The Great British Baking Show 16 Week 9 recap: Contestants struggle over a macaroon showcase

The Great British Bake Off is reaching its finale soon, and just seven days are left until the next champion baker will be crowned by Paul and Prue. As the four remaining bakers were left heading into this week’s semi-final, only three managed to secure their spots and move forward to the grand finale.

In the semi-final week, these bakers had to go through challenging tasks to include a sugar glass dome to serving up cream horns and also to create a showstopping macaroon sculpture.

Judges Paul warned the contestants about  “getting the right bake”, while Prue added that it is very “difficult to achieve” for these bakers.

As the four bakers were tasked with creating the signature piece in the semi-final, these amateurs had to bake two batches of six highly decorated cream horns - queue the puns.

Prue described it as a “difficult challenge”, as it featured a rough puff.  Jasmine impressed the judges as she was announced the star baker, and she joins Aaron and Tom in the finale.

The Great British Baking Show 16 Week 9 recap: A little sneak peek into the semi-final

During the technical, which was set by Paul, these bakers were asked to create a framboisier cake with a sugar glass dome. The challenge was described “as the most complex of the series so far.” 

It was seemingly not just the weather that had the bakers sweating, but it was this tough task that had them fretting, as they did not have a particularly detailed set of instructions, and the mousseline had a few of them pondering over it. 

As the recipe also involved a delicate sugar dome, which had huge potential to catch them all out, one baker was sent home as he could not accomplish the difficult task.

In an interview with TV Insider, The Great British Baking Show alum Paul Hollywood said, 

“The atmosphere in the tent is very jovial, it's very happy, so when someone says something to spark somebody else off, it just goes through like wildfire. “It took a while for Prue and I to discuss everything. It goes to show how tight things are on Bake Off. It came down to that one mistake and that unfortunately was the downfall of Toby.”

Dame Prue Leith also weighed in, saying that  Toby, in a way, was their least confident baker when they started, but he has learned so much, while calling him a really talented baker.

When is The Great British Bake Off finale? 

The show will return for its much-awaited finale in series 16 in a week. The finale is set to take place next Tuesday, November 4.

Like all the other the previous weeks, Bake Off will start at 8 pm for the champion baker to take home the winning title. 

Viewers can watch the finale on broadcast on Channel 4, and the last episode can also be watched live on the broadcaster’s on-demand app. The Bake Off finale is due to run from 8 pm to 9.15 pm next week.

Stay tuned for more updates.