Season Two Talk: Spring Baking Championship

[Christina]

I almost didn't bother to watch because I think the editing this season basically broadcast the winner weeks ago. I hope they improve that next season. There hasn't been much suspense. It was nice that there wasn't a lot of negativity, though, so if they edited some out, good job editors! Otherwise, I found it kind of meh. 

Not that it will stop me from watching next year, unless something else is on. 

[mlp]

It has seemed all along that Jane was the chosen one.  They overlooked her mistakes and came up with criticisms of the others that sounded like they were really reaching.  I can't believe that they didn't know that Jane's cakes fell apart.  Talk about a technique problem.  And her cake looked nothing like Hawaii.  I wanted Dan to win and would have been happy for Susana too.  Bah.

[Madding crowd]

I wanted Dan to win too. None of the cakes looked all that great to me, but they did have limited time. Susanna's was crooked, and it sounded like her tiramisu flavor wasn't quite right. I didn't like the chalkboard thing on Dan's , but it seemed like it had good flavor. It was pretty obvious Jane would win-her cake looked kind of plain although the flowers were pretty. i didn't get the reference to waves on her cake, I have seen many cakes with that kind of ridge through the frosting. 

[dewelar]

Bobby: "The winner is Jane."

Me: "Meh." *turns off TV*

I didn't really have a favorite going in, but thought Susana's cake was beautiful, and also the only one that really invoked the destination with its appearance. I really didn't understand how much they were raving about how Dan's cake looked so Mexican, as I couldn't see those colors (or, really, anything about his cake) as uniquely Mexican in any way, and the "chalkboard" did indeed look amateurish. Similarly, Jane's cake did not evoke Hawaii very much -- maybe if her strand of flowers had wrapped all the way around the cake I'd give her a pass, but otherwise it's...a strand of generic-looking flowers. Even her flavors were more generic-tropical than Hawaiian.

*sigh* I suppose by this time I should learn not to be frustrated when the parameters of a challenge are tangential at best to the judging, but I can't help it. If it doesn't matter, why even have the parameters? As others have said, just tell them "bake a pie" and send them off. Of course, with the way these shows go, someone would proceed to bake a miraculous pretzel or something and the judges would find some way to vaguely tie it to pies (It uses some of the same ingredients! It's a pie! Really!) to allow them to pick it as the winner.

Feh.

Is there a Summer Baking Championship I can try and convince myself to look forward to? ;-)

[GaT]

That was..whatever. I really didn't care who won, but Bobbyt dragged out the announcement so much that the recording ended as soon as they said Jane's name.

[zxy556575]

7 hours ago, Ilovecomputers said:

"I'm so surprised that Jane won," said nobody.  I was really pulling for Dan to win. As much as I liked Suzanna, she already has a shop and this was Dan's dream.

My fingers were crossed for Dan, too, but once Jane turned out that really nice wedding cake I was resigned to her winning. Not that she was horrible or anything but I liked Dan and Susana better.

[candall]

The Coliseum was a terrible mistake.  I could barely pay attention to the gold Roman medallions and the graceful handpainted whatever on the first tier because of the thick clunky tan thing on the top.  (And Susana, I like you, but stop whining because you didn't get Mexico.  Of course you didn't get Mexico!  If Jane had given you Mexico, that would have confirmed she was nipping the hard stuff during the competition.)

If someone glued an elementary school "chalkboard' onto my wedding cake, I'd cancel the check.  But what exactly says Celebration In Mexico?  A piñata?

So Jane's cake was the only one I would have wanted, based on appearance.  Taste-wise, Hawaii was also kind of a ringer.  What are you going to do for those three destination flavors besides tiramisu, dulce de leche and coconut/fruit?

Basically I thought the fix was in on the (more interesting) first challenge because then it was guaranteed Jane could pick the wedding cake that called for floral embellishment and light sweet flavors.  But I'm not really too outraged she had an advantage since the other two were professional cake decorators.  (Is that right?  I know Susana owns a bakery, but I'm not sure what Dan does.)

 

It was kind of weird that this was basically a challenge not much different from any of the others, except this one had a $50k check attached at the end.  And it was very weird how OBVIOUS it was that the three judges had each been assigned one of the bakers to champion.  No Academy Awards coming your way, folks.

 

I laughed when Lorraine said she could taste a little dulce de leche and Nancy corrected her:  "No."  Duff was really the sweetheart of that trio, eh?

 

Oh well.  All the bakers were nice enough and the show was nice enough.  I enjoyed it.

Edited May 16, 2016 by candall

[Bobcatkitten]

I really didn't think Jane would win only because Lorraine seemed to be picking the cake apart. Of the three if I had to pick one for my wedding it definitely would have been hers. I also think the other two kinda smacked you in the face with the theme. I liked the more subtle cake. 

I thought the guy's cake looked like something for a birthday party. The Italian one was okay I guess. 

[Darian]

I liked everyone, but Jane was my favorite, and she was most consistent, so I felt it was an earned win. I'm happy they all did pretty well, though. The whole season was a fun watch. 

I'm happy for Jane am sure she will have quite a victory/welcome home party!

[NYGirl]

I thought that since Jane kept saying she was going to win that she wasn't!  I'm so angry she did.  I see with this show they always go with the most annoying, bouncy time.  (see Erin ).

I was cackling with glee when she couldn't get her layers out of the pans.  I was saying "aha" to myself at that point.  But that ended up being a non-issue.

I was rooting for Dan to get his bake shop. :(

Edited May 16, 2016 by NYGirl

[candall]

I would love to have seen a wedding cake from the man in fourth place.  The challenge was largely about presentation and he was by far the most creative, with his little perfume bottles and artful design details.

[Joe Blow]

My wife initially didn't like what seemed like Katy Perry's mom look-a-like, Jane, but by the end wanted her to win.  Her creations just always seemed mediocre, other than the fact that we couldn't taste them.  The decorations seemed pretty middle of the road.  

How many people do you know that truly pick a wedding cake that looks like someone made it in their home kitchen, but tastes slightly better, over one that looks much nicer and much more professional?  No one takes pictures of the inside..

Edited May 18, 2016 by Joe Blow

[Maya]

7 hours ago, Darian said:

I'm happy for Jane am sure she will have quite a victory/welcome home party!

Can you even imagine the sheer amount of booze flowing at that party?

All season long I couldn't decide if I liked or hated Jane. I still can't.

[CherZ]

No. No no no no no no no no! What the hell Food Network? WHY?

Suzanne's had the most beautiful detailed decorations, Dan at least tried with his and Jane's was boring as all get out. And she won?

Forget this show, seriously. It was evident who the producers made win, I was kind of hoping it wasn't but the fix was in for good and I'm done with this show. Not worth it. Going to have to check out the British show since I've heard great things about it and I'm sure it's not rigged. Grrr....

[needschocolate]

On the bright side - they had to bake something savory!  I believe was a first for this show.  

[Feline Queen]

I just sat and watched quietly while my husband made most of the comments - such as:

Why did Dan put sprinkles on doughnuts for men? (I said he was apparently trying to adhere to the springtime concept, but yes a big boo-boo.)

Jane was a bitch for chosing to give Dan the Mexican destination cake instead of Susana. (I replied it was obviously a strategic move.) And once again she appears to be dangerously close to drunk.  

He thought for sure Jane's stuck to the pan cakes that needed to be patched together meant she'd lose.

And finally ... Dan was robbed. 

[grisgris]

I was disappointed, but not surprised, that Jane won. I was pulling for Susanna. I was ambivalent about Dan. I was really rooting for Kenny, though.

I guess my MVP is Bobby Deen. When he first started this gig, I thought he was awful. He has really improved over the past seasons. You can tell he's having fun bantering with the contestants. He also doesn't appear to be all warm and fuzzy with the judges (looking at you, Ted Allen), which seems to help add some balance and bias.

[cherry slushie]

On 5/16/2016 at 7:08 AM, candall said:

The Coliseum was a terrible mistake.  I could barely pay attention to the gold Roman medallions and the graceful handpainted whatever on the first tier because of the thick clunky tan thing on the top.  (And Susana, I like you, but stop whining because you didn't get Mexico.  Of course you didn't get Mexico!  If Jane had given you Mexico, that would have confirmed she was nipping the hard stuff during the competition.)

If someone glued an elementary school "chalkboard' onto my wedding cake, I'd cancel the check.  But what exactly says Celebration In Mexico?  A piñata?

So Jane's cake was the only one I would have wanted, based on appearance.  Taste-wise, Hawaii was also kind of a ringer.  What are you going to do for those three destination flavors besides tiramisu, dulce de leche and coconut/fruit?

Basically I thought the fix was in on the (more interesting) first challenge because then it was guaranteed Jane could pick the wedding cake that called for floral embellishment and light sweet flavors.  But I'm not really too outraged she had an advantage since the other two were professional cake decorators.  (Is that right?  I know Susana owns a bakery, but I'm not sure what Dan does.)

 

It was kind of weird that this was basically a challenge not much different from any of the others, except this one had a $50k check attached at the end.  And it was very weird how OBVIOUS it was that the three judges had each been assigned one of the bakers to champion.  No Academy Awards coming your way, folks.

 

I laughed when Lorraine said she could taste a little dulce de leche and Nancy corrected her:  "No."  Duff was really the sweetheart of that trio, eh?

 

Oh well.  All the bakers were nice enough and the show was nice enough.  I enjoyed it.

Jane is also a professional pastry chef/baker, ( https://www.saltedtv.com/chefs/jane-soudah) so the final three were all professionals. I really wish they'd keep it to all home bakers or all professionals since having a mix of both is an unfair to the home bakers.

[Winter Rose]

Based on the criteria for the challenge, I thought Susanna met it best. Jane's cake looked boring and the flowers alone weren't enough to specifically say Hawaii. But I guess as long as Jane didn't screw up so badly that they couldn't justify still giving her the win, the finale was already a foregone conclusion. Ugh.

[CapnDonkey]

I thought they were setting up Susana for a win, since they kept her 2 weeks over someone else when her cake was judged more harshly (editing, I guess), but I liked Jane.  I think it might be the boozy-floozy thing (IMO, She's really pretty and I'm a 40yo man) but I always enjoyed her vignettes where she'd burst out laughing.  She also had dazzling teeth so I liked seeing her laugh and smile.  Susana never connected with me.  Dunno why.

Put me in the "I wanted Dan to get his shop" camp, too.

[HyeChaps]

From the looks of things, it doesn't look like Bobby is going to make any more episodes of his low calorie healthy program.