Spotting the Dick in Season 15 of 'The Great British Baking Show's "Dessert Week"

For the second year running, The Great British Baking Show has decided that "Dessert Week" should be the last theme before the Quarterfinal round. Like Pastry Week, "Desserts" is a bit of a grab-bag theme, encompassing the kind of baking that doesn't fit neatly into other categories. This is where you'll usually find the cheesecake-style challenges (cheesecake is a pie, but it doesn't require the bakers to make a complicated crust), the mousses (meeses?), puddings, and a Bake Off favorite, the meringue challenges.

Until recently, "Dessert Week" was a floater theme that turned up just about every season, landing anywhere from the first challenge post-Bread week to the actual Quarterfinals. Because it has served as an easy and a hard theme week, the Dessert Challenges have included everything from super difficult creme caramels to the easier sticky toffee puddings. However, it also has contained some genuinely off the wall bakes, like Pavlova, ice cream bombes, and the deeply feared clear jello domes with a baked scene inside it. Dessert backwards is "stressed" after all.

Dessert Week is also a theme that can be profoundly revealing of a baker's limitation. Last season, for example, Dan's inability to handle flavors in an intelligent way became unignorable when he submitted Thai Green Curry Crème Caramels. (He saved himself with his Bombe Showstopper, but it was a clear sign he was hitting his expiration.) Whether or not this season will be equally telling remains to be seen, as does whether the judges will proceed to ignore its warning signs or if Paul will admit that his chosen favorite shouldn't continue.

This season, the Dessert Signature is to make eight identical meringue nests, which are a bit like baby pavlovas. While Noel Fielding compares a meringue nest field to a cabbage patch where Paul Hollywoods are grown, I will remind everyone that there are multiple types of meringue: French meringue, which is the one Americans know best; Italian meringue, which is made with boiling sugar syrup, instead of dry granulated sugar, making it much softer; Swiss meringue which warms the eggwhites before whipping them until they are cool and set, creating a far denser more marshmallow-like structure; and Vegan meringue, which is eggless. The bakers can choose any type of meringue to use as the next's outer shell, but there must be two kinds of filling within the nests.

Let's see whose peaks stand up to scrutiny and which contestants beat themselves by overwhisking. As always, the Signature Challenge is judged on a Pass/Fail metric.

• Illiyin ‘Piña Colada Meringue’ (Pass): The nests are a bit large and messy, all of them cracked during baking. But Paul can't stop eating them because their flavors are perfection.
• Gill ‘Just Peachy’ (Pass): These are prettier, though not identical, since all the bakers jumped in to help her finish. (She'd done the same for just about everyone, so fair's fair.) Sadly, the peach flavor doesn't work.
• Georgie ‘Aunty Meryl’s Plums’ (Pass): Her meringues are messy, which Prue correctly diagnoses as due to the piping work. But her flavors are bang on.
• Christiaan ‘Smell The Roses’ (Fail): These are shop window-worthy, but Paul hates the flavors, and Prue agrees that he added too much rose.
• Sumayah ‘Pomegranate & Plenty More’ (Fail): These are so professional-looking that the judges are shocked when they discover she's accidentally made a savory dessert. Prue argues for them, but "Savory" does not fill the brief.
• Dylan ‘Coconut Illusion’ (Handshake): These are just as clever as anything, making the nests look like baby coconut shells. "Original and delicious," Prue declares.

Dylan evidently had a come-to-Jesus moment with himself after last week and has buckled down to show that he can win this thing and, more importantly, that his "f-off" attitude was not the way to handle not doing well. As for Sumayah, as pretty as her nests were, this is yet another flavor screw-up, and it'll be interesting if the judges keep pushing her forward anyway, even though she's been up and down from week to week.

Prue Leith set the Technical Challenge for this week, and at Alison Hammond's prompting, her best advice is to say that this bake has a known pitfall the bakers should avoid. And with that non-helpful advice, the hosts send the judges away and reveal that the tent crew is to make themselves each a suet pudding with currents and creme anglaise on the side, otherwise known as a spotted dick.

It's been ages and ages since The Great British Baking Show did Spotted Dick; the last time was all the way back in the dark ages of Season 4 (which PBS called Season 2 when it arrived here two years later). Notably, the series only did it once, and during a time when GBBO was just a show on BBC 2 that no one in America had heard of yet. Perhaps that's because Americans would howl at the dessert's name or, worse, freak out over it being a pudding cake made from animal fat and dried fruit. Anyway, they needn't have worried. Americans will be far too distracted by Alison having an absolute ball with this, encouraging Noel into going total old-school Sue & Mel double entre territory. (It was not an accident that the BBC asked the hosts to tone down the sex jokes after Season 4; it was the year where the pair went all out.)

Anyway, let's see whose desserts are su-weet and who got dicked over.

6. Sumayah: Her dick is raw and stodgy.
5. Illiyin: The caramel is ok, but the dick is glutinous.
4. Gill: The dick is stodgy, the creme is scrambled egg, and the caramel isn't dark enough.
3. Christiaan: The caramel is too pale, but the dick itself is lovely.
2. Georgie: The dick sponge is lovely, and the caramel is good.
1. Dylan: The lightest, nicest dick of them all, and good creme too.

Poor Sumayah. Two fails in a row this week aren't looking good, and unlike some, she doesn't have the Paul Hollywood Protection Act in her corner. She will need to pull off the Showstopper, or she's out.

The Showstopper Challenge this season requires the bakers to make a classic tiramisu, adhering to all the traditional ingredients: coffee, mascarpone, and lady's fingers. However, the bakers are encouraged to add elements and flavors to make it their own creation—it's just that they cannot drown out the coffee and mascarpone flavors. This is another bake that initially appeared during the BBC years in Season 5 (the first one PBS ever brought over) and more recently was seen in Season 12. Its history is in dispute; other than it came from Italy in the 1800s, no one can agree on who created it. The group has four and a half hours to make their highly decorated tiramisu worthy of getting them into the Quarterfinals next week.

We have at least two mega-tiramisu fans in Georgie and Christiaan, but unsurprisingly, those who hate coffee (Gill) are grossed out by the challenge. Let's see who lifts themselves up a tier and who collapses into a miserable misu.

Dylan’s ‘Concrete Box’: The sides are so sharp and the corners so neat, it looks like his tiramisu is still in the pan. Prue quibbles that it looks more like stainless steel than concrete. (I think it looks like marble.) But whatever you think the outside looks like, it doesn't look like cake. The inside layers are perfect, and the cured egg gives the dessert a salted caramel-type zing.

Georgie’s ‘Aunty's Old Italian Recipe’: Georgie nailed her chocolate collar, an exercise that fans of the show know has caused more than one baker to go home before. The tiramisu inside is enormous, just layer upon layer of fluff, all neat as a pin. Paul is super pleased to get a winning bake out of Georgie at this stage. Whatever you think of his unfair treatment, Georgie passed the Dessert gauntlet under her own power and deserves to make the quarterfinals. 

Christiaan’s ‘Memphis Milano’: The collar alone is showstopper worthy, with dozens and dozens of little half-moon decor bits all around the sides like flower petals. The inside had very well-defined layers, though the cherry fruit is messy and pairs oddly with the coffee flavors; however, the mascarpone helps the two meld, as long as you get all three in your mouth at once. (Let's be glad no one said that during the spotted dick challenge.)

Illiyin’s ‘Jewelry Box’: Her collar was supposed to stand much taller, but the overhang collapsed, so she cut it down. (Honestly, the design change makes it look far better than her original plan.) She's very concerned that the judges will notice, but Prue and Paul just ooh and ahh over its originality, calling it a "little triumph" and congratulating her on her beautifully baked sponge.  

Gill’s ‘Coconut Latte Charlotte Russe’: If you don't like a tiramisu, make a Charlotte Russe. A Charlotte Russe can technically be a tiramisu (though a tiramisu is not a Charlotte Russe). Anyway, for all that Gill can't stand the damn thing, she made one worthy of a shop window. Moreover, her coffee flavors are bang on and work well with the coconut.

Sumayah’s ‘Batik Mousse Cake’: Unlike the others, she made a printed spong collar, which came out well, but the seam is really (and sadly) noticeable. But the real issue is her flavors, again. She paired the coffee with lemon, which doesn't sound like it would be tasty, and the expressions on Paul and Prue's faces as they take that first bite say it is not as they look at each other in slight horror. Prue tries to be kind, but if Sumayah was trying to make up for the last two challenges, she failed.  

Regrettably, Sumayah is out this week, but unfortunately, it was the right choice. She's super talented but uneven in what she produces, and the show cannot afford two Dan-like finale failures in a row. As for Star Baker, that goes to Dylan; this time, he deserved it without any reservations.

Now we'll just have to see how well he handles going back in time to decades before he was born as the Quarterfinal Theme is "The 70s."

The Great British Baking Show continues on Netflix with new episodes every Tuesday in the U.K. and Friday in the U.S. through the end of November.