'The Great British Baking Show' Serves Just Desserts

It's Dessert Week in the tent, as The Great British Baking Show tries to shake off Mexican Week in hopes viewers will quickly forget with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads. Dessert Week is one of those catch-all themes that can be as easy or as hard as the show feels like making it, which is why, though it appears nearly every year, it's rarely in the same spot.

Dessert Week has fallen as early as Week 4, which was its original position back in the BBC days, and most recently found its way back there last year in Collection 9/Season 12. But it's also come late as the Quarterfinals in Week 8, as it did in Collection 8/Season 11. Since moving to Channel 4, it floats around the middle, either Week 5 like this year, or Week 6 in Collection 7/Season 10, etc. The series did skip it once, the first year the show shifted from the BBC to Channel 4, Collection 5/Series 8, but otherwise, it's a staple.

Coming earlier in the season means the challenges are somewhat more manageable. However, the theme is enough to intimidate the bakers, as there are a lot of jellies, puddings, and cheesecakes. (If the challenge comes late enough in the season, some offbeat choices like Croquembouche or Dacquoise.) Thankfully, putting this episode at Week 5 means that the difficulties will be a little more complex than plain creme brulees, but nothing so horrifying as those jelly cakes a couple of years back.