The Great British Bake Off: The first baker leaves the tent

The nation’s most famous tent was pitched in the grounds of Welford Park once again. Presenters Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond came to lead the latest batch of 12 bakers through thirty brand new challenges set by Judges Paul Hollywood and Nigella Lawson, in ten episodes.

In Tuesday’s night’s episode of The Great British Bake Off on Channel 4, Tom was named Star Baker and sadly Danni was the first baker to leave the 17th series in Week 2.  Nobody left in Week 1.

In Week 2 it was Battle of Biscuit week and the 12 bakers had to impress the judges Paul and Nigella to battle it out for Star Baker.  It was a trip Stateside for the Bakers in the Signature, as they went large with American-style cookies. In the Technical, it was a journey of a different kind as they travelled back in time for a nostalgic classic. But nothing was quite as it seems, as the Bakers relied on their taste alone to recreate this beloved bake.

A visually striking biscuit mosaic brought the final challenge of the week, testing not only the Bakers’ artistic flair, but also giving them a chance to create something that’s truly close to their heart.

At the end of the second episode Alison announced that Tom was Star Baker and Noel had the difficult job of telling Danni that they would be leaving the tent, 

Danni said  ‘Thank you so much, it’s been so lovely, it has! Oh my goodness I am really happy that I was the first one out because I know everyone in there has more skills than me.    But I think I’ve learned something about myself, which is that in the right circumstances I can make quite a few friends.  Finding love in a group of strangers – that’s just beautiful.’

Danni talks here about the experience after leaving the tent:

*Overall what was your standout moment in the Tent?
My standout moment in the tent was probably accidentally spraying my Bog Water all over Gary while blending down my greens. Poor Gary, I hope he didn’t get too bogged down…

*Favourite challenge overall and why.
The iced gems technical challenge was my favourite challenge! It’s so fun to make a whole bunch of small things and I love it when I don’t know how something is made and I have to kinda guess - it’s like trying to figure out a puzzle. I was destroying my poor iced gem as much as I could to get as much data as I could squeeze from it - the texture of the icing, the snap of the biscuit (aha! shortbready!) trying to determine the amount of sugar (WAAAY LOWBALLED! I wasn’t anticipating a minimum of 500g of icing sugar…), the kind of meringue style break it had to it, and then when I got to taste the biscuit later and confirm (indeederoonie that’s a shortbread) and then realised I didn’t know if the butter I was given was salted or not but the biscuit tasted a bit salted so I had to just rub some salt on my hands and hope it worked out. My other thing was that I didn’t think of colour enough! I didn’t split my icing equally enough, so when I did the pipey baggy trick 3 of my colours overwhelmed the others because there was more in them! Still, I had so so much fun making my army of little guys - way way more than was asked for because I could just keep going! I’m for suresies going to make them for a tea party or something soon because they were so much fun to make. If anyone tries to buy them ever again I’m gonna rudely interrupt them and shove a bag of my own at them!

*Least favourite challenge and why?

I didn’t have a least favourite challenge, can you believe that? There was not one challenge I didn’t enjoy participating in at all - after all, baking itself is so fun that it was a joy to be there and just doing what I love to do. 

*Can you describe how it felt when the Noel or Alison announced that you would be leaving the tent? How did your fellow Bakers cheer you up?

The writing was on the wall for me, so this wasn’t a surprise at all! Of all the bakers there I was easily the weakest, which isn’t bad at all - it means I have 11 other people to bug about baking questions now whenever I want!!! It wasn’t exactly a case of my fellow bakers cheering me up so much as me cheering my fellow bakers up. I was so surprised when I saw Clara and Shannon crying! Even Yannis sounded choked up… But like I said, it’s not the end!

*Funniest moment in the tent?

The funniest moment to me was Alison full on dropping to the floor immediately when I said it would take a medical emergency to keep me in the tent. Bless her I love her so much, I panicked initially but then once I saw that she was smiling I was sure she was okay and did it for the bit. 

*Did you have a wardrobe disaster in the tent, and did you have a lucky clothes, socks you wore?

Luckily enough I didn’t have any wardrobe disasters at all, and I had my favourite plushie in my coat pocket with me the entire time as moral support! Though the Max Luck of that character does not specify whether it’s good or bad luck, so perhaps I should have picked someone else…

*Would you wear any of Noel’s jumpers or shirts?

YES YES YES PLEASE YES 

*Did you do anything daft with Noel during your time in the tent, and did you get to either sing or dance with Alison?

We are all super serious people who would never dream of doing anything daft or silly or strange ever, so naturally when Noel and Alison were around we were very serious and professional about absolutely everything. Naturally. 

*What do you love most about all your fellow bakers?

My fellow bakers all absolutely adore the act of baking, which probably sounds like a “well duh” thing to say, but the passion we all have fuels each other into trying our absolute bests. There’s no competition of personality - only of skill, and everyone is happy to be knocked out of the competition providing they got to show the very best of what they personally could do. I think the judges have the hardest work ever with my fellow bakers - I couldn’t imagine being in their position and trying to tell who’s is the best technically, because they’re all so so SO good.

*Did anything from the tent happen to slip into your bag when you were leaving the tent? (no judging)

I’m literally a good little baker I would never steal ever in my life!!! Ever!!! And definitely not from the tent!! Certainly not!!! Nothing would ever make its way into my kitchen from the tent!!! Definitely not to remember this all by, I would never ever ever ever-

*What will you take away from your experience on Bake Off and do you feel that you have learned new skills?

What I took is a wonderful new family who I would move mountains for and who are lovely and interested in my silly ideas.  Some of the best advice I have ever gotten about how to improve doing something that I love, and absolutely amazing memories of having fun sweating over a hot tent in the middle of a garden and larking about. 

*Would you encourage other home bakers to apply for the next series?

I would encourage anyone who’s ever been told “Oh, you should go on Bake Off!” enough times to get miffed about it to finally throw an application in the ring - You don’t need to be the best baker in the world ever, and it’s not all about winning the thing. It’s just a wonderful experience where you get to take a break from work, meet 11 other people (or even more!) who love baking just as much as you do, and all it takes is throwing together some scraps in your kitchen into a bake. One of my application bakes was just cupcakes, and another was made using some old sausages that had been in the freezer for ages, the bottom scrapings of a jar of pickle, the last hard slice of cheese from the block, and a bit of cheap supermarkets own flour, lard and water. 

*What’s next for you in the baking world?

Experiments, experiments, experiments galore! I want to make things that don’t exist in real life, foods from my favourite media, go absolutely wild in my kitchen and just let myself go fully even if I’m the only person in the world who would want to try what I make. I’ve got so many ideas, and I wanna do everything! I want to make something from only foraged foods, I want to make a dessert inspired by my favourite type of coffee, and most of all I want to show people that it doesn’t take money, classes, or innate talent to do baking. If you can’t afford to buy a fancy cake for someone, I guarantee that you can make it. People are far too unsure about their own abilities, but as long as you have the drive to make someone happy you can do anything. Absolutely anything! 

Biograhpy

Danni, 25 from Dorset

HGV Service Centre Administrator

Naturally curious and experimental, Danni loves exploring the countryside and foraging for ingredients. Their bakes often combine foraged finds such as magnolia, chestnut and dandelion with far-flung flavours like ube and red bean paste. Living in Dorset with their parents, sister and three cocker spaniels, Danni works alongside their dad at an HGV service centre, keeping the mechanics on their toes with invoices and cost-tracking. Always tinkering, Danni has a host of projects on the go, from anime doodling to soldering broken traces on the motherboard of her Commodore 64. A tech enthusiast, they love decorating their bakes with inspiration from video games and animation. Danni's designed websites for fun, created their own visual novel games using Ren’Py and even managed to bring an old VCR back to life.

Applications are now open for Series 18 of The Great British Bake Off. To apply, go to applyforbakeoff.co.uk.