Spring Baking Championship - General Discussion

[Deskisamess]

17 hours ago, mlp said:

I gave up watching The Kitchen long ago because I can't stand Sunny's yelling and so on.  I also avoid watching anything she's on usually but she's actually fine on the Easter show.  I haven't minded her at all.

I knew I couldn't be the only one who stopped watching The Kitchen because of Sunny. I use several of her recipes, but can't stand watching her.

Just started watching this year's show, my main complaint is the background sound effects and music. It's TOO MUCH. And the sound editing with the first episode is weird. The squealing mixers were hard to take. But the music is so frantic and loud. Ugh.

Duff, Carla, and Lorraine would be my perfect judge panel. I don't like Nancy at all.

[ruffy666]

On 3/13/2023 at 8:05 PM, littlebennysmom said:

How was Marja safe after putting whole wheat flour in an entremet?

I'm not going to claim that it's a cardinal sin to use whole wheat flour in an entremet, but I do think Marja needs to learn how to sell her creations a lot better because when they asked her why she did it and she was just like, "...uhh... I dunno?" I knew it wouldn't go well.

[AZChristian]

12 hours ago, 40Love said:

I won't watch any BBF episodes with her either. She's so ridiculously over-the-top and desperate need for attention. 🙄 But she is really toned down on the Easter show. So I can tolerate her. 

The bakers on her show and the Spring Baking Championship are all so talented.

The part of one episode of SPB-E that I watched, she was relatively calm.  But I found myself sitting there with my shoulders all tight, waiting for her to yell, "THIS IS OUR HOUSE" while slapping the top of the table.

[TVbitch]

Regarding Lorraine, I really liked her too, and this is the best explanation I could find regarding her absence...

"It's entirely possible that since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Lorraine has been working on a sort of rebrand of her content. Before lockdown happened, she would often post photos on Instagram of the food she was making at home, sharing recipes with her 260,000 followers. Since then, though, she's really leaned in to the self-love aspect of her account, and there's barely a mention of her baking background at the moment.

Her Instagram bio currently reads "Lifestyle • Fashion • Beauty • Healing" and touts her MSc in Psychology before there's any mention of her culinary degree. While there are currently occasional posts about food on her page, they're usually in the context of learning to love feeding and fueling your body.

It's possible that Lorraine has decided to take her career in a new direction, and unfortunately, her time judging baking competitions may be taking a back seat to that for now."

[Inga]

I didn’t find this episode enjoyable to watch at all. So many harsh critiques and like, laughing at/making fun of the bakers. I just found this episode to be not very pleasant. 

[libgirl2]

3 hours ago, Inga said:

I didn’t find this episode enjoyable to watch at all. So many harsh critiques and like, laughing at/making fun of the bakers. I just found this episode to be not very pleasant. 

I enjoyed it because I enjoy the bakers but the judges were being a bit too snarky. 

Edited March 17, 2023 by libgirl2

[theatremouse]

Focus on Spring Baking Championship, y'all.

[Insert Username]

Manja just seemed over head from the beginning. She really wasn't at the level of the others

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, Insert Username said:

Spoiler

Manja just seemed over head from the beginning. She really wasn't at the level of the others

 

Is that a spoiler, or are you confusing them with Victoria, who left in the 2nd episode?

[libgirl2]

It looks like someone pooped on that cake 😌

[CheshireCat]

This time around, I find it really obvious that if the cake isn't what you typically get then the judges have an issue with it. I have no idea if Manja's cake really was dry or how badly burned the granola really was (it looked a but burned at the edges of the baking sheet but fine otherwise) but April's cake was obviously not stable, too, but they didn't find fault with her cake and that was a pretty traditional/common flavor combination. Likewise, Molly's cake. They also looked boring on the inside but they got "one of the best things I've ever tasted".

The judges seem to have a really limited flavor profile. (And what is the obsession with salt? Salt is not supposed to be tasted, you're supposed to add a pinch to balance things out, not taste it (unless, of course, it's a cake with salted caramel or something like that)).

Weren't the final cakes supposed to match on the outside? Michelle's sunset looked pretty but her cake didn't exactly match her partner's but it was even more obvious with the healthy/unhealthy ones. They were opposite inside and outside and that wasn't what they were supposed to do.

Most of the Napoleons looked good. I'm not quite sure I saw the "it looks very spring-y" in the one that had a single white blossom and a white dot of cream on top, though. But they looked so good that there were several that I would have liked to taste which doesn't happen too often.

I think Manja wanted too much/wanted too much for too little time. I had hoped she'd stay because she colored outside the lines a lot but she was unable to deliver.

35 minutes ago, libgirl2 said:

It looks like someone pooped on that cake 😌

Agreed. Why did they think it would look pretty?

[littlebennysmom]

1 hour ago, libgirl2 said:

It looks like someone pooped on that cake 😌

That was godawful, but they should have run with that explanation over "wanted to make the flowers look wilty".

The granola crunch that over-toasted -- whaddaya mean you don't have time to redo it?  People remake entire cakes rather than serve burned stuff to the judges, I would think that's a pretty low effort do over.

We all knew who was going home when we saw those Napoleon layers looking like over-browned pita chips.  I feel badly for her, it must be very disappointing.

[DEL901]

The lady who went home has been skating by since the beginning.  I felt bad she didn’t seem to have one really good bake…it was just that someone was always worse. 

[CheshireCat]

8 hours ago, littlebennysmom said:

I would think that's a pretty low effort do over.

Low effort, yes, but the granola recipe that I have calls for 40 minutes in the oven. Of course, that's a conventional oven and I believe they have convection ovens, still, she would have to delay filling the cake by around 20 minutes plus cooling time.

[Guest]

April has settled into being my favorite, so I was glad she did well this episode (leaning cake aside).

The judges really need to expand their definition of spring. It doesn't have to be pastel - Jessica's napoleon was dismissed as being too "earthy" looks-wise but I thought it was a very vibrant green like you were in a wet, dewy forest and everything was very alive. I don't think they liked the taste, either, and that's a different issue, but spring doesn't have to be a Hallmark card, any more than "the holidays" do. That's one advantage to the Kids and Halloween editions - you don't get as much harping on the "proper" look of everything.

[Maya]

2 hours ago, tracyscott76 said:

April has settled into being my favorite, so I was glad she did well this episode (leaning cake aside).

The judges really need to expand their definition of spring. It doesn't have to be pastel - Jessica's napoleon was dismissed as being too "earthy" looks-wise but I thought it was a very vibrant green like you were in a wet, dewy forest and everything was very alive. I don't think they liked the taste, either, and that's a different issue, but spring doesn't have to be a Hallmark card, any more than "the holidays" do. That's one advantage to the Kids and Halloween editions - you don't get as much harping on the "proper" look of everything.

I agree about Jessica’s napoleon. I thought it looked like a mossy forest - very creative and original. The judges don’t seem to like her for some reason.

Also Kardea was crabby as hell last night! I thought some of her comments were very mean and rude. 

[Guest]

Just now, Maya said:

I agree about Jessica’s napoleon. I thought it looked like a mossy forest - very creative and original. The judges don’t seem to like her for some reason.

Also Kardea was crabby as hell last night! I thought some of her comments were very mean and rude. 

Mossy, yes! That's exactly what it looked like, but the judges didn't see it, which was a shame.

And I don't know what it is, but this combo of judges is just not working for me. I've been fairly neutral on Nancy before, Duff works well in other judging panels (he's great on Kids with Valerie, for example), and the little I've seen of Kardea on her own show, she's fine. But these three together are making my head hurt.

I caught the end of last week's rerun before this episode, as Victoria was getting eliminated and walking out, and Kardea called out "Keep baking!" I know it was meant in a supportive, comforting way, but it came off as so condescending and presumptuous. I really hope none of these bakers would let getting eliminated on a silly little TV show throw them off their chosen career path/passion.

I guess I'm crabby as hell myself lol

[40Love]

4 minutes ago, Maya said:

Also Kardea was crabby as hell last night! I thought some of her comments were very mean and rude. 

Thank you... I thought the same thing. She was especially mean to the poor woman who was sent home.  It was almost like she resented the woman for being on the show. But, it's not Manya's (sp?) fault she was cast on the show. The producer's had to know she was over her head in this competition. She did her best. I felt so sorry for her. She looked so sad when mean-ass Kardea was so harshly critiquing her. What happened to the empathetic Mother Earth persona Kardea's always trying to project? I know everyone has bad days. But, she seemed overly mean-spirited on that episode.  

[mojoween]

Manja knew.  She was sad, but she knew.  Did she say she doesn’t do pastries, or cakes?  So, uh, what does she bake then?

That said, she was pleasant and I was rooting for her to do well.

Jai’s preheat was interesting.  Did she not make enough pastry?

[Cetacean]

34 minutes ago, 40Love said:

Thank you... I thought the same thing. She was especially mean to the poor woman who was sent home.  It was almost like she resented the woman for being on the show. 

She's coming across as resenting the fact that she has to spend time with these amateurs. It's like it's a waste of time for such a high falutin pro to be bothered with such riffraff.

[joanne3482]

1 hour ago, mojoween said:

Manja knew.  She was sad, but she knew.  Did she say she doesn’t do pastries, or cakes?  So, uh, what does she bake then?

Bread. Rolls. Buns. There are a lot of baked goods that aren't cake. I've always been struck by how much this show (in all of its iterations, Holiday and Halloween as well) relies on cakes instead of the entire gamut of baked goods that are possible. 

4 hours ago, tracyscott76 said:

The judges really need to expand their definition of spring. It doesn't have to be pastel - Jessica's napoleon was dismissed as being too "earthy" looks-wise but I thought it was a very vibrant green like you were in a wet, dewy forest and everything was very alive. I don't think they liked the taste, either, and that's a different issue, but spring doesn't have to be a Hallmark card, any more than "the holidays" do.

That has always been Nancy's thing, a very limited definition of what the theme is. 

[libgirl2]

6 minutes ago, joanne3482 said:

Bread. Rolls. Buns. There are a lot of baked goods that aren't cake. I've always been struck by how much this show (in all of its iterations, Holiday and Halloween as well) relies on cakes instead of the entire gamut of baked goods that are possible. 

That has always been Nancy's thing, a very limited definition of what the theme is. 

They should do like GBBO and have bread week. Didn't one of these shows do one?

[Guest]

27 minutes ago, joanne3482 said:

That has always been Nancy's thing, a very limited definition of what the theme is. 

This is true, though Kardea seems to be getting just as guilty of this, which I hadn't noticed before.

[pally]

18 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

This time around, I find it really obvious that if the cake isn't what you typically get then the judges have an issue with it. I have no idea if Manja's cake really was dry or how badly burned the granola really was (it looked a but burned at the edges of the baking sheet but fine otherwise) but April's cake was obviously not stable, too, but they didn't find fault with her cake and that was a pretty traditional/common flavor combination. Likewise, Molly's cake. They also looked boring on the inside but they got "one of the best things I've ever tasted".

The judges seem to have a really limited flavor profile. (And what is the obsession with salt? Salt is not supposed to be tasted, you're supposed to add a pinch to balance things out, not taste it (unless, of course, it's a cake with salted caramel or something like that)).

Weren't the final cakes supposed to match on the outside? Michelle's sunset looked pretty but her cake didn't exactly match her partner's but it was even more obvious with the healthy/unhealthy ones. They were opposite inside and outside and that wasn't what they were supposed to do.

Most of the Napoleons looked good. I'm not quite sure I saw the "it looks very spring-y" in the one that had a single white blossom and a white dot of cream on top, though. But they looked so good that there were several that I would have liked to taste which doesn't happen too often.

I think Manja wanted too much/wanted too much for too little time. I had hoped she'd stay because she colored outside the lines a lot but she was unable to deliver.

Agreed. Why did they think it would look pretty?

They can taste the absence of the salt because things aren't balanced or properly enhanced.

[2soon2tell]

3 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

They should do like GBBO and have bread week. Didn't one of these shows do one?

One year the holiday baking did a make bread that looks like items in a cornucopia show. 

19 hours ago, littlebennysmom said:

The granola crunch that over-toasted -- whaddaya mean you don't have time to redo it?  People remake entire cakes rather than serve burned stuff to the judges, I would think that's a pretty low effort do over.

I remember there were premade items on set the bakers could use. I was wondering why she didn’t just grab a canister of granola and admit to the judges that she burnt hers and used store bought instead.

[Salacious Kitty]

11 minutes ago, 2soon2tell said:

One year the holiday baking did a make bread that looks like items in a cornucopia show. 

I remember there were premade items on set the bakers could use. I was wondering why she didn’t just grab a canister of granola and admit to the judges that she burnt hers and used store bought instead.

She's not well-liked by Nancy or "She's from Vermont!" Kardea. They would have booted her. 

[CheshireCat]

2 hours ago, pally said:

They can taste the absence of the salt because things aren't balanced or properly enhanced.

You would need a very refined palate for that and the way the judges are critiquing, I can't really believe that they have that refined of a palate.
In the first or second episode, they lamented the absence of salt in a baked good that used lemon. Lemon, due to its sour taste, is a balance to all things sweet already. And in this episode, the hazelnut filling was too salty.

Given how they are commenting, I suspect they have some sort of knowledge of what is going on and comments are (also) based on that and not just on what they taste. The judges' comments are too often exactly what happened to a baker, it just doesn't seem authentic.

For example, at the German Baking Show, when something goes wrong for a baker during the technical challenge, the judges may taste that something went wrong but they will often say that they don't know what the mistake was because they weren't there and didn't see the process. Or they will ask if this or that is what happened. Or they will say that it doesn't taste like it was supposed to but they don't quite know why.
The judges from the Baking Championship are too specific in their knowledge for me to believe that they don't know what's going on.

[littlebennysmom]

13 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

Low effort, yes, but the granola recipe that I have calls for 40 minutes in the oven. Of course, that's a conventional oven and I believe they have convection ovens, still, she would have to delay filling the cake by around 20 minutes plus cooling time.

Thanks for an experienced opinion, I wouldn't have thought it took that long.

7 hours ago, Cetacean said:

She's coming across as resenting the fact that she has to spend time with these amateurs. It's like it's a waste of time for such a high falutin pro to be bothered with such riffraff.

Pretty ironic she didn't act annoyed with Molly "Sprinkles" Yeh, we all could have jumped on that bandwagon.

[SoCal Mema]

23 hours ago, 40Love said:

Thank you... I thought the same thing. She was especially mean to the poor woman who was sent home.  It was almost like she resented the woman for being on the show. But, it's not Manya's (sp?) fault she was cast on the show. The producer's had to know she was over her head in this competition. She did her best. I felt so sorry for her. She looked so sad when mean-ass Kardea was so harshly critiquing her. What happened to the empathetic Mother Earth persona Kardea's always trying to project? I know everyone has bad days. But, she seemed overly mean-spirited on that episode.  

She was a judge on a Netflix series about soul food, and her critiques were more harsh than the others as well.  Also, there were times she was a bit mean on that show, too, so it seems it's a pattern for her.

[RoxiP]

Valerie says the same thing to the contestants on Kids Baking Championship ("Keep Baking") and I wonder if she thinks they are going to be so devastated that they will quit baking...LOL!

[MoonKitty]

22 hours ago, Salacious Kitty said:

She's not well-liked by Nancy or "She's from Vermont!" Kardea. They would have booted her. 

Agree. Kardea has placed Jessica in a "Vermont" box (whatever that is 🙄) and blames all her missteps on the fact that she's from a rural, northern state. Nice stereotyping Ms. Brown. Grrrr . . .

I used to be neutral on Kardea as a judge--not so much anymore. My opinion of her is falling fast. 

[Starry-Eyed]

7 hours ago, RoxiP said:

Valerie says the same thing to the contestants on Kids Baking Championship ("Keep Baking") and I wonder if she thinks they are going to be so devastated that they will quit baking...LOL!

I feel like that's a much more valid concern on a kids' show - a traumatic experience really could make a kid decide they don't want to have baking be their "thing" anymore - than saying it to an adult who either bakes as their actual job or is such a dedicated and talented amateur that they got on the show in the first place.

 

Honestly, given that Manja burned the crap out of her puff pastry, I have little sympathy for her burnt granola. You would have thought she would have been quicker to check the ovens.

[Gramto6]

Yes, Manja really burned her puff pastry but I thought it was someone else that burned their granola?

I agree about Valerie's comment to the kids, she wants them to continue to love to bake and not let a "bad" experience with the show turn them away from it.

Edited March 23, 2023 by Gramto6

[Guest]

34 minutes ago, Gramto6 said:

Yes, Manja really burned her puff pastry but I thought it was someone else that burned their granola?

Jessica, wasn't it?

[CheshireCat]

31 minutes ago, Gramto6 said:

Yes, Manja really burned her puff pastry but I thought it was someone else that burned their granola?

Yes, Jessica.

On 3/21/2023 at 8:08 PM, littlebennysmom said:

Thanks for an experienced opinion, I wouldn't have thought it took that long.

It takes a long time for the granola to brown/get crunchy even though you pour melted butter and sweetener (honey, brown sugar or maple syrup) over it. Granted, the oven temperature is (only) 325°F but that's not that low. Maybe there's a lot of moisture in the oats?

I'm always surprised when bakers redo an entire cake. That would likely take around the same time, too. But maybe it's easier to do when they do it because you can do other stuff that Jessica had done at that point?

[Starry-Eyed]

For some reason, I thought they both burned granola. Oops!

[CheshireCat]

6 hours ago, Starry-Eyed said:

For some reason, I thought they both burned granola. Oops!

Manja's cake was supposedly dry. She said it looked dry but tasted and said it tasted good. The judges said it was dry. Since I don't always trust that what the judges say is based on what they taste, who knows. (The cake looked crumbly but that doesn't have to be a sign of dryness. If you have a light dough and/or use a lot of baking powder/soda is can be crumbly, too. I didn't catch what kind of cake she was baking but it looked like there was something in there (coconut flakes?) and that can contribute to a crumbly look as well. If the cake really was dry, she could have just brushed some juice over it or something to solve the problem).

[CheshireCat]

On 3/21/2023 at 12:08 PM, mojoween said:

Manja knew.  She was sad, but she knew.  Did she say she doesn’t do pastries, or cakes?  So, uh, what does she bake then?

I googled her and this and this is what I found. She probably doesn't do many of the cakes they ask for on the show but it sounds like she does do pastries. Given that she operated a café, has been to culinary school and does desserts, I would assume that she also does pies, all things "Torte", cheese cakes and all things "streusel cakes". (This is a good list to get an impression of what German cafés serve).

ETA:  

On 3/21/2023 at 12:20 PM, Cetacean said:

She's coming across as resenting the fact that she has to spend time with these amateurs.

I found where Manja went to school under a different link. It doesn't specify what she went to school for but baker (focuses on bread, rolls and simply things like "Streusel cake"), cake baker (focuses on cakes, "Torten", pastries) and cook are each 3-year-educations. From what I read on the internet, it sounds like Kardea would be the amateur in that case.

 

 

[Mellowyellow]

I am so happy this show is back to being watchable again!!!!

Love the contestants (but I always love the contestants). I was initially worried about the love theme but the challenges have been surprisingly good so far. I think they're pretty well thought out and give the bakers a chance to shine. None of the monstrosities of last year. Especially love the break up cake. Gave them enough parameters to work within but also sufficient freedom to put their own spin on things.

I find the panel of judges sour and b@tchy. It's not that they shouldn't criticise things (they are judges after all) but they come off as mean spirited. I found them more palatable in the previous seasons but I don't think they've changed much. Maybe I am just sick of them! 

Finally: JESSE!!!!! Yaaaaaaay!!! I would have taken ANYONE besides Molly but Jesse was a nice surprise!

[meep.meep]

18 hours ago, Starry-Eyed said:

Honestly, given that Manja burned the crap out of her puff pastry

Manja didn't just burn the crap out of it, she made it wrong and all the butter ran out of the laminations.  Then she burnt it.

Is "Blitz puff" the same thing they call "Rough puff" on the GBBO?

I think this episode was the very first time I saw the bakers using scales.  It always looked to me like they were just randomly dumping ingredients into their mixing bowls.  You should weigh (best) or measure by volume to be consistent.

I don't mind the judges - at least Nancy and Kardea aren't sniping at each other the way that Nancy and Lorraine used to do.

[Catfi9ht]

On 3/21/2023 at 6:33 AM, DEL901 said:

The lady who went home has been skating by since the beginning.  I felt bad she didn’t seem to have one really good bake…it was just that someone was always worse. 

Manja and I agree. She's also been getting a favorable edit compared to some of the other bakers. The judges' comments seemed overly sympathetic to her and overly harsh on others who produced higher quality results.

The combined judging and editing choices of the contestants' stories seems very disjointed to me. My instinct is to blame the editing because the overall tone of the show has changed to ramp up drama. 🙄

I thought Manja should have gone home sooner, but it doesn't really matter now.

I still like everyone on the show and there are a lot of talented bakers so Christian or Jai, who are both extremely talented, won't run away with it. 

I thought the choices people made for the break-up cakes didn't make sense for the most part except for the healthy/unhealthy combo. I thought that was super smart.

[KittyQ]

On 3/8/2023 at 5:23 AM, dleighg said:

One of the women pronounced peony pee-OH-nee twice. 

I think sometimes people use words that they've read but never heard anyone say, or never said with proper pronunciation, so it is like a local dialect. 

[Guest]

29 minutes ago, KittyQ said:

I think sometimes people use words that they've read but never heard anyone say, or never said with proper pronunciation, so it is like a local dialect. 

Right. If you've never heard it, you also sometimes just go with what seems logical in your head (peony? maybe like baloney or macaroni?) and don't realize it's wrong until you hear others say it.

I saw the word mores in writing several times, and thought it was pronounced like "moors" or "s'mores" - it seemed logical to me. Then I pronounced it that way in front of someone who knew better and they gently corrected me. Thank god I didn't do it on a show covered by this site 😆

[AnnMarie17]

3 hours ago, KittyQ said:

I think sometimes people use words that they've read but never heard anyone say, or never said with proper pronunciation, so it is like a local dialect. 

My dear friend taught me that when you hear someone use a word correctly, but pronounce it incorrectly, you're often discovering a reader...someone who knows the usage of the word, but hasn't heard it said out loud.  I love reading and people who read for pleasure, so this has always softened my heart when I hear someone mispronounce words.

Back to the show, I'm so grateful this is back to how it felt prior to last season; it's a joy again.  

[Catfi9ht]

There are many reasons why people accidentally mispronounce things other than what's already been pointed out, lack of education and/or opportunity, not their native language, learning disability, speech disorder, hearing disorder, and others I'm sure I'm not thinking of at the moment.

As I get older, the more I realize gatekeeping language is pretty short-sighted. I've learned to have a little grace for others especially if I don't know their circumstances, and I'm still working on it.

Edited March 25, 2023 by Catfi9ht
Thought of more items to add to the list

[Mellowyellow]

Omg I found the Easter version!!! Love it!!! Sunny is a great host and I like Stephanie and Zack as judges. 

[Grizzly]

13 hours ago, Mellowyellow said:

Omg I found the Easter version!!! Love it!!! Sunny is a great host and I like Stephanie and Zack as judges. 

I love the Easter version. Spring is not my favorite because chocolate and peanut butter (my favs) are not considered springy flavors. But they are all over Easter. My one dislike is how they eliminate bakers. How do they ensure everyone takes the correct egg? If I was in trouble, I'd try to take an egg not meant for me.

[laredhead]

Grizzly, the contestants obviously have to choose the eggs in order that they are given, but what I think is awful is that they have take a bite of the egg, and if you are the loser you are stuck with the bite of egg in your mouth and you have to chew it and swallow it along with the knowlege that you are the loser.  I think it would have been much nicer to just have them open a plastic egg and not have to put something in their mouth.  Kind of humiliating IMO.  

[littlebennysmom]

Boo, April, stop saying "marscapone".  I hear it incorrectly so often on these shows I had to look it up to make sure.

[crazycatlady58]

Did I miss hear or did one of the bakers say someone turned off her oven? Then nothing else was said? Did I miss something? That seems like a major problem.