Lucky rhubarb, a terrific technical and 'Bin-gate' - Coleraine baker Iain's latest adventures in the Great British Bake Off
‘Technically’ speaking, it was a great week on the latest episode of the Great British Bake Off for Coleraine contestant Iain Ross.
For the north coast man took the top spot in the Technical Challenge of Meringue Week on the hit Ch4 programme.
Before that, Iain was tasked with producing his Signature Challenge – 12 mini meringue pies using either French, Italian or Swiss meringue.
The Coleraine man had done his Bake Off homework and told judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith that: “Anyone who has used rhubard in the last 15 years hasn’t gone home!”
And Iain’s ‘lucky rhubarb’ meringue pies continued that successful run with Hollywood saying they were ‘beautifully baked’.
Next it was on to the Technical Challenge – baking a souffle with eight leaf-shaped tuile biscuits. Despite using 230 grammes too much sugar, Iain, who now lives in Belfast, took the first place position in the challenge.
But it was Iain’s Showstopper meringue which caused the judges’ most amusement!
Having done his Bake Off homework again, Iain reminded Paul and Prue of the ‘other Iain from Belfast’ to appear on the show.
Back in 2014, contestants were asked to make a Baked Alaska on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year.
Disaster struck for that ‘Iain from Belfast’ – Iain Watters – whose dessert was taken out of the freezer by fellow contestant Diana Beard to make room for her own.
When ‘2014 Iain’ tried to remove his dessert from the mould, it had completely melted prompting him to throw it in the bin. When it came to judging, he presented Paul Hollywood and then-judge Mary Berry with the bin!
2025’s Iain from Belfast used his Showstopper to recreate ‘Bin-gate’ by creating a bin out of meringue using the flavours the original Iain used – chocolate and coffee.
While praising the idea and the construction of the showstopper, Paul and Prue did not like the flavour combination, prompting Iain to joke: “Well that was original Iain’s flavours!”
With Paul commenting: “I’m happy you got to put BIngate to bed”, Iain replied: “Well I hope I get the comedy points!" – and he did, surviving another week on the Ch4 programme to progress to Dessert Week.