On Your Marks, Get Set, Baaaaake! A Thread for Great British Baking Show / Bake Off & all of its sundry delights

I kind of enjoyed that he didn't have a narrative or "journey" and essentially stayed the same throughout the season - he's kind of the anti-Nadiya - if only because you have to assume it bugged the hell out of the producers.

And it felt real - I like anything that challenges the idea that depressed people just need external success to Snap Themselves Out Of It

(NB I love Nadiya obvs)

as a committed sad-sack myself despite having a pretty good life it was kinda educational to see someone else maintain their downcastness despite continued success, i guess

nadiya remains the best thing to have come out of the bake off by quite some distance imo (ruby 1.0 probably second-place)

nadiya's cooking shows is heinously BBC but the recipes are really good (she's a good un-smug host too)

I got the cooking book for that and she has some bold ideas - fish finger lasagna!

I got a bit fed up with Rahul's schtick round about the time he claimed to have no idea what Star Wars was. Though him failing to fist-bump Noel was all-time. He should really have been out in Danish week. Poor Manon. I'm sure she'd have killed it on patisserie week as well.

I really need a Kim-Joy in my life. Space turtles! I spent most of the frankly stupid pitta and dips technical terrified she was going to set her skirt on fire.

Would absolutely kick it with Ruby 2.0, btw.

Don't forget, there is a Ruby 3.0 (I think Luke's dog)!

Just saw Terry's elimination and while it was obviously a long time coming, the unexpected background he gives us was awfully heartbreaking.

Also noticed that the older seasons (the ones not aired in the US) are also on Netflix. Yay!

That's a shame to hear that Rahul's crippling self doubt us sticking around. I wish that his verbosity was good defining characteristic instead.

Am I the only one who didn’t notice Bryony’s hand for a long time? I think it’s so great that she didn’t want to call it out

https://m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/great-british-bake-off-briony-williams_uk_5be7f3a5e4b0e8438898b301

Terry’s elimination was so moving. I really quite like the way they handle those kinds of details. Much more subtle & sympathetic than the usual reality show method of excavating every human emotion

I felt a little skeptical of Kim Joy at first because she was so twee but i just love her to death now that it’s all over. And her animals & decorating is so gooood!

I liked Rahul, because his self-doubt wasn’t self-aware enough that he was trying to get pity or to get ppl to make him feel good, it was just sort of, factual. I dunno. Plus his reactions to judging were beyond any normal sadsack behaviour. I found him oddly fascinating/endearing.

Rahul was probably my favorite Bake Off contestant ever.

his eye for design is really impressive

wanna eat some of those bakes too

God yeah some of his cakes were so *beautiful*

I love this photo of him, he looks weirdly like a young Roger Ebert

https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/NINTCHDBPICT000427771877.jpg

Or, er,

https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/NINTCHDBPICT000427771877.jpg

But against that he put buttercream on doughnuts.

"Buttercream?" "Buttercream?"

Funeral donuts <3

I didn't notice Briony's little hand till the second episode I think, and even then I wasn't sure because the shots rarely lingered on it.

Forgot to mention that when Kim Joy removing hey turtle galaxy hemisphere from its mold to reveal the smart of starts, I got real chills. One of the coolest reveals, right up there with the opening of the watermelon cake.

Terry’s elimination was so moving. I really quite like the way they handle those kinds of details. Much more subtle & sympathetic than the usual reality show method of excavating every human emotion

Yeah! And even when he was leaving, he never said flat out that the love of his life had just died and he was still grieving. It's all very British but super affecting, and something I like about this show that other reality programs don't do.

Ruby puts the bee in her name with all the buzzing that does. (I still miss the whacking, though, as far as weird idioms go.)

Dan: Tres Butch. Wish we could've gotten our resident Frenchie to translate that one.

Speaking of, is Manon the first French person on the program?

i think so

I love how everything she made was a variation on French baking...and then she goes out right before the patisserie showstopper!

Just finished vegan week, and I would kill to have tasted all of the showstoppers.

Noel's vegan week song was great too.

Finished! I have to say that the finale was underwhelming, at least design wise. The judges specifically mention that Kim Joy's (?) didn't look appetizing, and I thought that could have applied to all three. But then I am an ignorant fool.

I liked that Rahul went for naturalistic look rather than playing up the cake-ness of everything.

I felt sad for Kim-Joy but I think that because she didn't build up the surface very much, with it being an expanse of flat ground with the ruins on top, it didn't look quite as landscapey as it did architechtural. It was a cool idea that could have done with a bit more tweaking in the design phase.

I think they'd decided a while back that Rahul should win, hence him escaping Danish week despite doing nothing right, them allowing him extra time in the final when they'd said they weren't going to, and singling others out for a criticism they weren't levelling at him. Ostensibly the final was judged entirely on the showstopper alone because Kim-Joy won the other two tasks.

I've got absolutely no issue with him winning overall, he was mostly excellent throughout, but I feel like they jumped through hoops and did a wee bit of rule-fudging to facilitate it.

It seemed fair that he got extra time, given that it didn't (appear to be) his fault that the jar exploded!

yeah that seemed reasonable to me

Aye, it was just the way they were saying they weren't going to it then changed their mind, seemed to tie in with some Rahul bad luck redemption arc. Telly, innit.

I think he should've rolled with the exploding jar. That's not a glass shard in your cake, it's a prize!

I can buy in to the producers being in the tank for Rahul, though it's not super objectionable because he has the chops.

I think Ruby really was stroppy for stealing Kim Joy's mojo; but seriously KJ, did she even have a single animal in the last bake?

have you watched Liam Bakes? he's quite a natural but i do wonder how he isn't 20+ stone given the stuff he's been baking on that. they've also urbaned it up somewhat, graffiti everywhere, public enemy soundtrack...

https://www.instagram.com/liamcbakes/

https://www.vulture.com/2018/11/the-great-british-baking-show-recipe-illustrator.html

this show needs to have less impossibly beautiful people as contestants. I cant focus on anything.

https://www.vulture.com/2018/12/great-british-baking-show-ruby-bhogal-interview.html

Charming interview with our favorite stroppy contestant.

the Paul Hollywood handshake is like a scratching needle in this show.

paul hollywood should be banned from touching anyone tbh

went to guaridan to look for the article on kim joy that ailsa originally posted:
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/nov/12/i-was-preety-much-mute-at-school-the-bake-offs-kim-joy - the one which does away with my notion that she's too whimiscal to survive in the world

and found this

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2018/dec/11/kim-joy-bake-off-guide-to-a-very-edible-christmas-baking-recipes

which includes the sentence "My partner, Nabil, wanted to eat it straight away, but I had to take it outside and hold it over a hedge to photograph it"

elsewhere, nadiya's just back from thailand and nepal and cambodia for a two-part bbc thing, which was interesting and nothing i could see raoul doing.

nadiya is the fucking best

Nadiya has impressive racist-fu on Twitter as well.

xxpost *cough* RAHUL

(yeah, i noticed the correct spelling about 4 seconds after posting. Apologies)

Liam continues to make eye-wateringly sweet things on his ch4 show. Who puts chocolate on nachos?

ew

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jul/28/liam-charles-recipe-dessert-nachos-popcorn-sugar-lime-dip

I am going to make my first ganache today!

:D good luck!!

Won’t be getting onto the show with this but it’s pretty tasty!

https://imgur.com/gallery/UL9i0dF

nice!! tasting good is the most important part

https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/581578/

Cute!

oh my heart ❤️❤️❤️ that is awesome

My favorite bit:

Val: Of course, it may be difficult this year because it was a very intensive course, wasn't it, Selasi? You didn't have much time to come home. Last year we met twice. And we all did Candice [Brown]’s wedding in the summer, in France, who won [our season of Bake Off]. Selasi, because he was already in Europe, came on his motorbike. You made chocolates, and we all made wedding cakes.

Beck: You all made wedding cakes?

Val: Yes.
Selasi and Val (left) at the wedding of their fellow contestant. Courtesy of Val Stones.

Beck: That's a lot of wedding cakes.

Val: She had 11 wedding cakes.