Spring Baking Championship - General Discussion

[Aethera]

This topic replaces the old Spring Baking Championship forum which has been vaulted at the location below:

http://forums.previously.tv/forum/1690-spring-baking-championship-v/

[RealityCheck]

New Season Of Spring Baking Championship Premieres Monday, March 18th at 9pm ET/PT Hosted By Clinton Kelly
 

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In the season premiere, the bakers are tasked to celebrate the beginning of spring by combining all things cute and delicious in a pre-heat challenge creating spring animal-themed donuts.  In the main heat the bakers must get in touch with their inner artists as they design watercolor cakes featuring iconic spring fruits and vegetables.

Other episodes include baking up blue ribbon-worthy rhubarb pies, crafting an “ooey gooey” marshmallow dessert in honor of Easter, and the first Spring Baking Championship Spelling Bee -- where the bakers must make colorful cream tart words that evoke all things spring.

[trudysmom]

On 2/9/2019 at 5:56 AM, RealityCheck said:

Spring Baking Championship Spelling Bee -- where the bakers must make colorful cream tart words that evoke all things spring.

It looks like they are running out of original ideas for the bakers to do.  Just let them bake good, pretty desserts and stop trying to be all clever with the insane challenges and twists thrown in.  

[suebee12]

Am I the only one who was excited to see Clinton Kelly is going to be the host? I have loved him since What Not To Wear and have missed him since The Chew bit the dust...can't wait to see him again!!!!!!!

[jcbrown]

1 hour ago, suebee12 said:

Am I the only one who was excited to see Clinton Kelly is going to be the host? I have loved him since What Not To Wear and have missed him since The Chew bit the dust...can't wait to see him again!!!!!!!

I'm excited for Clinton and excited to see him again. I'm not sure how he'll fit into this gig so it will be interesting to see. And wouldn't it be great if they got Carla as a judge so 2/3 of the Chew gang was back together again? (She only judges the Halloween one, though, right?)

[mlp]

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And wouldn't it be great if they got Carla as a judge ......................

I would jump for joy if they replaced Nancy Fuller with Carla.  She would work well with Clinton of course and she wouldn't be poking at Duff and Lorraine.  I think she'd be a vast improvement on the judging panel.

[BigBingerBro]

I'm not a huge fan of Clinton Kelly, sorry.  He was best suited on Home Shopping and WNTW, but I just don't care for him on Food Network.   I felt that Bobby Dean was the best host for this program.  Also, Keep Carla on the Halloween shows.  I'd rather see Duff replaced.  

[trudysmom]

I was with you BigBingerBro, until the last line.  I love Duff on these shows.  He's the only one who doesn't get on my nerves. 

[BigBingerBro]

I'm surprised they don't have any longer running promos for this show.  The only thing I am seeing is a 10 second shot with a huge still of Clinton and the date and time.  

[mlp]

4 hours ago, BigBingerBro said:

I'm surprised they don't have any longer running promos for this show.  The only thing I am seeing is a 10 second shot with a huge still of Clinton and the date and time.  

Maybe your local station is cutting it short?  I've been seeing a conventional promo with the still shot of Clinton at the very end.

[BigBingerBro]

18 hours ago, mlp said:

Maybe your local station is cutting it short?  I've been seeing a conventional promo with the still shot of Clinton at the very end.

Must be as I've only seen the super-short version.  It gives the impression that it's a cooking show featuring Clinton.

[oldCJ]

Clinton Kelly was awful. I hate hosts who do the fake out before saying go. It’s just mean spirited and not funny. Also he came off as phony when talking to the contestants. I like when they develop a rapport, like Jesse and Bobby did. 

I’m glad the fennel cake made it because fennel is far more difficult flavor to get successfully in a cake than cherry. 

[TomGirl]

I hope they keep Saber around for a long time just so I can listen to his accent.  He sounds like Frahnk in Father of the Bride!

[Ms Lark]

I thought Clinton would do better than he did. He's typically a lot funnier than this. Well, maybe it'll improve. 

That cherry "meat" cake needed to go. There's some tough competition.

[LittleIggy]

I had to Google Clinton Kelly since I had no idea who he was.

Except for the winner, the bakers sure blew it with the donuts as far as the designs went.

Edited March 19, 2019 by LittleIggy

[GaT]

WTH is Clinton Kelly? Didn't we have a different host before? Do we get a new host every year?

[mlp]

Something screwed up my local programming so shows weren't coming on when scheduled and, even weirder, they were starting at 13 past the hour.  This show was scheduled for 7pm and finally came on at 10:13pm.  Very odd.

Anyhow, I like all the contestants so far.  I thought animal doughnuts was a tough challenge.  Most of the cakes looked pretty good although some of them didn't immediately say "watercolor."  The right person was sent home.

I like Clinton Kelly so I was fine with him although I'd prefer John Henson.

[dleighg]

Somehow I just guessed that the lady with the white streak in her hair would "miraculously" choose the skunk.

And MARScapone rears its ugly head again. Why can't these people learn to say it the way it is SPELLED?

Edited March 19, 2019 by dleighg

[dleighg]

One of the contestants said a watercolor cake needs three colors-- but many contestants didn't follow that, and the judges didn't seem to particularly focus on the *number* of colors, just whether it looked like watercolor. 

[trudysmom]

Saber seems like a nice guy but with his accent and talking so fast it was hard for me to keep up.  I thought the donut challenge was fairly stupid.  Painted cakes, I like that idea. 

I don't care for people who start out saying "I'm gonna win this whole thing, I'm so great, blah blah blah," right off I start wishing them gone.  And a promo from a future episode has someone saying "MOVE, get out of my way" to some other contestants.  Again, go away whoever you are. 

No favorites yet, but I like the girl who fangirled over Duff, that was cute. 

[LegalParrot81]

So, Clinton Kelly didn't impress last night, but maybe he'll get better as the weeks pass.  

Not warming up to any of the contestants yet.  Will wait and see.

[ninjakid]

This episode cemented my love for Duff though. Between the donkey kick, the huge bites (and stealing Nancy's cake), and recognizing the guy who was part of the team that beat him on Iron Chef - just a fun & classy guy.

[Texasmom1970]

Wow the cake that Duff commented looked like meat should have got the boot. Looked like it would fit in at a crime scene!

[nowornever]

Maybe I'm an armchair quarterback, but I kept yelling out ideas for the animal donuts.  What were most of those things?  The only one that looked like the assigned animal was the bear.  That was a dumb challenge from the get-go.

The watercolor cakes challenge was better, but for professional bakers, some of them really struggled with a fairly simple concept.  Old CJ mentioned this above, but it seems like there's always one or two people who get an unusual ingredient, while the rest get more common ones.  Fennel would be hard to work with and I'm glad those two got through to the next round.    

Meat cake!

[Kohola3]

3 hours ago, trudysmom said:

I don't care for people who start out saying "I'm gonna win this whole thing, I'm so great, blah blah blah," right off I start wishing them gone.

I hate this about the FN championships.  Why can't they be more like the British Baking Show contestants - show a little class, for Pete's sake.

[justjen]

2 hours ago, Texasmom1970 said:

Wow the cake that Duff commented looked like meat should have got the boot. Looked like it would fit in at a crime scene!

Didn't it?

I was very distracted by how much Clinton Kelly looked like a piece of chewed gum. I don't know if it was the cheek fillers or what, but it was driving me crazy! There should be a show where people tell others what not to wear. 😉

[Maya]

The “decorate a donut” challenge needs to go away. They do it every season and it’s boring. Also donuts covered in buttercream are not appetizing to me. 

[ruffy666]

I'm probably the last person who should be judging people on their appearance, but whatever Clinton did to his face is really distracting.  I only know him from WNTW, though, so I guess a lot can happen over the years >_<  I still prefer him to Ali Khan so I guess we're good there...

Man that dude's fennel "sculpture" was ... well it sure was something!  I am surprised that someone who competed on Iron Chef multiple times wasn't more in tune with working under time constraints to come up with something that actually looks professional.

[mlp]

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whatever Clinton did to his face is really distracting. 

I thought he was just showing his age.  He's 50 now.  He looks more craggy to me.

[LizBug]

Only watched the first 15 minutes or so before I turned it off.  The contestants were so hyper (did they find Nancy Fuller's secret stash?) that they reminded me of the Kids Baking Championship.  I can bear that with the kids ... with the adults?  Not so much.

[BusyOctober]

Before this premiered, my friend (who lives several states away from me) and I said we would watch this with a glass or two of our favorite wine and sip whenever we heard Nancy Fullaherself pronounced the proffered baked good wasn’t “spring-y” enough.  Well, we both forgot about that, but it’s for the best.  We would have passed out before the halfway point, thanks to Nancy AND Lorraine bitching over not “getting Spring”. Do they want these bakers to jam fondant tulips and buttercream daffodils on top of every single thing?  I don’t understand setting up stupid themes with even stupider twists if the judges really only want to see very limited ideas vs. celebrating the potential creativity of the contestants 

[jcbrown]

1 hour ago, BusyOctober said:

Before this premiered, my friend (who lives several states away from me) and I said we would watch this with a glass or two of our favorite wine and sip whenever we heard Nancy Fullaherself pronounced the proffered baked good wasn’t “spring-y” enough.  Well, we both forgot about that, but it’s for the best.  We would have passed out before the halfway point, thanks to Nancy AND Lorraine bitching over not “getting Spring”. Do they want these bakers to jam fondant tulips and buttercream daffodils on top of every single thing?  I don’t understand setting up stupid themes with even stupider twists if the judges really only want to see very limited ideas vs. celebrating the potential creativity of the contestants 

I agree with everything you said. So chocolate cannot be 
"spring-y" because it's brown? You must use pastel colors and pastel colors only? So stupid.

And I am adopting your moniker "Nancy Fullaherself" for my least favorite judge.  So perfect!

[mlp]

2 hours ago, BusyOctober said:

Nancy Fullaherself

That.  is Brilliant!  I wish I'd thought of it.

[trudysmom]

18 hours ago, jcbrown said:

So chocolate cannot be 
"spring-y" because it's brown?

And Duff has said several times he doesn't like white chocolate.  They bitch whenever someone uses coating chocolate.  What's left?  Fondant, gum paste, marzipan?  Time consuming, to say the least.  Next thing they'll tie one hand behind their backs and expect them to stack a tiered cake.

[Rickster]

A doughnut that is not fried is not a doughnut. It’s just a mini bundt cake.

[Little Sun]

"Nancy Fullaherself "  I love this.  Nancy looks so horrible these past few Holiday/Spring Baking Championships.  Her very bleached and straight hairstyle and intense makeup distract from her earlier, more 'classier' looks.  She just needs to stop with all the "Happy" Spring/Holiday in your face nonsense.  Just awful.  

[BigBingerBro]

As far as Clinton, I can take him or leave him, but I'm glad he was fairly bland in this episode.  I sort of forgot he was there for most of the show.

The only contestant that I like so far is the blonde who is billed as the "home baker", yet in the next second we hear owns her own baking business.  So apparently running a business out of your home makes you an amateur home baker??  Anyway, I always root for the most down-to-earth contestant and she's the one I'm liking the most so far.

I was mildly distracted by thick accents from many of the contestants, but i'm hoping this means that we will see many influences from their native cultures rather than the typical American fare we see over and over.

I hate baked donuts!!  Was it a requirement that they be baked?  I know frying donuts can be a PITA, but I can't believe not one of them attempted it.  Some of the flavor combinations were a bit over the top for me as well.  I would think a well-made product with two good flavors would be enough.  All we hear lately is, "I taste the chocolate", "I taste the pineapple", "I taste the coconut", I taste the lychee", "I'm getting a hint of cinnamon", "but I can't taste any vanilla!! - what happened???"  Please.

Nobody commented that the lady who chose skunk actually looked like a skunk????  Come on!

Maybe I was too tired, but I found the guy's commentary about how he competed against Duff really stilted and confusing.  He mumbled and the 3 second clips of Iron Chef where he looked totally different didn't help.  It wasn't until Duff's totally fake "I know you!" realization did I understand what was going on.

Nancy is beyond predictable.  Duff is Duff.  Lorraine seemed a bit checked-out and just parroting what the others said.

There were so many good final cakes, I was surprised Riccardo (with TWO c's!) won.   Based on the editing I knew the lady that got sent home was the one going.

Edited March 24, 2019 by BigBingerBro

[dleighg]

14 minutes ago, BigBingerBro said:

I hate baked donuts!!  Was it a requirement that they be baked? 

yeah, it was a requirement. Those aren't donuts.

14 minutes ago, BigBingerBro said:

Nobody commented that the lady who chose skunk actually looked like a skunk????  Come on!

I did! Upthread!

On 3/19/2019 at 1:32 PM, dleighg said:

Somehow I just guessed that the lady with the white streak in her hair would "miraculously" choose the skunk.

[BigBingerBro]

1 minute ago, dleighg said:

I did! Upthread!

I mean on the show!

[Kohola3]

Maybe I am a curmudgeon but I am getting tired of the tearful dedications to my wife/husband, my tiny little children, my dead nonny, my mom/dad, my great aunt, all of whom are the "inspiration for all of my baking". 

Seriously folks, you're in it for the money.  So turn off the tears, they are getting wearisome.

[MerBearHou]

49 minutes ago, Kohola3 said:

Maybe I am a curmudgeon but I am getting tired of the tearful dedications to my wife/husband, my tiny little children, my dead nonny, my mom/dad, my great aunt, all of whom are the "inspiration for all of my baking". 

Seriously folks, you're in it for the money.  So turn off the tears, they are getting wearisome.

Totally agree!!  I loathe it in any competition when the tears turn on. 

Just now, MerBearHou said:

Totally agree!!  I loathe it in any competition when the tears turn on.  I get it that sometimes it's heartfelt but it sure seems manipulative to the judges all too often.

[justjen]

3 hours ago, Kohola3 said:

Maybe I am a curmudgeon but I am getting tired of the tearful dedications to my wife/husband, my tiny little children, my dead nonny, my mom/dad, my great aunt, all of whom are the "inspiration for all of my baking". 

Seriously folks, you're in it for the money.  So turn off the tears, they are getting wearisome.

I promise this now, if I ever get on one of these shows (I won't, but let's pretend), I will commit to, "I'm here because my cat wants a condo." 

[CrazyDog]

4 hours ago, justjen said:

I promise this now, if I ever get on one of these shows (I won't, but let's pretend), I will commit to, "I'm here because my cat wants a condo." 

Lol! And you would have my vote to win the whole thing.

[trudysmom]

Is it just me or have these challenges become beyond absurd?  I mean really.  Oversized, over the top, SPRING carnival food, on a stick.  (I hear that puppet's voice, Jeff Dunham does, "on a steeek")  At this rate I think I should just skip the season and watch the finale.  At least in those they are allowed to just do a cake usually.  

[TomGirl]

They usually keep the home baker around longer, giving us someone “like us” to root for, but those waffles were kinda pathetic...

[mlp]

The home baker was a very pretty young woman who seemed nice but she was the right one to send home.  I think she had already figured out that she was in over her head.

I like Lorraine but I don't know how she can really judge things by the half teaspoonful she nibbles off the end of her fork.  I understand that she doesn't want to ingest 2000 calories per round of baking but still.................

I was seriously hoping that someone at FN has read seasons' worth of comments and realized that everyone hates twists and this season wouldn't have any.  Silly me.

Edited March 26, 2019 by mlp

[Kohola3]

6 hours ago, mlp said:

I was seriously hoping that someone at FN has read seasons' worth of comments and realized that everyone hates twists and this season wouldn't have any.  Silly me.

If only.  And there are some that are just so absurd. I realize that bakers need to be flexible but to throw in some idiotic ingredient that only pairs with a handful of flavors is just wrong. 

If I wanted to see that I'd watch the shows where they are supposed to fix a dish with fennel, jelly beans and beef jerky.

[Ms Lark]

7 hours ago, mlp said:

I like Lorraine but I don't know how she can really judge things by the half teaspoonful she nibbles off the end of her fork.  I understand that she doesn't want to ingest 2000 calories per round of baking but still.................

Gawd, it's so damn prissy! And I detest prissy. Is she being dainty? Is she watching her figure? I heard some of these competitions have spit buckets for that purpose. Just take a damn bite and actually taste the stuff.

Likewise, I wonder how Duff can taste stuff with the giant bites he takes. Sheesh. One extreme to the other.

OK, gonna get on Nancy now. That pinky affectation? Aargh. Screams pretension. WTF. She's supposed to be all down homey, booze houndy! Enough with the springy springy.

I cannot believe Clinton is coming off as dull as he is. He was pretty funny, snarky, and loads of fun on The Chew. Take a cue from GBBO!

This season is such a dud. Why am I still watching? Some of them belong on Nailed It! more than here. I do like they have several actual pastry chefs competing.

This week: I love rhubarb. Surprised, but not, that so many competitors didn't know that it's very tart. Yikes! That must've been quite a taste test.

[dleighg]

3 hours ago, Ms Lark said:

Surprised, but not, that so many competitors didn't know that it's very tart.

yeah, paring it with grapefruit is ..... not an awesome idea. Haven't they at least heard that strawberry rhubarb is a classic combo ???????

[CherZ]

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I like Lorraine but I don't know how she can really judge things by the half teaspoonful she nibbles off the end of her fork.  I understand that she doesn't want to ingest 2000 calories per round of baking but still.................

Seriously! I've said this before too. Sometimes it looks like she just takes a little lick off the prong and that's it. I love Duff for going full in - opens his mouth and takes a huge bite. I know people hate Nancy but I don't mind her and she does just the right amount of tasting at least.

I really don't have anybody to root for this season yet, but we'll see which contestants get on my nerves the most as we whittle them down and then maybe... ;)