The Great British Bake Off 2017, episode 6 recap: The 'Prue pat' is born

The cakey contest passed its halfway point with Pastry Week. Who puffed up with pride and who went flaky? Here’s all the talking points from episode six of the Great British Bake Off.

Liam crowned Star Baker at last. Or was it his nan?

“Hashtag Cynthia” indeed. Baby-of-the-tent Liam Charles has got his nan to thank for being crowned Star Baker after narrowly missing out a fortnight ago. 

Cynthia’s food is “crazy good”, according to her grandson. In tribute, Liam made a “Nan’s Sunday Dinner” hand-raised pie, filled with curried goat and fried plantain, and topped with mango and avocado salsa. “Spectacular,” grinned Paul Hollywood after tucking in. “Your grandma’s a genius.” Liam’s reaction? “Yes, nan! Get in!” 

The loveable 19-year-old’s signature savoury pies - typically for such a computer geek, decorated on a FIFA gaming theme - had buttery flaky pastry, a classic domed top and delicious filling. Prue Leith asked Liam to save her one for lunch. “Decent, decent,” he smirked, trying not to show his delight.

He came respectably mid-table in the technical. “They’re bare puffy,” he noted of his Portuguese custard tarts - or pastéis de nata if you can do the accent. Then came that nan-inspired showstopper. “Liam is something of a genius with flavour,” said Prue approvingly. 

There are only two male bakers left (“I gotta represent,” said Liam) and as early pace-setter Steven Carter-Bailey stumbles, “Cake Boy” is starting to look a likely finalist. He’s doing Cynthia proud.

Julia slithers home like a bread snail

Bake Off’s best pair of eyebrows have waggled their last. Siberia-born aviation broker Julia Chernogorova hit a wall in the contest, having also struggled last week, so deserved to go.

She flopped in all three rounds. Her signature savoury pies were overpowered by paprika. She came last in the custard tart technical after over-whisking her eggs. Her showstopper was “sad and untidy”, cursed with the unfortunate combo of over-cooked filling and underdone pastry. 

So farewell to this year’s second youngest baker. Julia was impeccably browed and bloused, cried a lot, puffed out her cheeks even more, poignantly admitted she’d never seen a trifle, made a Russian doll cake and wobbly jelly biscuits - but will probably be best remembered for that phallic bread snail.

She’ll be missed. Who’s Noel Fielding going to flirt with now? Well, apart from Sophie. And pretty much everyone else. 

Sandi’s sob nearly set us off

Well, that was unexpectedly sweet. When co-presenter Sandi Toksvig had to announce Julia’s elimination, her voice cracked with emotion, before she clasped the departing baker in a tearful hug. Aww. 

Some viewers have found Sandi slightly frostier than predecessors Mel and Sue but here she showed she’s every bit as warm. See also her affectionate teasing of Kate. Soppy Toksvig, more like.

Contestant camaraderie came to the fore

One of Bake Off’s winning ingredients is its infectious warmth. The amateur bakers bond and now the tent has thinned out a bit, we got plentiful glimpses of genuine friendship. 

Ever the mum, Stacey Hart kept reminding Liam how long was left. Steven teased Kate Lyon over her shonky pastry faces. Liam told Sophie Faldo her pies were, “Awesome, dude. Totally rad”. Everyone mucked in to help get pies out of moulds. There were hugs, high-fives and supportive smiles all round. In another week of grim real-world news, it was cheeringly life-affirming inside the marquee. 

Innuendo count was on the up

Several double entendres to titter at this week. Sophie was “fighting moisture problems”, while Stacey was “patching up my big leaky crack”.

Sandi also announced: “You have one minute to finish off your tarts. In another context, that might sound lewd.”

Forget the Hollywood handshake, here’s the Prue pat

Did we witness the birth of a new Bake Off phenomenon? When Prue Leith pronounced Sophie’s Four Seasons pies “a triumph”, she gave her hand a congratulatory tap. “A proper Prue pat, you got there,” said Sandi Toksvig approvingly. Let’s keep our eyes peeled for Prue pats in future episodes. 

The new judge has been nicknamed “Prue Lethal” for her scathing judgements and didn’t hold back here. She told Kate her pies were “a bit boring”, declared Yann’s science pies “a mess” and said Stacey’s showstopper “looks home-made - not your best work”. Consider yourselves told off. 

Narrow escapes for Kate and Stacey

Scouse superwoman Kate and huffing, puffing Stacey were the two that got away this week. Stacey’s love-themed signature pies were more successful than Kate’s deformed famous faces, which elicited the first “soggy bottom” comment of the series. They both botched their custard tarts so were the bottom two in the technical challenge - with Stacey nosily tripping over a bin, just to add insult to injury. 

Kate saved her skin with a tasty showstopper for the third time this series, while Stacey left a piece of baking parchment in her wonky Indian veg pie. Both look to be on borrowed time. 

Outrageous outfit change in this week’s style wars

A rare occurrence in the in-tent fashion face-off saw Noel Fielding get through two equally eye-catching tops. On day one, he was resplendent in a black shirt with red zig-zags, like an Eighties teenage boys’ bedroom wallpaper. By day two, he’d popped on a zip-up red cardi with skull and dice. Very Camden Market.

Paul Hollywoodwas in a blue shirt, fitted as standard. Prue Leith teamed a Mary Berry-esque yellow blazer with a monochrome striped top. After squinting at Sandi’s black-and-white printed shir, we couldn’t decide if the pattern was penguins, polar bears or Star Wars stormtroopers. Answers on a postcard.

Yan’s science nerdery hits new heights

NHS biologist Chuen-Yan has been enjoyably scientific about her bakes all series but here she hit Peak Geek. Her savoury signatures pies paid tribute to her favourite British boffins: Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Rosalind Franklin and Alan Turing.

Still sporting a chin scab from her micro-scooter crash three weeks ago, she wrote an equation to calculate the perfect pastry-to-pie-filling ratio, used a vacuum sealer to help her chicken marinate and muttered “Pow! Science!” when she popped it in the oven.

As if this wasn’t loveable enough, she used “Oh bum” as an oath and grumbled: “Now people will think I can’t make pie. I can. I can so make pie.” Don’t go changing, Yan. 

Noel Fielding stole the show again

The tent’s resident surrealist scarecrow was on fine form - probably his silliest since week one. Noel donned a tiger outfit for that pre-credits Life Of Pi(e) skit, said he lived in a hollowed-out tree, claimed to be a “crust whisperer” and pretended he thought it was Pasty Week, “being a goth and all that”. 

When he put on a squawking Mockney voice, Sandi asked: “Are you wearing Russell Brand’s underpants?” Then there was his made-up fact about Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo firing custard tarts out of a bazooka and stunning a chaffinch in flight. Wouldn’t put it past him

Noel’s unlikely bromance with Paul  also continues to blossom, as he joked about them practising yoof handshakes and asked Liam: “Does your conscience have steely blue eyes and a silver-grey beard?”

Sandi got custardy of the historical clip

This week’s historical VT traced the origins of pastéis de nata at Lisbon's Jerónimos Monastery. Upside for Sandi Toksvig: a free minibreak in Portugal to scoff custard tarts. Downside: she had to wear a unflattering hairnet.

Series enters the home stretch

Six episodes down, four to go. This eighth series of Bake Off has flown by. Next up, it’s Italian week. Bring your big pepper grinders.