The sixth series of The Great British Bake Off first aired on 5 August 2015, with twelve contestants competing to be the series 6 winner. Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins presented the show, and Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood returned as judges. The competition was held in the ground of Welford Park, Berkshire for a second year.
Release Date
PremieredThe Great British Bake Off Season 6 released on August 5, 2015.
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Cake
The 12 new bakers don their aprons and head for the iconic tent for cake week. Starting with cake week, the bakers' first signature challenge is to make a madeira cake. It's a well-loved cake, but which of our bakers will try to impress by reinventing this classic, and who will play safe in a bid to get perfect madeira with its traditional crack? With one challenge out the way, the bakers face their first technical - Mary's frosted walnut cake, a pre-war classic that is as British as they come. Light sponge sandwiched with buttercream and covered with sweet meringue, this technically challenging cake is one of Mary's favourites, and no-one wants to disappoint the queen of baking. Day Two, and the bakers have to go all out to impress with their first show-stopper, the black forest gateau. This retro classic from the 70s has it all - chocolate, cherries and cream. It's ripe for a reinvention, and these 12 bakers are ready and willing. 12 new bakers, 30 new challenges. On your marks, get set... bake!
Biscuits
With cake week over, the remaining bakers must prove themselves with biscuits. The signature challenge is to create 24 biscotti. Twice baked, these Italian specialities have to be crammed with flavour and have a crisp crunch. It's a delicate balance between underbaked and bendy, or overbaked and rock hard. Paul chooses the technical challenge, arlettes, a labour-intensive reverse puff pastry biscuit from south west France. Wafer-thin, flaky and swirled with cinnamon, delicious to eat but devilishly difficult to make. And finally, the show-stopper is to create and build an edible biscuit box filled with 36 biscuits of a different flavour. Judges Mary and Paul want to see the bakers exercise their creative muscles with clever construction and beautiful decoration, while not forgetting that flavour is king. The pressure is on, and the clock is ticking. Who will claim Star Baker, and who will be leaving the Bake Off tent?
Bread
The ten remaining bakers tackle quick breads, baguettes and 3D bread sculptures. Starting with the signature challenge, the bakers must tackle a Bake Off first and make quick breads - with no proving necessary, the bakers have an hour and a half to get creative with their flavours. Ranging from sweet chocolate loaves to manchego and prosciutto stuffed bread, the finished loaves are a delight, and one even earns a handshake from Paul. In another Bake Off first, Paul sets baguettes as the technical challenge. A seemingly simple recipe, everyone knows what a baguette looks like... or do they? The pressure of the tent gets to a few of the bakers, and the finished baguettes result in one of Paul's most brutal judgings. For their show-stopper, the bakers must make edible 3-D bread sculptures. As one baker says, 'it's doughverload', with another making enough bread to start up his own bakery. Mary and Paul have to work their way through a bicycle, a snake, an array of flowers, a lion and even the Brighton Pavilion, all made of bread. The results are impressive - so much so that one baker renders Paul speechless by making the best bread sculpture he's ever seen.
Desserts
For the nine bakers left, it's time to tackle the sweet ending to every meal - desserts. The signature challenge comes in the form of a French classic - creme brulees. The bakers need to achieve the perfect wobble of the creme and an audible crack of the brulee. It's not easy though, as they have to brulee under the grill, not with a blow torch. While some will reach perfection, others will serve up scrambled egg and custard soup. Mary picks the technical challenge, and it's a European medley - the spanische windtorte from Austria, with a nod to Spain and some Swiss and French meringue thrown in. It maybe only be meringue, cream and soft fruit, but it's tricky to construct and needs to be decorated with delicate fondant violets - if only the bakers knew what a violet looked like! Not one, not two, but three baked cheesecakes make up the show-stopper. Mary and Paul are looking for faultless baked cheesecakes, beautifully flavoured and stacked in a show-stopping way - easy? The bakers don't disappoint with their inventive ingredient combinations, but not all of the tiered cheesecakes are structurally sound.
Alternative Ingredients
The remaining bakers have to try and bake without sugar, gluten or dairy this week. The signature challenge sees the bakers having to create a variety of sugar-free cakes, from an upside-down pineapple cake to carrot cakes. The technical challenge features gluten-free pittas. For their showstopper, the bakers have to make dairy-free ice cream rolls.
Pastry
The remaining bakers have to prove their skill with pastry. They have to make frangipane tarts for their signature challenge and the technical challenge sees them having to make a traditional cheese-filled pastry from Cyprus called the flaouna. The showstopper is the classic 70’s canape, vol-au-vents. Bitesize puff pastry.
Victorian
In a Bake Off first, the entire episode is devoted to the period of history that gave birth to modern baking - the Victorian era. The signature challenge is a stalwart of the Victorian dinner table, game pie. Pie moulds, pheasant, pigeon and pastry are the order of the day as the bakers must create beautifully decorated pies, stuffed with all manner of game to tantalise the judges' taste buds. For one it's the chance to use a genuine antique from 1850, while others take a more modern approach and dabble with spices. Mary dusts off her antique cookbooks to find a technical recipe that dates back to the late 1800s. The bakers battle with time as they must first make a perfect fruit cake, and then create their own sugar paste and marzipan and indulge in some very detailed royal icing in a bid to create a cake that resembles a tennis court. For the show-stopper, the bakers make charlotte russe, a dessert much loved by the Victorians which has a silky bavarois centre surrounded by sponge fingers and topped with jelly. A tricky construction at the best of the times, but the added pressure of the Bake Off tent takes its toll as not everyone manages to get their jelly to set or the charlotte russe to stay standing. Although one baker does manage to create a masterpiece that even Queen Victoria herself would have found amusing.
Patisserie
No series of Bake Off would be complete without testing the bakers on patisserie, and what better time to do it than the quarter finals? The five remaining bakers must work their way through childhood favourites and delicate french fancies to a mountainous choux pastry masterpiece.
Chocolate
The pressure is on, as the remaining bakers must get to grips with one of the most difficult ingredients, chocolate.
The Final
Only three of the original twelve bakers remain. They've made it to the final. Over 27 challenges, they've worked their way through every baking discipline Mary and Paul have thrown at them - from cakes to bread, pastry to puddings, and biscuits to chocolate. Along the way they have tackled recipes from the 70s and 80s, they've gone back to the Victorian era, they've made gluten-free bread, strange meringue concoctions, incredible constructions out of biscuits, bread and choux... They have all survived, and now they face their last three challenges. The signature challenge sees the finalists tackle enriched dough to create delicious filled iced buns. The technical requires them to conquer something they have all struggled with, and finally, for their last ever showstopper, they must make a classic British cake. Mary and Paul expect nothing short of perfection. So who will hold their nerve? Who will be crowned winner of The Great British Bake Off 2015? On your marks, get set... bake!
Masterclass 1
After ten weeks of baking highs and lows, calm descends on the Bake Off tent as Mary and Paul take up the reins to make the signature, technical and showstopper challenges that they set the bakers in the first couple of weeks of the series. Step by step, they take us through the recipes, methods, tricks and tips to ensure that even the most amateur bakers can get it right at home every time. Mary kicks off with a classic madeira cake followed by her frosted walnut cake. Paul makes hazelnut and orange biscotti and shows us the right way to make the technically tricky arlettes. He then demonstrates how to make a foolproof plait. Mary provides a handy tip on how to stop ramekins from slipping in a bain marie and closes the show with her take on the retro classic black forest gateau.
Masterclass 2
Back in the Bake Off tent, Mary and Paul roll up their sleeves, baking the challenges that they set the bakers in Bread and Desserts weeks of the Great British Bake Off. Paul is in his element as he shows how to make soda bread in under an hour and then bakes baguettes, perhaps the most iconic of all French breads. Mary makes cappuccino creme brulees without a blow torch and creates the classic meringue cake which foxed the bakers in week 4 - the Spanische windtorte. Paul shows us how to decorate a pie and Mary reveals her tip for making a checkerboard cake before going on to bake a tiered white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake.
Masterclass 3
Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood make the challenges they set the bakers. Mary bakes her version of a sugar-free carrot cake and Paul makes a lime and passion fruit charlotte russe.
Masterclass 4
In the final masterclass of the series, Mary and Paul heat up the ovens and get out the mixing bowls one last time to create the signature, technical and showstopper challenges from the last part of the Great British Bake Off. Mary makes a tennis cake based on the 19th-century recipe that was the technical challenge from Victorian week. Paul makes two types of cream horns - the first filled with a mocha creme pat and the rest with a limoncello tutti frutti cream. Mary shows us how to be delicate, precise and perfect with her mokatines, and Paul gets to grips with an epic construction in choux pastry - le religieuse a l'ancienne.
Christmas Masterclass (2015)
After the drama and deliciousness of Bake Off, the much-missed Mary and Paul are back to bring a generous dollop of baking cheer to Christmas this year. Step by step, they take us through stunning recipes that all the family can make during the festive season. Mary kicks off with a pavlova wreath and Paul makes a Chelsea bun Christmas tree. Mary makes a decadent trifle layered with fruit compote and Paul puts leftovers to irresistible use with his turkey and ham pie. Mary makes a truly beautiful rosace a l'orange and Paul closes the show with his magnificent towering pandoro.
The Class of 2014
We catch up with last year's bakers, who have come a long way since their time in the tent. This programme looks back at the golden moments - and recurring nightmares - of the bakers dozen from last year, as they revisit their time in the tent and share their memories as the Class of 2014.
The Great British Bake Off
Series 6
The sixth series of The Great British Bake Off first aired on 5 August 2015, with twelve contestants competing to be the series 6 winner. Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins presented the show, and Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood returned as judges. The competition was held in the ground of Welford Park, Berkshire for a second year.
Release Date
PremieredThe Great British Bake Off Season 6 released on August 5, 2015.
Your Progress
Track your watching progress by signing in
Sign In to Track ProgressCake
The 12 new bakers don their aprons and head for the iconic tent for cake week. Starting with cake week, the bakers' first signature challenge is to make a madeira cake. It's a well-loved cake, but which of our bakers will try to impress by reinventing this classic, and who will play safe in a bid to get perfect madeira with its traditional crack? With one challenge out the way, the bakers face their first technical - Mary's frosted walnut cake, a pre-war classic that is as British as they come. Light sponge sandwiched with buttercream and covered with sweet meringue, this technically challenging cake is one of Mary's favourites, and no-one wants to disappoint the queen of baking. Day Two, and the bakers have to go all out to impress with their first show-stopper, the black forest gateau. This retro classic from the 70s has it all - chocolate, cherries and cream. It's ripe for a reinvention, and these 12 bakers are ready and willing. 12 new bakers, 30 new challenges. On your marks, get set... bake!
Biscuits
With cake week over, the remaining bakers must prove themselves with biscuits. The signature challenge is to create 24 biscotti. Twice baked, these Italian specialities have to be crammed with flavour and have a crisp crunch. It's a delicate balance between underbaked and bendy, or overbaked and rock hard. Paul chooses the technical challenge, arlettes, a labour-intensive reverse puff pastry biscuit from south west France. Wafer-thin, flaky and swirled with cinnamon, delicious to eat but devilishly difficult to make. And finally, the show-stopper is to create and build an edible biscuit box filled with 36 biscuits of a different flavour. Judges Mary and Paul want to see the bakers exercise their creative muscles with clever construction and beautiful decoration, while not forgetting that flavour is king. The pressure is on, and the clock is ticking. Who will claim Star Baker, and who will be leaving the Bake Off tent?
Bread
The ten remaining bakers tackle quick breads, baguettes and 3D bread sculptures. Starting with the signature challenge, the bakers must tackle a Bake Off first and make quick breads - with no proving necessary, the bakers have an hour and a half to get creative with their flavours. Ranging from sweet chocolate loaves to manchego and prosciutto stuffed bread, the finished loaves are a delight, and one even earns a handshake from Paul. In another Bake Off first, Paul sets baguettes as the technical challenge. A seemingly simple recipe, everyone knows what a baguette looks like... or do they? The pressure of the tent gets to a few of the bakers, and the finished baguettes result in one of Paul's most brutal judgings. For their show-stopper, the bakers must make edible 3-D bread sculptures. As one baker says, 'it's doughverload', with another making enough bread to start up his own bakery. Mary and Paul have to work their way through a bicycle, a snake, an array of flowers, a lion and even the Brighton Pavilion, all made of bread. The results are impressive - so much so that one baker renders Paul speechless by making the best bread sculpture he's ever seen.
Desserts
For the nine bakers left, it's time to tackle the sweet ending to every meal - desserts. The signature challenge comes in the form of a French classic - creme brulees. The bakers need to achieve the perfect wobble of the creme and an audible crack of the brulee. It's not easy though, as they have to brulee under the grill, not with a blow torch. While some will reach perfection, others will serve up scrambled egg and custard soup. Mary picks the technical challenge, and it's a European medley - the spanische windtorte from Austria, with a nod to Spain and some Swiss and French meringue thrown in. It maybe only be meringue, cream and soft fruit, but it's tricky to construct and needs to be decorated with delicate fondant violets - if only the bakers knew what a violet looked like! Not one, not two, but three baked cheesecakes make up the show-stopper. Mary and Paul are looking for faultless baked cheesecakes, beautifully flavoured and stacked in a show-stopping way - easy? The bakers don't disappoint with their inventive ingredient combinations, but not all of the tiered cheesecakes are structurally sound.
Alternative Ingredients
The remaining bakers have to try and bake without sugar, gluten or dairy this week. The signature challenge sees the bakers having to create a variety of sugar-free cakes, from an upside-down pineapple cake to carrot cakes. The technical challenge features gluten-free pittas. For their showstopper, the bakers have to make dairy-free ice cream rolls.
Pastry
The remaining bakers have to prove their skill with pastry. They have to make frangipane tarts for their signature challenge and the technical challenge sees them having to make a traditional cheese-filled pastry from Cyprus called the flaouna. The showstopper is the classic 70’s canape, vol-au-vents. Bitesize puff pastry.
Victorian
In a Bake Off first, the entire episode is devoted to the period of history that gave birth to modern baking - the Victorian era. The signature challenge is a stalwart of the Victorian dinner table, game pie. Pie moulds, pheasant, pigeon and pastry are the order of the day as the bakers must create beautifully decorated pies, stuffed with all manner of game to tantalise the judges' taste buds. For one it's the chance to use a genuine antique from 1850, while others take a more modern approach and dabble with spices. Mary dusts off her antique cookbooks to find a technical recipe that dates back to the late 1800s. The bakers battle with time as they must first make a perfect fruit cake, and then create their own sugar paste and marzipan and indulge in some very detailed royal icing in a bid to create a cake that resembles a tennis court. For the show-stopper, the bakers make charlotte russe, a dessert much loved by the Victorians which has a silky bavarois centre surrounded by sponge fingers and topped with jelly. A tricky construction at the best of the times, but the added pressure of the Bake Off tent takes its toll as not everyone manages to get their jelly to set or the charlotte russe to stay standing. Although one baker does manage to create a masterpiece that even Queen Victoria herself would have found amusing.
Patisserie
No series of Bake Off would be complete without testing the bakers on patisserie, and what better time to do it than the quarter finals? The five remaining bakers must work their way through childhood favourites and delicate french fancies to a mountainous choux pastry masterpiece.
Chocolate
The pressure is on, as the remaining bakers must get to grips with one of the most difficult ingredients, chocolate.
The Final
Only three of the original twelve bakers remain. They've made it to the final. Over 27 challenges, they've worked their way through every baking discipline Mary and Paul have thrown at them - from cakes to bread, pastry to puddings, and biscuits to chocolate. Along the way they have tackled recipes from the 70s and 80s, they've gone back to the Victorian era, they've made gluten-free bread, strange meringue concoctions, incredible constructions out of biscuits, bread and choux... They have all survived, and now they face their last three challenges. The signature challenge sees the finalists tackle enriched dough to create delicious filled iced buns. The technical requires them to conquer something they have all struggled with, and finally, for their last ever showstopper, they must make a classic British cake. Mary and Paul expect nothing short of perfection. So who will hold their nerve? Who will be crowned winner of The Great British Bake Off 2015? On your marks, get set... bake!
Masterclass 1
After ten weeks of baking highs and lows, calm descends on the Bake Off tent as Mary and Paul take up the reins to make the signature, technical and showstopper challenges that they set the bakers in the first couple of weeks of the series. Step by step, they take us through the recipes, methods, tricks and tips to ensure that even the most amateur bakers can get it right at home every time. Mary kicks off with a classic madeira cake followed by her frosted walnut cake. Paul makes hazelnut and orange biscotti and shows us the right way to make the technically tricky arlettes. He then demonstrates how to make a foolproof plait. Mary provides a handy tip on how to stop ramekins from slipping in a bain marie and closes the show with her take on the retro classic black forest gateau.
Masterclass 2
Back in the Bake Off tent, Mary and Paul roll up their sleeves, baking the challenges that they set the bakers in Bread and Desserts weeks of the Great British Bake Off. Paul is in his element as he shows how to make soda bread in under an hour and then bakes baguettes, perhaps the most iconic of all French breads. Mary makes cappuccino creme brulees without a blow torch and creates the classic meringue cake which foxed the bakers in week 4 - the Spanische windtorte. Paul shows us how to decorate a pie and Mary reveals her tip for making a checkerboard cake before going on to bake a tiered white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake.
Masterclass 3
Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood make the challenges they set the bakers. Mary bakes her version of a sugar-free carrot cake and Paul makes a lime and passion fruit charlotte russe.
Masterclass 4
In the final masterclass of the series, Mary and Paul heat up the ovens and get out the mixing bowls one last time to create the signature, technical and showstopper challenges from the last part of the Great British Bake Off. Mary makes a tennis cake based on the 19th-century recipe that was the technical challenge from Victorian week. Paul makes two types of cream horns - the first filled with a mocha creme pat and the rest with a limoncello tutti frutti cream. Mary shows us how to be delicate, precise and perfect with her mokatines, and Paul gets to grips with an epic construction in choux pastry - le religieuse a l'ancienne.
Christmas Masterclass (2015)
After the drama and deliciousness of Bake Off, the much-missed Mary and Paul are back to bring a generous dollop of baking cheer to Christmas this year. Step by step, they take us through stunning recipes that all the family can make during the festive season. Mary kicks off with a pavlova wreath and Paul makes a Chelsea bun Christmas tree. Mary makes a decadent trifle layered with fruit compote and Paul puts leftovers to irresistible use with his turkey and ham pie. Mary makes a truly beautiful rosace a l'orange and Paul closes the show with his magnificent towering pandoro.
The Class of 2014
We catch up with last year's bakers, who have come a long way since their time in the tent. This programme looks back at the golden moments - and recurring nightmares - of the bakers dozen from last year, as they revisit their time in the tent and share their memories as the Class of 2014.