ruffy666

I definitely didn't see that coming! Good for Eric, his final cake was adorable. I was pretty impressed by Jeffrey's cake because the chocolate work really gave it a cool, firework-y sense of movement. I'm thinkin his cake would've been received much more warmly if he'd done something as simple as a white mirror glaze instead of the dark brown/black he chose. When they all bit into Joshua's macaron and there was an insanely loud CRUNCH I knew he was done for. A good macaron is a gift, but a bad macaron is worse than eating nothing at all.

Totally fair point. I would assume their thinking is "Laurie Ann Gibson is a name some people might (!?) recognize as having street cred." I dunno!

As a group, I like these judges better than any in the past few years. I know people hate on Mary Murphy and I agree that she can be a little much but I find her passion and enthusiasm for dance to be so genuine, I can't help but like her. Laurie Ann is at least saying SOMETHING that isn't just just "OMG, YOU GUYSSSSsssss!!!!!!!" so she's already an improvement. Overall I'm just happy the show was renewed and mostly without gimmicks (that 360-camera thing is pretty silly but harmless)

I want to be a judge on this (or, let's be honest, any) baking competition. I want to be able to dramatically say "your dacquoise... tastes more like a genoise!" and then sweep it off the table into a sad heap on the floor. RATINGS GOLD! (FWIW I agree, the ideal judge has some expertise and can articulate why something is good or bad rather than just offering up a Nancy Fuller-esque "I can really taste the rum/bourbon/tequila/rubbing alcohol!")

I don't think they showed it... his mirror glaze looked fine, and then he was probably trying to compensate for the sinking middle by putting an Unidentified Baked Object on top. and then either crumbs or a shitload of disco dust all over everything? It definitely didn't help the situation!

OMG poor Michael. Both of his creations this week were unattractive to say the least... remind me never to dip cream puffs in cherry goo, Marcella said it looked like bacon (?!) but I thought it looked like organ meat *puke* I gotta say, ill-fitting clothes aside, Scott is growing on me. He was pretty funny this episode and I personally appreciate the little touch of snark: "tell us about your baked potato." L O L

The AI finale is always a good reason to get down on your knees and thank the lord for DVR. Holy cow at the amount of padding and commercials! Fast forward through Lionel Richie saying "You're on your way" every 45 seconds. Fast forward through Katy Perry making a face. Fast forward through Luke giggling at EVERY COMMENT the other judges make (wtf??) I am generally regarded as an emotional robot but I very much enjoyed seeing Alejandro's hometown visit. Those kids were super cute and he seemed genuinely touched by the support. Overall I am disappointed with the winner but it is probably the best outcome for all concerned parties. I wish all the luck in the world to everyone in the Top 10 (and will promptly forget most of them exist.)

The judges' comments have been generally worthless this year, but Lionel is totally on the money when he says Alejandro is an artist. I think Madison has an amazing voice, but she's almost like a robot: there is nothing in her body language, nothing in her facial contortions, NOTHING that shows she has any connection to the words or the music at all. I think some of that will come with age and experience, but right now it is like the uncanny valley of singers. I (personally) don't think Laine has a good voice or a good personality so beyond being a cute white guy, I don't get his popularity at all. Alejandro is technically good but the "special sauce" is that he FEELS the music, there's a connection that is just nonexistent in most of the other contestants. The flipside is you can also very obviously tell when he's been given a song that isn't in his wheelhouse. This is the difference between someone who is singing because they want to become a famous singer and someone who is a musician because that's the best (possibly only) way they know how to connect to the world. It all sounds kind of goofy now that I've written it out. :)

Corey has really grown on me over the course of the season. I think I just naturally gravitate towards dad jokes 😖 Both of his desserts this week looked gorgeous. Floral flavors are more common in other parts of the world but I can't think of anything rose-flavored that I've ever wanted more than an itty bitty bite of. Just not for me.

That was a pretty lame "advantage" if you ask me! Look at the reaction everyone else got for using fondant and gumpaste. Cory doesn't strike me as the type to want to rely on pre-fab molds and cutters for anything.

Surely someone here has been to Carlo's Bakery? There's one in Santa Monica (obviously not THE ORIGINAL) and their baked goods are... just normal bakery stuff. Infinitely better than a grocery store but nothing special. It always weirds me out when they make big sculpted cakes and the giant sheets of cake look like foam rubber when they start cutting into them, super dense with a tight crumb. I'll pass.

I *never* binge, but I watched all of it this weekend. Of course the short episodes make that really easy to do but it was just a generally charming show.

I'm certainly not a Buddy apologist but, man, you gotta be impressed that he was able to make a cake THAT BIG and still look good in that amount of time. The sheer number of techniques including stringwork which can be insanely fussy to do well, I gotta hand it to him. Duff's, well, personally I don't like airbrushing cakes like that because it reminds of the cheap cakes from the grocery store fridge but his concept was good and unique. Personally I thought floating islands was a really weird choice for a plated dessert. I guess it was elevated-ish, but it's sooooo old school. A big ol' heap of steamed meringues does not sound appealing to me at all.

Has anyone here made a banana cream pie that DIDN'T turn that color? I thought that was pretty much standard unless you: make vanilla pastry cream and add the bananas later, in which case the flavor is impacted, or add a bunch of food coloring to try to yellow it out? That said, I didn't care for Duff's pie either. I think he's been spending too much time with the contestants on Kids' Baking Championship. I agree with most folks here that bigger isn't always better, but I also think there is something to be said for the initial "wow factor" of bringing out a really big cake. At first glance, both look impressive so the win goes to BIG. It's not until you look at the details that you notice, hey, the big one is a little sloppy while the smaller one is super clean. Judges should know better but that doesn't necessarily negate that initial "holy cow!" when the cakes come out. Of course, all of this assumes that the competition is being fairly judged and not carefully orchestrated for optimal drama......... 😝

I'm probably the last person who should be judging people on their appearance, but whatever Clinton did to his face is really distracting. I only know him from WNTW, though, so I guess a lot can happen over the years >_< I still prefer him to Ali Khan so I guess we're good there... Man that dude's fennel "sculpture" was ... well it sure was something! I am surprised that someone who competed on Iron Chef multiple times wasn't more in tune with working under time constraints to come up with something that actually looks professional.