The Great British Baking Show Season 14 Episode 4 Recap: Chocolate Week

Bread week has nothing on The Great British Baking Show Season 14 Episode 4, “Chocolate Week.”

In true The Great British Baking Show fashion, this episode was filmed on the hottest day of the year and there are many comments about the heat throughout the episode as the bakers take on their three challenges.

Signature Challenge: Chocolate Torte

The first challenge gives the bakers two and a half hours to make a chocolate torte without using wheat flour.  The judges are looking for bakers to show off their piping, spinning, and molding skills to create a luxurious, flavor-filled cake. 

Alison: What is the difference between torte and cake? 
Rowan: You’re asking the wrong person.
Alison: I’m gonna go find Prue. 
Rowan: Yea, find Prue!

Many bakers choose ground almonds as an alternative to wheat flour, but many bakers take risks with their flavors.  Josh, for example, is using ground pecans ground up with icing sugar. His chat with the judges gives us this lovely exchange:

Prue: If you’re grinding your own nuts, it’s always difficult.
Paul: And painful. 
Noel: Grind ’em up quick. Less pain that way.
Prue: You boys are just disgusting. 

Dan is using some cornmeal in addition to ground hazelnuts. Additionally, Rowan decides that instead of relying on a ground nut, he is going to let his cake rely purely on the meringue.  

As the bakers progress through the challenge the intricacies of making and decorating a chocolate torte come to light. Bakers have to be careful with how they mix their meringue into their chocolate to make sure their tortes rise in the oven, and if they decorate the torte too much it could crack. 

Decorating presents another challenge. Christy struggles with a leaf mold and Saku’s hands shake as she pipes her details onto her cake. 

When it comes time for judging, first up is Nicky who has struggled with flavor in the past. However, when it comes to chocolate she seems to have found her stride, presenting the judges with an elegant cake. 

Matty has also struggled with presentation in the past and he continues to during this challenge. However, his flavor earns high praise from Paul.

Dana’s three-layer cherry chocolate cake impresses the judges with its height. Paul finds her filling a little bit weak and Prue suggests that setting it overnight would have been better. Not bad, considering Dana admits she’s not a fan of chocolate tortes and hadn’t tasted her own signature. 

Josh’s pecan-infused cake comes off as “dessert rather than cake” with a consistency of pudding. 

Christy who has previously presented beautiful bakes, presented a torte that didn’t look as put together and that had no flavor. 

Dan’s chili and chocolate torte is praised for taking a risk, but Prue and Paul find the alcohol very strong. 

Tasha, who has a two-week Star Baker streak, presented an almond and ginger torte. Her presentation wasn’t as strong as some of her other bakes, and Paul thought that the amaretto drowned the ginger. Prue also found that the cake’s consistency was too moist. 

Saku’s torte was also critiqued for a lack of presentation, and the judges found her cake to be too heavy and gooey in the center. 

Rowan’s cake is praised by Paul for its beautiful flavor and having the right level of coffee. The only critique was that his sponges compressed slightly, which Prue notes is due to the lack of any flour. 

Technical Challenge: White Chocolate Cheesecake

Going into the technical several bakers are feeling the stress of chocolate week, and others are riding high on the praise of the judges. However, they still need to confront the gingham-clad mystery set by Prue. 

Before Prue and Paul leave the tent, Prue suggests that the bakers rely on “perseverance and patience.”

Bakers need to make six identical cheesecakes with a caramelized white chocolate filling on top of an oaty biscuit base with blackcurrant jelly and white chocolate decoration. 

Prue chats with Paul and mentions that the biggest hurdle in this challenge is caramelizing the white chocolate. It will be easy to burn it and as such they could mess up their timings which would result in them sending melted messes to the judges.

And that’s exactly what happens. 

The bakers start working on their cheesecakes. The biscuit base and blackcurrant jam seem easy enough. The caramelized white chocolate throws the bakers for a loop. They need to caramelize the chocolate in short bursts and give it a stir, but since the recipe is pared down they don’t have those exact instructions. 

Rowan is the first contestant to burn his chocolate after putting it in the microwave for a minute and a half on medium followed by Tasha and Dana. 

Rowan: I feel like I’m going to set up a charity for anyone who has ever worked with caramelized white chocolate. 

As the bakers get their cheesecakes in the oven, Tasha starts getting dizzy, and medical is called in to take a break from the tent. After some time, she’s advised to go home and rest. 

The other bakers decorate their cheesecakes, many of which come out a melting mess before they hit the gingham table.

The judges then try the cheesecakes and rank them from worst to best. 

In eight place in Saku whose cheesecakes look terrible and are overbaked. Seventh is Christy whose cheesecakes are a mess but taste good. Josh comes in sixth. Dana is fifth. Nicky is forth. Rowan is third.

Matty comes in second with great cheesecakes that only had a dip in the middle since he took them out a couple of minutes too early. 

That leaves Dan in first place. The only cheesecake that is perfect. (Plus, a strong comeback for Dan after last week’s bread disaster.) 

Showstopper Challenge: Chocolate Box

Going into the showstopper the judges are underwhelmed by the baker’s performances. 

For the showstopper challenge the bakers are asked to make an edible chocolate box with molded chocolate and chocolate cake, and they have four hours to do it. 

This challenge is designed to test the baker’s precision and flavor. They have to temper their chocolate correctly in order to create their edible box. And it’s a struggle.

There is a lot to do here and not a whole lot of time to get it done.

So rather than recount everything that happens in this section. Let’s go to the judging and reflect on the pitfalls of each bake.

First up is Matty. Matty presents the judges with a beautifully engineered box that lost all its shine due to incorrectly tempering the chocolate. However, inside, his chocolates are perfectly shiny. Matty earns high praise from Prue.

Prue: I’d pay a lot of money for a box of those. 

Next up is Dan. Dan created a treasure chest with flavors inspired by the Carribean. The judges think his flavors are delicious. However, the box is presenting as more of a pudding.

Dana is the next baker up for judging. Her princess carriage chocolate box cake looks impressive “from a distance.” Throughout this bake, Dana struggled with getting the chocolate box out of its mold and setting up the horses for her carriage. Plus her nut and caramel filling is too pale and lacks flavor. 

Rowan’s paint box inspired by his grandpa is next. Rowan claims this is the worst thing that he’s ever done and the judges know it. Rowan is at a bit of a disadvantage because he just finished university the week prior and had to write a dissertation. Prue said that it would be lovely as a home-baked treat, but it was definitely not Rowan’s best work. 

Next is Josh’s chemistry box. This box is a geek’s dream, but unfortunately, Josh didn’t temper his chocolate properly so the box lost its shine. Paul also criticizes his piping saying that it is not precise enough and his sponge is baked well but not carrying a lot of flavor. 

Paul: I would complain that I’ve got too many nuts in my mouth.

Josh is followed by Nicky whose box has a nice even temper and shine and presents a very rich cake. Her truffles turned out to be her downfall, but she got three out which at least allowed the judges to taste them. This is a huge win for her because if you remember, she’s struggled with flavor in previous challenges. 

Christy’s chocolate box comes in the shape of a heart that looks beautiful, but the texture is too dry in her mouth. Her truffles, however, are her saving grace.

Saku creates a beautiful box, but it isn’t well-tempered and has no shine. Her pistachio cake has a beautiful flavor but is a bit dry. Her truffles are also imperfect but have good flavor.

Awards and Elimination

Chocolate proved to be a beast that was hard to tame this week, and many bakers were in danger of being eliminated. Since Tasha wasn’t able to finish out the week, Prue and Paul deliberated as to whether someone should go home before the decision was announced to the group.

But first, they have to announce Star Baker. This week the Star Baker is Matty, and it’s well deserved. Chocolate appears to be his element and he’s great at working with it. 

The elimination is tense with Christy and Saku both in danger of going home. However, there is some relief when Alison announces that no one is going home this week. 

Paul reflects that this is due to the fact that Tasha didn’t perform as well in her signature and it didn’t seem fair to send someone else home. 

There is a downside because that means that next week (aka Pastry Week) is going to see two bakers eliminated. 

What did you think of this episode of The Great British Baking Show? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The Great British Baking Show airs Fridays on Netflix. 

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