Who knew that something as light and soft as feathers would be controversial Great British Baking Show?
In this week’s episode of the delicious baking series – cookie week! – the kitchen was on fire by a small mistake by Syabira. Small giraffes, but with high stakes like the ones above GBBS, it could cost a contestant a spot on Star Baker. But really, it’s not as big of a deal as it was made to be.
This week’s rather complex technical challenge: The contestants were tasked with creating a Fly Graveyard Cookies. “What’s a fly graveyard cookie?” you ask, in total. Me too. The actual food is a bit more scrumptious than what it imagined. With raisins and brown sugar, Scottish pastry is a delightful fruity treat.
For those unfamiliar with GBBS‘Technically challenged, contestants are given a (often vague) list of instructions on how to prepare a particular dish. They need to grasp the basics, make identical dishes and try to wow the judges — anonymously. However, sometimes, mixing occurs. Candidates misread the instructions. They forgot to add a specific ingredient. They didn’t practice, and under pressure, the cake became more complicated.
So when Syabira was a fan favorite—who, for reference, won last week’s technique with a killer red velvet cake – there was a slight flaw, she should have been forgiven immediately. Especially considering how beautifully that mistake ended! Instead of feathering white chocolate into milk chocolate, Syabira creates white chocolate feathers from scratch and stacks them on her cookies.
The results are unbelievable. Syabira’s feathers are gorgeous, constantly on display, one-of-a-kind, enchanting. It was a small mistake! In addition, English is not Syabira’s first language (She is from Malaysia and moved to London in 2013), so penalizing her for this small mistake feels very harsh. And, again, the feathers delicious. They are so perfect.
However, Paul Hollywood remains a scathing critic. While judge Prue Leith laughed merrily, Paul was less impressed.
“It’s pretty original,” said Prue, chuckling.
“It’s ridiculous, that’s what it is,” Paul replied. Both agreed that the feathers were not “what we asked for”.
The rest of the Syabira is technically quite good; the dough is a bit soft, but other than that, baking stars. But Syabira placed second to last in the technical challenge, failed to win the title of Star Baker (although this week’s winner clearly deserved!), and endured laughter around the tent for the mistake. hers.
Great British Baking Show viewers were as upset as I was about the whole thing, which shouldn’t have earned Syabira a higher ranking in the technical round. Her baking is impeccable, and the feathers only add to the dish.
One user shared: “As a non-British person, I feel the urge to support non-British people on #GBBO. “SPECIAL when they do the wrong thing due to the language barrier like yes, you’re so right, you’ve made it even better than the English language you’re so valid in.”
Maybe the right thing to do is to forgive the mistake, blame the language barrier, and actually applaud (rather than laugh at) Syabira for her skill. Justice for Syabira. Next week (and every week after that), I will once again support her in getting that Star Baker position. And bakers will continue to look for more descriptive technically challenging tutorials.
