Should the winner of The Great British Bake Off be based on the final alone?
While David was Bake Off 2019’s worthy winner, some fans believed it was unfair the whole competition came down to the final three bakes
After 10 weeks of tricky challenges, tearful bakers and one or two soggy bottoms, underdog David took the title of Bake Off 2019 champion.
Although more than worthy of the title, many fans of the show believed four-time Star Baker winner Steph should have taken the top prize after consistently impressing judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith in the last 10 weeks.
So should the Bake Off champion be decided on the final showdown, or should Paul and Prue take into consideration their performance across the whole competition? The RadioTimes.com office is torn on the issue.
FOR
“Steph had the title stolen,” you all cried. “Steph deserved to win,” shouted the masses on Twitter. But did she really?
She was undoubtedly a good baker - her record of getting Star Baker four times in one series proves this. But she failed at the final hurdle. She served up a soufflé less consistent than blancmange, an over-baked cake and un-shiny ‘strawberries,’ all of which she had weeks to master.
David was the secret assassin, serving up enough to secure his survival week-on-week before surprising the nation by stealing the win with his far superior picnic basket featuring fig rolls masquerading as sausage rolls and sponge and fondant pretending to be a block of stilton.
The Great British Bake Off final should see the bakers’ creating their pièce de résistance. Their Mona Lisa or their Sistine Chapel. They’ve had 10 weeks of rehearsals, wiping their brows through hours of whisking, kneading and piping all while learning to zone out from Noel and Sandi’s tomfoolery.
Steph wasn’t able to prove her baking prowess, so to give her the win after a disappointing set of bakes in the final challenges over David’s “exceptional” creation would have been unfair.
Words: Emma Powell
AGAINST
Steph was robbed. Completely and utterly robbed.
She was the only baker in the competition that consistently knocked it out the park week after week, never landing herself in the danger zone and even receiving two Hollywood handshakes - more than any other baker in the competition this year.
It seems almost obscene that someone who stood out every week should have all their achievements and hard work wiped out by one bad day. For a contestant like Steph, who admitted she suffered from a lack of confidence, denying her the win almost seemed cruel.
It's not to say David isn't a worthy winner - all three of our finalists are hugely accomplished bakers - but Steph's record-breaking four Star Baker wins put her in another league. With Paul and Prue only judging the winner on what they see on the day makes the previous nine weeks of graft seem utterly redundant, if the only thing that was going to really matter was the final three challenges. We may as well stick two fingers up at who's Star Baker each week, as it seems to count for sweet FA.
Thankfully, in a similar vein to shows such as The X Factor, it's not always the winner of Bake Off that becomes the break-out star. The hugely popular Liam Charles, of series eight fame, was knocked out before the finals but has now gone on to release his own cookbook, host on Bake Off: The Professionals, and even be a judge himself on Junior Bake Off; so there's still hope that Steph will have her moment in the spotlight.
She may not have taken home the title, but Steph will always be the people's real winner - the proof was quite literally in the pudding.
The Great British Bake Off returns to Chanel 4 in 2020
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