The 6 biggest disasters in Bake Off: The Professionals history

Disasters in Bake Off: The Professionals are actually pretty rare. When you’re dealing with the creme de la creme of pastry, it’s unlikely that basic errors will ruin a carefully constructed showstopper.

However, despite the undoubted expertise on display, every so often things do go seriously wrong.

Depending on your point of view, these incidents range from horrifying to hilarious. It all depends on how savage you’re feeling.

Bake Off: The Professionals judge Cherish Finden alongside co-star Benoit Blin (Credit: Channel 4)

Biggest disasters in Bake Off: The Professionals history

Over the years, the Bake Off: The Professionals set has seen some truly unmitigated catastrophes. From collapsing creations to incorrect ingredients, the path to baking immortality is fraught with peril.

READ MORE: Bake Off winner David Atherton explains why we should all be putting sweet potatoes in cakes

To remind everyone that even the pros aren’t above a blunder, here are the biggest disasters in Bake Off: The Professionals history. Be warned – things are about to get ugly.

1. Macaron Malfunction

A collapsing macarons tower was a real disaster (Credit: Channel 4)

The current series of Bake Off: The Professionals might be in its infancy, but we’ve still witnessed some spectacular screw-ups. Episode two was a perfect illustration.

Teammates Sherrazade and Merryn suffered a calamity after their macaron-heavy showstopper completely collapsed in front of the judges. To make matters even worse, amid the shattered pastry, judge Benoit Blin castigated the duo, claiming: “I looked at it before it went down and I thought that it was missing a lot.” Ouch.

2. Two for the price of one

Episode two of this season had more than its fair share of mistakes (Credit: Channel 4)

Incredibly the second episode of 2021 brought us not one, but two calamities. Before the macaron-splosion, contestants Maria and Kevin Vittoria had their own brush with disaster.

READ MORE: Why are Bake Off: The Professionals’ judges so harsh?

For their heroes and villains-themed centrepiece, the twosome had designed a complex environmental metaphor featuring a tree and radioactive waste. Unfortunately, most of the branches collapsed as they were tidying up.

3. Tom Allen breaks showstopper

Tom Allen accidentally bit off the end of a showstopper (Credit: Channel 4)

It’s one thing when your bake breaks because you messed up. It’s quite another when a hapless presenter breaks it for you.

Back in 2018, Hideko and Théo presented a beautifully crafted marble run showstopper. Not only was it edible, but you could actually race chocolate marbles down the ramp.

That is, until Tom Allen accidentally bit off the end of the runway. Fortunately, the creation had already received top marks from the judges.

4. Gravity ruins everything

Clare and Ruth’s bug-themed sugar work collapsed in the heat (Credit: Channel 4)

As every Bake Off fan knows, heat is bad news. So it proved once again during a sugar work challenge back in 2020.

Chefs Ruth and Laura tried desperately to battle the elements for their bug-inspired sugar tower. However, despite their best efforts and the ferocious blowing of a fan, the whole thing came crashing down.

Just as in the amateur contest, a sturdy base can make all the difference.

5. Oh sugar

Hideko and Théo’s creation smashed spectacularly on the work-surface (Credit: Channel 4)

Like soggy bottoms with Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood, sugar work has a horrible reputation in Bake Off: The Professionals. A perfect example of this is this tragedy from 2018.

Hideko and Théo once again watched in horror as their spun sugar creation smashed on their worksurface. However, the only thing to blame this time around was temperature and shoddy building-work, rather than Tom Allen’s face.

6. Brutal baking

The Bake Off: The Professionals judges have a reputation for being savage (Credit: Channel 4)

Receiving criticism when a cake collapses is fair enough. However, some of the biggest smackdown in Bake Off: The Professionals history are regularly handed out by judging duo Benoit Blin and Cherish Finden.

For instance, back in 2019, the pair completely ripped apart an entire round of attempted red velvet cakes. In fact, the best feedback for all contestants was probably Finden remarking, “Overall can I eat it? Yes… Does it bring up the full potential? Not really.” Savage.

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Of course, any food professional will have to deal with disaster at some point. However, anyone competing on Bake Off: The Professionals seems to be in the firing line more than most.

The show can produce some incredibly impressive results. But there’s no doubt that there’s a real risk of catastrophe with every episode.