They’ve been baking up a storm for the past few weeks, but finally The Great British Bake Off has come to a climatic end, with John Whaite the law student from Manchester winning ahead of James Morton and Brendan Lynch.
The cult BBC baking show, which attracts over five million viewers an episode, had Twitter ablaze as the tense hour long final took many twists and turns, with finally the 23 year-old pulling off a shock win.
The final had all the ingredients of a classic Great British Bake Off from judge Mary Berry’s brightly patterned Whistles jacket, to Paul Hollywood’s sizzling put downs and with John declaring, “bakers are controlling people who just want to be loved” as he whipped up his mixture we knew it would be an emotional final.
The signature bake was as usual a tongue twisting unknown for most not in the baking game, a pithivier, which according to Paul demanded impressive layers in the pastry. After battling through it was a mixed bag for the finalists.
Brendan had high hopes after the first round, giving himself a “ten out of ten” while James’ bake, cursed with a “saggy bottom”, left him trailing as they went into the difficult technical blind bake.
All three struggled with the dipping of the fondants into the icing and when it came to judging Paul Hollywood made it clear when the three finalists served up their fondant fancies – it was not up to final standards.
The winner seemed to hang on the final showstopper bake as each finalist made it clear coming out on top was the only option. Brendan planned a ‘reunion cake’ to represent the healing of family rifts, John chose a ‘heaven and hell' inspired creation after an up and down year while James went for an ambitious ‘union cake’ that involved five individual chiffon sponges.
The medical student’s ambition appears to have been his downfall though, with Paul telling him they could only judge his final bake on just one of them. With John and Brendan faring well with their master pieces it was a difficult call as the judges began to decide.
As the three finalists mixed with past contestants and showed off their baking creations, Paul and Mary deliberated with the judges telling Sue and Mel they had both confessed to a winner earlier in the day.
While fans had the win down to a two horse race between perfectionist Brendan and Scottish James, it was in the end Manchester’s John who won out.
Before the winner was announced the mild mannered baker, declared “I came, I baked, I hoped I conquered” and clearly he did with the law student being crowned winner of series three.
Taking to Twitter, he thanked all for the support he had received, tweeting: “Guys your well wishes are overwhelming! Thank you so much xxx #GBBO #GBBOFinal #britishbakeoff#”
James, who declared “everyone was a winner on the day” offered he support on Twitter, writing: “Well done John!!! Best on the day. #GBBO #GBBOFinal”
After nearly ten tense, baked filled weeks it’s time to put the whisks down and to shut up the Cath Kidson clad Baking tent for another year.
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