Great British Bake Off: East Sussex baker makes custard like wallpaper paste

This week the remaining bakers had to tackle custard in three forms - liquid, frozen, and set. Who knew custard could have its own week? Paul said it’s one of his ‘favourite things to eat, ever’ so the bakers were up for a challenge.

Bookies have revealed Janusz is the favourite with a 50 per cent probability of winning. Second is Maxy with 30.8 per cent and Sandro with 22.2 per cent (according to the Online Betting Guide).

Previous weeks for East Sussex baker Janusz

First up was Îles flottantes, also known as ‘floating islands’. Islands of poached meringue on a pool of custard. In Poland they call it ‘soup of nothing’ so that’s a random fact for you.

Janusz went for flavours to represent his favourite morning drink, a vanilla latte. This was very impressive as he piped the meringue to look like whipped cream and then the custard was the coffee below. I’ve never seen a latte with whipped cream on top…but we’ll ignore that.

His hands were shaking when he piped the meringue and Paul asked if he’d been drinking to which he replied ‘not for a long time’ and laughed. The judges loved this dessert from him and said it was ‘effective’ in how it looked.

Next up was a staggered start challenge which filled the bakers with fear. They had to make six ice cream cones filled with pistachio ice cream, made from a frozen custard. Prue said: “To make good ice cream you need to make good custard.”

Janusz was second to set off but made the mistake of cooling down his custard in the freezer before putting it in the ice cream machine. This meant when he returned his ice cream to the freezer for the final stage, he’d already warmed it up which unfortunately meant he served them six great cones filled with pistachio soup. Paul said: “It looks like it’s been in the sun for hours, good flavour but it’s not set.” Janusz came second from last in this challenge.

Finally they had to make a set custard gateau with custard as the star of the show. Janusz went with Neapolitan flavours and a traditional Polish sponge made with potato starch. Apparently this makes the sponge lighter. Randomly he revealed he’d practised making this one in high heels at home which made everyone laugh.

Despite looking incredible, it didn’t do well with judging at all. Prue said the flavours weren’t fresh and Paul compared the custard to wallpaper paste…not what you want to hear. I really thought this was curtains for Janusz and the end of these Bake Off reports, but no - Kevin went home. If you’d asked me before the episode I’d have said Kevin was the weakest, but from this episode alone I really thought Janusz was going home.

Next week it’s the quarter finals - pastry! Not long now until the finals on November 15.

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