Where There's Cake, There's Hope...Bake Off 25

[GetSetFake]

The new series starts on Tuesday 2nd September and the bakers have been named. A few weeks earlier than recent seasons, so taking us nicely from late summer through to the cosiness of autumn.

No change to the team of Paul, Prue, Noel and Alison, which I thought worked well last year - it was a warmer and kinder programme than it has been for a few years.

The usual eclectic mix of contestants, but less of an age spread than some years - a lot of 30 somethings, no-one under 20 or over 60.

Anyone else excited for this season?

The Great British Bake Off confirms return date for season 16 and reveals cast | Radio Times

im thinking Aaron to go. Middle in technical and wrong textures in show stopper

I have been awed by Jasmine's ability throughout this series and her trifle looked perfect and sounded like it tasted great, but for the first time tonight I found myself thinking It was a bit...boring. Strawberries, lemon curd, sponge. She's got a good strategy of doing simple but perfect, but I want a bit more at this point.

Jasmine

Yay jasmine.

And Iain to leave

😔☹️

Should have been Tom... he was lucky

Oh Iain

Tom was lucky

I think it's the right result, even if Tom is more annoying that Iain!

Jasmine - I want to see them baking things I'd want to eat and her classic flavour combinations and tidy presentation are very appealing to me. She's the strongest 'favourite' (for winning the competition) I think I've ever seen.

Right decision but sad to see him go.

I think this is now Jasmine's to lose, she is by far the best.

Once again Tom dodges the bullet, I can only assume presentation carries more weight than flavours.

Tom should have gone
poor in two of the challenges

Those snippets from next week's episode make it look tense!

He was.

I can only assume presentation carries more weight than flavours.

It doesn't normally, but Iain's flavours were non existent by the sound of it whereas Tom's were just too much almond.

In the showstopper yes but in the signature Iain did much better on flavour and has done well in previous weeks on flavour but not always on presentation. Tom has had quite a few “great presentation, where is the flavour” type reviews. Quite a few of Tom’s bakes seem to be all about the appearance with the flavour and function being secondary to the style.

Iain has probably had lower overall scores in the series to date and going in he probably has the weakest record overall. However some of the judging this time seems to have given top weighting to presentation where in previous years I think the flavours and “eatability” have been top with presentation secondary to flavours. I would always give the prize to flavour over presentation unless (as so often with jasmine) the bake has both.

Iain's signature was bitter and over coloured. I think it was close but on balance the right choice. I've found Tom hard to warm to, but at this point his ambition adds something to the mix that Iain just doesn't have.

Oh my bad, I think I mixed up Iain/Toby feedback on the signature. So Tom and Iain both had bad feedback on the sig and the showstopper and both did well in the technical. Overall I think Iain has struggled with presentation but done better on flavours and eatability (including some surprises). Tom has had quite a few flavour issues but the presentation is always stylish.

The Basque cheesecake reminded me of the flapjack round. “Do something slightly special with flapjacks” resulted in all doing flapjacks with interesting flavours and decoration except for Tom who largely ignored the flapjack remit to create a fake apple which didn’t work. Today he seemed to be ignoring the cheesecake brief to make it a vehicle for a visually dramatic cake with flavour problems. In both cases the essence of the brief ‘ a twist on a classic” was ignored in favour of “Tom’s whacky sculpture of the week” with the brief shoehorned in as an afterthought.

There was one contestant in a previous season, that DD and I still refer to as smug David! It was ages ago...and then im pretty sure the next season there was smug David mark 2 (although it could have been Dave)

Rahul (sp) was our all time fave contestant! He might have been in the same series as one of the smug Daves

I think my favourite as a person was Liam Charles - he made me laugh.

Perhaps second favourite was Nancy. I think I liked most of the contestants the year she was on.

This David? I just googled him and came across this article and actually he probably did come across as smug if he had an hour left at the end of his bakes. He certainly wasn't getting stressed out, was he? Almost like a super extreme version of Jasmine's "Keep It Simple and Do It Well" strategy.

‘Great British Baking Show’ David Atherton Winner Interview https://share.google/NrsKOY5XOEl3IJY9u

I wanted Tom to go, he’s insufferable.

Yes
He actually wasnt all that bad but our first impression was that he seemed quite smug each time he finished sonething and the name just stuck. I saw him advertising an oven recently and my first thought was," isnt that smug David? "🤭