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

Those donuts though! They look way more like hot dogs than fingers.

lol definitely

pretty clearly a final three of Hermine, Dave and Peter imo

also

“If you make mistakes, laugh at them”
Here’s a letter from lovely Lottie to all of you Bake Off fans. #GBBO pic.twitter.com/FSJ5Qclj1q

— British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) November 3, 2020

Tie your hair back.

<3

Also, I don't know how feasible any of these recipes are for someone of my (in)experience, but one can hope: https://thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk/recipes/

Yeah, I thought Shirley Manson too.

I think I'm a little bit in love with Lottie. I'm fully team Hermine from here on in, I think. I think it's between her and Peter.

That's a lot of unnecessary 'I think's.

I can see Lottie presenting it in a couple of years' time.

Well, you think she'll go be the next Nadia, but

There was an episode Of Flog It on from Reading a couple days ago and a girl from a past bake-off series popped up with some nice cakes. Didn't really remember her though.

Liam was the next Nadiya. His baking show off channel 4 was great but made my teeth ache - everything looked so unhealthy. And there doesn't seem to have been a second series yet. (Which makes him not the next Nadiya, I guess)

Liam's been doing Junior Bakeoff with Harry Hill (and has been really good on it).

I can see Lottie being the new Candice tbh.

Liam also presents Bakeoff: The Professionals with Tom Allen, and they are a really good double act.

What a weird week! I was excited when I heard cheesecake, but then the size limit made them all look like custards of tarts. Then the blobbiest technical ever, and rounded out by jelly art, which would require an incredible hand to make it look anything but tacky. Of course, Hermine had just that skilled a hand, it was breathtaking.

I liked Marc a lot! Lots of stuff unsaid, but his time on the show has been quietly moving.

*custards or tarts

I meant to post this after the ice cream cake episode but after all this time and investment in keeping the show going, they still can't figure out how to air condition the tent?

it's manufactured drama. they could also get working ovens.

They do have working ovens! Apparently the staff test and calibrate them all before each day of filming

I’m baffled Laura is still here, it feels like she’s constantly scraping by, like she’s perpetually second-worst and is saved by better and more consistent bakers who just happen to bomb that week

yeah Laura is def a disaster artist, i thought she’d go a week or two ago

i get a perverse pleasure out of a technical that fails across the board, because it reflects poorly on the challenge itself not the bakers. it happened to Pru with another challenge too. Like, you obv didnt allow enough time for them to assemble and cook so they all came out underdone.

the jelly cakes were amazing, i found it a really exciting showstopper, esp when they were all turning them out of the molds i was terrified for them! hermine’s was breathtaking! but even dave’s looked incredible.

v sad to see Mark go, he was a good bloke & fun to watch

we really thought Laura was doomed from the opening preview which appeared to show her having serious issues with three visibly different desserts. but then she really rallied for the showstopper.

we're more ready for the young lad (Spencer? Peter? Stewart?) to go. i'm sure he's a lovely person but my partner resents his golden-boy hypercompetence and i've joined in viewing him as a twerp

Peter is v lovely and a good baker but maybe just not ~great~ tv? idk. feels mean to say.

i am fully in Hemine Must Win It All camp now

dave is my least favorite bc he just seems kind of gormless

Definitely Team Hermine over here

yeah Hermine is def #1 at this point. i'm ok with a "was obviously head and shoulders above everybody since episode 1" type of winner

yeah Laura is def a disaster artist, i thought she’d go a week or two ago

She did seem for the chop this week, but the looks on the judges faces when they actually ate her baking showed that she clearly knows flavour, even if everything she does is a visual mess.

Extra Slice had a montage of her dropping stuff this week

They do have working ovens! Apparently the staff test and calibrate them all before each day of filming

i think the expectation is for laura to be off next episode but they may well buck that to keep eyes. Hermine is the frontrunner, Dave is the bad guy and Peter is the ingenue so we'll see what they think presents the most drama.

I just made Mark's brownie recipe and my God what a mess! Way too sweet, though my proportions were definitely off on the cookie base.

The cherry bakewell cold open made me lol last week (or week before)

Raspberries though, gak...

BOO

SRSLY.

NOT COOL

Wow, my hot take on raspberries did not go down well...

yeah, worst result. But the moment they said she should walk this week I knew she was jinxed

(those h tags always make me sweat a bit)

NO.

On overall performance, it seems outrageous to me. Tsk.

Thought they would do what they've done every other year and say "well, this is for a place in the final so we shouldn't just look at this episode, we should look at the performance through the whole series."

Still, called 2 out of 3 finalists way up there ^^^^^^^.

I've seen Twitter refer to Laura as Live Laugh Love Woman which seems harsh but fair.

would the americans ever do this spoiler dance for us englishers if the timings were reversed?

I know it's all a creation of the editing, but Dave sponging down his pristine countertop as Laura wrestles with a lake of spilled glaze was pretty funny.

Also kept thinking "I wonder want Lacan would make of this talk of mirror glaze."

I agree that what happened seems ridiculous, but on the other hand, you can't just decide to bloody wing your showstopper in the semi final and expect to get away with it.

Laura is definitely the baker this year whose cooking I would most like to eat. Given how it looks, it must taste absolutely divine for her to still be there.

I've seen Twitter refer to Laura as Live Laugh Love Woman which seems harsh but fair.

LLLW would surely take pride in prouncing saverin Frenchily?

The first round last night brought back memories of my brother having a rum baba in the Flamingo restaurant in Rhyl (where we went every summer), and hiccupping all the way back to Chester on the train. I think I thought that's what "being drunk" looked like. Ah, the '70s.

(This misconception didn't last long; the day after his A-levels, his pals plied him with Southern Comfort and *then* I got to see what "drunk" was like).

I have never seen this programme, probably never will, but have been attracted to click on this thread for the first time by the fact that Mike has posted to it. I should have known he'd be talking about trains from Rhyl to Chester.

I've only really started watching it in the last couple of years. If I may borrow the words of Lebanese Druze progressive socialist Walid Jumblatt, when asked by Alexei Sayle what he thought of Rocky II - I think it's "alright".

I am now trying and failing to find some Lacan-related baking puns. I mean, 'I'm adding a blackberry jouissance to my corps morcelé' would probably sneak past Hollywood's beady eye...

Anyway, Hermine was a total travesty.

The leaving contestant has just claimed on Extra Slice that their dad told them all about when they were on the Army in World War II.

I mean I suppose he could conceivably have been 60 when they were born, but it seems fairly unlikely...

Oh my god I’m so gutted, like this has seriously ruined my day!! What the hell???

deeply bummed!! what is this world. CANCEL THE FINALE

but she did deeply fuck up her finale: the gelantine blocks looked 🤮
she seemed a bit more subdued & in her head this week? pressure etc idk.

never heard of cube cakes but i’d eat the hell out of them yum

matt giving laura the good pep talk during the technical was so lovely <3