Team Bookends reflect on this season of Bake Off and recommend some reads to fill the pastry-shaped hole in your Tuesday.

This week we (and just about everyone else on the planet) are anxiously awaiting the Great British Bake Off final! To celebrate, we’ve not only got some fab baking reads to sate your post-bake off hunger, but Team Bookends have come up with our favourite moments of the series too!

Highlight of the season

Alice: 

For a pure single moment of (semi) improvised genius, you can’t beat “Prue Paul’s drag race”. I also felt it was the moment when the “new” Bake Off settled into being its own thing.

Helena:

Obviously when Stacey broke the oven.  I have no idea how she managed it – and I did feel quite sorry for her when she was sat next to her oven clutching onto the door for dear life.

Vicky:

The Les Miserable – was intrigued to see how contestants would tackle what Prue had described as ‘the most difficult pastry recipe’ out there. It looked like a genuinely impossible feat. Up to this point, there had been a voice in the back of my head saying ‘I could do that’ (even if implausible) but this was the moment I thought we had REALLY entered the competition – the crème de la crème of technical challenges.

Hannah:

I agree with Alice, PruePaul’s drag race was a shining moment. But also any time Sandi welled up when announcing who was leaving. Oh, and Noel’s beautiful shirts week after week – where can I get them from?!

Who’s going to win?

Alice: 

It’s got to be Steven hasn’t it? Despite a few blips, he’s been the most consistently brilliant baker. Plus I love how his sense of humour has emerged throughout the series, especially in Forgotten Bakes week: “A fruit tart with a lattice top – sounds like the perfect drag queen, if you ask me.”

Hannah:

There’s a big Fantasy Bake Off competition going on in our office, and I have to say that I predicted Sophie would win after week 2, so fingers crossed I’m right and I’ll go to the top of the league (which is aptly named ‘Cooking the Books’). I just like her calm and collected style of baking, her showstoppers are always really polished and use exotic ingredients, plus she’s a stunt woman which is kind of the coolest thing ever.

Helena:

I think Steven will steal it from Sophie. His creations are stunning and I appreciate the style over substance thing (Apart from his meringue hot air balloon)

Vicky:

Sophie. She has been consistently good without too much limelight. Slow and steady wins the race. Stephen is too predictable. Plus, his Showstopper last week was very questionable. In no way did his meringue look like a hot air balloon – with, or without the melting of the chocolate basket!

Who should have been in the final?

Alice:

Stacey. Only joking. OF COURSE Liam!

Hannah:

I know everyone thinks Liam, but I just didn’t get all the excitement about him. I had such a soft spot for Yan, she was so entertaining to watch.

Vicky:

The elephant in room. Of course it is LIAM. The nation has been in complete disarray since the moment he was voted off the show. A total travesty.

Helena:

Liam. Hands down. Although I did have a soft spot for scouse grandma Flo

So there you have it – our highlights of the series! And now the bit you’re all waiting for – our recommendations for the baking books to fill that Bake Off-shaped hole in your week! Here are seven of the best:

As much as we’ve loved this year’s Bake Off, we can’t help but feel nostalgic about how it used to be. Relive some of Bake Off’s best moments with 2015 and 2016’s recipe books, complete with recipes from judges as well as contestants, and get your crayons out for the Bake Off Colouring Book, full of spectacular showstoppers such as Paul’s Bread Lion and Nadiya’s chocolate peacock (a perfect way to spend your now empty Tuesday nights!)

If, now that Bake Off is over and Halloween has passed, you’re already planning ahead for the long build up to Christmas, raid Mary Berry’s Family Sunday Lunches and her new Christmas Collection for recipe inspiration!

All those baking fanatics out there who just loved this year’s new lineup, find out more about Prue Leith, the woman with an incredible appetite for life, in her laugh-out-loud memoir Relish: My Life on a Plate – now only £9.94!

If you need some show-stopping bakes to impress your friends and family in the coming festive season, go for The Clandestine Cake Club: A Year of Cake which has a cake recipe for every day of the year, and every possible occasion

Or if you’re just sick of all the baking palaver, and fancy a bit of satire to cut through the sweetness, try a slice of Five Go Gluten Free (and don’t forget the lashings of ginger beer!)

Take a look back at our previous bake off posts: https://www.welcometobookends.co.uk/blog/2017/10/try-pastry-skills-latest-gbbo-recipe/