What did you miss?
The Great British Bake Off 2024 crowned surprise winner Georgie after favourite Dylan crumbled under the pressure.
The 15th series of the cooking competition has served up its final batch of showstoppers and the crystal cake stand trophy has been handed to Welsh paediatric nurse Georgie Grasso from Carmarthenshire. She is the first Bake Off winner to hail from Wales.
Her victory came after a nail-biting final, in which viewers became convinced Dutch-born menswear designer Christiaan de Vries would come out on top after aspiring chef Dylan Bachelet messed up his last bakes.
Even new Bake Off champion Georgie said: “I can’t believe I’ve won!”
What, how, and why?
Baking off in the final were 20-year-old aspiring chef Dylan Bachelet, from Buckinghamshire, Dutch-born menswear designer Christiaan de Vries, aged 33, from London and 34-year-old Welsh paediatric nurse Georgie Grasso from Carmarthenshire.
For the final showstopper the bakers had to create gravity-defying tiered hanging cakes for a summer garden party. Christiaan’s marble cake effect went wrong so he decided to cover it with a ganache at the last minute.
Dylan ran out of time and layered his cake in a hurry, while Georgie was so worried about hanging her cake she swigged champagne out of the bottle to help steady her nerves.
Dylan’s Earl Grey tea cake was inspired by the crumbling houses of Morano in Italy. Leith said: “It’s quite abstract isn’t it? You’d have to explain to everybody what it is.” Hollywood called it “fascinating work”, and stuck out his blue tongue, coloured by the icing.
Georgie’s elderflower cake was covered in piped, stencilled and sculpted icing flowers and the judges called it “impressive” and “utterly delicious”.
Christiaan’s hanging cake was olive oil, orange, poppy seed, lemon, thyme and liquorice. Leith told him: “I’ve never tasted anything like it before, I never thought I’d say this because I’m always asking for punchier flavours but I think they are too strong.”
After she had won Georgie said: “I can’t believe I’ve won. I cannot believe I’ve won it.
“It just means — it’s just incredible. I can’t believe that I’ve won the Great British Bake Off. Oh my God, it just means everything. Like I’ve always been so self doubtful. ‘I’ve got this… I’ve got that wrong with me. I can’t do it.’
“And you make excuses and for once I just thought, ‘No, I’m gonna go for it and I’m gonna put my everything into it, working all the hours. You know, I’ve sacrificed things with the kids and my family and I’m just so proud of myself because I’ve just proved myself that I couldn’t do something. And now I’m here today.”
Dylan was the bookies’ favourite to win the contest going into the semi-finals, having already been Star Baker twice. Fashion designer Christiaan was the bookmakers favourite to win the competition at the start of the series but he was not named Star Baker until Patisserie Week in the semi-finals.
Read more: Bake Off
What did viewers say?
Bake Off fans were shocked by the result, and many still felt Dylan deserved to win.
One viewer wrote on social media platform X: “Dylan should have won, he was the most consistent.”
Another said: “Dylan fell at the final hurdle, i still think he should’ve won it”.
Someone else posted: “Can’t believe I’ve just witnessed the biggest downfall from Dylan in #GBBO history.”
And another shared on Blue Sky: “As much as I wanted Dylan to win at the beginning, Christiaan was robbed of a highly deserved win!! Georgie should have gone last week, the absolute cheek of them picking their favourite to win!! I’m sure it was rigged!!”
But others thought Georgie was a deserving winner.
One commented: “Awww Georgie is amazed she’s even won. After all the self doubt in the last few weeks, it’s lovely to see her come on top. A fantastic win!.”
Another declared: “Well deserved win for Georgie, she excelled on the day, but I’m so gutted for Dylan.”
Someone else gushed: “Congratulations Georgie! You deserved this! The first ever Welsh winner! So proud of you! Congratulations Wales.”
Many of Dylan’s fans found it hard watching him crumble. One lamented: “I’m so stressed for dylan my heart is breaking”.
While another shared: “Oh my God, my heart is breaking for poor Dylan! You can visibly see how upset and downtrodden he is, because the nerves are getting the better of him.”
What else happened on The Great British Bake Off?
Among the returning contestants who joined the finalists for the winning announcement was fan-favourite Nelly, a straight-talking palliative care assistant from Slovakia.
One viewer tweeted alongside a tearful gif: “Seeing Nelly again #GBBO” Another gushed: “my mother Nelly is back on my screen”. And another raved: “Nellys pretty in pink.”
For the signature challenge the finalists had to bake 20 scones: 10 sweet and 10 savoury. Judge Prue Leith was put off by how much chilli she saw Christiaan putting in his cheese and curry scones. But ended up saying she liked them, as they gave her a, “comforting warm feeling.” Christiaan confessed: “I’d never made a scone before I started practising.”
Dylan did not manage to finish his salmon scones in time and served up what even he described as a “mess” to judges Paul Hollywood and Leith, who declared: “It’s really messy.” They liked the flavour lightness of salmon scones but said there was not enough flavour in his chamomile and strawberry batch.
Dylan said of their comments: “Brutal. They just weren’t good at them and it’s just annoying. You don’t do justice to what you spent a week trying to perfect.”
Georgie’s scones were also criticised for being misshapen.
For the technical the bakers hade to produce an afternoon tea of strawberry tarts, sponge cakes and plaited egg and cress rolls.
Dylan struggled and had to be consoled by host Alison Hammond, who said: “I don’t like seeing my Dylan low.” He groaned: “I’m just so bad today.” He came last in the challenge with Hollywood laughing that his bread roll plaiting was “terrible”.
Applications are now open for The Great British Bake Off 2025.