Bake Off 2019 - Thread 2

[TragicallyUnbeyachted]

Old thread

Ten points to DarlingNikita who spotted my deliberate mistake - I meant, of course, "cutting the judges' comments to make it LOOK as though they are sending home the wrong people." Ahem.

I think Rosie just had to go because her showstopper was a let down on both appearance and taste. If she’d nailed one of those it would probably have been enough to save her.

Having said that I think the concept of the showstopper was crap. Crafting a ‘glass box’ out of Isomalt is not baking and tbh doesn’t require any huge creativity (even I have made presentable stuff from isomalt, it’s not like real sugar craft) This detracted from the actual patisserie skills and also blurred what it was they were actually being judged on. A show stopper which really tested their skills at making, eg: a range of delicate patisserie items would have been much better. There just seemed to be genuine confusion as to what they needed to produce... I felt Rosie was best in terms of concept (ie patisserie items rather than one cake) but of course her execution of it was bad.

Steff is irritating with her self deprecation and coy head tilts; she just seems to have zero personality too.

I don’t have any particular favourite, but generally I like the contestants who are clearly ‘hobby’ bakers and have interesting lives going on outside of that, eg Rosie being a vet and Alice being a teacher ...same with the ones in the past who are doctors, scientists etc - whatever you think of them as individuals, they clearly aren’t able to devote their entire lives to baking which I feel is more in the spirit of Bake Off.

@OkayGoooouuuuuullllll to answer your question about why the choux was runny (not at all a baking expert but have done choux a few times!) it looked to me like she was adding too much egg. Choux can be really unpredictable & following the exact same recipe on two different days, you’ll probably find yourself adding different amounts of egg. Choux needs to be more of a paste than a runny liquid & it’s adding the egg that makes it the paste, but too much egg will make it runny.

I thought the result last night was unfair and David should have gone as his encased cake was not the standard they asked for. Rosie had won the technical - and she did it all twice in the time!

Steph's layer cake was a patisserie classic and executed far better than David's.

Watching Alice was stressful - she was all over the place. Her piping in the domed tart round was awful because she kept breaking away to do this and that in a panic then came back and piped a bit more. I don't think it was the editing, I think it was a true reflection.

I agree that it all seems to be about the showstopper now. You can nail the first two rounds but if Paul doesn’t like your showstopper you’re out. It’s a shame because to me the first two rounds are the real tests of skill. But I no longer feel this show is truly about baking skills anyway.

I’m sad Rosie went out as she just seemed like a nice normal person who bakes for a hobby.

I gave up half way through the episode this week. Just not engaging me...

Wasn't there one week that Henry said he used 100 eggs in practice - it's got to be harder for those without the money or time (like Alice in exam marking week) to practice as much.

Agree jasper. There have been a few contestants in the past too who seem to have endless hours to bake which is a very different scenario to having a busy career and fitting baking in around that. I’m far more interested in the latter.

Also agree that the show has moved a long way from judging genuine baking skills.

@paddingtonbearsmarmalade thank you!

David should have gone but I don't think they wanted an all female final?. If you want to cheat you can Google it to see who wins the final.

That's a shit reason to get rid of someone frankly. They've had all female finals in the past. And no I don't want to find out before watching the final. Are you Prue under an assumed name @geordiejock?

@wowfudge, yes I am she. We said at the start that all things being close to equal he would go through, it was very close but I think he should have gone. Yes they have had all female finals but then the selection may have been more obvious?

Yes they have had all female finals but then the selection may have been more obvious?
I don't understand what you mean?

It really seemed odd that three went for a big cake, and Rosie interpreted the brief totally differently.
Like last week with Henry and the stacked pies, when the others all created a scene.
It's been such a weird series, I hope they clear house for next year, Paul needs to go.

Getting bored of the jokes. Yes we know sandi is short. Paul is an arse, prue has eclectic necklaces... They are totally underusing Sandi.

The beginning clips are often painful, too staged. I agree they under-use Sandi but there was a hilarious moment when she offered Noel some "delicious crisps". I watched her closely and she was very dry and i was in tears. Re-watch it.

A pp said Noel doesn't quite fit or words to that effect... i say on behalf of all Noel fans out there, WRONG! He's a darling. His little comments are so natural. eg. With the opera cakes(?!) he walked away saying "i'm allergic to opera!" All the bakers love him.

So..back to baking. I knew as soon as Rosie said her patisserie was too dry, she was done for. Also it was a weirdly poor show-stopper. She had to go based on that. But yes out of the three finalists i'm just not bothered enough about who wins.

Agree jay. I know Henry’s pies weren’t great taste wise but in terms of the stacking, surely that’s what you do with raised pies? Can’t see how fannying about making pastry swings and forest creatures is any measure of baking skills.

And again this week, ok steff May have made a wonderful opera cake but how exactly did that represent something/ someone close to her heart? She came up with a very tenuous link about some step grandparent twice removed having liked opera or something, but that was clearly just her way of shoe horning in her cake. Whereas for all her faults, Rosie did try to meet the brief by making patisserie to represent family members and her clock to show time passing. In that respect you could argue that steff wasn’t really Meeting the brief.

There needs to be much more clarity about what is actually expected. Don’t tell the contestants to create something which represents a significant part of their lives if you’re then going to allow someone to just make a cake they know they can ace. And let’s have no more of the isomalt nonsense, wasting time making a ‘glass box’ which demonstrates nothing in terms of baking skills.

Paul didn't seem to like Rosie from the beginning, he's been quite rude about her stuff on several occasions. Constructive criticism is useful, just glaring at someone and telling them it hasn't worked is not.

I really dislike the running 'joke' about Sandi being in a sack. It's unfunny and a bit nasty IMO.

i really dislike the running 'joke' about Sandi being in a sack. It's unfunny and a bit nasty IMO

Yes agreed. That's one joke they should def ditch

Poor Rosie. I wanted her in the final. Her sidelong smirk when Steph said the words “chocolate starfish” was hilarious 😂

Henry is in a YouTube video in which he says that he didn’t realise that the stack was meant to ‘be something’ until the night before. So he had to come up with the upside down chandelier ! He thought it was just a stack of pies. I just don’t feel bothered about who wins , it’s all about the decoration and not the baking now.

He said that on Extra Slice too, Peaseblossom.

Oh I didn’t see it this week, I suspect this year will be my last year of watching , it’s more of a decorating contest now and frankly their basic skills are lacking

I’ve watched every single series of Bake Off and enjoyed it immensely but have given up on it this year. It’s been ‘Instagrammed’. Everything is about what the stuff looks like. In earlier series you had proper enthusiastic bakers who made delicious things you would love to eat. They may not have looked professional but that was the point. It was a home baking competition and it worked because everyone knows home baking is the best.

I would probably have given up myself mid-season except that the DCs now like to watch it.

I also feel that the flavours and stuff haven't been very interesting either. You usually have someone doing amazing flavours and while David likes to use vegetables etc it's not the same is it.

I will be working for the final.

I'm no longer arsed so won't be recording it. I just don't feel anything about the ones that are left. If I had to choose it would be Dave.

Time for a rethink ch4. I'd much rather it be a bunch of WI contestants or nans than the soshul meja people.

Oh and baking might be nice. I don't care for fancy. I just want something that I might manage if the wind is blowing the right way and I've appeased the gods by managing not to set off the smoke detector.