A Recipe For British Bake Off Success
Share
With the highly anticipated new series of Great British Bake Off starting this month, Betway has crunched the numbers to reveal the most popular winning flavours in the final, as well as the average number of times each champion won the Star Baker award.
The new series of The Great British Bake Off is finally set to hit our screens this month, and with national treasure Alison Hammond set to join the team as a host, there’s no doubt it will be a hit.
To celebrate the new series debuting, Betway has analysed the winning flavour combinations of every winning finalist’s showstopper and signature bake recipes across all 13 series, revealing which flavours are the secret to success.
On top of this, the study also reveals the average number of times each Bake Off champion won the coveted Star Baker award throughout the series, as well as where they placed on average in the technical challenge in the final.
Lemon is the most common cake flavour used by winning Bake Off contestants in the final
With bakers able to choose their flavours and ingredients for two challenges in the final (the signature and the showstopper challenges), the data reveals the percentage of times each flavour was used by winning bakers in all 13 final episodes of the show since 2010.
But which flavours came out on top?
In first place is lemon, used nine times by winning bakers in the final across all signature and showstopper challenges since 2010, such as in Nadiya Hussain’s “My Big Fat British Wedding Cake’ showstopper in 2015 and in Peter Sawkins’s ‘Bonkers Bake Off Bubble Cake’ in 2020. Meanwhile, chocolate and orange come in joint second place being used in eight instances, with two of the recipes featuring chocolate combining both chocolate and orange.
Almond, strawberry and raspberry come in joint third being used four times each in total across the final episodes.
| Rank | Flavour/Ingredient | Number of times flavour/ingredient was used | % of times used across all signature and showstopper bakes in the final |
| 1 | Lemon | 9 | 34.60% |
| 2 | Chocolate | 8 | 30.80% |
| 2 | Orange | 8 | 30.80% |
| 3 | Almond | 4 | 15.40% |
| 3 | Strawberry | 4 | 15.40% |
| 3 | Raspberry | 4 | 15.40% |
| 4 | Blackberries | 3 | 11.50% |
| 4 | Passion fruit | 3 | 11.50% |
| 4 | Mango | 3 | 11.50% |
| 4 | Custard | 3 | 11.50% |
| 5 | Caramel | 2 | 7.70% |
| 5 | Rhubarb | 2 | 7.70% |
| 5 | Hazelnut | 2 | 7.70% |
| 5 | Asparagus | 2 | 7.70% |
| 5 | Fig | 2 | 7.70% |
| 5 | Mushroom | 2 | 7.70% |
Determining which flavours and ingredients are used the most often by Bake Off winners in the final showstopper challenge, lemon and chocolate came in joint first – used seven times in showstopper bakes throughout the 13 series.
Meanwhile, lemon, almond and strawberry are the most commonly used flavours by winners in the final for the signature challenge, each used twice by winning bakers in this section of the final.
Coconut, ginger and pistachio among the least commonly used flavours
Surprisingly, popular flavours like coconut, ginger, pistachio, elderflower and apple have each only been used once by Bake Off champions in the final.
Meanwhile, more obscure ingredients like peas, trout and quails eggs have also only been used once by contenders in the final. Perhaps Bake Off finalists should steer clear from these ingredients should they make it to the final hurdle.
Winning bakers place second place on average in the technical challenge in the final
The technical challenge tasks contestants to follow a certain recipe chosen by the judges. The contestants have no prior knowledge to what the bake will need to be, therefore testing their technical knowledge.
Analysing where each winner placed in the technical challenge in the final, data shows that they place second on average. In two instances, the winner of the series came in third place in the final – Frances Quinn in series four in 2013 and Giuseppe Dell’Anno in series 12 in 2021.
The winning Bake Off contestant wins the Star Baker award twice in each series
Introduced in series two, the ‘Star Baker’ award is given to a contestant who impressed the judges the most at the end of each episode.
Analysing how many times winners from series one to series 13 won Star Baker throughout the competition, it is revealed the magic number is two. Three contestants in the show’s history won the coveted award three times including Syabira Yusoff, the winner of 2022’s competition.
Meanwhile, David Atherton, the winner of series 10 in 2019, failed to pick up a Star Baker award despite taking home the Bake Off crown.
Will you be tuning into Bake Off this year?
