Great British Bake-off: The Final

[StrangerintheNight]

Just typed out a very excitable post only to find the previous thread, on which I was an avid lurker, had exceeded it's capacity. So if you don't mind, I'll start the overflow thread in the lead up to the Grand Final.

I think the right person won. Brendan was very good technically, but John took creative risks. They didn't always work out, but when they did, they did big time!

I'd have liked to have seen Danny in the final rather than James. James' flavours were good but his presentation was never very good, and not as good as Danny's, IMO.

Loving the differing views

I thought Brendan's cake looked awful. Too tall, unbalanced and the sort of covering you see on a gateaux from Iceland.

They seemed more rapturous about the flavour of Brendan's.

I'm probably going to get flamed for this but what the hell - if I didn't know any better I would think that James f**ked everything up on purpose. Surely nobody who got to the final could be so bad on the day when it counted? Seriously did you see his icing on those five cakes? It was awful and it had big gaps in it where you could see the cake through the icing. It was really strange how he was suddenly so Shit at everything when he's been star baker loads of times!

Well danny's Big Ben offering was not exactly perfection, also her creme pat. was literally dripping out of her cake I liked danny too BTW but she wasn't quite up to it technically was she? I still agree with you jins

It did look a bit like a stall at a school cake sale.

Maybe his nerves finally kicked in.

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Yes wintera you may have a point about James

Wintera - I very much doubt James screwed up in purpose. He has form when it comes to running out of time (admitted on Twitter that he would never have finished his petit fours without Sue assembling the brownie ones for him) and tbh he's always lacked finesse.

He's not very organised I just remembered his cake falling off the stool

I wondered about James throwing it too.

John was lucky, I think if he hadn't cut his hand that would have been the week he went.

Even though I liked John more than Brendan personality wise, in the end, I'd have been happy for either one of them to win it. They were both so much more emotionally invested in it, and it was clear that both of them really wanted to win it too. I truly believe that if John's showstopper hadn't been so good then Brendan would have got it definitely.

I think John deserved it-his cake at the end was beautiful-classy and professional. Very french patisserie which is what he wanted. I am glad brendan didn't win-he was a tad arrogant about it along the way, sounding like he was giving some sort of masterclass sometimes.

James was just too cocky I think.

I'll admit to being very jealous indeed of John's flatmate. When she said 'I sometimes get up for work and he's already made a lemon curd' I was particularly green eyed. I bloomin love lemon curd!

Any other competition works the same way. Can you imagine Paxman on Uni Challenge saying "well, X Uni have been consistent through all the rounds, so even though they have been roundly trounced by Y Uni by 350 points to -15, we'll give the award to X"? I don't think so.

Yes, but on University Challenge you only progress through the rounds if you beat your opponent. In my opinion there were weeks when John was the weakest contestant and should have been knocked out. He should never have made the final.

Yes but in the week's when John was poor, someone else was always much worse. That's the way it goes sometimes. Think about right at the beginning of the series. Remember Stuart the PE teacher? He was pretty crap over those first few weeks but someone else was always worse. People were asking on here - why is Stuart still in it? He was just plain lucky that someone always had a worse week until the week his luck ran out and he got the boot.

I agree that could have happened to John as well but when he was in danger he either managed to do something really good like the collosseum gingerbread or someone else had a worse week such as Cathryn or Danny. Surely that's what makes it all the more interesting? That its not so cut and dry. Makes it more exciting!

In the week John was due for the boot he cut his finger.

Incidentally, if anyone is interested then they still have all the eps on BBC iplayer. And if you have virgin on demand then they are all there on tv catch up. Not like I'd be sad enough to watch it all over again or anything like that . . . No not at all

Oh goody, that was my next move. I love watching it from the start when we know who all the characters are :)

squoosh you don't know that John would have gone in the week that he cut his finger. Sarah-Jane was looking vulnerable as well.

Remember the week that Ryan looked like a dead cert to go and then won star baker on the strength of his key lime pie.

We get that you wanted Brendan to win. On the day he just wasn't as good as John and that's how the competition works

So sorry that my opinions are irritating you Jins! You maintain John was a worthy winner, I maintain he wasn't. Disagreement, that's how the competition works.

Not at all irritated, more amused to be honest, but the competition doesn't work on disagreement.

I'm not sure that "disagreement" is how the competition works! In the end we had two judges, the people who were actually there and tasting everything and they decided unanimously in favour of John. Seems a bit unsporting to question their decision just 'cos your horse didn't come in Squoosh!

God the daily mail is so crap. One of their articles says Brendan was known as The Bakernator. Am pretty sure they called him The Brendanator one week, not Bakernator.