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.

Judging from their comments, I'd say John and Brendan did as well as each other in the final.

I can't help but think that their reasoning was somewhere along the lines of John makes for better viewing because Brendan is of a certain age and mostly keeps his emotions in check.

Most televised competitions result in disagreement amongst lots of people. They're designed to encourage you to pick a side.

And as for the 'unsporting' reference, well I've never been very deferential! Nor likely to start. It seems to me the reason most people watch football is to argue about it afterwards, this show would seem to be in the same vein.

Just watching episode one again and the final is the hidden design cake (Union flags anyone?). Brendan doesn't appear in this bit and there doesn't seem to be any mention of him. Anyone remember why?

Or Danny...

Did they just not show all the contestants in the early episodes then?

I think it was mentioned at the beginning of the other thread we had. Seem to remember people complaining back then that not all the cakes were shown. Maybe too many people/contestants? As the weeks went on they managed to show them all. Most probably a timing issue I would imagine.

Yeah, they didn't bother showing everyone's bakes early on. Stupid really, all they needed to do was cut down on some of the talky stuff.

Ah ok. Thought it might be that when I realised Danny wasn't in it. When it was just Brendan I thought it was suspicious

I think the 'here comes the history' segment is so they have a bit they can chop out for the ad breaks when it's shown in the US. Agree it's much better when they cut out a few of the no-hopers and can look at the individual dishes properly.

The one guy I was relieved went out early was, I'm afraid, the one with bad teeth. Every time the camera turned to him, I cringed. I'm a bad, bad person and I know it.

Was he the guy who kept burning things? He did seem a bit lost, I'd imagine 'rustic' is his thing. I did like him though.

OMG me too marshmallow ! How shallow and lookist are we?

There were 10 contestants (previous series there were 8) and they couldn't show everyone's baking in the 1 hour slot. So you don't see all their bakes in the early stages.

Danny has written an excellent blog post about the final.

bakingastherapy.com/2012/10/17/if-the-gbbo-final-were-the-tour-de-france/

Just watched ep one again. Most interesting bit for me was when Ryan and Brendan were stood together watching Cathryn. Brendan says to Ryan 'do not underestimate this lady. She keeps saying she's so nervous but she's actually very determined' Wow! Brendan totally had Cathryn sussed!

If anyone is wanting to re watch them on iplayer then you've only got 8 days left to do it in by the looks of it.

I don't know if John could compete with Brendan on the sob story front. Both had families that forced them to do something other than the baking that they wanted to do. Both gay men, with the issues that that can bring. John has a harsh mother, Brendan's died young. But I think it must have been awful for Brendan growing up as a gay man in catholic Ireland. Obviously he has managed to reject that and has taken the Buddhist path, but it affected him greatly - see his comment about catholic guilt. And something split his family 30 years ago that he has worked hard to sort out - witness his emotion over his family reunion cake. I wonder if the baking contest and the family reunion were part of some concerted effort to heal the wounds of the past as part of his retirement - he practically said as much in the clip where he nearly broke down.

Sorry, very late to this thread (and have probably killed it ) but WHY on earth did they think it was reasonable to demand 25 fondant fancies in 2 piffling hours? None of them could have produced a professional-looking result because the icing didn't even have a chance to dry. That was ridiculous imho.

Oh, and I'm with the Brendanites. Can't believe John won it. I know it was a competition and the result was judged on the day but come on. After the first 2 rounds I was convinced that John could never win, and tbh I didn't think much of his final cake either - weird-looking, and a bit lopsided. Maybe Paul'n'Mary were dazzled by the glare from the icing .

As others have said, I know you can't judge it on a 'continuous assessment' basis but this series really showed up the weakness of the format for me. John had so many disasters (including not being able to figure out how to get 25 cakes from a perfectly square sheet of sponge - in the final!) while Brendan worked quietly and steadily away with amazing consistency.

I know who'd I'd give a job to, if I were looking for a professional pastry-chef...

Yeah, John did screw up big time when it came to cutting up the sponge. But he'd over thought it. He thought the sponges needed to be perfect cubes, so he measured the height of the sponge (3cm, he said) and therefore cut the sponge into 3cm cubes. I cringed when he did it because I knew he was wrong!

I'm re watching the first few now and struck by how well John is doing in the early rounds (if you exclude getting the salt and sugar containers confused in week 1, which is down to being in an unfamiliar kitchen).

John actually actively thought "what size do I want these to be?" rather than just taking the size of cake he had and chopping it into a 5x5 grid. He arrived at the wrong answer, but the fact that he paused to ask the question was a positive in my book.

And as Danny (? I think it was Danny - I've read so many blogs over the last few days they are all starting to merge together in my head) said, John's final cake was a very Paul Hollywood -style affair, while Brendan's wasn't. Again, rewatching from the beginning several episodes at a time I was struck by how often Mary Paul used the term "modern" approvingly. It must have been clear to all the bakers that that was part of what they were looking for.

The prize for consistency is to stick around for longer, to have the chance to leverage that into a cookbook or recipe-writing career if that appeals to you, and to get an entry spot to the final. All of that Brendan has. The prize for doing the best job in the final (not burning your pithivier or presenting judges who've consistently praised the 'modern: with a slightly dated design) is a glasses cake stand, and that John has.

Yeah I thought the same when John did that. He definitely over-thought it unfortunately. Mind you, I've got to be honest, I didn't think Mary's fondant fancies looked 'all that' either!

I'm enjoying all this post bake off analysis .

I did think the fondant fancy challenge was a bit off. I know it had to be a challenge but how on earth could you make them from scratch in two hours?

If Brendan does a recipe book, I'm buying it. All of his savoury stuff looked delicious, especially the strudel.

I mean, how on earth could you make them properly. Obviously you could make them in that time...just not very well!

They do seem to be a total faff for something that probably doesn't taste hugely different to Mr Kipling's.

I'd buy a Brendan book too.

I rarely buy posh bread from shops cos it's inevitably a disappointment.

Although the coop's roasted onion mini baguettes are scrummy.

Viking If I wanted a fancy schmancy 60s cookbook i'd get one 2nd hand by Fanny Craddock on Amazon.

flippinada if you buy non wheat bread (not GF free that's disgusting) in Waitrose it is delicious.