S01.E05: Rock and Roll

[The Crazed Spruce]

Quote

The best dessert detectives move on in the competition, and the duo that falls short heads home.

 

[CrazyInAlabama]

If I ever guess either dish, I'll probably faint from the shock.   I love they give them 3 hours to do the Showpiece. 

Calling foul-mouthed Kelly Osbourne America's sweetheart is bizarre.

I like that the contestants are doing different desserts.   

Frasier cake?  By the Las Vegas pastry chefs, Luis & Natalie.  Never heard of it.   

Black Forest Roulade, from mother and son, Thomas and Cathy.   

Daubersh cake?   Don't know what that is either,   Jay and Thuy-Linh.

 Amanda and Erin, the Airforce and Army vets, Raspberry Jelly Roll.      The dessert was:   Chiffon Roll Cake, with strawberries, so Amanda and Erin get the advantage.  

I love Curtis Stone's explanation of why they should have guessed the correct dessert.   However, I could listen to him read almost anything.

Showpiece Round:

Thomas & Cathy, mother and son:   2 tiered white cake with gingerbread house on top.  Tasty but lopsided.  (I do not like Thomas's nasty attitude, and his remarks about the other bakers.)

Jay and Thuy-Linh:  1-tier cake with ginger bread house on top.   Not a great looking cake.  

Luis & Natalie, Las Vegas pastry chefs: 2 tiered spice cake with ginger bread house on top.  Judges said very blah. 

Amanda and Erin:   2 tiered cake with a gingerbread village pasted on the outside.     

Showpiece Round dessert is :  2-tiered spiced ginger cake, with a gingerbread house on top.   With pinetree cookies around the base.

No team is top detective this week.  Cathy and Thomas, and Luis and Natalie are safe.     

Team Thuy-Linh and Jay go home.  (Erin and Amanda saved by winning the first round).

 

Edited June 25, 2021 by CrazyInAlabama

[Quilt Fairy]

1 hour ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

Team Thuy-Linh and Jay go home.  (Erin and Amanda saved by winning the first round).

I like that they came out and said "In this case we consider prior performance." 

I noticed the 1986 expiration date on the cocoa tin right away.  I didn't know what it meant in terms of the dessert but I thought it was odd. 

Edited June 24, 2021 by Quilt Fairy

[mertensia]

I know fraisier cake from **The Great British Bake Off**.

I guessed some sort of jelly roll as soon as I saw that pan.

I think it must be way too easy to over focus and miss things like the gingerbread houses on the fridge.

 

[tinkerbell]

in the first round,  Some teams found the acetate liner, but that wasn't used.  I wonder if it was clean, unused, and put there to fool the teams.  

Edited June 24, 2021 by tinkerbell

[Maya]

Everyone is overthinking. They need to remember it’s a TV show and the audience is playing too. The dessert is most likely going to be something most people have heard of. 

[DanaK]

I do wonder if they are only going to do desserts and if doing a particular non-dessert meal is even possible while not giving it all away

[The Crazed Spruce]

34 minutes ago, DanaK said:

I do wonder if they are only going to do desserts and if doing a particular non-dessert meal is even possible while not giving it all away

That'll be the season finale. They'll have to make a loaf of white bread, and it'll throw everyone off.

[tennisgurl]

I am pretty proud of myself that I got the jelly roll right, even if I didn't get the details. I am glad that they established that past performance does affect judging in situations like this, that seems fair. 

It seems really easy to get hung up on one clue and end up ignoring the rest of the clues, like the pictures on the fridge. 

[Quilt Fairy]

5 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

It seems really easy to get hung up on one clue

I would have puzzled over the extra clue of the gingerbread  templates, too, but I don't know that I would come up with gingerbread village from them.

[blackwing]

I think Luis and Natalie are the best bakers in this group, but I was really pulling for Amanda and Erin.  They really nailed the first round, even if they used raspberries instead of strawberries  I was sure they were going to go home this episode, but then I was impressed with their skills in the first round.  They picked up on the clue of the tea towel with crumbs on it.  Then when Thomas's cake was criticised for cracking, one of them whispered "you have to roll it when it's warm".

Then they just blew the showcase showdown... not sure why they get a template for what they knew were gingerbread pieces and somehow end up thinking it's decoration around the side.  Why would the rectangular pieces make for good decoration?  If they were only going to be decoration, wouldn't all the pieces have looked like the front of the house?

Thuy and Jay, I liked her, didn't care for him.  I missed the explanation of why they were wrong about the cake being only one layer.  They said there were 6 pans in the drying rack (3 for each layer) but that only one set had been washed and was wet.  This led them to believe that only one layer was made.  How was their explanation wrong?

Still not liking Thomas and Cathy.  Cathy fully admits, the team is basically Thomas, she's just there helping out with menial tasks.  Thomas is an odd bird, he described himself as an effeminate teen boy who was obsessed with Kelly Osbourne and had her posters all over the walls of his room.  Out of all the people to be obsessed about... Kelly Osbourne?!?!  I don't like how catty Thomas is about the competition, like when he gleefully whispered "they didn't use chocolate" when seeing Amanda and Erin's roll.  Turns out they were right.

The first round, Thomas called his a "chocolate roulade".  I've always called that dessert a "Swiss roll".  What is the difference between a Swiss roll, a jelly roll, and a roulade?  Or are they all different terms for the same thing?

[AZChristian]

11 minutes ago, blackwing said:

I don't like how catty Thomas is about the competition, like when he gleefully whispered "they didn't use chocolate" when seeing Amanda and Erin's roll.  Turns out they were right.

The first round, Thomas called his a "chocolate roulade".  I've always called that dessert a "Swiss roll".  What is the difference between a Swiss roll, a jelly roll, and a roulade?  Or are they all different terms for the same thing?

I disliked Thomas' behavior as soon as he sneered into the camera, "I am not accustomed to being in second place" in an earlier episode.

Did a bit of research:  "What is the difference between a roulade and a Swiss roll? Well folks, a Swiss roll is always a sponge cake with a filling rolled inside it. Whereas a roulade can be made from anything from pastry to bread or cake and it can be both savoury or sweet."  So a Swiss roll is always a form of roulade, but a roulade is not always a Swiss roll.

[Darian]

On 6/25/2021 at 9:31 AM, blackwing said:

!  I don't like how catty Thomas is about the competition, like when he gleefully whispered "they didn't use chocolate" when seeing Amanda and Erin's roll.  Turns out they were right.

 

That old expiration on the cocoa package was delightfully dastardly. Just the kind of clue that makes this show so damn much fun. I cheered when it turned out Amanda and Erinn were right (more because I like them rather than disliking Thomas, but, wow, that did rub me the wrong way so I'll be side-eying him next week). 

I tried to describe this show to my husband and it sounds inane, yet, at least to me, it's clever and fun and something I really look forward to in a time when I don't know when half the shows I follow are on and just watch them when they pop up on the DVR.  I've seen Joel McHale go a teensy bit try-hard (Fast Foodies, ahem) but mostly I like him and find him perfect in this.  

[Lisapooh]

To me the tea towel was a dead giveaway for a roll cake. I love them and they aren't as hard to make as you think they would be. At least, I thought they would be harder (and I'm not in a contest where I'll judged either, lol). I wouldn't have noticed the expiration date but I love that clue.

Gingerbread was obvious and the fridge clues were pretty hard to miss too. I think a dense spice or ginger cake would have been the obvious choice of what to make. I'm sure mine would have looked horrible, but I could have made one. Piping with royal icing is SO not my thing. I am an awful decorator—that's why I think naked cakes might be the best trend ever.

Thomas has worked my last nerve. I used to find his smug nervousness endearing but now I find it super annoying. He is insufferable!

Really happy for the military ladies. They are adorable and work so well together! I'll be glad when the two sets of teams merge. I have a hard time keeping track of them. Also Kelly Osbourne does not even look like Kelly Osbourne anymore. Why do these girls have so much work done?!?!?! And when did I become so old that I say things like "these girls" derisively?

 

 

[blackwing]

16 hours ago, Lisapooh said:

Thomas has worked my last nerve. I used to find his smug nervousness endearing but now I find it super annoying. He is insufferable!

Really happy for the military ladies. They are adorable and work so well together! I'll be glad when the two sets of teams merge. I have a hard time keeping track of them.

Thomas reminds me of one of the partners in the gay couple from last season's "Lego Masters".  The one that was always nervous and jumpy.  Obviously when Joel wanders into your space, he's going to start talking, and Thomas has this "OMG you scared me so much" reaction every time Joel purposely tries to startle him.  I'm sure he's trying to focus on his mixing bowl or whatever, but at some point I'm sure he would notice that another person has entered the space.

I can't keep these halves of the teams straight either... when Thomas made a Black Forest roulade, I was thinking "but they already made a Black Forest cake" and then assumed it must have been the other half of the teams that did.

[Tdoc72]

On 6/30/2021 at 9:36 AM, blackwing said:

Thomas reminds me of one of the partners in the gay couple from last season's "Lego Masters".  The one that was always nervous and jumpy.  Obviously when Joel wanders into your space, he's going to start talking, and Thomas has this "OMG you scared me so much" reaction every time Joel purposely tries to startle him.  I'm sure he's trying to focus on his mixing bowl or whatever, but at some point I'm sure he would notice that another person has entered the space.

 

I know I get so focused at work (especially when I’m busy) that people startle me all the time. I wear headphones and my side vision is limited.  I usually jump and let out a loud gasp or ‘oh my god’.  There are a couple of people that approach me slowly with their arms out, hoping I’ll see it in my periphery and not freak out. 

[appositival]

I'm amazed that people still aren't digging through the garbage. The hidden parchment paper has been a good clue in several of the rounds and other things have been hidden there.

Of course, by now I'd probably be pulling drawers out and dumping them on the floor to be sure I didn't miss anything.