Top 20 Great British Bake Off Disasters

“Cakes” Hot weather and making delicate, temperature-sensitive desserts are a terrible mix. Well, in 2018’s series 9, “The Great British Bake Off” contestants had to battle a heat wave in the second episode. For the showstopper, Terry Hartill, with his majestic moustache, created a Champagne and Strawberries Eiffel Tower Collar Cake. His version of the iconic French structure was formed from chocolate, known for melting in high temperatures. And that’s exactly what happened. While Terry managed to catch it before the tower fell to the ground, it soon disintegrated within his hands right before the end of the allotted time. As a result, he presented his creation without the Eiffel Tower's top.

“Caramel” Usually, it’s the bakers or an act of God that causes their dishes to have an issue. It’s not typically a presenter that causes devastation. However, in 2024’s series 15, Noel Fielding was the wrecker of Nelly Ghaffar’s work. During the episode “Caramel,” he took some of Nelly’s leftover dough and threw it at Andy Ryan to catch in his hat. When Andy returned it, Fielding used a rolling pin to bat it. However, he struck Nelly’s bowl of caramel mixture, causing it to smash on the floor. Yikes. Nelly, who was a fan favourite in this series, took it all in her stride and made a new one. She also added that if she’s eliminated, Fielding will be driving her home in a pushcar.

“Pastry” After inadvertently causing chaos with Fielding in the previous episode, Andy had his own mishap experience. In the episode “Pastry,” the showstopper had the contestants forming a Paris–Brest. Naming his creation as “All You Need Is Love,” Andy created a toffee podium. However, just as he was building it with 10 minutes left, the podium began to fall, causing him to grab it, which smashed it into bits. Andy’s exclamation of “fudge” resonated with us all. After uttering he was done, the unfortunate baker tried to continue building but struggled to make it work. Nelly attempted to comfort him, but Andy was clearly devastated. Sadly, this contributed to him being eliminated from the competition.

“Forgotten Bakes” You can’t get much more unluckier than an appliance deciding to give up when you mid-bake. Unfortunately, in 2017’s series 8, Stacey Hart experienced just that during the showstopper in the quarterfinal episode, “Forgotten Bakes.” While checking on her Bright Lemon and Orange Savoy Cake in the oven, Stacey quickly closed the door, causing a snapping sound and panic to cover her face. She then realised that she’d broken the door from the hinges. Like a good egg, Steven Carter-Bailey offered Stacey to share his oven. However, still panicking, she rejected the offer. Instead, Stacey channelled her inner-Hodor and held the door in place. Amazingly, she walked away as Star Baker afterwards.

“Pâtisserie” Making Éclairs is already a tricky challenge. But when you combine them with other delicate pastries to form a tower known as Religieuse à l'ancienne, you know you’re in for a tricky baking day. In 2015’s series 6, the bakers had to make just that for the showstopper in the quarterfinal episode, “Pâtisserie.” When Paul Jagger made his, everything seemed fine…briefly. Shortly before needing to present it to the judges, his creation collapsed under the weight. Paul pointed at never having made Genoise sponge before as being the culprit. Due to coming last in the technical, Paul’s fate was sealed after the collapse as he was eliminated. However, it’s not all doom and gloom. In 2017’s festive special, Paul returned and won the episode.

“Desserts” Sometimes, a challenge might make it difficult for one or two bakers. But never all of them, until 2020’s series 11 came out. In the episode “Desserts,” for the technical challenge, the bakers had to create the unusual dish of the Sussex pond pudding. Covered with suet pastry and containing a whole lemon and a caramelised sauce, most people in the UK hadn’t heard of this dish before, including the bakers, who were baffled when the instructions were vague on ingredient amounts. No one came out of it well. Hermine Dossou’s first attempt broke immediately, while Peter Sawkins’s and Dave Friday’s were undercooked. Marc Elliott’s and Laura Adlington’s puddings didn’t fare much better, with the latter squeezing through as the winner.

“Cake” No one wants an insect to munch on a creation you painstakingly made, especially for a TV competition. However, Sura Mitib's reaction to such a problem caused a devastating knock-on effect during the technical challenge. In 2020’s series 11, in the first episode, titled “Cake,” Sura placed her 6 miniature pineapple upside-down cakes on the judge’s table. However, a fly landed on her work and wanted a snack. So, she panicked and grabbed it. Unfortunately, Dave was right behind her with his baked goods. She swung her hand back, knocking most of Dave’s cakes from his hands and onto the floor. Yikes. Thankfully, this didn’t cause Dave to be eliminated, while Sura went on to win the challenge.

“The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off” (2018-) If you didn’t know who Lucy Beaumont was before she appeared in series 6 of “The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off,” by the end, you definitely did. For the showstopper, the celebrity bakers had to create a “best day off novelty cake.” Unfortunately for Lucy, her attempt didn’t go well at all. The burnt sponge soon fell apart, causing her to improvise a final product that looked like a sewer had exploded over a beach. Paul Hollywood bravely attempted to taste it, only to spit it out and call it “bizarre.” Later on, he dubbed it one of the programme’s worst-ever cakes. On the plus side, Lucy was able to use the experience to get an ADHD diagnosis.

“Final” When we think of the most difficult baked goods to create, soufflés are at the top due to how delicate they are. So, when “The Bake Off” team wanted to test their top bakers in the final of 2019’s series 10, the technical involved making 6 Stilton soufflés. Sadly, Steph Blackwell made the grave error of using cold water in the item’s bath instead of warm water. As a result, this greatly reduced how much her soufflés cooked. When Steph took the pots from the oven and placed them on a tray to be served, the barely cooked soufflés had hardly solidified and oozed out. Heartbroken, a tearful Steph did her best to make them presentable, but it was an impossible task.

“The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off” (2018-) There’s perhaps been no other mistake in the franchise’s history as legendary as James Acaster’s signature challenge of topped flapjacks in series 2 of “The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off.” As detailed by the comedian later, he was severely jetlagged and hadn’t slept in 36 hours, which the show omitted him stating during the episode. Instead, they showed James being cocky, asking for the Hollywood handshake early on. But that was until his flapjacks wobbled when he took them out of the oven, causing a wall of existential crisis to collide with him. When presenting his porridge-flapjacks to the judges, James’s explanation of “started making it, had a breakdown, bon appétit” will rightfully live in TV folklore forever.

“Biscuits” Though Louise had made her biscuit recipe many times before, she found herself in a nightmarish situation when her first round went into the oven and quickly collapsed on themselves, merging together to become one giant super-cookie. While we certainly wouldn’t mind eating it, she knew it wouldn’t fly with the judges. That broken heart cookie perfectly represented what we were feeling as viewers when we watched poor Louise go through this ordeal. The judges weren’t impressed by the failed stained glass window biscuits that Louise was aiming for, and she was eliminated later that episode.

“Cakes” In the season premiere of the sixth series of “Bake Off”, the contestants were charged with making their spin on a classic Black Forest Gâteau for the showstopper round. But Dorret was off to a rough start when her mousse didn’t set properly, making it impossible for her cake to retain any structural integrity. Dorret was understandably devastated when her Gâteau completely collapsed, leaving a gooey mess instead of a pretty end result. Despite this major error though, she managed to stay in the competition for another couple of episodes after the incident.

“Biscuits (Quarterfinal)” For the quarter final of the third series of “Bake Off”, James Morton endeavored to make a wood-frame gingerbread barn but it ended up falling apart, forcing him to put a spooky spin on it, calling it a haunted barn and even adding cobwebs. While what he intended was an indisputable failure, the end result wasn’t actually that bad, and he was even named star baker that week. Not only that, but he ended up in the final of the show, and has been successful ever since!

“Vegan” Baking using only vegan-friendly ingredients can be tricky enough, but creating a gorgeous tiered cake without using eggs and dairy like you’re used to can result in complete chaos. That’s what happened for Ruby in series nine when her showstopper couldn’t stand up on its own. When the clock ran out in the baker’s time, her cake wasn’t stable so she was forced to leave the tent and hope for the best. But the other contestants watched helplessly from outside as the dessert slowly toppled over onto her work station.

“Biscuits” Sometimes, the bakers encounter errors when working with complex techniques that are beyond any of us at home anyway, but other times, they make rookie mistakes just like anyone else would. One example of this was in series six when Marie forgot to turn on her oven during the technical bake, realizing what had happened when there was no time left to fix it. This came as an extra shock since she had been named the first star baker of the series in the prior episode. Unfortunately, this mistake contributed to her being eliminated.

“Cake” John Waite eventually became the winner of the third series of “Bake Off”, but in the season premiere, things didn’t look too hopeful for this baker. During the technical challenge, the contestants were charged with making rum babas, and John mistakenly used salt instead of sugar in his dough. The result was about as disastrous as you would imagine, with Mary refusing to touch them and Paul spitting them out. Somehow though, John only came in second to last in the ranking, managing to edge out Natasha, who was eliminated that episode.

“Puddings” For the signature bake in the sixth episode of the third season, the contestants were asked to make two different types of sponge pudding, and Danny opted for a Banoffee Puddings with Walnut Butterscotch Sauce as well as Jubilee Chocolate Fondants. Just as she took her fondants out of the oven however, two of them slid off the baking tray and were upended onto the floor...and her trainers. She was understandably discouraged, but the blunder didn’t stop her from staying in the running for another few episodes.

“Bread” Sometimes, the bakers are the only ones to blame for the issues that befall them, but other times there is outside interference that can’t be helped. In one instance of this, host Sue unintentionally put her elbow into Howard’s English muffins, seriously denting one of them. And this wasn’t the only time one of the presenters got involved in one of the bakers’ creations...in a bad way. In the same series, Mel accidentally knocked over Frances’s biscuit tower, but it clearly didn’t impact her success because Frances would go on to win the competition.

“Desserts” It seemed as though Howard couldn’t avoid disaster in series four, and it started to seem like bad luck was following him everywhere. Just one episode after the incident with Sue and the English muffins, Howard was making an Apple and Caramel Trifle when Deborah accidentally used the custard that he made for her own Tropical Trifle when she took the wrong bowl from the fridge. She was appropriately apologetic and offered up her own custard for Howard to use, and luckily the judges were willing to acknowledge what had happened and judge the results accordingly.

“Desserts” Ask any “Bake Off” fan what the most dramatic moment in the show’s history is, and they’ll undoubtedly agree it was this one. Dubbed “bingate” by fans and the press, this incident took place in the fifth series in the “Desserts” episode when the contestants were asked to make versions of a baked Alaska for their showstopper. Iain’s dessert was chilling when fellow baker Diana removed it from the fridge for an indeterminate amount of time, causing it to melt in the sweltering heat. While this would have been an unfortunate occurrence, Iain made it a true disaster when he had a tantrum and threw the entire dessert into the bin. What’s the most difficult dessert you’ve attempted to make at home? A chocolate soufflé? Croquembouche? Baklava? Bread and butter pudding? Or something else? Let us know about your tasty creations below!