Holiday Baking Championship - General Discussion

[Guest]

This was...not my favorite episode.

That whole second challenge was stupid. I love watching shows like this but I always cringe when someone throws something out. This challenge was expressly designed to create waste. I actually got angry watching them scrape off all that frosting.

I know Bill is well-liked here, and he can be charming, but I feel like he's coasting on that charm. Terrible-looking snowman plus good creampuffs should not have won over pretty good looking snow(wo)man plus good creampuffs.

Between that, some irritating judges' comments (like Duff completely misrepresenting Zakiya's attitude during the preheat), and Jessica's "advantage" with the loaded "choice"...not great.

[libgirl2]

I adore Bill. He had me in tears! 

And those were all ugly snowmen so I believe it did come down to taste. 

[MerBearHou]

I did not want to say bye to any one of this final group.  I really enjoy and LIKE every single one of them.  Zakiya was just a dear and so talented.  That snowman croquembouche challenge was crazy hard.  I was surprised that the ugly sweaters weren’t uglier — only Aaron seemed to make his kind of gaudy which is the fun of those sweaters.  And most of them didn’t have the sweater shape.  That challenge seemed to be difficult in getting the design and shape for the group as well, which surprised me.  I mean, some of the sweaters were pretty!

[kathyk24]

11 minutes ago, tracyscott76 said:

This was...not my favorite episode.

That whole second challenge was stupid. I love watching shows like this but I always cringe when someone throws something out. This challenge was expressly designed to create waste. I actually got angry watching them scrape off all that frosting.

I know Bill is well-liked here, and he can be charming, but I feel like he's coasting on that charm. Terrible-looking snowman plus good creampuffs should not have won over pretty good looking snow(wo)man plus good creampuffs.

Between that, some irritating judges' comments (like Duff completely misrepresenting Zakiya's attitude during the preheat), and Jessica's "advantage" with the loaded "choice"...not great.

I think Dru is coasting. I think they should have skipped the reheat and given them more time with the creampuffs. I'm rooting for Jessica.

[rlc]

Team Aisha over here. She made a snowman (person) that looked like what she said it was, had a clear story that wasn't handed to her by Jesse (cough- hey Bill, your snowman that's filled with premade marshmallows looks like Dru), and has been solid throughout the season.

I'm sure Bill is a lovely person and a talented baker, but I've been underwhelmed by his winning poundcakes. Dru's desserts have been the ones that *look* the most delicious to me, but I'd still put Aisha over Dru for being the total package. Jessica has been inconsistent. Aaron is incredibly talented- I'd be happy to see him win as well.

I prefer not to speak of the second (and completely ridiculous) store bought cake challenge. Hey- at least they didn't have to add sprinkles.

[CheshireCat]

9 hours ago, MerBearHou said:

I was surprised that the ugly sweaters weren’t uglier — only Aaron seemed to make his kind of gaudy which is the fun of those sweaters.  

I think Aishia's was as well with that challah bread on top of it. And speaking of, what was Nancy's issue with the bread? It looked unfinished? Uh?

Zakiya's piping was not pretty. It may have been due to time but she should have just chosen a different piping tip. Thin lines need to be straight and hers weren't.

I'm not sure why Dru won this challenge. He did not have an ugly sweater at all, he actually admitted that he did not do one (I'm as puzzled as Duff was over it), so he did not meet the challenge. While Bill won on taste as well, he, at least, presented a (brown) snowman.

Together with Aishia's, Aaron's sweater was my favorite. I also liked Jessica's but there was the piping tip issue.

I actually enjoyed the "re-heat". I thought it was fun.

I didn't like Aaron's cake, I thought it was not reflective of what he's capable of. I didn't like Dru's cake either, it looked like he had transformed a store-bought cake into another store-bought cake.

Bill's cake was missing something on top. I don't know if he didn't have the time but I think he could have added something and still have it look like something someone would do at home.
I thought Carla's remark was a bit condescending, although, it's possible it was edited that way. But why would Bill be able to relate to a hobby-baker better than a bakery owner? Just because he doesn't own a bakery doesn't mean he's not a professional. From what I gather from the internet, Carla did not receive an education as a pastry chef/baker either.

Zakiya's and Jessica's cakes were my favorites.

Aishia's wasn't bad but the ganache drip was a bit too thick. And why was she referring to the cake as a "she"? I don't know why but it annoys the hell out of me. It's a cake. It's an "it".

Did Nancy say anything during the judging?

I think that main heat took things a bit too far. If the pastry chefs who went to culinary school were struggling with that task, it probably was not enough time at all.

I'm glad they could all laugh about it, though. I mean, what else can you do?

Jessica's snowman shape was impeccable! It was impressively neat.

Bill also had a really good snowman-shape. I didn't think his looked like Dru but rather like Big Bird. As soon as I saw the face of the finished one, I thought of Big Bird.

I liked that Aishia gave her snowwoman a personality, still, it did look a bit messy.

I did not understand that Bill won. He did have an okay snowman shape but it didn't even come close to Jessica's. Did the judges decide not ignore the snowmen and judge on taste and baking only? Then Bill's win would make sense.

[RoxiP]

I didn't care for Bill last night.  I felt like her was auditioning for his Tik tok or YouTube show.  I think he is a charming man but he went all hosty (IMO) last night and he annoyed me.

[Rammchick]

2 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

Bill also had a really good snowman-shape. I didn't think his looked like Dru but rather like Big Bird. As soon as I saw the face of the finished one, I thought of Big Bird.

Well, Dru does look like some sort of Muppet or Dr. Seuss character, so....

[libgirl2]

23 minutes ago, RoxiP said:

I didn't care for Bill last night.  I felt like her was auditioning for his Tik tok or YouTube show.  I think he is a charming man but he went all hosty (IMO) last night and he annoyed me.

I saw it more as he was having fun, didn't think he was going to do well and just went with it. This group really does seem to get along well and like each other. 

[pally]

I hate it when the bakers are set up for failure like they were with the final challenge.  There was not nearly enough time to produce an adequate snowman.  Even another 30 minutes would have made a big difference in what they each presented to the judges yet still remain a challenge.

This isn't the Christmas Cookie Challenge where the decoration will win out over the taste of the cookie.  Here the judges will lean towards flavor over looks...thus Bill won. Zakiya went home more for the state of her broken pastry cream than the look of the snowman.  Of course, they reserve they right to blame decoration over taste when they eliminate Dru, who has consistantly been praised for his flavors and dinged on decor.

Edited December 13, 2022 by pally

[Jillybean]

The "advantage" Jessica earned was incredibly unfair. Either take the advantage and screw everyone else over or get no advantage at all. WTF was that? Not to mention the main heat task, wow. I liked this season up until this episode.

[CrazyInAlabama]

The croquembouche snowman challenge sucked.   THe leaning snowman, and  the one that looked like dirty, melting snow were horrible..   However, the Dru snowman that was built was hysterical.   A regular croquembouche would have been better, and possible in the time the bakers had.   I hope they never do a challenge like this one again.   

 The choice for the advantage was terrible.   Can you imagine if she had picked to get all of the white decor items?   

I'm shocked they are taking five bakers to the finale, and it looked like they keep all five until the winner is announced, but that might not be real, that might be the first heat. 

I'm wondering if Duff spilled something on his Hanukkah sweater, and they didn't have a spare?   So, he had to wear the jacket over it.  

Edited December 15, 2022 by CrazyInAlabama

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

The choice for the advantage was terrible.   Can you imagine if she had picked to get all of the white decor items?   

After Jessica picked the obvious "generous" option the show was basically forcing her to choose (or daring her not to choose), Bill told the camera that he would have taken the white decor items. I kind of doubt it if he was the one who was actually put on the spot, but who knows?

[mojoween]

Nothing against Dru, but I really liked Zakiya so this sucks again.

Aisha’s challah bread was poop.  It looked like braided poop on top of a cake and I feel like Nancy was trying a diplomatic way to say that so went with “unfinished”.

[libgirl2]

8 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Aisha’s challah bread was poop.  It looked like braided poop on top of a cake and I feel like Nancy was trying a diplomatic way to say that so went with “unfinished”.

So, I wasn't the only one to see it that way.

[mlp]

9 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

And speaking of, what was Nancy's issue with the bread? I

As above, I thought it looked like a pile of dog poop.  I expected Nancy to say something to that effect while smirking and was surprised when she didn't.

9 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

Aishia's wasn't bad but the ganache drip was a bit too thick. And why was she referring to the cake as a "she"? I don't know why but it annoys the hell out of me. It's a cake. It's an "it".

That annoyed me greatly too.  I won't be sorry if she gets eliminated next just for that reason.

I like Jessica but I think she's probably the weakest of the remaining bakers.  I like all the men and think they're all talented so I won't be disappointed if any one of them wins.  

Jesse is such a good host!  I hope he never leaves this show.

[kathyk24]

8 hours ago, Jillybean said:

The "advantage" Jessica earned was incredibly unfair. Either take the advantage and screw everyone else over or get no advantage at all. WTF was that? Not to mention the main heat task, wow. I liked this season up until this episode.

I agree Dru got a true advantage Jessica got a choice. Jesse should have let her use the decorations anyway.

[Starry-Eyed]

3 minutes ago, kathyk24 said:

I agree Dru got a true advantage Jessica got a choice. Jesse should have let her use the decorations anyway.

I half-expected Jesse to tell her that for choosing no twist, she was still going to get the white decorations.

[Grizzly]

Did anyone even use white decorations? Most of the snowmen were still brown. The only white we saw was from white chocolate or the white crackling Jessica did.

[Maverick]

 I agree the challah bread looked like a lump of poop.  How no one mentioned it is beyond me. 

 Duff was in a snit this episode.  Especially during the sweater challenge.  Did anyone else notice he wore a jacket and didn't show off his ugly sweater?   Was he offended by the challenge?  If so it seems like he would have said something to the producers but I guess it was already planned and setup by the time he found out. 

 Jesse: "the snowman croquembouche threw our bakers for a loop ".  Well there's the understatement of the season.  I'm surprised at least one of them didn't have a total meltdown and stage a cookie salad walkout.  My favorite was "do me a favor and turn him around so I can't see his face.  Yeah, that's better.".    Seriously, those things were two baggers.  Minimum. 

[dleighg]

16 hours ago, mojoween said:

Aisha’s challah bread was poop.  It looked like braided poop on top of a cake and I feel like Nancy was trying a diplomatic way to say that so went with “unfinished”.

I sensed that *everyone* thought it looked like poop, including the baker.

On 12/12/2022 at 10:02 PM, tracyscott76 said:

That whole second challenge was stupid. I love watching shows like this but I always cringe when someone throws something out. This challenge was expressly designed to create waste.

I get that supposed "trends" don't have to make sense (and is this cakeover thing really a trend?), but why on earth would you buy an already decorated cake and redo it? Just buy a box cake and decorate it if you don't feel like doing a recipe. But I know, that's not weird enough to be a trend.

[Rammchick]

52 minutes ago, dleighg said:

I sensed that *everyone* thought it looked like poop, including the baker.

I get that supposed "trends" don't have to make sense (and is this cakeover thing really a trend?), but why on earth would you buy an already decorated cake and redo it? Just buy a box cake and decorate it if you don't feel like doing a recipe. But I know, that's not weird enough to be a trend.

It seemed to me like that "Re-heat" round was a weird afterthought.  There was no real reason to have three bakes in one episode, except to fill 2 hours. 

5 hours ago, Maverick said:

 Duff was in a snit this episode.  Especially during the sweater challenge.  Did anyone else notice he wore a jacket and didn't show off his ugly sweater?   Was he offended by the challenge?  If so it seems like he would have said something to the producers but I guess it was already planned and setup by the time he found out. 

Duff should know by now that there's always one token Hannukah challenge in among all the "Holiday" challenges on this show.  It's usually sufganyot, so at least this was something a little different, even if most of the ugly Hannukah sweaters weren't that great.  Being of the tribe, I get it, we get short shrift this time of year.  I wasn't offended at the sayings on the sweaters, I thought they were kind of cute, though nothing I haven't see before (and I suspect Duff has too).

[Seelouis]

1 minute ago, Rammchick said:

Duff should know by now that there's always one token Hannukah challenge in among all the "Holiday" challenges on this show.  It's usually sufganyot, so at least this was something a little different, even if most of the ugly Hannukah sweaters weren't that great.  Being of the tribe, I get it, we get short shrift this time of year.  I wasn't offended at the sayings on the sweaters, I thought they were kind of cute, though nothing I haven't see before (and I suspect Duff has too).

Except the matzoh in the cake was a step too far even for Duff. It was a “let’s throw something I know is Jewish in the cake even if it’s totally the wrong holiday”. Reminds me of how our local supermarkets put everything with a Jewish name on the Passover shelf even though many of the items are definitely not kosher for Passover. 

[proserpina65]

On 12/12/2022 at 10:02 PM, tracyscott76 said:

I know Bill is well-liked here, and he can be charming, but I feel like he's coasting on that charm. Terrible-looking snowman plus good creampuffs should not have won over pretty good looking snow(wo)man plus good creampuffs.

Based solely on the judges' comments, the flavor and baking of Bill's creampuffs were much better than anyone else's and he won based on that.  All the "snowmen" looked terrible, including the snowwoman.

On 12/13/2022 at 6:29 AM, rlc said:

She made a snowman (person) that looked like what she said it was,

To me, it didn't look like a snowperson at all.  I like Aisha a lot, but she didn't deserve that win based on the flavor and execution of her creampuffs themselves.

On 12/13/2022 at 7:33 AM, CheshireCat said:

I did not understand that Bill won. He did have an okay snowman shape but it didn't even come close to Jessica's. Did the judges decide not ignore the snowmen and judge on taste and baking only? Then Bill's win would make sense.

That's exactly what the judges did.  Jessica's snowman shape was okay but her cream puffs were not well done at all.

6 hours ago, Maverick said:

 I agree the challah bread looked like a lump of poop.  How no one mentioned it is beyond me.

I didn't get that at all.  To me, it looked like braided bread although not exactly like challah.

1 hour ago, dleighg said:

I get that supposed "trends" don't have to make sense (and is this cakeover thing really a trend?), but why on earth would you buy an already decorated cake and redo it? Just buy a box cake and decorate it if you don't feel like doing a recipe.

Or, if it's last minute, buy a cake without specific decoration.  Or like I usually do, get a freaking cheesecake.

[ruffy666]

1 hour ago, dleighg said:

I get that supposed "trends" don't have to make sense (and is this cakeover thing really a trend?), but why on earth would you buy an already decorated cake and redo it? Just buy a box cake and decorate it if you don't feel like doing a recipe. But I know, that's not weird enough to be a trend.

Social media has gifted us with all sorts of trends that truly don't make any sense.  Maybe you're in a situation where your husband picked up a cake at Walmart and you're embarrassed to serve it to your in-laws... in any other scenario, I can't imagine why putting in all the effort to scrape off (gross) chemical frosting and replace it with nicer frosting on top of what is sure to be a (gross) chemical cake.  This falls into the same bucket as SURPRISE cakes for me-- they look cool but they're ultimately super impractical and extremely wasteful.  

That said, I don't think I've ever laughed harder at an episoe of Holiday Baking Championship.  We thought Bill's croquembouche looked less like Dru and more like the Hamburglar.  Robble Robble!  lol

[Maya]

Bill is hilarious! I hope he wins and I’d love to see him on other Food Network shows after this. 

I liked the cake-over, but I don’t think any of them knocked it out of the park.

I felt like I was watching the Great British baking show with that snowman challenge - build a giant freestanding structure that has nothing to do with anything, and with not enough time to do a decent job. 

[Guest]

30 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

On 12/12/2022 at 10:02 PM, tracyscott76 said:

I know Bill is well-liked here, and he can be charming, but I feel like he's coasting on that charm. Terrible-looking snowman plus good creampuffs should not have won over pretty good looking snow(wo)man plus good creampuffs.

Based solely on the judges' comments, the flavor and baking of Bill's creampuffs were much better than anyone else's and he won based on that.  All the "snowmen" looked terrible, including the snowwoman.

I won't claim that Aishia's snowwoman looked super great, but to my eye it was hands down better-looking than Bill's and certainly looked more like a snowman, with a clearly defined head, face, arms, and spun-sugar scarf. If they're going to come up with these decorating themes,  I feel like it should have more weight in the judging. Aishia's creampuffs were apparently good, too, but I guess I'll have to take the judges' word that Bill's creampuffs were so amazing that they trumped everything else.

But my "Bill is coasting on his charm" comment also relates to the judges' comments during the stupid "reheat". They knocked Aishia's cake, saying it had gone from store-bought to home-made. I'm not saying she should have won or anything, and her cake deserved to be called out for its flaws, but it irritated me because they had just enthused over Bill's lumpy plain white cake with some Christmas trees around the sides, calling it "so sophisticated". Aishia showed a lot more skill in that than he did, so to knock hers and praise his was inconsistent to me. It feels like Bill is being graded on a curve, either because he's a home-baker, or he's personable, or both.

It just seems like he (and Dru, to a certain extent) are getting passes that the others aren't getting. He's done good things, don't get me wrong, but the judging isn't feeling even-handed to me.

Edited to add to an already too-long post: another example for Dru is the softball criticism he got for his too-neat sweater ("oh, that Dru!" *chuckle*), whereas Duff claimed that Zakiya's attitude was "I did the challenge, why are you complaining?" We saw no evidence of that.

Ok, now I'll shut up. 

Edited December 14, 2022 by tracyscott76

[Maya]

I agree that Aisha keeps getting passed over for some reason. I think she consistently does the best work. Did she piss someone off? Or maybe there’s already a predetermined winner (Bill) 

[Rammchick]

1 hour ago, Seelouis said:

Except the matzoh in the cake was a step too far even for Duff. It was a “let’s throw something I know is Jewish in the cake even if it’s totally the wrong holiday”. Reminds me of how our local supermarkets put everything with a Jewish name on the Passover shelf even though many of the items are definitely not kosher for Passover. 

Oh yes, I forgot about that.  I knew that was going to be a bomb the minute I saw Aaron do it. The wrong holiday was one thing.  The fact that it turned into wet cardboard was what made it so bad, in my mind. Points for trying, I guess.

[proserpina65]

35 minutes ago, tracyscott76 said:

Aishia's creampuffs were apparently good, too, but I guess I'll have to take the judges' word that Bill's creampuffs were so amazing that they trumped everything else.

Listening to the judges' comments about each made it pretty clear that his creampuffs were much better.  Visually, her snow person was a little better but not good, imo.

10 minutes ago, Rammchick said:

Oh yes, I forgot about that.  I knew that was going to be a bomb the minute I saw Aaron do it. The wrong holiday was one thing.  The fact that it turned into wet cardboard was what made it so bad, in my mind. Points for trying, I guess.

Pretty sure it was Bill who put the misguided matzoh in the sweater cake.

[bilgistic]

2 hours ago, ruffy666 said:

Social media has gifted us with all sorts of trends that truly don't make any sense.  Maybe you're in a situation where your husband picked up a cake at Walmart and you're embarrassed to serve it to your in-laws... in any other scenario, I can't imagine why putting in all the effort to scrape off (gross) chemical frosting and replace it with nicer frosting on top of what is sure to be a (gross) chemical cake.  This falls into the same bucket as SURPRISE cakes for me-- they look cool but they're ultimately super impractical and extremely wasteful.

I worked for a thankfully short time in a grocery store deli/bakery. Grocery store cake is GROSS. It comes in frozen and is thawed out on the counter. "Buttercream" comes in five-gallon buckets and is oily and flavorless. If someone were to buy me a grocery store cake, I'd assume they hated me.

[libgirl2]

22 minutes ago, bilgistic said:

I worked for a thankfully short time in a grocery store deli/bakery. Grocery store cake is GROSS. It comes in frozen and is thawed out on the counter. "Buttercream" comes in five-gallon buckets and is oily and flavorless. If someone were to buy me a grocery store cake, I'd assume they hated me.

I get store bought cakes for birthdays! But, they aren't those huge sheet cakes. For my husband, Black Forest only. My son is less picky. Last  year, I wasn't happy with the cake I got him (stupid me went to Walmart). I'm going back to the cakes from the place we get the Black Forest cakes from. Much better! 

Edited December 14, 2022 by libgirl2

[kirklandia]

23 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

 THe leaning snowman, the one that looked like dirty, melting snow.   

That one made me think of this - 💩

[CheshireCat]

12 hours ago, Maverick said:

  Duff was in a snit this episode.  Especially during the sweater challenge.  Did anyone else notice he wore a jacket and didn't show off his ugly sweater?   Was he offended by the challenge?  If so it seems like he would have said something to the producers but I guess it was already planned and setup by the time he found out. 

I noticed that he wore a jacket but he didn't strike me as different than in previous episodes. But maybe he was annoyed by the challenges in general? Both, the first and the third were hard to do - as someone mentioned upthread, they seemed to be designed to set the bakers up for failure and maybe he didn't like that? He also didn't seem fond of store-bought cake.

6 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

I didn't get that at all.  To me, it looked like braided bread although not exactly like challah.

Same. In Germany, we have a similar thing for Easter and yeah, Aishia's looked like that, braided, without raisins.

6 hours ago, Rammchick said:

It seemed to me like that "Re-heat" round was a weird afterthought.  There was no real reason to have three bakes in one episode, except to fill 2 hours.

Since they had to fill two hours, I enjoyed it more than a bake-off. Although, I thought airing two episodes back to back like the week before was the best way to fill two hours.

On 12/12/2022 at 10:02 PM, tracyscott76 said:

That whole second challenge was stupid. I love watching shows like this but I always cringe when someone throws something out. This challenge was expressly designed to create waste. I actually got angry watching them scrape off all that frosting.

I remembered that I had meant to say that I don't think you need to get angry over the icing that stores use. That's basically all edible chemical elements and bears little resemblance to food.

Something else I remembered: what is it with the show and Aaron's German heritage? Why are they playing this up so much?
I also laughed because each time it comes up, he mentions something that is not correct or not a German tradition. Like, in the previous episode, he called a Stollen fluffy which it is not and in this episode, it was the Black Forrest cake which is traditionally more of a summer cake than a Christmas dessert.
I'm beginning to wonder if it is designed like that for the show for some reason. (Not that Aaron does have German ancestry but that they observe German traditions).

[Guest]

48 minutes ago, CheshireCat said:

I remembered that I had meant to say that I don't think you need to get angry over the icing that stores use. That's basically all edible chemical elements and bears little resemblance to food.

Maybe some are edible chemical elements, but a lot of them still use sugar and some kind of oil, which might not be the most nutritious food products in the world, but they're still food that has to be cultivated and processed and could be put to use in something that people are actually going to eat. Even the chemical elements are things that are being produced and meant to be eaten. So the show buying all those cakes knowing that all that frosting was just going to get scraped off and tossed is still a waste, and, in my opinion, still worthy of my ire.

[Starry-Eyed]

56 minutes ago, CheshireCat said:

Something else I remembered: what is it with the show and Aaron's German heritage? Why are they playing this up so much?

I also laughed because each time it comes up, he mentions something that is not correct or not a German tradition. Like, in the previous episode, he called a Stollen fluffy which it is not and in this episode, it was the Black Forrest cake which is traditionally more of a summer cake than a Christmas dessert.
I'm beginning to wonder if it is designed like that for the show for some reason. (Not that Aaron does have German ancestry but that they observe German traditions).

 Has Aaron said how "German" he is? Like, has Aaron actually lived in Germany, or is it a family heritage thing? Because maybe his family German traditions have just been altered over the years in ways he may or may not realize. Like, my family has and old, old Swedish coffee bread recipe that in my family is very strictly a Christmas food, but I suspect most actual Swedish people don't have it as a Christmas tradition, and it wouldn't surprise me if people who do eat the bread over in Sweden don't necessarily have it at Christmas.

[theatremouse]

13 hours ago, Seelouis said:

It was a “let’s throw something I know is Jewish in the cake even if it’s totally the wrong holiday”. Reminds me of how our local supermarkets put everything with a Jewish name on the Passover shelf even though many of the items are definitely not kosher for Passover. 

It wasn't just Bill though. Based on the output, this wasn't an ugly Hanukkah sweater cake challenge. It was a "put the first Jewish pun you can think of on a cake" challenge. Maybe two of the cakes had anything to do with Hanukkah? I know this show tends to do one and only one Hanukkah challenge (not even episode! single challenge!) before it's back to Christmas Everywhere, but this one wasn't even really a Hanukkah challenge. I'd almost rather they not bother.

[Rammchick]

On 12/14/2022 at 8:26 AM, proserpina65 said:

Pretty sure it was Bill who put the misguided matzoh in the sweater cake.

Oops, you're right - sorry!

[KayVeeTeeVee]

Finale is tonight, correct?  I don't care for these double episodes.  Just me?

[MerBearHou]

I’m traveling back from NYC late tonight so I’ll miss in real time.  You can be very sure I’m coming here for the comments when I land!!

[RoxiP]

6 hours ago, KayVeeTeeVee said:

Finale is tonight, correct?  I don't care for these double episodes.  Just me?

To me it makes the season of the show feel rushed and way too short.

[BoffoDaWonderSheep]

7 hours ago, KayVeeTeeVee said:

Finale is tonight, correct?  I don't care for these double episodes.  Just me?

It’s already airing on Discovery+. It is indeed the finale. There’s a challenge with the five of them first. The bottom two then have a challenge to determine the final four. Then the last challenge follows immediately after. 

[KayVeeTeeVee]

6 hours ago, BoffoDaWonderSheep said:

It’s already airing on Discovery+. It is indeed the finale. There’s a challenge with the five of them first. The bottom two then have a challenge to determine the final four. Then the last challenge follows immediately after. 

Rush, rush, rush.  'Tis the season, I guess.  But I don't like it.

[Grizzly]

Ugh, why did it have to be Bill and Jessica in the bottom two? And Bill is having such a hard time with the challenge.

[mojoween]

Goodness I just love all five of these bakers.  Not giving anything away, they’re just all so damn sweet!

[DEL901]

1 minute ago, Grizzly said:

Ugh, why did it have to be Bill and Jessica in the bottom two? And Bill is having such a hard time with the challenge.

They are the two Aaron tried to help…..

Bill is trying to do too much.   Give up on the chalet and make sure the rest is the best it can be 

[DEL901]

Swiss alps with Swedish butter cookies.  Someone on the show is geography challenged. 

[Grizzly]

I'm biased against bananas but I doubt the Swedes or the Swiss would consider them a holiday flavor. Still rooting for Dru or Aaron. 

[Ms.Lulu]

I was pleasantly surprised that Dru won. It seemed clear Carla wanted Aisha to win.

Aaron seemed like a sure thing until the cracker cake.

[mlp]

I hated seeing Bill leave but his nerves got the best of him or something and he fell apart.  I can't argue with the decision.  Dru was my other favorite so I was delighted that he won.  

Love Jesse.