The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off

[Lois Sandborne]

On 3/10/2021 at 11:57 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Tom is to be commended, first for baking in a suit and not getting a stray spot of flour or sugar anywhere on him,

He's always so fastidious I didn't even notice that; I think I just never expected any mess to touch him.

I love when the celebrities Take It Seriously, so I really enjoyed this episode and how earnestly everyone wanted to do well. I don't follow Alexandra's music, but I generally like seeing her and she was a shoo in for the win. I mean, against a toilet cake.

On 3/11/2021 at 3:39 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

(like many other people, I tried making hot chocolate bombs and I agree that silicone molds make your stuff look so nice with very little effort on the maker's part).

I always look longingly at the molds of various shapes and sizes, and then balk at the price. I like making  caramels and jellies though, and after seeing how awesome Rob's shortbreads looked I'm more tempted than ever. They sounded nice too; can't go wrong with Ferrero Rocher.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

2 hours ago, Lois Sandborne said:

He's always so fastidious I didn't even notice that; I think I just never expected any mess to touch him.

It's like he has a force field around him that will not allow flour smudges on his person! Meanwhile, all I have to do is think about tomato sauce and I suddenly have a stain going down the front of my shirt.

2 hours ago, Lois Sandborne said:

I always look longingly at the molds of various shapes and sizes, and then balk at the price.

The smaller ones are pretty affordable, especially if you can find them on sale at Michael's or Joann and use a coupon. I got the faceted/geometric heart molds (six hearts total) for I think $7. I know they aren't as versatile as the spherical ones, but they were just so pretty. I got so many compliments on my hot chocolate bombs and I told everyone that they looked good because of the molds and the sprinkles, not any skill on my part! They give such beautiful clean lines.

 

 

[Aulty]

LOL the editor that put in the James McAvoy crotch shot.

Boy, David Baddiel wasn't wrong when he said he will be the worst baker in the history of the show. What a mess. The toblerone ears on general meow were quite fun!

To be fair, the rest of them did quite well with only minor hickups. And it seems they had at least one practice round with their bakes before the show. They were focussed and not faffing about.

But it was the James show this week - social media went bonkers over him last night, he is the nations new favourite stay at home and bake dad. I'm sure many a battery was drained last night 😅. His scones were very neat and apparently he got his flavours right (and the booze always helps with Prue).

Matt, again, was a lot better as a solo host.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Aulty

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I never know how well any celebrity will bake on the show but James definitely exceeded my expectations. His lemon raspberry meringue tart in the signature challenge looked beautiful and apparently tasted amazing. He blew everyone away in the technical challenge. I wasn't as enamored as the judges were of his showstopper (I thought the tip he used for the white frosting fur ended up looking too messy), but he still did a good job.

I wasn't crazy about Kelly's showstopper bear for the same reason - the tip she used for the fur read as messy to me. I did love the cute little feet she put on the bear though.

If Anne Marie had baked her cake better in the showstopper, she might have given James some competition for star baker. Her monkey was cute but you know that Paul and Prue were not going to let her get away with that cake.

Everything David made looked like a complete disaster. But on the plus side, he got compliments on his flavors in every challenge so that's something.

 

[Aulty]

Quote

Episode 3 - Original Air Date: March 23rd 2021

Dizzee Rascal, Nick Grimshaw, Philippa Perry and Reece Shearsmith tackle vegetable slices, a royal technical and a 'selfie' made entirely from biscuit

Recycling former GBBO signatures again with the biscuit selfie, as if the challenge wasn't lame enough the first time round.

[khyber]

On 3/10/2021 at 12:32 AM, Aulty said:

Looks like this season of SUTC Bake Off will be heavy on the 3D cakes. A former colleague watches German Bake Off and apparently they do 3D cakes every single week.

I don't like the 3D stuff, its not as much about the baking as construction or artistic skills.

[Aulty]

On 3/20/2021 at 4:03 PM, khyber said:

I don't like the 3D stuff, its not as much about the baking as construction or artistic skills.

To be honest, as impressive as some 3D bakes can look, I don't want to eat something thats 50% fondant, sugar paste, creme and artificial colour. Not that anybody asked, but I have similar thoughts on those massive decorative chocolate and blown sugar sculptures - yes its impressive that you can make a life size giraffe out of chocolate, but what a waste. Are they ever eaten and is sculpturing chocolate even nice to eat?

I watched the third episode - or rather had it on in the background. Not only did they pull out a previous GBBO challenge as show stopper, the technical was also something we've seen before (in series 3?). The signature wasn't new either, but there is only so many variations of traybakes they can set to ease them in. I don't know who any of the contestants this week are.

[AZChristian]

2 hours ago, Aulty said:

I don't know who any of the contestants this week are.

Kind of like watching Dancing with the "Stars" . . . 

[Wee S]

9 hours ago, Aulty said:

I don't know who any of the contestants this week are.

You need to rectify this immediately with regards to Reece Shearsmith! He of the League of Gentlemen, Psychoville and the award-winning Inside no.9! As a double act with Steve Pemberton, they know no bounds. Cannot recommend the following enough:

1. The twelve days of Christine

2. Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room

3. Tom and Gerri

4. Death be not proud

Edited March 24, 2021 by Wee S
Spelling error

[Aulty]

Tonight:

Quote

Episode 4 - Stacey Dooley, Jade Thirlwall, KSI and Katherine Ryan make cocktail-flavoured fondant fancies and have their pastry skills tested, before creating a showstopping biscuit and meringue scene

Between Stacey Dooley, Katherine Ryan and a cocktail flavoured challenge, I don't know if this is something I want to watch sober.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

This week's episode was the one that made me laugh the most. The technical had me gasping and hiding behind my hands in horror.

JJ won for most WTFs in a single technical challenge. First I couldn't believe that instead of cutting strips of pastry to create a lattice, he just cut two squares and laid them on top of his pie. It looked like he had taken two slices of Kraft cheese out of the plastic wrapper and just set them on top of his pie. But when he decided for some unfathomable reason to flip his pie over onto the cake stand, I was speechless.

Second place goes to Katherine and Stacey for deciding to dump huge amounts of cornstarch into their custards, resulting in almost completely solid custard.

I had to laugh every time Paul helped JJ, from telling him he didn't need to sieve his flour to getting behind his station to help with his biscuit dough.

I liked that Katherine made everything gluten-free due to her sister's Celiac disease. A friend of mine was diagnosed with Celiac disease as an adult so she's had to cut out gluten and because she didn't have Celiac when she was younger, she knows exactly what she's missing.

Of the four showstoppers, I liked Katherine's the most because it looked the least amateurish. She gave each meringue doggie a different personality and I liked the piping skills she showed with the grass. Jade's wasn't bad but it still looked like a child made it (which is one of my main issues whenever they have a biscuit challenge like this). But Jade was the most consistent throughout the three challenges so I get why she was star baker.

On a shallow note, I have straight hair so I was enamored every time I saw Jade's casually tousled curly hair.

 

[Aulty]

That was more entertaining than I thought it would be. Stacey is yet another celebrity who didn't bother to do a single testrun before entering the tent.

I was surprised how well Katherine Ryan's brand of humor gelled with the show. She comes on very strong at times (and her Netflix show The Duchess was terrible), but I really enjoyed here. I also enjoyed watching someone who knows what they are doing bake a glutenfree cake and not make much of a fuss about it.  Compared to all the moaning we usually get from the regular Bake Off contestants in 'Free from' week.
Her meregue dogs were the best thing in this episode.

JJ did surprisingly well considering he had no clue what he was doing.
Is that boxing fight everything Matt knows about KSI? All his jokes were about Logan Paul.

Love that Jade did so well, pitty her showstopper didn't come together as she had planned. But her Fondant Fancies were the only ones that looked like proper FF, and according to Prue tasted nice aswell.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

3 hours ago, Aulty said:

JJ did surprisingly well considering he had no clue what he was doing.

I was really impressed that he was the only one who made perfect custard!

[Danny Franks]

On 3/31/2021 at 9:44 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

This week's episode was the one that made me laugh the most. The technical had me gasping and hiding behind my hands in horror.

JJ won for most WTFs in a single technical challenge. First I couldn't believe that instead of cutting strips of pastry to create a lattice, he just cut two squares and laid them on top of his pie. It looked like he had taken two slices of Kraft cheese out of the plastic wrapper and just set them on top of his pie. But when he decided for some unfathomable reason to flip his pie over onto the cake stand, I was speechless.

I guess JJ just didn't know what a lattice was. When he said he was going to surprise the judges by doing two, I was intrigued. Then just shook my head. The pie flip was just baffling, but might not have been a disaster if it was even partially baked.

On 3/31/2021 at 9:44 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I had to laugh every time Paul helped JJ, from telling him he didn't need to sieve his flour to getting behind his station to help with his biscuit dough.

I've said before that I think this is what the celebrity specials should be - Paul and Prue actually giving advice and coaching on technique. Not for the whole episode, but as they go around the tent they should be free to dispense advice. Seeing people learn and try to succeed is much more interesting than seeing people blindly stumble into disaster.

On 3/31/2021 at 9:44 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Of the four showstoppers, I liked Katherine's the most because it looked the least amateurish. She gave each meringue doggie a different personality and I liked the piping skills she showed with the grass. Jade's wasn't bad but it still looked like a child made it (which is one of my main issues whenever they have a biscuit challenge like this). But Jade was the most consistent throughout the three challenges so I get why she was star baker.

I thought Catherine's showstopper looked like something you might see in a normal episode of Bake Off. Okay, the kennel was amateurish, but the dogs were really well done and could actually be used as cake toppers for professionally made cakes.

I'm glad Jade won star baker, because if it had been Catherine then it would just have been another case of the showstopper trumping the other challenges completely.

[Aulty]

Quote

Episode 5 - Anneka Rice, John Bishop, Nadine Coyle, Ade Adepitan

Anneka Rice, John Bishop, Nadine Coyle and Ade Adepitan tackle decorative choux buns and financiers before making a showstopping cake that represents something from their bucket list

Yay Nadine Coyle - the original Derry Girl 🙂

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 4/1/2021 at 10:45 PM, Danny Franks said:

I've said before that I think this is what the celebrity specials should be - Paul and Prue actually giving advice and coaching on technique. Not for the whole episode, but as they go around the tent they should be free to dispense advice. Seeing people learn and try to succeed is much more interesting than seeing people blindly stumble into disaster.

I agree - it would be much more useful (to the celebrities as well as any novice bakers watching) to have the judges give them tips or corrections so that they don't end up with a total wreck.

[Aulty]

I think it was very obvious that, although some admitted to not practising their bakes, the contestants this week do have at least some experience with cooking and/or baking. Apart from John breaking the mixing bowl there were no big mistakes this week?

Was that a slightly annoyed look on Prue's face when Paul tried to push Nadine during the judging?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Just a reminder that you can support Stand Up to Cancer by ordering SU2C merchandise at the official website. In addition to the star baker apron, they also have tea towels, oven gloves, mugs, water bottles, and t-shirts. Some of the products are also available here.

[khyber]

Its back! That Pop singer was a mess.

[Crs97]

David Schwimmer was a delight!  You could tell how much being on the show meant to him.

[RoxiP]

Anybody else who is unable to watch the current iterations of this show super sad?  

[Crs97]

I found David's episode on youtube in its entirety.  There were a few more there as well.

[RealityCheck]

The Great Celebrity Bake Off 2024 for Stand Up To Cancer will air on Channel 4 UK this spring.

Quote

Over five new episodes hosts Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding will welcome the 20 famous faces to the Bake Off tent, where they will try to impress Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith with their baking skills.