S08.E12: The Great Festive Bake Off

[ElectricBoogaloo]

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It’s party time in the tent for The Great Festive Bake Off as four seasoned bakers return to create something to celebrate in three delectable challenges. Testing their prowess and trying to impress Paul and Prue will be Benjamina Ebuehi, Rob Billington, Rav Bansal and Sandy Docherty.

 

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- Benjamina Ebuehi, 25
Job: Now pursuing a career in food / Series: Series 7 / Week Eliminated: 8 (Tudor Week)
Known for: Being much loved for her flavoursome bakes

- Rob Billington, 31
Job: Photographer / Series: 2 / Week Eliminated: 5 (Pie Week)
Previous GBBO lowlight: When his pristine chocolate cake slid onto the floor at the end of the challenge. Another lowlight for Rob was during the week he went out, when his custard meringue pie collapsed.

- Rav Bansal, 28
Job: Baker / Series: Series 7 / Week Eliminated: 6 (Botanical Week)
Previous GBBO moments: Known for his exotic and experimental fusion of flavours. Rav also found himself at the bottom of each technical challenge for three weeks in a row.

- Sandy Docherty, 52
Job: Child Welfare Officer / Series: 6 / Week Eliminated: 4 (Dessert Week)
Known for: Her sense of humour, most famously she performed the ‘wobble dance’

[sum]

!!!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

It was interesting that all four of the bakers used Italian meringue for their Alaska tarts but they were all heating their mixture to different temperature. Rob's was the lowest at 105 and Rav's was the highest at 120.

Rob's cinnamon apple Alaska tarts with vanilla ice cream and Italian meringue sounded good. If only he'd had time to torch the meringue.

Benjamina's minty mocha Alaska tarts with peppermint cream, chocolate ganache, espresso ice cream, and Italian meringue looked pretty. Whenever the bakers add anything dark like cocoa to their pastry, Paul always asks how they will know when it's done baking since it darkens the pastry. I think that if you aren't going to add enough cocoa to the batter to make the pastry taste REALLY chocolatey, it's not worth the risk. I thought Benjamina used cocoa but Paul said there was a strong coffee flavor. He didn't say anything about the pastry being under/overbaked so I guess it was fine.

Rav's frosty ginger bombe tarts with chocolate ginger ganache, berry ice cream, Italian meringue and frosted berries looked messy because the ice cream was melting out of the sides. The meringue splitting didn't help matters. The cinnamon pastry sounded good. Once again, his flavors saved him.

Sandy's after dinner mint Alaska tarts with mint chocolate chip ice cream and Italian meringue sounded yummy and they looked pretty. I thought the judges might say that she torched the meringue too lightly (which doesn't bother me but they're usually picky about things like that). She made a chocolate crust and Paul said it was baked perfectly so once again, HA, Paul!

I thought it was kind of weird that there were still Christmas decorations in the tent but in the previous episode, the bakers had their technical challenge ingredients under wrapped gift boxes but in this episode, the bakers had their ingredients under the same old gingham cloth as the regular episodes.

Oh, Rob. I was hoping he would redeem himself in this episode, but when he said that he hadn't checked to see what time it was when he put his rings in the oven, I lost that hope. I was surprised that the technical directions said told them to make each ring 3 cm bigger. I thought they would have to just guess. I was cracking up at all of the bakers walking up to the table in slow motion. Loved the snowglobes with the bakers' photos. None of the bakers had enough pistachios, so I wonder what the problem was. Was the dough not wet enough? It was so cute to see Rav's happy face in the background when Sandy was named second and he realized that he had just placed first.

Rob's showstopper didn't look wintery or icy at all. On top of that, it looked sloppy, lumpy, and lopsided. But at least everything tasted good!

Rav's ombre cake was much more wintery and icy. The spun sugar was so fine and cloudy that it looked like cotton candy.

I wish that Benjamina had varied the blue shards on the outside because from one angle, it looked like she had three mini surfboards leaned against her cake. I love that Paul was so enthusiastic about the depth of flavor of her chocolate cake. Heh and of course Prue wanted more booze!

Sandy's showstopper just had too much going on. Cake plus swiss rolls plus the wall plus all the other stuff ended up looking messy, and Paul said that there were too many ideas flavorwise too.

I noticed that Rav's winner interview took place when it was still light outside but then it was dark outside the tent when they were singing around the piano. I feel like the bakers in this episode got ripped off because all they got was a song around the piano. The bakers in the previous episode got that big party outside!

[Corgi-ears]

On 1/3/2018 at 11:04 PM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I feel like the bakers in this episode got ripped off because all they got was a song around the piano. The bakers in the previous episode got that big party outside!

With Tony Mortimer playing the piano! Wait, who? I may have proven your point.

[Lois Sandborne]

Yeah, this episode felt like a bit of an afterthought.  Even the technical challenge seemed like the leftover one they didn't use for the Christmas episode. But, I enjoyed it nonetheless!

I hate coffee, but Benjamina's peppermint mocha bombes sounded good, and they were really pretty.  Sandy's mint chip ones also looked great, and when the knife slid in like butter, I might've started salivating just a bit.

Poor Rob just couldn't get it together in any round.  He didn't brown his meringue in the signature, and his whatever-they-were rings in the technical looked like sugar cookies that he threw some pistachios at from across the room, and then he completely forgot about the sugar work part of the challenge in the showstopper.  I think he was hoping the dry ice bit was going to be more spectacular than it was.

None of the four were consistent enough to be a surefire winner like Paul on the other episode, but I'm happy with Rav's win.  I was flipping a coin between him and Benjamina, but Rav won the technical, and they liked his signature flavors even though his ice cream melted and his meringue split, and his showstopper was really gorgeous.

[hendersonrocks]

Well, that was a bit of a letdown after the delightful Christmas episode. Sandy’s signature bake seemed like the single most successful item; everything else just felt like a bit of a miss - including each and every one of the showstoppers.

Still, any time with Benjamina is time I am grateful for. Love her, and loved Sandy’s sass.

[2727]

I was watching a British gardening show* last night and to celebrate the completion of their makeover, one of the homeowners made a kransekake for tea! It looked pretty good (but not sufficiently green for Paul) and hey, I knew what it was.

Who said TV isn't educational.

 

* Big Dreams, Small Spaces on Netflix in the U.S., season 1 episode 5, ~minute 56.

[PaulaO]

Rob is a waste and not a very talented baker.  I watched him on the original run and thought he was just there for the pretty.

[rab01]

I wish that Netflix had ordered their episodes differently and put this one ahead of the Christmas bake off. The bakers on this episode were fine enough choices and baked well but not as well as in the Christmas episode (and Christmas also had two of my favorite contestants) so this episode gave me a little letdown.  If I'd only had an inkling, I would have swapped the order I watched them in and loved both episodes.  

[ABay]

Rav was one of my favorites in his season--so happy and cuddly--so I was pleased to see him win. The highlight of the generallly lakluster show, however, was Sandy grabbing Paul's face. Priceless.

[Iseut]

Sandy was hilarious throughout. I also liked her looking back at Rob, then back to the camera, "Isn't he pretty?" Hee. (Also, yes. But Sandy, you are the way better baker!)

Edited December 10, 2018 by Iseut

[festivus]

Good for Rav, I liked him in his season. Nothing in this episode looked really great except Sandy's first bake. I have not seen Rob's season yet so I don't know if he's usually like that but boy is a hot mess. A damn cute one though.

[Quilt Fairy]

On ‎12‎/‎7‎/‎2018 at 7:11 AM, PaulaO said:

Rob is a waste and not a very talented baker.  I watched him on the original run and thought he was just there for the pretty.

He would look better if he washed his hair.  He must have been in one of the earlier seasons that has not been shown in the U.S., since I don't remember him at all.

[PaulaO]

Rob was in season 2 which hasn't been officially shown in the U.S.  I caught it a few years back on YT.