After the dismissal of Selasi last Wednesday (sob), we are left with the final three contestants, who have, against all odds, made it to the final: Jane, Candice and Andrew. They are all amazing bakers with their own individual strengths and weaknesses, but who is likely to bag the crown?
Andrew
Andrew is my personal favourite for many reasons. He is a lovely guy with awesome hair, a cute accent and even manages to incorporate his engineering background into his bakes – baking with precision and imagination. However, is he likely to win? There’s no doubt that he is an impressive baker and he has produced some amazing things, such as his mini mousse cakes placed on a Ferris wheel which earned him Star Baker in Dessert Week. He also bagged Star Baker last Wednesday in Patisserie Week, helped by his amazing show stopper of ‘Philharmonic fondants’ in a mini orchestra set.
This shows that he is obviously capable of winning, although he has had the occasional blip which means he could f*** it up next week. He had a pretty bad time of it in Botanical Week, scraping through by the skin of his teeth and ended up crying with relief that he had made it through (we cried too, so many feels). He also once forgot to turn the oven on, which, no offence Andrew, is bloody stupid. Nevertheless, he still has a fighting chance and I do think he is capable of wowing the judges next week if he pulls it out of the bag.
Jane
Jane strikes me as a cheerful person who has a passion for baking, and is very good at it! Her amazing mirror glaze cake helped earn her Star Baker in the show’s first episode, Cake Week, and she has been pretty successful ever since. Although she has not won Star Baker since then, she has never truly been at risk of being eliminated either as she is fairly consistent most of the time. She has also made some true show stoppers, such as her marchpane masterpiece in Tudor Week which was beautiful and decorated with elegant swans. I think that Jane could very well win the Bake Off if she ups her game a little bit for next week.
Candice
If I’m honest, I think that Candice is the most likely to win. This is because she is arguably the most successful baker, having achieved Star Baker three times, more than both Andrew and Jane. She also tends to be the one who goes the extra mile, always doing more than Paul and Mary ask for, like when she did the gingerbread pub which had a sticky ginger cake carpet as well as the gingerbread walls. This can pay off very well and is probably why she has won Star Baker so many times, but it can also go tits up quite easily if she has too much to do.
In order to win next week I think she will need to balance her ambition with practicality, and make sure everything is perfect in regards to the actual bake and the flavours, rather than just making her bakes pretty. I am curious to see which shade of lipstick she will wear next week for her potential victory – I’m thinking bright red, to symbolise the blood of her enemies (too far?).
Overall, all three of these bakers are capable of winning the top spot, and all are pretty deserving of it – Candice is my bet but we will just have to wait and see!
The Great British Bake Off final will air on BBC One on Wednesday 26th October at 8pm – make sure you tune in!
Ruth Pengelly
Images: Josh Caldicott
