Paul Shapera
I’ve finally got around to watching the episode which sparked the Great Bake Off Scandal of 2014: desserts. The scene: it’s 25 degrees Celsius outside. Nine bakers are trying to keep their ice cream cold enough to make successful baked Alaskas. And Diana takes Iain’s ice cream out of the freezer…
Diana claimed later (as you may remember) that the editing had been somewhat unfair. Apparently the ice cream was out for less than a minute. Iain said it was out long enough to ruin the pudding. I’m not going to get into this debate, because it’s fairly pointless and impossible to judge anyway since we only have the edited product. But, for what it’s worth, I think that Diana probably shouldn’t have taken the ice cream out of the freezer. And Iain should definitely not have thrown his whole pudding in the bin in a fit of temper. (To compare, Chetna’s ice cream also melted, and she got quite good comments from the judges.) So, on the whole, I think the judges made the right decision in choosing to send Iain off the show.
Apart from that bit of drama, the episode was another excellent one. I spent a happy half hour trying to work out if the windows in the background are in fact painted backdrops. (I’m undecided on this important issue.) The presenters went round making silly jokes and generally cheering people up by telling them all how delicious their work was. Mary Berry gave someone’s ice cream a Bad Look. There was also a segment about cake in Paignton, but I went to make some late-night toast so I can’t tell you anything else about that. Who cares, anyway, when there are chocolate fondants in the tent?
Mmmm Chocolate fondants. I may go off and watch the next episode in case there is more chocolate.
The English Student 