S01.E02: The Great Holiday Baking Show: Cake Week

[Athena]

Cake Week

[ABay]

Oh dear. Was that the dreaded charlottoe russe mess in the preview? The circle of lady fingers on the outside?

[mjc570]

Wow, this really is dreadful.  Mary is her usual wonderful self, and the other judge (John? Johnny?) is ok, but the rest, ugh.  I understand the difficulty they had in casting good bakers, but it is so apparent that Lauren is just miles ahead of the other contestants that there is no drama whatsoever.  It's even worse that the show is trying to create competition, such as by having Ainslee win the tiramisu challenge.  There is no way her cake was better than Laurens (although I recognize that I am saying this without the benefits of tasting).  Speaking of Lauren:  her French hens were adorable.

 

I normally hate to say negative things about contestants, because they at least had the courage to take a chance, but I just have to say how totally annoying I find Nicole.  She needs to clean up her act (literally), and stop making those exaggerated facial expressions (although maybe she is told to do so, to ramp up the drama).  And who - especially a self-described baker - doesn't know what a lady-finger is?  That said, they all (even Nicole) seem very pleasant, which doesn't always make good television.

[Amethyst]

I think it's going to be Ainsley and Lauren in the end, possibly Ainsley winning it by a hair.  Lauren's decorating is second to none but she has a tendency to make her stuff too sweet, too bland, or too dense.  If Ainsley is consistent with her decorating skills, she could win it all.

 

They were right about Eddie, he was too inconsistent.  If that cake was drowned in rum then that probably sent him home.

 

I think Nicole's out by next week, followed by Tim.  Nicole is too OTT, every other expression is bug-eyed or she's flailing.  It's annoying.  At least she understood her pumpkin cake was a flop.  But I was surprised that she had no idea what Tiramisu was.  

[Rinaldo]

Speaking of not knowing what stuff is... Did I hear Eddie not knowing what turtle doves are? He was going on about mating between turtles and doves, and I hope it was just a heavy-handed joke.

[Amethyst]

Speaking of not knowing what stuff is... Did I hear Eddie not knowing what turtle doves are? He was going on about mating between turtles and doves, and I hope it was just a heavy-handed joke.

 

I thought it was a joke.  But IME, a lot of people don't know what turtledoves are.  They know that they're a type of bird, but they couldn't describe them at length.

[Mrs. P.]

Lauren really does seem to be in a baking class by herself, but I'm constantly distracted when looking at and listening to her. She looks and sounds so much like Gold Medal ice dancer Meryl Davis to me.

[mertensia]

Tiramisu was invented in the 1960s or 1970s. It's not exactly a centuries-old holiday tradition. That said it is delicious and I happily tiramisued my way through Italy in 2012. I had an outstanding berry tiramisu in Florence.

The Yule logs look cool though pumpkin?

I don't disagree with Eddie's leaving though I do like him.

Ainsley's fruit cake looked terrible.

[mlp]

Despite faithful copying of the British show and despite lovely Mary, the American version lacks charm and warmth.  Johnny is fine but the hosts are awful.  The bakers seem far less skilled and also less invested in baking than the English contestants.  I'll watch the rest to see what happens but I'm not riveted like I am to the original.  

 

I don't understand why Mary or Johnny said nothing about those lady fingers that were far too long on the winning tiramisu.  Paul Hollywood would have been all over that.

[Eliza422]

Despite faithful copying of the British show and despite lovely Mary, the American version lacks charm and warmth.  Johnny is fine but the hosts are awful.  The bakers seem far less skilled and also less invested in baking than the English contestants.  I'll watch the rest to see what happens but I'm not riveted like I am to the original.  

 

I don't understand why Mary or Johnny said nothing about those lady fingers that were far too long on the winning tiramisu.  Paul Hollywood would have been all over that.

I think part of the problem is we as Americans are not a charming people. These contestants are typical Americans - therefore, the comparison with the British version which just ended is extremely apparent and not flattering to us.

[morakot]

The ladyfingers on Johnny's sample cake were also fairly tall -- was it that much of an error?

 

I do agree that the cooks' abilities are not as good as they could be -- there must be amateur bakers of equal or, dare I say, greater ability than the standard GBBO crowd in the entire United States -- and the judging seems to be equivalently gentler. They do mention practicing their recipes but only once or so -- maybe that is because they're not able to have access to a baking kitchen between bouts.

 

I'm liking Johnny as a judge -- he's clear about technique and what changes to technique can produce -- and I'm fine with the hosts.

 

Edited to add: Having lived for many years in the UK and the US, I don't think that charm is purely the result of an accent, and I believe the cast is as charming as any GBBO cast on the second episode. I was touched to see Eddie and his grandmother and Lauren and her family. The producers made an effort to create a geographically, racially, and regionally diverse group of bakers and I think it worked.

Edited December 8, 2015 by morakot

[GaT]

Despite faithful copying of the British show and despite lovely Mary, the American version lacks charm and warmth.  Johnny is fine but the hosts are awful.  The bakers seem far less skilled and also less invested in baking than the English contestants.  I'll watch the rest to see what happens but I'm not riveted like I am to the original.  

 

This sums it up for me. Since I hated Mel & Sue the first season I watched but still liked the show, I could live with Nia & Ian if the contestants were any good, but they aren't. The skill level we are seeing is nowhere near the skill level we get on the British version. The "showstoppers" were not only not showstoppers, they looked like something someone would bring into the office when they were having a potluck. I'm very disappointed in the level of skill of the bakers, & I can't understand how these were the best people they could get.

[tenativelyyours]

I think in general it has nothing to do with a locale affording more charming contestants.  I think rather production went after people who wanted to be on television as opposed to amateur bakers who wanted to bake in a contest that happens to be on tv.  I also think, though I can't exactly put my finger on what it is, that they are trying to deliver a condensed version of the show and, pardon the pun, it shows.  I think I am seeing the effort going into the production to make this work and not the actual results if that makes sense.  Like someone is trying to replicate it instead of finding out the principle that makes the show work and letting it occur naturally.  There is just something that feel artiificial about it.  To use a baking analogy, instead of relying on the natural flavor (of what made this a viable production in the first place) they have added some flavoring which alwys gives a slight off taste to bake goods in my opinion.  There are plenty of fans who love the original recipe.  Why they did not simply adhere to that, I don't know why.  And maybe that is it.  The production staff know they are not just a copy but a truncated one at that. 

 

I'm still confused why ABC didn't push this.  I don't think even a full ten episodes would have cost that much.  They could have doubled up with two episodes a week and maybe have the finale be two hours.  Holiday schedules are actually filled with lots of reruns and cheap filler anyway.  And they could have marathoned over on ABC family to help build an audience. 

 

What they really should have done if they are going to do it half assed is pull in the stars of as many of the ABC prime time line up as they could (no dancing with the stars dancers or Bachelorettes, I'm talking actors in scripted material) and do a fun holiday charity version to kick it off.  I hate celebrity versions usually but a not so serious fun approach with the holiday theme works might have been more appealing to an audience.  Putting it at 10 on a Monday night seems to me like the suits at ABC didn't have much faith in to begin with. 

[Rinaldo]

They do mention practicing their recipes but only once or so -- maybe that is because they're not able to have access to a baking kitchen between bouts.

Have they clarified the schedule on which this operated? My guess has been that they get a day or two in between shows, as opposed to the five weekdays of the original -- but on the other hand they have nothing else to do but practice during that time (where the British contests would have to fit it in around their regular life -- family, work, studies, etc.). But that's purely a guess, and I'd like to know.

[DeLurker]

Edited to add: Having lived for many years in the UK and the US, I don't think that charm is purely the result of an accent, and I believe the cast is as charming as any GBBO cast on the second episode. I was touched to see Eddie and his grandmother and Lauren and her family. The producers made an effort to create a geographically, racially, and regionally diverse group of bakers and I think it worked.

I think the smaller group of bakers and that diversity results in a central casting shadow over the group.   Add to that, the not so impressive baking results thus far....and I am left with an impression that this is a bit too manufactured. 

 

Which is unfortunate and probably casts unfair shade at the bakers.  I have no doubt that they are all very good, but under a lot of pressure to distinguish themselves in such a short period of time. 

 

After two eps, the host couple can go far far away.

Edited December 8, 2015 by DeLurker

[cardigirl]

Ugh, ugh, ugh.  I love the British show, and I agree with everyone here that Mary and the other judge are great, but I am oh so sad that the American version is so tepid, compared to the British version.  Gee that never happens does it?  That American television ruins a British television show?

 

 

;)

[Bobcatkitten]

I think Mary and Johnny together are a hoot. I don't know who he is but I find him pleasant and knowledgable. I loved him teaching her about naked cakes.

 

The contestants are okay. I thought their yule logs looked really good actually. Fruitcakes not so much.

[ari333]

That one dude (Tim?) made some great pinecones, but I didn't see him actually making them so I wondered how he did it. Anyone?

 

I really love Mary and really despise the male judge. FAIL.

Speaking of not knowing what stuff is... Did I hear Eddie not knowing what turtle doves are? He was going on about mating between turtles and doves, and I hope it was just a heavy-handed joke.

 

Hee. I know, right? It reminded me of Curb Your Enthusiasm with the running joke about  "titmouse" (which is a bird;) But they kept referring to an actual mouse as titmouse as if that were the correct name of the rodent. :)

[SirOsisOfLiver]

"The producers made an effort to create a geographically, racially, and regionally diverse group of bakers..."

 

I'm going to suggest that this is the problem with this (and so many US reality shows). "Okay, we need somebody black, somebody Hispanic, a gay guy, someone from the south, someone from California..." Why? Do you think people won't watch unless they find "their" group represented? This insistence on a casting formula dilutes everything. It's a baking show - cast the best bakers you can find, not the best who fit your profiling formula.

[ari333]

If this show had more weeks to it and more contestants, I could probably get into it more

[ari333]

So far all I've heard is "maScarpone." Shocker. Did I miss something?

[Rinaldo]

I'm going to suggest that this is the problem with this (and so many US reality shows). "Okay, we need somebody black, somebody Hispanic, a gay guy, someone from the south, someone from California..." Why? Do you think people won't watch unless they find "their" group represented? This insistence on a casting formula dilutes everything. It's a baking show - cast the best bakers you can find, not the best who fit your profiling formula.

I think it's more that they know they'll get sneered at by reviewers and in all the TV discussion sites if they don't have a diverse slate. "Oh, all white bakers... move out of the 19th century, show." Of course they also get sneered at if they try to attend to that, "Ah, the usual representatives of all groups, yawn." So they might as well suit themselves.

[Miracle Maxie]

As much as I loved this show last week, it's rapidly losing me. There feels like a disconnect between Mary and The Tent (yes, I think of the tent as a character!) and the hosts and contestants. Johnny is the only bridge between the two sides. He's adequate, and I'd love to see him as a judge on an all-American version of this show, but he can't compensate for the rift.

 

Mary actually seemed out of place to me during this episode, and that's just the saddest thing I can say.

 

The next saddest is that I'm actually glad it's only four weeks. I can stick out two more weeks of this, but it's too-rapidly become uncomfortable to watch.

[Tarasme]

I love the Great_ Baking shows. All of them. I do see that the Holiday Baking show's contestants are lacking a more well rounded baking repertoire, HOWEVER, IMO when comparing the baking essentials of the British baking culture vs the baking essentials of the American baking culture, it seems like some items are firmly ensconced within the British knowledge base that are almost unknown to Americans, therefore, what looks like significantly wider knowledge is just a different knowledge. Capice?

 

There were a few times in the last few rounds of tGBBS that a few early contestants had sad sad showstoppers. And they had pies. And bread. There were lots of places to add savory items to their baking lists. On tGHBS, so far sweets only.

 

For this week, I wish technical had been a Mary Berry cake instead of Iuzzini's and that they had another hour for the showstopper.

 

Nia. Nia Nia Nia. Nia's beautiful, but the harshness of her makeup is so distracting. All the hard red and black lines make me think of a ventriloquist's dummy every time she's on screen. :(

[GaT]

There is an article comparing the British and U.S. versions of the show:  http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/nov/30/great-holiday-baking-show-british-bake-off-abc-copy-failsbut the biggest problem I see is that the U.S. bakers simply aren't showing the same level of accomplishment as the originals.  Don't know why.  But then I don't know how they identified this group in the first place.

From the article, this:

 

The Great Holiday Baking Show, which premieres on ABC on 30 November at 10pm EST, tries very, very hard to be The Great British Bake Off – which aired in the US as The Great British Baking Show for the first four series on PBS before Netflix acquired the rights to series five.

It's not going to be on PBS anymore? 

[meep.meep]

PBS has only shown two series so I think you'll get another two out of them.

 

I hate fruitcake so this wasn't the episode for me.  And Jonny's tiramisu cake might be handed down from his mother, but it's not a grand Italian tradition.  Plus it looks weird with the lady fingers standing up above the top layer.  Kinda in a "have fun storming the castle" way.  It was telling that Lauren, goddess of perfection, chose to make her lady fingers cake height.

[Skittl1321]

Fruitcake was a weird choice, IMO.

 

Does anyone in the US make fruitcake?

[DHDancer]

Sigh.  Those weren't fruit cakes -- they were cakes with fruit.  You would NEVER frost a real fruit cake like they were doing: if you "ice" it, you use marzipan and royal icing (or god awful fondant if you must).

 

And I agree about the lady fingers: they are not supposed to be above the cake top like that and tirimisu is a dessert, not a cake!

[DHDancer]

The following is all my opinion based on 30 years of living in the US.  Americans make a fruitcake that is really more a confection: mostly glace fruits and nuts with almost no cake batter.   It's not bad in the right circumstances (tiny sliver with black coffee after dinner).

 

I think real fruitcakes (as defined by English fruitcake standards) do exist but are rarely made. I make a traditional English fruitcake at least once a year for christmas.  And I do make boiled fruitcakes (method of prepping the fruit) occasionally otherwise -- they make excellent cakes to keep around for a slice of something sweet :)

[starri]

I think one of the problems you run into with American reality shows is that inevitably some of the people are just there to be personalities.  I'm pretty sure Nicole falls into that camp.

[Pallida]

I could be romanticizing things, but it seemed like the previous American attempt (hosted by Jeff Foxworthy) had bakers who were used to entering contests (e.g. county fairs).  This experience has to help them with their presentation.  Things can taste good and not look so wonderful (or vice versa), but those contests expect both.  As you all have mentioned, there are many things factoring into why this group doesn't quite seem up to par.  They aren't bad or trainwrecks, but it's just not quite right.  

 

I wonder if the bakers understood Mary critiquing them by talking about sponge vs. cake vs. pudding.  I know I didn't fully grasp it :)  I'm sure I could figure it out, but I do wonder if some of it was lost in translation.  

[Writing Wrongs]

I was surprised that the judges didn't comment about how far apart the Ladyfingers were on the winning cake.

[Rinaldo]

It seemed that the directions for that part were nonspecific enough that a wide range of variation in size and spacing of the ladyfingers was permissible.

[Quilt Fairy]

I was surprised that the judges didn't comment about how far apart the Ladyfingers were on the winning cake.

I think if the judges said what they really thought about those cakes, there wouldn't have even been a 'winning' cake; they all looked awful to me. By comparison, remember the Swedish princess cake that was the technical challenge last season on the British show? That had to be one of the strangest confections I've ever seen, and clearly most of the British contestants were not familiar with it, but they all came up with something that was a good approximation of Mary's original. With the exception of Lauren, who has some decent decorating skills and is undoubtedly the winner of this show, you could pick half a dozen people at random off the street and find better amateur bakers than this group.

[tenativelyyours]

Are all the contestants from urban areas?  I know plenty of people who bake in cities and suburbs.  But if you weighed the number of people who bake as a strong ongoing hobby or as the means to simply provide bake goods for family and friends, the scales are going to tip to smaller towns and rural areas.  It is neither meant to be a negative or a postive, it just is.  Same as why both the British Show and the Australian show have a nice mix that seems almost equal.  Granted with such a small cast it seems moot.  But we have Orange County and L.A. in Ainslee, one from Chicago, two from the NYC metro area.  Is Lauren from Washington DC?  Not sure about Nicole.  But it seems odd when baking relies on space and time and storage for ingredients that many urban dwellers simply cannot be bothered.  And I don't blame them.  It doesn't mean you can't have an interest.  There are plenty of good devoted bakers living in efficencies I suspect.  But for the careful spread of geography as well as diversity it really seems like they simply cast to create a demographic cover as wide as they could. 

 

Another smart thing to do might have been to devote to a single area and celebrate that with the underlying idea that the next season would see another region get the focus.  Great Britain and Ireland are both rather small and Australia has a smal population.  The U.S. not so much.  Heck, since Americans tend toward more competitive reality shows, they could have done a Great American Baking Show: _____ (fill in the region).  Then have a playoff!

 

 

I also noted that at least twice someone referenced what they were baking as "oh I ate it once"  Not I baked it once.  And it was stuff that if these were true bakers by hobby they would have not referenced someone else doing the baking in that manner in my opinion.  It was stuff I had baked at least one and I hate baking.  I do love eating bake goods though.  But both times it was the type of stuff that families get together and make for the holidays.  Or the person who is the designated baker by passion (i.e. what I feel they are trying to sell these people as and what the other shows successfully managed to cast). 

[Pallida]

There's a show called Great British Menu that does regional heats. I'm not sure how it could work for baker time obligations, but I do think there's potential there!

[Kromm]

I think part of the problem is we as Americans are not a charming people. These contestants are typical Americans - therefore, the comparison with the British version which just ended is extremely apparent and not flattering to us.

See, this is our societal self-loathing poking out a bit in your statement. We don't think of ourselves as charming, but I've been told by Brits that they have stereotypes of us that we're a lot friendlier by default than their own culture. Rude, but friendly. Our nature is considered blunt but open.  Some Brits consider New Yorkers, for example, the stereotypical kind with the big New Yawk accent, broad physical gestures, and loud volume (pilloried by much of the rest of our country as annoying) as extremely charming.  Or rather kind of like New Yorkers are quaint characters--the same way we regard British Cockneys (who are also loud and demonstrative) as charming nonetheless.

 

There's also a huge problem with the UK public's version of us that they (even worse than we're doing here now) talk about a grouping of 326 million people like we're one thing. They talk about a "US accent" for example, non-stop on their messageboards.  Which I think most of us know is total bullshit, since the US has possibly even more accent variations than the UK (albeit ones spread over a lot more geography). Similarly, the way we address people, and in fact that "charming vs. open/blunt" thing is gonna differ a hell of a lot (just like accent) between lets say... a New Yorker, a Southern Belle, a California girl, and other broad types not represented on this show (a New Englander maybe, a Cowboy type, someone from the Midwest, or a Canadian-bordering state like Minnesota).

[Eliza422]

See, this is our societal self-loathing poking out a bit in your statement. We don't think of ourselves as charming, but I've been told by Brits that they have stereotypes of us that we're a lot friendlier by default than their own culture. Rude, but friendly. Our nature is considered blunt but open.  Some Brits consider New Yorkers, for example, the stereotypical kind with the big New Yawk accent, broad physical gestures, and loud volume (pilloried by much of the rest of our country as annoying) as extremely charming.  Or rather kind of like New Yorkers are quaint characters--the same way we regard British Cockneys (who are also loud and demonstrative) as charming nonetheless.

 

Good point. It is a case of "familiarity breeds contempt".

[Dobian]

Sorry to see Eddie go, but simply from a personality perspective.  He's not that great a baker, at least on the presentation side.  The Swiss logs and the tiramisu were both things they did last season on the British show, btw.  And believe it or not, I have seen a pumpkin Swiss roll-type cake in the bakery section of my supermarket before.

Edited December 9, 2015 by Dobian

[tenativelyyours]

I don't know if they are considered a pumpkin flavored variation of a Swiss Roll or are just pumpkin rolls.  But I always seem them at the bigger autumn farmer's markets during what I like to call Pumpkin Spice Season.  I've seen them made with a whipped cream type frosting a buttercream frosting and a cream cheese frosting.  So not quite the baking unicorn the show made it out to be.  Considering how weirdly gunho a lot of British cooking and baking is over pumpkin the last coupld of times I was over in London, I was surprised at how surpried Mary was.  I could see her not ever having one or even having heard of one.  But the leap as a means of hearing someone was planning on making one was odd.  And Johnny's reaction I wonder was more of a copy of Paul's ambiguous comments that might hint at disaster or might simply be an observation.

[Eolivet]

I find this show far superior to Foxworthy's version if only because:

 

-It's impossible for an obnoxious "stay-at-home dad" to triumph over homemaker women, simply because he makes better television

 

-The judges aren't (we don't think) having a skeevy offscreen affair that colors every moment of their onscreen interaction once you know about it

[barbedwire]

I find this show far superior to Foxworthy's version if only because:

 

-It's impossible for an obnoxious "stay-at-home dad" to triumph over homemaker women, simply because he makes better television

 

-The judges aren't (we don't think) having a skeevy offscreen affair that colors every moment of their onscreen interaction once you know about it

What??  I liked Jeff Foxworthy and loved how he so enjoyed tasting all of the baked goods.  What affair?

 

Mary Berry is adorable.  I have only watched a couple of episodes of the British one.

 

Tirmisu cake:  YUM!

[meep.meep]

The judges had an affair, Foxworthy was the host.  But that wasn't this show.

 

Mary Berry is adorable.  She better call something scrummy!

[BW Manilowe]

What?? I liked Jeff Foxworthy and loved how he so enjoyed tasting all of the baked goods. What affair?

Mary Berry is adorable. I have only watched a couple of episodes of the British one.

Tirmisu cake: YUM!

At the time the previous CBS version of the show was in production, the Judges--Paul Hollywood from the British version & Marcela Valladolid who's mostly known for a couple of shows on Food Network, including their current The Chew copycat, The Kitchen, where she's 1 of 4 Co-Hosts--were having an affair with each other; & it was supposedly pretty hot & heavy as I remember, but I've forgotten the particulars of how it started. And it made news, I'm pretty sure on both sides of the Atlantic--so it can be Googled, if you like. Because of that, it was like "the elephant in the room" whenever they were onscreen together (& maybe even when they went offscreen together during episodes).

Things eventually cooled between them though. Paul went back to his wife in England & Marcela moved on to another guy, whom I think I read is/was a Hollywood Studio Executive, though I'm not sure they've married (or are still together as I write this). She has a son with him, who was born in the last couple of years, & an older son from a previous marriage.

Edited December 10, 2015 by BW Manilowe

[Pjxf99]

 

-The judges aren't (we don't think) having a skeevy offscreen affair that colors every moment of their onscreen interaction once you know about it

Lol, I pictured Mary & the male judge having a hot&heavy make out session. It made me laugh. Mary could do better!

[starri]

-The judges aren't (we don't think) having a skeevy offscreen affair that colors every moment of their onscreen interaction once you know about it

If they are, more power to Mary.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Did Johnny and Mary coordinate their pink outfits? I thought it was cute.

 

I can't figure out if the show is trying to make these bakers seem boring or if the bakers are not giving them any interesting background information to work with. Lauren's two favorite things at the holiday season are baking and hosting her family and friends? Wow, that's so insightful! And unique! Nicole is a teacher, mom, and Girl Scout leader. Ainslie runs. Again, please tell me something that's different so I can tell these people apart! We finally got one interesting tidbit about Tim working at an amusement park but they didn't actually say what he does there.

 

Lauren's chocolate yule log with hazelnut whipped cream and mocha icing. I can relate to her perfectionist attitude. Hers was the most traditional looking yule log (which is not a bad thing!). Loved the meringue mushrooms.

 

Nicole's pumpkin spice campfire yule log with coffee cream cheese filling was a great idea. I loved the toasted marshmallows and the leaves. I liked the fire in theory but it looked a little too fake compared to her other elements. The cream wasn't even inside, but I guess they were more focused on the pumpkin cake to mention that. I loved that step 12 on her list was "rock it out." But she always looks so panicked while she's baking which stresses me out.

 

Tim's almond yule log with rosemary cream looked nice. I liked the way he applied the chocolate shards to create bark. Dude, stop breaking your cream into butter! I can understand accidentally doing it once, but he did it last week and then he did it TWICE during his yule log. He still had 15 minutes left so I don't know why he didn't refrigerate his cream for a few minutes before spreading it on and rolling it up.

 

Ainslie's coffee and cream yule log was a very beachy looking version, which was a nice change. She got the only simultaneous mmmmmmm from Mary and Nia, so it must have tasted pretty good!

 

Eddie's German chocolate yule log with coconut pecan custard looked nice. I really liked the way he made textured the chocolate to look like bark. Bonus: it hid the cracks in his cake.

 

When Nicole said she didn't know what tiramisu is, I thought of Sleepless in Seattle when Tom Hanks says, "What is tiramisu? Some woman is going to want me to do it to her and I'm not going to know what it is!" I love tiramisu, mostly because I could eat sweetened mascarpone with a spoon.

 

Tim finally managed to make a cream without breaking it but then he forgot to set the oven to the correct temperature. Get it together, man!

 

Eddie is on my shit list for saying eXpresso. It's espresso with an S, not an X. That's a pet peeve of mine so I always notice it.

 

Ainslie's cake looked creepy because her ladyfingers actually looked like fingers reaching up around the cake. Did she not have enough to put them closer together? But the cake layers were even and I liked the tree decoration on the top. Glad she got first!

 

Lauren's ladyfingers were so soft that Mary was able to bend them in half, but it looked like she was the only one who had them touching all the way around the outside of the cake so she gets points for that.

 

Nicole's ladyfingers were good (but like Ainslie, she spaced them too far apart), but her mascarpone was really runny and the top of her cake looked like a third grader did it.

 

Tim's ladyfingers were so terrible. They looked like shriveled old lady's fingers. But he had the best mascarpone so he finally broke his mini streak!

 

Eddie made a lot of mistakes with his - the cake was underbaked and it was so hot that the cream melted into the cake. Not surprised he was in last place in the technical challenge.

 

Since Johnny's family background is Italian and this was his recipe, I was surprised that he was so nice when judging the tiramisu cakes.

 

I loathe fruitcake so the show stopper had very little appeal for me. The only soaked fruit I want in a cake is strawberries soaked in balsamic. But I liked that they had to be tiered, which I find more visually interesting for a show stopper (eta: I rewatched and apparently tiers were not required!). And I loved that the Twelve Days of Christmas theme got the bakers to sing!

 

Lauren's three French hens cake with swiss meringue, prunes, and dried apricots was so cute. From the little striped shirts on her hens and the scroll work to the mini Eiffel Towers, she did a great job with presentation. And her frosting was so smooth!

 

Nicole's partridge in a spiced pear tree cake with raisins and pears was interesting in theory but I didn't like the rough frosting. I think that it would have looked better with smooth frosting. I liked the tree on top and the cookie cutter birds were nice (although I can see that in comparison, Lauren showed more skill by not using cookie cutters to decorate her cake - she just shouldn't have said it so loudly).

 

Tim's was bucking all the rules with his candied lemon peel, maraschino cherry, and walnut partridge in a pear tree. Instead of baking a round cake, he baked a sheet cake and then cut out circles for his tiers. Instead of mixing the fruit into the cake batter, he layered the fruit inside. I don't mind the naked cake look in theory because not every cake needs to be frosted within an inch of its life. It worked because the sides of the cake were clean and it allowed you to see the fruit.

 

Ainslie's five golden rings with coconut, pineapple, and pureed carrot was a mess. While I think she was smart to realize she was spending way too much time rolling all those little pearls, I don't know why she abandoned them completely. Why didn't she at least use the ones she already made? She could have just put them on the bottom layer!

 

Eddie's two turtle doves cake with raisins and cranberries was a bit plain looking. Ha, I loved when Ian said Mary was hammered because of all the rum. I also like that Johnny and Mary are not afraid to disagree with each other. I like bread pudding too, Johnny!

 

There were a few times in the last few rounds of tGBBS that a few early contestants had sad sad showstoppers.

The first showstopper on the Great South African Bake Off was dismal. It was basically everyone making frosted cookies in the shapes of animals and standing them up on a board. I almost stopped watching the show because it was so bad.

 

The Great Holiday Baking Show, which premieres on ABC on 30 November at 10pm EST, tries very, very hard to be The Great British Bake Off – which aired in the US as The Great British Baking Show for the first four series on PBS before Netflix acquired the rights to series five.

It's not going to be on PBS anymore?

I'm still trying to decipher what exactly that means because as it's written, it's not entirely factual. PBS has not aired four seasons of the GBBO. PBS first aired S5 (which was called S1 on PBS) earlier this year and then S4 (which was called S2). They will be airing S6 (which will be called S3) in early 2016. You can now watch S5 (US S1) on Netflix and Amazon, but not any of the other seasons yet. I think whoever wrote the article might not have had their facts straight.

Edited December 10, 2015 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Rickster]

"The producers made an effort to create a geographically, racially, and regionally diverse group of bakers..."

 

I'm going to suggest that this is the problem with this (and so many US reality shows). "Okay, we need somebody black, somebody Hispanic, a gay guy, someone from the south, someone from California..." Why? Do you think people won't watch unless they find "their" group represented? This insistence on a casting formula dilutes everything. It's a baking show - cast the best bakers you can find, not the best who fit your profiling formula.

I've only seen the last couple of seasons of the BBC show, including the last one not shown in the US yet, but it is pretty obvious that there is a considerable amount of casting for diversity on the UK show as well. It's just that the skill level is much higher for everyone.

[tenativelyyours]

I would argue that while the UK is diverse it seems they pull in as large of group of bakers and then go from there.  With this I get a strong sense that they broke down the diversity first and then worked their way to baking.  I'm not going to be any meaner but I really do think some of these people might have been given a set of baking cook books and put in the Fairfield Inn by the Newark airport, told they would only have what they baked to eat and that the plane for London was leaving in two weeks.  Hop to it.

 

Which isn't really an argument I guess since I'm saying the same thing in regards to skill level.

 

Looking at the most recent season of the UK show, while nicely diverse, only the first to go seemed to be out of the element.  All had disasters, but on their worst day, I think any of them could outbake even the delusions of baking grandeur any of this bunch might have. 

 

As much as I have so quickly come to hate him, I would love for the show to have a twist and Paul Benton from the Irish series is brough in to judge this US holiday group.   I think he might actually get violent with them.

Edited December 10, 2015 by tenativelyyours

[Quilt Fairy]

I'm still trying to decipher what exactly that means because as it's written, it's not entirely factual. PBS has not aired four seasons of the GBBO. PBS first aired S5 (which was called S1 on PBS) earlier this year and then S4 (which was called S2). They will be airing S6 (which will be called S3) in early 2016. You can now watch S5 (US S1) on Netflix and Amazon, but not any of the other seasons yet. I think whoever wrote the article might not have had their facts straight.

Where did you see that PBS is definitely airing another season? Because I was Googling around last night and I couldn't find any confirmation, much to my dismay. PBS may not depend on advertisers, but they need viewers as much as any channel, and this is the type of show that will have people sending in donations to keep on the air.

Edited December 10, 2015 by Quilt Fairy