On Your Marks, Get Set, Baaaaake! A Thread for Great British Baking Show / Bake Off & all of its sundry delights

Mary Berry: Angel
Paul Hollywood: silver gorilla fox

My knowledge only covers Netflix US-aired seasons which are the English Bake Off seasons 4/5/6 (it's confusing I know)

Let us now discuss Russet Gandalfs, bread lions, genoese sponges & why you dont throw your baked alaska in the bin

S1 - Nancy is a BOSS i love her
Scottish Norman is adorable
Russet Gandalf Ian <3

S2 - Ruby is my fave
Kimberly is a genius
Frances is lovely but her teeth scare me
Howard <3

s3 NADIYA FOREVER but seriously I have seem this season 3 times and i love it so much, they're all lovely esp Matt the Fireman

sue & mel are grate i love them

so weird seeing it called "baking show", it's like calling 30 rock "television building"

not thrilled about it either, trying not to dwell

soz

lol no its cool *rages-*

Great British Flour & Sugar Hour

gifs i have loved

King Luis

http://goodtoknow.media.ipcdigital.co.uk/111/000012e0d/6079/Luis.gif

Matt the Fireman <3

https://2982-presscdn-29-70-pagely.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Great-British-Bake-Off-Mel-and-Matt.gif

Norman the Scot & his adorable semaphore

http://tvdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/norman.gif

We have all been this Dorrett

http://i.imgur.com/kBUntMB.gif

The Dorrett thing is SO SAD

I always scream when people drop their food, or like a layer falls off the top off a cake - I don't know why, it makes me really nervous, like watching a small child on a really tall climbing frame.

Mr Veg found the first 3 seasons of Bake-Off for me on the t0rentz

Season 1 format is rather different! The tent travels round to different cities, they eliminate 2 bakers each episode, and Sue and Mel do a lot of 'history of the biscuit' 'history of the cake' interstitial stuff during challenges so it's not 100% baking heavy the way it is now. Which isn't great, cuts too much into the baking which is the best part. Also episode 1 inside the tent was shot very jumpily, and not very well light, so it wasn't nearly as colorful as it quickly became in the next episode. Thankfully they fixed that pretty quick.
Mary Berry's hair is very flat!
Bakers call out to the judges and ask how much time is left!
And there's some dude doing the voiceover which is v weird.

Favorite moment so far was Ep 1 with Sue sitting on a blanket inside a stone ring with an eccentric-voiced longhaired baking historian discussing bannocks and I have NO idea how she sat through that without bursting into gales of laughter. I wish I could find a photo of him.

oh and:
signature bakes are a little bit looser: bake any kind of cake, bake any kind of biscuit
technicals so far have been basics like victoria sponges or scones, but the bakers are given the ingredients only: no method at all

and there's a weird little canteen area in back where bakers can go up and ask for items, one lady ran over and asked for double cream.

it's kind of fun seeing how it's all evolved!

god the showstoppers are out of control on S1

SIX different types of bread rolls, half a dozen each! 3 savory, 3 sweet

SIX canapes, 3 savory, 3 sweet, half a dozen each!

Three puddings: suet, baked, crumble!

they must have drowned in leftovers, holy shit

i would have ptsd after these

it is crazy how good this show is at building flopsweat tension around some of the lowest stakes imaginable

Every week has the "are they going to complete this in time for the judges" montage before the end of the round, and ALMOST EVERY TIME it's completely fine, and yet it worries me every single episode

totally!! it's a very chill show compared to top chef etc but I still get stressed out

s1 almost done

- can't STAND ruth and it makes me feel bad bc shes a good baker etc. idk. buu her stupid "boy bait" pudding and making quiche for the finale "for the men" it's like she's pandering to paul and it drives me barmy

-they have clearly done some work reigning in paul bc he was a borderline WANKER in this season. key moment: dismissed ruth's cupcakes as too girly AS THE ONLY MAN ON A PANEL OF WOMEN!! and farting on about stuff looking commercial & professional ragh i love him now but i could slap him almost once every episode

- mary berry telling miranda she reminded her of hrself when she was young <3 that would make my life

S2 report:

Next to Tamal, Rob is the most beautiful creature I have seen in this show so far

*dies*

though I would have eloped with Keith in college imo

Hi! I'm watching the Netflix season now, and it's so refreshing watching a reality competition without any producer-mandated villains.

Also, I forget who said it, but when I heard somebody mention "roasted veg" I got a good chuckle.

Also also I have a crush on Kate.

Like she is more Captain Chaos than Jordan ever was.

Also also also I decided to put closed captions on because SO MANY ACCENTS, but even with the subtitles, I still have no clue what the contestants are talking about.

Kate is v cool but def has captain chaos tendencies

Though lets be real, the *true* Captain Chaos is Jordan Crazy Teeth

Maybe Jordan didn't last long enough to impress his chaos on me, but with Kate, she's up one week, then down the next, then oh noes her dough is still raw and yet she ends up in second place anyway! She is a roller coaster!

I dunno I just picture Jordan covered head to foot in flour with a saucepan burning in the background

Kate's hair fascinated me. Like this amazing curly braided amazingness. And she seemed like she'd be cool to hang out with

Speaking of hair, Chetna's haircut is soooo stylish, love it.

yes! also her grey is so good

Chetna was my baking crush

Russet Gandalf was p cute but I think I kiiiind of fancy Richard? Dimples + pencil behind the ear is a winning combo

and i have a girlcrush on Nancy. She's saucy

It's only natural that the Queen of Spices has pepper in her hair! xxxps

Very distracted by Deborah and those pictures of her husband and child which are just really hard to make sense of given her apparent age.

And why are there only photos to show? Did she steal someone else's photos like she steals ingredients??

dude that's pretty ageist & mean

I mean yeah, sorry...but...don't you wonder about people's lives? There's a story there.

there's a differemce between "wondering" & "side-eyeing"

I finished Season 2 of English bake off & it's pretty marvellous

Jo's such a love - bubbly but terrified, Essex mum finally doing "something for herself". I read online that her husband was doing 16 years in jail for money laundering at the time. Which just made me love her more. she seemed like she mightve had a hard life & that confirmed it

and MaryAnne!! What a treat. Rugby champion, baking historian, mum, wizard. Amazing. She has a book!

Janet was hilarious - mr veg said her facial expressions reminded him of Beaker from the muppets

lots of great women in this season.

As for the guys -

dreamboat Rod turned out to be a bit of a disaster, very disorganized, bit too cavalier. he definitely put the wind up Paul, I've never seen the silver fox come down on a baker like he did with Rod.

sweet baby Jason had sooooooo much potential, very talented for one so young but was just a tad too green for the big leagues. Definitely fun to watch though.

I just finished the Chetna season! I really admired Richard for his ability to laugh at himself, and it was sad to see him crumble in the last week, though I would've been fine with any of the final three winning. (When they showed a picture of a young Richard with a full head of hair, I can see why Veg might crush on him!)

One episode into the next season, and watching Ruby struggle with her lack of self-confidence is so painful (I empathize with her completely), I'm not sure I can handle a whole season's worth (I caught a random episode of this season on PBS and know she hangs around for at least a little while).

Rubes is one of my favorites, I love her so much.

She looks like the daughter of Saffron Burrows and Elizabeth Berkeley, plus her look of utter astonishment when she was Star Baker in bread week was lolz.

That aside, this cast is so much less likeable than the previous one! So many stubborn people and/or people whose insecurities are showing. :(

Yeah... it grew on me though. Francis is kind of a crazy sorcerer with her amazing showstoppers, i'm in awe of her creativity

Slight crush on Kimberley from that season. And Howard is all-time great.

Richard had a weird Martin Freeman vibe, I thought

(in a good way)

I wrote a tl:dr blog post about GBBO for my own amusement...

http://tourdefrump.blogspot.com/2017/03/perfection-failure-and-why-great.html

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/mar/16/noel-fielding-and-sandi-toksvig-to-host-new-great-british-bake-off

Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig to host new Great British Bake Off

New presenters will join new judge Prue Leith and Bake Off stalwart Paul Hollywood in the Channel 4 version of the show

That should kill it off then.

Never underestimate the merciless savagery of a bored teenage girl. I'm surprised Noel is still standing after Sumaya destroyed him to his face.

That semi final is the best that I can remember!

Imo the winner was only second-best accent.

But seriously, overjoyed that Georgie won, I teared up and just managed not to ugly cry when they announced her, partly because my head has had a rough week but also because there's a real relatable and aspirational quality to her narrative.

Enjoyed this New Yorker article by a former contestant (Ruby Tandoh): https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/09/01/inside-the-world-of-the-great-british-bake-off

yeah that was fun

For her co-judge, they chose Paul Hollywood, at that time a virtually unknown bread baker. He came from a line of bakers and had been the youngest ever head baker at the Dorchester hotel, but viewers of his cable show, “Use Your Loaf,” would have known him as the innovator of the “breast test”: proofed bread dough, when prodded, should feel like a woman’s breast.

Are we surprised?

i for one am shocked

:/

Ruby Tandoh has always spoken about how poorly she and Paul Hollywood gelled on that show. She has never liked him, for all the right reasons. It's interesting that in the current climate he has either mended his ways or manages to just stay the right side of obnoxious.

the cakes on Extra Slice look a bit bare this year

It all seems a bit routine this year, although my tip for a dark-horse win was eliminated this week. I’m glad the show is sticking to the core craft rather than elaborate theme weeks (well, bar one).

caliber of this year's bakers a big dropoff from last year's imho

I watched the first two episodes, and there was too much decorating and not enough baking, plus the usual "we're giving you two hours to finish a three-hour job" nonsense. I might be a huge pervert for thinking this, but I feel like it's more fun watching baking than decorating. At any rate, this is the first season since... well, ever, that I don't feel interested in watching. (I thought last year was the best since M&S left.)

Yeah, we were on holiday with a ton of TV to watch when we got back and have built up a backlog and it's felt quite a slog to watch Bake Off, I just don't care (we've only just watched the school dinners one)

I had a similar thing with Throwdown and Sewing Bee, I liked them both and then suddenly lost interest. I guess I just reached my maximum tolerance for this particular format, it’s not surprising after multiple seasons over a decade?

Part of it may also be that Prue is such a dud judge.

I like her. She's a bit of crack, and she is encouraging. Plus her style is incredible for a woman who is nearly ninety or whatever she is. ogr

I think maybe these programmes have been around so long now that it's OK for our enthusiasm for them to wax and wane. I didn't even watch BakeOff last year, or Strictly, but this year I'm really enjoying both. Same with Sewing Bee. I thought the contestants were funny, and the judges just get looser and more fun over time.

I don't know where the stray ogr came from in that post. Keyboard's haunted.

Watched a couple more last night and very much back in the groove, though it's very dull as a competition when one baker is just so far ahead of the others. This lot are a nice bunch to watch though, Ian the Irish fella is just lovely all-time Bake Off contestant gold.

his meringue show stopper (no spoilers) was funny and a nice call-back

I love the personalities this season but I agree that the overall talent from last season was astronomical

Last year was the best season in so long, just absolutely back on track and fire. This year has been good! Not as great, the baking not as great, the bakers not as great, though I love Ian, and Toby, and Natalia, and Lesley, and the one who was a drag king. Prue is a lot of fun - I almost forget what a cunt her son is. But it's very comfort TV, and I think Allison and Noel are just such a great duo.

Paul's got his twinkle back as well, he seems to be a lot less up himself. I suspect it's tough to be tough when you have Noel and Alison goofing around you all the time.

Yeah, I've definitely warmed more to him of late. I feel like he may have been somewhat humbled by his post-divorce shack-up with a much younger woman who, if I remember from my days working at Heat magazine, humuliated him something rotten. He definitely seems much less of a prick.

His 23-yo ex, wiki informs me, was called Summer Monteys-Fullam

So, the final.

Despite him getting to the final by the skin of his teeth at the expense of my lovely Toby, I thought Tom should have won. They're supposed to judge on the day, not cumulatively, or else why did the rest of them bother turning up if they were always going to let Jasmine win. She's obviously excellent, but she was not the best baker in that final. We figured the justifications of why she might be in contention were just to stop it being so obviously Tom's title, not for her to overtake him. Bah.

Non-spoiler, have been enjoying Aaron getting increasingly more camp each week.

The last shirt Aaron wore was amazing, and so suitable for someone on a baking competition. I also really felt for Tom when he was talking about trying to keep a lid on his gayness as a young man, and only really letting it come out through baking. In fact, they were all round a top-notch crew this year. I did wonder if some of the other contestants looked at the holiday photo at the end and wondered why they weren't invited.

I think the judges were probably able to justify Jasmine's win because Tom did so very badly in the signature round. He was the only one who made something in the final that was awful. I'd say that cost him the win.

I think if I were Tom I wouldn't feel too hard done by. He did put citric acid in his bread! (xp)

yeah, that was a bad mistake,fair enough.

the jars were very similar though (apart from the label). were they his jars or supplied by Bake Off? probably his given it was first round

anyway, the Extra Slice cakes continue to be quite threadbare. the semi finalist had just two miniature bakes and a star on the front. iirc last year at this stage the entire thing was festooned with little models of the bakes, they pretty much obscured the bench.

the jars were very similar though (apart from the label).

One of them was almost twice as tall as the other!

I haven't been bothered to watch this season, for the first time. Did it get better?

ILX hive mind help please. I’ve never watched the show. Is there a particular season that stands out for entertainment value ? Thank you for your attention to this matter :)

are you in uk or us?
weird naming conventions come in to play

UK - Series 5 & Series 6
USA (Netflix) equivalent Collection 1 & Collection 3

you need to start w the classics imo - both seasons are bangers

US based and thank you VG!

enjoy! and report back your findings! <3

Netflix US starts with collection 5, don’t see collection 1 or 3. Assuming that it lines up with the UK seasons, I watched S5E1. They made an illusion cake for the special challenge - very impressive stuff. Winner was the BLT cake if that sparks any memories.

hmm. oh well. bummer!
collection 5 on netflix = series 8 uk
it is good, lot of fun ppl
Flo is a kick!

there’s a chart under International Versions section that gives you the equivalent season (its v annoying & confusing why they did it that way)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_British_Bake_Off

Do people outside of the UK sometimes turn on the subtitles?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbHCcIZFmik

Pertinent bit at 3'20"

i dont but i have friends who do. mr veg is often baffled by what heavily-accented ppl are going on abt but says he doesnt care enough for subtitles

(i had to use subtitles to watch Happy Valley though.)

Conversely, we used subtitles all the way through The Wire.

I've started using subtitles on almost everything, because I'm 50, I have a kid who loves watching TV almost as much as she loves talking all the way through a TV programme, and because modern TV is mixed for televisions much more sophisticated than our 16yo bog-standard flatscreen.

same plus the multiple humidifiers my partner insists on running at all times

I finished collection 5 on Netflix (UK season 8). It was a kick, really enjoyed the format, the judges, the contestants, the drama, and the look of all the amazing things they produced. Started collection 6 (probably UK season 9). Not quite as good so far, think the contestants aren't as fun or maybe it's not a show to watch season to season without a gap.

oh, i understood it just fine without subtitles

kid's show starts again at 5. daily for 3 weeks.

i enjoyed the peep show special over christmas