Great British Bake Off 2015: Paul sent home after towering éclair showstopper collapse

Paul Hollywood’s namesake – and doppelganger – suffered a pastry collapse in the quarter final
Crumbled: Paul left the Bake Off after his pastry tower failed to stand up
BBC
Ben Travis24 September 2015

In quarter finals week, the pressure of the Great British Bake Off saw many of the contestants – or at least their bakes – collapse under the weight.

In patisserie week, the contestants had to rustle up 24 ‘cream horns’ – a double entendre that Twitter had an absolute field day with – in the signature bake, little-known layered mokatine cakes in the technical challenge, and a towering ‘religieuse à l'ancienne’ choux pastry éclair tower in the showstopper round.

To make matters worse, after completing their towering showstopper creations, the bakers were given a two hour lunch break before judging began – time in which any precarious towers would potentially fall apart.

Tamal’s tower retained its rigidity, winning him plaudits from Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry. Less lucky was Nadiya, whose eclairs began to buckle. Though it wasn’t a total collapse, Paul Hollywood decreed that her bubblegum flavouring was “slightly over the top”.

Contestant Paul came off worse, with his entire bottom layer collapsing. He was forced to remove it from his bake when presenting it to the judges. Flora also removed her bottom layer, as she wasn’t confident in the steadiness of her huge dessert. The judges were disappointed to find that they could not taste any of the flavours she had attempted to mix into the choux buns.

The Great British Bake Off 2015 - meet the contestants

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Having more luck was Ian, who impressed with his showstopper after underestimating the difficulty of the cream horns in the signature challenge.

In the end it was Nadiya who once again was left standing as star baker, while Paul was sadly sent home.

With only two weeks left to go, it’s now down to Nadiya, Flora, Tamal, and Ian to duke it out in the semi-final for a place in that all-important final three.

BBC One, 9pm

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