‘The Great British Baking Show’: Fan Favorite Frontrunner Eliminated in Pastry Week

The competition is heating up on The Great British Baking Show, with a former Star Baker and fan favorite becoming the latest contestant to leave the tent after a challenging Pastry Week.

Hosts Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding announced that the 7 remaining contestants would face a series of pastry-based challenges. For the Signature, the group had to make eight handheld savory pies, focusing not only on tasty fillings but also on creating the perfect crust.

For the Technical challenge, judge Nigella Lawson tasked the contestants with making their own take on the traditional Polish dessert Karpatka, a sort of cream cake made with layers of choux pastry and vanilla custard.

Meanwhile, for the Showstopper challenge, the bakers had to make a free-form pie, meaning they had to shape and bake the pastry without using tins.

Read on to find out what happened as the show’s Collection 14, Week 6 premiered on Netflix on Friday, October 30…

Several contestants impressed in the opening Signature challenge, especially 63-year-old Connie and her jerk chicken-filled pasties and 25-year-old Tom with his Vietnamese banh mi-inspired pie. Moyin, the 22-year-old political economy student, also wowed the judges with his Nigerian meat pie; even Hammond jumped in to taste it.

Things didn’t go quite so well for 24-year-old marketing graduate Clara, who attempted to make venison pies shaped like deer. The design was too complicated, so her pies lacked filling. Mo and Gabe also struggled to make an impression with their Signature offerings.

Clara; GBBO Instagram

The Technical challenge was also a struggle for Clara, whose Karpatka failed to rise, leaving her choux pastry flat. It didn’t help that most of her fellow competitors succeeded, with Connie again earning praise from Lawson and Paul Hollywood.

Clara had a chance to turn things around in the Showstopper, and her sun-and-moon-shaped apple pie looked delightful on the surface. However, the judges weren’t so impressed when it came to tasting, with Lawson noting how the edible glitter had settled into all the cracks.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by The Great British Bake Off (@britishbakeoff)

And so, Clara, a frontrunner who earned a Star Baker title back in Week 3, became the latest contestant eliminated. Tom, meanwhile, picked up his third Star Baker award of the series, cementing himself as the new favorite to win.

Clara took her elimination in her stride, saying, “I had a blast! Love you, guys. This experience, like, it’s not only that you’re learning about baking, but you’re learning a lot about you. I never thought I could do this with my disorder [Clara revealed she has bipolar disorder], and I’m really proud that I did that, and hopefully, I can be an inspiration for other people.”