GBBO 2020!!

[5foot5]

I couldn't see a thread on this so apologies if there was one and I missed it.

Apparently this will be on before the end of the year, filming has just finished

GBBO

Yay!! Something good on the tele to look forward to for a change

Are macaroons biscuits?
I'd say they are cakes.

Although, the cake/biscuit test is supposed to be biscuits go soft when stored and cakes go hard. I would think macaroons would go soft so by that test they would be biscuits. I think that test was applied to Jaffa cakes.

@ppeatfruit

Sooo I recorded it and watched half, (it's an hour ahead here, so I get too tired). I predicted that Mak would go. His quarantine's were crap.

Lottie deserved the handshake hers looked good and obviously tasted the best. Some of the others seem to think that unusual additions to their bakes make them better, which, of course, is not necessarily true. I have never tasted pink chocolate, what do they put in it to make it pink? Are macaroons biscuits?

Ruby chocolate is made from unfermented cocoa beans - it's not dyed.

And I think threads go for 1,000 posts?

Yes I think Mak's not following the brief was his downfall. It's a shame because I liked him too and think he looks like an ageing Bollywood star.

Bread week next week will be interesting - the clips looked good.

I could only half watch last night - someone mentioned Shepherd's Huts? Where were they?

Maggie, I think that's to do with where they are all staying while in the bubble - it wasn't shown.

Rowan reminds me of Ian McKellan. Lottie's eyes are gorgeous.

Matt showed us round the bubble 'compound' at the beginning of the first episode. There were shepherd's huts for each of them to chill. I'm guessing that was for the hosts, not one for each contestant too.

Thanks Captain and Clymene

Maggie The shepherd's huts were shown by Matt, they were all actually staying in them in their bubble!!!! They weren't biscuits. Unless someone made one from biscuits last night, I missed it too , will catch up later !!

Interesting views on Dave....last year there was David who was a fabulous baker (and won) but came across quite smug, from the beginning. However there was a MNer who knew him and said this wasnt the case at all so could be all down to editing or casting for a great but smug seeming baker called Dave or David

I thought Hermine might be at risk of leaving yesterday, but her name wasnt mentioned.
I think they kept Rowan in for entertainment more than his baking ability.

They showed the shepherds huts last week. It is where the celebs go when filming but not in the tent, (like portable caravans for normal location filming but posher).

Dave just seems very intense and competitive.

Oh thanks - I'd missed that last week.

@PinkDaydreams

Has anyone else noticed Dave's shoulder dance wiggle thing he does when he's happy, it's really annoying me! And yes yes to pp that found this episode a bit boring, I thought the same

I noticed this too

@Wolfcub

Armadillo!

I'm reading this the next day but I know which point this was as I said exactly the same thing

@Toddlerteaplease

I tried a ruby Magnum. It was awful

Aaah yes, I hadn't put 2+2 together to work out this was that same chocolate. It was vile.

Shame, his did look very pretty.

I think Dave's just way less at ease on camera than any of the others, and it comes across as intense competititiveness and gritted teeth, whereas I suspect he's just not a natural at being filmed. Really, if you think about it, it's far odder that many of the others, without any TV experience, are quipping away and being funny or drinking tea or helping one another out or not snapping at the presenters to sod off while they're trying to temper chocolate or make mango curd, with a camera permanently on them in a stressful situation.

But that's why they screen test the final twenty or so candidates in the tent before they make the ultimate selection -- they're selecting the final cut for ease and naturalness on camera, as well as getting a mix of men and women, ages and races etc.

Which does make sense. I bake well, but this is a feel-good programme, and the viewing public absolutely does not want to see my natural resting bitch face, not to mention the way I glower when I concentrate. I'm a perfectly pleasant person, but absolutely certain I would come across on camera as a grumpy, ultra-competitive hate figure, and spawned a thousand grumpy GIFs

Dave might relax into it a bit.

It was a boring episode last night, I agree. I wonder if part of the problem is that they're not leaving the bubble at all between filming, and there are only two days between filming sessions, so they're two days on and two days off, which they spend practising -- rather than in other years when they went back home and their families and jobs and lives in between weekend filming slots.

I think you always felt with some of my favourite competitors from previous seasons like Dani the medic who blogged about being on the show that they'd been leading involved and interesting lives since you saw them the previous week, and that's obviously not happening now. Which must be quite tough, if you're either in the tent or the hotel or the hotel grounds with the same group of people. (Although I gather the entire bubble was something like 130 people?)

Even if it's also a bit of a relief not to have to deal with 12-hour shifts and children and a commute while trying to fit in practising your 3-D biscuit table setting...?

@Fizbosshoes

Interesting views on Dave....last year there was David who was a fabulous baker (and won) but came across quite smug, from the beginning. However there was a MNer who knew him and said this wasnt the case at all so could be all down to editing or casting for a great but smug seeming baker called Dave or David

My boyfriend knows him quite well, he is lovely, I think his general calm demeanor was confused with smugness.

Does anyone have any guesses what the rainbow coloured bread thing will be for next week's technical challenge? Just about to order my coloured icing...

Did it look like they were boiling or deep-frying the rainbow things? DH suggested rainbow crogels (the mutant offspring of croissants and bagels, along the lines of the cronut...)

@WhatWillSantaBring

Does anyone have any guesses what the rainbow coloured bread thing will be for next week's technical challenge? Just about to order my coloured icing...

Bagel? You ‘boil’ them.

Rainbow bagels I think. I've seen them in shops - I couldn't eat one, they look so weird!!

I thought the limit was 1000 posts on each thread, ppeatfruit, but I could be wrong.

It has been known

My take on Dave - based on last week’s pineapple upside down cake shenanigans - is that he’s very passive aggressive and competitive.

When Sura accidentally knocked his cakes out of his hand, he didn’t try to calm her in any way, he just pursed his lips and walked away, leaving her scrabbling on the floor attempting to rectify the situation.

It may have been edited out, of course, but I don’t think so, I think they would have shown it if he had gone over and hugged her or told her not to worry about it.

She was clearly distraught but he remained aloof, surrounded by other contestants, saying through gritted teeth “Accidents happen” or something like that. He seemed very graceless about the whole incident.

I get that it must have been highly frustrating but he wasn’t nice about it.

Dave reminds me of the comedian Russell Kane. I get the shyness being mistaken for smugness. He is awkwardly lovely.
He deserved star baker though, especially after Sura the assasin's antics last week. Loved his PA sulk while leaving her to pick up his cakes from the floor. I'd have dropped my empty cake slate on top of her cakes (or head) 'by mistake'.