THAT'S how the cookie crumbles. Enwezor exits the Great British Bake Off

Biscuits proved to be the crumbling block for baker Enwezor Nzegwu as he became the second contestant to be eliminated from BBC One's The Great British Bake Off.

The 39-year-old, from Portsmouth, struggled as he faced the challenge of making three-dimensional biscuits during tonight's show.

He said: "I looked around at all the other bakers and they had done interlocking designs, which looked really fantastic and had used royal icing for drawing.

"I felt mine wasn't up to their standard and on that challenge, as the judging showed, it just wasn't good enough.

"I made a couple of mistakes - cutting the Florentines was a bad move in the technical challenge, and I under-baked the biscuits, clearly."

The father-of-four, who only taught himself to bake in the last three years and once baked 900 loaves of bread during a night's work experience with a professional baker, described his experience on the show as "amazing".

"You have so many good moments in the tent, but we also had great conversations in the baker's room, which I have so many happy memories of," he said.

"One of the best moments in week one was the showstopper, when I thought I was really at risk, and with 30 minutes to go, I said to Martha, 'There is no way I am going to make it'.

"Martha put her arm around me, and said, 'Come on, you can do it'. I just powered on, and the feeling of satisfaction when I did complete on time was indescribable."

Enwezor became the second contestant to leave the Bake Off tent after Claire Goodwin was eliminated in the first week after breaking down over a Swiss roll, leaving 10 bakers remaining.

He said his greatest disappointment was that he would miss out on the future challenges the contest posed.

"When I left the tent I realised there were so many bakes that I wouldn't make," he said. "I was really looking forward to the puddings.

"As a baker you have to cover everything, and I found myself really loving making things that I had never done before and I learned new techniques away from the more traditional bakes."

Enwezor will now join comedian Jo Brand on The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice on Friday on BBC Two.

The Great British Bake Off pulled in almost eight million viewers for its first episode last week since moving to a primetime slot on BBC One. The culinary TV hit, with judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, was watched by 7.9 million viewers at its peak - its second highest ever audience.

 

 

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.