Halloween Baking Championship - General Discussion

[2soon2tell]

Aaron annoys me. Not sure why, maybe I’m just old. The sheep was just weird looking, the zebra didn’t look good or sound like it tasted good. The pig head looked simplistic. Maybe I need to start drinking some of Lillian’s coffee when I’m watching the show.

[Splashy]

I thought Thierry's choux dough in the first round looked really liquidy. I said, "That is not gonna work". And voila, it didn't.

Yeah, that zebra thing did not work, either. The face looked unfinished - it was barely there. He was lucky he had immunity.

And Joel put way too much stuff on his cow mutation. It would've come across better if he'd streamlined his design. 

JL was the right one to go home, but the giraffe design on his cake looked great. It's too bad he wasn't able to make better use of it.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 1, 2024 by Splashy
Fixed punctuation; computer is wonky tonight.

[libgirl2]

7 minutes ago, Splashy said:

I thought Thierry's choux dough in the first round looked really liquidy. I said, "That is not gonna work". And voila, it didn't.

Yeah, that zebra thing did not work, either. The face looked unfinished - it was barely there. He was lucky he had immunity.

And Joel put way too much stuff on his cow mutation. It would've come across better if he'd streamlined his design. 

JL was the right one to go home, but the giraffe design on his cake looked great. It's too bad he wasn't able to make better use of it.

 

 

 

 

Thierry did not have immunity. I am still puzzled over that zebra. 

[dleighg]

14 minutes ago, Splashy said:

Yeah, that zebra thing did not work, either. The face looked unfinished - it was barely there. He was lucky he had immunity.

zebra (thierry) didn't have immunity

Speaking of the Baileys creme-- how do they seem to always have a photo of whatever personal thing they are talking about?

[starlightlost]

I just cannot with that sheep. How did that win? It didn't even have ears 😂

 

It seems they sometimes get confused, as do I, about the real challenge. Was it mutant animals? Or just gory animals? There's a difference.

 

Poor JL. Wasn't cut out for this fast paced stuff. I wonder if they get to go in and familiarize themselves with where everything is in the kitchen before filming begins?

[dleighg]

I thought a lot of them just looked messy, like I couldn't grasp what I was looking at. The judges raved over one of them that was so cluttered that it looked to me like it had fallen on the floor. I forget whose it was; I think one of the guys. It had some spun sugar on top for no reason I could figure out.

[Maya]

I kept wondering why the sheep didn’t have a nose. The head looked like a human skull. 

[Pi237]

Always toast your nuts!  But for real, Why does there always have to be a crunchy layer?  I like a smooth bite. Whenever I try a good looking dessert and hit a walnut or something, it just ruins it for me. Takes the flavor right out and all you taste is the nut. (And now I’ll sound like a nut, but….)
 

Hide the damn pistachios from these people, please! It’s so weird. I like shelling and eating pistachios, but the already shelled ones taste so weird to me. They have to get rid of those or I can’t watch anymore lmao  So, hide the pistachios and stop making the bakers ‘act’ with the shocked expressions and fake laughing, it’s painful. 
 

JL’s giraffe pattern looked cool tho. Shame it was such a mess. Much like the zebra/unicorn.

Sheep’s face was bad, but cake inside looked delicious.    Joel did So Much, but I liked the look of it.     Aarons pig was good. Megan’s eh.  Manny’s was good. None of them seemed very cohesive.  Holly’s chicken looked cool, mostly due to air brushing. 
Im always impressed at what the air brushing can do. Makes a huge difference. 

Carla in costume, trying to eat and talk was funny. 

Im not a chef or a professional taster, and tend to like my flavors simple. So, I rarely get this judging. They seem to want everything to have strong flavors, a crunch layer, some heat, and some citrus all at once. I just like chocolate. Or vanilla. lol. The coffee and pepper combo sounds interesting though. 

[dleighg]

7 minutes ago, Pi237 said:

I like shelling and eating pistachios, but the already shelled ones taste so weird to me.

I once bought those (so much easier, I thought!) and they were terrible. Never again.

8 minutes ago, Pi237 said:

Carla in costume, trying to eat and talk was funny. 

It seemed all three of them had trouble talking. I guess the makeup folks went wild on the rodent teeth :) I would hate that.

[libgirl2]

1 hour ago, Pi237 said:

JL’s giraffe pattern looked cool tho. Shame it was such a mess. Much like the zebra/unicorn.

Carla in costume, trying to eat and talk was funny. 

 

I agree that the giraffe pattern was really cool. He should left that tart and concentrated more on the giraffe.  With the legs it reminded me of the walking head in the movie The Thing. 

I had to laugh at Carla! 

Edited October 2, 2024 by libgirl2

[Rammchick]

23 hours ago, carrps said:

We didn't get it, either. It's like he does futsy little things, then, in the last hour, it's like "Oh, I have to bake a cake!" or "Oh, I need to make pate a choux!" He has skills, but his time management is horrendous. Wouldn't anyone think that whatever needs to be baked should be the first thing done? 

Even worse, he baked two items when he only needed one.  He could've devoted more time to the roll cake and decor if he hadn't made the tart as well.  Neither product was executed properly.

[tennisgurl]

JL seems like a really nice guy and clearly has a lot of talent, but he was inevitably going to go home, his time management is just terrible. His ideas and decorations are so good but he always focuses on the wrong things, which leaves the actual bake to the last minute. What were you even doing while everyone else was baking my guy? 

I wish the sheep looked a bit more like a sheep, but I could still tell what it was and the inside looked wonderful. I also thought that the pig head was fun, the judges were all about that pig and the risks that Aaron was apparently taking with it. 

You can tell the costume and makeup departments were having a great time designing the costumes for the judges this week, they all looked great, especially Carla. 

So were they supposed to be gory zombie animals or mutated animals? Either way, I still thought they looked pretty cute.

[Splashy]

22 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

Thierry did not have immunity.

Grrrr ... All during the challenge I kept getting confused between Thierry and Manny, and which one had immunity. I guess they told Manny it was a good thing he had immunity. Thanks for the correction!

7 hours ago, Pi237 said:

Why does there always have to be a crunchy layer?  I like a smooth bite.

Same. Really, it's ok for something not to have a crunch factor in it!

Oh, and on JL's giraffe, wasn't the head on upside down? The way the legs were positioned, it looked like it was on its back, but the head was facing forward. I don't know, maybe it was me. After all, I did get confused between Manny and Thierry. 🤪

[springbarb]

7 hours ago, Pi237 said:

Carla in costume, trying to eat and talk was funny. 

Im not a chef or a professional taster, and tend to like my flavors simple. So, I rarely get this judging. They seem to want everything to have strong flavors, a crunch layer, some heat, and some citrus all at once. I just like chocolate. Or vanilla. lol. The coffee and pepper combo sounds interesting though. 

The costumes bother me when they clearly interfere with eating. That should be the one rule of their costumes. I actually didn't watch this show for a while because the complexity of the costumes annoyed me.

Agreed on the flavors. So often the desserts just sound incredibly busy. Everything doesn't need 5 or 6 flavors.

[libgirl2]

8 minutes ago, Splashy said:

Grrrr ... All during the challenge I kept getting confused between Thierry and Manny, and which one had immunity. I guess they told Manny it was a good thing he had immunity. Thanks for the correction!

Same. Really, it's ok for something not to have a crunch factor in it!

Oh, and on JL's giraffe, wasn't the head on upside down? The way the legs were positioned, it looked like it was on its back, but the head was facing forward. I don't know, maybe it was me. After all, I did get confused between Manny and Thierry. 🤪

I honestly don't think I eat a lot of cake that has a crunchy layer. A fruit layer yes, but not a crunchy. 

The head was facing down. I would have gone with the head facing up and gone with the neck and head fell off, legs sprouted and it took off (as I said before). 

3 minutes ago, springbarb said:

The costumes bother me when they clearly interfere with eating. That should be the one rule of their costumes. I actually didn't watch this show for a while because the complexity of the costumes annoyed me.

Agreed on the flavors. So often the desserts just sound incredibly busy. Everything doesn't need 5 or 6 flavors.

I like the costumes but they should be able to still easily eat the cakes. 

[TVbitch]

When John and Carla were "observing" the bakers I don't even think the bakers were actually there at that time. 🤫

Aaron is a great baker, but whenever they bring someone back, I feel like that person basically has a pass straight through to the finale. 

[libgirl2]

2 minutes ago, TVbitch said:

When John and Carla were "observing" the bakers I don't even think the bakers were actually there at that time. 🤫

Aaron is a great baker, but whenever they bring someone back, I feel like that person basically has a pass straight through to the finale. 

I know what you mean. At least he was good before and didn't just leave because of an emergency so we never got to see how good he could be. 

When you mentioned bring someone back, I was remembering the spring baking championship when they suddenly brought in two new bakers (one of whom left right away). 

[starlightlost]

Can we talk about this new immunity thing as the advantage? What does everyone think? It seems like an easy way to coast along during the main bake. 

 

Also, I haven't noticed any weird twists yet..

[libgirl2]

58 minutes ago, starlightlost said:

Can we talk about this new immunity thing as the advantage? What does everyone think? It seems like an easy way to coast along during the main bake. 

 

Also, I haven't noticed any weird twists yet..

I wasn't for it at first, but I think while it won't make a difference initially, it could going forward. A bad bake might reflect on them later on, just as a great one would later.  

[RoxiP]

I just wonder how long the immunity will last - seems to me that they will have to end it at a certain point in the competition.

[Rammchick]

Winning immunity is a staple of other TV cooking shows (Top Chef, etc.).  But they usually waive this option when it comes down to only a few baketestants left.

[libgirl2]

1 minute ago, Rammchick said:

Winning immunity is a staple of other TV cooking shows (Top Chef, etc.).  But they usually waive this option when it comes down to only a few baketestants left.

Maybe then they will throw in the traditional advantages? 

[CrazyInAlabama]

John said in the first episode that immunity was only for the first few episodes. 

[Dirtybubble]

On 10/1/2024 at 7:56 PM, dleighg said:

zebra (thierry) didn't have immunity

Speaking of the Baileys creme-- how do they seem to always have a photo of whatever personal thing they are talking about?

I think when you are cast on the show the producers ask you to bring some home photos of yourself and family and then in the confessionals they ask you about a certain picture.

23 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

I wish the sheep looked a bit more like a sheep, but I could still tell what it was and the inside looked wonderful

If she didn't tell me it was a sheep I wouldn't have known it was but it did look cool and creepy and the judges raved about the taste.  

Since John gets to taste the desserts with the judges I wish he would be able to give his opinion on them, or make some funny joke about it.  Why let him eat and then not let him use his whit and humor?

[libgirl2]

3 minutes ago, Dirtybubble said:

Since John gets to taste the desserts with the judges I wish he would be able to give his opinion on them, or make some funny joke about it.  Why let him eat and then not let him use his whit and humor?

Because he isn't a judge, but hasn't he said something to the judges after the baker has left the room? 

[Dirtybubble]

45 minutes ago, libgirl2 said:

Because he isn't a judge, but hasn't he said something to the judges after the baker has left the room? 

Yeah I know he's not a judge but a funny line from him or something about the dessert....

 

[libgirl2]

2 minutes ago, Dirtybubble said:

Yeah I know he's not a judge but a funny line from him or something about the dessert....

 

I understand what you mean but there are probably rules. He might have to stay out of it with the baker present. 

[CrazyInAlabama]

"Rotten and Forgotten Desserts"  Season 10, Episode 4 • New, 10/07/2024

(Changed to 1 hour format). 

"Oh no! An ancient mummy is haunting the Fermentation Lab, munching on umami-filled ingredients like stinky cheese. This gives John Henson the idea for "umummy" desserts, and he tasks the bakers with creating sweet mummy treats that feature umami ingredients like red miso, aged parmesan, gochujang or soy sauce. Then, it's "bone appetit" for judges Carla Hall, Zac Young and Stephanie Boswell as the bakers get inspired by the lab skeleton, Skelly, to create Skelly's forgotten desserts, where they must use Halloween mini chocolate bars to create skeletal desserts."

Remaining bakers:

Megan Aucone, 

Thierry Aujard, 

Lillian Chng, 

Aaron Davis, 

Joel Gonzalez, 

Manny Martinez, 

Hollie Rivera, 

(Samantha, Carly and JL  were eliminated, and cryofrozen)

Thriller Challenge: Desserts with umami, bizarre ingredients.  I have to say the savory, Umami ingredients sound disgusting. 

Winner: Thierry and gets immunity in the Killer Challenge. 

Killer Challenge: Use Halloween mini bars to create skeletal dessert, in honor of Skelly the skeleton in the kitchen.  The recipe cards only have flavors, and element of each dessert.   I love the judges costumes!  I was disappointed with Thierry's skull, it was a mess. 

Top Two:  Joel and Aaron

Final Winner: Aaron

Bottom Two: Megan and Hollie

Eliminated: Megan

(Since I have no recording capability, I watched this on the Demand channel, this morning.   If you think the live version has a lot of commercials, try the On Demand verson, it has a lot more.   But it's the only way to see Hoarders on Monday, and watch this show before Thursday.)

Edited October 8, 2024 by CrazyInAlabama

[Grizzly]

I wonder why John is always wearing that trench coat? It's a nice looking coat but it doesn't fit in with the theme of laboratory. 

[JudgeyMcJudgyPants]

Does Thierry have naked pictures of the judges or know where they buried a body or something??? His skull looked like garbage.  I didn’t see last week so I can’t comment on that but two weeks ago they praised his cat and mouse too, with which I was also not impressed.  I don’t get it.

[Frost]

Megan was the right one to go.  An almost burnt brownie?  A brownie is simple enough, compared to a pavlova or laminated pastry.   If it's simple, it has to be perfect.

I really felt for Hollie, having to make laminated pastry, versus a mousse or other much easier options.  It's too bad it was undercooked.

I'm getting a little tired of Aaron.  I don't really like having past contestants coming back again.  They really have an advantage, having worked in these stressful and weird situations before.

[Irlandesa]

On 10/2/2024 at 5:29 PM, libgirl2 said:

I honestly don't think I eat a lot of cake that has a crunchy layer. A fruit layer yes, but not a crunchy.

I'm a crunchy layer fan, especially for chocolate cake.  My favorite chocolate cake has a feuilletine layer to it.  Too bad it comes from a restaurant in Chicago that I'm hours away from.

But I've never been able to pull it off on my own.

On 10/3/2024 at 6:45 AM, starlightlost said:

Can we talk about this new immunity thing as the advantage? What does everyone think? It seems like an easy way to coast along during the main bake.

They could but in last week's episode and this week's episode we saw why that might be a bad idea.  Aaron used his immunity to take a big swing and the judges loved it. Thierry took a big swing this week and was unsuccessful, but the judges respected that he took that leap. The other guy last week played it safe and got dinged by them.

On 10/1/2024 at 3:46 PM, rlc said:

The right person went home, if only for the reason that it was too confusing to have a contestant named JL and a contestant named Joel.

It was so confusing that I didn't even realize until he was booted that JL wasn't spelled Jael.

[mlp]

2 hours ago, Frost said:

I really felt for Hollie, having to make laminated pastry, versus a mousse or other much easier options.  It's too bad it was undercooked.

That did feel unfair.  Those usually need to be chilled between rolling out and folding and so on and really should need more time than they were given and that doesn't even count baking time.  I'm glad she wasn't chopped for that.  Burnt brownies are worse anyway.

 

2 hours ago, Frost said:

I'm getting a little tired of Aaron. 

I am too and not because he is a returning contestant.  He seems to be getting more arrogant and snotty as the show goes on.  I suppose he and Thierry will make it to the finale but I have no guesses at this point who else is a front runner.  I like Lillian but I don't think she has the skills of the professionals.  I'm going to hate to see her go though.

 

[libgirl2]

6 hours ago, mlp said:

That did feel unfair.  Those usually need to be chilled between rolling out and folding and so on and really should need more time than they were given and that doesn't even count baking time.  I'm glad she wasn't chopped for that.  Burnt brownies are worse anyway.

 

I am too and not because he is a returning contestant.  He seems to be getting more arrogant and snotty as the show goes on.  I suppose he and Thierry will make it to the finale but I have no guesses at this point who else is a front runner.  I like Lillian but I don't think she has the skills of the professionals.  I'm going to hate to see her go though.

 

I just knew the laminate would not turn out cooked. She needed more time. That was  not a fair one to throw in. But I knew burnt brownies would be doom. I was disappointed with the skull Thierry made. I guess he took a chance. 

So it isn't only me who is seeing that in Aaron? He said something to Thierry last night that was snarky and not in a nice way. Thierry looked taken aback for a second. 

[dleighg]

8 hours ago, mlp said:

He seems to be getting more arrogant and snotty as the show goes on.

I really noticed that this episode. The way he was talking to the other bakers was more like he's the host -- implying they don't have enough time, etc.

[libgirl2]

17 minutes ago, dleighg said:

I really noticed that this episode. The way he was talking to the other bakers was more like he's the host -- implying they don't have enough time, etc.

And that he is better than them. There is nothing wrong with friendly banter but it seems more mean spirited and arrogant. 

Edited October 8, 2024 by libgirl2

[Rammchick]

5 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

I just knew the laminate would not turn out cooked. She needed more time. That was  not a fair one to throw in. 

I guess they needed two people to go up for elimination and her puff pastry was the only one with flaws.  Agreed that she needed more time, but that's when you assess the time you do have and figure out if you can pull it off successfully.  In this case, she took a shot and it didn't work out.

5 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

So it isn't only me who is seeing that in Aaron? He said something to Thierry last night that was snarky and not in a nice way. Thierry looked taken aback for a second. 

If you look closely at his face when he's saying these things, he's clearly not joking.  This guy is getting "above his raising" and he needs to cut it out.  Thierry has also done this at times but I give him a little more leeway, being French and all 😏

[AZChristian]

Only one comment from me for this episode.  Zac as "Mummy Dearest."  BEST THING EVER!!!!

[libgirl2]

1 minute ago, Rammchick said:

I guess they needed two people to go up for elimination and her puff pastry was the only one with flaws.  Agreed that she needed more time, but that's when you assess the time you do have and figure out if you can pull it off successfully.  In this case, she took a shot and it didn't work out.

If you look closely at his face when he's saying these things, he's clearly not joking.  This guy is getting "above his raising" and he needs to cut it out.  Thierry has also done this at times but I give him a little more leeway, being French and all 😏

I think deep down, she knew it wasn't going to work. 

You called it on the face. I also give Thierry a pass because it could be "lost in the translation", if you know what I mean. 

[dleighg]

9 minutes ago, AZChristian said:

Zac as "Mummy Dearest."  BEST THING EVER!!!!

He was a surprisingly fetching woman!

[Pi237]

24 minutes ago, AZChristian said:

Only one comment from me for this episode.  Zac as "Mummy Dearest."  BEST THING EVER!!!!

He had So much fun with that, ‘As I told Tina-clean up this Mess!’ 🤣 Loved it! 

Carla’s makeup was insanely good as well. I keep watching her chew, trying to figure it out.  

[Frost]

I'm curious about how the judges handle the weird ingredients.  I mean, a soy puddle in a cookie?  Stephanie mentioned she could taste the soy.  Did she like it?  Is she now considering putting soy sauce in all her desserts?  I know in the past bakers have tried to use an ingredient but negate the flavor - like sauerkraut - and they've gotten dinged for it.  But does anyone really want to eat cookies with a soy puddle?

[Kendra143]

I may be in the minority but I really like Aaron. Thierry not so much, and Lillian can go any time. 

[mojoween]

On 10/2/2024 at 6:27 PM, springbarb said:

Agreed on the flavors. So often the desserts just sound incredibly busy. Everything doesn't need 5 or 6 flavors.

This made me laugh to read your quote after watching yesterday’s episode when Aaron’s needed its own Wikipedia entry to describe it.

I liked Meghan.  I don’t understand why she turned up the oven as that had disaster written all over it.

[libgirl2]

1 hour ago, Kendra143 said:

I may be in the minority but I really like Aaron. Thierry not so much, and Lillian can go any time. 

I liked him on the last Baking Championship he was on and I was happy to see him here. That is fading, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. 

[Salacious Kitty]

Aaron's ribbing of Hollie and their competing graveyards was just mean spirited. He went after someone else later in the episode, equally mean/arrogant. Not a fan at all. 

 

[libgirl2]

8 minutes ago, Salacious Kitty said:

Aaron's ribbing of Hollie and their competing graveyards was just mean spirited. He went after someone else later in the episode, equally mean/arrogant. Not a fan at all. 

 

Yea, I didn't care for that. It didn't sound good natured. 

[mojoween]

I like Aaron, but considering he has had immunity at least once (maybe twice?), his snipe at Thierry was ill-placed.

[tennisgurl]

I have liked Aaron, but he does seem to be getting too arrogant, some of his "quips" towards other contestants seemed more smug than fun, he's starting to feel like he's hot shit because he's doing well and because he's done this already. I hope that we don't get a ton of former contestants doing different baking shows going forward unless its an All Star thing, it seems rather unfair that one person goes in knowing how this all works. 

Thierry's mummy dish looked delicious but I was surprised that he wasn't dinged at all for not looking much like a mummy.

Zac as Mummy Dearest was an all time great costume, he looks quite lovely as Joan Crawford!

I feel bad that Hollie got such a hard bake compared to everyone else, she really did a good job all things considered, I'm glad that she didn't get sent home. I am sad to see Meghan go, but its hard to get past such a bad brownie burn. 

Edited October 10, 2024 by tennisgurl

[TVbitch]

I don't yet see anyone that can challenge Aaron to win this thing. Thierry is too hit or miss and rarely pulls all the elements together, and the guy who came in second to Aaron just can't seem to learn to "take one thing off" as Coco Chanel would advise.