Bake Off 2021 episode 4 review: Series is starting to cloy after underwhelming dessert week

The series is feeling a little undercooked so far (Picture: Channel 4)

*Warning: Contains spoilers for Great British Bake off*

So far, the current series of Great British Bake Off has been a little flat – flat as a poorly risen soufflé, in fact. 

Aside from mega genius Jurgen and charismatic Italian Giuseppe – as well as some increasingly bizarre links from Paul Hollywood and co. – there’s not been a huge amount to savour. The ratings have been down and the show hasn’t taken over social media like it has done in recent years.

Believe us, it brings no pleasure to say that the 2021 series has yet to properly win us over like it has so many often before, and dessert week encapsulated our frustrations.

What’s to blame? Well, we know one thing – the bakers are badly mismatched.

Maggie, smiley and relentlessly upbeat though she might be, produced the latest in a line of traditional, underwhelming dishes in the pavlova signature. It was no surprise when, after an inarguably woeful effort in the technical, her fate was secured as the fourth baker to leave the tent.

At the other end of the scale, Jurgen showed once again why he could swap places with Paul and Prue and judge the competition himself if he wanted to. He produced a beautiful pavlova in the signature, and made it abundantly clear that he and Giuseppe are far ahead of the others.

Elsewhere, Freya showed skill to serve up presentable vegan bakes – and we have to admire her dedication to the five second rule after picking her baking sheet off the floor – but her flavours let her down.

The sticky toffee pudding technical again showed the weakness in the line-up, with basic flaws getting exposed. Amanda gets some extra points from us after rocking up to the tent in a pair of sunglasses, but she was one of the bakers to serve up raw dishes in the technical.

Chigs will be delighted with his Hollywood handshake and his impressive performance throughout. But we’ll be honest, we think the judges gave him Star Baker just to mix things up after weeks of Giuseppe and Jurgen dominance. Really, it was the latter’s impressive imprimé dessert (and singing) in the showstopper that marked the highlight of an otherwise underwhelming episode.

Freya served up more vegan cakes (Picture: Mark Bourdillon/Love Productions)

Something else we’ve noticed – where are the soggy bottoms and stiff peaks? The cheeky double-entendres, for years the stock trade of the programme, seem to have been banned outright this year. The tent seemed to have all the atmosphere of a dentist’s waiting room during Tuesday’s episode, with Noel and Matt pushed into doing a lot of heavy lifting. 

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We’ve come away feeling a little undercooked once again, and yet to fall in love with this year’s hopefuls. After 18 months of the nation cooking banana bread, surely they could have found a more impressive line-up than this? 

Like an overly sweet toffee pudding, the current series is starting to cloy. For the first time ever, we’re starting to count down the weeks until the series is wrapped up.

Great British Bake Off continues on Tuesday at 8pm on Channel 4.

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