The Great British Bake Off: The Second Baker Leaves the Tent

4 October 2023

In Tuesday’s night’s episode of The Great British Bake Off on Channel 4, Tasha was named Star Baker and Keith 60, from Hampshire was the second baker to leave the 14th series.

The nation’s most famous tent was pitched in the grounds of Welford Park once again. Presenters Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond led the latest batch of 12 bakers through thirty brand new challenges set by Judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith, in 10 episodes.

It was week two and for our remaining bakers it was the battle of Biscuit Week. They kicked off with marshmallow biscuits, inspired by childhood favourites. Next, the bakers produced a biscuit custard classic in the technical. Finally, an illusion challenge in the showstopper, as the bakers made their favourite meal out of biscuits - with stunning results.

At the end of the second episode Noel announced that Tasha was the Star Baker and Alison had the difficult job telling Keith that he would be the second Baker leaving the tent. 

On the show Keith said:  ‘It’s alright I feel fine, there is nothing sad about this moment.  I have had the most fantastic time.  There were bruises up my arm from the first week as I was pinching myself every half hour.  I don’t know how many hours I will spend the rest of my life banging on about this.’

Here Keith talks about his experience:  

‘I was very comfortable at leaving as  I think it was arguably one of the easiest decisions in GBBO history so it didn’t come as a surprise to me. I think I had to cheer up some of the other bakers rather than the other way round. I said how brilliant I thought they all were and how proud of them I was and I felt privileged to have been in the mix for a couple of weeks with some very talented people.   I loved the fact that my fellow Bakers all appear to be very ordinary whilst hiding some very extraordinary abilities.

‘I thought it was important to demonstrate that leaving the tent doesn’t necessarily have to be a sad occasion and sometimes you just have to realise that you’ve reached your limit and be grateful for an amazing experience. 

‘I want to do more and more baking – I am determined never to underbake a biscuit again. And I want to tackle challenging bakes now that I have more confidence.   My worst challenge was the Biscuit technical - none of my biscuit challenges were great but there were some redeeming features in both the signature and showstopper that brought me a small degree of comfort. The custard creams were just embarrassingly awful…

‘I’ve learnt no matter how insurmountable a challenge might appear at first, with sufficient energy and application you can overcome it. And not just in baking.

‘The situation with my white chocolate drip on my choc orange cake was really interesting to me. I thought it was messy and made the cake look ugly and wished I could remove it. Paul thought it looked good and improved the overall appearance of the cake. Quite often we have things about ourselves that we really dislike and long to change but, unbeknownst to us, others see these as good attractive points/features.

‘My best moment in the series for me was Prue’s reaction to my boozy choc orange vertical layer cake; and the worst moment was presenting Paul and Prue with tuille biscuits that they could bend in half!

‘My favourite challenge was the Cake showstopper as I was REALLY outside of my comfort zone. I hadn’t done anything properly creative since I’d dropped Art in 3rd year seniors which for me was 1977. My first practice attempt at the sculpted Maisie cake looked like a frightening gargoyle and I thought I’d be a laughing stock in front of millions so to produce something that looked vaguely canine and tasted OK was a huge achievement for me. I don’t often big myself up but I was actually quite proud of that one.

‘The funniest comment in the tent has to be Prue to Nicky: “Tell us about your beaver”

‘I would encourage amateur bakers emphatically YES to apply for the next series of Bake Off.  Although be prepared to raise your game significantly and be open to learning a vast array of new skills that you’d previously considered to be beyond you.

 

To apply online for the next series of The Great British Bake Off : www.applyforbakeoff.co.uk

Keith joins Jo Brand and Tom Allen on The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice on Thursday 5 October on Channel 4 at 8.00 pm.  Panel guests include Richard Osman, Judi Love and Carol Vorderman.