Holiday Baking Championship - General Discussion

[CheshireCat]

I was very underwhelmed with the final bake. I liked the macaron trees better than the final cakes and as a judge, I probably would have deducted points from Julianna for assigning everyone things she thought they wouldn't do well in. I know she won the challenge and everyone wants to win, bla bla, I still don't think that that's the spirit. Athletes always say that they want to compete against other athletes when they're at their best and that's how I would approach this competition, too. I would want to win knowing that everyone had the chance to do their best, and not knowing the others had things they might not do as well in anyway. I would come away from it feeling dissatisfied because I'd never know if I was truly the best or simply had the easiest cake because I stayed in my comfort zone while I assigned the other two things completely out of their comfort zone.

Julianna's blue was too dark for snowflakes. It was more sky blue than ice blue. I also didn't like the look of the snowflakes. The lines looked irregular (which is to be expected given the technique she used, I just don't think it's pretty). I thought the tree layer was way too big and massive and that she chose to incorporate the piping was a weird decision. I would assume that one knows their strengths and weaknesses and if my piping looked like this and know what's out there and what it can look like, I wouldn't consider it anywhere close to good enough to present (to someone like Duff, no less) in a baking championship finale. But okay. to each their own, I guess.

Did Megan purree the mirror glaze? That's how everyone is doing it on social media. Purree it and then pour it through a sieve to be sure that there are not lumps in it. Why didn't she level the half spheres by melting off the broken edges? Did she not have time? I thought it was a pitty because I thought her cake would have been the best if the mirror glaze had worked. (I think I still like it best and probably would have given her the win).
I loved her macaron tree, though. I thought it had the best color and it looked so neat.

Lorenzo... well, it was a marzipan covered cake. Although, it probably was authentic. But it looked very plain.

Did Nancy not like Eva? When they were critiquing the bakers after the elimination challenge, it sounded like she absolutely didn't want her in the finale. What was her problem with the chocolate chip pie? Lorenzo's mousse didn't set, so, at least, Eva created something that you could present to someone/sell. Lorenzo didn't.
And she seemed smitten with Julianna in this episode. Maybe it was the editing but it seemed that no matter what Julianna did, even if it wasn't good, it still was.

Overall, I think those were bakers who made great cakes but were lacking on the decorating side. Aside from last week's episode and a few preheats, I was underwhelmed by most of the decorating.

 

 

[LittleIggy]

I was disappointed in the looks of all three of the finalists’ cakes. I wanted Lorenzo to win. He was fun to watch and had an ebullient personality.

[mlp]

I was disappointed last night when the wrong team IMO won Candy Land and I was even more disappointed tonight.  I hated seeing my two favorites, Eva and Lorenzo, having to square off knowing one of them had to lose.  I hated seeing Julianna win when I thought she should have been eliminated several weeks ago.  I just never warmed up to her.  I would have been happy with any of the other three.  

None of the cakes looked great.  I actually liked Lorenzo's best despite the problems with his marzipan.  Megan's mirror glaze didn't work and her decorations looked sloppy.  I read somewhere that you have to have your cake very cold before applying a mirror glaze for it to work right.  She didn't chill hers at all.  Julianna's cake was just ugly.  The three tiers didn't look like they belonged together.  

Carla's hair looked dreadful.  What was she thinking?

 

[GaT]

Julianna picked the right cakes to assign, but I didn't like her cake any more than Megan's or Lorenzo's. I felt like they didn't give them enough time to really show what they could do, all 3 were disappointing. 

[Rammchick]

I was rooting for Eva because she's from my state and I'm close to her age.  Plus she looks like a friend of mine.  Sadly, mature bakers never seem to win this.

So in the end, what was the purpose of the Naughty or Nice board?  The rankings ultimately meant nothing.  And what did B stand for?  

Oh well.  Holiday Baking Championship is over for another year.  No more Nancy until the spring, at least that's something.  

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!  

 

[Guest]

23 minutes ago, Rammchick said:

So in the end, what was the purpose of the Naughty or Nice board?  The rankings ultimately meant nothing.  And what did B stand for?

I believe B stood for "Bottom", as in they were in the bottom 2, but not eliminated. Mostly, I think the Naughty or Nice board was just a visual representation of how they'd been doing over the season, so when a baker would say "I've been doing slightly better than average", they can flash up the grid showing that. But yeah, ultimately, not super important.

 

7 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

I was very underwhelmed with the final bake. I liked the macaron trees better than the final cakes and as a judge, I probably would have deducted points from Julianna for assigning everyone things she thought they wouldn't do well in. I know she won the challenge and everyone wants to win, bla bla, I still don't think that that's the spirit. Athletes always say that they want to compete against other athletes when they're at their best and that's how I would approach this competition, too. I would want to win knowing that everyone had the chance to do their best, and not knowing the others had things they might not do as well in anyway. I would come away from it feeling dissatisfied because I'd never know if I was truly the best or simply had the easiest cake because I stayed in my comfort zone while I assigned the other two things completely out of their comfort zone.

After Lorenzo moaned out loud about marzipan, if Julianna hadn't assigned it to him and he went on to win, I feel like people would be criticizing her for not taking full advantage of her, uh, advantage. And anyway, Lorenzo mostly lost because of his actual cake, not just the assigned theme - in fact, the judges said he did the best with the theme. And Megan didn't just lose because of the failed mirror glaze, but also because of the sloppy ornaments, which might have happened regardless of if they were "futuristic" or not.

I won't try to claim that Julianna's final cake was amazing, but it was, according to the judges, better than the other two, and her macaron tree was the best as well. So, I'd say her win was deserved. Obviously others can disagree, but I don't think it's fair to try to shame her for using the advantage she won fair and square.

But what do I know? I liked Sarah the best last season XD

Edited December 22, 2020 by tracyscott76

[Jillybean]

Wow, I thought the final challenge was horribly unfair. Of course it was slanted toward the person who got buttercream who was, oh, conveniently, Juliana. I would have liked to see what they each could do without the silly constraints of marzipan or mirror glaze. So disappointing. Lorenzo deserved to win the season in my book. Juliana was lucky to make it to the finale. This seemed tilted in her favor.

[Frost]

I liked Juliana so I'm fine with her winning, but I wasn't impressed with any of the final cakes last night.  They all had major issues.  When Duff said he could find a reason for any one of them to win, I said (out loud), "You could just as easily find a reason for any one of them to lose!"  I liked that Lorenzo really embraced the Christmas Past theme, but making a plain gingerbread cake was a poor decision.  Duff was right that he should have added fruits and/or nuts to it.  That would have been traditional and elevated his cake.  I think he could have won it all.

Meghan was my favorite (even though I hate hate hate her catepillar eyelashes) and I was so disappointed with her mirror glaze and sloppy ornaments!  I was impressed that she was able to leave behind all her instincts for elaborate decorations and come up with a clean design, but her execution was so bad.  

Juliana apparently made a delicious cake.  I'm not sure why Duff was impressed with her buttercream skills.  I didn't think her piping skills were anything special, even for a home baker.

This was kind of a blah season.  I was not a fan of the Naughty or Nice board and I didn't think any of the bakers were stand outs that I'll remember after the season is over.  It was entertaining enough and what more can one ask of 2020?

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

[NYGirl]

I'm ok with Julianna winning.  I did like all of the Final Four but was rooting a little more for Eva due to her age and experience .

I have to say I am so annoyed that they dinged Eva for her chocolate chip pie saying it was like a cookie and not repurposed but Lorenzo actually repurposed a peanut butter cookie INTO A PEANUT BUTTER COOKIE and not a word was said.

I'm watching the recap show now.

[Cheyanne11]

I was fine with any of them winning, but I did kind of get annoyed when Megan said something insinuating Juliana was good for a home baker, but not on par with her.  It was snobbish, so it was sort of just desserts (heh) that Juliana beat her.

Edited December 22, 2020 by Cheyanne11

[emmawoodhouse]

Yeah, Megan said something about how she was a professional when talking about Julianna. That remark took her out of consideration for my rooting interests. I was sad for Lorenzo and his leaning ginger cake, but I agree with everyone else: all the final cakes had major flaws. I guess Julianna's buttercream won it for her.

[mojoween]

Ok so I fell asleep and ended up finishing it tonight, heh.

I knew from minute one that Juliana was going to win and I wasn’t happy about it.  I know Meghan’s confessional about being a professional was snotty, but Juliana said something really snotty OUT LOUD in the challenge.  Then in her confessional right after she said “sorry not sorry” and I just can’t truck with that bullshit.

I had hope for a moment she might not win because the editors left that in but alas.

To me a final challenge would be the best if all three bakers had to make the exact same cake.  Same flavors, same frosting, same tiers, same shapes. They would need their decorating to set them apart from the others.

I don’t know anything about marzipan, but that is the frosting replacement? And the judges were bitching that Lorenzo didn’t have enough cream cheese frosting?  I could be misinterpreting that but that’s what it seemed like.

[Iseut]

17 hours ago, mlp said:

I was disappointed last night when the wrong team IMO won Candy Land and I was even more disappointed tonight. 

Hee hee, I forgot there was a show called Candy Land for a minute, and read this as you playing a super-competitive Candyland game at home. "No, YOU'RE going to the Molasses Swamp! Suck it! Boo-yah!" 😁

1 hour ago, Cheyanne11 said:

I was fine with any of them winning, but I did kind of get annoyed when Megan said something insinuating Juliana was good for a home baker, but not on par with her.  It was snobbish, so it was sort of just desserts (heh) that Juliana beat her.

Yeah, I'd been trying to fight a dislike of Megan through most of the season because I'm sure she's nice enough and she's really talented, but that was a very Mean Girl-type comment to make. Glad she didn't win. Also, I have major texture issues; the idea of eating her lumpy mirror glaze made me gag. 

I loved the idea of what Lorenzo was trying to do, and bummed that he couldn't execute it quite as well as he wanted. Agree that some fruits and nuts would have made a difference. At least he took Duff's advice on the royal icing; that should have earned him some points. I'm sure the exposure he received on the show will still do a lot for his career, even if he didn't win the title. 

 

[Spunkygal]

46 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Ok so I fell asleep and ended up finishing it tonight, heh.

I knew from minute one that Juliana was going to win and I wasn’t happy about it.  I know Meghan’s confessional about being a professional was snotty, but Juliana said something really snotty OUT LOUD in the challenge.  Then in her confessional right after she said “sorry not sorry” and I just can’t truck with that bullshit.

I had hope for a moment she might not win because the editors left that in but alas.

To me a final challenge would be the best if all three bakers had to make the exact same cake.  Same flavors, same frosting, same tiers, same shapes. They would need their decorating to set them apart from the others.

I don’t know anything about marzipan, but that is the frosting replacement? And the judges were bitching that Lorenzo didn’t have enough cream cheese frosting?  I could be misinterpreting that but that’s what it seemed like.

I will add that IMO, in the finale, the advantage for the winner of round 1 should never be that he/she gets to assign anything to the other bakers—a frosting, a theme, a flavor, a liqueur, nothing! I hate it on any episode but especially in the finale. Give round 1 winner a X minute head start or a few extra decorating tools but don’t let them assign anything. The prize money is really important to these people, especially this year, and TPTB should give all three finalists a chance to shine. 

[Joan van Snark]

Well that was kind of a duff....uh I mean DUD of a season.  None of the bakers made anything the entire time that blew me away.  I missed some of the real trained pastry chefs from the earlier seasons that made really complex desserts with very professional results.  I am blanking on names but there was the thin guy with glasses that did the red drum cake that was really good, and another guy that was good the season or 2 before him.  I like the mix of a couple of accomplished home bakers, bakery owners and trained pastry-chef level of competitors.  

The final challenge was inherently flawed as the finale cakes were completely different from one another and thus inherently impossible to really judge on a comparative level. 

Carla was fine, she is an agreeable personality but I did miss a little bit of Lorraine's blunt but constructive criticisms.  I do hate how they sometimes seem to base their whole judgement over whether they 'get' a certain ingredient even if the overall dessert tastes amazing.  If I were a contestant on that show I think I would leave my descriptions of my bakes as vague as possible so they couldn't ding me on flavors they didn't get.  

I love Duff.  He really just seems like a very nice genuine man and is never mean to the contestants.  Nancy doesn't bother me as she does a lot of other people but sometimes she seems a little mean-spirited.  It didn't seem like she cared for Eva much.  You'd think she'd be secretly pulling for Eva since they are similar in age.

I do not think marzipan is ever supposed to be used as the final layer on a cake like that--at least I've never seen it used that way.  I did like Duff's suggestion for using dried fruits in the 1800's cake.

I really was pulling for Eva.  She seemed like such a sweet lady--nice, even keeled person without one of those over the top personalities that makes really good solid traditional desserts.  I'd take that any day over one of Juliana's 'inventive' (using that term loosely) monstrosities.  

Edited December 23, 2020 by Joan van Snark

[Iseut]

4 minutes ago, Spunkygal said:

I will add that IMO, in the finale, the advantage for the winner of round 1 should never be that he/she gets to assign anything to the other bakers—a frosting, a theme, a flavor, a liqueur, nothing! I hate it on any episode but especially in the finale. Give round 1 winner a X minute head start or a few extra decorating tools but don’t let them assign anything. The prize money is really important to these people, especially this year, and TPTB should give all three finalists a chance to shine. 

Agreed! I didn't like the final challenge. I knew Lorenzo is in trouble when he was assigned marzipan. It's a hard ingredient that a lot of people just don't like. I know that the judges try to be unbiased even if they don't like an ingredient, but it still plays into the results, I'm sure. Buttercream would win out over marzipan every time, at least in the U.S. 

Edited December 23, 2020 by Iseut

[Guest]

1 hour ago, mojoween said:

I don’t know anything about marzipan, but that is the frosting replacement? And the judges were bitching that Lorenzo didn’t have enough cream cheese frosting?  I could be misinterpreting that but that’s what it seemed like.

The marzipan was just for the outside. I believe the judges were talking about the filling in the cake when they said there wasn't enough cream cheese frosting. Their point was that it would have cut through the dryness of his gingerbread.

[mojoween]

5 minutes ago, tracyscott76 said:

The marzipan was just for the outside. I believe the judges were talking about the filling in the cake when they said there wasn't enough cream cheese frosting. Their point was that it would have cut through the dryness of his gingerbread.

Ahh ok thank you!

[Flip Flops]

I liked Lorenzo and Megan, Julianna not so much, so I’m disappointed she won. Megan was always so clean with her decorations I’m not sure what happened with this cake. I thought the advantage was unfair, too much of an advantage! Plus I thought Julianna’s decorating was horrendous, her piping was a mess and the colors, yikes! Didn’t look like a holiday cake to me! Those cakes reminded me of what I see on Big Bake. I would’ve rather seen them all just told to make a great holiday cake to see what they’d come up with and no advantage for the finale.

[Texasmom1970]

Damn, somebody needed to give Nancy some happy juice. She seemed pissy about Eva's cookie pie!

[CheshireCat]

15 hours ago, tracyscott76 said:

After Lorenzo moaned out loud about marzipan, if Julianna hadn't assigned it to him and he went on to win, I feel like people would be criticizing her for not taking full advantage of her, uh, advantage.

Well, I wouldn't have 😉 I just don't like these "you can choose what the others have to do" advantages as they'd make me uncomfortable. I think one can't look at it objectively, one will either think about what the others are good at or what they're bad at and will assign according to what one wants to achieve.

 

4 hours ago, mojoween said:

I don’t know anything about marzipan, but that is the frosting replacement?

It can be. But you can also bake it into the dough or use it as a layer. It depends entirely on the recipe.

Before fondant came to Germany (Europe), they used marzipan to do decorations like figurines or flowers. They're still very popular in Germany and you can actually buy them in chocolate/candy stores as a treat (or good luck charm).

 

3 hours ago, Joan van Snark said:

Carla was fine, she is an agreeable personality but I did miss a little bit of Lorraine's blunt but constructive criticisms.  I do hate how they sometimes seem to base their whole judgement over whether they 'get' a certain ingredient even if the overall dessert tastes amazing.

That reminds me - why did Nancy seem to be the only one who didn't taste a certain ingredient throughout the episode but especially when it came to alcohol?

 

3 hours ago, Joan van Snark said:

I do not think marzipan is ever supposed to be used as the final layer on a cake like that--at least I've never seen it used that way. 

A Princess Cake is covered in marzipan.

Generally, I think it's more of a European thing. I live in a very diverse urban area with tons of grocery stores and there is only one store where I found marzipan.

 

[mlp]

4 hours ago, Joan van Snark said:

The final challenge was inherently flawed as the finale cakes were completely different from one another and thus inherently impossible to really judge on a comparative level. 

Absolutely.  Plus the two losers had inherently difficult things to do - use marzipan effectively and make a mirror glaze.  Julianna just had to use butter cream in a common to today way.  It has seemed to me all along that more excuses were made for Julianna than anyone else.  After they gave her the win for the first round, all they had to do was make her reward the first choice of the final cakes which practically guaranteed that Megan and Lorenzo would end up with the two harder challenges in one order or the other.  I'm not usually into conspiracy theories but I've felt since fairly early in the competition that Julianna was going to end up winning just by noticing the problems the judges excused.

[ladyscorpio]

I totally agree with everyone disappointed that Julianna won. She did not deserve to win at all. All of the food she made looked horrible and messy. I did get the feeling that the judges were favoring her no matter how bad the creations looked. I think any of the other three people should have won. Their work was so much nicer and professional looking. I like Eva too but I just had a feeling she wasn't going to win because she's older than everyone which shouldn't matter. I didn't like this season, it bugged me how the judges favored Julianna over the other people.  That's so unfair. 

[Maverick]

 Since they had the ranking board this time, I think the winner should have gotten first choice and the middle finisher should have gotten second choice.   And there should have been four choices so everyone had at least some choice. 

[Adeejay]

The fact that Juliana wasn’t eliminated when she clearly should have been, led me to believe she was going to win the whole thing. She should not have been given such a huge advantage in the finale.  Megan and Lorenzo were robbed. 

[CheshireCat]

2 hours ago, mlp said:

  I'm not usually into conspiracy theories but I've felt since fairly early in the competition that Julianna was going to end up winning just by noticing the problems the judges excused.

I don't know why or how or where but a while ago I read something about how the sponsors who hand out the magazine cover/photoshoot for the top model shows state a preference or something before the show. In other words, the winner is pretty much pre-determined by the people who then use the winner for magazine covers/photoshoots. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same with food network.

To an extent, I can see why. They have to think about marketability and who/what sells well.

[Bunnyette]

On 12/22/2020 at 6:56 AM, Rammchick said:

I was rooting for Eva because she's from my state and I'm close to her age.  Plus she looks like a friend of mine.  Sadly, mature bakers never seem to win this.

So in the end, what was the purpose of the Naughty or Nice board?  The rankings ultimately meant nothing.  And what did B stand for?  

Oh well.  Holiday Baking Championship is over for another year.  No more Nancy until the spring, at least that's something.  

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!  

 

Nor do Bakers like Lashonda...Juliana should have gone home over her.

[BryroseA]

I’m glad I’m not the only one kind of upset at how the finale shook out. They often give the winner of the mini-challenge an advantage in the finale - they get to pick their theme first, the get 20 extra minutes, whatever - but it’s not usually as make or break as this one was. Buttercream is, like, orders of magnitude easier and more familiar than either marzipan or mirror glaze is. If they’d just stuck with picking from the past, present, future themes that would have felt more even. As it was, it felt like Juliana had the WAY easier road while her competitors were stuck with an extra, quite difficult, technical challenge on top of the already tough cake-in-5-hours. This is not a slam on Juliana, who made the choice anyone would make in those circumstances, but on the challenge producers who set up such an uneven playing field. A disappointing ending, for sure. 

Edited December 23, 2020 by BryroseA

[laredhead]

I just got around to watching the finale, but had already read the comments here, so I knew who was going to win.  I think for the winning bake, all finalists should have to bake the same type of cake/pie/whatever the challenge may be, and let their creativity with design and ingredients be the determining factor. 

Nancy said that Juliana's cakes looked disjointed and did not come together in a cohesive style.  I totally agreed with her.  That looked like someone had made 3 different cakes, and just stacked them up on each other.  Oh, wait, that's what she really did.  The blue one totally was out of place, IMO.  She said the design was popular on social media, so I guess that's where she's getting her techniques from.  If the icing had been white and she had just just blue icing to make snowflakes, it would have looked better.  The green tree on top looked like a giant blob of sculptured buttercream, which is really was.  I did not find it attractive at all.

As for Megan's cake, it was a hot mess.  I wish Lorenzo had been the winner, and agreed with Duff that some nuts and fruit in the cake itself would have made the cake even more period appropriate.  Cakes like that in the 1800's often contained those ingredients, and were baked for very special occasions.  I think if he had included them, he would have been the winner in spite of the marzipan. I enjoyed Lorenzo's optimism and hope he has a successful career.

I enjoyed the behind the scenes episode, and it looks like it was filmed in a giant tent or temporary structure.  I hear people on the Great British Baking Show talking about how A/C can't be used in that tent because of the noise of the compressors.  Wonder how Holiday Baking gets around that problem.  I'm assuming there is A/C in that structure because no one has complained about it being too hot or too cold.     

 

[jrzy]

8 hours ago, ladyscorpio said:

I totally agree with everyone disappointed that Julianna won. She did not deserve to win at all. All of the food she made looked horrible and messy. I did get the feeling that the judges were favoring her no matter how bad the creations looked. I think any of the other three people should have won. Their work was so much nicer and professional looking. I like Eva too but I just had a feeling she wasn't going to win because she's older than everyone which shouldn't matter. I didn't like this season, it bugged me how the judges favored Julianna over the other people.  That's so unfair. 

I am very disappointed in this finale too,  Julianna should have been eliminated weeks ago.  Nancy had a agenda for sure.   

[Lady J]

I have no problem with Juliana’s cake assignments. It’s called an advantage for a reason.

[tennisgurl]

I am really surprised that Juliana won the whole thing, I was sure that it would be Lorenzo or Megan. I even thought it could be Eva, but I thought that they pretty much kept her this long because she was a home baker and admired the risks she took. I wish it had been Lorenzo, and I don’t think that the last bake was really anyone’s best work, but it was a fun season regardless and I think that everyone was very talented. 

Edited December 23, 2020 by tennisgurl

[Guest]

Just now, Lady J said:

I have no problem with Juliana’s cake assignments. It’s called an advantage for a reason.

Agreed. And again, while Megan may have been kind of screwed by the assignment, Lorenzo's issues were more related to the kind of cake he actually made rather than anything to do with the theme. They liked what he did with the marzipan and overall decoration. They just didn't like his dry cake.

And honestly, Julianna is not the only one who has had struggles over the course of the season. Megan and Lorenzo both had their times at or near the bottom as well, so I don't think it's fair to act like Julianna was gifted her spot in the finals by some producer or judge-driven agenda.

To be clear, I don't dislike Lorenzo or Megan (though her comment about being a professional was a little off-putting), and I understand that people preferred one or the other of them over Julianna and were disappointed in the outcome. They are both talented, and Lorenzo especially is very personable and likable. A win by either of them would have been fine with me (Eva, too). I just feel compelled to stick up for Julianna.

[springbarb]

7 minutes ago, tracyscott76 said:

Agreed. And again, while Megan may have been kind of screwed by the assignment, Lorenzo's issues were more related to the kind of cake he actually made rather than anything to do with the theme. They liked what he did with the marzipan and overall decoration. They just didn't like his dry cake.

See, I thought Megan should've been able to do a decent mirror glaze; it pops up frequently enough in these shows that if I were going on this competition, it would've been something I'd practiced a bunch.

I don't mind Juliana getting an advantage, but I agree that it was too much. Or, rather, I wish there had been more of a challenge with "present" because "do a cake that's in your comfort zone" isn't a challenge.

I was bummed by the outcome, but I'm hopeful Food Network will snatch up Lorenzo and stick him in something else, because he does seem fun.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, springbarb said:

I don't mind Juliana getting an advantage, but I agree that it was too much. Or, rather, I wish there had been more of a challenge with "present" because "do a cake that's in your comfort zone" isn't a challenge.

That's fair enough. I remember an earlier season (the one that Jennifer won) where the winner of the pre-heat got first choice of a 12 Days of Christmas theme (geese a-laying, drummers drumming, etc.). But they had to pick blind off an Advent calendar type board. If they didn't like what they picked, they could give it to another baker and pick again.

So that was similar in that they kind of got to assign things to the other bakers, but there were more options, it was more random, and they were still free to do whatever kind of cake they wanted, it just had to use the assigned Day. Not quite as extreme.

[ruffy666]

On 12/21/2020 at 10:24 PM, mlp said:

I was disappointed last night when the wrong team IMO won Candy Land and I was even more disappointed tonight.  I hated seeing my two favorites, Eva and Lorenzo, having to square off knowing one of them had to lose.  I hated seeing Julianna win when I thought she should have been eliminated several weeks ago.  I just never warmed up to her.  I would have been happy with any of the other three.  

HA totally agree about Candy Land... I accidentally saw the winner before I watched the episode and was bummed to sit through the whole thing.  Yellow was robbed and the judge's commentary about their final showpiece being ALMOST TOO GOOD was so dumb.

I honestly don't mind that Julianna won-- actually I would've been fine with any of them winning.  Personally I probably would've given it to Lorenzo because he really worked hard to deliver on a tough challenge, but whatever.  My husband is a Julianna apologist for some reason but other than a few really odd comments, she was ok.  Overall this season has been remarkably pleasant and enjoyable and most of the tweaks to the formula were good.

[HyeChaps]

IMO none of these three cakes came anywhere close to Jason’s winning cake with the elves or Jennifer’s with the geese. 

[theatremouse]

Lorenzo kinda lost me when he said he didn't even know what marzipan was. This dude, I thought, went to culinary school and is a professional. You don't even know what marzipan is? Seriously? I could buy hadn't made it from scratch before, but never heard of it? Aw, dude. You don't get sympathy for that. You just look foolish.

Where Megan lost me was she glazed her first tier - she knew it was clumpy but didn't have time to remake it - and then poured the clumpy stuff on the others. Even if she weren't familiar with mirror glaze and didn't know up front you need to sieve it, like...common sense? Put it through and have two layers that look a lot better?  She makes curd. She knows to strain that. It just seemed like a massive failure of logic that she didn't come up with that idea on her own.

Juliana's was sloppy, but I don't really ding her for the disjointed because it seems to me that's straight up a style? Like I see that sort of thing lauded if not directly requested on other FN baking shows. So it's hard to give her crap for delivering what seems to often be a desirable thing.

Allllllllllllllllllllllllllll their decorating was way sloppy for a finale. I want to see finales where everyone is Even Better Than Ever Before. I wonder if they'd all have been better off with another 20 minutes.

[BigBingerBro]

I finally had time to watch the behind the scenese special and the finale.  I'm not overly shocked that Juliana won, but I agree that she didn't deserve to win.

I liked the special episode more than I thought I would.  Usually those types of episodes tend to ruin the magic for me, but this one didn't do that.  I was most shocked to find out that the the big kitchen is actually a tent.  I wonder why they never play that up since it's so reminiscent of Great British Bake Off.  Maybe there are some legalities there.  Do they always film at a resort?   Doesn't Food TV have studios anywhere?  I totally agree that they should have included Jesse more.  Aside from a few bloopers of him, he remains a mystery.  

I don't know why, but the finale seemed to drag on and on.  I kind of liked the idea of the elimination challenge.  Lorenzo was quick thinking to pipe the mousse otherwise, I'm sure he would have lost that round.

Juliana made really wise choices when selecting which theme the others got.  Lorenzo would have been better off not making a snide comment about Marzipan and he was sloppy not working to make it look perfect on the cake.   I really think that had Megan nailed the mirror glaze, she would have won.  I totally agree with Nancy regarding Juliana's cake not being cohesive.  I personally only liked the top tier.

Edited December 24, 2020 by BigBingerBro

[lh25]

22 hours ago, theatremouse said:

Lorenzo kinda lost me when he said he didn't even know what marzipan was. This dude, I thought, went to culinary school and is a professional.

Was there something where he didn't realize that real egg whites separated from egg yolks work differently than the ones he used at first?  And whoever told him made a comment about didn't he go to culinary school?

I think he's got great potential.  He just needs more seasoning...:)

[BigBingerBro]

44 minutes ago, lh25 said:

And whoever told him made a comment about didn't he go to culinary school?

It was Juliana.  And he thanked her later when the white from fresh cracked eggs worked.

[Maverick]

 There's a rerun of The Kitchen on and the have a guest on making and orange upside down cake for brunch.  She didn't peel the oranges yet the hosts are going gaga over it.  Ah Food Network...the channel of mixed culinary messages. 

[Katherine Kegel]

I think it would have been okay for her to have assigned the past, present and future themes.  The required ingredient element pushed it over the edge from advantage to unfair advantage.   I did really enjoy the behind the scenes show though.  That was a lot of fun to watch.  

[trudysmom]

18 hours ago, Maverick said:

There's a rerun of The Kitchen on and the have a guest on making and orange upside down cake for brunch.  She didn't peel the oranges yet the hosts are going gaga over it.  Ah Food Network...the channel of mixed culinary messages

That was Benjameena (sp?) from a season of GBBS.  She didn't win her season, but I recall her bakes were very good.  Yeah, I found that odd as well but maybe the way she treated her oranges made the peels more edible?  Who knows.   Jon's unpeeled oranges didn't bug me at the time, though I trust what Duff and the judges said about them being rubbery.  LaShonda's though, in that trifle looked bad and unappealing, amatuerish.  Even so I'd rather she taken the whole thing that Julianna. 

[Rammchick]

On 12/27/2020 at 10:53 AM, Maverick said:

 There's a rerun of The Kitchen on and the have a guest on making and orange upside down cake for brunch.  She didn't peel the oranges yet the hosts are going gaga over it.  Ah Food Network...the channel of mixed culinary messages. 

It's going to come down to the type of orange you use.  If it's a mandarin, the skin is thin and has little pith.  If it's a navel or a juice orange, the skin is thick and bitter.

Edited December 29, 2020 by Rammchick

[theatremouse]

Wasn't it a blood orange on this show? So all the worse for this application.

[Spunkygal]

Duff and his wife welcome a beautiful baby girl:

https://people.com/parents/duff-goldman-welcomes-first-child/

[rlc]

Way too many bakers to comment on much, but I forgot how much better these shows are without Nancy bellowing for more booze or arbitrarily scolding some of the contestants for their color schemes while praising others for using the same colors. Also, Carla wasn’t too over-the-top today.

Edited September 14, 2021 by rlc

[RoxiP]

18 hours ago, rlc said:

Way too many bakers to comment on much, but I forgot how much better these shows are without Nancy bellowing for more booze or arbitrarily scolding some of the contestants for their color schemes while praising others for using the same colors. Also, Carla wasn’t too over-the-top today.

There is a separate thread for Halloween Baking Championship if that is what you want to comment on. 

[Popples]

I just saw a commercial for this during reruns of season 4 Halloween Baking Championship and it seems that Carla Hall will be the third judge. I never really warmed up to Lorraine, but I did like Cardea last season.