S09.E12: The Great Festive Bake Off

[Athena]

Original Air Date: January 1, 2019.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Recipes:

Signature challenge - stollen wreath
Candice's two tier stollen wreath
Tamal's iced stollen wreath

Technical challenge
Prue's snow eggs

Showstopper challenge -
Kate's 3D cake house
Steven's telephone cake

 

[Ceindreadh]

Nice to see Tamal back. His was the the first season of Bake Off that I watched. 

Here’s hoping he does start making his own clothes and then takes part in the Great British Sewing Bee!

[jpgr]

I really loved seeing Kate again! She has always been one of my favorites and I was happy to see her do well overall. That showstopper was amazingly detailed and now I want to try pistachios and black currants together.

I love Tamal, too, but was a bit disappointed that he went for rather simple bakes.

Candice was just feeling cheeky and added some fun to the tent. I was annoyed at Noel always pronoucning her name Can-deece.

Stephen is great at that detail work, and his showstopper did look amazing. There's something about him I've never quite warmed to, though. Can't put my finger on it.

Edited January 3, 2019 by jpgr
typo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Ha, Noel's jacket was amazing. I spent most of the episode trying to figure out why Sandi's rainbow collar was so shiny.

Tamal's orange and rum stollen with pistachio marzipan, cranberries, and cherries looked good. Yes, the leaves were a bit simple compared to what some of the others did, but it still looked fine.

Candice's cinnamon apple stollen with maple syrup, almond, and amaretto marzipan was very pretty. I especially loved the multicolored apples. Heh, "stollen's supposed to be stodgy!"

Steven's stag stollen with hazelnut marzipan, chocolate, raspberries, glacé cherries, hazelnuts, and cranberries looked nice. Loved the golden nuts and glitter cherries!

Kate's ginger and almond stollen with chocolate marzipan, orange and marzipan, and chocolate and orange caradamom balls was really beautiful. I laughed when Noel called it a Bollywood octopus. I loved when Sandi said she wanted Kate's sleeve bracelets and then Prue said she wanted Kate's earrings and Paul just stood there looking annoyed.

Prue's snow egg/floating island technical sounded delicious. I loved that the bakers' pictures were on champagne bottles!

Candice's giant lips made of orange and raspberry sponge with rhubarb jam and orange buttercream were definitely a statement. Her lipstick cake of chocolate, mint, and coconut sponge with dark chocolate ganache wasn't my favorite because it was very simple in shape and execution.

Steven's telephone table cake with a rotary phone, address book, and cup of tea made of chocolate, coffee, and hazelnut sponge with salted cinnamon caramel buttercream had a lot of elements. I loved the fondant doily. And he gets bonus points for making his own fondant!

Kate's dream restaurant cake with pistachio sponge with black currant ganache was very pretty. All that work icing the roof and then Paul just whacked it all with a knife! And I'm with Kate - black currant for the win!

Tamal's tailor's dummy made of chocolate brownie cake and hazelnut praline definitely looked like what it was. I liked the bright blue color he used for the fondant. Awww, I understand how he feels. I wish I could afford to have a tailor custom make all my clothes too!

[Rinaldo]

This was fun. Initially, I was annoyed with Candice double dipping (she's the first overall winner to return for one of these), but she approached it all in a spirit of good self-deprecating fun, and I ended up liking her much more than I did first time around. I always liked Kate, and adored Tamal, so it was great to have them back. Weirdly, I couldn't manage to remember Steven (and he was a finalist too!), but in the course of the hour I recovered my memory and he ended up a most deserving winner. I was very happy with that outcome. He and Kate were clearly the overall front-runners, and in the end he achieved most.

Floating island has been used as a Technical before, but Prue's recipe, served in cocktail glasses and less anemic-looking than Mary's rather wan recipe, made it more appealing. Did all of them cook their meringues many times longer than they should have? Was the long time allotment a mean trick? :)

Tamal is just fun to watch, as he was before. His remarks about others and about himself made for continuous entertainment. It's a shame (for my own selfish pleasure only -- I don't really mean it) that his dedication to his career means that we probably will never have him as a regular TV personality.

[Lois Sandborne]

Hooray for Steven!  I still hadn't quite got over him losing out on his series, so I'm glad for his bit of redemption here.  I loved seeing all the rest too, especially Kate and Tamal.  Everyone was having such good fun this episode; it was a joy to watch between Candice's cracks and Kate's and Tamal's sarcasm, and Paul even gave someone a hug!  Steven's cake did look and sound super impressive; I wanted a taste myself.

Kate's showstopper cake was pretty impressive too. I know it's part of his shtick that he takes such delight in whacking into something really nicely crafted, but I did hate to see Paul cut into the house.

[ABay]

An octopus, perhaps, but I saw that stollen as a tribute to the Pearlie Kings.

[Rinaldo]

On 1/5/2019 at 9:28 AM, Lois Sandborne said:

I know it's part of his shtick that he takes such delight in whacking into something really nicely crafted, but I did hate to see Paul cut into the house.

It's hard not to feel that way when an entry is as beautifully finished as Kate's... but everything on the show is made to be judged and eaten. It can't be helped.

[MisterGlass]

I was surprised to see Candice back.  For some reason I thought the winners were not eligible for the holiday specials.  I thought they would be a pretty well matched foursome.  It became clear pretty quickly that it would be Stephen or Kate.  Kate’s little restaurant showstopper was beautiful, and I was impressed by her patience with decorating the stollen.  At the same time, I was happy it was Stephen.  It was a hard loss for him in the finale of his season, and he did a great deal in this episode, and it all looked and tasted good.

I like this version of the technical more than Mary Berry’s floating islands, though I’m sure hers are more traditional.  The individual meringue and the cup presentation make it look nice.

I feel a bit bad that the “Festive Bake-Off” contestants don’t get the family presentation and party that the “Christmas Bake-off” contestants do.

[truther]

This has aired in the USA - I'm watching it now.

I miss these people (especially Candice).  It's so nice to see them again (especially Candice), and it really contrasts with the contestants this season.  Good natured, supportive, fun -- it's what this show should always be.  

[AZChristian]

What a happy couple of hours we spent last night watching the holiday shows.  I've always loved Steven - I think he looks a bit like Daniel Craig.  It was delightful to see everything he made turn out so beautifully.

Shows like this give me faith in humanity.  It's a wonderful balance to my guilty pleasure of watching shows like 90-Day Fiance and Love After Lockup.

[festivus]

Well that was a fun group. I actually adore Steven, I think he's very funny. I lol'd a few times. I don't remember who he lost to before but I'm glad he won this round.

I do wonder how those meringues were at all edible when I think they all cooked them for like 45 minutes!

[Lilac2000]

This aired in Canada tonight and CBC always cuts the technical challenge! It's very annoying.

[Jamie]

On 11/28/2019 at 12:10 AM, Lilac2000 said:

This aired in Canada tonight and CBC always cuts the technical challenge! It's very annoying.

I have Bell and if you have the availability of "On Demand", you can watch the full episodes. They are usually available the day after the network airing.  I watch the entire series this way.