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.

Yeah I noticed that weird silence, I assumed it was shock, but maybe it was "phew".

I like both Paul and Dylan! Paul has his faves but seems quite unpeturbed by binning them when it's time.

idk Paul’s been grating on me more since the handshake fakeout etc

Sumayah was great on Extra Slice though.

I am not fussed about any of the regional wine mums still in.

Jhill is my fave i think but idk how much further she’ll go

Sumayah also said that she'd been to Taylor Swift that week and the day before had been her birthday.

watching it again, her showstopper was the only one with any negative comments. I'd eat any of them tbh.

sort of feel sumayah was the one threat to dylan's dominance, i think it's his now. she was very entertaining and a GREAT baker.

Yeah, we’ve been Team Dylan for a while now, but who’s not to like this year…

this was a fun & stressful episode & I am happy for (winner)and v sad for (loser)but it does feel like the pack have separated into sure things & back of pack now kinda

These handshakes are a fuckin menace now
i literally yelled at the tv when Paul gave Dylan his handshake (lol gave Mr Veg quite a fright)
fuckin seventeen bloody handshakes for Dylan while Georgie got that fucking fakeout because she didn’t garnish with fuckin parmesan cheese!,? RAAAAGH FUCK OFF

They should replace Paul and Prue with Cherish and Benoit for a week, just for the laugh.

I am now entirely obsessed with Christiaan's accent. He has a different voice every time he opens his mouth.

Alison falling off the bench was absolute gold. I love her

He has a different voice every time he opens his mouth.

He has a different accent with every word of a sentence. It is utterly hypnotising.

Alison falling off the bench was absolute gold. I love her

She's just fantastic. And she has such great chemistry with Noel.

omg Alison was hilarious
the way you could see her feet juuust poking out from behind the bench truly sent me

and then she tries to show him what happned & Noel being all “Don’t do it again!”

lol she is a total hoot

Christiaan’s accent is absolutely baffling & v funny

Also props to Tom on Extra Slice for calling out Paul for saying that Dylans croquembouche looked “like something from a department store”
LMAO

For me it was her plaintive "don't come round here!" when she could hear the camera person moving towards her.

They showed a teaser of Allison falling off the worktop at the end of last week's episode and my partner and I played it back 8 or 9 times trying to work out which contestant it was. "Is Illiyin wearing green trousers?" "That's not Gill, is it?" So it was extra-funny that it was Allison in the end.

For me it was her plaintive "don't come round here!" when she could hear the camera person moving towards her.

I feel like more than any other Bakeoff presenter thus far she's made her bones on live TV and is ready to make a moment like that A MOMENT. She's so great.

Yes, it's the ability to be human and relatable and in the moment and not at all showbizzy but rather just *be* which makes all my favourite TV people (Alison, Claudia, Rylan) so good. Noel also now leagues better as a result - he's always had it in him but standing next to Sandi and Matt just seems like such hard work compared to just hanging out with Alison.

When all the hugs and stuff was going on at the end of this week's show after the results, Alison was just there in the background wiping tears off the face of the visibly distraught evictee, and I just can't imagine Sandi Toksvig being that thoughtful or kind (and I've done a TV show presented by Sandi and she's absolutely just there earning her money and going through the motions)

that was a pretty incredible round of showstoppers, they all looked so incredible!

i was v bummed about the person going home, but would not have wanted a finale without the other so

bring on finale!

For all their talk about evictions being based on that episode alone, that eviction was almost certainly not, no matter how much they tried to create a difference in the showstopper section.

yeah in that sense it felt rather unfair

worst jumper ever?

AaAaAaAaARRRRRRGHHH

yeah yikes i didn’t care for the jumper lol

quite an exciting finale i thought? also i had never heard of hanging cakes before but i dont go to many weddings lol

i saw the first hour but just before the final judging the PVR turned over to record another channel. still haven't seen the end. (it's on again tonight, and several more times)

the technical was quite intense, but definitely in that classic realm where it really tests your knowledge & abilities

as opposed to “heres an obscure thing youve never seen or heard of”

just caught the end, agree with the winner

dylan's showstopper was shocking, had 6" of threaded rod coming out the bottom of it, wtf

yeah Dylan’s limitations were really on display in the showstopper challenge - his tendency to try to simplify & be conceptual & do the work w flavor wasn’t the way to nail this challenge, when elaborateness is kind of the point. It looked like half a cake compared to the other two. Also the poor kid has very little resilience in the face of setbacks/failures, as seem in the signature & technical. Definitely an age thing though. He was beautifully gracious in the end which was lovely to see.

Would have been happy with any of the finalists winning, but what I do love is that the winner almost gave up and quit last week and was talked around by Alison, which is the real heart and beauty of this show. Also loved that Christiaan tried his best to help Dylan when he was running out of time on his scones

my favorite thing Georgie & her family after they announce that she wins -in every shot Georgie’s tween son is openly sobbing & it is the most beautiful & tender thing I have ever seen. Also Georgie’s showstopper O_O incredible

the lace stencil effect on the last cake was great, all the better for being slightly imperfect, like it had age. the berry shaped things in one of the previous episodes, though, another one where she struggled, looked unreal, so much detail

Interview with Dylan:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/02/style/dylan-bachelet-british-baking-show.html

say hello stoufer...

It always breaks my heart to see children on this programme balls it up in exactly the way I would balls it up. Just make your choux again, Francesca, please. We're all rooting for you.

i wonder how anyone ever manages to remake anything given the time constraints

Catching up belatedly on collection 12, and this is the best season in ages. I'm not quite sure if I agree with the judges that the talent blows past seasons out of the water, but I am already stanning several of the bakers -- I <3 Nelly so much, and Dylan (who is also so painfully pretty) and Sumaya have just incredible decorating skills.

Yeah it was an outstanding cast, practically everyone became my favorite baker

Yeah, absolute top series, total comeback after the previous uninspiring season, which really seemed like the show was losing steam.

Final of JBO was great. Hooray!

I probably mentioned this before but I usually love hearing all the accents on the show, and this season we've got two Welsh bakers... and then we also get an American.

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.