Great British Bake Off 2018 [** Spoilers **]

Addle

I love Rahul.
Don't like John at all. He seems too cocky or something.

razorblunt

I don't think Rahul's act isn't put on but he certainly embellishes it somewhat. His "yeah 150 biscuits, I'll just have to try my best" was incredible faux modesty. Strikes me as someone that would have come out of exams saying "I definitely failed that", I'm screwed and then came top of the class.

zenbuffy

Well, that was a rollercoaster! From pretty much the first challenge, I had pegged Terry and Karen as the ones who would probably leave, and when they both did poorly in the technical, their fate was pretty sealed imo. Especially as they were doing the double elimination this week. Both of them just had rough weeks in the tent this time unfortunately.
My heart broke listening to Terry talk about his wife, it was such an unexpected gut punch of sadness. My dad died in 2012 and it just doesn't ever really stop affecting you. The way it affects you changes, you sort of grow around the grief, but I don't think it's ever really gone. Baking helped (and still helps) me to keep on keeping on, it was something to lose myself in when I needed that to get through the weeks. Suffice to say that I was a little teary-eyed watching Terry, and I could definitely empathise.
I'm glad Kim Joy got star baker. I thought for a moment that Paul might give it to Rahul again, but I thought Kim Joy's presentation was better. Such beautiful detail in her showstopper, it was really just gorgeous. I'll be surprised if both of them don't end up in the final!
As for spice week, it was a weird one. Like a do-over of cake and biscuit week combined, but spice so it's different? That said, I love ginger, so I was in the money this week! I already have a lovely ginger cake recipe that I love and use often, and I like nothing more than to make gingerbread biscuits and then spend ages dotting royal icing about the place.
So this week my family got my signature gingerbread cake, with salted caramel and spiced dark rum buttercream, decorated with teeny tiny little gingerbread houses.

The little houses are reminiscent of ones I made in 2016 for biscuit week in that they have little doors both on the front and back, so they can sit perched on a lovely cup of tea too! Back in 2016, I actually made a little template for the houses, complete with recipe and printable template & measurements, but since then, I've developed on the theme a little. I worked out a smaller template, and actually 3d printed a little cookie cutter that I resized to fit, which cuts all the pieces for the little houses in one go!

I just really love gingerbread construction!

razorblunt

Terry had a wife? I must have missed that, I thought he was gay!

Tar.Aldarion

His wife died of cancer last year.


I don't blame you, I tend to think that of any male baker on there ha! I remember seeing Dan and saying those kids are definitely adopted

Posy

I was cringing for poor Dan's daughter, Constance. What a name to be lumbered with. :pac:

Aisling(",)

Barnaby may in fact be worse....

Apologies to anyone called Barnaby and Constance !!

RhubarbCrumble

His surname is Beasley Harling. Poor little Constance Beasley Harling!

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

Zenbuffy, going to disagree, I thought that episode was the minus-rollercoaster! There was no dramatic tension because it was so obvious who was going to leave all the way through!

Kim Joy’s showstopper was truly exquisite. And did ye notice, she didn’t do a massive amount of biscuits? I’m impressed by her organisational skills as much as anything else. She didn’t give herself too much to do. It was nice to see a completely finished showstopper. I think she should release a book on decorating cakes and biscuits, she has definite talent.

Despite my Dan ambivalence, I thought his butterfly icing was stunning too.

I’m sad that Terry never learned from his timing issues because from a creativity point of view, he was one of my faves. I hope the show opens up social avenues for him to help him cope with his wife’s death.

And finally, despite not really liking Karen, I felt for her at the end. She seemed truly sad to be leaving. Also, she endeared herself to me a bit more last night with her - “We’re big girls in Pontefract” and “We were the brown knicker gang”. She seemed less fake or something?

Anyway, that’s my thoughts!

God I teared up at the end!!

Delighted for Kim! She’s adorable! The decoration on her showstopper was amazing
Warming to ruby too!

confusticated

The handshakes need to stop. They're just a total gimmick at this point, I've been rewatching some of the old series since they're on Netflix now and it's so clear how it used to be a genuine mark of something Paul thought was amazing and now is just another way of more point-scoring.

I like Briony and Jon, I think Briony will be next to go though somehow. I do kinda feel that we only get to know the bakers properly around now - Karen had been annoying me with her "zaniness" but last week and this I thought she was a lot more down to earth, I was sad for her that she went but it wasn't surprising. And Terry was heartbreaking! Seems like such a nice gentle person.

zenbuffy

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts wrote: »

Zenbuffy, going to disagree, I thought that episode was the minus-rollercoaster! There was no dramatic tension because it was so obvious who was going to leave all the way through!

This is true, I wasn't very clear what I meant there. The episode was a bit flat since it was obvious who was going all through, I just wasn't expecting the sadness about Terry at the end. So, like, a little mini rollercoaster. One that you'd put a kid on. 😂

tea and coffee

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

His wife died of cancer last year.


I don't blame you, I tend to think that of any male baker on there ha! I remember seeing Dan and saying those kids are definitely adopted

He said at the start they used a surrogate- his "self portrait" bake was based on him in Palm Springs, FL, where he met his kids for the first time.

Poor Terry, so, so sad. I shed a tear myself at that bit.

Dan is starting to get on my nerves with his strops

Rahul is fab, but def has something going on regarding confidence; from the editing it looks like ASD, but could be way off.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

Have to admit, I did LOL at Dan’s cheekiness in telling Paul that the biscuit chandelier idea was stupid. He also said on Twitter that he didn’t let his kids watch this week’s episode because he doesn’t want his daughter expecting the chandelier for her birthday.

j@utis

I just want to smack Rahul across his head. He's so annoying! to the point that I don't care how good his bakes are!

iamwhoiam

j@utis wrote: »

I just want to smack Rahul across his head. He's so annoying! to the point that I don't care how good his bakes are!

He actually needs help to deal with his anxiety . He makes me anxious watching him and I can't enjoy anything he presents .

iamwhoiam

iamwhoiam wrote: »

He actually needs help to deal with his anxiety . He makes me anxious watching him and I can't enjoy anything he presents .

Yeah he's such a talented Baker but I feel the same. I can't actually watch him. I've been watching his bits through my fingers.

Delighted with the results tonight.

It was great to see Briony finally flourishing as I've really liked her from week one.

iamwhoiam

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Yeah he's such a talented Baker but I feel the same. I can't actually watch him. I've been watching his bits through my fingers.

Delighted with the results tonight.

It was great to see Briony finally flourishing as I've really liked her from week one.

Its difficult to watch such anxiety on a feel good programme
Glad to see Dan go , he just annoyed me every week !

iamwhoiam

iamwhoiam wrote: »

Its difficult to watch such anxiety on a feel good programme
Glad to see Dan go , he just annoyed me every week !

Yeah he has the skills to win but as my partner said he won't be getting his own TV show like Nadia if he can't rein the anxiety in.

gmisk

Well deserved star baker (that pie was a work of art) and right person went as well.

RhubarbCrumble

iamwhoiam wrote: »

Glad to see Dan go , he just annoyed me every week !

Delighted too see the back of him. He was getting more and more smug as the weeks went on.

borderlinemeath

Delighted with Briony. And to top it all off I was looking at her twitter page - she posted that she was out tonight watching bake off in the pub with her husband - and Terry! Watching him get so emotional last week and hearing how he said losing his wife had left such a void and baking helped, it's great to see that he has made a new circle of friends through the show.



https://twitter.com/brionymaybakes

borderlinemeath

borderlinemeath wrote: »

Delighted with Briony. And to top it all off I was looking at her twitter page - she posted that she was out tonight watching bake off in the pub with her husband - and Terry! Watching him get so emotional last week and hearing how he said losing his wife had left such a void and baking helped, it's great to see that he has made a new circle of friends through the show.



https://twitter.com/brionymaybakes

Aaaw that's so great.

borderlinemeath

Deleted User wrote: »

Aaaw that's so great.

Isn't it just? My Mother in Law died earlier this year and my Father in Law is in that void still. So Terry last week really hit a raw nerve with us watching it. Not that my FiL would ever take up baking but it's great to see how it's had such a positive effect on Terry.

alchemist33

I was disappointed to see Dan do quite so badly this week. He'd been so good before and totally let himself down. But it was such a disaster that he had to go. Delighted for Briony though.

And those samosas looked amazing. I want some if them rather than what you usually get

borderlinemeath

borderlinemeath wrote: »

Isn't it just? My Mother in Law died earlier this year and my Father in Law is in that void still. So Terry last week really hit a raw nerve with us watching it. Not that my FiL would ever take up baking but it's great to see how it's had such a positive effect on Terry.

Yeah I hope this doesn't sound condescending but I think it was so brave of him to go on gbbo. I imagine to be in that situation doing anything to pull yourself back up must be daunting, never mind going on a TV show! Delighted he's made friends out of it.

I like Briony even more now for that too!

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

alchemist33 wrote: »

I was disappointed to see Dan do quite so badly this week. He'd been so good before and totally let himself down. But it was such a disaster that he had to go. Delighted for Briony though.

And those samosas looked amazing. I want some if them rather than what you usually get

I didn’t like Dan but I feel the same. He was a strong contestant and he really imploded this week. I’m very glad they didn’t sacrifice Manon for him. That would have been so unfair on her. It honestly seemed in the deliberation that they were considering letting Dan get away with a bad week.

I think he really screwed himself on the samosas by being too clever-clever with the pasta machine that actually overworked the pastry. And doing badly in that round seemed to throw him completely off-kilter. He must have been kicking himself. He threw it away.

Yay Briony. So glad she got her mojo back!

Aisling(",)

So glad Briony got star baker.I love her,Jon and Kim-Joy.
I think Jon is my favourite but my god when he drank the raw egg whites I nearly died.

I'm interested to see how next week goes.Haven't a poodles doodle how they'd go about vegan meringues.

After Dan's stroppy tweets I'm glad he's gone because he'd become my least favourite.

Loving this season and long may the bake off continue!

cruizer101

Briony deserved it alright.
I'm a bit torn about Dan he was a good baker but had a mare of a week and deserved to go based on last night.

Vegan Meringues, actually made with chickpea water which seems odd but apparently makes really good meringues
https://youtu.be/-UZmP1OzWRQ?t=161

LirW

Love pastry week because it is the pinnacle of skill, in previous seasons and yesterday as well you could see who really got it, pastry is pretty darn difficult.
Also I think the level of contestants this year has been really really high from the beginning on. Britain's home bakers are certainly not messing around.

I'm at the point where I don't dislike any of the contestants, they all seem like pretty genuine people in their own way.

I honestly feel really sorry for Rahul, he has some incredible skills but he has such anxiety issues that obviously aren't under control. I hope this won't stand between him and the finals, because he's such a contender for it, he never screwed anything up majorly.