'The Great British Baking Show' Season 8 Semi-Finals Recap: Pâtisserie

The Great British Baking Show Season 8's semi-finals have arrived, and unlike other seasons, it's a bit of a motley crew in the Top 4. By this time, in different seasons, firm favorites had emerged: Nancy, Nadiya, Candice, and Rahul all spring to mind. But this season is less easy to parse. There's Hermine, who is very good at traditional cakes but unable to function outside of that lane. Laura somehow manages to pull beautiful bakes out of her backside last minute while she's going to pieces. Peter is a judge's favorite, but he's faltered the previous few weeks. And then there's Dave, who is so forgettable I never remember he's still here.

Pâtisserie solidified itself as GBBO's semi-final subject very early on, starting with the never aired stateside Series 2. (Series 1 didn't have a semi-final since the format was so different.) The only year pâtisserie wasn't the semi since then was in Series 6 (our Season 3) when it was the quarter-final, and Chocolate Week was the penultimate round. It's a round that affords the show a chance to hit things that failed the first time (like meringue and choux pastry), difficult biscuits and cakes (madeleines and opera cakes), and sometimes just downright weird stuff that doesn't go anywhere else. (Think fondant fancies, petits fours, and entremets.)

This season, the Signature returns to pâte à savarin, last seen in Series 7/Season 4. It's an alcohol-soaked circular cake, the French version of the Polish yeast cake known as a baba au rhum. The bakers are charged with making a dozen perfect mini-cakes. Notably, the rules here say syrup and not alcohol. As always, the Signature is judged on a pass/fail metric.