Great British Bake Off starts Tuesday 13th September

[5foot5]

I couldn't see an existing thread on this, apologies if there is and I missed it.

Anyway, as it says in the thread title. New series starts tonight.

Yay!

Given this is meant to be about home bakers, who the fuck would ever make spring rolls or ice cream cones at home? If I even possessed one of those thingies for cooking the biscuity stuff for ice cream cones, it would lurk forever at the back of a cupboard, I wouldn't be able to remember where it was if I actually wanted to use it, and I wouldn't remember how to use it. The reality is I would never buy one, and if someone gave it to me I'd throw it out if I couldn't sell or donate it.

I don't think Noel and Matt work anyway. The jokey stuff around time calls simply isn't funny, and they don't really seem to relate to the contestants.

they're made on a regular waffle iron, aren't they? I have a waffle iron and use it regularly, but I'd never make ice-cream cones - even though we do make our own ice-cream quite often (but i insist it is in the freezer for at least 24 hours to properly freeze.

I'm not against fairly challenging things but what the heck is a custard cake? Nobody wants to make custard the "hero ingredient" in a cake. And all the construction thigs? nope. Boring now.

I think it's had its day though. There are only so many things you can keep re-doing before everyone who ever applies to the show has acquired expertise in each of the disciplines.

ISTR that she was quite rude about him when he made the move to Channel 4. Then when she came out she made some comment to the effect that the joke was on the people who thought she'd sleep with him to get on, and he got all huffy about her bringing him into it. Twat.

@LaGioconda ahh I see, thank you.

@Brefugee this is a really delicious custard cake. I've made it once, it was tricky and didn't quite look like the picture but it was a hit with everyone www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/brooklyn-blackout-cake

There was an article in The Guardian yesterday very much echoing much of the comments on this post. So much so, I wondered if they had read it and then wrote the article 🤔 www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/nov/03/great-british-bake-off-baking-show-lost-its-charm

I think the point was that they DIDN'T have to use the freezer to cool the custard -- it was possible to (and one contestant - was it Sandro? - did) cool it outside the freezer by pouring it into a thin layer in a tray. They were looking for whether a contestant read the recipe ahead, thought "ah, I'm going to need the freezer as cold as possible at THIS stage, so I'd better not put something hot in it at THIS stage..." and planned around it.

I mean, I don't think that's a particularly interesting thing to be looking for, and it's an artificial dilemma because in the real world you'd almost certainly have more time or a bigger freezer. I'd far rather watch Bake Off with all the tasks given an extra half hour. But it was a task that it was perfectly possible to do if you hit on the trick of it.

(Side note: at this many series in I am always surprised by how many contestants don't give enough thought to the timing aspect of things when that's ALWAYS what screws it up for people. For example, divide your cake batter into more tins in thinner layers, because it will both cook faster AND cool faster than if you cook just one or two thicker layers; they aren't going to give you enough time to cook thicker cake layers and cool them properly, because they want footage of people fanning their cakes and then having disasters attempting to frost a still-warm cake. David from 2019 is the one contestant who always seemed to be on top of the timings and to make sensible planning decisions driven by the time he had rather than by what he could do in an ideal world given enough time)

agree that it was possible - and I'm sure they research this enough to give them an amount of time that a well organised baker can handle.

I spend an awful lot of my time in the kitchen cooling things in bowls of water and so on, so I know it's possible.

But then you have the years when they have to temper chocolate and it's a tent in summer so it's way to hot afterwards. That is really annoying "fake" pressure to me. But there definitely hasn't been as much wafting this year usually they're all at it - wafting at hot things with a baking sheet

@longtompot I’ve made a similar version of that Brooklyn Blackout cake; it’s in the excellent Annie Bell’s Baking Bible. A lovely cake but huge. We ended up freezing half of it as there was no way we’d eat it all!

@Halsall I shall see if I can find that version. The one I made was huge too! I think we managed to eat it all 😬

There was an article in The Guardian yesterday very much echoing much of the comments on this post. So much so, I wondered if they had read it and then wrote the article 🤔 www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/nov/03/great-british-bake-off-baking-show-lost-its-charm

I think you're right.

They've read this thread and and thought "The Vipers are right!"

divide your cake batter into more tins in thinner layers, because it will both cook faster AND cool faster

But if you do that you may not be able to cook them all at once Protector because there won't be enough proven shelves - so you'll have to do an extra bake etc anyway.

I've made that Brooklyn blackout cake too. It is delicious!

the cake looks good - but is the custard really "the hero" or is it the cake? is there more custard than cake? (Impossible to see from the photo)
etc etc.
I'm just grumpy because i don't watch much TV and now this has gone off and i don't have a replacement.

Who's next to leave then?

@ brefugee When I made it the custard was definitely the star. It was a very thick layer with a thin layer of cake top and bottom. But, if I remember correctly it did need chilling in the tin for a long time, maybe overnight, just to keep its shape so not really suitable for a bake off challenge.

@Brefugee Proportionally, there is more cake than custard. But I think the custard is the star in that recipe because of the flavour and texture it gives. (It's good cake too though!)

thanks. I am deffo going to make that cake!!

OK. Just watching Gogglebox.

There is an episode of new show "Drinkmasters"

They have an hour and a half to make a bloody maragarita.

They win $100,000

Are you kidding me???

An hour and a half?!?!?!?! 😦

Do they have to grow the limes from a pip or something?

Watched Maxy on an extra slice last night. She commented that her downfall was not having enough time to complete the challenges and that pastry week was particularly horrendous for that and they all found it a very stressful environment. Sounds like they are almost set up to fail.

Sorry to witter on about the Australian Bake Off, but on series 4 we noticed that they had normal fridge freezers. Now on series 6 they have the style over substance Smeg ones. I now need to go back and check series 5 to see when they changed. Very disappointing for the competitors.

Says it all, really, because Maxy is clearly an excellent baker. If good contestants are being knocked out because of lack of time, then they're not actually looking for good contestants. Being good at producing something OK in inadequate time is not the same as being good at producing something superb in a realistic time period.

I watched the first episode of drunk masters but no more. The people are not likeable.

I'm sad to hear Maxy found the atmosphere stressful. Bake-off needs to be nurturing to work for both contestants and audience.

I imagine it's to create drama and inevitably see things go wrong/cakes collapse/ingredients not set etc.

But as a viewer, I'm always really disappointed for them when things go wrong (and feel uncomfortable to watch if they're - understandably- v upset ) you're rooting for them to be able to correct or redo it. I watch because I want to see talented people make beautiful cakes. If I wanted to see things collapse or go wrong I can do that fairly often in my own kitchen!😂

I am watching pastry on catch up.

Noel is making me shrivel and cringe. That coconut bare feet stuff? Combing hairy hands? It’s just icky.