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'Great British Bake Off' fans outraged at quarter-finals result

(Channel 4)
(Channel 4)

The Great British Bake Off quarter finals got serious tonight with a controversial elimination and half of the contestants breaking down in tears.

The viewers were close to joining them, after a shock result which saw Manon sent home despite Rahul being far and away the worst in every challenge.

Last week’s vegan theme was a mixed bag, and this time there was another inaugural week – Danish. Yes, presenter Sandi Toksvig likely had a hand in this.

It all started cheerfully enough – in a touching tribute to Welsh meat lover Jon who was beaten by vegan week, the five remaining bakers decided to wear Hawaiian shirts for the quarter finals, with even nervous Rahul managing to look jaunty.

This close to the finals, the bakers are starting to get a little suspicious of each other, and Manon admitted that she had Kim-Joy pegged as the dark horse of the competition – us too, Manon, that sweet persona must be a clever game plan.

However, the theme uncovered a chink in Rahul’s armour as he rumbled himself for pronouncing croissant “chosho” and thinking they were Danish. So close, Rahul…

The Signature Bake

This week’s challenge was a smorrebrod, which in case you were wondering, is a Danish open sandwich on rye bread.

Any viewers who’ve been having trouble sleeping recently were probably lulled into a snooze by Rahul’s lengthy, completely monotone explanation of every ingredient (and there were many) that he was using. Hopefully it tasted a little more exciting.

We also learned the splendid piece of trivia that there is a bakery in Denmark with a sandwich named after Sandi’s dad, journalist Claus Toksvig.

Everyone seemed to have taken a tip from the Kim-Joy school of baking tonight, with tomato swans and boiled egg bumblebees on the menu.

It finally happened tonight – Rahul had a bad week, and it was tough to watch. Could Danish week be his nemesis?

Jaws hit the floor in every Bake Off-obsessed household as Paul Hollywood pronounced Rahul’s rye bread awful. AWFUL. And not in the “awe-filled” sense.

However, Briony’s ridiculous giant-sized loaf provided one of the best moment of Bake Off so far, Paul’s impression of Prue Leith buying a sandwich.

Oh poor Briony though, the first tears of an emotion-filled episode began as she digested their harsh critique.

Who won the Technical Challenge?

Like much of tonight’s episode, we didn’t quite catch the Danish word that described these delicious-sounding little spherical pancakes filled with apple.

Noel Fielding continued his weekly wind up of Rahul, crowding him with too many questions and telling him his apple sauce looked “like baby sick”.

The presenter followed it up by bypassing innuendo altogether, interrupting Manon’s story of her sister’s Danish ex-boyfriend with the comment “sounds like a porn star, I’m not gonna lie”.

Kim-Joy unwittingly added to the smut levels with her description of preparing the pancake tin…

Rahul’s week of hell continued as he burned his pancakes, although we did enjoy watching him shaking icing sugar over the burned bits like his life depended on it.

How did he claim not to know what “turning” meant with the pancakes, though?

The Technical turned on its head this week, with the shock result of Rahul in last place and Briony first, making for a tense last round.

The Showstopper

In possibly the best challenge ever set on Bake Off, the bakers had to make a kagemand/kagekone, a man or woman fashioned out of Danish pastry for a traditional party delicacy where guests are required to scream as the pastry person is beheaded.

Anyone else wishing they were Danish right now?

Briony’s tale of dedicating her bake to her Nanny Pat was sweet enough, but it just put us in mind of the infamous Nanny Pat’s sausage plait from Towie. RIP Nanny Pat.

She did manage to get in one of the comments of the episode though, by saying: “I’m not sure how proud Nanny Pat would be with this pearl necklace, but she’s getting it.”

Here came tonight’s second shocker gap in Rahul’s general knowledge – he has absolutely no idea what Star Wars is and has never heard of Luke Skywalker. Even Noel seemed a little too baffled to make more than a rudimentary attempt at teasing.

This challenge had Kim-Joy written all over it, and she didn’t disappoint with a beautifully intricate pastry version of her friend going to the opera – although she still ended up in tears after some harsh comments about her pastry.

Rahul, despite his burnt offering being not quite as terrible as he thought, looked completely defeated as he declared “I deserve to go home”, and Manon also finished the challenge in tears.

Who went out?

Rounding off the most emotional episode so far was the sad news that Manon was leaving us.

Our favourite French baker was clearly devastated, bursting into tears as she was comforted by best mate Ruby.

Yes, it wasn’t her best week, but controversially, our usual favourite Rahul actually did far worse tonight.

Who got Star Baker?

Hurrah for Ruby!

Most weeks she’s totally unflappable, and this time Star Baker was particularly well deserved as she was pulling herself out of last week’s cake collapse disaster.

Could Ruby pull it out of the bag and win this year’s series as the top contestants crumble under the pressure?

Tonight’s highlight

This week, the baking was the sideshow to Paul Hollywood’s incredible tan.

He must have been on quite some holiday since vegan week – either that, or he’s upping the fake bake in time for the grand final.

Perhaps he’s simply putting in an early bid for Strictly 2019.

The Great British Bake Off semi-final is on Tuesday, October 23 at 8pm on Channel 4.

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