Great British Bake Off Series 3

[Slainte]

I'm so excited, the new series starts next week . Link

I think Brendan is extremely arrogant and I can't look at or listen to him with thinking of Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector

He's really not. He's just pretty good and clearly enjoying himself and doesn't feel the need to abase himself with the kind of annoying false humility that everyone was accusing Cathryn of! They can't win really can they?

I like GBBO because it's not putting people up for humiliation and ripping them apart, like all other tv competitions. So go on, be nice, think the best of them, for me :)

Cathryn made me want to drink bleach, christ almighty she was awful! The whole "look at my cwutesy cwutesy cakes, amn't I just the cutest? " schtick was exhausting within the first five minutes of episode one. YOu could tell last week that Paul was tired of her, he'd had enough of her "OH I'M SO AAAAAAWFUL, I CAAAAAAARN'T DOOOOOOO THIIIIIIIIIIIIS! " nonsense.

I love James and his Fair Isle jumpers. Would love him to win, but think Brendan will take it.

John is far too Man-At-River-Island-beige-yawn for me.

Wem, are you Brendan?

You just have to look at wem's cakes to know she's not Brendan, he birds would have been far far more impressive!

Viking. I have to say I was a little disappointed with his bluebirds, given his precision in everything else :)

OMG, wem! Your cakes are fantastic!!

How do you do those lacey flowery things?
How did you do that vase of daffs?

In fact, how do you do any of it!

Come over to the sugarcraft thread in the baking topic!

They really were bad weren't they?!

Brendan does not make me think of Hanibal Lecter.
Just of his much creepier brother.

I know James' dad. He's lovely and a very clever funny bloke

I love Brendan.
Was Johns nose stud a new addition this week?

Well coco it takes all sorts I spose .EUCH I hate nose studs they look like enormous white heads Like emeralds in yr teeth; enjoy yr spinach did you?

I'm not convinced I like any of them to be honest. I'll probably support Danny but just cos she's the only female left rather than anything else. Bring back Sarah-Jane

Viking, that thread ... is scary! I couldn't even start to do anything like any of it! Seriously talented people, you lot!

We're not scary, honest. Come chat :) I bet you could do a good job if you gave it a go, there are loads of good books and youtube tutorials out there.

To answer your questions, (sorry for the brief hijack) the lacey flowers are a technique called brush embroidery, and I followed a youtube tutorial for the daffs :)

I didn't understand why Catherine didn't at least try to cool her chocolate in a waterbath - maybe with some ice in it.

I like Danny - though the Big Ben wasn't that good (though I know I couldn't do anything anywhere near as good). I thought the Coliseum was amazing and should have won star baker.

Yep, the Colosseum was brilliant, didn't he say there were a hundred pieces? It's a shame he didn't get star baker as opposed to James as his actually went to plan.

Didn't like the nose piercing, looks like a zit.

Yes, the derelict barn was a great save, but the Colosseum was amazing. It felt like they had to justify giving star baker to James a bit too much - you would want to eat every bit of it, saying how tasty every bit was, and how the structure underneath was very complex really.

Why have I never seen this? RL mates all talk about it and I am clueless

Big changes in temperature make chocolate go dull, and she wanted it shiny.
As it happens everybody's chocolate coating was shiny in the end.
I strongly suspect though it had something to do with the silicone coating on the moulds - silicone gives that shine to everything, and not to their tempering abilities. I
f you look at the bottom of the teacakes all the digestives coated in chocolate and not in contact with the silicone were dull.
So she could have risked it.

Why would anyone bother making teacakes when M&S have perfected them already?

I'm a paid up member of the Sensible People Opposed to Vile Tunnocks Teacakes Society.

I'm not sure why anyone bothers with teacakes at all - why take a nice chocolate digestive and ruin it with a load of weirdy fluffy marshmallow on top.

I used to love the Austrian equivalent.
It's only marshmallow and chocolate, no digestives.
I love digestive biscuits, but not in this.

Digestive is too solid, it calls for something spongier.

I used to love the Austrian equivalent.
We call them Super Dickmann's round here, from when my sister bought a load back from her German exchange in the 90's. Here...