‘The Great British Baking Show’ Finally Serves “Perfect Cake” to Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith: “One Hell of a Baker”

The Great British Baking Show‘s first ever “Autumn Week” brought with it another groundbreaking moment. One of the bakers presented judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith with what might be the tent’s first “perfect” cake?? If you watched all of The Great British Baking Show “Autumn Week” on Netflix this week, you’ll know exactly the Showstopper I’m talking about. It was exquisitely decorated, adventurously flavored, and knocked Paul and Prue’s socks off. The cake in question was so good that Prue didn’t want to stop eating it, Paul wanted to take the leftovers home with him, and the baker got the honors of both a rare Showstopper Hollywood Handshake and Star Baker.

**Spoilers for The Great British Baking Show “Autumn Week,” now streaming on Netflix**

That’s right, 19-year-old Sumayah Kazi blew Paul and Prue away with her two-tiered vegetable-based Showstopper that combined a perfectly tempered chocolate collar, dried vegetable shavings shaped into flowers, and two different sponges into a work of art.

How did Sumayah pull it off? Just how impressed were Paul and Prue? And what did the cake’s reception mean for the rest of the bakers? Let’s break down just how The Great British Baking Show “Autumn Week” shook out…

For the first time ever, The Great British Baking Show chose the entire season of Fall as a theme for its bakers. “Autumn Week” kicked off with Paul and Prue tasking the bakers to make a sweet autumnal pie, followed by vegan parkin for the Technical Challenge. As usual, the bakers who were strong in the Signature were weak in the Technical, and vice versa. Meaning, again, as usual, it would all come down to the Showstopper.

Paul and Prue wanted the seven remaining bakers — Christiaan, Dylan, Georgie, Gill, Illiyin, Nelly, and Sumayah — to create a cake inspired by an autumnal holiday. The catch? Vegetables needed to be a primary ingredient. Most bakers embraced a riff on the carrot cake, using root vegetables like celeriac, beets, parsnips. Sumayah was the only one to give herself the extra challenge of preparing two sponges: a parsnip, cumin, and fennel cake, topped with a beetroot, ginger, and walnut cake. The teen explained she wanted two tiers because she wasn’t confident in either and hoped one would taste good.

Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith also weren’t confident in Sumayah’s plan. When the judges stopped by the young baker’s bench early in the challenge, Prue had to remind her that she only had four hours to get her ambitious cake done. When Sumayah shrugged that it wasn’t really a lot of work, Paul stressed, “Well, no, it is. It is really.”

However, Sumayah proved them wrong. She not only managed to get both cakes baked, her collar completed, and her veggie foliage arranged, but she also killed it.

When Paul and Prue first saw the cake, they cooed over its appearance. “I love the colors,” Prue said. “That chocolate fence is just exquisite.” Paul was muttering, “Wow,” as he sliced through the top tier. The camera caught Prue’s almost orgasmic response to the first bit. “I love the flavor,” she said. “Actually I quite like the texture, too.” After Paul compared it to a sticky toffee pudding in cake form, Prue admitted she almost didn’t want to try another cake. She just wanted to get “stuck in and finish this.”

The second tier elicited some of the same euphoric responses from Paul and Prue. “Wow,” Paul repeated, seeming overwhelmed by how good it was. “She is one hell of a baker,” Prue swore. With a shrug and a grin, Paul left his post to give Sumayah the rare and coveted Hollywood Handshake…for a Showstopper.

“That’s one of the best cakes I’ve had in some time,” Paul said. “I’m going to take some home with me tonight.”

After Sumayah returned to her bench, fellow baker Illiyin Morrison whispered, “Well done,” before lamenting with a laugh: “The perfect cake. God, there’s no beating that, is there?”

And there wasn’t.

Although the bakers all acquitted themselves spectacularly in “Autumn Week,” Paul and Prue had no choice but to give Sumayah the honor of Star Baker. Her cake was just that good. They had zero nitpicks or critiques. They were, instead, overwhelmed with awe.

So that leaves Sumayah as the first baker to received two Star Bakers honors this season so far. Unlike other seasons dominated by an unstoppable frontrunner or two, the bakers this year have been evenly matched. Of the six remaining bakers, only Christiaan and Illiyin haven’t gotten Star Baker. Dylan, Gill, and Georgie all have one apiece. (Nelly was sadly eliminated, even though she was radiant about it.)

With “Dessert Week” on the horizon for next week’s installment of The Great British Baking Show, it’s still any baker’s game. Any one of them could go on to win it all, but Sumayah might have just catapulted herself to top seed with her incredible “Autumn Week” Showstopper.