S01.E03: Just Desserts

[The Crazed Spruce]

Quote

The bakers head back into the kitchen to take on a new, delicious challenge; the best dessert detectives continue on in the competition and the duo that falls short heads home.

 

[CrazyInAlabama]

The tart that was still in the metal shell looked disgusting when Curtis took the metal shell off of it, and Caroline & Carolyn really goofed on that dessert.   I'm not sure I could bring myself to sample that one.   It looked totally undercooked.     I was so wrong about the first round dessert.   

I have zero clue about the second round one.   That big blob of flour in the first dessert looked disgusting.   How interesting, four Princess tortes, and Caroline & Carolyn chose something else. (a Victoria Sponge).   So it was a Princess Torte, so I guess Caroline & Carolyn are gone.   

I think a lot of the shows accept contestants that may not be up to the same level, but are willing to quarantine, and stay in the bubble as long as needed for the show.    

I think the clue of green color was a confirmation of the Princess cake, so they didn't make the mistake that Caroline & Carolyn made with the other cake.  

Edited June 10, 2021 by CrazyInAlabama

[DanaK]

I’m starting to think they are throwing some less than good cooks into this competition lol

I thought the winners (Luis and Natalie) of the first round were supposed to get an extra clue on the second round and I don’t remember them getting it

[mertensia]

1 hour ago, DanaK said:

I’m starting to think they are throwing some less than good cooks into this competition lol

I thought the winners (Luis and Natalie) of the first round were supposed to get an extra clue on the second round and I don’t remember them getting it

They did; it was a green something. This had them saying "so it IS a princess cake!!"

As soon as they noticed the pat a choux (however it's spelled) I knew it was cream puffs or eclairs. As an aside, those sound delicious.

Not sad to see Carolyn and Caroline go; mom is overbearing.

[tinkerbell]

2 hours ago, DanaK said:

 

I thought the winners (Luis and Natalie) of the first round were supposed to get an extra clue on the second round and I don’t remember them getting it

their clue was green food coloring.

BUT - I looked up "princess cake"  and the traditional color for the marzipan is green.  SInce all the bakers who knew they were supposed to bake a princess cake made it green, the clue didn't really help them. 

Edited June 10, 2021 by tinkerbell

[mertensia]

3 hours ago, tinkerbell said:

their clue was green food coloring.

BUT - I looked up "princess cake"  and the traditional color for the marzipan is green.  SInce all the bakers who knew they were supposed to bake a princess cake made it green, the clue didn't really help them. 

But it might have had they not already been thinking Princess cake. There was no guarantee they were thinking of it.

[The Crazed Spruce]

Y'know, at one point, the one team that makes something different when everyone else does the same thing is actually gonna be right. And it'll be hilarious. :)

[OoogleEyes]

I would love to try a Princess Torte, but I'm not a fan of the 'pan. Maybe homemade is better? But, cake, custard, whipped cream...what's not to like?

I still am enjoying the show, and I'm amazed that no one is annoying me, yet! I must be watching too many Gordon Ramsay shows. 

[tennisgurl]

I am not super familiar with princess cakes, although a lot of them looked really good. 

It seems like they have mostly had one team mess it up, what happens if every team figures out what the cake is, or no one does? Or its half and half? I would think it will get harder and the desserts more obscure as it goes on.

[PBnJay]

On 6/10/2021 at 6:30 AM, The Crazed Spruce said:

Y'know, at one point, the one team that makes something different when everyone else does the same thing is actually gonna be right. And it'll be hilarious. :)

I thought that when two teams made the eclairs and the rest made tortes. I thought the eclair teams would be laughed off the show.

[Maya]

I’m glad it has finally occurred to these people that they need to replicate the dessert, not put their own “spin” on it or make four different varieties in case one of them is correct. 

I don’t know why but I like the mother and son!

[tinkerbell]

41 minutes ago, Maya said:

 

I don’t know why but I like the mother and son!

I do too.  They seem to balance each other out, so even though the son seems a bit intense.  They really do know what they're doing, and they seem to be good at the sleuthing part of the game.  

I really am enjoying this more so than other cooking shows. 

[Pj3422]

23 minutes ago, tinkerbell said:

I do too.  They seem to balance each other out, so even though the son seems a bit intense.  They really do know what they're doing, and they seem to be good at the sleuthing part of the game.  

I really am enjoying this more so than other cooking shows. 

I like the mom. The son’s occasional smugness really grates on my nerves. If I had to work with him, I’d probably punch my pillow every night. 

[Grizzly]

Won't miss the overly plump lippers.

[Lisapooh]

Three weeks in and still liking this a lot. I like to think I would have made a lemon curd eclair for the first round. With pate choux (no idea how to spell that) cream puffs and eclairs would be the go-tos. But the tart pan would have me wanting to do a lemon curd tart because that seems more likely. I dunno. Could have gone either way.

I did know princess torte. Not because I’ve ever made it but because I’ve seen it on the great British bake off lol. They are pretty and look delicious, minus the marzipan. 

Looks like I’m in for the long-haul on this show. 
 

 

[Chyromaniac]

On 6/11/2021 at 9:50 AM, PBnJay said:

I thought that when two teams made the eclairs and the rest made tortes. I thought the eclair teams would be laughed off the show.

Me too - eclairs as someone's favorite dessert just didn't resonate in my brain.  I blame donut chains for conflating eclairs with long johns.

Otherwise, at least we have a better idea of the competition format now - we should have alternating weeks until there are 3 teams left from each group, which will then be a combined top 6.  If the finale is a Top 3, that puts it at a ten episode run.

[Ilovepie]

On 6/11/2021 at 9:20 AM, Maya said:

I’m glad it has finally occurred to these people that they need to replicate the dessert, not put their own “spin” on it or make four different varieties in case one of them is correct. 

I don’t know why but I like the mother and son!

I like them too but to your first point, I think the las vegas pastry chefs are going to be hard to beat as long as they guess the correct dessert, especially now that they realize they need to try to make the exact dessert that the clues are pointing to instead of an over the top version of it.

I keep thinking this is going to get less interesting as they learn what to look for, and what is a misdirect. If everyone starts guessing correctly, it's just a straight baking competition. It was already less interesting this last round when four out of five guessed correctly. It was obvious who was going home because they were the only ones wrong! I wonder if the wrong guessers dessert was excellent if they would save them over a disastrous correct bake? That seems against their own rules but kind of messed up.....

[blackwing]

In the first round with the eclairs, how did they explain the tart pan?  Did the judges specifically point out that it was unused?  I did hear them talk about the parchment paper and the outline which led to eclairs, but if they said that the tart pan was unused, I missed it.

The second round, since four of the five teams guessed princess torte, the clues weren't that hard?  I've never heard of this cake but it seems common knowledge that it's green, so the extra clue the Vegas team got wasn't very helpful.  The mother/daughter however, just completely missed.  

From last week, the team with the two pie makers who didn't know much about cakes, how on earth would this team have been able to make a princess cake?

 

On 6/11/2021 at 12:04 PM, tinkerbell said:

I do too.  They seem to balance each other out, so even though the son seems a bit intense.  They really do know what they're doing, and they seem to be good at the sleuthing part of the game.  

I really am enjoying this more so than other cooking shows. 

 

On 6/11/2021 at 12:29 PM, Pj3422 said:

I like the mom. The son’s occasional smugness really grates on my nerves. If I had to work with him, I’d probably punch my pillow every night. 

I like the mom but I can't stand the son.   He was so smug after the first week when they won both rounds.  Then he added an extra layer of sponge to his cake, which Curtis and Yolanda both said to Joel that it was kind of cheating.  He was criticised for it during the judging.  And yet he still commented in the confessional something about how it feels great being the leader, and he stood there with glowing anticipation that they would name him the winner again.

 

I wish the show would put some kind of chryon/pop-up at the bottom of the screen describing some of the more technical terms that the teams are discussing when they are investigating the kitchen and during the baking.

The teams obviously go into the kitchen one by one, but are the remaining teams actually standing there looking at what they are doing, or do they actually depart the set?  Because if they get to stay there, wouldn't the last team have an advantage?  I think they probably can't hear any talking but surely they could see others opening the garbage can and picking something out of it.  Also, I really hope they replace some of the clues after someone licks the spoon. 

[Jillshepherd]

Born in Ohio, moved to Arizona in my teens, moved all over with my husband's air force career and have a huge sweet tooth and a daughter with a BA in baking and pastry who teaches it in high school and NEITHER of us has ever heard or seen a princess tortes/ cake!! I know it originates in Sweden but is this is regional thing? It looked delicious and I seek out bakeries wherever I travel but it made me wonder a bit about if the contestants are given a book to study or something before hand. And agree with the person that wondered if they bring some basic recipes with them. I'm an avid cook and baker and almost always refer to my recipes for baking unless I owned a bakery or something and literally did it every day.

[blackwing]

On 6/16/2021 at 7:23 AM, Jillshepherd said:

Born in Ohio, moved to Arizona in my teens, moved all over with my husband's air force career and have a huge sweet tooth and a daughter with a BA in baking and pastry who teaches it in high school and NEITHER of us has ever heard or seen a princess tortes/ cake!! I know it originates in Sweden but is this is regional thing? It looked delicious and I seek out bakeries wherever I travel but it made me wonder a bit about if the contestants are given a book to study or something before hand. And agree with the person that wondered if they bring some basic recipes with them. I'm an avid cook and baker and almost always refer to my recipes for baking unless I owned a bakery or something and literally did it every day.

I'm pretty sure I saw the daughter of the crankypants mom (the two pie bakers) looking at a page from a binder.  Presumably these are pages with recipes?  So I wonder how many different recipes are in this binder.  I would hope there's at least 50, so as not to give anything away.

However, I don't think I've seen any other teams refer to a recipe, they seem to just know how to make whatever they are making.  Maybe the pie ladies said "we want to make a sponge cake but don't know how" and were given a recipe?

I also wonder, through the swinging door at the back must be access to the pantry, which I presume has a full stock of whatever possible items the contestants use.  Even if there are items which shouldn't go into the final product, like fruits that shouldn't be used, etc.

[The Crazed Spruce]

My theory is that they're allowed to use recipes, but they usually go out of their way to avoid showing them on television because they figure it looks unprofessional, even though, logically, there's maybe one cook in a million who has every possible recipe completely memorized.

[mertensia]

On 6/16/2021 at 5:23 AM, Jillshepherd said:

Born in Ohio, moved to Arizona in my teens, moved all over with my husband's air force career and have a huge sweet tooth and a daughter with a BA in baking and pastry who teaches it in high school and NEITHER of us has ever heard or seen a princess tortes/ cake!! I know it originates in Sweden but is this is regional thing? It looked delicious and I seek out bakeries wherever I travel but it made me wonder a bit about if the contestants are given a book to study or something before hand. And agree with the person that wondered if they bring some basic recipes with them. I'm an avid cook and baker and almost always refer to my recipes for baking unless I owned a bakery or something and literally did it every day.

It's shown up on both **The Great British Bake Off** and **The Great American Baking Show**. I'm betting they expect the contestants to be fans of the former.

 

I wonder if, after they visit the kitchen, they announce to production what they think it is and are allowed to get the recipe if they don't know it. 

[proserpina65]

On 6/12/2021 at 11:56 AM, Chyromaniac said:

Me too - eclairs as someone's favorite dessert just didn't resonate in my brain.  I blame donut chains for conflating eclairs with long johns.

I love both.

[Nancybeth]

My friend is a wedding cake designer and the bakery where she works has a Princess cake, that's the only reason I was familiar with it. Oh and yes, they did make it on GBBO one time! I think they're probably more common at bakeries who specifically label themselves "European" or have a heavily European-influenced menu. I find the cake very sweet but tasty, although I'm one of those weirdos who actually LIKES marzipan.