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

Yay Lee, so glad you enjoyed s4! It's a slow burn but by the end it's hankies all over the place

Ha, I can't remember the details of the finale. A bit cocky indeed but I do love a highlander. Or an islander, was he? Yes Shetland, I think.

"Mel, I need a talking to..."

omg!!!!

lol

Starting to dread Ruby's self-deprecation/expectation-lowering prefaces tbh.

omg just watched the most recent season and am sobbing at nadiya winning. like, unhinged crazy person heaving sobs. i love her.

i love nadiya the most!!! i have watched that season like 3 times

it's the ultimate "you can do anything" storyline! even Mary Berry is bawling. it's so good

and her kids are 😍😍

i love all of her reactions & faces, and that line when she said she would rather give birth than bake (x) again was lololol

one of her kids cries when she wins!!! are you trying to destroy me, adorable bangladeshi british children?

i also love ruby she is like mesmerizingly beautiful yes this is shallow no i don't care

i was a little weirded out by nadiya's weirdo cream soda/bubble gum type flavors at times but i still love her.

yeah bubblegum would have made me barf

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/Food%20and%20drink/5oct/nadiafolder-large.jpg

http://40.media.tumblr.com/40583e1cdea51546c82938db5d743cb7/tumblr_nvn55eOr9Q1r2uyymo2_1280.png

also SHE BAKED A CAKE FOR THE QUEEN

http://i4.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article7805104.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/queen-nadiya-main.jpg

aw

let's not hold that against her tho

also I thought it was pretty adorable that Tamal was already telling the kids he'd be coming over to visit, it's so lovely to think of Tamal and Nadiya as friends irl

like all that loveliness under one roof could create a wormhole of kindness

tamal is a babe

otm

A lovely man.

A lovely gay man.

Suck it up!

Everybody's gay now. It's so weird.

idk how to express it but have u guys noticed the way they use "flavor" as a coded way of saying "you're not from around here"? Chetna, Tamal, Nadiya always get the "oh you with your flavors"

Reminds me of the way my mum talked about new foreign foods she had tried

That does jibe with the stereotype of the stodginess of British cuisine.

Oh, I wanted nothing more than to give Ruby a hug in that last Showstopper.

In happier postings, that gif of Luis double pouring is my favorite thing ever.

Started the next season, my impression is that Mat is actually a gentle, polite, perpetually confused giant.

It's so perfect that he's a fireman. he seems like a fireman from a kids show like Fireman Sam & Postman Pat

I have such a crush on him, he's lovely

I'm sad no one ever whacks their bakes into ovens or fridges anymore.

Mat and Flora are both characters from the same cartoon, the faces they pull are magical.

I loved looking at Ugne's arms, so glad the British summer got warm enough for her to actually show them off.

The week when Nadiya won star baker for the first time, such a sudden rush of THE TEARS!

At the beginning of this season, a lot of the bakers seemed shy, but it's nice that they're loosening up. Prison Man Paul has laughed I think two weeks in a row now!

Yeah Paul turns into quite a hoot after a while, I love that whole gang tbh

Not Paul the judge? I can't remember a contestant called Paul.

I think Paul Hollywood is awful. Certainly Ruby had a few choice words about his conduct.

Having said all of that Ruby did this shortly after. I'm not sure if it was connected

http://i3.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article9137448.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Ruby-tandoh-main.jpg

No paul the prison warden, older gent with white hair & pink scar/birthmark on his forehead

http://i3.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article6501332.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Paul-GBBO-Main.jpg

aka him of the amazing Lion Bread

I like Paul Hollywood as an inscrutable jerk, i dont find him completely hateable but i think maybe his flaws as a human being work in his favor as a tv judge

The first episode they did remark on how the Pauls were doppelgangers, so I'm sure it's easy to melt the contestant into the judge.

I'm not that caught up on Hollywood's life outside the show, apparently he's a homophobe? But I think on the show he keeps it clean and professional.

Paul Hollywood is an evangelical Christian.

i don't know why that surprises me, but it does

Veggie, did you make it to the season with Scottish James with the fair isle tank tops etc? I think season three. He was my *hearts with eyes emoticon* and actually he lives locally, it seems, so I've seen him a few times around. So lovely.

― Heavy Doors (jed_), Sunday, March 19, 2017 8:32 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i am watching this season right now and yesssss. which makes me a dirty old woman because he is like five years old.

Paul Hollywood is an evangelical Christian.

― syzygy stardust (suzy), Friday, 31 March 2017 05:36 (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't know why that surprises me, but it does

― horseshoe, Friday, 31 March 2017 12:48 (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't know why that doesn't surprise me, but it doesn't

maybe it's the smarm

OMG Tamal's life-changing sandwich.

<3

Tamal is a lifechanging sandwich imo

Since I don't know anything about baking, a little game I like to pay when they're talking about creme pats is to guess what the contestants' accents are. Flora sounded like Kelly Macdonald once, she must be Scottish! Paul Jagger doesn't sound Irish, so... Welsh? Ian is from London, he could be on the BBC.

LOL Welsh people do not sound Irish.

Never seen a reference to him being religious, let alone evangelical - where does that come from?

Anyway - I like Paul. Away from Bakeoff, he's certainly the least interesting of the four hosts, but he's very watchable on the show, and to label him as the "nasty judge" of course underrates Mary's considerable expertise (and, often, relish) at driving the knife in.

The best was when Nancy called him "the male judge" lol.

That was hilarious

LOL Welsh people do not sound Irish.

For me, Welsh is just the box of "other accents" that encompasses anything that I can't otherwise pin down (not that I'm good at it in any case). Although I do try to apply the "Does this person sound like Gwen from Torchwood?" test, too.

lol that is exactly my litmus test

The Christianity thing was mentioned on Who Do You Think You Are? when he did an episode.

Although I do try to apply the "Does this person sound like Gwen from Torchwood?" test, too.

John Cale on "The Gift" is even better.

Flora's wee scottish accent was so adorable. her terrible time management made me want to shake her <3