GBBO starts tomorrow!

[Forgetfulmog]

Very excited!

Paul Hollywood does piss me off tbh, but I love seeing all the cakes & stuff. Will probably have to make something to eat whilst watching it though...

Ruby's blog is almost food porn -

The act of zesting: orange stains my fingers and drips orange in sticky beads of juice, the sweet scent of orange fills the kitchen and spills into the hallway, orange after naked orange rolls heavily across the countertop, one thudding...

LadyClarice It's the proper technical name

SDTG As several other posters have commented, she comes across as either smug, arrogant or over competitive HOWEVER having started following her on twitter she seems rather nicer on there than she is being edited to appear. So maybe she isn't so bad after all.

Russians, yes, indeed. I'm in awe

AWWWW bless little Ruby. Someone hold psued's corner quick

She'll have a publishing deal before Xmas. And good luck to her.

She seemed to blank when Sue mentioned Wittgenstein though. Or maybe her course hasn't got to him yet ....

No, she didn't, she did a double take and said baking was much harder!

I think she also - like several other of the contestants this series - just wanted Sue and her silly comments to go away and let her get on with it. Mel is lovely with the contestants. Sue is just annoying.

I don't think any of them are smug or annoying.

I do think that Sue fancies Ruby. She seems to touch her at every available opportunity.

Only Nigel Slater writes competent food porn, the rest are mere acolytes and wannabees.

Russians Don't know about a publishing deal. More likely a telly deal she's got the face and talent at cooking for it, maybe she needs more confidence though, but definitely NOT writing IMO

I agree mignonette.

Oh dear is that her blog? Erm . . . . Not a lot one can say about that really . . .

Oh bless her blog. Only a teenager reading philosophy could write something as overblown as that.

Or be Rachel Cusk.

Can't see the arrogance in Kimberley. Confidence, yes, but I think that's something to really applaud.

Yes we can be too quick to criticise self confidence in women LeGav, I agree.

Ruby is flexing her creative writing muscle. It is hard to read but she is very young still...

I cringe sometimes remembering the sort of stuff I said at that age and I did organic chemistry and plant physiology and stuff like that at the time, not philosophy. You should be allowed to be a bit pretentious at that age. If she still talks/writes like that with 30 it will a bit of a worry, though.

Oh and I made Kimberley's filo pie last night and it was really good. I recommend it. Recipe is on the BBC GBBO page.

She is only very young, she is allowed to be a bit poncy. Good on her anyway. She is evidently a high achiever.

I can't scoff at that blog but I know my daughter would curl her lip at it.

at Rachel Cusk. I loved a Life's Work and some of her phrases go through my head almost every day - but the rest is a bit overwrought and I dare not attempt the one about her marriage.

Maybe we should suggest, instead of Celebrity Bakeoff, Intellectuals Bakeoff, where Rachel Cusk is pitted against Melvyn Bragg and Hilary Mantel to see who can make the best Battenberg.

I luff Rachel Cusk - some of her novels are just fantastic. Her real life stuff, not so.

Anyway, back to GBBO...

On another board I'm on, we have become very irritated by all the emphasis on Ruby and her exams, and her being a student and having no equipment, and on and on. As someone said upthread here, Glenn's huge teaching and marking workload was dismissed - and we have no reason to think Ruby has less equipment than John (who was doing law exams) or James (medicine). Sorry, but I think their academic workload was probably tougher than hers, and I speak as someone whose son is studying philosophy.

And as for Kimberley, I don't think she's smug or unpleasant at all.

John was living in a flat, though (they kept interviewing his flatmate) whereas they are at least implying that Ruby is in a room in shared halls (she may not be, of course).

Rooms in shared halls in London that I've been in only have access to a microwave, not a full oven.

I LOVE the history but in the middle.

I've just made Tottenham cake which my dds will sample after school.

Although dd2 wanted me to make tuiles.....

...and I spilt pink food colouring on my hand which doesn't come off and looks like blood

In our house both DSs both want Howard to win. I'm cheering for Christine (she really does look like Ann Reid) and DH thinks we are mean to sneer at Ruby.

This may be a baking Faux Pas but did macarons used to be macaroons? Are they the baking equivalent of naice ham?