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Spring Baking Championship - General Discussion


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(edited)
1 hour ago, LegalParrot81 said:

Kardea's twitter is pretty quiet.

Duff and Nancy's are not.  People are really letting them have it about wanting to be associated with what happened.

I do feel for Jaleesa because in a way, she was set up to fail.  She was not going to say, "Nah, I'm not as good as Romy or Carolyn, so I'm going to stop."  She may get to their level one day, but she's not there now, and viewers all saw it.  She's going to get the brunt of something that Duff, Nancy, and Kardea caused.

If FN were smart, they would bring back Romy, Carolyn, Jaleesa, and Dennis.  I don't think Jaleesa can beat Romy, but hey, prove me wrong.

The four of them.  Call it Romy Returns: The Rematch.  Get Jesse to be host.  Get three of the most accomplished pastry chefs that FN can get to judge.  One pre-heat, one main heat, no sprinkles.  Purse: 50K.  I bet people would watch, and if Jalessa can win that, then I think people would consider her a champion. FN could make that 1 three hour show, and I bet they'd get enough advertising to easily offset the 50K and regain some viewer goodwill.

Edited by Ohmo
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1 minute ago, Ohmo said:

The four of them.  Call it Romy Returns: The Rematch.  Get Jesse to be host.  Get three of the most accomplished pasty chefs that FN can get to judge.

That is a truly inspired idea!  THAT I would watch. 

I bailed out halfway through this debacle.

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Prediction:  Molly doesn't come back next season and the reason is going to be "Molly has chosen not to return to SBC in order to devote time to her new baby/family".   They will use the new baby rather than say "Molly's hosting of SBC was a complete and utter fail so she was not asked to return." 

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Question- did Jaleesa bake the cookies that went into the cookies & cream layer of her cake, or did she use premade cookies?

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(edited)

They bring videos from family to "inspire" the contestants, and what do they show: MOLLY!  Once again, we had to watch MOLLY's reaction to the family videos throughout. WHY???? Why do we care what Molly's reaction is?? The videos were supposed to be for the contestants!

Edited by mscool
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I have no respect for quitters,  but I’m not mad at Romy for eyeing sprinkles, saying fuck this shit, and bouncing.

Oh look Jaleesa made a basic ass chocolate cake, she wins the preheat!  Bullshit.

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2 minutes ago, mscool said:

They bring videos from family to "inspire" the contestants, and what do they show: MOLLY!  Once again, we had to watch MOLLY's reaction to the family videos throughout. WHY???? Why do we care what Molly's reaction is?? The videos were supposed to be for the contestants!

Of course the camera was on her! 

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I haven't watched the episode yet because I'm sure it'll irritate me as much as what you all have expressed. I do feel for Jaleesa though. I fully believe the poster from who knows how many pages back that she makes delicious stuff and is a good baker for the things she bakes. I don't think she's a good competitor though. 25k, after taxes, really isn't that great (especially factoring in lost revenue that may have occurred when she wasn't home to run her business) if she doesn't get to build her business based off winning, and I think that might not happen with all of the negative reactions. 

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18 minutes ago, rlc said:

Question- did Jaleesa bake the cookies that went into the cookies & cream layer of her cake, or did she use premade cookies?

Premade sandwich cookies.  She didn't make cookies from scratch.

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5 minutes ago, Pallida said:

if she doesn't get to build her business based off winning, and I think that might not happen with all of the negative reactions. 

That's why I think she should agree to some sort of televised rematch.  Even if she's unable to beat Romy, her willingness to go up against him will likely garner her respect and goodwill that she can build upon.  It will minimize or negate the original negative backlash.

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8 minutes ago, Ohmo said:

Premade sandwich cookies.  She didn't make cookies from scratch.

Dennis wonton wrapper were premade too. I get it with time constraints you can't always make everything from scratch but usually that is frowned upon. 

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37 minutes ago, mojoween said:

I have no respect for quitters,  but I’m not mad at Romy for eyeing sprinkles, saying fuck this shit, and bouncing.

Oh look Jaleesa made a basic ass chocolate cake, she wins the preheat!  Bullshit.

But, but, but….it was the most orgasmic chocolate cake ever! My eyes rolled back in my head over how they all were taken to a new stratosphere with one bite! Just buy one of those super moist devils food mixes, add a couple of teaspoons of instant espresso and follow the box instructions. Tastes pretty dang good to me. 

36 minutes ago, libgirl2 said:

Of course the camera was on her! 

Way too much on her. I muted the TV after Romy left and didn’t even watch the crowning of Jaleesa. I will NEVER watch anything that Molly is on again. She should just stick with her own show. 

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14 minutes ago, Spunkygal said:

Just buy one of those super moist devils food mixes, add a couple of teaspoons of instant espresso and follow the box instructions.

totally. I have a chocolate cake recipe I've been making literally since I was a child (a common enough recipe with sour cream, melted chocolate, boiling water, nothing out of the ordinary) and it's fabulous. Moist and rich. I guess I could win this competition! And if it's brownies, well I'm just gonna do a Ghiardelli box mix!

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(edited)

Count me out if this is what the show has become. I thought Molly was fake and weird and the challenges were overall ridiculous.

And the finale…that sucked. Jaleesa wins the preheat with a chocolate cake? With piped lavender flowers? And as much as I like her, why the hell was Carolyn there at all? They randomly just bring her back, with no explanation, after being eliminated? Um. Okay. And then you ask the bakers to do something so personal and then inform them that only three go through the finals? Jesus, and then the two remaining bakers have to fight for the final spot by using sprinkles? Sprinkles. Fucking sprinkles?!

Romy clearly should have been there, probably should’ve won the whole thing. 

That sucked. Stop with the stupid twists and get rid of Molly. It’s not the “Molly Baking Show” - right? Ugh.

Edited by Lunula
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(edited)

This was not a show to find the best baker any longer   It’s about BS stories and who immature  Molly is “friends “ with !

if it was about the best baker three finalists would have been Diego, Romy , Justin and Carolyn.

Molly is definitely having a lot of say in the challenges and in who is eliminated.  She’s an immature , annoying twit .  No way would anyone else  be making her childish obsession with sprinkles a part of a championship for professional bakers . And no decent baker or cook would even think of that disgusting cookie salad as part of a competition like this used to be .

Molly liked the contestants who pandered to her ridiculous conversations when they were trying to bake.

The worst part of this show is how unfair the challenges and the judging was throughout the whole competition .

Molly’s playmates where judged differently than others . Tom should have went before Diego , and Jaleesa should have gone too .

When rhey wanted to keep someone they talked about how good things taste even if the decorating was like crap , especially with Tom. But when the baker wasn’t  Molly’s “friend”, the decoration was a big issue 

If this was a fair competition , they should have a cumulative score and not eliminate bakers based on one item .

Also, if it was a real baking championship we would have a host and not some dipshit interrupting everyone and coming up with challenges that sound like they are from her tacky potlucks on the farm or her childish obsessions !

I can’t believe Molly grew up in Chicago and went to school in NY and acts like such a child !  It makes sense than she ended up in the middle of nowhere with her odd husband who has zero personality .  Everyone else probably ran away from her weirdo personality ! 

Edited by orangekit
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In this series, I believe they were judging the person, not what they baked.  That’s why Jaleesa got through all the time—-she was the designated golden child.  Blind judging has worked for years on the GBBS, so why not with this show?  And, I think they were hard on Romy because he was viewed as a real professional baker, not a home baker, and they were scared of being criticized for allowing a pro to win. 

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6 minutes ago, KLovestoShop said:

And, I think they were hard on Romy because he was viewed as a real professional baker, not a home baker, and they were scared of being criticized for allowing a pro to win. 

Weren't all the bakers "professional" this season?  I don't remember the judges oohing over a home baker like they have in the past.  Even Jaleesa is a professional.  She and her husband own their own bakery.  Of course, being French, Romy automatically seems like a superior pastry chef!  😆 

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(edited)
3 hours ago, Lunula said:

And as much as I like her, why the hell was Carolyn there at all? They randomly just bring her back, with no explanation, after being eliminated?

My opinion is Carolyn was brought back because Molly caused her to be eliminated.   She messed up the timing on Carolyn's baking, (in the preheat) and it burned, and I think she was so upset it put her off of her game,  so she was eliminated.   Then, Carolyn was brought back to reverse Molly's interference.  (Thank you for correcting me, apparently I don't watch very closely sometimes.)   I wonder how many other times Molly interfered with timers or other activities, and hurt the finished product?

I don't think blind judging would work, after the first week or so, I'm sure the judges know exactly who baked what after seeing their work a couple of times.      

I'm guessing after walking out on the show, that Romy will never appear on a FN show or any of the other networks they control, but I bet he's fine with that.  

Edited by CrazyInAlabama
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I wonder how you spell F#*! You in French?  Romy should have made his best brownie recipe and "decorated" it with that highly appropriate phrase

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8 minutes ago, Tippi said:

I wonder how you spell F#*! You in French?  Romy should have made his best brownie recipe and "decorated" it with that highly appropriate phrase

From my high school French which was a million years ago, I know that “zut alors” means damn! 

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(edited)
27 minutes ago, bourbon said:

Man, I've had my fill of incompetent judges this week...

No kidding! 

 

Edited by jrzy
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3 hours ago, Ohmo said:

I do feel for Jaleesa because in a way, she was set up to fail.  She was not going to say, "Nah, I'm not as good as Romy or Carolyn, so I'm going to stop."  She may get to their level one day, but she's not there now, and viewers all saw it.  She's going to get the brunt of something that Duff, Nancy, and Kardea caused.

Agreed. Jaleesa is in the middle of a major shift in the show's theme. Whomever decided to bring Molly on and give her creative control is to blame for the severe decline in quality this season.

This last episode was a slog for me. Two hours is way too long for me to deal with Molly and not-Spring themed challenges. The last three episodes were not spring themed. I'm just going by my memory but I'd guess that more than half the challenges this season were not about spring.

I really do feel bad for all of the contestants. Anyone who watched previous seasons to prepare for this one has their expectations severely dashed.

Congrats to Jaleesa. Too bad she was caught in the crossfire of this shitshow.

If this show reverses course, I hope they bring back some folks from this season. Diego, Romy, Justin, and Carolyn deserved better. Who am I kidding? Everyone deserved better.

Happy season finale everyone! May we be Molly-free next year.

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Well, I posted to Duff's tweet this (I know some are mad that Jaleesa won, but I am not publicly calling her out at all. I liked her and unless she did actual blackmail, she's not at fault for anything.)

"Congrats to Jaleesa, but you all ruined #SpringBakingChampionship. Hired an inane host who can't banter, slapped her name on it, set it in "her barn" and made challenges about her and her cookie salad and sprinkles obsession. Kid bakers who hosted specials w/ Duff did better." 

If I'd had more characters I'd have pointed out I have liked every single host they've had on all of these baking competition shows. And I have, though some more than others. I do mean that last part, too. And while we've seen some kids on the baking shows love sprinkles, the suggestions that Molly would be a better fit for the kids show, that would be child abuse. And she'd be the least mature child on the show. I've been watching older seasons, and this wasn't remotely the same show. I hope the overwhelming (and wow, has it been on Twitter) negative comments about Molly reach the right ears and brings a return to normalcy.   

Romy was excellent and he'll be fine and he's handling this as graciously as possible, but he'd had enough of the farce and rightly saw it as insult being presented with sprinkles as a challenge and having held in front of him a plate that looked liked something we made in my 1970s home ec class (we also made "donuts" out of canned biscuits with melted Hershey's bars). All four bakers looked disgusted by the sprinkles thing. 

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I went back and watched Molly's instructions for the preheat. Her exact words were, "I don't want a cake. AT ALL." 

So Jaleesa baked a cake, and Molly conveniently forgot her rule as she patroled the kitchen during the bake. Why didn't Molly say something after being so emphatic about NOT wanting cake? Big error here.

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This is, first and foremost, a TV show. FN wants narratives, arcs, and diversity. Romy didn't fit that narrative. FN likes scrappy small-business bakers (Jaleesa), inspirational stories (Dennis), and redemption arcs (Carolyn). Romy didn't have any of that. Except for the last challenge, he didn't talk about being faraway from home, didn't talk about family, didn't cry about obstacles he'd overcome, etc. He just put out great bakes time and again and got punished for it with the inane sprinkles challenge.

That challenge -- baking with literal sprinkles -- could have been a fun(ish) and goofy pre-heat. "Every spring, PTAs and youth sports teams hold bake sales to raise money. And what says 'bake sale' more than a cookie, brownie, or bar with sprinkles!? You can choose from rainbow sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles, non-pareils, or dragees." 

They could have done for the sudden death an *elevated* dessert that incorporated sprinkles somewhere in the dish. Instead we got this frankly insulting challenge. Those cookies Molly held up as an example were ridiculous. This is what you want? To decide $25,000? 

I mean, I get that the best person doesn't necessarily win any of these reality competition shows, but please don't insult the competitors. Or the viewers, FN. 

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20 minutes ago, bourbon said:

This is, first and foremost, a TV show. FN wants narratives, arcs, and diversity. Romy didn't fit that narrative. 

If this is the case then don't have him in the competition to begin with. Have only bakers that fit their narrative.  It's not fair that they sign up for a competition if those are the rules and they don't fit a narrative  they don't win. I don't want to watch tv shows like this.  I want to watch someone who deserves to win..win. 

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23 hours ago, Ms.Lulu said:

I can't believe it.  Molly asked Dennis and Romy to bake with sprinkles to get into the final. Romy said he didn't want to bake with sprinkles and quit.  I was sorry to see him go--I had him in my top 2.

If that doesn't tell the powers at Food Network that Molly is killing the franchise I don't know that else will.

NOT TO MENTION, they criticized both of them for their crusts being slightly underdone when the cheesecake that got Jaleesa into the finals was RAW!!!!

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One thing to clear up - if I am remembering correctly, Molly turned off Carolyn’s timer in the preheat.  That didn’t cause her to go home.

Now could that have flustered Carolyn for the rest of the day, and made her cookie salaaaaaaad come out poorly?  Sure.  Anything’s possible.  But Molly grabassing the timer wasn’t what directly ousted Carolyn.

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55 minutes ago, mojoween said:

One thing to clear up - if I am remembering correctly, Molly turned off Carolyn’s timer in the preheat.  That didn’t cause her to go home.

Now could that have flustered Carolyn for the rest of the day, and made her cookie salaaaaaaad come out poorly?  Sure.  Anything’s possible.  But Molly grabassing the timer wasn’t what directly ousted Carolyn.

Thanks for the correction.   I don't watch very closely sometimes I guess.    I wonder how many other times Molly messed with a competitor's cooking?  I hated the way she would interrupt the bakers when they were in the middle of creating their entries.       

I recorded this, and watched for the Romy walkout, and the preheat instructions, and she definitely told the bakers not to do a cake.  

If anyone thinks the comments on here are brutal, the Food Network Gossip site, and r/ are blazingly savage.

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I don't really share the outrage/hatred re: Molly (granted, I tolerate this type of peppy personality better than most, and i've only seen her on this show) but I can understand it.

And "unless she botches big during the finale, the panic attack girl will win this thing, they seem to judge her much more leniently than the other" were my words to my s.o. while watching mid-season episodes. So not surprised by the result, or by my fellow frenchman throwing the towel when faced with (ew) sprinkles.

However, as far as the multiple pointless changes and decisions done on a production level go, FN is really to blame : for the past two or three years, they've been trying to revamp most of their food competitions, whether through casting, format, rules, host or twists tinkerings/changes.

And none of those 2.0 versions worked better than the original formula.

Here, it barely was "spring" (despite the judges' constant "ooh, you brought spring with your plate") and it was mostly a dud.

(i'm not expecting much from the upcoming Halloween shows, tbh)

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4 hours ago, Tippi said:

I wonder how you spell F#*! You in French?  Romy should have made his best brownie recipe and "decorated" it with that highly appropriate phrase

“Va te faire foutre!”

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2 hours ago, Kaoteek said:

I don't really share the outrage/hatred re: Molly (granted, I tolerate this type of peppy personality better than most, and i've only seen her on this show) but I can understand it.

And "unless she botches big during the finale, the panic attack girl will win this thing, they seem to judge her much more leniently than the other" were my words to my s.o. while watching mid-season episodes. So not surprised by the result, or by my fellow frenchman throwing the towel when faced with (ew) sprinkles.

However, as far as the multiple pointless changes and decisions done on a production level go, FN is really to blame : for the past two or three years, they've been trying to revamp most of their food competitions, whether through casting, format, rules, host or twists tinkerings/changes.

And none of those 2.0 versions worked better than the original formula.

Here, it barely was "spring" (despite the judges' constant "ooh, you brought spring with your plate") and it was mostly a dud.

(i'm not expecting much from the upcoming Halloween shows, tbh)

I'm hoping they bring back John Henson for Halloween. I love his snarky humor. 

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(edited)

What a steaming pile that was. 
 

Congrats to Jaleesa. I guess? Ugh. This sucks. I did like HER. It sucks that a Black woman can’t just have a “clean win” on this show, that it’s now tainted by this BS. It’s not her fault she’s the chosen one. But now any presumed benefit she might have from winning is obscured by the favoritism. Whatever the reason behind it was. I wish I could say that she managed to pull it together at just the right times, but that’s not really true. You can tell she’s a good baker but she messed up a LOT. Too much for us not to notice. 

Other random stuff: 

- I wasn’t spoiled but I knew something was up when Romy was wearing a coconut shirt during his ITM interviews and a comic book shirt during the competition. 

- Dennis made an apple pie potsticker. Potstickers are not deep fried, Duff. (You can I guess but then it’s a deep fried potsticker. Not the same thing.) They are also not wontons, Nancy. Wonton wrapper yes, wonton, no. 

- Good for Romy. The timing of the family recipe challenge was emotionally manipulative. And then! To be followed up by a face-off with sprinkles. To someone like Romy that is stab and twist of the knife. I don’t blame him one bit.

- Hey Molly maybe when delivering tough news, like say, about a contestants mental health/stress don’t smile and grin. Even if the content is lies. 

Edited by Refresh
black -> Black
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12 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

not if people stay away from the next baking championship if it drifts in the same direction. I don't know what their numbers are but they can't be that overwhelming if they tried to change it up with Molly. 

If she's back, I'm gone. I'm not putting up with her again.

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19 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

I'm sorry but if I am a serious pastry chef, I would find it all asinine.

Plenty of serious pastry chefs manage to do fine with sprinkles.  They're just little bulbs of sugar.

15 hours ago, Cheyanne11 said:

And, yes, I DO believe Molly had a lot of say in the challenges.  Her name is in the title.  She's referred to the set as HER kitchen all season.  She's clearly not just the host we've had in prior years--whatever deal she was given gave her a lot more say in things, which, well, talk about a massive failure.

It was marketed around her.  That doesn't mean she had a major say in things. 

13 hours ago, Ohmo said:

Yes, it has.  Don't remember the show, but it has.  And they could have not eliminated anyone.  BBA did that once when the judges couldn't decide,

Not only is it not a new concept, it's not even new for the Baking Championships.  I thought it was silly to have her explain the rules as if they had never heard them before because the 2-hour finals have been 4 people with a interlude bakeoff, for about a year or so.   

13 hours ago, Ohmo said:

 Of the three, he should have said, "Hey, there's no way to not have Romy in the finals."

And maybe he would have if Romy hadn't walked off.

12 hours ago, MyMaui said:

Would this type of bad publicity help?  People won't watch because of what they decided and they are saying so. It could be me just me because I don't think I'd want this type of publicity. I don't work in that area of work so I am probably wrong.

I don't think people who didn't watch will think some kind of injustice was done.  They might watch the ep for the drama.  They probably won't become regular viewers.  Regular viewers claiming they'll quit--some will but historically, when fans have claimed this, most usually don't. The next iteration will come around with a different version of judges table and host and on we go...

10 hours ago, mscool said:

Prediction:  Molly doesn't come back next season and the reason is going to be "Molly has chosen not to return to SBC in order to devote time to her new baby/family".  

Pfft.  They wouldn't even need to do that.  They've changed hosts so often without explanation that giving one for why Molly isn't there would seem strange.

9 hours ago, Ohmo said:

That's why I think she should agree to some sort of televised rematch.  Even if she's unable to beat Romy, her willingness to go up against him will likely garner her respect and goodwill that she can build upon.  It will minimize or negate the original negative backlash.

She only "wins" in the court of public opinion if she loses to Romy in a rematch and that's why I'd tell her to stay the hell away. Otherwise, there'd just be more conspiracy theories that Kardea somehow bamboozled Duff & Nancy into loving Jaleesa's baking again. People don't want to know if she can bake a better cake than Romy; they want blood.

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I wish Romy had baked the most sublime, elevated brownies and placed two small sprinkles on top of each brownie, perhaps one angled and  slightly resting on top of the other. I would have enjoyed the look on Molly’s face. But Romy is probably much more mature than me. Best of luck to him and all the bakers this season.

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4 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

Plenty of serious pastry chefs manage to do fine with sprinkles.  They're just little bulbs of sugar.

 

None of the bakers seemed to love sprinkles when she mentioned them. I was just on vacation and they town we were in has two very high class bakeries and from what I saw, nary a sprinkle in site. The cookies she showed up as an example looked like something you would find at a PTA bake sale, not usually at a nice bakery. Those sprinkles are the ones that taste like plastic. 

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4 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

Regular viewers claiming they'll quit--some will but historically, when fans have claimed this, most usually don't.

Trust me, if Molly Yeh hosts another one, I will be gone. I won't even watch the first episode.

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(edited)
16 hours ago, mojoween said:

I have no respect for quitters,  but I’m not mad at Romy for eyeing sprinkles, saying fuck this shit, and bouncing.

Oh look Jaleesa made a basic ass chocolate cake, she wins the preheat!  Bullshit.

AND, forgot to put in one of the ingredients she intended to use.  It has been obvious since episode three that the outcome was rigged. I have been saying for weeks that she would win.  And then she had the balls to stand there and say that she could only feel good if they did the others did their best.  It had to be obvious to her as well that they were giving her a pass when Tom left instead of her and her raw cheesecake.  If she had the character of Romy, she would've walked off at that point. Because who wants an award one does not win legitimately? Oh, Jaleesa.

When Romy walked off, I cheered.  

Edited by Kid
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The vast majority of people seem to think this was all rigged to ensure Jaleesa would win.  She was coddled from the get go and given passes no one else got.  There is a ton of backlash against this season for so many reasons.

With that said, in this volatile world I have serious concerns that Jaleesa's business might be a target for those who thought she should not have won.  I don't know where her store is but I do hope nothing untoward happens to it or she is harassed.  Sadly, this kind of thing is all too common.

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