Bake off 2024 ... when will there be buns in the oven?

[Hobnobswantshernameback]

Any news yet on when the new series is due to start?
can we expect the same presenting/ judging line up as last year?
Do we think the Hollywood handshake will return?
And please god no tacky theme weeks

Dylan's box looked terrible compared to the others. I think he will win though.

Sumayah's looked great but her flavours were all over the show this week.

I don't find Illyin snidey at all. A lot will be down to editing and also, maybe she just finds Dylan's torturous journey to perfection and 'woe is me' act to be just a little bit irritating like some of us on this thread 🤷🏻‍♀️

Agreed. I wondered if it was Alison falling off the bench.

I agree. That's a different pudding, treacle sponge.

I've never seen spotted dick in a sausage shape, always bowl-shaped, or those ones you used to get that came in tins and you boiled the whole thing in a pan of water [old]

I liked Dylan's concrete box dessert. And I'm intrigued by the cured eggs.
Glad Georgie had a good week, but, I'm sorry, tiramisù isn't as old as eighty years!
I think Christiaan is really original and I always want to try his food.
I love Gill; her humour, her approach to baking and to the show. I get the impression that, if and when she goes, she'll be philosophical about it.
I've tried black coffee with lime juice and it was surprisingly nice. Lemon might be a bridge too far though.
I like Illyin and think she just has a sardonic sense of humour and turn of phrase. 'It tastes like arse' made me laugh properly out loud
I also love Alison's Jamaican rendering of 'Bake!' and want her to do it more often.

In Portugal they do a drink that is iced espresso with lemon.

@MarkWithaC - is ‘beyak’ a Jamaican accent 😂.

Well, she has Jamaican parents, so presumably she knows?

As a child spotted dick was a common cheap pudding, always sausage shaped, cut into slices and served with melted butter and sugar on top!

Revolting in my view, but my dad loved it.

Syrup sponge was a different thing altogether, made in a pudding bowl.

The dick jokes wore very thin

I only laugh because as a Jamaican I realise now that’s what is 😊

Didn’t know Alison’s heritage before now.

Now Nelly has gone, I don't care who wins. I'm not a massive fan of Dylan though.

I miss Nelly too, she was such a one-off character. Dylan is sooo phenomenally pretty he actually looks like a cartoon. I too found Sumiyah and Christiaan hard to listen to but I like their bakes. Illiyin is funny, I think. Gill is so down to earth, love her attitude, and Georgie too. I also don't care who wins now that Nelly is gone ... well, maybe Gill or Georgie!

I thought Dylan's coconut illusion meringues were inspired - no one else thought of doing that. His tiramisu was neat as a pin and intriguing. Georgie's sounded the most appealing though.

Spotted Dick is rolled up like a Swiss roll with currants inside I thought. Can't believe the sniggering over the name though.

My mum used to make steamed puddings a lot when I was a kid, and she heroically made cup,sized individual ones so everyone could have the flavour they wanted, syrup (my favourite), jam, ginger, currants etc. she put the jam or syrup in the bottom of the dish then added the mixture, it wasn't added after the pud was cooked. Soaked into the sponge, blooming lovely. Her favourite was spotted dick or ginger, and she never put syrup on it. Wrong, wrong wrong.

I agree about the coconut illusion meringues. You can imagine being served them in a seriously good restaurant.

Sumayah is very talented and a lovely person to boot , good for her and onwards and upwards!

Sumayah was interesting on Extra Slice tonight. She seems to have moderated the vocal fry, whether in response to feedback, because she is six months older and at uni and her voice has matured, or because she was actually just too knackered over the filming to stay properly awake!

She said she was just exhausted by lunch time every day and the week she went out, she'd celebrated her 19th birthday the night before and been to a Taylor Swift concert the night before that, so that was why she forgot to put the sugar in her spotted dick.

I thought it was very sweet that she managed to get on Bake Off, be stunningly successful, then blew it because she was partying too hard. It seemed like a very 19 year old thing to do.

It also made me laugh because I remember thinking I'd never heard anyone say "I'd better get a wiggle on" with less oomph and energy than she did - and actually, yes she was just permanently knackered for the whole show.

Dylan is so beautiful.

Well, according to Wikipedia, a restauranteur claimed that it was invented in his restaurant in 1969.

But also

"It has been claimed that tiramisu has aphrodisiac effects and was concocted by a 19th century Treviso brothel madam, as the Accademia Del Tiramisù explains, to "solve the problems they may have had with their conjugal duties on their return to their wives".[19][24]

and

"There is evidence of a tiremesù semi-frozen dessert served by the Vetturino restaurant in Pieris, in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, since 1938.[25] This may be the name's origin, while the recipe for tiramisu may have originated as a variation of another layered dessert, zuppa inglese.[26] Others claim it was created towards the end of the 17th century in Siena in honour of Grand Duke Cosimo III.[27]"

I know. He doesn't actually look real. He's like some prince/hero from a Disney-Pixar movie. Those eyes look like they've been painted on.

Shame he's an annoying, self-pitying, woe is me wallower though.

Yes! Dylan is my least favourite, he takes it too seriously and just feels sorry for himself a lot even when he actually knows he's smashed it.

Gill or Georgie to win!

Dylan is an incredible baker. I hope he wins.