Great British Bake Off 2018 episode 7: The biggest talking points from vegan week
From Kim-Joy's foxy friends to a dramatic cake collapse
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Your support makes all the difference.The bakers were in for their biggest challenge yet as The Great British Bake Off tackled vegan week for the first time ever, with contestants throwing out the eggs and butter to seek alternative paths to a rich texture and a nice crumble to their pastry.
Although the challenges didn't turn out disastrous across the board, the episode saw some of the most (genuinely quite) nail-biting moments of the series, with a dramatic cake topple causing emotions to run high in the tent.
Now that, hopefully, the remaining bakers have had a chance to breathe a sigh of relief, we look back at all the biggest talking points from the episode.
Kim-Joy's woodland animals win the day
This week's Star Baker was ironically, as host Noel Fielding pointed out, the one baker who found a way to bring animals into the tent on vegan week: Kim-Joy, of course! Her Showstopper celebration cake was littered with adorable foxes, while her Signature tartlets managed to squeeze in some squirrel designs on the top.
Although her Showstopper was a bit pudding-y, according to the judges, and her meringues needed more fruit, her squirrel tarts proved to be a winner with the judges. She even received the all-important Hollywood handshake.
Vegan week proves too much for Jon
Jon, sadly, was the one to go home this week, largely for entirely failing to get to grips with the concept of vegan week. His Technical meringue was criticised for its lazily done piping and runny cream, and he simply ran out of filling for his Signature tartlets.
That said, although his "Only Fools Eat Horses" Showstopper celebration cake was labelled a pitiful sight by the judges, with its drooping checkerboard design, it actually turned out to be quite flavourful.
A cake collapse!
As was teased on the episode's preview, vegan week didn't fail to deliver on the dramatics, as the most dreaded moment for any baker became a reality and Ruby's Showstopper celebration cake toppled over just as the competitors were leaving the tent. As Paul pointed out, Ruby's mistake was layering the heavier chocolate layer on top of the lighter lemon layer. Also, the top layer was distinctly larger than the bottom one, which may have been a contributing factor.
Then again, this isn't CSI and no one's about to carry out an autopsy on a chunk of cake, so maybe we'll never know.
A second (off-camera) collapse!
However, it turned out Ruby wasn't alone in her despair: Rahul's cake had also caved in on itself, although disappointingly off camera and in a fridge so we couldn't experience the dramatics for the second time around.
Noel Fielding for Doctor Who?
Noel jokingly uttered the words "I'm a Time Lord" and now the internet has already lined up a replacement for whenever Jodie Whittaker wants to hang up her screwdriver.
Catch-up below with the rest of the events of this week's The Great British Bake Off (please allow a moment for the liveblog to load).
The Great British Bake Off airs on Channel 4 every Tuesday 8pm
Take this brief moment to do some detective work and figure out whose cake is the one that fell over in the preview for tonight...
Oh Ruby.... Ruby, Ruby, Ruby. The pain. The utter pain. I feel awful, but also why did she make the top layer bigger than the bottom layer? I'm sorry for being a monster and asking this question.
Briony is off to a good start, but Jon's Del Boy cake is a little sad to look at. Prue also found it a big "claggy". Whatever that means. Manon's cake looked incredible, but Paul immediately went in with a "it's not good". Kim-Joy, meanwhile, is "brave" for putting lavender in her cake.
Turns out Ruby's not the only victim of the collapsing cake. Rahul's coconut drizzle weakened the tiers and it sunk into a mess in the fridge. We didn't even get it in on camera, what a pity. Ruby's disaster zone at least tastes nice, which is something to salvage from this moment.
This week's Star Baker is Kim-Joy for ironically, as Noel points out, "bringing animals into the tent".
Jon is sent home, which is a little bit of a shame since it's his general aversion to all things non-meat that seems to have let him down.
And that's that. Next week is Danish week. See you all then. Goodnight!
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