The Great British Bake Off has named the winner of the 13th series of the Channel 4 baking hit, as Syabira Yusoff took home the coveted crown on Tuesday evening.
Judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith sung Malaysian-born Syabira's praises after a tense final saw the cardiovascular research associate go head to head with Abdul Rehman Sharif, 29, and Sandro Farmhouse, 30, in the infamous white tent.
However, all three suffered setbacks during the technical as their hopes of being crowned 2022 winner vanishing, leaving Bake Off fans saying the bakers had been 'set up' in the dramatic series finale.
Describing the win as her “biggest achievement”, Syabira, 32, said: “I can’t believe it, honestly, it hasn’t sunk in yet. All the hard work, all the trial and error, it has all been worth it.”
Judge Paul Hollywood enthused: “Some of the flavours we have never had in the tent before and are unlikely to have again, she is an incredible baker.”
Fellow judge Prue Leith added: “She is creative and she is careful, she practises like anything, and she is imaginative, she just has the lot. She is a very skilful baker.”
Hosts Matt Lucas cheered on from the sidelines, while Noel Fielding was largely absent due to illness, as the finalists embarked on their last chance to impress the judges with their creations.
The final saw the remaining three contestants asked to assemble the perfect picnic for the signature challenge and create a summer classic for the technical.
The bakers were tasked with making a Summer Pudding Bombe for the technical section and both Syabira and Sandro saw theirs collapse after the jelly and mousse failed to set, because they had been asked to cook with vegetarian gelatin without any instructions.
Taking to Twitter, one wrote: “It’s like they are setting the bakers up for failure how are the bakes going to know you need to boil vegetable gelatin if you don’t put that in the instructions none of the bakers are vegan."
A second echoed: "Man the judges did not hold back on screwing them over with this technical, did they?"
"Come now," a third wrote. "There's no way to know to boil that kind of gelatin, how would you? It's niche cooking knowledge that an amateur baker wouldn't know. Give a simple method, sure, but that's just setting them up to fail. Must do better GBBO."
Another added: "The GBBO technical challenge is basically: do you know how to use veggie gelatine? Absolute rubbish. Completely unfair."
Another fan concluded: "Bake Off loses its appeal when you feel that the bakers are being set up to fail at every turn."
In the final showstopper challenge, the bakers were then asked to make a celebration of the planet on their Bake Off stations, with Syabira's orangutan showstopper proving impressive.
Syabira, who lives in London with her boyfriend Bradley, said the win would change her, adding: “I became more confident and trusted my instincts. There is only one way to know if you can do it – just do it!”
The show’s penultimate episode saw the remaining bakers tackle mini charlottes and a Swedish showstopper before semi-finalist Janusz left the competition.
This year’s victor will follow in the steps of Guiseppe Dell'Anno, Peter Sawkins, Rahul Mandal, Candice Brown and Nadiya Hussain.
This year’s instalment of the Great British Bake Off mixed in even harder challenges for contestants and also included themes based on Halloween, Mexico and custard for the first time.
The standard has improved since the show began on BBC2 in 2010 with Mary Berry as a judge and Mel and Sue the original hosts, before Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas took over on C4.
Judge Prue Leith said ahead of the series: “In the very early years, the challenges were less challenging, but as the bakers have got better, the challenges have got harder.
“Can you imagine how difficult it is to judge 12 absolutely perfect, identical somethings? It’s impossible.
“So we need to have something that sorts the sheep from the goats.”
On the bakers this year, Prue said: “They’ve learned. They know how high the standard is, but they also know you can learn a lot of the techniques on YouTube. And they practise a lot.”
