The Great British Bake Off: 11 of the show’s most dramatic moments

On its sugar-coated surface, The Great British Bake Off  is a light-hearted show about cakes, pies and pastry. But behind all the bunting and baked goods, darkness lurks. Or at least, some surprisingly dramatic mistakes.

From collapsing cakes to melting ice cream and injuries, you never quite know when disaster’s going to strike in the Bake Off tent.

Here are some of the biggest dramas from The Great British Bake Off…

Dorret’s black forest gâteau collapses

In the first episode of season six, the bakers were given three and a half hours to put their own twist on the traditional black forest gâteau. Dorret decided to include a thick layer of chocolate mousse in her gateau and left it to set. Disaster struck. As she went to add the next layer, she realised it was still a soggy mess, and as she pulled away the plastic layer holding it together, all the mousse spilled out. How can something look so messy yet so delicious?

John sustains a strudel-related injury

In one of the bloodier Bake Off boo-boos, season three winner John managed to cut his hand on the blade of his food processor. Despite his plastic glove filling with blood, he tried to keep going, but eventually saw a paramedic, who took him to a doctor after the wound was revealed to be much deeper than first thought. But even when feeling like he was about to faint, there was one main thing on John’s mind: being able to finish his strudel.

Ruby’s cake doesn’t hold up

For concrete evidence of global warming, one need look no further than the Bake Off tent. With the sun beating down during the heatwave of 2018, the arena became a giant plastic greenhouse and caused the – often literal – downfall of many a bake. When Ruby attempted to make a two-tiered chocolate, lemon and coconut cake during Vegan Week, her already precariously balanced creation succumbed to both heat and gravity when the bakers were forced to leave their cakes over lunch. With the other contestants watching in horror from outside as the top cake came crashing down onto her worktop, Ruby was forced to present two separate, slightly squished cakes.

Sue Perkins dents Howard’s muffins

Over the years, GBBO’s presenters have become one of the best parts of the show, with their encouraging words and willingness to assist an overworked baker. But sometimes their good intentions go awry, as happened to Sue Perkins in season 4. Chatting with contestant Howard, the presenter managed to put her foot in it; her foot being her elbow and “it” being his English muffins, which she significantly dented. Whoops.

Ian’s Baked Alaska meltdown

A Bake Off disaster so traumatic it was branded “bin-gate”, the case of Ian’s Baked Alaska will go down in history as one of the show’s biggest dramas. With both cake and ice-cream elements needing to be kept at the perfect temperature in the freezer in order to be assembled, Ian’s problems began after Diana removed his ice cream without telling him. Realising what had happened, an incredulous Ian removed the sides of the mould only to watch it spill out of the sides like soup. While Sue Perkins attempted to comfort him, he was clearly having none of it, stating: “I’ve got a serving suggestion,” before promptly picking the dish up and chucking it in the bin.

Rahul’s glass jars burst

Another shocker from the heatwave of 2018 saw eventual winner Rahul forced to stop baking in the final after an empty storage jar exploded on his worktop. Realising that broken glass doesn’t go particularly well with baking, Rahul had to abandon his bakes and start again after the area was cleaned. Luckily, he was given an extra 15 minutes to make up for the time he’d lost, but who wants that extra stress in the Bake Off final?

Danny drops puddings on the floor

The sight of cake all over the floor is always a heartbreaking one, but cake on your clothes is just impractical. During a challenge in which the bakers had to make two different flavours of fondant pudding, Danny’s banoffee-flavoured desserts set well, but disaster struck her chocolate ones, after they slid off her tray and splattered all over her trousers and shoes, leaving her two puds short.

John uses salt instead of sugar

John might have gone on to win season 3, but he was by no means a shoo-in (choux-in?) from his first day. During the technical challenge, the contestants were tasked with making four Rum Babas (nope, us neither), but John managed to get his quantities wrong and flavoured the sweet treat with salt rather than sugar. In response, Paul Hollywood spat them out in disgust while Mary Berry straight-up refused to touch them, neither of which made for the best start.

Sura knocks Dave’s cakes on the floor

When Bake Off returned this week, it was hailed as the soothing TV the nation so desperately needed. But it also provided a much-appreciated dose of low-stakes drama after Sura accidentally bumped into Dave while putting her technical challenge bakes on the table to be judged, knocking his pineapple upside-down cakes onto the floor and prompting the nation to gasp at their TVs in horror.

Steph’s sinking soufflés

While most Bake Off blunders come under the category of cringe-but-funny, it was hard to see the humorous side in Steph’s season 10 emotional mistake. Despite heading into the final as a clear frontrunner, it only took one mistake to throw Steph off balance, after she realised that her cheese soufflés weren’t rising. With Steph struggling to hold back tears, it was genuinely upsetting to see and ultimately resulted in her coming in third.

Deborah uses Howard’s custard

Between a presenter leaning on his muffins and his custard accidentally being used, Howard had more than his fair share of disasters on GBBO season 4. During a trifle challenge, Deborah realised that she’d stolen her competitor’s custard, rushing over to Howard to apologise. With the mistake too late to rectify, she offered up her custard for Howard to use, who seemed to take the whole thing in his stride, leaving Sue Perkins to joke that the switch was “either a terrible error or the most incredible case of baking espionage I’ve ever seen”.