The Great British Baking Show Season 14 Episode 6: Botanical Week
On The Great British Baking Show Season 14 Episode 6, “Botanical Week,” the bakers celebrate plants. Their dishes involve a mix of spices, herbs, and floral flavors and call upon a wide variety of skills.
And by the end of the week, it’s clear that the bakers can no longer coast on style alone. They need to have the skills and flavors and back their stylistic choices in their bakes.
(Sidenote: I can’t shake the feeling that Abbi would have crushed this week!)
Signature Challenge: Spiced Rolls
The first challenge required the bakers to make 12 identical spiced rolls, and the judges meant “identical.”
There are many ways the bakers can choose to make their spiced rolls, but they have to consider that the more intricately their rolls are twisted the more variation there will be in the final product.
Some bakers aren’t afraid of taking risks with this bake including Tasha, who makes a Christmas bun that replaces half the liquid with mulled wine.
Since Tasha earned the title of Star Baker during bread week, there were high hopes for her bake and a lot of curiosity regarding the grey sludge she was preparing.
Other bakers decided to go in a different direction from the norm. Matty, for example, kept it simple with a take on hot cross buns.
On the other hand, Saku is taking judges on a trip to Sweden with her Swedish rolls infused with cardamon and cinnamon. Her declaration surprises Prue, who is so used to her bringing Sri Lanka into her bakes. (The cardamom and cinnamon are from Sri Lanka.)
As the signature challenge moves onward it becomes clear that many bakers are using cinnamon in interesting ways. Josh works with blueberries that are soaked overnight in a cinnamon tea.
The progress of this challenge is very similar to “Bread Week,” with a lot of waiting for their dough to prove.
For the most part, the challenge goes off relatively well with most bakers being anxious over how their buns don’t look identical. After a harried race to the finish, the baker’s spiced buns are ready to be judged.
First up is Tasha. Her Christmas buns are celebrated as unusual and festival, and Paul’s concern about the dough being tight with mulled wine as a substitute is quickly put to rest when they cut into the buns.
Tasha proves she’s able to deliver flavor too, when Prue announces: “It’s Christmas” after her first bite.
Next up is Dan’s ode to the Aegean Sea, which presents as dramatically uneven in shape and size. His use of saffron is well-balanced, and Prue likes the figs on top.
Dana’s buns also have an inconsistent presentation, and Prue is quick to mention that there’s not enough cardamom in her dough. Dana was one of the only bakers who didn’t put spice in her dough letting the filling do all the work. In the end, it didn’t pay off.
Saku’s spiced buns are presented well, but she has a slight inconsistency due to an error in measurement. (Ironic since she works in accountancy, but she laughs it off.) Paul says the rolls have a tight texture, but she has great levels of cardamom and cinnamon.
Then comes Josh’s blueberry and lemon buns. His technique of soaking the blueberries in cinnamon pays off and he gets high praise from Paul and Prue.
Christy’s maple, pecan, and cinnamon rolls showcase really consistently, and Paul loves how they look when he cuts into them. Prue is so enamored with flavors and insists that she cannot eat anymore.
The judges had high expectations for Matty’s take on hot cross buns, but while they presented well they were not as pleasant to eat. It needed to be proved more and there wasn’t enough fruit and ginger.
Technical Challenge: Lemon and Thyme Drizzle Cake
Going into the technical, the bakers are expected to make a lemon and thyme drizzle cake in an hour and thirty minutes. The cake is really just a cream sponge with lemon and added thyme presented in an intricate tin.
Prue’s biggest worry is that the bakers won’t put enough thyme in the cake. This is evident by Prue’s advice before the judges leave, “be bold with the botanicals.”
As the bakers start preparing their sponges, the thyme puns begin. Including one about Matty’s yellow shirt and Alison’s floral dress.
Alison: (to Matty) Hey, hey this challenge will be right up your street you’ve actually come as a lemon.
Neil: I just want to point out, at this moment in time, that you’ve come as thyme.
As they move through the challenge, the parred-down recipe means they don’t know how much thyme to put in and the bakers need to follow their instincts.
Most of the hour and a half is spent with the bakers baking their cake and making crystallized thyme and lemon and a lemon and thyme syrup.
The real anxiety comes when they have to get the cake out of the tin. If the tin isn’t properly prepared the cakes will stick. Fortunately, none do and they get to spend the rest of the time decorating and saturating the cake with the syrup.
When Prue and Paul are invited back to the tent, they proceed to judge the seven cakes. The biggest problems the pair can find are “not enough thyme” and some uneven color indicating that the cake was over or underbaked.
When they rank the cakes, Tasha comes in seventh. Dana comes in sixth. Saku in fifth. Matty is fourth. Dan comes in third. Josh comes in second and Christy comes in first.
Showstopper Challenge: Floral Dessert
Going into the showstopper, the judges have a few people who are in line for Star Baker, but a few more that are at risk of going home.
On top of the danger list are Matty and Dana who have presented inconsistently throughout the last few weeks, and with the bakers thinning out the judging criteria is going to get stricter.
Paul: You gotta look at all of it texture, appearance, flavor, technical prowess. Any mistakes, you could go home.
For the showstopper challenge, the judges want the bakers to celebrate floral desserts. The exact style of dessert can be anything, but it has to include a significant baked element and must celebrate florals in flavor and design.
They have four and a half hours to bake this delicious display.
Overall, the bakes this week look a little bit less impressive than other showstoppers packing a lot of style and technical skill into small packages. Some bakers are going big with their showstoppers.
Tasha is one example, with ten different layers going into her cake along with an artistic outer layer and flavors of elderflower and hibiscus. When talking to the judges she decides to sign her explanation.
While the judges think that Tasha is very ambitious, Tasha starts to have some doubts about how achievable her ten-layer cake actually is, but decides to push ahead.
Alison: I feel like you need another seven benches with all these ingredients. What’s going on, why have you created something so elaborate?
Tasha: I’m the person I shout at when I watch it on TV.
Other bakers are working with hibiscus as well. Josh is using the flavor as a tribute to his nan. He used to grow hibiscus flowers with her and see how many blossoms they could each get on the plant.
Dana is also using hibiscus, and pairing it with rose for its strong flavor. Dana mentions that she made this decision largely because she didn’t want the judges saying they couldn’t taste the components of her bakes. (An ongoing problem during her tenure in this competition.)
In addition to the cake, Dana also decides to make a floral sugar box to house it in.
Christy is working with an intricate mold for her floral dessert, and she’s the only baker to do so. The biggest concern that the judges have is the warm weather making the chocolate ganache stick.
As the cakes start coming out of the oven, things start to go wrong. Dan and Tasha both drop their cakes. Dan has to make his cake again, but Tasha made a backup cake so she’s able to proceed with her elaborate plan.
As they start using the fridge and freezer to set their layers the bakers start lending each other a hand in true Great British Baking Show fashion.
Christy is the first baker who encounters a real disaster when her dessert breaks while coming out of the mold. After crying a bit, she starts getting back to her bake, and Dan offers to lend her a hand. With only a few minutes left Christy is able to complete her dessert.
After a tense few minutes as the bakers finish their decorations its time for judging.
First up is Tasha, whose ambitious dessert delivers on every level. While there’s a seam and some leakage, the presentation is praised as professional and Prue says that the cake is heavenly after she takes a bite.
Paul: The bitterness that you initially get, probably from the hibiscus, balances beautifully with everything else. If you can manage to fit it all in your mouth, and fortunately, I have a large mouth, it means you get all the flavors together, which is what you wanted to achieve, and you end up with something that’s beautiful. So well done.
Following Tasha is Saku. Her presentation is beautiful and her technique shows well, but the ginger-biscuit base of her cheesecake overwhelms the Earl Grey and hibiscus flavors.
This is an odd comment for Saku to get, and she realizes she’s in danger of going home. However, her textures are still there, so that may be her saving grace.
Dan’s Sunny Meadows layered dessert presents well, but the flavor seems a little too perfumed with overpowering notes of elderflower.
Next comes Matty’s blackberry and elderflower cake which doesn’t present well. Prue questions whether it’s really a showstopper and they give him some advice on how to improve his presentation.
When the judges taste his cake they say that it doesn’t quite meet the botanical brief and comes off more as a lemon cake. His custard layer also comes off as too stodgy and rubbery.
Josh’s hibiscus, raspberry, and rhubarb floral dessert presents really well. It has a split, but the judges love his jelly work. His flavors and textures are spot on.
Next comes Dana’s rose and hibiscus cake. Her floral box is definitely impressive, but the dessert is supposed to be the star of the show. While the cake looks great when the judges cut into it, the judges aren’t getting the floral flavors.
They also found her sponge to be too dry from too much time in the freezer and the layers are too thick.
Last is Christy, whose elderflower, strawberry, and rhubarb floral dessert. She immediately attempts to explain what happened during the challenge, but Paul stops her. He likes the look of the dessert, and can only find a few imperfections with the presentation.
There’s strong strawberry and rhubarb, but there’s a strong elderflower tang as well making it floral. Prue thinks the ganache is too thick and the layers uneven. However, the judges both agreed that the dessert is delicious
Paul: I’ve seen people throw stuff in the bin before.
Christy: I was determined I wasn’t going to be one of them.
Star Baker and Elimination
After the showstopper challenge, the judges deliberate on who will go home and conclude that Josh has won the mantle of Star Baker.
It’s a title he definitely deserves after putting in consistent effort week to week in challenges. (And remember, he already for a Hollywood handshake during the showstopper challenge on The Great British Baking Show Season 14 Episode 2, “Biscuit Week.”)
Then it’s time to say goodbye to another baker. While a few were in danger, Dana is ultimately sent home for her showstopper with more style than substance.
Dana is a talented baker and has done very well in her challenges, but the competition is coming to a point where the bakers need to step it up and take risks. There are so many bakers who are pushing the envelope and willing to try new things and ingredients, and it’s clear that all the remaining bakers are feeling it.
(In short, Charlotte better give Saku the time off to practice her bakes before next week.)
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 new episodes Fridays on Netflix.
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Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.