Holiday Baking Championship - General Discussion

[CheshireCat]

I'd like to know if and if so how many bakers feel like they have to include alcohol in their cakes because of Nancy.

[joanne3482]

16 hours ago, Lady J said:

Really, I would keep Carla, and send Nancy  packing.

Agree. Nancy frustrates me because she has this very narrow view of what Holiday means. If it isn't apples and cinnamon and red and green hitting you over the head it isn't Christmas. 

[Enigma X]

I like Carla, but I hate she is trying to make "duuude!" a thing. But, I also hate Paul Hollywood's handshake schtick.

[Girl in a Cardigan]

4 hours ago, Enigma X said:

I like Carla, but I hate she is trying to make "duuude!" a thing. But, I also hate Paul Hollywood's handshake schtick.

I've never watched Carla on anything else, so I had no idea what that was about. During the first part, I didn't find her annoying; her critiques were helpful and on point. But then during the main heat, she was definitely laying it on more and I wasn't loving it so much. But I feel that way about Nancy too. I feel like Nancy is to booze as Valerie is to lemon on Kids Baking Championship. I'll try to reserve judgment on Carla for the future, but right now, Duff is the only judge that isn't annoying me.

(That said, I love a Paul Hollywood handshake, but I've only watched the Mary Berry years.)

[Irlandesa]

On 11/2/2020 at 10:11 PM, Grizzly said:

First hour was preheat and second hour was main heat. So all new.

I was excited when I heard about the pre-heat because the Halloween Baking Championship was slow with only one bake per episode.  But then I realized that the pre-heat took over one hour.  Oh well, you win some and you lose some.

There do appear to be some good bakers on this season so I'm excited and jealous I can't taste it.

I think Nancy and Carla sometimes have a similar folksy "whoo hoo" vibe so the chemistry is a little off. I miss Lorraine's icier presence.  Plus, I liked that she and Nancy had different tastes.

But I agree that Holiday Carla is better than Halloween host Carla.  The version of Halloween Carla is the Carla on caffeine/alcohol.  Holiday Carla is more of her normal self.

[BigBingerBro]

I finally was able to watch via DVR.  I didn't mind the length but it seemed like half of it was commercials anyway.

I love the naughty/nice list.

I could tolerate Carla, I hate the "duuuude" but she seems more toned down in this show.

I agree the rectangular judging table is bizzare and awkward.

Megan reminds me of the perky lady in the last season.

Jess and her shocked face got old quickly.

Nancy seemed tipsy throughout.

Too early to root for anyone specifically.

[jlc]

3 hours ago, BigBingerBro said:

Megan reminds me of the perky lady in the last season.

I thought the exact same thing! 😂😂. I was afraid I would have to stop watching if it was her!! 😂😂😂

[MerBearHou]

29 minutes ago, jlc said:

I thought the exact same thing! 😂😂. I was afraid I would have to stop watching if it was her!! 😂😂😂

Ditto!  I can't watch reruns of last season because of "perky lady".

[Guest]

34 minutes ago, jlc said:

I thought the exact same thing! 😂😂. I was afraid I would have to stop watching if it was her!! 😂😂😂

 

4 minutes ago, MerBearHou said:

34 minutes ago, jlc said:

I thought the exact same thing! 😂😂. I was afraid I would have to stop watching if it was her!! 😂😂😂

Ditto!  I can't watch reruns of last season because of "perky lady".

Ah, Sarah. Oddly enough, the one who got me to finally join this board and comment XD

I still love her ^_^ 

[CrazyInAlabama]

I think every season of this competition has a perky person, who simply lives for the winter holidays.    

Remember Erin who won her season (maybe the first?) and she was a contestant on the Next Food Network Star after that too.  

Edited November 6, 2020 by CrazyInAlabama

[MerBearHou]

19 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

I think every season of this competition has a perky person, who simply lives for the winter holidays.    

Remember Erin who won her season (maybe the first?) and she was a contestant on the Next Food Network Star after that too.  

Oh yes, I remember Erin -- hard to watch her too!  I have a fine line of "perky" that I just can't take on TV.  Megan seems very poised, cheerful, not mega-cheery so for now, I like watching her.

[Ilovepie]

Megan is the one with the red an gray hat, correct? If so, I loved her cake - it looked very close to the original, and her fondant letters actually looked "stitched" onto the cake.

Add me to the group who thinks Holiday Carla is an upgrade to Halloween Carla. It just very jarring to see the different approach to judging when I just finished watching the Halloween one a couple days ago. It's like a different person!

[RoxiP]

Anybody who can be perky and 7 months pregnant has my vote...and I don't find Megan nearly as annoying as Sarah.  Sarah took annoying to a whole new category.

[Maya]

I feel like there was some confusion in the preheat. The judges kept calling the quick breads “cake” and complaining that they were dense. Also weird that they had to decorate bread.

For the hats, I think it’s unfair that one person had to sculpt a turkey and others just had to make a half circle and decorate it. 
 

[TVbitch]

It's back! And it doesn't look like they fucked it up too bad. Still two challenges. Jesse!

But I do miss Larraine. You guys warned me about Carla and her "dude" problem, but it is worse than I thought. 

How on earth is that family style table a better choice for judging during a time when they are supposed to be distancing?! 

[Ilovepie]

5 hours ago, TVbitch said:

How on earth is that family style table a better choice for judging during a time when they are supposed to be distancing?! 

It’s not. And it looks super awkward. I wish they had done it like the Halloween version- each with their own little table in a row. But then it would have been weird for Jesse if they were feeding him too......

[mojoween]

Duff’s googly-eyed giant bites of food are starting to tickle me.  I don’t know if it’s exaggerated for this show or if he always eats like that but it makes me laugh.

Edited November 9, 2020 by mojoween

[CharlizeCat]

Carla certainly has a dominant personality (noticed she was seated at the head of the table) and I am kind of looking forward to her going head-to-head with Nancy as the season progresses. Yes, Duff's exaggerated wide-eyed bites bug me. It seems to be a habit he picked up from doing it during the kids' baking competition shows.

I wish that the contestants were more geographically dispersed. There were two from Atlanta and two from Spokane. Surely, there are some awesome bakers from the Midwest.  I also wish that the producers had started out with fewer bakers (8 or 10) and do fewer, shorter shows, Eight would be enough to fill the gap between early November and Christmas.

So far, I like Eva (because she's my age!) and Megan, who I didn't find annoying as others have. Kudos to her for even being there whilst seven months pregnant!

[Rammchick]

On 11/6/2020 at 8:35 PM, Maya said:

I feel like there was some confusion in the preheat. The judges kept calling the quick breads “cake” and complaining that they were dense. Also weird that they had to decorate bread.

For the hats, I think it’s unfair that one person had to sculpt a turkey and others just had to make a half circle and decorate it. 
 

Those quick breads ARE basically cake.  And they are kind of dense and supposed to be that way.  This' surely a case of wanting your cake and eating it too 😉

 

[BigBingerBro]

1 hour ago, CharlizeCat said:

I also wish that the producers had started out with fewer bakers (8 or 10) and do fewer, shorter shows, Eight would be enough to fill the gap between early November and Christmas.

I forgot to mention this as well.  I totally agree.  The early episodes with so many bakers makes my head spin.  

The other thing that was making my head spins is the editing.  They would show the baker with the full cake, then show the judges with plates tasting it, then back to the baker with the full cake!  I know they cut the slices from the back, but several times you could see it was still the full cake.  I don't know, it just bugged me.  

Will they use the naughty and nice list to determine who gets sent home each week or it is based soley on that week's bake???

I just also wanted to say, Megan reminds me of Sarah, but I don't find Megan annoying, yet.....

[mlp]

4 hours ago, mojoween said:

Duff’s googly-eyed giant bites of food are staring to tickle me.  I don’t know if it’s exaggerated for this show or if he always eats like that but it makes me laugh.

I've always thought that he does that to keep frosting and so on out of his whiskers.  At home, he can use a napkin if necessary but that wouldn't look appealing on TV.

[MerBearHou]

First, no Kids Baking Championship — now a rerun of last week’s premiere episode of Holiday Baking Championship.  I’m confused.

[Spunkygal]

3 minutes ago, MerBearHou said:

First, no Kids Baking Championship — now a rerun of last week’s premiere episode of Holiday Baking Championship.  I’m confused.

It is confusing. My DVR shows that the kid one is on after this one. I’m in Central time zone and it comes on at 11 pm!

[Guest]

Well reruns aren't too unusual. Though tonight, they are supposedly rerunning the premiere again, but only for one hour (at 7:00 ET). Then TWO new episodes at 8 and 9. Not sure if they're going to compress both halves of the premiere into one hour, or just show the last half.

[libgirl2]

On 11/5/2020 at 2:31 PM, jlc said:

I thought the exact same thing! 😂😂. I was afraid I would have to stop watching if it was her!! 😂😂😂

Count me in as thinking the same. I finally watched last night and when I saw her I thought "oh no, not again!"

[libgirl2]

On 11/7/2020 at 7:23 PM, TVbitch said:

It's back! And it doesn't look like they fucked it up too bad. Still two challenges. Jesse!

But I do miss Larraine. You guys warned me about Carla and her "dude" problem, but it is worse than I thought. 

How on earth is that family style table a better choice for judging during a time when they are supposed to be distancing?! 

I missed her too.  

I noticed the criticized some for the wreath not looking like one and one person was even told it looked like a Thanksgiving wreath. First, Lorenzo's wreath was nice but it was brown.... for me that was more Thanksgiving than the other. Also as for a cake not looking like a wreath, I don't remember who baked it, but the one that was brown and green on top. It looked like a collection of plain frosted cupcakes. Yet the judges seemed to love it. 

[libgirl2]

On 11/3/2020 at 11:58 AM, NYGirl said:

 

At least there are actual bakers and not just cake decorators this year.  I like that.

As an aside a friend's daughter went to culinary school for baking.  Her cakes taste terrible but they are beautiful!  I like a nice fresh cake and you need to bake them days before so they can be properly decorated.  Plus she charges an exhorbitant amount for each one. 

Many years ago, I worked at a Doctor's clinic. There was a woman in finance who made the most gorgeous cakes, but they were dry and tasteless. At first she was our go to cake maker for birthdays etc.... but after a few cakes, we gave up. 

[dleighg]

On 11/5/2020 at 11:41 AM, BigBingerBro said:

I didn't mind the length but it seemed like half of it was commercials anyway.

 

Funny I just watched it today (AppleTV) and NO COMMERCIALS. Just the music and "break slide" but then right back to the show.

[Frost]

I don't like the new Naughty or Nice list.  It seems needlessly humiliating to the baker who gets sent home to know their name is going to hang on the wall in red for the rest of the season.  I can also see Jesse being encouraged by the producers to ask, "So, Tiffany, you've been near the bottom for several challenges in a row," close up of the board "how are you feeling?"  Or reminding someone who won an advantage and is handing out flavors/ingredients to the other bakers, that so and so has been up at the top of the Nice list time after time.  I see too much potential for producer shenanigans.  One thing I've like about this show is that even though it's a competition, it isn't as cutthroat and nasty as most of them get.  Not as supportive as the Great British Baking Show (my all time favorite!) but pretty close.

[emmawoodhouse]

8 hours ago, tracyscott76 said:

Well reruns aren't too unusual. Though tonight, they are supposedly rerunning the premiere again, but only for one hour (at 7:00 ET). Then TWO new episodes at 8 and 9. Not sure if they're going to compress both halves of the premiere into one hour, or just show the last half.

The 8:00 episode is the holiday hats. They've chopped up the 2 hour episode into episodes 1&2. 9:00 is the new episode (E3).

[Guest]

1 hour ago, emmawoodhouse said:

The 8:00 episode is the holiday hats. They've chopped up the 2 hour episode into episodes 1&2. 9:00 is the new episode (E3).

Good to know, thank you. My digital cable guide listed both the 8:00 and 9:00 episode as "new", so it was misleading. But based on the online TV Guide listings, it's as you say.

[LexieLily]

3 hours ago, emmawoodhouse said:

The 8:00 episode is the holiday hats. They've chopped up the 2 hour episode into episodes 1&2. 9:00 is the new episode (E3).

The chopping up of the episodes seems to have done something wonky to the numbers. The episodes 1 and 2 are, as you said, last week's premiere (12 bakers, 11 bakers). Tonight's NEW episode (10 bakers) is somehow called Episode 5 on my Guide, and the week after (9 bakers) is episode 3!

[emmawoodhouse]

Oh, you're right!  My guide now also lists tonight's episode as E5 and next week as E3. At least the episode descriptions seem to be accurate.

Edited November 9, 2020 by emmawoodhouse

[LexieLily]

2 minutes ago, emmawoodhouse said:

Oh, you're right!  My guide now also lists tonight's episode as E5 and next week as E3. At least the episode descriptions seem to be accurate.

The good thing is that the episode descriptions have the number of bakers, so at least we can figure it out that way!

[emmawoodhouse]

Right! That's how I figured the descriptions had to be accurate. 😁

[jlc]

29 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

The good thing is that the episode descriptions have the number of bakers, so at least we can figure it out that way!

The description on mine said eight bakers. Go figure...

[CrazyInAlabama]

So Jon has been in the bottom two in two out of three eliminations?     He better start doing better, or pack his bags to leave.     

The lady who left tonight was the right choice, her cake was awful.   

That was so nice of the other baker to taste the Megan's cake to see if it had enough booze in it.     I love how even though they're competitors, they still try to be nice to each other.    There have been others that couldn't taste anything with liquor in it (one lady was under 21), and I'm sure there have been others who didn't taste their own concoctions for a variety of reasons.   

I finally looked closely at the judging table, They set it up so the table is six feet or wider, and everyone is a safe distance from each other.     It looks odd, but it's the new normal for a long time to come. 

I think with the oven opening scene, it turned out that the pastry just looks kind of flat before it puffs up, and no one opened the oven, or turned anything down.   Thanks to other posters, who actually watched the DVR of this, Kess did put her stuff in the same oven.   So I guess it was very lucky that the baking still worked. 

 

Edited November 11, 2020 by CrazyInAlabama

[CheshireCat]

I'm bad with names but from the way the cakes looked, I definitely agreed with who they picked as the winner of the main heat.

I also agreed with who they eliminated. Between her and Jon, I would have picked her because I felt she had the easier task. A fruit cake is not a holiday cake to begin with so making it holiday themed is that much harder than an ice cream cake since you can choose the flavors and it's not like no one has ever had ice cream for dessert during the holidays. And Kess (I believe is her name) proved that an ice cream cake can be properly done in the time frame, so time wouldn't have been a valid excuse.

I don't think they should use any type or form of alcohol as an obligatory ingredient. It's unfair to someone who's pregnant and can't taste and it's also unfair to someone who is a recovering alcoholic. If someone wants to incorporate it, then that's fine. But don't make them having to incorporate it.

I disagree with Duff. I think mango was the best of the three fruits. It's sweet and the tartes and pies in question had fruits that have a certain tartness to them (blackberry, lemon, lime) and it goes well with ice cream and holiday spices, so mango was bound to compliment basically every of the desserts. Pineapple and strawberry are both sweet but they also have an acid-y taste in them, so, I don't think they would have complimented the desserts but added an extra taste/fruit. Pineapple especially is also very watery and would have added a lot of liquid to the baked goods. Not something you want when working with meringue or curd or cream.

Unfortunately, I have no recollection of what the winner of the pre-heat made. He didn't make the cinnamon rolls, did he?

Was the entire cloud the angel cookies sat on meringue?

 

[Maverick]

 There's no crying in Christmas, Santa.  Well there is in my house.  But not at the North Pole.   I hope he got it out of his system and isn't going to be a drama queen every week.  I had a relative who tearfully informed us "this may be (her) last Christmas" every year...for like 20 years.  I'm afraid we'll get "this may be my last bake" and a flood of years through the finale.  When he starts declaring his preheat may be his last bake we know something's up. 

 What the hell was Carla wearing?   It looked like part of a costume from one of her gothic characters on the Halloween show.  Girl you don't need to be calling someone a cold mess when you look like you're dressed for a live action version A Nightmare Before Christmas. 

[Texasmom1970]

I know I sound like a cold hearted beyotch but I am watching this show for the food people.

Please keep you sadness and little tales of your life to yourself. You need to be judged on what you bake not on who your life story.

I am really not horrible I am an extremely emotional person, but again I just want to see food porn.

[CheshireCat]

1 hour ago, Texasmom1970 said:

I know I sound like a cold hearted beyotch but I am watching this show for the food people.

Please keep you sadness and little tales of your life to yourself. You need to be judged on what you bake not on who your life story.

I am really not horrible I am an extremely emotional person, but again I just want to see food porn.

I get that someone might get emotional if the loss was recent. But more often than not, the losses aren't but one way or another, they could still edit it out.

[Madding crowd]

I don’t like the twist of having to add a random ingredient like mango to all the desserts. Mango is not going to go with something like an Irish/coffee liquor dessert, so the woman making it had no chance to win. If I were the judges, I also would be bored with tasting 10 mango desserts in a row. They should have twists that could complement whatever the dessert is , like the one with the edible gift tag. 

[Guest]

8 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

Unfortunately, I have no recollection of what the winner of the pre-heat made. He didn't make the cinnamon rolls, did he?

Yes, Jamaal made pumpkin cinnamon rolls. Duff said they were the ugliest cinnamon rolls (mostly because of the frosting, probably), but apparently they were super tasty and I think he got bonus points for daring to use a yeast dough.

[Frost]

We never saw Kess fess up to opening up the oven on the cream puffs.  I hope she apologized off camera.  Don't they have enough ovens for everybody?  That's really shoddy to be opening up someone else's oven.  Even I know that and I am not a professional baker!

I feel like I should buy a lottery ticket.  I posted just before the show that Jesse would say something to someone about their standing on the stupid Naughty or Nice board and sure enough, he did!  Poor baker whose name I can't remember had to admit on camera, "Yup, I'm average" because she's been middle ranked on all the bakes so far.  I dislike the board almost as much as I dislike Nancy the lush.  She gets creepier every year.  I really don't trust the palate of anyone who apparently drinks as much as she does.  When she complains she doesn't taste an ingredient we literally watched a baker use a lot of, I'm less likely to think the baker doesn't know how to balance flavors than I am to believe Nancy's burned off all her taste buds with alcohol 😜

[Suzn]

On 11/2/2020 at 8:53 PM, Bunnyette said:

Nope Lorraine was dumped for Carla.  Lorraine doesn’t have young children so coming over & quarantining wouldn’t be a big deal. Maybe she disagreed with Nancy one too many times.  I’d rather they had dumped Nancy.  I just hope Carla tones it down...I am starting to dislike her.  I liked Lorraine and her honest evaluations as well as the way she wasn’t afraid to disagree with Nancy.  

I'm sick of Nancy and her completely subjective judgement, bitching that things are not holiday enough.  Her concept of holiday is so stupid and narrow.  Carla has way too much schtick, but her judgement seems alright.

[Madding crowd]

Nancy is playing a part, I seriously don’t believe she is an alcoholic. I wonder why her saying she likes a boozy dessert bothers people but everyone liked it when Mary Berry did the same thing on the British Baking Show. And it’s a holiday baking show so just like The Christmas cookie show or the Halloween baking show, they will expect holiday decorations on everything. 

[MerBearHou]

4 minutes ago, Madding crowd said:

Nancy is playing a part, I seriously don’t believe she is an alcoholic. I wonder why her saying she likes a boozy dessert bothers people but everyone liked it when Mary Berry did the same thing on the British Baking Show. And it’s a holiday baking show so just like The Christmas cookie show or the Halloween baking show, they will expect holiday decorations on everything. 

Totally agree.  Most of the bakers now bring up booze before Nancy says a word about it -- of course, she has to reply and play into it.  I like Nancy and I like Carla.  They both seem good-hearted and fun.  

[mlp]

7 hours ago, tracyscott76 said:

Yes, Jamaal made pumpkin cinnamon rolls. Duff said they were the ugliest cinnamon rolls (mostly because of the frosting, probably

The frosting looked a lot better when he piped it on.  By judging, it had melted under the studio lights.  I imagine the judges take that kind of thing into consideration.  I hope.

I felt for Jon.  His fruit tart was beautiful and he tried to make it holiday-ish.  I can't even think of fruits that would be considered "holiday" and would go together and would look festive.

As long as the name of the show is Holiday Baking Championship, Nancy should accept that Thanksgiving is a holiday and fall colors can be used.  She is fixated on Christmas only.  Can't stand her.

[rlc]

18 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

I think with the oven opening scene, it turned out that the pastry just looks kind of flat before it puffs up, and no one opened the oven, or turned anything down. 

I rewound it- Kess opened the oven to put her pan in and said ‘I hope I don’t mess up anyone’s bake’. Um, if you think you might mess someone up, don’t use that oven.

[mojoween]

For all of my life for my birthday and until he passed away my dad’s birthday my mom would make a cake that started with a layer of cooked butterscotch pudding, a layer of whole graham crackers, a layer of cooked vanilla pudding, another layer of graham crackers and a layer of cooked chocolate pudding with crumbled graham crackers on top that was refrigerated for some amount of time I never learned.

It was the most delicious cake I have ever eaten and she called it an ice box cake.  I thought that was what I was going to see, but both Eva and Meghan made cake cake with some other stuff in there.  What made them an ice box cake?