ReportWire

Tag: The Great British Baking Show

  • The Great British Baking Show Recap: The Bee’s Knees

    [ad_1]

    Paul Hollywood better lock his doors, turn on the alarm, and get in the panic room because I am coming for him. I’m not going to hurt him or anything, but I am going to scratch one of his cars and eat all the sweet treats stashed in his house, and you know that, like Toby, his stash is considerable. How dare he treat my perfect Tom like that? First, at the beginning of the episode, he looks at Tom’s fingernails and says, “You’ve been hanging on by there for a while.” Seriously? Paul gave him a showstopper handshake, and now he’s like, “Eh, you kinda suck.” Please. Then the judging of the showstopper. Oh, you better clear the decks because I am about to go full Angela Bassett in Waiting to Exhale on his ass.

    The signature is the only challenge during Patisserie Week that I don’t absolutely hate. The four remaining contestants, also known as Jasmine and the Gents, all have to make two batches of cream horns, which spawns about 15 “horny” puns. Only 15? The show is slipping. There is nothing wrong with this assignment, except that things are a little warm in the tent during what was England’s hottest summer on record. Pretty hard when patisserie requires the butter to be cold, which we are told more times than there are horny puns.

    Toby tells us that he has never made rough puff pastry before, and the last time he made full puff, Paul yelled at him. So he tried Paul’s recipe, and it sucked, so he’s using Gordon Ramsey’s instead. This is the kind of shade that I never knew Toby was capable of, but it makes me love him even more. When Prue tries Toby’s pastry, she says it’s too hard, which Paul, of course, blames on Toby using a chef’s recipe. I’m sorry, but there will be no vindication for Paul this episode. While they love both his coffee-flavored and lemon horns, they both don’t love the actual pastry, which puts Toby at the bottom.

    Down there with him is the artist formerly known as Perfect Tom. Don’t worry, Tom. I still think you’re perfect. The whole time he is baking, he keeps saying his horns are going to be more like short-crust pastry, and when the judges try them, that’s the exact critique they have. If Tom knew this was a problem, why didn’t he find a solution before the (im)perfect judges came along? However, much like Toby, they love his raspberry cream cheese and chocolate and clementine flavor combinations, but it’s the pastry that they seem to be grading.

    The opposite is true of Aaron, who the bakers seem to think is the king of pastry, but I’m not sure why. Is there something that happened this season that I’m forgetting? Paul and Prue both love his dessert cornucopia, but they hate the flavor combinations. Paul says that his nectarine and cherry both taste great individually, but together they’re gross. He’s not wrong. It does sound a little like making a Slush Puppy at 7-11 and putting a pump of each flavor into the ice. The same goes for chocolate and lemon, which I don’t love either, unless it’s a See’s Candy Lemon Truffle. Mmmmmm.

    Queen Jasmine, of course, gets nothing but praise. I’m sorry, but it’s no fun when there is a clear front-runner. We don’t watch to see who goes home; we watch to see who is going to win, and it’s so obviously been Jasmine for weeks now that there is no suspense at all. The judges love her pastry Bugles, which do look delicious. Paul loves their flake, Prue loves the balance of coffee and chocolate in one variety, and Paul loves the raspberry, pistachio, and white chocolate (barf) ones. However, he chides Jasmine for using too many pistachios for the rest of the episode, even though she never uses them again. Ugh. Paul. Always on my shit list.

    The technical challenge is to make a Framboisier, a French dessert with layers of génoise sponge, crème mousseline, and fresh raspberries. (Anyone who has ordered gelato in Paris knows the French word for raspberry is “framboise.”) Bakers also have to make a fondant rose and a sugar dome to decorate the top. As an audience, we want these challenges to be difficult, but we ultimately want the bakers to succeed. We want to see something tricky but doable in the time so that they triumph. Here, no one finishes the cake they wanted in the allotted time, which means there is no problem with the bakers; there is a problem with the challenge. This is just too damn hard. Do they not test these before? Don’t they have something like on Survivor where they have non-contestants run the challenge first? Apparently not.

    There is one good thing about the challenge, which allows Aaron to say that this is what he loves about baking: making a cake that looks like a cake, not one that looks like a football, Paul Hollywood’s head, or one of his many cars. Exactly! That’s what we want too. We don’t want them to be engineers, as this show so often turns them into; we just want them to make a great-looking cake. At one point in the showstopper, Jasmine says, “I’m not an engineer, I’m a medic.” Exactly! And she’s perfect the way she is. No wait. Tom is perfect. She’s adequate the way she is. (Just kidding. She’s great, too.)

    I can’t think of a more disastrous bake in the history of this show than this technical. Making the glass dome is the part that befuddles most of them. What they need to do is boil sugar, pour it onto cling film (British to American translation: Saran Wrap), press down on the film so it bulges into a dome, wait for it to cool, then take it off the film. This seems like one of those things you watch a pastry chef do on TikTok and then say, “Coooooolllll!! I’m never doing that.” Tom almost completes his and then cracks it while putting it in the freezer. Aaron is the only one who manages to do it successfully, and his dome looks like a pint glass that has been sitting in a gutter for three days. When it comes down to judging, it’s between Jasmine and Tom for the top spot, and the judges like both of their cakes, but it ultimately goes to Jasmine. What if Tom had finished his dome? Would that have nudged him to the winner’s circle? Is it about the cake and its taste, or is it about this foolhardy technique that even Martha Stewart was like, “Why would you bother?”

    The clear loser is Toby, who serves up something that looks like a protein shake and a green juice tried to have sex and both of their bottles fell over and they just spilled all over the floor. His problem is not only with the dome but also with the mousseline. It’s a custard that is combined with butter, but the custard has to be cool and the butter has to be soft or else it won’t set and, as Toby learns, spill all over the floor like a leprechaun’s milkshake. What he serves the judges looks less like a cake and more like a puddle, and Prue also says there should be two layers of sponge, but there’s only one. That’s like showing up at a burned-down house and asking why there isn’t WiFi. We have bigger problems here!

    The showstopper is a macaron-based challenge where the bakers have to make a centerpiece at least 45 centimeters (about a foot and a half) that is “bold, impactful” and showcases 30 macaroons. I have no problem with this challenge; this is the kind of thing that the modern Baking Show has been doing for years. It’s difficult but seems attainable.

    Most of the bakers (bar Jasmine) struggle with their macaroons, especially Aaron and Tom, who both have to make theirs again. At least Tom was perfect enough to know that the first batch might not turn out perfect, so he made enough for two batches so he could throw the second one right in the oven. Perfect. What makes the baking even harder is Alison and Noel harassing our poor bakers as they work. Noel comes around with his friend Mr. Spoon, who, much like the Magic Rhubarb from two episodes back, can get the bakers to the finals if they give it a big wet kiss. Damn it. If only I could have dressed up as Mr. Spoon, because I’d love kisses from all the remaining bakers and also Alison, if she ever gets herself unstuck from straddling that fence. (Literal, not metaphorical, because our Alison is wonderfully opinionated.)

    While I don’t have a problem with the challenge, I do have a problem with the judging, particularly when Tom gets up there. He created a giant chocolate beehive (with Iain inside, according to Noel) hanging from an actual tree and covered it with yellow macarons painted to look like bees. When he brings it up, with much assistance, Prue says that it looks “astonishing.” Paul, however. Not so much. He says, “If it were chocolate week, I would accept it, but I can’t accept that when it’s a macaron challenge. The macarons look fairly flat. The painting is rudimentary, but the main thing I’m looking at is that [pointing to the hive]. It’s very Tom. I understand that. You should have made that smaller and covered all of it.”

    Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. This goes against not only the challenge brief but everything that has been going on at Baking Show for the past decade. They said they wanted “bold and impactful,” and they specified a height. It’s always rewarding more ornate, huger, crazier. Now suddenly this is too big, too ornate, too crazy? They asked for big, and then Perfect Tom gave them big, and they were like, “Never mind.”

    How many times have we talked about how the bakers have to pay more attention to the structure of what they’re building, so that they don’t have time to make things taste good? How many times have they limited the types of biscuits or cakes they can make because they need to construct something that stands? I’m sorry, but that comes at the expense of the thing they’re actually baking. If you really wanted to taste delicious macarons with great painting, the challenge would have been to just make some macarons and put them on a plate. But it’s not. The challenge is to put a bunch of macarons on a sculpture, and the judges are mad because the sculpture is bigger than the macarons? Fuck right off.

    Meanwhile, look at Jasmine’s. It’s dinky! It looks great, yes, but hanging a bunch of macarons from a Christmas tree is not inventive or creative. Jasmine’s bakes never are. She does the bare minimum, and they never tell her to step it up or tell her that she needs to be more inventive. She’s just skating by, and no one is challenging her. Yes, I know it comes down to flavor, and she nails it every time. But when you’re doing less than everyone, there is more time to focus on the baking and the flavors and everything else. The other bakers are showing some ambition, whether that’s making something huge, something with three different flavors, or even a giant macaron sign that says “Lemons,” because that is what the show has been rewarding for ages. Now, suddenly, they are rewarding flavors but not creativity? They’re rewarding meeting the brief and nothing else. Again, fuck right off.

    But it’s Jasmine’s fifth Star Baker and third in a row, tying her for the most Star Bakers in one season. (Note, Richard Burr, the co-record holder, came in third in the finale, so it’s not all hers yet.) Paul and Prue gush over her tree, even though it looks like something you could construct out of a kit. Aaron’s is a bit messier because he had to remake his macaroons, but it has a certain charm. Okay, maybe that’s too generous. Aaron’s is both a mess, and the judges say the cookies are too chewy, and Paul doesn’t think they’re up to the standard. Tom, we already talked about how his looks, but both judges say that the macarons are underbaked.

    Toby’s lemon crates look wonderful, but again, they’re like, “That’s a lot of gingerbread.” Dude! That’s what you asked for! While it looks cool, they don’t like the lemon macarons, saying they’re a little underflavored. The chocolate ones on the crates, however, they absolutely love, which seems to put Toby in good standing, like he could have saved himself, especially after the negativity heaped on Tom and Aaron. But it’s him who goes, with Paul saying that his disastrous technical was the decider. Here I am saying the technical doesn’t matter, but apparently, it doesn’t matter until it does. The end of the episode is especially weepy for Toby, like they all can’t believe they’re sending someone home. I thought for a minute Paul was going to put a Ru in front of his name because you know Drag Race loves to pull the “You’re all going to the final!” trick. But it didn’t come. Instead, we just get a lovely Polaroid of the group, Toby clutching everyone in his arms as all the bakers wonder just when and how the whole game changed.

    [ad_2]

    Brian Moylan

    Source link

  • The Great British Baking Show Recap: Trifilin’

    [ad_1]

    Dessert Week is the stupidest week, at least conceptually. Cake Week, Biscuit Week, and Bread Week all make sense, but any of those other weeks could contain things for dessert week. What makes this different from any of the other weeks? What specific things do any of these bakes have in common? Why do all of these bakes have to be on Dessert Week rather than at any other time in the competition? The category is just too broad and too vague. It’s like the village talent show. That talent could be little Suzie tap dancing, your neighbor Marty, who can do 512 different bird calls even though they all sound the same, or Pam, the preacher’s wife, singing Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” (Every talent show has at least one person singing “Hallelujah,” a song that should be banned from public performance by the U.S. Constitution, the Paris Agreement, and the Geneva Convention.)

    But this competition does not have Suzie, Marty, or Pam, the preacher’s wife. Instead, there is golden boy Aaron, WWII pilot Toby, short king Iain, lanky Disney Prince Tom, and Jasmine, for whom there are no words. Well, at least that’s Noel’s estimation. The first challenge is to make a Basque cheesecake, which, yes, meets the very vague brief that it could be eaten for dessert. I don’t know about you, but I could also probably eat this for breakfast, a main course, a midnight snack, or a post-workout protein. If you think cheesecake must be a dessert, then you really just aren’t creative enough or have never watched a full episode of The Golden Girls.

    The baking itself goes smoothly enough, except that Toby keeps curdling the white chocolate (vom) cream for the top of his cheesecake. “This is stressful,” says our stressed-out king, who has uttered that same sentence while grocery shopping, watching Celebrity Traitors, and taking a sound bath. Iain also has a stressful moment when he tries to transfer his wobbly cheesecake from the paper to its stand, asking for Toby’s help. Of all the people to ask, you’re going to ask Toby “Squeaky Bum Time” [Insert Surname Here]?

    Iain’s cardamom and orange cheesecake turns out to be quite nice-looking, but Prue says he included too much zest, and it had turned bitter. It seems like he has “taken the pith,” a pun that everyone in the tent is so proud of that they go on to use it more than Toby could use some of Parker Posey’s The White Lotus diazepam. In short (sorry, Iain), the judges didn’t love it.

    Jasmine’s is really the only one they like, and it looks absolutely gorgeous, with a giant mango rose in the center and lots of passion fruit curd underneath. Prue says it’s “proper burnt” as a cheesecake should be. Aaron gets decent marks as well for his orange cheesecake with plum and sake gel on top, which leads him and Noel into a long pun-off around “succulent plums,” which I think they are using to mean balls, but I don’t know — I was blinded by the desserts.

    The losers in this round are Toby and our not-so-perfect Tom, who struggles the entire episode, which is strange for a man who is that good-looking. The only thing he must struggle to do is beat them off with a stick and a plum pun. Toby is using passionfruit and white chocolate (barf) and marbling them together, an effect which doesn’t fully come out when it’s finished baking. While the judges love the bake, they think that the flavors are underwhelming, with Paul saying there is not enough citrus and Prue saying it’s far too rich, which is something I wish I could say about myself. They both love the fake passion fruits Toby uses to decorate the top, which have passion fruit curd inside white chocolate (retch) shells.

    Tom’s cheesecake looks absolutely brilliant. It is all black with black sesame flavoring, blackberries on top, and a chocolate-lemon dyed black, filled with bright yellow lemon curd, which would be the only hint of color when it’s cracked open. Noel says it is a goth boy’s dream and wants to give Tom the first-ever Noel Fielding handshake, but as he reaches out, Paul Hollywood swats his hand away, strops off to his Ferrari waiting in the parking lot, and revs the engine for 25 minutes just to assert his authority. While it does look amazing, both judges think that the sesame flavor isn’t really coming through and that it is much cooler to look at than to eat.

    The technical is technically a dessert, I guess, but I don’t understand these gluten-free orange upside-down puddings. First of all, why are they gluten-free? Did someone in the tent suddenly develop a wheat allergy? Is Henry, the cameraman, always like, “Ugh, I never get to try anything because I’m celiac,” and so they threw Henry an orange and cardamom-flavored bone? Also, what sort of idiot chef came up with this recipe in the first place? Who thought that cake wasn’t good enough just baked in the oven? What dessert really needs is to be put in a tin, covered with foil, tied with the littlest string outside of Cardi B’s thong, and then placed in the oven in a pan that is half submerged in water? Who thought that would make this better? Why all the steps? Why all the fuss?

    While we’re asking questions, why do they call it “Crème Anglaise” in French? That means “English cream,” and we’re in England speaking English? You know what they call English muffins in England? Muffins! Just muffins! (My grandmother was a muffin.) Why don’t they just call it cream? It’s like if you went to Paris and they called them French Fries in English. Make it make “sense de l’anglais.”

    What were we talking about? Oh, the technical. The rankings go Aaron, Jasmine, Toby, Iain, and perfect Tom, reclaiming the perfection that is his birthright. It’s like the judges just went left to right because that is the order the dishes were placed on the table. It’s also inverting how things went in the Signature, with Tom and Iain on top, Aaron and Jasmine on the bottom, and Toby sleeping in Baby Bear’s bed, which is … juuuussssst riiiiiggggght.

    The showstopper challenge is to make a free-standing trifle. I was going to complain that this is one of those challenges where the bakers need to worry more about structure than they do about how things taste, but is that even true? Most of them make something that doesn’t need a container and tastes horrible. Is that the fault of the challenge or is that the fault of the bakers? I don’t even know at this point. I am still thinking about “Crème Anglais.”

    Once again, Jasmine’s is the best. Let’s be honest, Tom might be perfect, but Jasmine has it all wrapped up. Her trifle is made with lemoncello sponge, strawberry jelly, and vanilla bavarois, which is also Aaron’s drag name. It’s a gorgeous-looking dessert (this is Dessert Week), but kind of ordinary. Yes, it looks like the example out of the textbook, but it’s not nearly as inventive as all of the boys’ creations. But the judges love it, and that is enough for Jasmine’s fourth win. The record belongs to season five’s Richard Burr with five Star Baker wins in one season, so our girl Jazzy J is within striking distance of a tie. (There is no Star Baker in the finale.)

    Aaron, who has the correct opinion of hating trifles, makes one with a striped chocolate collar around it to prop it up and covers the top with succulent plums, intricate chocolate circles, and champagne jelly. It looks delicious, but the jelly is the only thing the judges like, and that’s probably because it’s boozier than Paul Hollywood on Greek Easter. (The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City fans know.)

    Toby’s is Christmas-themed because, like the Hallmark Channel, he is always in the holiday spirit. It’s a sherry trifle with elderflower based on his grandmother’s holiday favorite. The crowning glory is a jelly dome with a pointsetta inside, but it sticks to the bowl as he’s making it and ends up looking more like what the alien leaves behind after it pops out of someone’s guts in Alien. The sponge collar around it, decorated with Santa Clauses and ornaments, looks amazing, if not like something you’d buy in Poundland (British to American translation: Dollar General). Paul says the sponge inside is both rock hard and dry, and Prue only likes his elderflower jelly.

    Perfect Tom strikes out once again, not on the look but on the flavors. His towering creation, inspired by a trip to Greece and flavored with honey, yogurt, and figs, looks like it would be on the homepage of the New York Times cooking section, complete with his own jelly dome topped with an olive branch. Once again, the judges say all you can taste is the almond extract he put in his sponge and nothing else. I hope that our perfect Tom isn’t like the desserts he keeps making: gorgeous on the outside but no fun in your mouth.

    I thought it was Tom’s time, sending him just shy of the semi-finals. Instead, the judges decided it was Iain’s time to be sent packing. His trifle looks fantastic with a sponge collar, which gives it the air of wallpaper in an Italian boutique hotel. There is another jelly dome on top, this one with a sun inside, but Paul and Prue say it tastes like absolutely nothing — like water. That is true of everything, including his sponge, which Prue says is firmer than her conservative beliefs. So, of all of our archetypes, it is the short king who is going home rather than the WWII pilot or the lanky Disney Prince. But the way the competition looks now, everyone in that tent with a Y chromosome is just battling it out for second place.

    [ad_2]

    Brian Moylan

    Source link

  • The Great British Baking Show Recap: Getting Schooled

    [ad_1]

    When people ask me what it’s like to live as an American in the U.K., I often use the example of going to ‘80s night in London. One minute I’m dancing along, singing all the words to “When Doves Cry,” “Thriller,” or “Material Girl,” and the next minute Heaven 17’s “Temptation” comes on and all the British people lose their minds shouting every lyric to a song I have never heard in my life. It sounds like it could be an American song from the era, so it’s simultaneously familiar and unmooring.

    The moral of the story is that our cultures seem almost identical until they don’t. That’s exactly how I felt watching Back to School Week. For the past few weeks, we’ve dealt with cookies, cakes, and bread — things that are almost similar on both sides of the pond. However, when it comes to the nostalgia-tinged bakes of our school years, most Americans must feel like “Temptation” is blaring over the speakers. (For the record, “Temptation” is a jam.)

    It starts with flapjacks. Many Americans must have thought they were about to make pancakes, which is usually a synonym for the breakfast dish. Two totally different things. (Do not even get me started on what English people consider pancakes.) A flapjack is kind of like a granola bar, but not crunchy. There really is no American equivalent. Think of an oatier, chewier, rectangular oatmeal cookie, and you’ll be kind of close. It’s the kind of thing that you get at school as a child, obviously, but also at museum cafes, coffee shops, and the like.

    This is a good challenge because it doesn’t force the bakers to do anything corny other than elevate something that they’ve all had many times. In general, I like the idea of Back to School Week, mostly because it kept things simple but elevated. The theme hews to the wholesomeness and spirit of British identity that infuses the show and makes it so lovely to watch. Most viewers went to school, have core memories from those years, and feel emotional attachments to the foods they ate back then. Also, this episode was filled with more school puns than you can shake a large group of fish at. So, solid marks to all the producers, especially on the puns.

    Of course perfect Tom wants to be the perfect teachers’ pet and is not even making perfect flapjacks he’s making perfect apples (for the teacher) that have apple crumble inside and a hidden and perfect flapjack. Oh, Tom, he’s perfect. When they ask if he practiced at home, he says, “Kind of,” which is the kind of imperfect response we expect from someone other than perfect Tom. Turns out he’s less than perfect this week and doesn’t quite finish in time, leaving his apples attractive but a little unpolished, including leaving off the stem. Still, Prue says they’re very clever and Paul says they’re well done. He was 15 minutes away from another handshake.

    Like Tom, Jasmine hasn’t made her raspberry and chocolate flapjacks in the allotted time yet, but, unlike Tom, hers come out, well, perfect. Prue says they’re neat as pins and both judges love the flavor, the texture, and the bake. Check. Check. Check.

    Also fairing well is Aaron, whose flapjacks are covered in Earl Grey butter cream and lemon jam, which sounds like the kind of combination you would eat if you really needed to vomit for medical reasons. However, the buttercream is piped in two fat lines on top of his flapjacks, making it look like two pieces of chalk, which is very on theme. Apparently, the tastes are better than I thought, because Paul says it is a triumph, though he keeps his hands to himself.

    Having obvious trouble is Lesley, who put a layer of shortbread under her flapjack, which screwed up the cooking time, which screwed up the decorating time, which left Lesley, well, screwed. Nataliia’s flapjacks breaks when coming out of the tray, so she has to cut them into triangles, which Prue hates because she knows that it is hip to be square, to quote another ‘80s song. Iain makes banana bread-inspired flapjacks, which are two school treats in one, but Paul says they are too soft and need more time in the oven. When Iain explains he was going for a banana bread consistency, in a rare feat of sarcasm, Paul says that they’re perfect then, and he takes it back.

    Nadia tries to put tempered chocolate on the top of her flapjacks, but there is too much and it doesn’t set. The chocolate ruins their appearance and also their taste. Jessika’s red wine and poached pear looked the most grown-up, like a sophisticated dessert with a Bordeaux colored bit of pear on top. Sadly, the texture is too soggy, and Paul says the pears in them turned them almost into glue. Seriously, Paul. What is more Back to School than eating some paste?

    The technical is another thing Americans will have no idea about: School Cake. It’s essentially a sheet cake with vanilla icing and sprinkles on top, but cut into individual cubes and served as “school dinner,” which is what English people call school lunch, even though lunch is lunch and dinner is dinner, and cake is cake, no matter what time of day you eat it. This is a treat that many wee Britons had on Fridays to keep them docile all week. It actually started as Tottenham Cake, which was a square of cake given out to kids after the Tottenham Hotspur football (read: soccer) team won a big championship. God, this just gets more and more English as the episode goes on.

    Because the bake is fairly simple, Prue removes any modern conveniences from the kitchen, forcing the bakers to whip things by hand. She also requires them to make everything from scratch, including the sprinkles. I have never, not even for a second, thought about how sprinkles are made and, frankly, I don’t think I want to know. I just want to keep imagining that they rained down from a far distant glitter planet, or are the turds of fairies, or something. Sprinkles aren’t made, they’re just, I don’t know, discovered.

    During the technical, we learn that perfect Tom is also a perfect gossip, which makes me even more of a fan of his than I was before. He also says that Aaron is waiting for Paul Hollywood to call him a “naughty boy” before saying, “Just kidding. That’s me.” Wait, he also says that if he got a handshake, he would ask his partner if he could take it further with Paul. Do I have a blue-eyed, sausage-fingered competitor for Tom’s affections? I’m going to have to feed him some Earl Grey and lemon flapjacks so he’s puking his guts out and swoop in and steal perfect Tom and his perfect arms and his perfect hair and his perfect bakes right out from under Paul’s steely gaze.

    Everything in the technical comes out evenly without any obvious triumphs or disasters. However, Nadia, Natalia, and Jessika are the bottom three, just as they were in the signature, which suggests their fates are sealed. Jasmine takes the win (or should I say takes the cake), followed by Aaron and Iain.

    The showstopper is yet another thing foreign to Americans, the stall at a school’s Summer Fête, which they all pronounce like “fate” and Nataliia pronounces like “fight” because she’s hilarious. You probably guessed from watching it, but a Summer Fête is essentially a school carnival organized by the PTA to raise money, which is why it features games, food, face painting, and other familiar activities. However, their games are not like ours. Nadia says she always plays Tombola, which is a kind of raffle. Jasmine makes a game of Quoits, which is basically a ring toss. Perfect Tom makes a perfect Coconut Shy, where there are a bunch of coconuts set up and you have to throw another coconut to knock them down and win a prize. Nothing shy about those coconuts! And literally everyone else makes a Hook-A-Duck, which at first I thought was a waterfowl that engages in the world’s oldest profession. But no, it’s just a floating duck that you have to pluck out of a little pool with a hook on a stick.

    So far, this has been a season of redemption, and a couple of bakers pull off ambitious showstoppers, getting themselves out of detention. Rather than just making three elements, like the judges required, Nadia decides to go for four, creating donuts that hang on a board, a giant vanilla cupcake topped with meringue, sugar cookie pencils, and hamburgers that are really a brownie on a donut bun, which not only look real, but apparently taste amazing.

    Also going with a food illusion is Lesley, who makes a coffee and walnut cake that resembles a steak pie, and instead of steak, she includes brownies to fool the judges. It also looks quite real and quite delicious. The judges also love her apple biscuits and meringues that look like lollipops.

    Nataliia also pulls herself from the bottom and pulls this challenge out of the bag, or rather, the backpack. She confesses she has never been to a school fête and was probably as lost during these challenges as other international viewers, but her citrus curd-filled backpack cake really wows the judges. It isn’t food disguised as other food, but all of these cake illusions seem to work.

    Well, not so fast. Iain has the idea to make a Funfetti cake that looks like a computer monitor, but when he finishes it, the computer looks like it has been left on overnight in the Computer Science room with no air conditioning. It is almost melting. He also makes some tiny Hook-A-Duck meringues that the judges feel are way too sweet. They also say that it is apparent that Iain struggled, which is something I haven’t heard since I took my last math test. (Sorry, English people, but there is only one math. I will die on this numerical hill!)

    The judges are even harsher to Jessika, whose plans seemed ambitious to start with, involving a chocolate triceratops emerging from a stout cake book. However, the cake is far too stout, takes too long to bake, and comes out looking like a tar pit that a triceratops would be preserved in. She goes with a dinosaur theme and also makes marshmallow and jam dinosaur footprints and chocolate dinosaur eggs. Sadly, the judges hate all of them. Paul says both the texture and flavor of the cake is off, the biscuit is underbaked, and that the eggs are far too many flavors at once. Jessika is the only person who couldn’t improve her grades and was put on permanent suspension, sent home for good. Our poor Jessika, much like Donna Martin, she’ll never graduate.

    At the top of the class, for the second week in a row, is Jasmine. She makes the best-looking Hook-A-Duck cake, as well as a Quoits game out of pretzels, and gorgeously piped biscuits that look like hopscotch. (Does anyone like playing hopscotch? Are there even rules? I’m sorry, but this is a game I don’t even believe really exists.) Paul loved the biscuits and everything else, giving the rare compliment that her bake had both style and substance. Overall, Back to School week was a nice foray into new territory, but now I’m probably going to have nightmares about having to take a test I didn’t study for. Yes, in my dreams, I’m just like Tom.

    [ad_2]

    Brian Moylan

    Source link

  • Thanks for the Tears, Paul and Prue

    Thanks for the Tears, Paul and Prue

    [ad_1]

    Spoilers follow for the current season of The Great British Baking Show through the sixth episode, which premiered on Netflix on November 1.

    The problem with a great season of The Great British Baking Show is that, eventually, nearly all of the people who make that season great will be sent home. And so it goes that now, more than halfway through an engaging season of more-manageable challenges and shaken-up Technicals, this year’s first heartbreak elimination arrives.

    In an Autumn Week outcome as shocking as that one season when Paul didn’t use hair gel, Dylan and Nelly — two of this season’s earliest standouts, responsible for dynamic flavor combinations that Paul and Prue have spent weeks praising — both underperformed in their Showstopper challenge. Autumn-hater Dylan’s patchily frosted all-white Diwali cake was visually underwhelming and not very in line with the theme, but it tasted “gorgeous,” according to Paul. Nelly’s “Woman in Autumn” cake, decorated with self-portraits of her younger and current selves in vibrant frosting, was glorious to look at (“A terrific achievement,” said Prue), but the flavor combination of spinach sponge, plum jam, and chocolate and avocado cream was too chaotic. Nelly seemed to have the edge with what Paul called an “exquisite” poppy-seed-and-apple-pie Signature, compared with Dylan’s tough-textured and burnt rough-puff apple pie, and they were similarly placed in the Parkin ginger cake Technical. But the judges increasingly rely on Showstopper flavor for their decisions, which resulted in our joyously accessorized, jocularly friendly, invigoratingly honest Nelly being shown the door. Who’s going to flirt with Noel now, or brusquely tell Paul he’s “already shiny,” or confidently (and rightly) proclaim to Alison that the GBBS contestants are the stars of this show? We lost a real one in Nelly, a GBBS breakout whose unapologetic authenticity was a delight each week.

    GBBS has been around long enough now that its contestant archetypes are as set as overgelatined mousse and as comforting as a pan of savory buns. There’s often a rough-around-the-edges working-class guy with a surprising flair, a first-gen or immigrant contestant whose ingredients blow Paul’s mind, and an older man or woman whose homey — or, in GBBS parlance, “rustic” — style was shaped by the bakes their families loved. That’s not to diminish the individuals who fulfill these roles each season, but to praise how GBBS’s casting decisions complement the series’ built-in consistency. These personalities are as reliable as each episode’s Signature, Technical, and Showstopper trio of challenges, or Paul taking his handshake super-seriously, or Noel trying to stir up shit by asking bakers which hosts and judges they like the most. (Kudos to youngsters Dylan and Sumayah for directly telling Noel that, actually, they prefer Alison.) The steadiness is part of the draw.

    But every so often, you get someone willing to wiggle free of what their role was perhaps meant to be and show facets of themself that you wouldn’t necessarily expect. Think of eventual 2015 winner Nadiya Hussain’s use of bubblegum and cream-soda flavors to signal her playful personality after weeks of doing poorly on Technicals; instead of letting that anxiety overwhelm her, Nadiya reset her persona with those mischievous eclairs. Dylan and Nelly have surprised in similar ways. Dylan’s hottie appeal is partially derived from the tension of a dude who looks like he takes style cues from Rufio (complimentary) delivering such luxurious and delicate bakes, while Nelly’s forthrightness about the personal inspirations behind her offerings (her five unborn children with her husband, her own aging) are an endearing counter to her amused insouciance. They represent two different modes of GBBS contestant — Dylan is there to prove his skills to himself and gain some confidence as he pursues his dream of being a chef; Nelly is there to spotlight her family favorites, have a good time, and maybe run away with both Noel and Alison — but they’re both watchable, entertaining bakers whose skills seemed solid enough to get them to the end.

    Until, of course, Autumn Week, which only made me love Nelly more before her time on the show came to an end. Nelly tends to accept praise with a tight smile and deflect criticism with a joke, and because of the latter, she’s been a fount of reaction shots as the series has given her a class-clown-style edit. That performatively cheeky side of her personality, which includes her jokingly threatening Noel with a blowtorch and striking a braggadocious pose on her stool when finishing a challenge early, is still there in Autumn Week, as she deadpans after seeing Dylan’s Showstopper, “We need to eliminate him somehow, you know? Slap him.” But when she talks about her own Showstopper and how it will focus on how she is “entering the autumn” of her life as a woman and “harvesting all the experience” that has come before, she blends her customary self-deprecation (narrating how she’s going to pipe a “triple chin” on her self-portrait) with the same frankness she exhibited when talking about her pregnancy losses. She’s thought about what the “autumn” of her life means to her and found a way to reflect that perspective through the bake, and she’s assured enough to share all that with the judges, the hosts, the other contestants, and us viewers, embodying a candidness that is exactly why we watch reality TV in the first place. (Of course, Paul doesn’t get it, joking that he thought she was 22, but Prue and Alison both praise the concept for its candor.)

    “If it doesn’t go right today, it doesn’t go right. There is an exit, it’s fine,” Nelly says with a smile and a shrug, and that even-keeled composure stays put even after Noel announces her exit and envelops her in a hug with a whispered admission that it “killed” him to say her name. Her certainty of self is a beautiful thing, as are her parting words that her time on the show was meant to teach her sons to “enjoy” life in any way it comes. Cue my crying and all the other contestants crying; I haven’t seen an elimination this weepy in a while.

    As Alison says during Autumn Week’s deliberations, it’s jarring that Nelly and Dylan, who so rarely get negative feedback from the judges, would be in the bottom together. But even though Nelly didn’t reach the finals, she’ll be an enduring GBBS personality because she so charmingly embodies what the show is about — effort and trying and pouring every aspect of yourself into something, even if it doesn’t work out. “Come on, you can’t be perfect,” Nelly saucily says while rolling her eyes after Paul and Prue’s critical judging of her Showstopper. But she doesn’t need to be. Book her on the All-Star season immediately.

    [ad_2]

    Roxana Hadadi

    Source link

  • How to Watch The Great Canadian Baking Show in the US, So You Don’t Miss These Bakes

    How to Watch The Great Canadian Baking Show in the US, So You Don’t Miss These Bakes

    [ad_1]

    All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, StyleCaster may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

    If you’re already a fan of the original series, chances are, you’re going to want to know how to watch The Great Canadian Baking Show in the US online. Just like the British series, the Canadian version is going to satisfy your sweet tooth and then some!

    The Great Canadian Baking Show premiered on CBC in Canada in November 2017. The show follows the same format of the popular British show, The Great British Bake Off, which airs in Canada and the US under the name The Great British Baking Show. For those who are unfamiliar with the competition, the show stars a diverse group of amateur bakers from across the country — in this case, Canada — who compete in a series of baking challenges, testing their skills and creativity in the kitchen.

    Each episode consists of three rounds: the Signature Bake, the Technical Bake, and the Showstopper Bake. In the Signature Bake, contestants showcase their personal baking styles by preparing a dish of their choice. The Technical Bake challenges contestants to follow a recipe with minimal instructions and replicate a specific baked good. Finally, The Showstopper Bake is the final round, where bakers create elaborate and visually stunning creations that demonstrate their mastery of baking techniques.

    Throughout the competition, the bakers are judged by a panel of experts, typically consisting of professional pastry chefs or experienced bakers. The judges evaluate the bakers’ creations based on taste, texture, presentation, and overall skill. Hosts guide the contestants through the challenges and provide comic relief, usually as the bakers are moments away from a meltdown (both figuratively and literally) as they race against the clock.

    Eliminations take place at the end of each episode, with the weakest performers leaving the competition. The final episodes culminate in the crowning of the “Great Canadian Baker.” Much like the British series, the Canadian edition celebrates the joy of baking and has gained popularity since it first premiered on CBC. But there’s just one problem. If you’re based in the US, then you won’t be able to watch The Great Canadian Baking Show without some finessing. Luckily, we have all the details below to find out how to watch The Great Canadian Baking Show in the US online. Keep on reading ahead for the breakdown!

    How to watch The Great Canadian Baking Show in the US 

    How can Americans watch The Great Canadian Baking Show in the US? The Great Canadian Baking Show is available to stream on CBC’s website, CBC Gem. To watch the show in the US, however, Americans will need a VPN (virtual private network), a service that allows users to set their computer’s location to another country and access websites that would otherwise be restricted by location. The most popular VPNs are ExpressVPN, NordVPN, AtlasVPN, and Pure VPN, all of which offer a 30-day-money-back guarantee. Keep on reading ahead to find out how to sign up for them to watch The Great Canadian Baking Show in the US.

    Image: Courtesy of CBC.

    Watch The Great Canadian Baking Show in the US with ExpressVPN

    ExpressVPN is one of the most popular VPN services, and the one we recommend above all others for a simple reason. The service—which allows users to set their location to more than 160 locations in 90 countries with unlimited bandwidth—offers a 30-day-money-back guarantee. ExpressVPN also has a current deal where users can subscribe for $6.67 per month with three months free for 12 months. Without any deals, ExpressVPN costs $12.95 per month for its monthly plan and $9.99 per month for its six-month plan. Each plan includes a 30-day-money-back guarantee.

    Express VPN—which takes about five minutes to set up—also promises lightning-quick connectivity, 24-hour live-chat support and allows users to connect to any device, from computers to phones to tablets. Of course, users can do more than watch international events and shows in the US with a VPN. VPNs also allow users to access international versions of Netflix, Disney Plus and HBO Max (which have different content than in the US) as well as stream international services like Hayu, which has access to programs like the Real Housewives, Below Deck, The Bachelor and hundreds of other reality TV shows.

    Read on for step-by-step instructions on how to watch The Great Canadian Baking Show in the US with ExpressVPN.

    1. Sign up for ExpressVPN and create an account
    2. Log into your ExpressVPN account and click “Download” on the “Dashboard” or in “Set Up Your Devices”
    3. Once you’ve installed ExpressVPN, enter the “Activation Code” from the “Dashboard” or in “Set Up Your Devices”
    4. Once ExpressVPN is set up, change your location to “Canada” by clicking the connect icon to read “Connected” and selecting the country in the “Smart Location” menu
    5. Visit The Great Canadian Baking Show‘s page on CBC’s website, CBC Gem.
    6. Create a free CBC account, sign in and start watching The Great Canadian Baking Show in the US

    Watch The Great Canadian Baking Show in the US with AtlasVPN

    AtlasVPN—which offers a 30-day-money-back guarantee—costs $11.99 per month for a monthly plan, $3.29 per month for a yearly plan, and $1.64 per month for a two-year plan with an extra six months free. AtlasVPN offers more than 1,000 high-speed VPN servers, unlimited devices, 24/7 support, WireGuard protocol and passwordless login. Read on for step-by-step instructions on how to watch The Great Canadian Baking Show in the US with AtlasVPN.

    1. Sign up for AtlasVPN and create an account
    2. Once finished, click “Go Premium” which will direct you to the downloads page
    3. Click “Get Atlas” for the platform of your choice
    4. Click “Download Now”
    5. Locate the file on your computer and follow the prompts to install AtlasVPN
    6. Click “Connect”
    7. Once AtlasVPN is set up, change your location to Canada by clicking the server in the right bar
    8. Visit The Great Canadian Baking Show‘s page on CBC’s website, CBC Gem.
    9. Create a free CBC account, sign in and start watching The Great Canadian Baking Show in the US

    Watch The Great Canadian Baking Show in the US with NordVPN

    Nord VPN is another popular VPN service recommended by YouTubers like PewDiePie, Casey Neistat and Philip DeFranco. The service—which offers a 30-day-money-back guarantee—costs $12.99 per month for a Standard monthly plan; $4.49 per month for a Standard one-year plan, with three extra months free; and $2.99 per month for a Standard two-year plan with three extra months free. Along with access to more than 59 countries, NordVPN also allows users to connect to multiple devices (from computers to phones to tablets) and offers 24-hour live-chat support. Read on for step-by-step instructions for how to watch The Great Canadian Baking Show in the US with NordVPN. 

    1. Sign up for NordVPN and create an account
    2. Log into your NordVPN account and click “Downloads” on the left-side menu
    3. Once you’ve installed NordVPN, log into your account
    4. Once NordVPN is set up, change your location to Canada by clicking “Quick Connect” or searching the country in the menu
    5. Visit The Great Canadian Baking Show‘s page on CBC’s website, CBC Gem.
    6. Create a free CBC account, sign in and start watching The Great Canadian Baking Show in the US

    Watch The Great Canadian Baking Show in the US with PureVPN

    Another popular VPN service is Pure VPN, which offers a 31-day-money-back guarantee. PureVPN’s Max plans cost $20.45 per month for a monthly plan, $4.96 per month with three extra months free for a one-year plan, and $3.44 per month with three months free for a two-year plan. Pure VPN offers more than 6,5000 servers in over 78 countries across the world, as well as 24-hour live-chat support. Read on for step-by-step instructions for how to watch The Great Canadian Baking Show in the US with PureVPN.

    1. Sign up for PureVPN and create an account
    2. Once you’ve created your account, scroll to the bottom of PureVPN’s homepage and select the VPN that fits your device: Windows, MAC, IOS, etc.
    3. Click “Download the app”
    4. Once you’ve installed PureVPN, log into your account
    5. Once PureVPN is set up, change your location to Canada by searching for the country in the right bar
    6. Visit The Great Canadian Baking Show‘s page on CBC’s website, CBC Gem.
    7. Create a free CBC account, sign in and start watching The Great Canadian Baking Show in the US

    When does The Great Canadian Baking Show air?

    The seventh season of The Great Canadian Baking Show premiered on CBC Television on October 1, 2023. As with previous seasons, ten amateur bakers competed over the course of eight weeks before a winner was named on November 20, 2023. A fourth edition holiday special episode of The Great Canadian Baking Show also aired on November 26, 2023.

    Image: Courtesy of CBC.

    Who are the hosts of The Great Canadian Baking Show?

    Comedians Ann Pornel and Alan Shane Lewis are the hosts of The Great Canadian Baking Show. The pair have served as hosts since season 4 of The Great Canadian Baking Show, replacing past hosts Aurora Browne and Carolyn Taylor, comedians from the Baroness von Sketch Show. 

    Who are the judges on The Great Canadian Baking Show?

    Bruno Feldeisen and Kyla Kennaley are the judges for The Great Canadian Baking Show. The pair returned for their seventh and fifth seasons respectively as judges in 2023.

    The Great Canadian Baking Show is available to stream on CBC‘s website, CBC Gem, with a VPN in the United States. Here’s how to watch it for free.

    Our mission at StyleCaster is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale.

    [ad_2]

    Jenzia Burgos

    Source link