Great British Bake Off: East Sussex baker produces sausage dog showstopper

This week the five remaining bakers were faced with pastry for the quarter finals. This was the first week that, going in, I had no idea who would go because there wasn’t a weak one.

Previous weeks for East Sussex baker Janusz

First up was the retro classic - vol-au-vents. All I think of with these is bland funeral food filled with prawns or mushrooms. As a nice change the bakers had to make sweet ones and Janusz went with the classic flavours of strawberries and cream.

Unfortunately he had to do whipped cream as a last-minute change because his custard didn’t work. Maybe he’s lost his confidence with custard now as it got compared to wallpaper paste last week. Unfortunately the judges saw right through this and called the finished vol-au-vents ‘boring’ and the bake wasn’t great either with some raw pastry presented. No bakers did incredibly well with this round.

Next up was spring rolls with a dip. They only got 80 minutes for this which I thought was a bit tight. Yet again the bakers struggled. Janusz came second out of five despite the fact he only presented seven and not eight - I’m still not sure what happened to his last spring roll.

My biggest revelations for this round were that the cakes round the edge of the tent aren’t real and lots of people can’t pronounce mangetout. We heard all sorts of pronunciations including my personal favourite - ‘man get out’.

Finally the showstopper - a 3D pie scene inspired by a children’s story or nursery rhyme. The bakers had a lot to prove as Paul bluntly said: “I’m not happy with what they’ve produced so far, I want to see baking nirvana.”

Normally I find Paul a bit harsh, but I agreed. For the quarter finals no one was wowing the judges and sadly the final challenge didn’t change much.

Janusz went for a play on a classic and one of my favourites, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. He changed it up a bit by including his sausage dog Nigel - The Very Hungry Sausage Dog’.

Overall his flavours were good but pastry needed some work, which isn’t ideal when it’s pastry week.

Maxi went home, which I was shocked by as she has been so strong throughout the whole competition. This week was strange though, it felt more like the first week than the eighth. Prue said: “It’s been a really disappointing week.”

Onwards and upwards though - patisserie next for the semi finals.

More news from East Sussex