The Great Merchant

A group of British home bakers are convened for a baking competition. There is a theme to each week's competition, generally in the vein of the type of goods the competitors are to bake (i.e. cakes, cookies, pastry, etc.). Each week, they are given a set amount of time to complete each of three challenges, their finished products which are evaluated by expert judges. The first weekly challenge is the signature bake, the competitors to bake something from their home recipes which are to signify who they are as bakers within the category. The second weekly challenge is the technical challenge, where each of the competitors are provided the same recipe, in large part of something they may have never heard of let alone baked before in their lives. This challenge is to see how knowledgeable the competitors are about general baking concepts. Their finished products are evaluated blind in that the judges have no idea who baked what. The third weekly challenge is the showstopper challenge, in which the competitors are to pull out all the stops to produce a baked good which overall grand appearance is as important as taste. At the end of the week based solely on the three challenges, the judges will name the best competitor star baker, and will send one competitor home, that person whose competition has come to an end. The final three competitors enter into the finale, the winner of that week who will be crowned the overall competition winner.