Aulty

Original air date: October 3, 2019

That wasn't a particularly strong start to the season, was it? An OK episode with a few good scenes - Cheyenne and Mateo, the robot surviving the fall, what looked like a slow reconcilliation between Dinah and Garrett before she blamed him for everything - but the lead up to those was luke warm at best. Wonder what Carol's (?) strategy is re Sandra and Jerry.

Who is editing these episodes? I was sure that Pryia was the one to leave and never would have thought Helena and Michelle were in serious trouble. Helena was ahead of Pryia in the technical and surely boiling your custard in a custard tart challenge is a bigger mistake then misjudging the amount of lavender? I finally came round on Elena and her goofy Halloween themed backes - the Kraken tarts were fun! The other contestants are starting to grow on me too. There was a story in the papers this week that two contestants started dating and I was looking for clues of romance in this episode 🙂 The challenges were ok. The flapper girl tarts that earned the baker a handshake were the best thing this week, but none of the cocktails cakes looked very appetizing - they all looked dry.

I was wondering whether they deliberately cast contestants that were less experienced and more relatable, especially with their back to basic challenges. I'm sure Henry is a Hufflepuff has experience with full puff pastry though.

I didn't get their use of fancy complicated tins either. Especially Michael after he had problems with the cake sticking to the tin in practice. Most of the cakes had so much fancy decoration (its fascinating how much more elaborate the decorations have become in the signature challenge compared to the early series), that they could have gotten away with a simpler shape. Although I am not keen on dairy I do bake cakes and (soda) breads with buttermilk and joghurt, so I might check out some recipes from the Signature challenge. While the Mishtis don't tempt me at all, it was nice to see them tasked with something comletely different (like the mochis on Canadian Bake Off) for a change. The maids of honor reminded me of the portguese custard tarts the did a few series ago.

I am Team 'get Jeffrey Dean Morgan on the show for the final season and have Liza ride off into the sunset with him' like TGW almost did. This is the first show that made me abandon ship, but tbh I was only on Team Charles because I never liked Josh.

I make mango chutney quite often and all my recipes* explicitly ask for mangoes that are not ripe yet, one recipe even sais that the ones you usually get in a supermarket are perfect for chutneys. I think frozen are fine too. Whenever I manage to get hold of a good ripe mango, I'll eat it right away 😉 * Edit: thats for cooked chutneys, if its a chutney where you just blend a mango with some spices than you probably have to use a ripe one (or a very powerful blender 🙂 )

Dunno what the US equivalent would be, but the Telegraph - where Boris Johnson is a columnist - is conservative, right leaning.

The challenges this week were really cool and I am sure people will try them out at home in the next few weeks! If my bakery had breads as creatively scored as some of the contestant's I would buy one each week. I will definitely try something like the african mask inspired 2 tone breads the next time I do a proper bread. Maybe with some cute animal design like Rosie's. Loved the tear and share breads, but I will have to check the recipes whether there is something worth trying. My favourite sweet tear and share recipe - even though it is not a yeasted dough - is from one of season 6 winner Nadiya's cooking shows, Mocha swirls. I am always a bit torn about using charcoal. It looks great, but be careful if you have to take medicines or birth control, because it can mess with it.

Mary Berry has had a few shows on the BBC, even one that was about properties, not cooking. 'Britain's Best Home Cook' was somewhat like Bake Off but centered around cooking. It was a nice watch, but it would have been ok without her too. But the woman is 84, so I don't know if she has a lot of new stuff scheduled. Mel and Sue have done other things, like presenting game shows (Mel did the UK version of The Sing Off) and there was a short lived cooking quiz show on Channel 4 iirc. Sue has a panel show called 'Insert Name Here' which is doing well on the BBC.

Haha! They sold that estate though, I think it was mentioned in the episode where Diana learns about Liza's age 🙂

I am sorry, but is this leaving the company and coming back a hot second later supposed to be a regular series finale 'treat' now? Ridicculous. As much as the Kelsey story annozed me, it was great to highlight in the meeting with Redmond that Liza on her own, even after years of living the Millenial life, does not really get what millenials want. Everything about the wedding and Maggie and Lauren trying to sabotage Enzo's godfather's scultpure was great. Diana looked stunning. The Love triangle? Exhausting. The writing for Liza, Charles and Josh has been sooo poor this season. Squeezing Josh into so many storylines that he didn't belong in this season, has made him even more annoying to me. If they had given him a proper story that had shifted towards Liza in the last few episodes, but no. Its like picking a scabbed wound over and over again, it will never heal and leave a scar. As fas as I understood it, Charles - brilliant business man that he is - is going to just hand Kelsey some of his shares. Not bad for someone who a few weeks ago couldn't pay his employees.

The Combined Cadets are a youth organisation, like the Scouts but with a focus towards drill and military activities. It has ties to different divisions like the Navy or the Air Force.

"Its nice to have roasted nuts" Lovely epsiode. Some really nice designs in the showstopper - the sheep, chicken, dragon, spider and flowers ... Usually I am a bit weary when the try to increase the difficulty by asking them to do x layers, sculptures oder scenes out of whatever is the theme product of the week, but this one was good. I enjoyed the chocolate bars - although I doubt that any of them has a signature chocolate bar that they regularly make at home, which used to be the premise of the signature challenge. But there were several that I liked the look and sound of. They all were pretty large for a chocolate bar though, don;t you think? Never liked fig rolls.

^^ All of that Does Josh think that Infinitely 21 gig will last forever? Maybe he should turn his emotion reading radar away from planet Liza and take a closer, long term look, at his own situation. I would not be surprised if he learns in the finale that Claire will more to LA after all. That girl is not stupid. And speaking of Claire. The last time Liza and Josh split up - please correct me if I am wrong - wasn't it his decision, because he wanted to get out of the infinite Liza loop, and he went on to marry Claire the next day?

That episode ... I can't roll my eyes hard enough.

I thought it was a bit of a stale start to their anniversary series. The Wizard of Oz into was hilarious. "I have no brains - well that's the QI gig gone" The contestants skew pretty young, and its a weird mix when you throw in the lorry driver and the woman from Lanzarote with the furry garden. After 10 years of bake off people have the platitudes down to a t, but some really should make smarter decisions about their bakes regarding the time constraints for the first challenge. If baking time or cooling down your cake might be an issue, choose a smaller tin and decoration that isn't sensitive to heat! I hate fruit cake so all I can say about the first challenge is that I liked the christmas wreath and the one with the fragile little house that collapsed. Although I side eye people who go over the top with decoration in the signature challenge - thats what the show stopper is for. I don't pay attention during the technicals anymore because nothing will ever beat (cute) fireman Mat baking his royal icing. I liked the birthday cake challenge and I liked that most of them weren't perfect. There are a few flavours that get a bit repetitive and then it becomes a cake design competition. Thinking back, my favourite birthday cake would be a nice dense (underbaked) chocolate or Sacher cake, plain and without any fussy decoration. I don't want to eat masses of fondant, marzipan or sugar sculptures.

Yes we are, they did a prenatal paternity test in the first episode. And lets not forget, this baby takes away the pressure of Josh wanting a kid from a potential happy end with Liza, so I do not expect any twists there.

oooohkay so we are back where we were a season ago, aren't we? On the plus side: Kelsey and Zane can homp all they want now they are at the same employee level again. As the Social Media strategist, Lauren should have access to Kelsey's Millenial SM accounts, and her Millenial and private SM should be kept sepperate. (imho, its a very Millenial problem that they often let these things overlap on purpose, because followers) Nice realisitation from Josh that not letting go of Liza isn't good for her either, but he wont stick to it. And does he really expect Claire to not take the job if he manages to make more money? It sure sucks that she would have to move to LA, but honestly, why can't Josh just move his business to the West Coast or open another studio there. In this episode, there actually was some chemistry between Charles and Liza. It was cute. But his assessment of her rushing to Chicago was absolutely right, and he has every right to be pissed that Josh keeps popping up all the time. Diana's wedding dress will be so over the top, I can not wait.

Gives them a chance to dust off those Bakers Dozen jokes they used in series 4. I wonder whether TPTB are contemplaiting replacing Paul. His handshake schtick and blue eyed stare are getting a bit old now and he has had some bad press about his private life recently. (he always was my least favourite in the line up)

There is a new show 'Interior Design Masters' that just started yesterday on the BBC. It is not about fashion, but interior design and they started out with a team challenge where the judges really pointed out the need for compromise to pull a cohesive look together. It is very much in the vein as some of the BBC's other competition shows (check out their MUA show 'Glow Up', the tasks and guest judges are pretty good) not overly focussed on drama and a themed challenge every week. I really liked it, and they had Matthew Williamson on as a guest judge.

WHY WAS JOSH AT THE FECKING SHOOT? The shoe-horning is so riddiculous this season. (Nice mention of all the forms he had to sign to get in, because one of the surely covers him allowing them to use the pictures he is in) Diana and the mouth vibrator was a funny visual, but she is better than that. I'd rather see her crushing it professionally than be the interlude joke. Now Kelsey is the one banging with a lower level employee - is that ok now? I didn't like Maggie's story at all. Surely there are ways to tell interesting stories that do not rely on a lesbian banging a guy. Quinn is such an alpha. How does getting rid of the company straight after the interview not look petty? Oh, and if you have an important meeting in the editor's office: CLOSE THE FECKING DOOR!

It is not, this season has 12 episodes, so 4 more to go 🙂 On second thought, while most of this season felt weird, partially ooc and contrived at times, this episode was clearly written by someone who has been on the team for some time. It felt like the old Younger.

Oooh goody they found yet another way to shoe-horn Josh into an episode that he didn't need to be in. I don't get why Pauline was so over the top upset either. Maybe it was easier to accept being replaced by a hot 20-something, but then again, the divorce was on long before Charles fell for Liza. And a 40+ woman who has raised a child of her own (no metion of Caitlyn in this episode?) should be more trustworthy around her kids anyway. LOVED everything involving Diana, from her talking Charles into making the engagement announcement, to defending Liza, her lovely scene with Enzo at the hospital and her heart to heart with Liza at the end (which would have made a great final scene for the series finale). An that necklace she wore with the red dress - she looked stunning. Lauren surprised me. I would not have expected her of all people to be so snarky about Liza's real age. I am ususally not that bothered about their weird timelines, but asking Pauline to attend the ball a few hours before the event was quite a stretch considering the importance of the event. And Kelsey dismissing Jack Deveraux was not the move of a powerhouse editor.

Original Air Date: August 7th, 2019