'The Great British Baking Show' Collection 9, Episode 1 Recap: "Cake Week"

It's high summer in the U.K. The grass is green, the birds and chirping, and "Achy Breaky Heart" is playing. Welcome to The Great British...wait what now?

For those of us hoping the boy energy of last season would dissipate between seasons, sorry y'all. Witnessing Paul Hollywood, Noel Fielding, and Matt Lucas all dressed as a Halloween version of Miley Cyrus' father to a parody tune of the 1990s era hit was less than what anyone wanted. But it was a British humor opening — American Country songs (especially the cornnuts one-hit-wonder songs of that era) are really funny to our U.K. friends, not unlike some of us over here view Europop. But personally, I'm with the squirrel.

Let's get on to the show. The bakers are back in the bubble this year, with many keeping their destination secret from friends, if not family. But with the premiere, everyone will know who went off holiday-making this past summer, and who went off to bake cakes.

And it is Cake Week, as is the long-standing tradition in the tent. Of all seasons, only Series 9 (aka Collection 6) has deviated from this norm. For the first challenge, the bakers were asked to make 12 uniform mini-rolls. The show has done rolls before as their inaugural bake, with Swiss Rolls in Series 5 (aka Collection 1). And apparently, it should have been a Black Forest mini roll challenge as multiple bakers are doing the same thing. (This is a hallmark of these Bubble Seasons, where the pantry leans a certain way, causing contestants to all come up with the same idea for Signatures.)

Signature Challenge