Great British Bake Off: East Sussex baker makes a 'fish and chips' cake

This week the bakers were faced with bread and after an average week for Janusz last week, it was all to play for. Add in the fact two bakers were off ill, taking the group down to eight, the risk of being knocked out was even higher.

Meet East Sussex baker Janusz

Week 1 for Janusz

Week 2 for Janusz

Now personally I like to think of myself as an alright baker, but this is where I’d tap out - bread. I can manage a focaccia and that’s about it. Other than that it’s a lot of effort for something that never tastes as good as what you could buy.

Challenge one was pizza…which I thought was quite simple for Bake Off to be honest. Janusz went for a full English breakfast on a pizza - including black pudding, sausage, mushrooms, egg, cheese, and a base of homemade baked beans. Prue Leith was horrified with this as it’s been documented well from previous series of Bake Off that she HATES baked beans. Not the best start for Janusz.

He said: “I’m hoping they’re going to like the flavours . It’s the sort of pizza you have on a Sunday after a big Saturday.” This comment triggered Janusz and host Matt Lucas to discuss nightclubs they like to go to in Brighton. Janusz said he frequents Legends with a wink to the camera and pop of the hip. He’s quickly becoming my favourite baker, he’s just so likeable.

Sadly his pizzas didn’t wow the judges though. Paul Hollywood said: “There’s so much there but there’s not huge amounts of flavour. It needs to be more punchy.”

Next up they had to make pain aux raisins which I’d view as being more at home in pastry week, but that actually means ‘raisin bread’ so I can’t argue with that. Janusz smashed this challenge and got first place.

Finally the bakers took on Smorgastarta - a savoury Swedish sandwich cake. This is one Bake Off challenge I’m fine with never tasting. It’s basically layers of bread with cold savoury fillings, and then it’s made to look like a cake with some sort of savoury icing. Yet again Janusz took on a British classic - fish and chips. He had layers of fish, tartar sauce, chips, mushy peas and then (I’m not joking) curry sauce icing. Prue summed out how I felt about this: “It sounds mad.”

Most of the bakes looked like impressive wedding cakes, more of a reason when it was messing with my head that inside was cold savoury fillings. Despite my worries, the judges loved it. Prue said: “The idea is disgusting but I have to eat my words, it’s delicious - fantastic!” Paul said: “It’s ingenious.”

When deliberating in the separate tent, Paul said Janusz is ‘very artistic’ and ‘one to watch’. Lined up to hear the results, it was announced that for the second time in three weeks, Janusz was star baker! He said: “It’s a feeling out of this world.”

No one was knocked out due to two bakers being ill, but it does mean next week two bakers could go. Next week it’s a Bake Off first - Mexican week.

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