Bake Off: Crème de la Crème – episode four

Sebastien’s mini Marcs marry almond joconde sponge with rum chocolate and Chantilly creams. At the judgement there are too few slices and they’re not standing upright. Claire says they’re ‘nicely imbibed’ (which is how I shall describe myself in future when I’m struggling to stay upright) but Benoit thinks they’re not a Saint Marc.

The almond joconde pops up again in the Hilton team’s slices. Well, I say ‘pops up’ – it actually has to be prised from its tin as it sticks unexpectedly. Sajeela’s cream-free chocolate mousse doesn’t set and the team serves up only thirty-two slices. The precision is missing too – Cherish wields her ruler and says it’s not acceptable.

Next up it’s sfogliatelle (try getting your mouth around that), which is an Italian pastry meaning a small, thin leaf, sometimes called a lobster tail in English. Sebastien’s team is stretching the pastry by hand like strudel and Benoit says the technique is ‘on the money’. The filling of ricotta and semolina is flavoured with lemon, cinnamon and candied orange peel. Crushed pistachios encrust the crustaceous creations (try getting your mouth around that too) but the finished bakes are big, flat and pale.

Mark and his gang are striping their sfogliatelle with alternate layers of orange and cinnamon pastry. Filled with ricotta and orange zest, they unfortunately bake to look a bit like bacon rashers. The layers are lost and they’re judged to be chewy not crispy, which is not good for sfogliatelle or a bacon sarnie.

Sajeela’s sfogliatelle are filled with rum-infused ricotta, raisins and orange zest. Like Mark’s team, the trio is using a pasta maker to get the dough as thin as possible. Tom adds his expert insight – ‘it needs to be wafer thin – not like a pizza dough’. The bakers are enormously grateful for this clarification and put away their tins of anchovies. Good job too – the judges think the super-crisp pastries are rummy and yummy.

In the absence of the historical segments beloved by the original Bake Off, I’ll tell you that this week’s dome-shaped petits gateaux are little cakes shaped like a dome. And domes are classically found on buildings. Where else would you get such insightful excursions into the worlds of architecture and pâtisserie?

There’s a Granny Smith theme to the French team’s domed cakes. Benoit expects the finished cakes to look like apples, but he is disappointed. Apple tatin and mousse sit on a sablé biscuit and green-tinted white chocolate glaçage coats the domes, topped with a chocolate stalk. The glaze turns out to be dull, the flavours aren’t there and the chocolate ‘stalks’ look like little worms wriggling away to escape any embarrassment.

Mark’s team’s petits gateaux have a double-layered raspberry coulis and cream insert, vanilla mousse, pistachio dacquoise, crystallised pistachios, fresh raspberries and a vibrant chocolate glaze with metallic sparkle. It looks like a recipe for Red Nose Day but Monsieur Blin likes the bling. ‘Love it, love it, love it,’ gushes Cherish. She says it has ‘wow’ at first glance but she complains that Mark’s nuts are not uniform. I hope he’s not too uncomfortable with that.

The petits gateaux from Sajeela’s team have a chocolate ganache insert with blood orange mousse, a Florentine base and chocolate ring decorations. The glaze looks like lobster soup. ‘Beautiful layering,’ says Claire, though she thinks the decorations are a little thick.

As the teams prepare to take a little time out, it’s Sajeela and his hotel crew in the lead, closely followed by Mark’s team, with team Sebastien left trailing.