Season Four Talk: Spring Baking Championship

[blueray]

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Ruby really had Jordan help with something not necessary for the challenge? Yikes.

She really didn't use him at all. When the twist was that they needed to make cookies too. I feel like it was common sense to have him start working on those, while she considerate on the cake, which really needed it. I agree that she deserved to go home.

[Lura]

In this latest episode, I agree that Nancy can be judgmental, but sometimes when Lorraine (or whatever her name is)  gets on her high horse and argues with Nancy, I'm glad to see that Nancy fights back sometimes.  More and more, Lorraine is acting like a know-it-all on this show and others, IMHO.  Maybe part of it is just for show, but her remark in this episode made me want to send her back to England!  J/K  In this particular episode, I think the cameras didn't show the contestants' reaction, which I would have liked to have seen. 

[grisgris]

Honestly, I think a lot of the "drama" and reaction faces are driven by the producers.  Bobby Dean and the last host (forgot his name already) were more skilled at reigning in the judges and redirecting them towards tasting the next baked good on the plate.

[hookedontv]

Thank you judges for finally sending Ruby home. Her work was typically sloppy, and how she didn’t use the advantage tonight to her, well, advantage, shows she’s not up to the task. 

I’m just sitting here wishing that The Great American Baking Championship hadn’t been pulled. Damn you Johnny (shaking fist in air!)

[dleighg]

I'm sorry but Heather's "California Poppies" look absolutely nothing like California Poppies. They look like oriental poppies (first image) which are completely different.

[TomGirl]

Surprised to see Aaron rather than Nacho get the boot.  I still think Aaron’s glossy painted cookies from last week were about the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen!

[Chit Chat]

8 hours ago, TomGirl said:

I still think Aaron’s glossy painted cookies from last week were about the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen!

Along with those ice cream sandwiches! He sure knows how to ice/decorate a cookie.  Too bad those cookies weren't cooked enough in the pre-heat challenge or they would've been great! 

I use a little Agave for sweetening my oatmeal.  If these bakers have trouble use it with cooking, then I have no chance at all with attempting to use it in my recipes!   I felt bad for Nacho in that he got the black pepper to use, so I figured he was doomed from the start, but he made it work- sort of.  Too bad for Aaron though.  I think he's very talented. 

[bourbon]

Heather bugs. Her "oh my" surprised face when she wins or gets called safe bugs. Why is she so surprised? She's like the Taylor Swift of Food Network competition shows.

[stormy]

I was sorry to see Aaron go. He seemed to have flub ups the last couple of weeks.

[dewelar]

2 hours ago, bourbon said:

Heather bugs. Her "oh my" surprised face when she wins or gets called safe bugs. Why is she so surprised? She's like the Taylor Swift of Food Network competition shows.

As with Nacho and his over-the-top antics, I assume that the bakers are told to react by the producers. I may be biased because they're my two favorites, but I don't think it's really their fault that they're bad actors.

Agreed that Aaron seemed to be a better baker than Nacho overall, but the streak of sending the right person home for that week continues. If you have two things that you need to incorporate and neither is prominent, that should send you home over cartoonish decoration. I think this is Caleb's to lose now, since he seems to be the most inventive of the remaining contestants and thus the best at rolling with the twists.

[Ilovecomputers]

Why does every challenge seemed geared for the blue-haired Smurf (I can't think of her name) to show off her piping skills?  Heather's succulents looked far better than Smurf's.  I have to say I've never heard of succulent cakes.  Do home bakers actually make these?  I can hardly pipe cupcakes, let alone multi-colored plants.  I don't like Nacho and was sorry he made it to the final four.  He can't pipe any better than I can, and he wasted a great deal of time waiting for his cake to come out of the oven and cool before he could frost it with those cartoonish cacti.  IIRC, the judges couldn't taste the black pepper in his apricot compote.  Caleb's pickle-men made me laugh.  Aaron's dessert in the pre-heat was very elegant. 

Edited April 17, 2018 by Ilovecomputers

[suebee12]

27 minutes ago, Ilovecomputers said:

Caleb's pickle-men made me laugh.

I loved those cactus men! They looked like the souvenirs you find all over the southwest! I was really sorry to see Aaron go, he was my pick and I wonder if he had been heavy handed on the caraway seeds they would have docked him for that? I wish he had cut back on his apples and added more prickly pears but then he might have been too far along to do it well. That is one reason I hate the "twists" that the show adds. 

[mlp]

Caleb seems to be the best all around and I got a kick out of his cactus men.  I like him so I try to overlook his silly hipster mustache.  

I don't remember Ali saying their succulent cakes had to be elegant so I don't think Nacho should have been dinged for his cake being playful although there were other things that deserved criticism.  

I thought Aaron would be a finalist and I was very sorry to see him go.  

[dewelar]

5 hours ago, Ilovecomputers said:

I have to say I've never heard of succulent cakes.

Neither had I. When I heard it, all I could think was "so...cakes that are...juicy?" I'd never encountered the botanical term, so I remained confused throughout the episode, because they never explained it. After the show, I Googled, and after several pages of results that were nothing but "how to make a succulent cake", I was still lost. Wikipedia had no entry for it, either. I blame the cough medicine for my not realizing that I should just look for "succulent".

5 hours ago, Ilovecomputers said:

IIRC, the judges couldn't taste the black pepper in his apricot compote.

Lorraine couldn't, but the other two could.

5 hours ago, Ilovecomputers said:

Caleb's pickle-men made me laugh. 

Yes! Loved those! I didn't want to like Caleb because yeah, hipster, but over the course of the show he's won me over. "Cowboy to the rescue" indeed :D .

[Chit Chat]

6 hours ago, dewelar said:

As with Nacho and his over-the-top antics, I assume that the bakers are told to react by the producers.

I think Nancy has a hard-on for him.  ;)  I like him though.  His enthusiasm for what he's baking is fun to see.  YMMV.

I'd be okay with any of the remaining ones winning, but I am pulling for Caleb to win it all.  A gal's got to pull for her home-state baker!  He really does seem like a nice guy, and seems to know what he's talking about when describing the techniques he's doing (not that I'd know any different, but it sounds good to me!)  He immediately knew those were prickly pears from way across the room!  I like hearing them all talk about what will make one ingredient work better over another.  There have been some helpful tips that will come in handy for me. 

I do wish this show wouldn't sabotage each challenge with a shit ingredient like black pepper for a dessert.  Blech!

[Destiny74]

I haven't watched yet but didn't it become super popular like 10 years ago to add pepper to fruit?  I remember strawberries, black pepper, and balsamic being a "thing".

[Omeletsmom]

On 4/11/2018 at 10:33 AM, Maya said:

I don’t know what golden berry tastes like but if it’s as sour as they say, she should have treated it like rhubarb (which I think is delicious!) 

I've had some in a dried fruit mix and they are mouth-puckeringly sour.  Absolutely the sourest fruit I have ever tasted.  I don't there is enough sugar in the world to counteract that sourness.

And, I'm going to be pedantic here, golden berries are CAPE gooseberries, which is an entirely different fruit from gooseberries. Regular gooseberries would have been easier to work with.

[theatremouse]

7 hours ago, mlp said:

I don't remember Ali saying their succulent cakes had to be elegant so I don't think Nacho should have been dinged for his cake being playful although there were other things that deserved criticism.  

I don't remember if he said they were supposed to be "elegant" but I thought he did indicate they were supposed to be realistic, so going in a cartooney direction is sort of counter to that. 

[RealityCheck]

Some exquisite examples of Succulent Cakes

They are so beautifully realistic that I don't know if I could bring myself to eat it any of them.

[Maya]

5 hours ago, RealityCheck said:

Some exquisite examples of Succulent Cakes

They are so beautifully realistic that I don't know if I could bring myself to eat it any of them.

Those are amazing!

I like the interesting challenges this season. They are a step up from the “make a dozen spring-themed donuts” of past seasons. 

[KLovestoShop]

I don’t know how she thought Nacho’s cake was beautiful.  It looked more like what my middle school students would make.  Nancy surely has the big pants for Nacho.  

Whats  the big fricking deal about seeing the cardboard circle?  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in bakeries where you see the cardboard.  Duff needed to lighten up on that part.  

Which contestant’s wife was on a previous season?  

[Madding crowd]

Nacho’s wife Susanna was on a previous season.

[bioprof]

Ok....I think I’m officially done.  Cannot believe Nacho made it through. The first round he blew the challenge by overtaking a granola crust....the only thing that had the agave in it.  Who overbakes a granola crust.!!!! The filling was just melted peanut butter topped with melted chocolate....about as elementary as you can get. And Aaron presented a beautiful and creative ice cream sandwich that gets ignored in the final judging.

The succulent cake....oh please!  That decoration looked like a 10 year old did it. When I looked at the link posted by Realitycheck....omg....what beautiful cakes. And Nacho remains in the competition????  The cakes were supposed to look realistic, so appearance should have been a major factor in the judging. 

[justjen]

I originally wanted to dislike Caleb because of his moustache, but as I've watched he actually seems like a normal, funny person. I'd like to think the place where he works is hipster-y so he has to have those curls as part of the Look. And it does look good on him. If he didn't curl it, he'd look like a very tall Yosemite Sam.  I think some of the over the top expressions from Heather and Nacho are repeats, like maybe they don't actually do those faces as much as we see? Clearly I have bigger opinions on these points than on the actual show, which means the show is just boring!

I don't have anything to add regarding the last episode, except that I really wanted Aaron to be in the finals over Blue.

[Eliza422]

On 4/18/2018 at 3:50 AM, RealityCheck said:

Some exquisite examples of Succulent Cakes

They are so beautifully realistic that I don't know if I could bring myself to eat it any of them.

And no one’s cake looked anything like those! I know what succulents are, and nothing I saw even remotely resembled them. All the cakes looked like shit to me.

[Barb1959]

I laughed when I saw Nacho's cake....his cactus looked hands and they were giving everyone the finger.  lol

[kj4ever]

It's been a struggle this season but I've held on.  I'm team anyone but the blue haired chick.  It's sad that after all this time I still don't really know any of their names.

[Ilovecomputers]

Quote

I laughed when I saw Nacho's cake....his cactus looked hands and they were giving everyone the finger.  lol

I thought the same thing but figured it was my warped mind at work. 

[theatremouse]

Nacho's cake looked like something I could get in my local grocery store.

[festivus]

I didn't even realize this was on till the other day and had some catching up to do. My niece owns a plant shop (she's a total hipster) and they sell baked goods in there sometimes. There's this one girl who does succulent cupcakes and they really are almost too pretty to eat. I do anyway though. :)

 

I thought Heather and Blue's cakes were really pretty given the time they had. I wanted to eat both of them especially that anise cake. I love anything anise flavored which I know makes me a weirdo.

[Chit Chat]

6 hours ago, festivus said:

There's this one girl who does succulent cupcakes and they really are almost too pretty to eat. I do anyway though. :)

I've not noticed our local bakeries serving succulent cakes/cupcakes, so I wasn't very familiar with that current trend.  Although I know what a succulent plant is, I don't know all of the different varieties of them.  I would've had to Google them in order to decorate a cake with them!  Overall I thought the bakers did pretty good with the challenge.  I wonder why succulents are suddenly all the rage in the baking world.  Hmm.   I'm in it for the icing, so it doesn't matter how it's decorated, as long as the buttercream icing is delicious.  I have had cakes with buttercream frosting that was terrible.  I think the bakery used the cheapest margarine/butter for the icing.  You definitely don't want to feel like you just bit into a stick of margarine/butter.  

Festivus for the rest of us!! 

[festivus]

11 hours ago, ChitChat said:

I've not noticed our local bakeries serving succulent cakes/cupcakes, so I wasn't very familiar with that current trend.  Although I know what a succulent plant is, I don't know all of the different varieties of them.  I would've had to Google them in order to decorate a cake with them!  Overall I thought the bakers did pretty good with the challenge.  I wonder why succulents are suddenly all the rage in the baking world. 

Honestly I think because succulents are all the rage among the hipsters and millennials.  My niece sells succulents and air plants in her shop and she does big business.

[Ilovecomputers]

On ‎4‎/‎21‎/‎2018 at 9:40 AM, festivus said:

I've not noticed our local bakeries serving succulent cakes/cupcakes, so I wasn't very familiar with that current trend.

I was not familiar with this trend either, and I told my mom about them over the weekend--she hadn't heard of the trend either.  We looked at Bing images of succulent cakes and she said, "Oh, you could do this!  I know you could!"  I struggle to frost cupcakes with a simple freezer bag and tip, but my mom thinks I'm Wonder Woman.

[LittleIggy]

I liked Heather. Sorry she dropped the ball this go around.

[stormy]

I hope Nacho wins.  Of the three finalists, IMO, he's the only likeable one.

[justjen]

So Caleb wants to open a butchery and bakery. PLEASE tell me he's teaming up with a candlestick maker. (Get it?!!?!?)

[BusyOctober]

This has been said before a million times, but for the love of gods!  Why do these judges act surprised when the bakers can't meet their definition of "Spring" when the poor bastards are given non-Spring ingredients?  Mostly they harp on the colors not reminding them of spring. How many times has Nancy or Lorraine bitched that their plate has something "brown" on it, ergo it is not "Spring-y" enough?  Um, when you give the contestants foods like coffee, chocolate, nuts, pumpkin, granola, graham crakers, cereal, cinnamon, anise, corriander, cumin, cola...there really isn't too many color options other than earth-tones to show up. Next they criticize unevenly when the taste facotr comes into play.  One-bite Loraine & Nancy with her farmhouse sophisticated tastebuds, nit pick when she CAN't taste the ingredient and then complains when all she CAN taste is the item.  Then you thrown in the dumb ass last minute twists instead of letting these folks do what they planned.  Once again, these reasons are why this show (and most of Food Network's shows) is the antithesis of everything great and good in the Great British Bakeoff.

[Maya]

I liked Heather but that plate of tan food that didn’t taste like anything was unfortunate. 

It is starting to dawn on me that Nacho is the chosen winner and has been from the start. 

[stormy]

Putting aside the fact that Heather's desserts were all one color, I thought she was making a mistake by not putting pumpkin pie spice in any of it.  Plain canned pumpkin doesn't really have much of a taste and it's the spices that give it that "pumpkin" flavor the judges couldn't taste. 

[staphdude]

2 hours ago, BusyOctober said:

This has been said before a million times, but for the love of gods!  Why do these judges act surprised when the bakers can't meet their definition of "Spring" when the poor bastards are given non-Spring ingredients?  Mostly they harp on the colors not reminding them of spring. How many times has Nancy or Lorraine bitched that their plate has something "brown" on it, ergo it is not "Spring-y" enough?  Um, when you give the contestants foods like coffee, chocolate, nuts, pumpkin, granola, graham crakers, cereal, cinnamon, anise, corriander, cumin, cola...there really isn't too many color options other than earth-tones to show up. Next they criticize unevenly when the taste facotr comes into play.  One-bite Loraine & Nancy with her farmhouse sophisticated tastebuds, nit pick when she CAN't taste the ingredient and then complains when all she CAN taste is the item.  Then you thrown in the dumb ass last minute twists instead of letting these folks do what they planned.  Once again, these reasons are why this show (and most of Food Network's shows) is the antithesis of everything great and good in the Great British Bakeoff.

It is such a narrow definition of spring... for me with the melting of the snow there’s a long period of brown punctuated by land Mines  left behind by careless dog owners. Hell around here I would advocate for something that resembles a cabane a sucre with all its corn snow, muddy trails and delicious amber/dark maple syrup. 

Moreover where are they getting all these multi seasonal fruits and cramming them into a spring theme. In most places berries, citrus and stone fruit are not going to overlap in spring.

[CherZ]

I just got rid of my cable, it was too much and I was only watching 2 or 3 shows, so I'm grateful for this forum to see what happened. I really wasn't invested in anybody this time around so I feel like I'm not missing anything. ;)

[dahling]

Blue Hair: "I'm going to make Hummingbird Cake because it has the same spices as pecan pie."

Me: "Pecan pie doesn't have spices.  You're going home."

Judges: "We love it!"

Whatever. 

[jcbrown]

39 minutes ago, dahling said:

Blue Hair: "I'm going to make Hummingbird Cake because it has the same spices as pecan pie."

Me: "Pecan pie doesn't have spices.  You're going home."

Judges: "We love it!"

Whatever. 

That was so bizarre.  I was sure she was going to get reamed for making something completely different from pecan pie and they did not say a word. The judging is all over the place.

[justjen]

2 hours ago, dahling said:

Blue Hair: "I'm going to make Hummingbird Cake because it has the same spices as pecan pie."

Me: "Pecan pie doesn't have spices.  You're going home."

Judges: "We love it!"

Whatever. 

I'm from the south but OMGhijklmnop every single time she said "peeeecan" I was like "that's what truckers use, it's "pecahn".

[bilgistic]

1 hour ago, jcbrown said:

That was so bizarre.  I was sure she was going to get reamed for making something completely different from pecan pie and they did not say a word. The judging is all over the place.

But its coloring was "springy"!!  :|

[CrazyDog]

While I love Nacho, I like all 3 of the finalists (though I was sad to see Heather go), and I'd be fine with any of them winning. I really thought Nacho was nuts for giving up pecan pie for bread pudding, which I have never understood as a food item. Even Christina looked shocked that he wanted to switch. Surprisingly, neither went home for being part of the swap. Nacho's dessert was quite pretty.

I still think Caleb has a great shot at the win - apart from last night's disaster, he's been pretty solid (as far as I remember) with both presentation and flavor, while Nacho seems to do better with flavors, and Christina is more about her decorations.

10 hours ago, justjen said:

So Caleb wants to open a butchery and bakery. PLEASE tell me he's teaming up with a candlestick maker. (Get it?!!?!?)

LOL.

I still miss Bobby Deen, but I don't mind the new host this season. I'm so over both Lorraine and Nancy though.

[magdalene]

I want to say Nacho is going to win this because  he seems a clear favorite of the judges. But then he has been erratic at times - but so have the other two left.  Hmm.

Sadly this show can't compare for me with the warmth and skill displayed on the Great British Baking Show.

[bilgistic]

I can't stand Nancy doing "spirit fingers" at Nacho every damn time he is up for judging.

[Farmfam]

Nacho is clearly the chosen winner. I don't mind him, and his flavors when he's "on" do seem good...now, how on earth did Blue Hair make it to the finale?!? 

[Chit Chat]

39 minutes ago, Farmfam said:

Nacho is clearly the chosen winner.

I'm thinking the same thing.  I hope the other two get a fair critique at the finale.  IMO, Caleb has been more consistent with his flavors and designs, except for this last episode when he stumbled (which, IMO, his presentation looked Springy enough to me, given his ingredients.)