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

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.

Well, I'm enjoying it! We've had a testing few weeks, and Bake Off provides an oasis of comfort, where nothing bad can happen. Bread and circuses etc, but I'm no much into circuses, so.

Also enjoying the Henry/David touchy feely stuff. It all looks so relaxed and unselfconscious.

michael as well as rosie must go

(I like steph and david)

We just assumed making choux must now be an American Thing and that it doesn’t pop up much in British baking anymore.

terrible news for henry fans

I very rarely care about the dating lives of literally anyone including my own but I will be up all night angrily smoking cigarettes like in a 1940’s movie because of reading this pic.twitter.com/7l6MLCxR34

— Millie De Chirico (@milliedechirico) October 2, 2019

Well, I'm enjoying it! We've had a testing few weeks, and Bake Off provides an oasis of comfort, where nothing bad can happen. Bread and circuses etc, but I'm no much into circuses, so.

Oh, it's still very pleasant. But, perhaps weirdly, Celebrity Masterchef is actually delivering the feel-good factor far more than Bake Off this year. And The Dog House is my absolute go-to for comfort telly at the moment.

Did someone mix up white powdery ingredients because this thread's gotten salty!

yeah i’m not so mad at this season

Contestants this year are overly adorkable + less interesting bakers. But it’s still pretty enjoyable.

Paul is great btw, y’all silly. It’s his weird wrongness that makes him great, too

http://awalkingstereotype.weebly.com/uploads/3/2/1/0/32100343/8877677_orig.gif

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/38/a6/59/38a659e47f51a5bf7361008e3f36416b.jpg

WHY IS SHE STILL HERE

fyi there is a v good recap podcast for the current series called Bake Down & includes as regular cohosts former GBBO contestants lovely Howard Middleton & Jane Beedle
it’s quite enjoyable

who doesnt want to listen to Howard on the reg

My friend who is a food PR operating Oop North works with Howard a lot.

apparently he does baling demo’s for Hen’s Parties! how cute is that

baking

i am rewatching Nadya’s season

I still find Flora to be a delightful insane person with the way she always covers her cakes in biscuits & tuilles & utter nonsense. it’s adorable & so bloody weird.

the cheesecakes had macarons AND a flag lol

that didn't go as planned.

perfect end to this show’s worst season tbh

Season wasn't bad, just some underwhelming contestants. The format and the presenters are still v strong. Also, Noel's Dinosaur Jr jumper.

Who doesn't know how to make a roux? Also, who doesn't know that a white sauce and a roux are not the same thing? Very annoying. Those chocolate cakes did look delicious, though.

Also, the final had altogether too much drama and no actual tension. Poor Steph just went to pieces immediately, and Alice's freaking out over her folks possibly missing the party was just irritating to me. Maybe I am heartless.

"alice has received an upsetting phone call" - I thought someone had died

Neither me or my partner had a favourite in the final this season! Usually there's at least a "least bad" candidate but we were both a bit mehhh about all three this year. I woulda repped Henry or Rosie if they'd made it.

Rosie's parents were both very loving so it's wrong to criticise that, but by God they were a little much.

Rosie? Do you mean Alice?

yes! i mean alice

"good management alice!" etc

It seemed like none of the contestants this year actually liked...baking. Every week it was 'ugh, I hate bread, I never bake it' or 'Ugh, pastry' etc etc etc. David really grew on me with his unflappable precision, but he seemed like kind of...hated food and eating, and it was just a project of time management and task execution for him? He did seem to have a passion for decoration and design, and I guess that showed through.

Having good management means you don't need to have baking fairies.

i started scolding the parents for bad management when they were having flight problems.

def had some eye-rolling for alice’s indulgent parents.

steff’s nerves def did a number on her...she was SUCH a mess.

honestly the final didnt quite feel finalsy bc it seemed like her & alice were off their game.

glad david won tho. he was a cool cucumber all the way through.

Guess who:

Not at all. “I’m not that clean and tidy. I don’t like showering. I never wear shoes. I’ve not washed my hair in more than 15 years. I didn’t go to a hairdresser until I was about 28. I think these things are healthy.

“I’m very hippy and outdoorsy. I love talking about my bowels and anything disgusting and medical.”

Rosie?

Hollywood

The Junior bake off that's on at the moment is reassuring TV. The kids are impressive, there's very little criticism of anything, It's nice to see Liam again and Harry Hill is amusing.

(The kids age from 10 to 15 which is a massive range. And such a display of bad teeth...)

Quotation comes from David!

wow. unexpected

wash yr hair u savage

Full article: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/nov/06/bake-off-winner-david-atherton-i-enjoy-the-buns-innuendos

Choice pull (his parents are Evangelical):

Atherton came out seven years ago by writing to his parents. He chose this method, he says, to give them time to process the news. “The reaction that someone might have from it being sprung on them might not be the reaction they’d want to have if they’d considered it. You’ve been thinking about it for ages, but it’s new for them. I told my parents in a letter and said: ‘Speak to my twin brother before you speak to me because he wants to be able to answer certain questions first that might seem offensive to me.’ They took it very well.”

wow

lol i swear i am not a wow-bot

that’s kinda fascinating. impressively methodical

Forgive the thread spam, but I wanted to note that this show's 2019 season is nominated in the 2019 ILX TV poll:

ILX's Best Television of 2019 Poll / VOTING AND CAMPAIGNING THREAD / Voting Ends January 31

If you like this show and you'd like to see it have a good showing in the poll (running in February) all you need to do is submit a ballot including it and your other favorites (4 minimum, 25 maximum, organized by your favorite to least favorite) to forksclovetofu at gmail by end of day today. It'll take five minutes; get to it!

https://deadline.com/2020/03/matt-lucas-host-the-great-british-bake-off-1202879260/

Great, more Nardwaur or whatever his character was on Who.

otoh no more “sandi is short” joeks

I think he'll be ok. He's very jolly.