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Great British Bake Off: Former Tunbridge Wells firefighter, Mat Riley, bakes way into third week

11:00, 13 August 2015

Things got hot in the kitchen last night but firefighter Mat Riley successfully baked his way into week three of Great British Bake Off.

The bakers were faced with three tricky challenges in the show's iconic 'Biscuit Week'.

Mat Riley, who hails from Kent but now lives in London, battled three different crunchy concoctions - Italian biscotti, French arlette biscuits and an edible box with 36 creative biscuits inside.

Mat Riley, a contestant in the Great British Bake Off. Picture: Picture: BBC/Love Productions/Mark Bourdillon
Mat Riley, a contestant in the Great British Bake Off. Picture: Picture: BBC/Love Productions/Mark Bourdillon

The 37-year-old, formerly of Tea Garden Lane, in Tunbridge Wells, sailed through the show's 2015 debut last week with a gin and tonic Madeira cake, a walnut cake and showstopping black forest gateau.

This week the amateur baker made a white chocolate, cranberry and pistachio biscotti mixture - a recipe he says has been labelled the "best bisctotti" by colleagues at the firehouse.

He was given thumbs up by Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood for the batch's "good crunch".

Matt's fire engine won over the judges. Picture: BBC/Love Productions
Matt's fire engine won over the judges. Picture: BBC/Love Productions

Mat tried his hand at Paul's tricky technical challenge - wafer thin arlette biscuits. The judges were a little disappointed with his attempt, but it didn't stop him being considered as the week's Star Baker.

The final test for bakers was to create an edible biscuit box with fantastic fillings. Mat drew inspiration from his firefighting and created his very own fire truck.

It went down a treat with the judges who labelled it a "great bake".

Will Mat rise to the challenge in Bread Week? Find out if he makes it through to week four on BBC1 at 8pm on Wednesday.

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