ve learned something about myself, which is that in the right circumstances I can make quite a few friends. Finding love in a group of strangers – that’s just beautiful.”
Danni's Reaction
Despite being the first baker sent packing, Danni said they felt the “writing was on the wall” and it “wasn’t a surprise at all”. “Of all the bakers there I was easily the weakest, which isn’t bad at all – it means I have 11 other people to bug about baking questions about now whenever I want!!!” they said.
Danni added that competing on Bake Off gave them “some of the best advice about how to improve something that I love”.
Biscuit Week Challenges
The first challenge of biscuit week saw the bakers tasked with creating 30 identical American-style cookies, which could have different flavours, but needed to be decorated uniformly. “The most important thing about the decoration is that it doesn’t overwhelm the cookie – it should enhance the cookie. What it mustn’t do is compete with it,” judge Nigella Lawson advised.
Being a vegan, Danni told Lawson and fellow judge Paul Hollywood they were not going to be able to try their “Snickerdoodle” cookies with cinnamon and a topping of peanut brittle that included cream and butter before presenting them. Although Danni was making a biscuit with some of Hollywood’s favourite flavours, they joked: “If I get it wrong, he will decapitate me.”
When it came to the tasting, Nigella said the cookies had “too much cinnamon and bicarb” while Hollywood called it “powdery”. “It’s impossible to know what you are baking if you don’t taste it,” Lawson added.
Praise and Showstopper Hurdles
However, praise came for Clara’s tiramisu inspired biscuits, with Hollywood leaving her shocked after saying he “would have given a handshake for that”. “Why are you not giving me one?” she questioned. He replied: “The cookie is spot on – perfect. The topping flavour – perfect. There’s just too much of it.” Lawson added that Clara had “slightly swamped it in the mascarpone”.
Other creations were told they had “too much salt” and that the bakers had gone over the top with the toppings. Tom’s almond praline, salted peanuts and chocolate cookies were called “bang on target” by Hollywood. The hairdresser from West Yorkshire then had another success in the technical challenge where the bakers had to recreate iced gems – with his biscuits being singled out as the best.
However, when it came to the showstopper challenge, he hit a hurdle. The bakers had been tasked with creating a “visually striking biscuit mosaic” which had to depict an image or pattern and created using an array of smaller biscuits and edible glue on a biscuit base.
Designs ranged from a computer, clock, and sunflowers – while Tom’s was inspired by the Burn Book from the 2004 movie Mean Girls. Created from more than 70 individually baked raspberry biscuits, Tom was left close to tears when realising he would not have enough time to complete it. “It’s going to look rubbish,” he said in the final minutes.
“I think they are going to be disappointed in the way that it looks. It just feels so humiliating that I couldn’t do it,” he added through tears. Although Hollywood questioned whether he had “dropped” his creation, Tom received positive comments on the flavours of the biscuit, which Lawson said she “adored”.
Despite it being called a “mess”, Tom’s efforts throughout the three challenges saw him awarded star baker. The Great British Bake Off continues next Tuesday at 8pm on Channel 4.
