Great British bake off back 5th August

[Helgathehairy]

Seems slightly earlier than usual? Very excited anyway!

Could have been worse - I keep thinking its Mighty Ronseal!

the floating lumps of meringue

Ermmm - Iles Flottantes is an absolute classic of French cookery: you'll find a version of it in any book of standard French recipes.

I completely agree that the final is often the least impressive thing, relying on gimmickry and staging rather than baking skills. Monkseal described last year's winner as NANCY'S GIANT SINISTER GINGERBREAD WHORE HOUSE WINDMILL CAKE, which pretty much covered it.

I liked it when they had to do e.g. raised pies with hot water crust pastry - very technically challenging.

And now that there are ??5 previous series, yes, you could practise every single technical challenge, but there are SIXTY of them.

Empress yes but I think there are GBBO contestants out there who are that obsessive! One of last years finalists (Luis I think?) had been selected as a contestant the year before but asked to defer his place for a year so he could improve his baking!

Yes I know Empress but those Iles Flottantes looked totally unappetising and like something you would serve to people with no teeth (was it invented with that in mind, rich and titled but no teeth?).

I love the little food history lesson from Mel and Sue as well. They have a version of the show in France too but it's not a patch on the British one (not biased at all)

Apparently Extra Slice is back. I think my favourite was S2, but I like them all.

I see Extra slice starts on Friday August 7th so 2 days after GBBO is aired, just like last year.

I just cannot wait till Wednesday.
I simply love GBBO to bits, it's the best thing on telly.

Bake Off Day!

I'm out on Wednesday nights though so won't be able to catch up until first thing tomorrow morning.

I've got a work dinner tonight so will have to catch it late on iplayer. Can't wait though....yippeeee!!

Glad I found this thread, can you all be my Bake off friends!. I used to watch each week with a friend and oogle all the cakes whilst she oggled Paul, of course we had and . She has moved away and DH is a v poor subsititute.

Hooray, Bake Off Day is here at last!!!

Bring on the cakes.

Oh yes, I love this!! I've been trying to watch old episodes but it's so difficult to find them (except on Amazon instant video but I'm not sure of that yet - £13.99 for a series and I can't carry around with me on disc?!)

I'll move dinner back to 8 so I don't feel so gutted about having no sweet stuff in!

Ha! Ugnes' partner trying to pose casually in the background

The short guy with the hat seems familiar to me. I wonder if any professional wannabes have infiltrated the show for the first time?

Argh, they have the same timers I do, I keep looking toward the kitchen every time one goes off!

My eye money is on the anesthetist

Good start to the series.

Is this it? I came on here expecting to find the thread up to 300 posts by now . We forced our instructor at body pump tonight to finish early so we could all get home in time and nobody's watching?

I watched and enjoyed it. Wasn't surprised about who went at all.

I watched and enjoyed it. Wasn't surprised about who went at all.

I missed the end as DS turned up from his hols! bad timing
Who went?

Oh, I watched it all right. Some incredibly talented people there. And Tamal knows his stuff. That collar was sensational. I also liked the star baker, and the lady from Leeds.

Some amazing cakes last night.
Poor Dorrit (?) My heart sank for heR.

Tamal is brilliant. How he has time to be an anaesthetics registrar and be brilliant at chocolate work and apple roses I'll never know.

Is the Monkseal blog up yet?

There's a 300 post thread here

Usually takes him a day or so, seaoflove.