The Great Irish Bake Off - General Discussion

[Athena]

I wonder why they only do 2 challenges instead of the usual 3?

 

They only really do two challenges per episode on TGIBO.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

That has been my complaint about this show since S1. I don't know why all the other Great [country] Bake Off shows manage to do all three types of challenges every week in the same amount of time (and in the case of S1 of the American version, the episodes are 10-15 minutes shorter and they STILL did all three challenges!) but the Irish version always does only two challenges per week.

[Ceindreadh]

That has been my complaint about this show since S1. I don't know why all the other Great [country] Bake Off shows manage to do all three types of challenges every week in the same amount of time (and in the case of S1 of the American version, the episodes are 10-15 minutes shorter and they STILL did all three challenges!) but the Irish version always does only two challenges per week.

 

The Great British Bake-Off is an hour long with no time lost to commercial breaks.

 

The Great Irish Bake-off is an hour long with probably 12 to 15 minutes lost to commercial breaks. 

 

I don't know about any other international versions but clearly if they have the same running time as the GIBO then they're simply giving less time to airing each challenge in order to fit the extra one in.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

This week's episode of the Great Irish Bake Off was just over 45 minutes long. Last week's episode of the Great Australian Bake Off was almost 48 minutes long. This week's episode of the Great South African Bake Off was 48 minutes long. Hourlong shows on American network tv are usually 40-44 minutes long (but the S1 episodes of the American Baking Competition that I found on youtube are 35 minutes long), so it is possible to do all three challenges on episodes that last less than an hour. That's a good ten minutes per challenge plus an extra 10-15 minutes for the host to introduce the episode, end credits, etc. I have never felt like the challenges were rushed or that there wasn't enough footage on the non-British versions that show all three challenges. I wonder if the Irish version has a smaller food budget or something else behind their decision to have only two challenges per week.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I knew when Ailish left the competition that no one would be sent home.

Me too. As soon as Anna said that she was resting in her room and hadn't finished her cake, part of me thought yay, no one is going home this week (because as usual, I don't dislike anyone)! Then I saw some of those dismal showstoppers and thought damn, some of you really dodged a bullet thanks to Ailish leaving. I hope she's okay.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Cake week recipes!

[OnceSane]

That has been my complaint about this show since S1. I don't know why all the other Great [country] Bake Off shows manage to do all three types of challenges every week in the same amount of time (and in the case of S1 of the American version, the episodes are 10-15 minutes shorter and they STILL did all three challenges!) but the Irish version always does only two challenges per week.

I don't get it either. The junior version of the show only does two challenges as well, but they are children so it's understandable.

I was annoyed when no one went home because the output was not good IMO.

[OnceSane]

Third series of the amateur baking competition, presented by Anna Nolan. The remaining bakers are challenged to bake a stuffed savoury picnic loaf and stollen bread.

[OnceSane]

Fresh yeast, anyone?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On the other shows, they film the signature and the technical on the first day and then they do the showstopper on the second day. The Irish version is still filming on two days so I wonder why they don't film two challenges on Saturday. Maybe the problem is how much they have to pay the crew to film longer on the first day? I don't know what it's like in the UK but here in America, the crew is always union and they have all kinds of rules about how many hours they can work before the crew is paid double time and even triple time so that could significantly increase the budget. I know, I know, I'm grasping at straws.

 

I don't mind if no one's eliminated when everyone had a really disastrous week, but that wasn't the case this week. There were at least three show stoppers that were elimination worthy.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Ooh. I will need to get myself a nice fresh loaf of bread beforehand so I can nibble on it while watching this episode!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I ended up not having time to watch this episode earlier this week so thankfully I stopped by the bakery and bought a bialy after work!

 

Totally cracked up when Cathy and Emer started singing "So Emotional" while making their signature challenge. OMG and Neil was in a Westlife tribute band!

 

Man, Paul was so annoyed that not enough people were using fresh yeast. I know it's personal preference but my feeling is that if using fresh yeast isn't a requirement then STFU about it.

 

I wasn't familiar with layered picnic loafs so I imagined that they were baking the fillings inside the bread. I didn't realize until later that most of them were baking a loaf of bread and then scooping out all the delicious soft bread and putting their fillings inside.

 

Emer's market burger loaf with beet root, rashers, and applewood cheese looked like a giant delicious burger. It's too bad it started falling apart when Paul took it out of her picnic basket.

 

I liked the texture of the top of Cathy's Indian tiger bread with green chutney, salmon, and paneer tikka cheese.

 

Natasha's Italian loaf with sundried tomatoes and basil and pine nut pesto had the fillings folded in which I liked. I give her extra points for cooking with peppers even though she doesn't like them. I loathe peppers so I can't cook anything with them because I hate the smell so much. I liked that she was honest with the judges and told them that she intended her loaf to be a circle but that it ended up shaped like a croissant. The down side of rolling her fillings inside the bread is that the inside wasn't really layered as they were told to do.

 

James's Italian loaf with mozzarella, salame, and eggs (he said it was an omelette but that means beaten eggs and he just had fried eggs with the yolks intact) was huge but it looked really good. I liked that he used the inside of the bread to make breadsticks.

 

Sandra's breakfast loaf looked delicious!

 

Neil's breakfast loaf also looked good. And cute that he had his own hot sauce bottle.

 

Darina's rare beef, red onion, truffle oil, and gorgonzola was kind of flat so it looked like a giant panini.

 

Clare's braided loaf looked nice. I never would have guessed she had all those fillings inside!

 

Damien's popeye bread with spinach looked so pretty. I loved that the cuts let you see the filling. And how cute that his mom used to make this bread to get him to eat his vegetables!

 

Fionnadh's roasted veggie garlic bread definitely burnt on one side (which makes me think the oven was more to blame) but the inside looked pretty good.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Stollengate! I loved everyone gathering around and taking a turn at rolling up the mock loaf made of parchment paper and foil. One of the reasons I love the Bake Off shows is that the contestants are usually willing to talk to each other, ask questions, etc.

 

Still no squirrels, but I saw a huge deer in the background when one of the guys was giving his talking head outside the tent. It was in silhouette so I couldn't tell if it was real or fake but it still made me laugh.

 

I've never had stollen bread before but it doesn't look like something I would like. Bread with fruit, frangiapane, and marzipan? No thanks. I see why it was a good technical challenge though.

 

Fionnadh cracked me up when she said she didn't want to go home because it's a long drive but she didn't have any rum just in case.

 

Nice to see Sandra get star baker. Her stollen bread was so close to winning first place. Really sad to see Natasha go home. I don't think she did the worst this week. She was sixth in the technical and her picnic loaf was okay but not terrible.

[OnceSane]

The latest task for the amateur bakers is to produce a chocolate swiss roll.

[OnceSane]

Wow. That was awful. And I think it would have been even worse if they had to do three challenges.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Holy crap! The swiss rolls were a disaster. I don't recall ever seeing such a collective group fail at the technical challenge. To be fair Emer and Claire both did a decent job but everyone else's looked like poop on a plate. So many flat messy piles on plates. But I disliked that Paul assumed the problem was that everyone had the wrong attitude and thought it would be easy. I don't think that was the reason. They all just made a lot of mistakes which is different.

 

One thing I really disliked about the showstopper was that the bakers weren't required to make their own boxes. It seemed unfair to knock someone for not having a perfect traditional box when other people used a premade box.

 

Is a selection box just a box full of different chocolate? Like a sampler box? High five to the bakers who made their own Twix bars!

 

Hee, I appreciate that Neil was so good natured when Paul mocked his shirt and compared it to this overly thick chocolate wave from the swiss roll. I rolled my eyes when the judges oohed over his jewelry box. Anyone can buy a box. I laughed when Paul said it would have been even more impressive if he had made the box out of chocolate. I mean, yes, that's true, but I saw the way that box opened. There's no way he could have made that out of chocolate which is why he bought it.

 

Part of me thought it was a great idea to use shredded wheat and chocolate to make a bird's next. The other part of me immediately thought but dude, a nest isn't a box so i wasn't surprised that the judges later said the same thing about Cathy's show stopper. I appreciate that she used a bunch of superfruits to make it a little healthier. Caramel made with dates and almond butter, avocado and maple syrup in the chocolate icing - these are all great ways to make desserts in a healthier way. Poor girl was not having a good day between cutting herself multiple times and then ruining her feathers.

 

Clare's chocolate box was the most professional looking showstopper. (partly because everyone else's were such a mess or didn't really have boxes). The box had crisp clean lines and I loved the white chocolate bow on top. I loved how geometric it was. I liked that she separated each type of chocolate into different sections inside the box so all the pinks were together, all the yellows were together (am I starting to sound like LL Cool J's character in Toys?). It was aesthetically pleasing. And a strawberry chocolate with pop rocks on the outside? Awesome!

 

Fionnadh's rainbow chocolate ribbon was beautiful. It's too bad she ended up scrapping her box. I wish we had heard more of the judges' critique of her showstopper.

 

Damien's chipper box was such a cute idea. Cookie dough pizza, macaron burger, pineapple onion rings, and breadstick chips with white chocolate dip. How fun!

 

Emer's boozy chocolates sounded good. Bailey's and chocolate are awesome together! Too bad her biscuit box cracked.

 

Darina's cherry and almond florentines sounded good so I said, "Nooooooo!" when they turned into a burnt gooey mess. I liked that she made some raw chocolate treats. I'm not a vegan, but there are some good raw chocolate treats that aren't made with all the processed ingredients of regular chocolate desserts.

 

James's biscuit shelf wasn't a box but at least it was kind of a container. It looked so tiny that it didn't seem like a show stopper. He was lucky to scrape by after admitting that sugar work and chocolate work were not his friends. He wasn't kidding either. He was having such a hard time.

 

Since Sandra used a premade box, she should have organized her sweets more neatly. Dumping them in the box like that made it look like it was a half eaten box of chocolate.

 

Loved seeing Sandra, Neil, and Emer joking around about Sandra's honeycomb. Ha and the shots of everyone swatting at a fly were funny. I have no idea what happened with the microwave (mine doesn't have a grill setting) but thank goodness James caught it before Fionnadh's chocolate burned. For the record, Mr. EB tried to melt chocolate by microwaving it and it was a mess.

 

Yay for Clare winning star baker! She won the technical and had the best looking show stopper.

 

Not surprised that Damien and Darina went home. Honestly, it could have been almost anyone after that disastrous technical.

[SirOsisOfLiver]

The fact that everyone did so poorly suggests that they needed more time. If it had just been one or two of them that would be different, but I think everyone's blew apart trying to roll them.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

The bakers are tasked with creating a signature cake from a country of their choice, followed by a Pineapple Upside Down Cake technical challenge.

Edited November 22, 2015 by ElectricBoogaloo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Chocolate week recipes:

 

Swiss roll (technical challenge)

Sandra's parent and child box

Neil's Irish tastes and inspirations box

James' favourites

Fionnadh's family favourites box

Emer's boozy party box

Darina's life is like a box of chocolates

Damien's chocolate chipper box

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Bread week recipes:

 

Stollen bread (technical challenge)

Sandra's wholemeal seeded breakfast loaf

Neil's breakfast rool loaf

Natasha's Italian tortano style stuffed picnic loaf

James' al fresco antipasti filled picnic loaf

Fionnadh's roasted veggie bread

Emer's market burger

Darina's rare affair loaf

[RealityCheck]

I finally watched the Chocolate episode and was put off by Paul Kelly's judging of the Swiss Rolls technical challenge.  In TGBBO season 5, the bakers' first signature challenge was the Swiss Roll.  The bakers were given 2 1/2 hours but they had time to research and practice.  Giving these bakers only 2 1/2 hours for the technical challenge with incomplete instructions and chocolate decoration was all kinds of wrong.  Paul K obviously took the results personally since it was his recipe but his comments were especially brutal.  All in all, Paul Kelly irritated me for chocolate week..

[Writing Wrongs]

I don't know why the one chick thought her macaron tower was in any way a cake.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Fionnadh's cardamom, rosewater, and chia cake. Ha, I am not a fan of rose flavored desserts, so I'm with her sister's potpourri cake description. I was surprised that it wasn't super moist from all the chia seeds.

 

Emer's pecan pie cake was very timely since it's Thanksgiving in the United States. I like Thanksgiving but I am a freak because I don't like the usual Thanksgiving desserts (pumpkin pie and pecan pie are things I skip). I wasn't sure exactly how she was going to turn pecan pie into a cake though. Ha, I thought it was hilarious when Paul said that if you're going to do something that's American inspired, it needs to be big, bold, exciting, and colorful. 'MURRICA! I do agree that her cake was very plain looking. I think if she had chosen a different color of frosting, it might have looked better but it looked kind of blah. Lots of really nice even layers inside though.

 

Clare's raspberry, champagne, and blueberry macaron tower was a mixed bag for me. There were some with very large cracks and I agree that a tower of cookies is not a cake.

 

Cathy's Italian basil and olive oil cake looked simple but beautiful. Loved all the fruit on top. I don't like fondant so I like that she chose to decorate her cake with real fruit.

 

Neil's black forest cake was lacking. One of the things I really didn't like was that he went to the effort to make that chocolate bark to go on the outside but then he put a very thin layer of frosting over it which made it look like he'd just put a crumb layer over the actual cake. I agreed with Paul that Neil puts so much thought into some things (removing the stones from the cherries and using vanilla beans as the stems) and then drops the ball on other aspects. And his ganache was so dry that it separated from the cake after Paul cut a slice. Get it together, Neil! Ha, loved that he took the judges' critiques in stride and said he would eat his cake to make himself feel better. Coincidentally, black forest was the technical challenge on the Great Australian Bake Off two weeks ago.

 

James' dobos torte was pretty with the orange decoration on top. All of his layers were so perfectly even! I felt bad when Lily asked if it was true that he'd only been out of the country once. When you're young, you only get to travel abroad if your parents take you or if your school has a trip that your parents are willing to pay for, so it's not like he hates the rest of the world and doesn't want to travel.

 

Sandra's esterhazy torte didn't look great, partially because it was so flat. But the overall look of it was very homemade and clumsy. When Paul cut a slice and showed how floppy it was, I was disappointed for her. On top of all that, it was too sweet.

 

Man, the pineapple upside down cake technical challenge was brutal. NO RECIPE?! Sheesh. The looks on the bakers' faces when they saw that the recipe sheet was blank was hilarious though. It was so nice to see them discussing how much they were going to use of each ingredient (although it seemed like James was the one with all the answers!). Interesting contrast between Emer's rationale behind making more than one cake ("We have time so why not?") and Neil realizing that he had been, in his words, dicking around. When the judges specifically tell you that you can make more than on in the allotted time and choose the best one to turn in, why wouldn't you make more than one?

 

So nice to see Cathy finally get star baker! She has had consistently good flavors so I was glad she finally got the title. Not surprised that Sandra was eliminated though. The judges clearly didn't like her signature bake on any count (flavor or appearance) and then she came in last place in the technical. My guess is that Neil goes home next week.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Recipes from international week:

pineapple upside down cake (technical challenge)

Sandra's esterházy torte

Neil's black forest gateau

James' dobos torte

Clare's macaron tower

Fionnadh's caradmom, rosewater, and chia cake

Emer's pecan pie cake

Cathy's basil and olive oil cake

Edited November 29, 2015 by ElectricBoogaloo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

It's Party Week and with a place in the semi-final at stake, the bakers are under pressure to produce their best creations so far. The bakers are set a Technical Gluten-Free Challenge. Then they face their third Showstopper Challenge - at 5 hours, their biggest so far - to create a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party of 30 individual elements!

Edited November 29, 2015 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Christina]

On a past season, Paul Kelly threw a tantrum when all the bakers did a poor job on his technical challenge. It was a checkerboard cookie dipped in chocolate. None of the bakers new what it was and had to parse it out from the instructions, and after making the two doughs, chilling the dough, assembling the cookies,and baking the cookies there was not enough time to dip the chocolate and the chocolate to get firm.

 

Someone still tried to put them on the tray together, they all stuck  to each other, and Paul threw it in the garbage in disgust. Another one put it on the tray upside down with the chocolate up, and he got irritated about the presentation being lacking. I think one didn't get all the cookies coated. He claimed it was poor time management, but a baking blog had claimed it couldn't be done in the time allowed and stilled allow the chocolate to firm, especially if they didn't know what the checkerboard cookie was supposed to look like, because it wasn't described as a checkerboard. Several home bakers tried with the complete recipe that was posted, and knowing what it looked like which the bakers didn't, and none of them could complete it in the time frame, the closest needed an additional 15 minutes for the chocolate to dry.

 

I thought he was being a pompous ass about it when I watched the episode, but then realized it wasn't just me when I saw the blog post. I haven't watched this yet, and may not now. I saw the preview of him being all bothered and rolled my eyes, thinking "this again?"

[tenativelyyours]

I tried watching this.  And got so irked I stopped not too long in.  I have come to loathe Paul. I find him so overly pedantic about certain things that take all the joy out of baking.  Yes there are certain techniques and certain recipes that make such a thing that thing.  But he seems to take it way too far for my liking.  Measuring the pizzas seemed just plain idiotic to me.  Yes they should be uniform.  But I don't want to eat something at a party that is so uniform that it looks like it came out of a factory.  Also that crust they thought was the epitome was just nasty on the bottom.  It had no crispness or browness even though they rolled it as thin as a cracker.  And I love thin crust.  But pizza comes in all kinds of thickness. 

 

But not according to Paul.  And his calzones looked off as well.  Week after week he sets this criteria that seems oddly determined and he gets all pissy when there is any variance.  It is a baking show.  Not a corrrectly follow the recipe exacty as Paul wants it show.  He did this with the Swiss Roll bake and the cheesecake bake as well.  Putting really odd emphasis on things that shouldn't have mattered so much (three cherries on a Swiss Roll?  No more!  No less!).  And he puts lots of emphasis on what I call the pastry aspect of cooking not the baking.  Again with the Swiss Roll, you might insist they have the glaze on top.  But to insist that it is made with gelatin seems wrong.  It clearly threw the contestants and is one big reason I think they did so poorly that week.  As in Paul's insistence that the only proper way is his way.

 

I also think his calzones having sun dried tomatoes as well as cherry tomatoes is rather dim.  He seems not only pedantic but also rather unimaginatively rigid. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

There have been times when I was absolutely THRILLED a judge pulled out a ruler to measure something, but that was on The Great British Sewing Bee because they were making sure that the garments were even (and after all the janky ass hems and asymmetry I've seen on Project Runway, I loved that the GBSB judges weren't having any of that). I totally agree that there is really no need to be so anal retentive about mini pizzas being exactly the same size. As long as they're mostly round (as opposed to misshapen blobs or really oblong) then that's good enough. He is definitely one of those "my way or the highway" kind of guys.

 

Similarly, I felt that he had a certain idea of what the Mad Hatter showstoppers would look like and was judging everyone based on a standard he had set in his head and not shared with anyone else. Some bakers were told they didn't embrace the theme enough. Others were told that they had too many decorations in their presentations. In theory, I get that it's possible no one hit the mark perfectly, but it seems kind of ludicrous that they were being held to a standard that they were unaware of. In the past, the bakers have been given a fair amount of freedom with their showstoppers so even though I didn't love all of the ones we saw this week, these were THEIR interpretations of the theme. Meanwhile, Paul was acting like it was a technical challenge where they had been told exactly how to fulfill the Mad Hatter theme. As much as I like the technical challenges because it levels the playing field and forces everyone to make exactly the same thing, I love the showstopper challenges for the opposite reason - I like seeing how all the bakers do different things and get creative with the theme.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Party week recipes:

Technical challenge: gluten free mini pizzas and calzones

 

Mad Hatter show stoppers:

Neil

James

Fionnadh

Cathy

Clare

Emer

[ElectricBoogaloo]

The Great Irish Bake Off reaches the semi final! The signature challenge is a sweet souflle and the technical challenge is a Gateaux St Honore.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Man, Paul's such a stickler for the tiniest things. Was it really THAT necessary that the signature bakes each had three mini jugs of sauce? Usually I think it's important for people to follow the rules and pay attention to directions, but three jugs of sauce instead of one jug doesn't make a difference in the finished product so Paul harping on it with everyone was pointless and annoying.

 

Later when Paul was explaining the different components of the technical challenge, it annoyed me that he told Lilly that in the past some of the bakers have overwhipped their cream because they lost their focus and weren't paying attention. People make mistakes all the time but it isn't always because they weren't attention. Paul makes a lot of assumptions when the bakers aren't perfect (like when he said that the bakers screwed up their swiss rolls because they thought it would be easy).

 

James's dark chocolate and strawberry souffle sounded so good. That is one of my favorite flavor combinations! I really wish we could have seen the actualy written instructions given to the bakers because when Anna explained the signature challenge, she said that the souffles had to have a filling. James had roasted strawberries inside his souffles, which were visible in one of the closeup shots after the judges tasted his, so I didn't understand why Paul told him that he needed to have a filling. The strawberries are the filling!

 

Paul was so nitpicky about Clare's raspberry and amaretto souffle. The powdered sugar on the top wasn't EXACTLY the same. There was only one jug of sauce. He didn't like the plate she used. Good lord. At least Lilly had some suggestions for Clare about how she could have improved her presentation with a raspberry and a mint leaf on top.

 

Emer's toffee apple souffles had the biggest rise. Paul describing them as clinical looking cracked me up. That's what ever baker wants to hear! Once again, Lilly had more useful comments about the caramel notes. Paul suggesting apple schnapps was hilarious. That might be the first time anyone has suggested apple schnapps for anything besides getting a chick drunk.

 

Loved that Cathy listened to Paul's whining about the three separate jugs and poured her sauce into three cups. Nice that she went the extra mile to make brandysnaps to dip into the souffle and the sauce. I also liked that she was honest when she saw how undercooked her souffle was and said, "I don't recommend eating that." Ha! I am not a fan of wine and chocolate but the judges loved it.

 

It's too bad that Fionnadh's coconut and lime souffles were scrambled. Interesting that Lilly wondered if it was the coconut milk that caused the problem (but I liked that she said she had never tried that so she wasn't sure).

 

I have never had a St. Honore but it looks like a weird combination of too fussy and too messy. When they said it required puff pastry, choux pastry, chantilly cream, pastry cream, caramel, and spun sugar, it just seemed like more than I need in a dessert. One type of pastry and one type of cream is enough for me!

 

Loved the bakers having a little meeting to talk about how they were going to tackle the technical, what temperature to set the oven, and how to assemble the components. Coincidentally this week on the Great Irish Bake Off, one of the bakers was the pastry dough whisperer so she was helping all of the other bakers with their strudel pastry. I know it's a competition, but I love that the bakers' sense of camaraderie extends to helping each other like this.

 

Clare's puff pastry ring was crooked and light. Ha, poor James's got called a salad. He was lucky that other people made big mistakes. Otherwise I don't think he could have managed placing third. Poor Emer - having to make a second set of choux buns just got her all out of sorts. I don't know how she put too much salt in her choux bun batter but I can see how that put her in last place. Jasmin's huge mistake was putting the choux buns on the inside instead of the outside so I wasn't surprised that she came in fourth. So annoying that Paul claimed she redesigned it. None of the remaining bakers are rebellious enough to do that in a technical challenge. Fionnadh's looked really good but the judges had just as much criticism for the actual bake as everyone else's. Hilarious that before judging, she said that everyone else would have to make a lot of mistakes in order for her to do well and then she ended up with first.

 

On a shallow note, James's french braids were adorable. I cracked up when Fionnadh used the phrase "tits up." You just don't hear that often enough on tv! I loved the footage of Jasmin singing while she was baking. And I love seeing the horses running around in the background.

 

This week was definitely a tough week to judge because everyone did well at one challenge and not well at the other challenge. I liked that Anna asked the judges if they were going to choose the finalists based solely upon the bakers' performances this week or if they were going to take their past performances into account as well.

 

I didn't realize there was a double elimination until Anna said so at the very end of the episode. I'm not surprised that James and Fionnadh were eliminated because they weren't as consistently strong over the season. Cathy and Emer seemed a lock for the finale, but I was a little surprised that Clare was star baker this week.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

After 7 weeks baking their hearts out, our three finalists enter the Great Irish Bake Off Tent for the final time knowing that one of them will win the title of Ireland's best amateur baker 2015.

 

The grand final technical challenge is to bake three floating deconstructed apple crumbles served in a martini glass.

For their last showstopper, the bakers are given 5 hours to bake a 3-tiered wedding cake with a love theme.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I liked that any of the final three could have won. I was rooting for either Emer or Cathy though. I have no idea why I never got in Clare's corner. She never did anything to annoy me but I also didn't really connect with her even though she seemed perfectly nice.

 

I'm not surprised that Paul picked something fussy like that deconstructed apple crumble. I usually dislike deconstructed anything because I want the ingredients together like they're supposed to be, damn it! None of them were perfect so it seemed like the rankings for this technical challenge didn't matter too much.

 

I love when the final showstopper challenge is wedding cakes! I disliked the judges wanted love emphasized so much. I get that weddings are about love, but you can make a really nice wedding cake without actually spelling it out or putting a bunch of hearts on it.

 

I liked that none of the bakers tried to take the easy way out by making one type of cake for each tier. Having each of the tiers a different flavor was a lot of work to do in five hours.

 

I'm so used to seeing Cathy in the tent with her trademark headbands so it was surprising to see her with her beautiful red hair down during her home visit footage. Her wedding cake was very Cathy. She had lots of natural elements in the decoration and her flavor combinations were exactly what I expect from her.

 

I totally support Emer's chocolate cake bases! I never get tired of seeing layered rainbow cakes, so I liked that tier. I liked the idea of her cake with the plain frosting and all the different lacey chocolate cookies, so it's too bad that she didn't get to finish and at least put the top layer on.

 

The roses on the bottom layer of Clare's cake were so beautiful, like a fluffy frothy dress. I liked the mini bunting on top too. But overall I didn't like the look of her show stopper. Paul's suggestion to graduate the colors was a good one but I don't think that would have been enough of a change to make me like her presentation. I'm not a fan of Paul breaking out the ruler, but if the total height was supposed to be 20" and her cake still wasn't tall enough even with the boxes she inserted between each layer, then she deserves to have some points taken off. I would have been a lot more apt to give her some leeway on the height if she had only used cakes to create the height.

 

So happy that Cathy won! She was one of my favorites from the beginning, but to be honest I would have been fine with any of the three finalists winning. I'm disappointed for Emer because she has had such great flavors through the competition, but after coming in last place in the technical challenge (even though all three of them seemed pretty even there) and then not quite finishing her wedding cake, I didn't think she would be able to pull off a win.

[Christina]

I had to take a break for a bit because Paul annoyed me so much a few weeks ago, but have just completed the season. Any of the three could have won this, but I think Electric Boogaloo pointed out why Emer probably wouldn't.

 

In all of the incarnations, there seem to be wedding cake challenges with 5 hour time limits. It has never worked well. If they would add even an hour we would see more complete and better baked cakes. They always wanted them decorated well, but just don't give them enough time. Professional bakers would use every minute of that 5 hours just on decoration, and some decorations would be done days in advance, like the lace Emer was trying to complete.

 

I didn't realize who Cathy was for a second when they showed her with her hair down. I was like, "She looks familiar. Who does she look like? Oh, yeah!"

I'm blaming some of that on tiredness. No, I'll blame it all on tiredness. : )

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Ha, glad I wasn't the only one who was confused for a second when Cathy had her hair down! In the first few weeks of the show, I got confused every time they showed her photo during technical judging because her hair is down in that picture too.

[Writing Wrongs]

Anyone watch The Christmas special?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I haven't watched it yet but I will make a separate topic for it tonight!

[Writing Wrongs]

I probably would have liked it better if I knew who the celebrities were and what a "Panto" is.

[RealityCheck]

According to this article, The Great Irish Bake Off has been cancelled.

Quote

It will however be replaced by Masterchef Ireland and Celebrity Masterchef Ireland.

[OnceSane]

That sucks.  I didn't enjoy it as much as the British & Australian versions, but it was still good tv.