Great British Bake Off 2019

RhubarbCrumble

ANNOYING even!. Feckin' autocorrect.

tea and coffee

It was pretty easy to predict who would go and get star baker this week I think
When Paul and Prue spoke about who was weak before going into the showstopper I was surprised they didn’t mention the truckie as he did only ok in both the previous challenges
Steph (fringe) was quite bitchy about Henry at the end there. He has disappointed me. Maybe he is lying low.
Alice is bugging me a bit. And she was no more ‘in trouble’ esp after getting star baker last week(?) .

Harder to predict who will go next tbh as they have ups and downs
I think vet, truckie and Henry if he isn’t careful to go next, and maybe David too.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

Rfrip wrote: »

I’m not getting into it at all for some reason this year

I’m very struck this year by how many of them seem to have huge gaps in their baking knowledge. Last week, a few said they don’t bake biscuits. I barely bake and I’ve baked biscuits a few times. This week, Henry said he learned how to make bread for bread week. Like, what? How? Somebody else said “That’s enough bread!”. There was a lot of under-baked bread. I know the contestants might not be exactly the very best amateur bakers in the country but they should be in the very high percentiles. Jamie who went last week seemed completely out of his depth. How did he get on the show? The worst contestant I’ve ever seen on Bake Off.

In other years, so many of the contestants would be really knowledgeable about many things and give interesting tidbits and tips about what they were baking. Now it seems to be about showing off their “interesting” lifestyles and where they have travelled and their pastimes.

miamee

That's an interesting point ODB, I wonder if they have brought the baking 'back to basics' a bit as was said before the series started to reflect the contestants abilities? And following on from that are they not getting the same calibre of applicant as they have in the past?

I found bread week a bit boring to be honest, none of the showstoppers had a really WOW feeling. Kate (vet) had some good scoring on her bread but as my gran said to me, "Who wants to eat grey bread?" :pac: A lot of the food looks fancy and pretty but ultimately unappetising.

I didn't catch what is next week, did anyone else?

Sunny Dayz

miamee wrote: »

I didn't catch what is next week, did anyone else?

I could be wrong (or need my hearing checked) but I think they said dairy week.

miamee

Sunny Dayz wrote: »

I could be wrong (or need my hearing checked) but I think they said dairy week.

Oh I actually did catch that, you're right. I obviously forgot in my excitement, lol. Have they done a dairy week before?

RhubarbCrumble

Am I wrong or did one of the bakers mention that she's Welsh? :rolleyes:

LizT

I’m not really getting into it yet. I don’t feel attached to any of the contestants yet. And their bakes have been pretty forgettable so far. Hope it picks up in the next few weeks.

Rfrip

LizT wrote: »

I’m not really getting into it yet. I don’t feel attached to any of the contestants yet. And their bakes have been pretty forgettable so far. Hope it picks up in the next few weeks.

I’m the same...and I love this show

Scarinae

Hodors Appletart wrote: »

shes at it again :pac:

It would be like if I was a contestant and made a barm brack, then used Guinness in one of my recipes, then made a biscuit scene of St Patrick banishing snakes from Ireland, then made bread loaves that were green, white and orange.

I'm a bit puzzled by the veggie burger technical - Paul said that 90% of the marks the baps, but when they were judging them they seemed to be making a lot of comments about the burgers themselves.

I thought the showstopper was interesting - several of the bakers made it very complicated for themselves with colours, decorating etc but neglected to do the scoring well, which was the main point in the brief they were given.

I don't think they've done dairy week before, I've been trying to think what that would involve. Cheesecake? Custard?

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

I seem to be doing nothing but moaning in this thread so here’s a improvement this year. My hubs watched GBBO for the first time last year with me and a thing that drove us both daft that was in every single round of every single episode, they did the thing of saying things along the lines of “Too long in the oven and the derp derpy derp. Too little time, and derpy derpy derp derp”. There was always the too long/too short, too much time/too little time, etc. comparison. Hubs and I were both like “There must be a different way they can word how things can go wrong with the bake!”.

Well, somebody in the production must have noticed because it has stopped. They have changed up their wording! Did anyone else notice? And was anyone else annoyed by that? Or am I just raving?

Sunny Dayz

Scarinae wrote: »

I don't think they've done dairy week before, I've been trying to think what that would involve. Cheesecake? Custard?

Sounds pretty good to me!! :P

HeidiHeidi

Mmmmmm.... baked cheesecake..... yummmmmmmm!!!!


They said that dairy week is a first for the series.

dee_mc

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts wrote: »

I seem to be doing nothing but moaning in this thread so here’s a improvement this year. My hubs watched GBBO for the first time last year with me and a thing that drove us both daft that was in every single round of every single episode, they did the thing of saying things along the lines of “Too long in the oven and the derp derpy derp. Too little time, and derpy derpy derp derp”. There was always the too long/too short, too much time/too little time, etc. comparison. Hubs and I were both like “There must be a different way they can word how things can go wrong with the bake!”.

Well, somebody in the production must have noticed because it has stopped. They have changed up their wording! Did anyone else notice? And was anyone else annoyed by that? Or am I just raving?

They used that wording last week and I can't remember the context now but whatever they said was just plain wrong. It was as though they had decided they were using that wording and so they went with it even though it was ridiculous!
Ah it's bugging me now that I can't remember!
It was as stupid as saying "when the bakers are making purple bread, they must be careful not to add too much blue food colouring, or they'll end up with blue bread. But add too little blue and it will be black".

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

dee_mc wrote: »

They used that wording last week and I can't remember the context now but whatever they said was just plain wrong. It was as though they had decided they were using that wording and so they went with it even though it was ridiculous!
Ah it's bugging me now that I can't remember!
It was as stupid as saying "when the bakers are making purple bread, they must be careful not to add too much blue food colouring, or they'll end up with blue bread. But add too little blue and it will be black".

Arrgh, even your paraphrased description of it is annoying me! But I’m glad they seem to have cut it mostly out. Last year, it was nearly every challenge.

tea and coffee

Too long in the oven and it will be over baked, too short and it will be under baked and possibly a soggy bottom....

Stating the bleeding obvious!

Tar.Aldarion

Found bread week a bit boring, not warming to any of the people yet, apart from jamie who is gone.

dee_mc

Yeah i found bread week a bit meh too this year.
I like Michael, he's hilarious, and I think if she settles down with the "pretending to be worried having produced something near perfect" thing I'll like Alice too.
The Welsh lady could be fun if she'd drop the constant mentions of Wales and being Welsh and Welsh rugby and, I dunno, leeks... all the themed bakes are getting old already.
I'm finding the lady with the heavy fringe a bit irritating but I'd say she's one to watch.
Oh and the vet lady - she's very good but quite annoying too
I feel like at this stage in some previous series I've warmed to more people! Maybe they'll grow on me. Or maybe I'll stop being so judgemen... nah.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

I like Michael (the fitness instructor guy). And Phil. Representing the middle age and above category! And I thought the decoration on his signature fruit cake was a work of art.

tea and coffee wrote: »

Too long in the oven and it will be over baked, too short and it will be under baked and possibly a soggy bottom....

Stating the bleeding obvious!

Yes, exactly this. I didn’t mind them explaining what could go wrong because some viewers are baking neophytes but it was the same goddamn wording every time. I was always thinking “There has to be some other way to say it!”.

stargazer 68

No one watching? Michael better get his bake on!

Posy

That was poor, to say the least!! :eek:

stargazer 68

Posy wrote: »

That was poor, to say the least!! :eek:

Yep but a strange show stopper. Milk sweets!

RhubarbCrumble

"How do I know what an English rose looks like? I'm Welsh".

Oh fcuk.off.please!!!

Jesus, if I have to listen to Gladys Pugh there for the next 8 or so weeks I'll throw something at the tv.

HeidiHeidi

Playing late catch-up tonight, so haven't read any comments here yet.


First impressions for me -

Jaysus, Noel's shirt :eek: It's seriously upsetting me, and I'm only about 10 mins in!


Michael's cake split in half - HTF is going he to rescue this situation??? :eek:

Do you need to take out a second mortgage if you get onto this programme? Michael cooked that cake TEN TIMES this week???

HeidiHeidi

Ah seriously, who's on the fecking cameras?



One close-up of the eyes on the ghost cake (probably the most imaginative cake of all, not only because it's almost the only one not in that swirl tin that seems to feature in every episode this year, are they sponsoring the show or what??)


Would it have killed them to give us a look at the whole actual cake?


Apart from that, the dairy cakes seem to be a rip-roaring success so far anyway.....

HeidiHeidi

Yayy, Michelle got through an entire round without mentioning Wales, or that she's Welsh, or rugby!

Princess Calla

Very uninteresting week I thought.

The showstoppers looked like some of the technical challenges do,where no one really has a clue what's going on. None of them were wow!! In my opinion.

nuttyboy79

RhubarbCrumble wrote: »

"How do I know what an English rose looks like? I'm Welsh".

Oh fcuk.off.please!!!

Jesus, if I have to listen to Gladys Pugh there for the next 8 or so weeks I'll throw something at the tv.

And the goth one with her witchy/spiders/ghosts shtick :mad::mad::mad:

HeidiHeidi

But a baker has got through to the telly show Great British Bake-Off, and has never made rough puff pastry before???


Fk sake, even I'VE made rough puff pastry (in national school cookery classes, admittedly, but I remember it well!).


I was all over the "this is gone too gimmicky and high-falutin'" last series, but that's taking the dumbing down a bit too far IMO.....

I absolutely love this show. I get ridiculously excited when it comes back. But I just cannot properly get into it yet this year! I'm not warming to anyone. Can't even remember most of their names.

The vet. In theory she should be my favourite because I'm a huge animal lover and she's a vet. Plus she's a pretty good baker. But she's so totally boring!

The choir boy. I think I'll be in the minority here but he comes across as a sanctimonious little pr!ck. I swear he was laughing at Michael's disaster tonight behind his oven glove. And when they showed him rollerblading like a seven year old with his helmet and knee/elbow pads.. jaysus!

Priya- two reserved.

David - smug and smirky.

Michael - ok I suppose. Just a bit meh.

Fringe girl - warmed to her a little this week I suppose.

Old fella - his sweets did look like playdough! Maybe not enough screen time so he didn't grow on me.

Teacher - madly in love with herself. Makes a lot of annoying faces.

Is that everyone? I don't even know. Overall a sorry bunch in my opinion and as ODB, I think, pointed out, the level of skill is way down this year. How can you get on GBBO and not be well practiced in baking bread???

I'm probably being way overly harsh but I'm very disappointed this year. I really hope some of them come out of their shells or something and it improves as time goes on.