Contains Spoilers for this episode, and for season 15 (2024)!

Won’t lie: as an American, this episode had me confused! When I hear “flapjacks,” I think “pancakes.” What on earth is a British flapjack? According to Google, a British flapjack is a “baked oat bar, made from rolled oats, butter, sugar, and golden syrup, resulting in a chewy, sweet, and buttery treat that can be customized with ingredients like nuts or dried fruit.” So kind of like what we Americans might just call an “oat bar.” I learned a thing today!

I was also unfamiliar with “school cake,” although this one was pretty self-explanatory; I guess this must be a lunchroom staple, over there, probably very nostalgic for an adult of my generation, the way I feel about tater tots, or those little cardboard cartons of chocolate milk (remember those??).

And then, the showstopper: a summer school fête stall display? What is a summer school fête? As my husband pointed out, “Here in America we don’t do festivals, we do active shooter drills!” Lol. Google tells me that a British summer school fête is “a traditional, outdoor school event held during the summer term, featuring games, activities, and stalls to raise money for the school and foster community spirit,” which sounds charming and festive indeed, and, like so much of this show, makes me wish I were British.

I actually didn’t care for the showstopper challenge this episode, though. The fact that they had to demonstrate three separate baking disciplines meant that, out of necessity, people kept it pretty straightforward with their flavors, for the most part; no one dessert really stood out as particularly showstopping, imo. But most of them did really well in this challenge. Only Jessika, Aaron, and Iain dropped the ball.

Luckily for me, though, Aaron, my current favorite, came in second in the technical and absolutely killed it in the signature! His “flappy Js” (as Toby called them, lol) looked pristine, and his daring flavor choices paid off. Earl grey, whipped ganache, and lemon jam: not my personal cup of tea (ha ha), but I was just so pleased to see Aaron do well. If only his macaron had come together in the showstopper, he very well could have been star baker!

But Jasmine really deserved the win again. She nailed every single challenge this week, didn’t do a single thing wrong, even came in first in the technical. As Paul said at the end, she is One To Watch. It was so obvious who was going to win and who was going home this week that I’d already written down both names at the bottom of my notebook page before they even announced them. (Yes, I take notes while watching, so that I can write these blog posts; my memory is not that good.)

It was too bad though about Jessika! Like Prue said, she was so adventurous and creative, her ambition just got the best of her this week. I don’t drink wine anymore, but if I did, red wine/poached pear/stem ginger/dark chocolate probably would have been my “dessert I would most have liked to eat” this week; it sounded gorgeous. And honestly, the dinosaur she made in the showstopper was still incredibly cool, like, if an ordinary person in their home kitchen, not on a TV show, made something like that, it would blow everyone’s minds. Jessika was really likeable, and, as my husband pointed out, had kind of a Sporty Spice vibe. She will be missed.

It was almost Nadia this week. Her chocolate didn’t set in the signature, simply because she had so much of it (which, although a failure, looked delicious, especially combined with her cherry and coconut flavors!); I winced watching her drag a knife through that still-wet chocolate. And then she came last in the technical. But, she pulled it back with that extremely daring showstopper – she managed to pull off not three, but four separate treats, including those very convincing little brownie “burgers.” What a relief!

And I was bummed for poor little Iain that things didn’t work out for him this week. His banana bread flapjacks were underbaked (although, he claimed that he was going for that, to which Paul responded with acerbic sarcasm; how dare anyone try to correct Paul!); he did okay in the technical, coming in third, but then his showstopper was one of the worst. There was too much plastic in his display, and the judges weren’t pleased with his flavors – Paul even made a disgusted face when he tasted the too-sweet meringue. And dear little Iain just seemed so downtrodden, like, he seems to take it really personally when he doesn’t do his best – poor kid! But, hey, at least he got a chance to announce to the world that he’s dating a pole dancer, so, I guess he’s doing okay.

And so now we’re down to eight. I can’t believe how quickly this season is going by! It’s so sad to me. I wait all year for this! I still think Tom could be the winner; he did really well this week in both the signature and the showstopper: his over-the-top “abstract apples” in the signature ended up almost perfect, and that showstopper “science fair” display was really impressive – he even managed to pull of the disgusting-looking little petri dish crème brulees! So, he’s still my pick for winner, as of right now.

And I still think Iain will stick around for a while, too, even though he’s had a couple of bad weeks; I have a feeling that he will find his rhythm and rise back up to the top. Jasmine will probably also be a finalist; she has that consistency and that crowd-pleasing, classic style, kind of like Georgie who won last season. So that’s my current prediction for the final three. Although, I’m still personally cheering for Aaron. Let’s hope I don’t curse him like I did Hassan and Pui Man.

Oh, and once again, I can’t not mention Noel’s shirt. His fashion choices are always entertaining, but rarely if ever do I think “I’d also wear that;” but two weeks in a row now!

“Claggy” count: 1 (running total: 5)

“Concertina” count: 0 (running total: 1)

High point: “Does this mean we’re going out now?” – Noel to Alison during the technical, when he gave her the fortune teller. I may not be British but that whole halftime interlude was hard-hitting nostalgia for me! I used to love making fortune tellers for people at school (actually, I never really quit this, haha, I’d make them for my coworkers too, when we had downtime at work). And, hearing someone utter the phrase “going out” to mean “dating/in a relationship” – wow, I’d blocked that one out of my memory, lol! How asinine! Only 4th-8th graders use that phrase, I’m pretty sure, which is funny because kids that age are obviously not “going out” anywhere because they’re too young to drive, so for them “going out” just means “holding hands during recess” or “PDAs during lunch.” And once you’re old enough to actually take someone out on a date, you’ve outgrown the label “going out.”

Low point: Watching poor little Iain get his feelings hurt.

The dessert that I would most have liked to eat: Nataliia’s apple mousse in the showstopper! Genius. It was even in the shape of a perfect little apple, and the judges said it tasted so appley. With it being fall now, but still hot and muggy af (because I live in the South), this is precisely the dessert that I need in my life right now.

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