GBBO - opinions?

[yawning801]

What are people's opinions on the new Bake Off so far? And yes, I know we're only a few minutes in. IMO the new presenters feel a bit like they're trying a little too hard to be Mel and Sue.

Opinions?

He he sophie*

wasn't Sophie's just a (badly made and badly cracked) meringue slab leaning against a cake??

There was the tutu skirt meringue element as well. Plus she used more than one type of meringue and, according to Paul, it was very good in terms of taste and texture; and of course they judge it on the whole weekend, not just the final bake, and Sophie did very well with the Les Miserables thing.

I'mlistening What did you reckon? I'm unreasonably pleased the Stacey has gone , she really started to get on my nerves last night She said that the judges didn't like too much but she went on to do too much anyway!! Yes ops, flap flap flap.

I LOVE ballet; Sophie is very clever with her icing covering multitude of sins. I also LOVE chestnut puree , bloody delicious. She deserved to win SB.

Very true Grapes Her bread was good though.

And her snail - Julia'ssnail was, er, outstanding!

Sophie to win for me. I like her calm quiet manner, she’s not trying play up to the camera or show off. I would see her winning then getting on quietly with her life - not trying to dominate TV and become a celeb like that bloody irritating Nadyia woman.

I thought they really glossed over the technical section. After saying ooh this is the hardest EVER there was hardly anything of them making it then they whizzed through the judging. It was ridiculous editing.

I think that's quite unkind about Nadiya. She wasn't/isn't 'trying to dominate TV'; it was obvious from the show that she was a natural, and I wasn't at all surprised when she started being given more TV work after the Bake Off.

She's a joy to watch, IMO, and a great role model and figure for women/women who aren't white/people with anxiety disorders.

Sophie (and the bloke) are too boring for any spin off shows IMO. Nadiya was full of character and an obvious choice.

I was never fussed about Nadiya and have not watched any of her other shows , and Candice just got right on my nerves . I think the issue with Stacey was that she was always shown huffing , puffing and moaning particularly on the hot weekends you would have thought that everybody else had an air conditioner over their head and she alone was suffering . Also all the talk of Stacey always does more than everybody else , what bollocks most of her show stoppers looked pretty amateur and the only reason she did twice as much was because she spent loads of time remaking everything .

Why can't they sort out proper air conditioning? It's unfair on the bakers to try and rescue bakes that are ruined or made more difficult by the heat.

Totally agree , it's ridiculous because that's 2 good bakes affected in the last 2 weeks , however the point remains it's the same for them all .

I do agree with you floral, my point wasn't meant to contradict yours it was just a general one. I know re Stacey, you would think her area was 10 degrees hotter than everyone else's!

Maybe Stacey is in the midst of hot flushes?

They should move the show up here to Scotland - it won't get too hot then! Might all get washed away though... :o

Yes! For something that took hours that technical was over within a few minutes.

I doubt they'll pick Sophie to win, she's not marketable enough. So it'll be Steven.

Plus she used more than one type of meringue

Didn't they all have to use more than one type of meringue? It was part of the challenge. I agree that Sophie was overpraised for her showpiece. It felt a bit strange that there were no criticisms of it at all, when the thing fell apart and was stuck together with icing! I think she's by far the best baker in the final though, and I wouldn't be surprised if she won.

I have been a bit disappointed in the showstopper challenges this series. They used to be far more impressive by the semi final. Yet the technical challenges seemed to be impossibly difficult and gave no room for gradually getting more and more difficult because they started off impossible. I have been entertained though. Noel and Sandy have grown on me. They're a great double act.

Maybe they didn't get a good shot of Sophie's showstopper but I thought it looked very ordinary and I couldn't really tell what it was. Nor could Paul who thought it was a hat. It looked like a pink cylinder on top of a flat white disc. Maybe it looked more impressive in real life.

Don't even know why I care now - nothing matters since Liam left

I think something that’s spoiling the show a bit for me is that they don’t seem to ask the contestants to bake traditional bakes anymore. There seems to be this constant quest to find something as obscure and fiddly as possible!
A good old fashioned chocolate cake or battenburg would be nice for a change. Last nights showstopper idea wasn’t a great one in my opinion.

Agree with every word you have written guineapigs.

I also get annoyed when the contestants are given a task which involves cooling part of the bake, but then aren't given enough tome to let it cool down. That's just stupid.

nothing matters since Liam left

My life is empty, too . . .

Ppeat Have sort of watched them today - up to Liam going. I loved him & wanted him to win.

Not taken to Sophie or Steven - just too smug for me. Not sure about Kate - she seems fun from the editing. But then it could all just be the editing!

Agree that they haven't left much room for the difficulty of the bakes to increase. And that they are too obscure. Who actually wants to eat rum nicky? Or the Savoy cake that even Prue and Paul admitted didn't usually taste nice! In contrast, I thought the margarita pizza technical was brilliant. More deceptively simple classics would be better.