Cape Town - The Great South African Bake Off is down to one last episode.
In the semi-final on Tuesday night, Cape Town's Alice Toich was sent home - fairly I think.
The episode offered a range of baking tests - petit fours, a traditional "melktert" (milk tart) for the technical challenge and Danish pastries for the showstopper.
It was the last that sunk Alice's boat.
Danish pastry is traditionally made with a yeast pastry (the trick being for it not to rise too much). Alice inexplicably decided to make puff pastry instead. As judge Shirley Guy noted, Alice's inexperience meant that she had just not followed the brief.
In the world of baking, precision is all and small details count as Alice has learnt to her cost.
It's not just the judges who are severe though: the show's viewers were voluble on the Twitter hashtag #SABakeOff about the inclusion of naartjie in the melktart (made with a separate rough puff pastry base and a custard cooked on the stove before baking in the oven).
Chantelle Botha noted: " The common denominator in all their flopped milkterts is naartjie #justsaying #SAbakeoff"
Ahmed Bassa said: "@BBCSouthAfrica why should there be naartjie in milk tart ?? Why !! ???????? #SABakeOff"
And Jeanine Cameron said (tongue in cheek we hope): "A Melktert with cinnamon and naartjie flavour?? This must mean the end of days is near! #SABakeOff"
Judge Tjaart Walraven was unrepentant, explaining that "The Nartjie component was a slither of peel that is used to infuse the milk to give it flavour."
Personally I'd like to taste it!
The three remaining bakers - who go through to the final next week, are Dot Dicks, Michaela Tsuen and Teddy Zaki.
Here's a quick look at their performances on Tuesday night:
* Dot was named Star Baker even though her Danish pastries burnt a little. Again she showed consistency and grace under pressure.
* Teddy's petit fours were served in a gorgeous silver cake box and his melktert won the technical challenge. For charm and eccentricity he is hard to beat - and he remains the favourite on our couch.
* Michaela was neck-and-neck to go home instead of Alice - her melktert was dreadfully sloppy and she did not have the edge in the other challenges. She did however stick to the brief in all three, and that's probably what saved her.
IOL Lifestyle remains convinced that Dot will win in the end.
* The reality show, a clone of The Great British Bake Off, airs on BBC Lifestyle on DStv every Tuesday at 8pm.
IOL
@reneemoodie
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