Great British Bake off 2021

DvB

Back on Tuesday September 21st @ 8.00pm on Channel 4.

Thargor

Its starting in an hour and there are zero posts in this years GBBO thread, they have completely destroyed this site, its criminal 😥

PsychoPete

Didn't even know this was back only for I heard something about it on the radio this evening

Princess Calla

Is it the site alone or a combination of things?

I do intend on watching it but at the same time I am abit fatigued by the show. Not just GBBO but it was the same with pottery throw down and sewing bee, since lockdowns they don't seem to have the same buzz. Also half the fun was discussing them in work over a cuppa on a break. Obviously wfh has put a stop to this.

yogibear77

It's time, ah my happy place😊

Bluebell woods

The precision of the Italian engineer

perfectly executed!!

HeidiHeidi

Yayy, we're back!!

Although I do agree with Princess Calla about them all becoming a bit.... old/ stale/ whatever. But still delighted it's on 😁

Missed the beginning due to dodgy internet connection. Some very precise bakers, and some not so much 😱

HeidiHeidi

Well, Giuseppe fairly smashed that one!!

yogibear77

They looked perfect... I'm a few mins behind

HeidiHeidi

Aaaargh, I'm craving Maltana now!

Anyone any idea if it's still available these days???

Bluebell woods

a few are quite annoying

too early for this

HeidiHeidi

Feck, the internet has just sat down on me, again ☹

Going to have to watch it back later, I'm missing too many bits.

yogibear77

A crazed ostrich 🤣

HeidiHeidi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117921436#Comment_117921436

I'd say the deranged ostrich met its match that day 🤣

yogibear77

😂😂 definitely,would love a piece of that now with a cuppa

iamwhoiam

Guiseppi looks promising

yogibear77

Ah HERE!!! anti gravity cake week one 😯

yogibear77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117921465#Comment_117921465

Definitely

stargazer 68

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117921422#Comment_117921422

Yep. Love maltana! Dunnes and tesco sell it.

Some good bakes for the opening week. Some shockers too!

Princess Calla

I'm gonna be heartbroken when Chigs goes!!

Maggie is already annoying me.

Though first week predictions I think Jurgen, Maggie and Freya for the final.

sammyjo90

I love Jurgen! I dont mind maggie, she reminds me of my friends mum.

Lizzie is wrecking my head already though. I've dubbed her tango tips in my head for some reason.

And i dunno if they decided right on who went..not quite fitting the brief lost out to not delivering on the brief I suppose!

siblers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117921949#Comment_117921949

The guy from Trinidad had one of the saddest looking showstoppers ever. Surprised he didn't go

Jellybaby_1

Missed it! Is it repeated soon again?

treascon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117921997#Comment_117921997

I thought the same.

HeidiHeidi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117921997#Comment_117921997

He looked properly mortified! Def thought he should have gone - neither his nor Tom's cakes were gravity-defying, but at least Tom's looked like a cake.....

Jurgen is SUCH a German!!! 🤣 (I used to live there years ago, and absolutely loved it, so that's a term of endearment). I had to laugh when there was nobody home to take his victory call!

Crystelle and the young'un are definitely ones to watch - the flower work on their showstoppers was incredible.

And Giuseppe with the story about his young lad saying that'd be great on Bake Off..... my heart just melted!!! I hope he held out, and we hear how that turned out!

Overall, what a lovely bunch. Only the girl with the orange hair bunches and Maggie slightly irking me so far....

PsychoPete

Giuseppes mini rolls looked annoyingly perfect,Lizzie seems grand in small doses, Jurgen seems like a really nice fella. Overall it looks like a good bunch, right person went home I thought. Jairzenos showstopper was awful

DvB

Enjoyable first episode, dont agree with Tom being the first to leave, across the 3 different bakes he was nowhere near the worst IMO and at least he served a cake in the showstopper... unlike Jairzeno (sp) who serves a plate of slop... Jurgen fully deserving of star baker though... only contestant I found a tad annoying was Lizzie (she of the orange tips!) and suspect if she maintains that level of annoyance will be one I'll be hoping leaves early doors.

boccy23

I did think Tom should go. He completely got the Illusion Cake wrong. While Jairzeno's was a disaster, at least he was trying to bake what they asked for. All too often in the past, they would have let that slide. I was happy that he was penalised for completely missing the brief.

DvB

Begs the question, will the signature & technical bakes mean little when it comes to deciding who leaves? i.e. will it all boil down to the showstopper? Or will they only come into effect if the showstopper is 50:50 between 2 of the bakers as to who goes?

HeidiHeidi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117922775#Comment_117922775

Well, the way the show is run/edited - they do the first two rounds, then discuss who's in the frame for star baker and going home, and then get going on the showstopper round (I think..... or is that after the showstopper round??? I'm doubting myself now!) - so yes, I think the showstopper holds maximum sway in the decision(s).

DvB

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117923007#Comment_117923007

No you're correct in terms of the order. To me it just seemed that the two earlier rounds were forgotten though and the weakest showstopper left the show. The showstopper is clearly considerably weighted the heaviest in terms of importance which I feel is a little unfair at times if a baker has had two solid rounds before that, but hey thats the way the cookie crumbles.

I know the show has been criticized previously for inconsistent judging so was thinking 'here we go again' a little last night. Though as mentioned above, in hindsight with Tom not even attempting to meet the brief that was probably considered a bigger fault than someone going for it & it not working out on the day.

Poochie05

At least there is a decent standard this year, unlike last year that I thought they were all pretty poor. And we have seen the showstopper can completely reverse the fortunes of someone who had poor previous rounds, so it looks like it carries a lot of weighting.

I like Jurgen and agree Lizzie is annoying. So is Crystelle but hopefully as she settles in she’ll lose the nervous laughs and general annoyingness, from her showstopper, I reckon she could be there for a while.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117923054#Comment_117923054

I think the issue with the judging is that, for viewers, we aren't tasting the food. Even if it might seem like the judges are being harsher in the moment about one contestant than another, when trying to make the decision they might decide "Actually, in comparison, Person X's was worse."

I think the showstopper does carry more weight, but ultimately the judges are simply going to send home who they think did the worst overall, and that's going to come down to metrics that the audience have no basis to determine as we can't taste the food, regardless of how Paul/Prue may verbalise their opinion of it, or how critical they're being.

DvB

Good point.

miamee

I thought Tom wouold be leaving, he didn't do very well in any of the tasks. Even though he probably wasn't the worst in all of them, he wasn't great either and his showstopper was held together with dowels from the outset...and still didn't look gravity defying. I think the right person went, it's hard to pick one.

yogibear77

Biscuit week..... cuppa and sponge cake ready, enjoy everyone

sammyjo90

God I'd love a freshly made sandwich biscuit!

Princess Calla

Not surprised he left, think he was on borrowed time from last week.

Amanda's horse was just too funny.

As much as Maggie annoys me I did feel sorry for her as she was visibly upset.

Again Jurgen and Freya having strong weeks and Guissepi (sp) too ,Chigs snooker table also v well done.

sammyjo90

Agree with who went.

Think its gonna be a battle between italy and germany this year

Xander10

Decent standard so early on.

Probably the last of the reality TV I'm still watching. Gone off strictly, Too many egos between judges and pro dances.

Princess Calla

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117952264#Comment_117952264

I stopped watching strictly and dancing on ice a few years ago, too much flaffing about. Zero interest in hearing how hard their life is during training sessions.

I used to just fast forward all that, but then even that became a chore.

Between that and the term "celebrity" was getting looser each year I just gave up!

The engineer out engineered by the physicist. The two presenters are great, the Cypriot love child joke was great, Prue needs to lighten up.

Anybody feel like there is too much given away at each episode intro?

sammyjo90

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117952394#Comment_117952394

Yes I do! I absolutely hate spoilers so never watch that part or the bit at the end for next week

If im watching live i mute it and look away

Xander10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117952409#Comment_117952409

I do the same. Taken to record it to skip tru them bits and the ad breaks

DvB

I rarely remember the winners from the week before, let alone the little teaser 😀

Thought the judges got it right this week, though Giuseppe could have won star baker and I wouldn't have minded that either TBH, based on what we've seen so far its a battle between himself & Jurgen, though as we have seen previously winners rarely shine early on and can come from the pack so you never know, it only takes one bad week to derail a potential champion.

Seriously craved jammy dodgers after that episode though!!

Posy

I had a pack of jammie dodgers sandwiched jammie biscuits for the episode because I knew I'd be craving them otherwise!! 😂

miamee

I find it funny how they have to avoid any brand names like the Jammy Dodgers or when Lizzie was talking about her apple pie from a fast food chain that would scald your mouth. This was a good week, I had picked J to go, I don't think it could have been anyone else. I don't know if he just wasn't up to it or had a bad week but things just didn't see to go well for him. My heart was in my mouth for Jurgen ringing home again, thinking there'd be no ono home again this week when he was phoning them 😭

HeidiHeidi

Anyone know why last week's episode isn't on catch up on Sky???

And can't get the C4 app to download, so can't find it anywhere ☹

FunLover18

Hard to see Jurgen not winning this series.

miamee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117962986#Comment_117962986

Oh no! Can you access the All 4 website instead of the app? I've watched it there myself.

miamee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117963154#Comment_117963154

He is a very strong contender so far but sometimes somene who starts o9ut strong might falter as things get more difficult so we'll see. I think himself and Giuseppe will go far and maybe Freya too.