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.

That was a gruelling watch. I really didn’t enjoy watching two young women crying for such a large part of the show. I stopped before the end and used this thread to find out the winner.

Just done the final on I Player. I felt they chose 'interesting' (quirky) people this year for contestants, not necessarily the best bakers. I've never felt compelled to watch but couldn't stop.

I was rooting for Alice (unpopular I know) as it always looks like its going to be a disaster, then comes together. Also how genuinely happy was she always for other people.

Not sure if I missed but did they edit the moment they cut into her final piece (the pie).

@CakeNinja I think he is a nurse and works in international places and lines running in his spare time

I'm gutted steph didn't win, look at all the star baker weeks she had, it's almost like nothing before the final mattered.

I turned it off, I couldnt warm to David. Just gutted for steph as if it went better she probably would if won.

@CakeNinja He’s a nurse and international health adviser, so assists in creating healthcare access in third world countries.

There have been a few photos like this on their insta stories, is it the first bake off romance that doesn’t involve Paul and a contestant!

OMG, that's adorable!

The right contestant won.

David didn’t always get everything right throughout the series but he truly seemed to understand how baking works, he was adventurous and is clearly a ‘hobby baker’ who fits it around a busy and very worthy career. Alice IMO is in a similar mould but not as good and definitely flaps far too much.

Steff on the other hand has clearly learned to be a very competent baker, it sounded like she’d learned a lot with her mum, but she didn’t cope well with being pushed out of her comfort zone. She was brilliant at baking amazing looking and tasty cakes when she’d practised the recipe and planned carefully but I don’t believe she has anywhere near the natural talent of David. Her Stilton soufflés were a complete write off and nothing in her showstopper really worked.

I also found her frequent tears and downcast looks quite tedious. If she’s really that fragile then entering a national competition with a big audience is perhaps not the best idea for her mental wellbeing.

I liked that David seemed genuinely unflustered right through the series and even when announced as winner, you felt he was very happy but would also have coped fine if he hadn’t been. There was no ecstatic OTT reaction just genuine enjoyment of it. I hope he carries on nursing as well as baking- I bet he’s a great asset to the profession

I don't foresee a forthcoming book deal.

I also liked a lot that David took negative feedback on the chin. Alice too, pretty much. Whereas Steff would well up and do her downcast looks whenever Prue and Paul made any criticism.

The whole point of the competition is that you’re going to be critiqued. And actually some of the other contestants came in for harsher comments than Steff ever had, yet she still seemed about to dissolve into tears.

If you want everyone to just praise your baking then save it for a hobby - don’t enter a national completion. It makes uncomfortable viewing when you feel someone really isn’t coping with the pressure. I know tv shows have come in for a lot of criticism over contestants’ mental health and the ethical side of things but quite frankly TGBBO is relatively gentle, no one is out to be hurtful, and I think the onus is on contestants to accept that if they’re going to put themselves in the spotlight they should be prepared to enter into the spirit of the show- which inevitably involves critiquing

Completely agree, what they’ve been up to was boring! I love that part of the final but it seems like none of them had done anything relatively interesting since the show.

If filming finished in the summer, presumably most of the contestants have been back at work- I’m David is busy nursing, Alice starting a new school year, Rosie tending to poorly animals etc!

Quite frankly if any of the contestants had landed a book deal or opened a bakery since the show was filmed then they probably had too much time on their hands before!

I like that most of the contestants are ordinary people doing a range of jobs and fitting baking in as a hobby. Why on earth would they suddenly change their whole life? I thought it was sweet how Michael seemed very keen on the meet ups though

Yes, it seems there's no pleasing Mumsnet.

If you are vulnerable, you need lots of support and woolly hugs.

But if you're a cool, collected person, it's apparently fine to say you 'can't warm' to a person who does a fantastically important job that requires a level head and buckets of compassion.

They should be hobby bakers - but they shouldn't just go back to their normal lives after. How BORING.

They seem 'fame hungry'. But 'can't see a book deal' this year.

'It used to be about bakers' - and a baker with the most consistent technical baking ability and cracking presentation wins. The two other finalists also did well.

David did a cracking job throughout and I'm really pleased for him. I thought it was a better series than last year.

(I DO appreciate diversity amongst the contestants, but it strikes me as a pretty ageist comment that because they were a similar age, they weren't personally diverse. Oh, and I would be bored to tears by seeing scones after buns after tarts every week - and I think most people would after ten years! Shows evolve - they ALL do. Bake Off, in fact, is remarkably little changed in format for a decade old.)

I don't understnd the "can't warm to David" comments either. He was always pipped at the post for star baker, and am really hapy that he won. He always took coming second so many times with good grace.

I’m really pleased David won.

I didn’t warm to Steph at all but it was awful watching her fall apart so much in the last episode- I really felt sorry for her.

Most of the contestants were pretty dull, hopefully C4 pick better next year.

So being star baker umpteen times counts for nothing. It’s just down to the bakes on the day. Meh.

If the winner was decided by the number of times someone is star baker then why bother having a final at all?

I don’t think anyone is doubting that Steff is a very competent baker, who can produce great tasting and very attractive products which she’s planned and practised. But she stuck too much to her comfort zone - her opera cake in the semi final was a good example- as I said upthread I don’t think she really met the brief then of creating patisserie which represented something significant in their life. She clearly wanted to make an opera cake and created a very tenuous link to some relative who apparently liked opera. Whereas the others all seemed more authentic in their approach.

When she was pushed out of her comfort zone- as with the Stilton soufflé and the ‘deception picnic’ - she really wasn’t good. I think David showed much more genuine understanding of the chemistry of baking and was also miles ahead in his adventurous approach. Alice wasn’t quite up there with him but again, I admired the fact she had a go and was generally positive - no tears until the final which was about her parents, not critiquing of her baking.

I felt quite uncomfortable with how Paul and prue seemed to favour Steff right up to the final, almost as though because she had this brittle persona and welled up with tears whenever anything wasn’t perfect, they felt they had to constantly bolster her confidence.

Anyone entering a competition like this knows what they’re letting themselves in for. It was good to see contestants like David entering into the spirit and accepting critiques on the chin

So being star baker umpteen times counts for nothing. It’s just down to the bakes on the day. Meh.

Of course it is, otherwise there would be no excitement or point at all to having a final.

They've always been very clear that it's about bakes on the day and not past performance (apart from that one time where they couldn't decide between them on the day and so Paul and Mary said they were going to take past performance into account. Provoked twitter outrage IIRC).

So being star baker umpteen times counts for nothing. It’s just down to the bakes on the day. Meh.

Turn that around.

So coming near the top consistently in every single episode, not having any massive blind spots in baking ability, and then significantly outperforming the other two bakers in the final episode

... is what 'counts for nothing' with you.

David was much more competent and knowledgeable generally about baking.

Steph clearly went to pieces as shown by her continuing to unmould undercooked souffles after the first one was wrong, never mind after several.

Surely it has to be based on the performance on the day, like most competitions. I'd never watched this series, but DD, a real fan, came round, and I watched it with her. I assumed that David was a shoo-in from the start, he was so good! I was amazed when DD said he was certainly not favourite to win.

When Steff thought the Bain Marie, when making the souffles, meant putting them in on the oven surrounded by cold water I lost all hope in her.

I don’t bake at all, I’m an awful cook but surely common sense tells you that of course it needed to be hot water in order for the souffle to be cook!! What exactly did she think the cold water was going to do? How was that supposed to help in the baking process? I was generally flabbergasted (and still am) that she made such a stupid mistake.

It was very uncomfortable watching her fall apart last night - I think she’d previously been put on some kind of pedestal and the pressure just knocked her off it.

David absolutely deserved to win.

It always has been based on the day. Which is why my DH is still furious about Rahul winning last year when he should have been eliminated earlier in the show for having a shocking week.

They did it this year too. Took out Phil on a week that he actually did better than both Priya and Henry.

David has been consistent all the way through. Multiple second places in the technical isn't something to be ignored. First place changed all the time, he was always there at the top. I agree with PPs about him taking criticism on the chin. Finals night, he absolutely blew the rest of them out of the water. So looking at it from both points where they're judged on consistency of performance AND on the day performance. Then he was the only choice to win.

Completely agree the decision had to be based on performance in the final. I was just making the point that David's knowledge and experience is greater. Once he nailed the flavours, he was the clear winner.

I though Alice's pie and scotch eggs were brilliant. As were David's cheeseboard, basket, peaches and sausage rolls. It was a really good challenge. Remember the year Frances won? They had to make and decorate a wedding cake in three hours and they were pretty sure.