13 Most Disastrous Cakes Ever Featured on The Great British Bake Off

The contestants on “The Great British Bake Off” frequently create such beautiful cakes, biscuits, and pastries it’s hard to believe that they are considered amateur bakers sometimes. From technical skills to creativity, there is a lot more that goes into baking a cake than just cracking some eggs in a bowl, whisking them together with flour, sugar, and salt, and putting it in the oven.

While “The Great British Baking Show,” as the series is known in the U.S., has helped many home bakers increase their confidence in the kitchen with the useful baking tips sprinkled in each episode, there have also been some pretty heartbreaking moments on the show since it first began airing in 2010. Like when one contestant’s Baked Alaska is inadvertently removed from the freezer by another and it turns into a melted mess. Or when a contestant tries to swat a fly away from the judges table and accidentally knocks another baker’s cakes on the floor.

Although most home chefs have experienced a kitchen mishap or two, it can be quite comforting when someone whose skill level is above your own has a recipe that doesn’t turn out. From soggy sponge cakes to melted messes, these cakes are the worst cakes we’ve seen created under the “Great British Bake Off” tent.

In Collection 6, Episode 2 of the “Great British Bake Off,” contestants were challenged to bake a two-tier chocolate-covered collar cake. But the sweltering unseasonably warm 82-degree weather was inescapable, including underneath the iconic GBBO white tent. Contestant Terry Hartill may have been prepared to keep cool during the showstopper baking round, but his summer-inspired champagne and strawberries Eiffel Tower collar cake was not able to withstand the unseasonably high temperatures. 

The detailed iron work made of chocolate was well-executed on the base of the cake but the top scaffolding made entirely of chocolate collapsed and crumbled in Terry’s hands, forcing the contestant to present his cake to the judges without the top layer. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just the weather that made this cake one of the worst to appear on the “Great British Bake Off.” According to Prue Leith the flavors of the cake itself were rather boring too.

After the show aired, Terry, a fan favorite, shared on Instagram that the baker took another go at baking his Eiffel Tower cake. This time it appeared to be a success. But how did it taste? That’s what we really want to know.

In the same episode we saw Terry Hartill’s Eiffel Tower collar cake collapse, Collection 6, Episode 2, contestant Luke Thompson attempted to bake a raspberry and white chocolate collar cake. Luke’s cake, garnished with raspberries, cream, and white chocolate, failed to properly set in the heat. As soon as Luke lifted the collar from his cake, it oozed to the sides. But there wasn’t too much he could do as even the warmth from his hands was making matters worse.

When Luke presented the cake to the judges it looked as if the cream and white chocolate were not only melting, but separating from one another. Paul Hollywood questioned Luke’s decision to bake a cake with ingredients like white chocolate and cream given the sweltering unseasonable heat. But after a spoonful of the cake, Hollywood made it clear that the while the cake itself was not good, the raspberries, cream, and white chocolate were surprisingly pleasant. Prue Leith agreed the combined fruit and cream was flavorful but called the sponge cake tough.

In the first episode of Series 10, Collection 7 of the “Great British Bake Off,” the bakers were challenged during the showstopper round to create a birthday cake they dreamed of as a child. This challenge was a little bit different in that there were few parameters when it came to size, layers, and flavor of the cake. This was more about the wow factor just as much as it was about the taste of the cake. For his dream birthday cake, contestant Jamie Shelley created a salted caramel cake in the shape of the face of his family’s pet schnauzer from childhood. 

The dog face cake was made of four different sponge cakes that were layered with buttercream and salted caramel sauce in between each layer. There was also surprise vanilla-flavored ‘dog biscuits’ that poured out when you cut into the cake. Although Jamie had restarted the cake after realizing he forgot eggs the first go round, his second attempt didn’t prove to be successful. Although it looked decent, Prue Leith called the salted caramel overwhelming, and noted there was not a lot of finesse in what Paul Hollywood called an over-baked cake. Not to mention, the inside of the dessert was filled with mock dog-treats, which inspired skepticism in the judges, despite their responsibility to try it. 

In Collection 8, Episode 1 of the “Great British Bake Off,” the bakers were asked to create a cake that resembled the bust of their favorite celebrities. This challenge proved difficult for several of the contestants including Dave, who did his best to create a cake modeled after Blink-182 co-lead singer and lead guitarist Tom DeLonge. Unfortunately, the cake ended up looking more like a Simpsons character than the rockstar.

The taste of Dave’s three flavors of Tom DeLonge cake was somehow worse than the cake looked. Cocoa buttercream in between layers of mint and strawberry flavored sponge cakes. The judges noted the cake had a chemical taste to it and was reminiscent of toothpaste due to an overly powerful mint flavor. To add to the disappointment, the cake was overbaked, Prue Leith shared. DeLonge shared a photo of the cake on his Instagram, captioning the post: “When I was younger, and needed the money, I did a few hundred adult films. This looks EXACTLY like me at the time. EXACTLY. #Cake”

If you didn’t know that Loriea Campbell-Clarey modeled her tribute showstopper cake after Jamaican poet, folklorist, actress, writer, and educator Louise Bennett-Coverley more commonly known as Miss Lou, you are not alone. While the Jamaican born and raised contestant was not lacking in creativity during Collection 8, Episode 1 of the Great British Bake Off, her bust cake of Miss Lou was exactly that, a bust. The cake featured a head scarf and a necklace which Miss Lou also accessorized herself with. But that seems to be where the similarities come to an end.

Even more disappointing for Loriea was the judges response to the taste of the cake itself. To create the bust of Miss Lou, Loriea baked what she referred to as a tribute to Jamaica chili-and-chocolate sponge cake flavored with Scotch bonnet chili powder, spiced ginger, and mango jam, topped with a rum-flavored buttercream. The spicy flavors didn’t seem to tickle judge Prue Lieth’s tastebuds; instead she was searching for milk almost instantaneously. 

For his showstopper tribute cake in Collection 8, Episode 1, Marc Elliot was inspired to create a cake honoring David Bowie’s alter-ego from outer space, Ziggy Stardust. The plan was to use chocolate and vanilla sponge cakes as the foundation for the shape of Bowie’s face, neck, and shoulders, and to top the carved cake with fondant icing. The fondant icing would also be painted to replicate Ziggy Stardust’s look on the cover of Bowie’s 1973 album “Aladdin Sane,” including the iconic neon lighting bolt image on his face.

While Marc was successful at creating the perfect colored makeup for a Ziggy Stardust cake, the end result was quite disastrous. As Prue Lieth noted, this cake looked about as far away from David Bowie as you could get, to which Marc agreed. In fact, the show continues to poke fun at this flop of a cake, jokingly sharing in a post on an X (formerly Twitter) that the cake resembles a Gobbling King, rather than the Goblin King character from the 1986 film “Labyrinth.”

“Great British Bake Off” contestant Jairzeno didn’t last very long on the show, as he was eliminated in the second episode. But in Episode 1, Collection 9 of the baking series, the Trinidad & Tobago native was tasked with baking a showstopper anti-gravity cake. The inspiration for his ‘Kick the Can’ cake was inspired by Jairzeno’s love of colors, tropical fruit flavors, and Caribbean spices. Although Jairzeno envisioned a cake made in the shape of a can of paint to give the illusion of multicolored paints spilling over a multi-tiered cake, the result was something Jairzeno himself called mortifying. 

From the moment Jairzeno started baking, he was met with challenge after challenge. He struggled to successfully roll his chili and lime sponge cake into a cylinder shape, noting that his guava buttercream may not have been the right consistency to hold the cake together the way he had intended. “I was expecting something different,” he told the judges when presenting his cake. Prue Leith agreed the cake itself was far from what she had expected, adding the only thing that worked about the cake was its flavor.

Episode 3 of Series 6 (Collection 3 on Netflix) featured celebrity bakers participating to raise funds and awareness for the Stand Up to Cancer foundation. The celebrity bakers were tasked with creating a showstopper cake that captured what their perfect day off looked like. For British comedian Lucy Beaumont, her perfect day off novelty cake depicted her fantasy of attending an all you can eat buffet with Tom Hardy, Idris Elba, and herself standing next to a half eaten Shepherd’s pie.

Unfortunately, Lucy burnt the chocolate chili sponge cakes to a point they more closely resembled charcoal than cake. When she sliced the cake rounds in half, the cakes, which were varied in not only size but texture, crumbled and fell apart. When Lucy attempted to assemble the crumbled cake rounds of various sizes into a layered cake, it melted into one big mess. Although Paul Hollywood said he wouldn’t go as far as calling Lucy’s cake inedible, he said it was on its way, after spitting out what seemed like an obligatory bite of cake. After his contractually obligated bite of cake, Hollywood took his fork tapped the side of the cake and noted just how hard the cake was.

In Collection 6, Episode 7 the bakers were challenged to create a multi-tiered celebration cake that was as light and fluffy as a cake made with dairy, but using only vegan ingredients. As it turns out, using ingredients like vinegar or baking powder instead of milk, butter, and eggs, requires a lot more effort in the kitchen as the cakes struggled to structurally stand on their own without the dairy ingredients to give the cake structure.

For the challenge, Ruby Bhogul created a chocolate, lemon, and coconut cake. But when time was up, Ruby’s cake was struggling to stand on its own. But as Ruby stood outside the tent with the other contestants, one of the show’s presenters, Noel Fielding, had to break the unfortunate news to Ruby that her cake had just toppled over onto her work station. Ruby did her best to salvage the cake that fell over, stuffing the cakes separately in an attempt to keep them from entirely crumbling. Prue Leith called Ruby’s cakes a collapsed mess that looks like a disaster, but said the flavor was delicious. Paul Hollywood agreed the cakes were well baked but recommended next time Ruby stack the lemon cake on top of the chocolate one to provide more structure.

In the season premiere of the series 6 (Collection 3) the contestants were tasked with creating a classic Black Forest gateau for the showstopper round that was as extravagant in design as it was in flavor. For Dorret Conway, this round would prove to be unforgettable, as well as for millions of “The Great British Bake Off” fans as one of the worst cakes unfortunately.

When Dorret went to remove her gateau from the pan, she found out her mousse had not set properly, leaving her with an ooey-gooey chocolatey mess. Dorret tried to salvage the cake by placing it in the refrigerator, hoping it would firm up if chilled; but it didn’t work and her gateau melted off of the cake pan. A heartbroken Dorret was sure she was going home, especially when Paul Hollywood called the cake a messy mudslide that tasted like chewing on a rubber tire. Fortunately for Dorret, her performance in other rounds saved her from elimination this episode.

During the showstopper round on 1970s week in Collection 12, Episode 8 on Netflix of “The Great British Bake Off,” contestants were to bake a gateau with fresh cream, a cake that Paul Hollywood explained is structurally tricky. For her bake, contestant Illiyin Morrison decided to make a two-tiered peach melba vintage-style gateau consisting of eight layers of delicate genoise sponge cake with peach Chantilly cream sandwiched in between layers of peach and champagne compote, as well as raspberry compote, all held together with a white chocolate whipped ganache.

Hollywood nervous hearing Illiyin’s plans for her bake, noting the weight of the cream. However, Illiyin reassured the judges the ganache would act as a sealant and hold together the cake. Unfortunately things didn’t go as planned and Illiyin’s cake collapsed. The ganache had split in the mixer and due to time constraints Illiyin had to frost the remainder of her cake with buttercream frosting. Also at some point Illiyin’s cake fell over in the refrigerator. Co-host Noel Fielding did his best to help Illiyin dust off the cake crumbs and assemble something to present to the judges, but the cake was long gone.

Despite all the challenges, Prue Leith said the cake tasted like heaven, calling the acidity of the peach perfect. Paul Hollywood agreed that the flavor, texture, and color combination of the 1970s themed gateau were perfectly executed. but noted structurally the cake was lacking and Illiyin was eliminated.

English television personality, presenter, and investor Jamie Laing joined other celebrities under the “Great British Bake Off” tent in Series 1, Episode 3 to support the organization Stand Up to Cancer. While Laing seemed comfortable in the kitchen despite not knowing what tools to use, he ended up making what Paul Hollywood referred to as “the worst cake that has ever been baked in the tent, ever.”

For his showstopper, Laing attempted to make a banana loaf cake topped with sliced banana and milk and white chocolate. The end result resembled what Laing described as a pork pie and the judges were unable to hide the disgust on their faces when trying Laing’s cake. Prue Leith immediately walked away to spit out her bite in the garbage, which may or may not have contained raw cake mix. And after trying a bite himself, Laing agreed the cake tasted quite vile.

In season 2 of “The Great British Baking Show: Holidays” on Netflix, Flo Atkins, a fan favorite from a previous season of the “Great British Bake Off,” returned under the tent only to make one of the worst cakes in the series history. For her showstopper cake, Flo added an entire bottle of mulled wine to her mulled cake mix and added a three-cheese buttercream sweet fondant frosting to top it off. The main flavor of the cake Flo shared is mulled wine so if you’re not a fan, this may not be the cake for you.

However, Flo shared that her friends love this cake as she said it is reminiscent of enjoying wine and cheese, likely thanks to the addition of the Stilton, Roquefort and cream cheese to the cake batter. Flo’s friends may love her mulled wine and cheese cake, but for the “Great British Bake Off” judges, this cake was a divisive one. While Prue Leith and Noel Fielding found the idea of a wine and cheese flavored cake unconventional but amazing in presentation, smell, and flavor, Paul Hollywood thought the cake was a flop. He noted the two conflicting flavors of wine and cheese do not combine well in the form of a cake and seemed particularly appalled an entire bottle of mulled wine had been included in the cake.