The Great British Bake Off

Desserts (5x4)

Air date: Aug 27, 2014

It's week four in the tent and the baking is getting serious. Having seen the bakers make cake, biscuits and bread, Mary and Paul up the ante - for the first time, we see how the bakers cope with multi-tasking across several baking skills at once. For their signature challenge the bakers must bake saucy puds - delicate sponges hiding a gooey saucy filling or a saucy surprise at the bottom. If baked for just a fraction too long the sauce won't ooze upon cutting, but they won't know if it has worked until they are judged. Sue explores the origins of the Paignton pudding - a pudding larger than a cow that caused a riot in Paignton in the 19th century. For the technical challenge, Mary sets the bakers her tiramisu cake. It's a new kind of tiramisu requiring the bakers to temper chocolate, bake beautifully thin coffee-soaked sponges and assemble to create perfect layers of sponge, cream and chocolate... but only if they read the recipe properly. For their final flourish the bakers are challenged to bake incredible showstopping baked alaskas made up of cake, meringue and ice cream... on the hottest day of the year so far. In the centre of a field in the middle of the English countryside the bakers have the odds stacked against them, as temperatures soar and tempers fray. There is still everything to bake for... on your marks... get set... bake!