THE GREAT BRITISH BAKING SHOW: Season 2

In season 2 of THE GREAT BRITISH BAKING SHOW, the tent welcomes a baker’s dozen to the battle to be named the U.K.’s best amateur baker. Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins coax them through their Signature, Technical and Showstopper challenges, under the scrutiny of judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood. With 13 bakers—from space engineer to student, teacher to dentist, psychologist to carpenter—Mary and Paul may decide at any time to banish not one but two bakers. After 10 weeks of whisking, crimping and piping, only one can emerge victorious.

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Judges Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry.

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Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins coax the bakers through their Signature, Technical and Showstopper challenges — and provide comic relief.

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Ali, who lives with his family in Birmingham, has been baking for four years. He loves to combine flavors that reflect his travels and his culture, pushing himself to invent new baking hybrids. He enjoys baking tarts, specifically his white chocolate crème brulee.

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Originally from Wales, Beca now lives in Hampshire, where she bakes for her family, for her husband’s regiment and for her local Military Wives’ Choir, of which she is a member. Taught to bake by her mother and both grandmothers, she combines traditional family recipes with her own clever twists on flavors.

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Christine baked with her grandmother when she was a little girl. A perfectionist, baking is her way of relaxing as she juggles family and work life. She likes to put her own twist on traditional bakes.

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Deborah, a dentist whose passion for baking started at school in domestic sciences class, invented a "breakfast pie," which she makes for her teenage son. Above all she loves everything bread-related and the smell that pervades the house when she’s baking it.

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Frances, a clothes designer by day and a baker by night, has a concept for everything she bakes. She's been baking since she was five, and her quirky cakes are always in demand by her friends and family.

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Glenn teaches English and desperately hopes Mary or Paul won't write “must try harder” on his baking report card. Above all, he loves to bake cakes and see people enjoy them.

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Howard used to be a graphic designer, but now works for the council in Sheffield. He bakes everything from traditional comfort food to the outrageously elaborate, and likes to experiment with ingredients and flavors to reinforce the design.

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Kimberley is a psychologist. She describes herself as "a flavor magpie" and her baking reflects the variety of flavors that she's picked up while mastering technically interesting and difficult bakes. Her "peace breads" combine ingredients and flavors from both sides of conflict regions around the world.

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Lucy, a horticulturist, is passionate about using only local and seasonal ingredients. Her interest in baking came from wanting to use her home-grown food more creatively.

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Mark is a carpenter and kitchen fitter who is as much at home sculpting wood as he is crafting sugar flowers. He even has a tool box full of his edible glitter, icings and baking accessories. He’s been baking since 2008.

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Rob is a space satellite designer who applies his engineering background to all of his bakes, demonstrating precise technical skills and aiming for a perfect finish every time. He's also an avid mushroom forager.

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Ruby, the youngest competitor, has been baking since starting university and is passionate about breads and pastries. Experimenting with different recipes until she finds the perfect formula, she tries out her bakes on university friends and on her parents and three younger siblings.

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Toby is a web programmer from Reading. Initially taught to bake by his mother when he was young, his baking is now experimental and full of surprises. He describes himself as a freestyler, with a sense of organized chaos to his baking.

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Chocolate cake with raspberries. The 13 bakers tackle cakes as their first challenge. Learn who will be the first to leave the tent.

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Cake with painted twigs. The 13 bakers tackle cakes as their first challenge. Learn who will be the first to leave the tent.

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Cake with profiteroles. The 13 bakers tackle cakes as their first challenge. Learn who will be the first to leave the tent.

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Chocolate cake with autumn biscuits. The 13 bakers tackle cakes as their first challenge. Learn who will be the first to leave the tent.

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Watch the 12 remaining contestants, including Ali (pictured), demonstrate their kneading skills.

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In the Signature challenge, bakers have to produce 36 perfectly thin and crispy breadsticks.

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Dip with chili garnish — to go with breaksticks.

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Bread with edible flowers and hummus in the Showstopper challenge.

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Christmas wreath bread in the Showstopper challenge.

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Red and white meringues. The remaining 11 bakers deal with desserts in the third episode.

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Trifle, once a dessert for the aristocracy, combines several elements in distinct layers.

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Mini-cakes and millionaire shortbread in the Showstopper challenge to produce 24 perfect petits fours.

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Mini-cakes arranged on a vinyl LP for the Showstopper challenge to produce 24 perfect petits fours.

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Pie with raisin dip. The bakers deal with daunting pies and tarts.

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Pie with raspberries. The bakers deal with daunting pies and tarts.

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Pie tree. The bakers deal with daunting pies and tarts.

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Tart with fig and pomegranate. The bakers deal with daunting pies and tarts.

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Pie with lettuce and pomegranate. The bakers deal with daunting pies and tarts.

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EPISODE GUIDE:

Episode 1: “Cakes” repeats Thursday, Nov. 24 at Noon - Meet the 13 bakers who make simple sandwich cakes in the Signature challenge, angel food cakes in Mary’s Technical challenge and all things chocolate in the Showstopper.

Episode 2: “Bread” repeats Thursday, Nov. 24 at 1 p.m. - Watch the 12 remaining contestants bake 36 perfectly thin and crispy bread sticks and technically tricky English muffins. The Showstopper features outrageous loaves of bread … from a Christmas wreath to a proud peacock and a psychic octopus.

Episode 3: “Desserts” repeats Thursday, Nov. 24 at 2 p.m. - Follow the remaining 11 bakers as they deal with desserts: a trifle of biscuit, cake, jelly or custard in distinct layers; perfect Floating Islands; and a Showstopper of 24 petits fours. For the first time, there’s a baking burglary in the tent!

Episode 4: “Pies and Tarts” repeats Thursday, Nov. 24 at 3 p.m. - Watch the remaining bakers undertake double-crusted fruit pies, a challenge to even the most experienced bakers; English custard tart — a centuries-old recipe that causes a wobble for the contestants; and phyllo pie, with dough made from scratch.

Episode 5: “Biscuits and Traybakes” repeats Thursday, Nov. 24 at 4 p.m. - The remaining eight bakers are faced with biscuits and traybakes. The Signature challenge requires that they produce their favorite traybake, offering Mary and Paul their twists on everything from bakewells to banoffees and brownies. Next, they face the thinnest Technical challenge ever devised for the show: French classic tuiles, fragile rolls decorated with delicate designs of piped chocolate. Finally, a Showstopper of epic proportions: biscuit towers. Mel and Sue follow the trail of biscuit crumbs as the bakers produce architectural feats inspired by everything from ancient Japanese civilization to one of time travel’s most feared enemies.

Episode 6: “Sweet Dough” repeats Friday, Nov. 25 at Noon - It’s week six and time for sweet dough — but will it prove bittersweet for the bakers? They start off with a Signature tea loaf. Since most of the bakers choose to make something connected to home, Mary and Paul are presented with everything from locally sourced loaves from Yorkshire and Oxford to Devonshire-inspired panettone and Welsh bara brith. The bakers face Paul’s most twisted Technical challenge yet and a Showstopper that draws on all of Europe for inspiration: 36 sweet European buns, from Swedish cinnamon buns to German schnecken and French brioches.

Episode 7: “Pastry” repeats Friday, Nov. 25 at 1 p.m. - With only six bakers left in the tent, the stakes are getting higher. Tackling pastry, the bakers bring old- fashioned suet pudding up to date with their Signature creations, from “Spotted Dick with a kick” to fig roly-poly. The Technical challenge proves hellish with Mary’s command to make eight perfect religieuses — delicate choux buns filled with crème patissiere topped with ganache, balanced delicately atop one another. Finally, the Showstopper requires three different kinds of puffed pastries: one filled, another iced and the third the baker’s choice.

Episode 8: “Quarter Final” repeats Friday, Nov. 25 at 2 p.m. - There are just five bakers left. This week’s challenges test them on working with unconventional flours and unusual desserts. For the Signature challenge, they must make a loaf using flours such as spelt, rye, potato or tapioca flours. The Technical challenge is dacquoise, made with three layers of fragile coiled meringue sandwiched with coffee custard and topped with hazelnut praline, a gluten-free dessert. For the Showstopper challenge, the bakers have to venture out of their comfort zone to create novelty vegetable cakes, dairy-free.

Episode 9: “French Week” repeats Friday, Nov. 25 at 3 p.m. - Three French bakes stand between the four semi-finalists and a place in the final. The Signature challenge raises the stakes, tasking the bakers to make three different types of savory canapés in just two-and-a-half hours. One must be choux and one another type of pastry such as shortcrust; the third is baker’s choice. The Technical challenge is the complex charlotte royale, which combines a perfect Swiss roll surrounding a delicate bavarois, set with gelatin to hold a firm dome. The final is a truly iconic French patisserie: the opera cake.

Episode 10: “The Final” repeats Friday, Nov. 25 at 4 p.m. - For the finale, Mary and Paul test how far the bakers have grown in skill and creativity. The Signature challenge is a technically difficult picnic pie, packed with fillings that form a creative design, surrounded by shortcrust pastry with perfectly baked sides. The Technical is 12 perfectly shaped pretzels: six savory with rock salt and six sweet with poppy seeds topped with orange zest and glaze. The year’s final Showstopper is the ultimate showpiece in a baker’s repertoire: a three-tiered wedding cake.

Did you miss Season 1 & 2? Full episodes of THE GREAT BRITISH BAKING SHOW are available for online viewing via KPBS Passport, video streaming for members using your computer, smartphone or tablet.

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