S09.E11: The Great Christmas Bake Off

[Athena]

Original Air Date: December 25, 2018.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Awwww, I love seeing the bakers come back for the holiday specials!

One of the things I love about GBBO is that they don't limit the bakers to only one person doing a certain flavor. I'm all for letting everyone make the same flavor if they want and seeing whose variation is the best.

Andrew's mince pie inspired biscuits with orange zest and currant shortbread and apple brandy icing were a little messy looking.

Liam's vanilla mince pie shortbread biscuits were a little bit plain looking.

Flo's spiced treacle and ginger biscuits were a bit of a mixed bag. Some looked good and others were lacking in detail.

Jane's Norwegian spiced biscuits with almond extract and ground clove were very colorful - the bright red was so festive.

The technical looked really challenging. Not only were none of the bakers familiar with what they were making, but they all seemed to have a hard time figuring out how to make the snowflake pattern from the instructions. I felt bad when Liam just stared bllankly and then said, "I don't know how to make a snowflake." When Flo started rolling random patterns onto her dough, I thought oh, no! I had to laugh when Jane and Liam realized that they'd been heating their oil to 200 degres fahrenheit instead of celsius. I loved when Andrew figured out the directions about using the knife to flip every other V over. His snowflake patterns looked gorgeous, as did Jane's. I felt for poor Jane when she dropped one while carrying her tree up to the table. I'm glad that the judges gave her partial credit to her for actually making six (as opposed to some of the other bakers like Liam and Flo who didn't have time to fry all six). Jane and Andrew were clearly the top two, so I knew Jane would win since some of Andrew's were much too dark.

Ooh, hidden design cakes!

Flo's red wine cake with orange zest Christmas trees and Roquefort, Stilton, and cream cheese buttercream sounded like A LOT of flavor. Normally when Paul has his skeptical face on, I disagree with him, but this time I agreed with him. I thought her cake looked the best. I loved the bright red color and the white snowflakes, and her fondant bow looked great. The sleigh was a nice addition for presentation. The trees inside looked great. I can't blame the judges for not liking two very strong flavors like that together though.

Liam's chocolate and speculoos cake with stars, chocolate and coffee flavored gingerbread men, and lemon frosting was a good idea but it ended up being such a mess. The colors on the outside were nice. I thought it was a little risky to alternate the gingerbread men and stars inside because if the cake isn't sliced just so, you might get part of one and part of another.

Andrew's orange, hazelnut, and madeira sponge with orange liqueur ornaments and vanilla frosting was very bright. I loved the festive red color, but I wish the stars had been brighter or had more contrast. The yellow he used to paint them on was a bit translucent on the red. On top of that, the paint ran so he had drippy stars which didn't help matters. The sugar bow was lovely (although I wasn't a fan of that particular shade of green). The colorful ornaments looked nice on the inside, but I agreed that it was too bad that they weren't centered.

Jane's orange and cardamom sponge with penguins, trees, and mascarpone was very simple looking on the outside. Even if she'd had time to make more sugar for the bow, it still would have been a little plain. The penguin inside was cute though.

Congratulations to Jane for winning!

Edited December 28, 2018 by ElectricBoogaloo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Recipes:

Signature challenge
Flo's spiced treacle ginger biscuits
Jane's 12 days of decorating biscuis
 

Technical challenge
laufabrauð

Showstopper challenge
Andrew's boozy bauble cake
Liam's 2 in 1 cake

 

[Lois Sandborne]

While I miss the Masterclass episodes, these are such fun.  It's a treat seeing old favorites in the tent again.  I liked all 4 of these guys from their original seasons, and I love Liam and adore Andrew, so I was rooting for them all in some degree.

It seems like Andrew hasn't kept up with his baking in the meantime though; he seemed a little rusty to me.  I wish he'd left the stars off of his showstopper.  The paint didn't show up well, and the shapes weren't neat.  It might've been a little plain, but the red wrapping and the green sugar bow would've been prettier.  The orange and hazelnut Madeira sounded really good though.  His currant and apple brandy biscuits did too.

Everything Jane made was so pretty.  Even her light-skinned whatever those were in the technical were nice looking.  I was happy to see her have so much success with presenting her bakes after the struggles she had on her season.

I have no idea why Flo tried to make people swallow a Stilton and mulled wine and cream cheese cake.  My stomach literally turned at home on my couch watching her frost that cake with blue cheese.  I thought it might have been okay if she'd stuck with a cream cheese frosting and the mulled wine, or maybe even something like brie if she really just had to push the cheese board angle, but there was no way that was going to be anything but revolting.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

3 hours ago, Lois Sandborne said:

I have no idea why Flo tried to make people swallow a Stilton and mulled wine and cream cheese cake.  My stomach literally turned at home on my couch watching her frost that cake with blue cheese.  I thought it might have been okay if she'd stuck with a cream cheese frosting and the mulled wine, or maybe even something like brie if she really just had to push the cheese board angle, but there was no way that was going to be anything but revolting.

I'm not a fan of blue cheese OR red wine, so my reaction of UGH was based on that alone, but selfishingly I'm glad it wasn't just me who found it unappealing! I do give her credit for doing something so bold because that was a pretty big risk, but I would not have wanted to eat that cake either.

[ABay]

While I like Jane & Andrew very much and am OK with Flo, I loathe Liam so that put a bit of a damper on the joy for me and I didn't enjoy this installment as much as last year's. The only other contestant I've dislike as strongly over the many years is Rahul, so imo the show has changed for the worse on ITV. However, it's impossible to completely ruin a Christmas Bake Off for me, and the right person won.

[ABay]

I forgot this thread existed so I posted this in the Media thread:

I was just watching the Christmas episode, the one with Jane, Andrew, Liam & Flo, and I really liked the version of "Carol of the Bells" that was used at various points. Does anyone know who did it? I watched the credits and I've googled a bit but haven't been able to find it.

[MisterGlass]

I just saw this on Netflix. It was clear from the beginning that it would be Jane’s night.  Her cookies were by far the best, and her showstopper penguin cake was quite cute.  For the showstopper I thought Andrew’s ornament concept was clever, with the feathered sponge cut out in ornament shape.  His cheeriness was also welcome.

Of course the biggest showstopper was Noel’s winter coat and hat.  Bold choice to wear a Union Jack cap with a full length, knit, pink tiger-stripe coat.

[lovinbob]

On 1/6/2019 at 3:39 PM, ABay said:

While I like Jane & Andrew very much and am OK with Flo, I loathe Liam so that put a bit of a damper on the joy for me and I didn't enjoy this installment as much as last year's. The only other contestant I've dislike as strongly over the many years is Rahul, so imo the show has changed for the worse on ITV. However, it's impossible to completely ruin a Christmas Bake Off for me, and the right person won.

I am so curious about your extreme Liam dislike! He's not my favorite, but my son loves him. What made you dislike him?

I adore Andrew and would have loved to see him win, but Jane was definitely most deserving. That hair though—wow! (not in a good way)

I wonder how Flo's friends and family feel about her stilton mulled wine cake! 

[dleighg]

6 minutes ago, lovinbob said:

but Jane was definitely most deserving. That hair though—wow! (not in a good way)

I have terrible "face memory" but she hit me as looking very different than when she was on the show. Did she dye it? It seemed very "dyed."

[Quilt Fairy]

On 11/8/2019 at 9:26 PM, MisterGlass said:

It was clear from the beginning that it would be Jane’s night. 

Yeah, and unfortunately on the Bakeoff podcast about the Final last week, Jane made a reference in passing that made it obvious that whatever special she had appeared on she had won.  Since this was about a show that aired over 10 months ago  - in the UK - it could hardly have been considered a spoiler, but it was for me in the US. 

I wish we had the tradition here in the US of having a special of a series air on Christmas Day.  It would sure beat 24 hour marathons of It's a Wonderful Life or A Christmas Story (the death of Matthew Crawley on Downton Abbey being the exception). 

[Pepper Mostly]

I screamed with joy when I saw Liam, I LOVE him.I didn't care who won or lost as long as I had my hour of Liam-y goodness. I mean really, was there any doubt that Jane would win? And I liked her haircut. 

[Rickster]

I wish they would bring back the Masterclass episodes, which I much preferred to this.

[TimothyQ]

3 hours ago, Rickster said:

I wish they would bring back the Masterclass episodes, which I much preferred to this.

Can Prue actually cook or bake though? Hasn’t she been more on the restauranteur/business side of things as opposed to Paul who came up in the kitchen? Serious question because I don’t really know. 
 

edit: educated myself. Apparently she’s had a Michelin star restaurant so I’d say she can. 

Edited November 11, 2019 by TimothyQ

[Adiba]

I wish they would’ve shown or explained more about Jane’s method for getting the image inside her cake without twice-baking it. Did she have to push the cutter all the way through the cake and then insert the shapes? I’m really curious as to how that would work without destroying the cake!

[bugsmum]

It occurred to me as I was watching this that if one of the FN baking shows did this sort of thing and brought back former Holiday/Halloween/Spring bakers for a holiday special I would maybe shrug and say "oh yeah, that one" when I saw them.  Whereas I was absolutely DELIGHTED to see well-remembered and lovely bakers Flo, Jane, Andrew and Liam (I'm firmly in the I Love Liam camp).  

As for the baking, Jane was clearly at the top of her game start to finish.  

Since I am not a drinker and I don't care for either Stilton or Roquefort cheeses I wouldn't touch Flo's cake on a bet, but good on her for going so bold.