ruffy666

I'm actually enjoying this show because the bakes are all incredibly impressive. Better than, for example, Holiday Wars. Even though we've seen most of these bakers before, they're all incredibly talented and creative and it shows. But man what is up with Carla on this show, it's like someone gave her a bottle of quaaludes. She is popular because of her fun, lively personality; I assume she's trying to match the energy of her co-host but her weird, deliberate and super-serious delivery of every syllable feels so phony.

I mean, you're totally not wrong but also this is what makes this show different from the gazillion other baking shows on Food Network for example. I also wish it were a little less formulaic but luckily this season has contestants who are mostly enjoyable so it doesn't bother me too much. Everyone seemed to love Janusz when he was on GBBO and I always thought he was extremely obnoxious-- and that continues on this show :) His partner is a lot better and helps mellow him out a bit.

I'm not typically a fan of floral flavors myself but they are way more prevalent in some cultures (I've seen plenty of rose and violet candies in UK, for instance. Or rosewater / orange blossom water in middle eastern baking...) But I literally just visited a semi-local bakery-- coincidentally owned by a former Baking Championship runner-up-- and their rose macaron was actually how I assume they should all be: lightly perfumed with rose but mostly just pleasantly sweet. The texture was *chef's kiss* I'm not sure if it would ever be my go-to but it was enjoyable!

sorry, i should've included that in my original post! it's called Killer Cakes. just 2 episodes so an easy binge... a little heavy on the "edgy" production but overall it was entertaining enough for spooky season!

Would be interesting to read about a baker's experience on the show because I'm sure this is all prompted by the production staff. My husband tells me ALL THE TIME that I should go on one of these shows but the reality is I don't have a sob story background and I'm not good at being phony on camera lol I am not trying to be mean but I can't believe Hollie is still there. That sad scorpion was a mess from start to finish, it didn't look good at all and the flavors sounded atrocious. So it was indeed a shocker that her entremet came out as good as it did... I never really warmed up to Lillian but I gotta hand it to her, the little dance on the way up to the cryo-chamber legitimately gave me a laugh so GOOD JOB LILLIAN! I don't mind the gore of a Halloween baking show (and if anyone is looking for an even gorier baking extravaganza, Amazon Prime has a 2-episode show that is pretty over the top!) but I am definitely feeling the loss of the Halloween Cookie Challenge this year because that one usually featured lots of creative challenges with some mighty impressive results.

I, too, was frustrated by the really vague/misleading clues for the elimination bake. Having said that, I've never made madeleines so the "chilled" comment would've been totally lost on me (as it was for most of the contestants...) I think the misdirect with the pans was extremely unfair; they could've made it more reasonable by saying something like "thanks for the 2 pans" and having only one cake pan in the dishwasher so you'd have a better chance of tossing out the red herring. oh well, i guess the fact is you don't NEED to bake the right thing, you just need to bake something tasty that features most of the right elements to stay in the game. i knew right away that lime zest spelled doom for that team.

I do think the clues are getting a little more esoteric but in general I'm not gonna hold it against the teams that their bakes this week were pretty off-the-wall. I think it probably takes an episode or two to kinda get into the groove of understanding how the producers like to play the game, where clues are most likely to be found, what is and isn't meaningful, etc. If they still stink after their second week, well I guess then I can go full-on judgey ;)

omg i just watched the semi-final and i'm unreasonably annoyed at the outcome

I think I'm naturally predisposed to watch any baking competition so I'm enjoying this even though all of the judges are kind of on the annoying side. Bill Yosses was a judge on some other show on Hulu and I found him vaguely off-putting there, too. Nice to see Sandra Lee again even though her face is frozen with botox and filler and her outfits are straight off the Project Runway loser's rack and her comments are sometimes pretty weird.

I didn't like Cedric when he was on (I don't remember which) Baking Championship and I didn't like him on this show-- until they had a brief segment where he mentioned his childhood and his difficulty relating to other people, I guess I've grown a little more sympathetic. But just a little, because the sassy mmhmms and oohhhhhs and OKAYS he makes when someone offers any feedback is still pretty obnoxious :)

The judges commented on that too but ... Is cobbler typically considered a textural wonderland? I always thought the fruit was basically cooked down and the topping was almost steamed by being cooked on top of the fruit, so that wouldn't necessarily be crunchy either. Obviously I didn't try her dessert so what do I know but I consider cobbler one of those 'comfort' desserts where a lot of crunchy stuff would actually be an undesirable thing.

If I never, ever see Jojo Siwa on my television screen ever again, it will be too soon

I'm apparently in the vast minority who will kind of miss Katy at the judges' table. Lionel is a sweetheart but has nothing constructive to say and Luke is an absolute moron most of the time. IMO the last judge to provide insightful critiques was Harry Connick Jr. so I'm not sure what's to come... Are we expecting all new judges?

I think PJ miscalculated how much people appreciate a bitch. There's a fine line between campy villain and just mean for no reason and while she is UNDENIABLY talented, she really overplayed the mean girl stuff. In a way I would've been ok with any of the final 3 winning but Hubbie and I both cheered for Nymphia's victory... her looks are incredible and her makeup is always absolutely flawless, so seeing her turn out a great lip synch was just *chef's kiss*

i gotta assume this is more producer fuckery because a comment like that is 99.99% foreshadowing for the end of the episode