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

I wanted to see his inevitable train cake tho

Yes, liked the crew this year. TBH I can't think of a dud bunch of contestants except for 2019 when they were all twentysomething marketing managers or something.

I like Matt but I wish he'd relax and let go of the shtick a bit more

Aw I like him. Matt’s Flintones theme sung in german was hilar imo

I am in love w this year’s Carmen SanDiego characters ie Jürgen and Guiseppe <3

Tom giving 100% Jordan Captain Chaos energy

Cannot stop staring at Freya’s eyebrows

train dude had cannon fodder written all over his face from the moment he was on camera

i'm on record about this, maybe on this thread, but the inherent ageism of them dropping the older contestants really pisses me off. I'm all in favor of the Pru-alike winning this.

She is mindbendingly posh though!

lol at Noel’s “I’ve never felt more like a chimney sweep” after watching Pru & Maggie’s conversation

i have to say that as an american what you call "mindbendingly posh" i see as "mindbendingly british" so

maggie = posh
lizzie = not posh

that is yr yardstick

Haven't finished the episode yet but the Achy Breaky cold open made me want to crawl into my skull and die.

that i agree with

i quick-skipped it to guard against my skeleton leaving my body

yeah that was not good. my partner was like "i like this show because it's NOT american in any way." thankfully the substantial segment devoted to something called "malt loaf" helped reset the scales.

lol otm

i have only had malt loaf once and did not care for it

I am in love w this year’s Carmen SanDiego characters ie Jürgen and Guiseppe <3

lol same! I love all the sundry accents on this show, Lizzie's included.

Funny that I didn't really peg Tom as a Captain Chaos heir apparent because he got lost in the shuffle with so many other bakers to keep track of.

I'm not sure how I feel about Chigs the quarantine baker -- I'm basically one myself but feel a bit put to shame at how much better he is than me (I may have made a disastrous mango cheesecake last night, so my feelings are a bit acute ATM).

I do like Freya so far -- vegan and with the Viking name that Catface would be envious of.

i feel like moreso than most seasons I have a REALLY clear sense of who's going to go the distance vs get knocked out in the first few weeks. of course a bumbler can always blossom, and a favorite can always fumble in the wrong week....

the chaos agent in me secretly hopes maggie tanks next week which is mean but :D

btw kinda wish i could try jurgen’s black forest roll, it sounded so perfect

I'm all in favor of the Pru-alike winning this.

naw. maggie is like some pru cosplayer and it is clear pru is freaked out by this, and maggie is like "hahahahaha let me never stop talking and being awkward". not that i like pru but maggie's energy is not appreciated.

I realize Prur is rich but for some reason I can’t get over here having so many pairs of glasses. I googled and she says it’s 11, which probably weighs in at about £10k every time she changes her prescription. I didn’t really like the pink ones she had on this time.

One thing we noticed this time around was how much dodgy hair there was. Tom with his premature combover was bad but Giuseppe’s is truly gross, Maggie has a bog brush at the front and Lizzie looks like she has hers done at her dog’s poodle parlour. Jürgen’s I’ll allow.

10K!! I got my readers for a tenner online (and tbh they look like the ones she was wearing last week)

re hair, freya's photo is very nicely brushed etc but she def looked like she'd entered the tent via a hedge, backwards. Yes, you may say "miaow".

I was going by the fact my lenses cost about £400 (I guess I have a pretty complex prescription) and assuming she has expensive taste in frames even if they do look like your tenner jobs.

Should've gone to specsavers...

Oh, I have …

The phone call bit at the end had my wife and I dying laughing.

yeah that was great!

just saw Noel Fielding down the park wearing his pink smiley face jumper, trying to blend in...

jurgen stormed out again, pregnant pause whilst the telephone rang the second time...

posh lady doesn't seem very good

stormed *it*

"winnie the pooh," my partner calls him.

pretty rough time for several people - a high number of outright failures among the showstoppers.

Freya’s pronunciations are v weird! It sounds like her ending o’s are a’s?
Cappuccina
Espressa

god i could murder a brandy snap though

yeah those were very very appealing!

vocal freya is kinda killing me here; she seems like a good enough cook but i can't stand that voice

amanda’s choice of sugar cookie for that rocking horse. like, why give yourself such a handicap? the inevitable collapse was kind of hilarious to watch

i loved george’s plane so much! and giuseppe’s reversi! and jurgen’s windmill! lots of great toys!

the playable snooker table probably deserved a few more seconds' gushing - that was adorable and v impressive. also the vanity with all the little Operation style bits. i guess the things moving around in the air are in some sense more ambitious, tho.

omg yes vanity set was p remarkable- all those little pieces, and the vanity itself, the drawer fully opened! how tf do you do that

I thought the plane was a bit of a cheat, unless my assumption that the motor was not constructed from baked goods was incorrect.

yeah also really not much of a "toy," but maybe it would have passed as such in 1920s Britain.

Only a little thing, but I'm enjoying Chiggs and George's non-competitive support for each other, the bro-ing and whatnot. It's still genuinely rare to see two blokes being kind and supportive to each other on TV (at least in shows without Jason Sudeikis in them).

Can't believe Chrystelle is only 26! She's probably one of those people who will continue to look they're in their forties until they hit triple figures

The bit when she was shoving her sister in the kitchen with her parents was like, "wait, what"

yes Chigs & George support is cool

i really love George

Italian and German guys look like the ones to beat.

no kidding! and they’re both so lovely i cant even bring myself to make ww2 jokes

Freya is a horse girl! I wonder how she manages to get through the technicals, since they'll invariably require non-vegan ingredients. Does she avoid tasting as she goes?

I have to think that this was a Showstopper where taste and flavor generally took a back seat to design -- eating 11 10 variations on gingerbread would probably dull my palate (in which case I think Amanda's sugar cookies was probably what saved her).

Giuseppe's hair is a marvel, btw.

Freya is from Scarborough, which explains her odd voice.

ohhh that explains it

her & jurgen should have an eyebrow-off

does everybody in scarborough talk like thiiiiiiiiiiii

i imagine so, drinking cappucinas all the while

Is Jurgen peaking too early? I think Guiseppe is my early favourite, but would happily see any of them win. Had no idea Chrystelle was only 26. Some of the technical work is astonishing.

Only really blank spot for me so far is the Scouser (so blank that I can't actually remember their name!), who seems to have survived through ongoing mediocrity.

Lizzie

https://thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk/bakers/

I spelled two names wrong and forgot another. Dud.