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

This thread, from the favourite group of a particular bit of ILM:

When we were 16/17 we had one of those teachers you never forget (1/9)

— The Clientele (@theclientele) September 23, 2020

That’s great.

I love Rowan: he’s like a non-miserable Kenneth Williams.

We think he looks like old ben whishaw. Except we like him.

Oi, disliking Ben Whishaw is NOT ALLOWED. Few things more hilarious than watching Paddington 2 and A Very English Scandal as a double bill (“Hugh Grant just bummed Paddington!”)

Aw thats so great!

I was corrected last night that we like Ben Whishaw a great deal, I was in my cups apparently and thinking about a conversation about a different cast member of The Hour (dominic west)

(I wasn’t in my cups at 11am, I was in my cups when the conversation happened)

is dave the one we don't like? his florentines looked pristine.

is dave the security guard who made a bust cake of a UFO conspiracy theorist?

Yep.

Dominic West has an extremely annoying daughter.

tbf we don’t really hate DW either we just hated him in The Hour.

I absolutely love everything about The Hour. You were supposed to think he was a massive posh dickhead. BTW we were cruelly deprived of S3 because Steven Moffat stole Peter Capaldi off them.

Again, I am watching a different show from the rest of you. Does Rowan not seem overly precious and pretentious?

Well, I mean yes on a base level but this isnt the DMV - in the context of the show i find his whole deal quite delightful! and i bet he’d be a fun teacher to have

Veg otm; he's precious for sure but pretentious? It's only one episode, so :shrug:, but he does make good TV.

I just hope he's able to recalibrate his ambitions so that he isn't constantly running into time crunches.

Mostly you can be pretentious if you’re nice, and Rowan is probably still in because he’s a) happy Kenneth Williams and b) good TV but I am not pleased that Brexit Pru and Christian Paul have lobbed out someone from a minority two weeks running.

I thought it there was a strange energy in the tent, as if everyone knew each other and the presenters better than in previous series

Is this not because they were all isolating together before recording started? It's nice, I like it.

I think so, but I could just be projecting because I know that about them. I like it too, but it must make it bittersweet for the people who have to go.

Rowan seems the opposite of pretentious - he seems to own and be proud of his eccentricities (plus seems nice)

He prob deserved to go yesterday but I would've missed him. Booting Loriea out on the first week was mean, though.

sidebar

this clip of celebrity GBBO with Gary Kemp is v funny

https://youtu.be/BDMHTPWYSzQ

Martin Kemp!

wtf why did i say gary LOL

i'm not British and had never seen or heard of Mel, Sue, Noel or Sandi before watching this show on Netflix, yet fell in love with all of them

but

the new guy Matt seems like a real dud

He is an extremely well known comedian here.

This is how he got famous:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-WEIVIbcQw

This is the first season of Bake Off I've actually sat down and watched! I've seen the odd celeb special or whatever. It's very pleasant, I can see why it's so popular.

I'm in the pro-Sura camp. She's funny!

The shots of her reacting to time calls are priceless too.

I am growing quite fond of the ginger bloke from Liverpool, the one who made the ethiopian coffee ceremony set this week

sura is funniest w noel, they make a good double act

baffled by all the bakers using molds for fkn florentines. Let them spread & get brittle you weirdos. and using cutters, too! AGHAST, i tell you.

also i could not get my head around Rowan’s lighthouse teaset but i enjoyed the attempt

I knew Mac was going when he didn't bother to make the biscuits curve

I absolutely love everything about The Hour. You were supposed to think he was a massive posh dickhead. BTW we were cruelly deprived of S3 because Steven Moffat stole Peter Capaldi off them.

The BBC announced that The Hour was axed before Matt Smith signed his 2013 contract, let alone telling them that he wouldn't be doing the 2014 series (Moffat then cramming the entire planned series arc into Time Of The Doctor).

sic.xls to the rescue

watching ep 2 rn and hoping Rowan's lighthouse makes up for his underdone macaroons ... d'oh.

the lighthouse had a working light tho!

u_u

such a relief when he survived the week. the accelerated shooting schedule isn't going to help with getting better at keeping yr cool under pressure on camera though!

it’d be funny if they do their rounds next week and they’re all what’re you making for us
rowan: a elderflower meringue royal navy ship with five masts with a fleet of smaller ships-
paul: nope
r: an elderflower meringue royal navy ship with five masts?
p: (glowers)
r: one mast?
p: (shakes head)
no masts? an elderflower rowboat?
p: (brightens) ok crack on then!

*makes elaborate paisley marzipan waistcoat for every rower*

lol otm

Noel Fielding as cakes.

A thread.#GBBO pic.twitter.com/Pf2ixpwQVG

— Amanda (@Pandamoanimum) September 29, 2020

the lighthouse had a working light tho!

could u eat it tho??

> the new guy Matt seems like a real dud

he's also in the Community episode (which aired last night coincidently) where they go to the Inspector Spacetime convention* during which he disparages competitive cooking programmes

(* and has also been in proper Doctor Who, which this is a pisstake of)

whereas sandy used to temper noel's weirdness, matt seems to be competing with him, but i'm enjoying it.

yeah i like him, he’s def still finding his feet

FYI for fans on both sides of the puddle eh wot wot: Brits get this on Tuesday, Murricans on Friday so please bear in mind that spoiler text would be appreciated by us usaers

oh yes otm well said

I appreciated them going a bit easy with the bread challenges this week. Soda bread is easy to make, and I personally appreciated the recipe ideas. I can heartily recommend zaatar in yer soda bread or savoury scone recipe. It's very good. They made bagels look possible as well (even if I do not want to eat a rainbow).

A few reviews have said that they feel Noel and Matt's energy is wrong for the show, that you need a calming influence rather than a hyper one, but I'm not sure that's the case anymore. When the show was new, the bakers were less competitive, and Paul was more hurtful in his comments, you needed lovely Mel and lovely Sue to dispense hugs and keep everyone focused. But now the competitors all know exactly what they're getting into, it's more competitive in some ways because people know what it can lead to for the right person, and Paul has dialed back the cutting comments. So I think a couple of imps getting in among it and annoying everyone can be a good thing. Whether they're the right people for that or not is a matter of debate. I will never stop saying that it should be Sindhu Vee up there instead of Matt Lucas, but that doesn't mean I don't like Matt Lucas.

Despite several glaring poor choices for the use of his talents in the past couple of decades, I maintain Matt Lucas is a naturally funny bloke (unlike his partner in said poor choices). I'm enjoying him and Noel together to be honest.

Za'atar is magic stuff, also great sprinkled on fried/poached eggs and/or avo on toast.

I’m finding Matt Lucas annoying, or at least sporadically annoying, but otherwise it’s the best season and set of contestants in a few years imo.

trishyb, check out the recipe for jo goldenberg’s bagels somewhere on the intermet, they’re incredible and easy to make, sort of halfway between a Montreal bagel and a North London blimp

recipe here https://recipeland.com/recipe/v/jo-goldenbergs-bagels-24576

i may try this myself when the weather cools down!

I think I’ve used this one because it has pictures to help

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/03/how-to-make-homemade-bagels-a-la-jo-goldenberg-recipe.html

Nice. I will do that. I've only managed a couple of loaves of the very simplest bread so far, but bagels would be fun, I think.