Val Was On Top Form On Last Night’s ‘Great British Bake Off’

Who doesn’t love bread week? The contestants are extra stressed, Paul’s rarely satisfied, and we all get to learn the intricacies of proving.

Tom got star baker (we think Andrew was robbed) and Michael became the third contestant to leave. His Cypriot centrepiece couldn’t get Paul excited, he scored lowly in the technical, and his signature was under cooked. And so bye bye Michael. Bread week is hard, and there’s no shame in being the one to bow out.

In fact, there were a lot of people in danger. While biscuit week was looking bad for Louise even before she produced less of a “gingerbread story”, more an “icing-smothered nightmare”, going into this week’s showstopper, it could have been anybody’s game over.

Or, at least, just about anybody’s. Rav had wowed in the signature (although he came last in the technical) and Andrew, alongside eventual star baker Tom, was in a strong position. As, strangely enough, was Val…

Now, Val - what with her cool and collected attitude, constant cups of tea and kitchen dancing - is just about our favourite person on the planet at the moment, but we can admit that she’s hanging on by the skin of her teeth. Her sister might have tasted delicious, but her bakes have consistently been unfinished, undercooked or unpolished (by which we mean not quite professional…).

That’s why this week, it was a joy to see Val succeed. Yes, her signature chocolate bread was a little underdone (only because she put too much chocolate spread in it, which can only be a good thing), but she won the technical, and made a pretty tasty (although characteristically funny-looking) Noah’s Ark showstopper.

She was also on strong comedic form, putting Paul in his place when he tried to question her methods, and explaining that she was only making one elephant for her Ark, because “they’ve argued”.

Have you ever heard anything more wonderful than that?

There was nothing to compete with last year’s bread lion, but this was a pretty good bread week.

Now roll on batter…