Loving Bake Off 2026? Indeedarooney!

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Three weeks in, we've reached Thread Two and so far, mostly agreed to disagree on all things baking and non baking related including:

Diversity casting
Throuples
Nigella's Big Bites
A clutch of dead nans and a couple of live ones
Several dead pets
And...the first ever - maybe last ever?- Audience Choice week.

Join us to sail through the rest of the series on a soothing cloud of icing sugar, hoping for cosy Tuesday nights curled up on the sofa with a packet of (not just an old people thing) biscuits and the ever dwindling ranks of (maybe) Britain's Best Amateur Bakers.

Checking in!

The "biscuits are for old people" was a jaw dropper. My YA offspring beg to differ.

Signing on!

You forgot the new entrance requirement-absolutely no baking knowledge allowed.

He's been on Instagram since saying he's changing his mind about biscuits, and making loads of them. They all look wonderful.

The only bit I like so far is Nigella stopping Paul from ruling the roost.

The cast of contestants is making my teeth itch.

God forbid too many old people might get in when they want to appeal to da yoof.

As for flaunting threesomes, I wish people would keep their sexual preferences for the bedroom.

Why can’t we just have the best bakers, no weird gimmicks like bring your family member, no dead nans, no celebrating heritage, and no cringeworthy “comedy” introductions pieces.

Due to the risk of my eyes rolling out of my head I have had to stop watching the Sewing Bee and the Pottery Throw Down and at the moment it looks like Bake Off will soon be joining them.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

What do you mean by 'celebrating heritage'?
I still love the Sewing Bee and the Pottery Throw Down. If anything the Bake Off has been more 'wacky' than either for ages already, with Noel's visual jokes and silly voices. What about those made you stop watching? Personally I'm saddened that the Sewing Bee seems to have ditched its retro pop tunes, but I'm still watching.

We are on thread three already!!

Thread 3?

There was another thread about Crying at Bake Off but that was on AIBU and was very much focused on, yes you've guessed it, diversity casting and throuples.

This is a continuation of the Telly Addicts ongoing series thread, so thread 2.

Unless I've missed something somewhere?

Checking in.

People apply for these shows - the people you want don't apply.

I love all three shows you mention, especially Pottery.

How can you possibly know who applies and who doesn’t?

I think they get thousands of applications and I know several good middle aged women who've got some way in the process so I suspect they can find pretty much whoever they want. The holy grail,as I think someone said on the other thread, is the unexpected baker who has "a journey" in the tent.

It is odd they have no 32 - 50 year olds at all and I do wonder if someone dropped out. Maybe someone from Wales, Scotland or N Ireland, as it's also odd to only have English bakers. They do have two reserves each year in case of last minute drop out, and I think I read some people have got on the year after being reserves as well as some stepping in at the last minute.

No one appears to have told my seven year olds this!

Nor my teenagers!
I know that’s wrong and gratuitous use of but heigh ho!

I give no shits if someone wants to be in a throuple but I’m not sure we need to hear about it as much as we have. It’s starting to feel more than a bit performative, and I think a PP made a good point about GBBO normally being a safe show to watch with young DC.

Aside from that, I absolutely adore Nigella on it. I think she’s positive without being insincere, and she is completely outshining Paul 😂 She’s a wonderful addition to the show. I think she’s not naturally flamboyant which might take a while to get used to but she’s confident and not afraid to contradict Paul when she disagrees. She’s put him in his place a few times already!

I don’t know if it’s still available anywhere but she was a judge on a US cooking competition show called The Taste. I was gutted when they stopped it because it was really good, and quite a clever concept. She was really good on that too.

Nigella has got a bit of an unusual way of biting into things at the side of her mouth but I’ve gotten used to it now - maybe veneers? I think Mary Berry used to do the same. I love, love seeing Nigella tuck in heartily to a slice of cake. I can’t remember what it was last week but there was something that she really loved and when Paul was giving his comments, she went back for another mouthful! I really appreciate her enthusiasm and the fact she clearly loves her food - I’m just envious of her gorgeous figure, I only have to waft past a slice of cake to gain 10 pounds!!

I also enjoyed Nigella’s admiration for the little swans - she snaffled one and wandered off with it 😂

I really hope she stays, I think she adds something different to the show.

Is anyone willing to predict a winner yet? 👀 I never guess right! Tom or Mo maybe?? I do really like Yannis and Moyin too but I don’t think they’re quite as good….

@SpidersAreShitheads I give no shits if someone wants to be in a throuple but I’m not sure we need to hear about it as much as we have. It’s starting to feel more than a bit performative, and I think a PP made a good point about GBBO normally being a safe show to watch with young DC

Its always about balance.

There is a point in week one where they are all new and the thumbnail intro is relevant introductory material - "Mary, 42, is a banjo maker with five children living in outer Mongolia with husband Herbert, 87".

Mary makes a cake of a banjo in week 3 - a few comments about banjo making and how to recreate the fret on a banjo in cake is relevant.
Mary makes biscuits in week 4 - "these are my DC3's fave biscuits and its my nan's recipe" - relevant.

Its the weekly repeated lengthy sad face pictures of highly stereotyped nans and nan stories which take disproportionate time and become grating. Some of those nans historically worked in munititions, worked as fire wardens and latterly were early entrants into "male" trades and professions but the only type we see are the cute and cuddly, smiling and passive nans who make cakes.
C4 come across as wetting themselves with excitement at getting a gay drag artist living in a throuple and its shoehorned into every episode.

Its boring as fuck. Just one of those segments could have been used to show the wheelchair adaptations or the alternate ingredients used by the vegan competitors - both interesting about the bakers and directly relevant to what they are doing. Ditto when bakers bring in traditional ingredients and styles of baking from their own family - directly relevant to the bake.

I really like Nigella in this programme. I didn't think I would, but I do. I like her attitude towards food, that it's there to give us pleasure and joy as well as nutrition.

I hope Paul Hollywood takes his macho stereotypical laconic man energy elsewhere eventually tbh. I don’t know what his latent aggressive persona adds apart from representing that men can make cakes and biscuits and bread .. which has been the case since the dawn of human baking. Future of Bake off is is very good hands with Nigella.

I could not agree more about wanting to hear more from the programme about baking adaptations when your mobility is limited. And that giving technical vegan detail would be actually useful for a lot of us. We’re all supposed to be reducing meat consumption.

I’d like to see a GBBO baker make a slightly healthier less sugary or less fatty or higher fibre version of the classic baking standards so I could learn from that personally. Especially as research is ongoing about sugar exposure in early life being an indicator for future health etc. I suspect they’ll soon show that it’s not loving to make the exact same biscuits for your family, that your nan made for you- (unless your Nan was making them in the 40s and 50s under rationing.)

I don’t envy the judges having to eat all that icing- I’d be scraping it off the slice and leaving it on the plate.

I’d vote for a blanket ban on producers getting all contestants to shoehorn in the dead nans or dead dogs into their ‘story’- it’s so patronising. honestly it’s not making the contestants feel like Everyman/Everywoman, just makes you look like a cynical contestant trying to rack up cheap sympathy points.

GBBO is a family show and focusing on that one bloke being a throuple is a complete nonsense. Why can’t he just feature as a perfectly nice-seeming gay man contestant?

I don’t want to have to explain to my kids that some actual adults get so taken in by fads that they read about online- even in the most intimate areas of their lives.. humans have paired up since the dawn of time and that’s fine. The kids know from the playground that trios and upwards is trouble (Why only three? Why not four? Or five, six, or thirty?) they don’t survive as more than two BFFs. They know someone always gets hurt feelings because they are not the most preferred one.

I am loving Nigella as the new judge. As PP said, her enthusiasm is infectious and her comments are kind but fair. She is overshadowing / outshining Paul so I am unsure how the relationship will progress.

I too am missing the bog standard, 'normal' bakers without a back story who probably make up 98% of actual people baking regularly. To me, it's a shame that incredible bakers don't have a hope of being in the competition unless they have a USP. It makes it very clear it is actually a reality TV show, not a baking competition, which is quite sad as I do want to watch the baking competition version.

Edited to correct typo

Here for bread week.
Loving this series.

I totally agree re Nigella outshining PH, long may it carry on until his (long overdue IMO) sell by date comes to fruition.

I loved it when one of the contestants said they’d thought about refusing to shake PH’s hand if it had been offered. That I would like to see!

I’m really enjoying this season so far, especially with Nigella in it. She has the perfect balance of encouragement and positive criticism. Watching from France and it’s nice to see a bit of British silliness and cake

Nigella is the best bit about GBBO. Love the way she clearly enjoys the tastings.

Everyone on earth has a back story/USP though. The secret to the popularity of shows like this IMO is precisely that they show that 'ordinary' people doing gentle things like pottery and baking all have hinterlands, just like we all do.
And I think it is a baking competition and a reality TV show at the same time. That's the other clever thing about these shows; you can get your armchair critic on about the amount of flour they should have used, while their 'this is them at home' sections let you vicariously live your dream life/envy their lovely life with their dog/partner/farmhouse kitchen.