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

never mind, i said it out loud. I thought he meant like, a garden where furrys hang out.

I was looking up the name of frosted tips and came across a Telegraph article titled "Please don't turn the Great British Bake Off into a Love Island clone".

the only good telegraph article

My friend got into the final round of contestant selection for the newest season of the american version of the show. He is very sad he didn't make it. He did all this studying and prep for the technical challenge in LA. It ended up being "birthday cake".

Goth baker is Spanish, or at least they mentioned something about Lanzarote in her intro.

I like Henry. I also like that he's basically the oldest one there, despite being about twelve irl.

It is missing a batty old granny who will mother everyone then go out in week five.

I manage someone at work who might have been this year’s batty old person, but she didn’t make it through the auditions to the very end because of a chocolate tempering error :(

She was HIGHLY dismissive of the 2nd round challenge failures last week (“not a single one of them could make a fucking sponge!”)

now i very much wish she had gotten on

rosie must go

is she the posh vet?

Goth rallies! The design of her witch fingers was pretty clumsy, I think she could have at least made them more presentable if she'd gone for a more minimalist/abstracted graphic design, like a clean green bar with the almond as the finger nail.

I would not be surprised if Henry turns out to be Frankie Muniz pretending to be English.

Frosted Tips Jamie seems to be the least qualified / least capable / most in over his head contestant I've *ever* seen on this show, no?

He's also either a lunkhead or just young ... but at least he seems sweet, and he had a great attitude about all his failures.

I love the goth baker's accent and am rooting for the Welsh woman and Priya.

Has there ever been an overview or supercut or even ranking of the short videos of the contestants home lives throughout the seasons? They have a very specific ironic style to them and incredibly genius editing. My wife and I couldn't stop laughing at the one of the Scottish guy playing the piano with his parents playing strings. Priya's yoga was very funny too.

So "baps" only sounds dirty?

Michael's been consistently ingenious with his designs, no? The red swirl of his Signature this week is jaw-dropping.

is she the posh vet?

she must go

my mother in law remarked this weekend that she sounds like a Minion when she talks

lol, otm

rosie the vet def sounds like a minion

Alice “DID I TELL YOU I WENT TO NEW ZEALAND” has a v highly strung vibe, like the psycho roommate who would cut up all your clothes because you didnt screw the lid down far enough on the mayonaise jar

i noticed that jamie’s head is perfectly cube shaped

michael annoys the christ out of me

lol my Miketakes seem to be unpopular here but maybe this will put me back in y'all's stead: https://jacobinmag.com/2019/09/great-british-bake-off-baking-show-socialism

That’s nice but a bit odd, considering the impact she’s had since, to not mention Nadiya?

I started watching the old season that's on Netflix and only just realized how much I miss hearing Mary Berry say "Scrummy."

I can't unhear the minion.

RIGHT

otm, it’s extremely distracting

weird choices for ejection in this week’s episode imo

I can only understand 20% of what she is saying.

I think Michael also annoys me because of his eyeglasses.

he looks like Where’s Wally

that technical challenge seemed quite dastardly
pru is evil

loved paul bemused by the emotion & noel saying to paul its because he’s never experienced emotion XD

I will miss Goth Lady - her decorating skills are fkn mindblowing (and v in my wheelhouse) but I am not ~stunned~ that she went home.

Kinda hoped Priya or Rosie might get the chop oh well

goth lady maybe a bit one dimensional, i thought. as was welsh lady. (as was kim joy last year). but, yes, will be missed.

do you watch the companion programme where they interview the ejectees? ('extra slice') she was good on that, with the mariachi band...

(also, she won the technical and still went home? was gibst?)

From time to time Prue goes to a farmer’s market I’ve been using for c. 15 years. She voted for Brexit; her son is currently working for Boris Johnson.

Priya should've gone home the last two episodes in place of who did.

Ugh, about Prue.

They were not sending Priya home on Indian sweets week.

wouldn't have minded one or two more older contestants - this season's group feels a bit too samey in the age department.

i want to know what the story is with Michael and Michelle's oddly devoted friendship. It seemed like they were holding hands from episode 1, like long lost friends or something.

is = was, now that michelle's gone

spoiler alert

https://66.media.tumblr.com/c5900767be2bd8dbc4585bf197273772/tumblr_oypj8odxti1rqbl96o1_1280.png

lol

it does suck that they got rid of one of the more charismatic people.

Does winning the Technical mean nothing?! Gutted.

yeah but they hated the taste of her lavender tart & her signature was dry & pru hated the decoration ( i thought it looked rad)

no enjoying this season very much tbh, the judging feels weirdly aggressive

the whole mood is completely off.

i am not digging the oddball challenges ("dairy sweets"?) and the dearth of older contestants is a bummer.
i really dislike paul as a personality; it's unpleasant to have to see so much of him.

it's like, the show worked despite him.

yeah, though he clearly thinks it's "because of"
i kind of agree with "it's off" but it's mostly the last two episodes or so that have been most off.
kinda like succession.

no goth baker, no credibility

My partner was not into the vibe this season either, so we bailed on it early. :( She thought there was more of a tense, competitive, and generally American feel to it.

yeah, that is kind of how I feel too. Most are obv. angling for their aftershow career.

For all that they keep talking about how good everyone is this year, I was shocked (you know, in context) by the number of them who didn't know how to make choux pastry for one of the technical challenges. Surely that's something you should be able to do in your sleep if you're applying to Bake Off? There seems to be a weird dearth of basic baking skills. Maybe it just seems that way to me because of the offness of the whole thing this year.