Spring Baking Championship - General Discussion

[Chit Chat]

Corey's mimosa desserts looked like perfection!  Just beautiful.  It was nice to see so many talented and genuinely nice people in this current season.  Well done bakers!

[illini1959]

I reallllllllly wish they'd do away with the 'twist'. So ridiculous.

And then they wonder why the candy and boxes were 'rushed' or not good enough. They were busy with the finale creation. 😕 

This almost ruins it for me. 

[libgirl2]

31 minutes ago, illini1959 said:

I reallllllllly wish they'd do away with the 'twist'. So ridiculous.

And then they wonder why the candy and boxes were 'rushed' or not good enough. They were busy with the finale creation. 😕 

This almost ruins it for me. 

I agree. Have a twist at the start but not when they are  half way done. I want to see good bakes. 

[Cheyanne11]

I would've been happy with any of the three, extremely likeable and talented, bakers winning--but it was pretty clear from the immediate judges' feedback that Corey seemed to have it in the bag.  Congrats to him. 

Now if the network could only figure out a way for the audience to actually taste all these wonderful desserts...

[ae2]

2 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

I agree. Have a twist at the start but not when they are  half way done. I want to see good bakes. 

But then it wouldn't be a twist! 😀

If Saber had flung some colored chocolate on his twist and said it represented a gift he made for his mom when he was a kid, I think he could have won this

[luvapickle]

4 hours ago, Cheyanne11 said:

I would've been happy with any of the three, extremely likeable and talented, bakers winning--but it was pretty clear from the immediate judges' feedback that Corey seemed to have it in the bag.  Congrats to him. 

Now if the network could only figure out a way for the audience to actually taste all these wonderful desserts...

Smella vision. 

[TVbitch]

I would have rather seen Ricardo's finale creations versus Karina. I feel like they just got rid of him so it would not be an all male finale, or, they didn't want two "foreign" bakers. But Corey deserved the win anyway, so I'll live. All in all, and enjoyable competition. 

[GaT]

Once he got past the first episode, I've been thinking Corey was going to be the winner, so no surprise for me. One thing I hate is when they get contestants to tell them all the wonderful things they're going to do with the prize money, & then they lose. It seems kind of mean to me.

[jcbrown]

16 hours ago, mlp said:

I liked all three of the finalists and hated to see any two of them lose but Cory has been my favorite since the beginning so I am delighted that he won.  It seemed like he had it wrapped up after each round but I didn't trust FN to play it straight.  I wish I could have seen his kids' faces when he told them that Dad won.

I enjoyed Clinton as host.

I'm looking forward to Best Bakers next week.

Yes to all this! As I was watching it, I kept thinking I wanted all of them to win. Best group of baker on any of these FN shows that I can remember.

I agree, I think Clinton really grew into the part. I hope he comes back. And I am also looking forward to Best Bakers.

6 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

I agree. Have a twist at the start but not when they are  half way done. I want to see good bakes. 

Totally agree. Giving them the twist with like one hour left is annoying.

[Chit Chat]

7 hours ago, Cheyanne11 said:

Now if the network could only figure out a way for the audience to actually taste all these wonderful desserts...

There was a desserts competition years ago (I can't remember the name,) and they had to make chocolate candies.  A guy won that and his confections were replicated by Godiva Chocolates.  I went to a Godiva store and got to taste the candies that contestant had come up with.  Maybe it was a Godiva sponsored show.  I just can't remember.  The important thing is that I got to taste the chocolate candies, and they were good!  I would happily try almost everything this show has to offer!

[Texasmom1970]

Since the seasons done Nancy can take all the booze left in the pantry and head home.

[dleighg]

5 hours ago, Texasmom1970 said:

Since the seasons done Nancy can take all the booze left in the pantry and head home.

I was amazed that she managed to hold it together and not bitch about the "virgin" cocktail-desserts that Saber made. 

[Chit Chat]

19 hours ago, ae2 said:

If Saber had flung some colored chocolate on his twist and said it represented a gift he made for his mom when he was a kid, I think he could have won this

I think the Rice Krispies in his cake did him in.

I thought that Corey had the best presentation with both his cake and box.  They seemed a notch above the other's.   He probably should've added some kind of liqueur to his chocolates to give them more flavor, but as a chocoholic, I would've been happy with them being "just chocolate."   I'm still amazed at how perfect his mimosa desserts were.  Everything was perfectly shaped and cut.  Color me impressed!  

[kirklandia]

2 hours ago, dleighg said:

I was amazed that she managed to hold it together and not bitch about the "virgin" cocktail-desserts that Saber made. 

I love his accent anyway, got a kick out of his tongue-twister "virgin version".

Mocktail, anyone?

[crazycatlady58]

16 hours ago, luvapickle said:

Smella vision. 

Nooooo! I watch my 600 lb. life to much.

[KLovestoShop]

I thought Corey’s cake looked too simplistic.  And his layers were uneven, something the judges always criticize.  All he basically did was pour yellow ganache over the cake, sprinkle “dirt” on it and stick daisies on top.  Karina’s cake was beautiful, and a lot higher, technologically speaking, despite being “old fashioned” (I hate that term). 

But I liked all three bakers, so I didn’t mind who won. 

[BigBingerBro]

39 minutes ago, KLovestoShop said:

I thought Corey’s cake looked too simplistic.  And his layers were uneven, something the judges always criticize.  All he basically did was pour yellow ganache over the cake, sprinkle “dirt” on it and stick daisies on top.  

To be fair, he did also put some fondant around it, plus he handcrafted the flowers for the top.  I will agree about the glazing, he seemed to use that technique quite a bit this season.  It seems to be a trendy thing to do these days, so they didn't call him out on it.

I used to the twists, but the editing was very deceptive in the finale.  Clinton called 30 minutes left and they had not yet shown any of the three making the candy boxes.  Then, of course they started focusing on that.  Karina had to have started before 30 minutes in order to melt chocolate, spread it, form it,  and chill it (they showed her working with it icey cold and firm).  Then right before the countdown her box was breaking and she was trying to patch it.  Then no less than 10 seconds later at three two one they show her completely done with everything in front of her.  Yeah sure.

I wasn't really rooting for Cory as I tend to not root for those who have been on other shows before, but I will say he did the best this round.

[dleighg]

7 minutes ago, BigBingerBro said:

but the editing was very deceptive in the finale.

another thing I (thought) I noticed. Way back in the beginning when he was talking to Clinton about his plan, Corey mentioned "dirt" as part of the design. Then as he's just finishing the cake and wondering how to finish it, he "suddenly has an inspiration" to make dirt for the top. No Corey, you told us a half hour ago that you were planning on putting "dirt" on top.

[Chit Chat]

1 hour ago, KLovestoShop said:

I thought Corey’s cake looked too simplistic.  And his layers were uneven, something the judges always criticize.  All he basically did was pour yellow ganache over the cake, sprinkle “dirt” on it and stick daisies on top.  Karina’s cake was beautiful, and a lot higher, technologically speaking, despite being “old fashioned” (I hate that term). 

I had the opposite opinion of Corey's cake!  It looked more sophisticated to my untrained eye.  As much as I love a cake decorated with beautiful flowers, I thought that his was a bit more modern.  Apparently the layers all tasted great too.  I thought that the daises were nicely done, as well as the flowers on Karina's cake.   I applaud each of them though for their efforts.  Spending 5 hours making and decorating a cake has got to be exhausting!  

[mlp]

Quote

I wasn't really rooting for Cory as I tend to not root for those who have been on other shows before

I didn't know that Cory has been on another show.  What was he on?

I agree that the editing was deceptive for the reasons you mentioned.

[BigBingerBro]

1 hour ago, mlp said:

I didn't know that Cory has been on another show.  What was he on?

Iron Chef America as a Sous Chef

[mlp]

1 hour ago, BigBingerBro said:

2 hours ago, mlp said:

I didn't know that Cory has been on another show.  What was he on?

Iron Chef America as a Sous Chef

Oh, that's right.  I had forgotten all about that.  Thanks.  And now I can't remember who he was working with.  😞

[RealityCheck]

4 hours ago, mlp said:

And now I can't remember who he was working with.

Michael Symon.  On the whole, the sous chefs on Iron Chef are unsung heroes so I do not count that against Cory.  Very few got to be recognized on their own merits such as Anne Burrell.  Even Richard Blais, who was a sous chef for Cat Cora in a couple of battles, wasn't recognized as such until he competed on Top Chef.

I was rooting for Cory because he was consistent, his desserts were interesting, and I enjoyed his sense of humor.

[ninjakid]

Alex Guarnaschelli was Jeffrey Zakarian's sous chef on Iron Chef.

[RealityCheck]

New Season Of SPRING BAKING CHAMPIONSHIP Premieres Monday, March 9th At 9PM ET/PT

Quote

Clinton Kelly Returns as Host, Along with Judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Lorraine Pascale

 

[Irlandesa]

Clinton Kelly seemed far looser in this premiere than he did at any other point in last season.  He felt more like the Clinton I enjoyed on The Chew.

Some of those geometric tarts were gorgeous.

 

[joanne3482]

The tarts may have been lovely, but most of those cakes were not decorated well. And fault line cakes just seem weird and pointless to me.*  And now I'll shake my broom at those kids to tell them to get off my lawn.  

I don't think I have a favorite yet, but the woman whose cake broke so she did a vertical fault line cake and the blond lady who doesn't do delicate were not my favorites. 

Wait, the bear lady's cake was cute with the butt and the face peeking out of the fault line. 

I googled fault line cakes. I saw some decent ones out there. I don't think I like it when they shove the fault line full of sprinkles, but I saw a cool Harry Potter one, an archaeological excavation that was really creative and a watermelon that convinced me they aren't totally pointless. Just mostly. 🙂

Edited March 10, 2020 by joanne3482

[Cheyanne11]

Too soon for a favorite and no one bugged me to the extent I'm already rooting against them.  Man, this show just makes me hungry, though.

[laredhead]

I fell asleep before it was over.  Who went home?

[mlp]

I'm glad this show is back.  I love all the seasonal shows and I like Clinton Kelly.  All the contestants seem likable so far so that's a plus.  I didn't even find Nancy as irritating as I usually do.

I'd never heard of fault line cakes so I Googled them.  Many are quite pretty and most looked better than most on the show although the bakers probably weren't making them under studio conditions and pressure.  They look to me like an extension of the geode cake concept.  

[GaT]

I don't have a favorite yet, but Arin bugs me.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, laredhead said:

I fell asleep before it was over.  Who went home?

Anibal, I believe.

I had to laugh when they rushed the "fruit tree" prop at the beginning and knocked it over, and everyone's all "oooo look what we did"...and I'm thinking you guys ain't got nothing on the kids - they knocked over a whole glass display case!

Edited March 10, 2020 by tracyscott76

[BensBritches]

Silly question/observation. Most of those fault line cakes seemed to have two large cakes with a smaller one in the middle and then mostly filled in with frosting, decorations or sprinkles... but when they cut into the cakes, I didn't notice any difference is the size of the cake layers. They all looked perfectly even to me... At first I thought the bakers were only cutting into one of their cakes, but that would mean they all layered their layers (if that makes sense) which I don't think they did. Was the evenness of the layers and frosting just a figment of my imagination?

[dleighg]

49 minutes ago, BensBritches said:

Most of those fault line cakes seemed to have two large cakes with a smaller one in the middle and then mostly filled in with frosting, decorations or sprinkles.

I *think* only one person used two different sizes (might have been the winning bear cake). The others just used a thicker layer of frosting on the top and bottom. 

I had a complaint about the guy who won the preheat- he did a winter trees into spring trees thing. He just alternated winter trees and spring trees in the center region-- there was no "reveal" so to speak, which I thought was the point of fault line cakes. I was surprised the judges didn't remark on it.

Edited March 10, 2020 by dleighg

[theatremouse]

I think most of the "fault" was created by extra frosting on the top and bottom layers, not different cake sizes.

[Guest]

Val of the winning bear cake was the only one they specifically showed using a smaller cake layer in the middle to create the faultline. Clinton was quite impressed. They showed most of the others using frosting to create the effect; I remember Arin in particular was shown describing his frosting process.

Edited March 10, 2020 by tracyscott76

[hula-la]

9 hours ago, joanne3482 said:

The tarts may have been lovely, but most of those cakes were not decorated well. And fault line cakes just seem weird and pointless to me.*  And now I'll shake my broom at those kids to tell them to get off my lawn.  

I don't think I have a favorite yet, but the woman whose cake broke so she did a vertical fault line cake and the blond lady who doesn't do delicate were not my favorites. 

Wait, the bear lady's cake was cute with the butt and the face peeking out of the fault line. 

I googled fault line cakes. I saw some decent ones out there. I don't think I like it when they shove the fault line full of sprinkles, but I saw a cool Harry Potter one, an archaeological excavation that was really creative and a watermelon that convinced me they aren't totally pointless. Just mostly. 🙂

Though the blonde is a fellow Home Ec teacher, so I’m partial to her, as well as my fellow Canadian contestants. I feel you on not being a huge fan of fault line cakes. 

[trudysmom]

Maybe I'm just burned out on the concept, but I was annoyed for most of the episode.  It seemed like they were all yelling, almost all the time. And the laughter seemed fake, or  forced, like they were told to make Clinton look good because I'm sorry I didn't find him all that funny.  I watched it, changed the channel and could not tell you who won, who went home or even what the challenges were. And no I'm not THAT old, lol.  

[theatremouse]

So.....Molly? I think? Does not understand the difference between a caterpillar and a pupa.

[illini1959]

On 3/10/2020 at 8:34 AM, joanne3482 said:

 

I don't think I have a favorite yet, but the woman whose cake broke so she did a vertical fault line cake and the blond lady who doesn't do delicate were not my favorites. 

 

The judges even called her on that, that her cake wasn't even really a "fault line" cake.

I think when they don't meet the parameters of the challenge, they should go. This has happened more than once on these shows. Really, why bother with a theme if the end result isn't even within that theme? 

My rant 🙂 

[lh25]

What stood out to me is how many of them got the same theme/flavors.  Like the producers couldn't come up with more?

[hookedontv]

Like many others, I had never heard of a fault line cake and just thought it was a weird challenge. Points for that super cute bear with the butt sticking out. That was really cute.

For the tarts, there have to be more spring fruits other than.... rhubarb! Even if they threw in a couple of early summer fruits, there would have been more of a variety. 

The adults knocking over the fruit tree and the kids knocking over a bakery case makes me think that the FN doesn't put a lot of $ into their props (other than the necessities such as ovens & mixers.) I think on all these shows it's silly that someone is always calling out "who's got the lemon extract?" For Pete's sake, have a few of each ingredient on hand. Same with cake pans - this stuff shouldn't be hoarded or fought over. 

That said, I enjoy this show and look forward to next week. Still too early to know anyone's names, so we will see how they do. 

[dewelar]

3 hours ago, illini1959 said:

The judges even called her on that, that her cake wasn't even really a "fault line" cake.

I think when they don't meet the parameters of the challenge, they should go. This has happened more than once on these shows. Really, why bother with a theme if the end result isn't even within that theme? 

My rant 🙂 

I've been ranting this same rant since the beginning of time (well, the beginning of cooking shows with briefs, anyway). This was actually one of the lesser examples, because at least it was in the ballpark of the brief (i.e., still a fault line, just a sideways one). I keep waiting for someone to come on of these shows and, say, bake the perfect chocolate cake every single week no matter what the challenge, and see how long it took for them to get the boot. That would be more entertaining than watching someone have to combine kiwi and kiwi 😒.

[laredhead]

Does anyone know if the contestants are given a list of items they might be required to make before the show is filmed?  On the British baking show the contestants can practice a lot of the required bakes at home during the week.  Just wondering, because with only 90 minutes to come up with some of these things, they seem to jump right in with an idea.  It would take me 90 minutes to figure out what I was going to bake.   

[theatremouse]

I do not believe they gets briefs in advance - in the sense of before they arrive for filming. However, this show is for pros mostly. I know amateurs can and do apply, but it's different from GBBO. Also anyone who applies probably knows what kind of thing this show is likely to ask for. That said, the timer almost certainly doesn't start as quickly as the episode makes it seem. For legal reasons there's likely either a pause in filming after the challenge is announced and then they get to ask questions to clarify the rules OR they had that session before the "announcement" is filmed. My point being, it's almost certain they've had more than five seconds to think about it by the time they start for real.

[ruffy666]

Some of the those fault line cakes looked pretty faulty to me... ZING!  I was impressed that they kept the mood light and fun throughout.  Clinton did a good job.

In general-- not specific to this show, I guess-- I hate the trend of cakes that look good but are super impractical to actually eat.  Fault line cakes with a super thick gob of frosting top and bottom.  Geode cakes covered in tooth-breaking sugar crystals.  "Surprise Inside" cakes that pour out a pound of sprinkles. 

I might be biased since I do a bit of baking myself and I like my stuff to look nice but I'm still all about making something that people will actually eat :)  

[lh25]

Along the lines of not following the challenge, did anyone else wonder if the guy who added blueberries to his tart, when they weren't one of his fruits, would get called out for it? Esp given that the one woman stuck to her Kiwi-squared assignment.

 

 

[theatremouse]

I think they were allowed to add other stuff, but the designated stuff was supposed to be the primary flavor(s). And he did get dinged for it by the judges I think? At least...someone got dinged for adding other stuff that wasn't the assigned flavor and it took over the taste...maybe I'm thinking of a different dude. I did wonder why he was doing it, but I don't think it was explicitly against the rules, just a bad idea.

[BusyOctober]

I HAAAAATE rhubarb.  I hate the way it looks- celery (also gross), but it’s red.  I hate the smell. Mostly it’s the taste.  It’s just awful!  I have tried it in pies and preserves and mixed with berries.  There is no amount of sugar or other added flavorings to remove the rhubarb-iness from my tastebuds. And why is it called a fruit?  It’s a vegetable!

Unfortunately this won’t be the last time I have to look at rhubarb on this show.  It seems to be the only staple in the “Spring” pantry.

 

[Eliza422]

13 hours ago, ruffy666 said:

Some of the those fault line cakes looked pretty faulty to me... ZING!  I was impressed that they kept the mood light and fun throughout.  Clinton did a good job.

In general-- not specific to this show, I guess-- I hate the trend of cakes that look good but are super impractical to actually eat.  Fault line cakes with a super thick gob of frosting top and bottom.  Geode cakes covered in tooth-breaking sugar crystals.  "Surprise Inside" cakes that pour out a pound of sprinkles. 

I might be biased since I do a bit of baking myself and I like my stuff to look nice but I'm still all about making something that people will actually eat 🙂

I agree with you in terms of these "trendy" cakes. Most of them look inedible at best.