The Great British Bake-Off 2020

[Blue Jam]

It's back:

https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2020-09-22/great-british-bake-off-2020-contestants/

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

Looking forward to Pijlstaart's take on Peter.

[Blue Jam]

Lottie sounds like one to keep an eye on:

while her baking has become more refined over time, she hopes it retains an element of her dark sense of humour

A teaspoon of vanilla, a pinch of cinnamon, a little dash of novichok.

[kalowski]

I don't usually watch this, but think we might be getting a racist Bob Marley cake here...

[kalowski]

I don't usually watch this, but think we might be getting a racist Bob Marley cake here...

Oh, he's a totally green Bob Marley.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Aha, turns out it was the Lupita Nyong'o cake that turned out racist and who made that? A black woman. Suck it up leftards.

[confettiinmyhair]

The most controversial cake design was the Freddie Mercury one which resembled a sleeping Hitler.

I was surprised by the Blink 182 fan manchild who has decided to participate in the show despite his wife being in the late stages of pregnancy with his first child.

Bake Off tends to be a hive now for over-achieving young men who have chosen baking over existential self-loathing.

Matt Lucas was hilarious throughout, it felt like the Mel and Sue days of Bake Off.

[jobotic]

Hasn't the one who Hollywood and Fielding flirt with been in it before? I reckon she's a mate of Fielding

[confettiinmyhair]

I'm going to stan for Mak, even though I doubt he'll make it past the halfway stage.

[Action Fish]

Aha, turns out it was the Lupita Nyong'o cake that turned out racist and who made that? A black woman. Suck it up leftards.

I thought it looked like one of the Podlings from the Dark Crystal (thought this'd be all over Twitter; apparently not, but here's a comparison):
https://twitter.com/LaurenCrispH/status/1308505329131544577

[holyzombiejesus]

I really like an indie band called The Clientele and they tweeted this yesterday.

When we were 16/17 we had one of those teachers you never forget

in fact he wasn't our teacher per se, he just let us hang out in the music room

along with his colleague Helen, he let us play gigs at breaktime and told us admiringly our vocal sound, coming from a guitar amp, sounded like Enya

he would recommend discs from the extensive record library he thought we should hear: stockhausen's kontrapunkt, john coltrane, indian classical music, offenbach

he made a harpsichord himself, from scratch, which we were allowed to play on

he let us write music, which A level music students then played on flute or cello. He sight-read the entire solo of the wind cries mary - on piano, having never heard it before

it was an inspiration, and in the space he so generously gave us we gradually refined our sound

we never forgot his generosity.

So it was instantly wonderful to see him on bake off yesterday, making a sponge cake head of Marie Antoinette. Go Rowan!

[gilbertharding]

The most controversial cake design was the Freddie Mercury one which resembled a sleeping Hitler.

Frank Sidebottom, wasn't it?

[thecuriousorange]

They so obviously got them to make those horror heads just so people would post them on social media.

[Blue Jam]

Finally watching now. I like Matt Lucas on this already. And I always thought he'd make a good Boris Johnson.

[Blue Jam]

Rowan the music teacher looks a bit UKIP.

[Blinder Data]

I haven't laughed like that for a long time. Those showstoppers were deranged, brilliant.

I'm guessing Lottie is the series' posh totty? The bloke who got his pineapple cakes knocked over would be the male eye candy if he had a sense of humour.

Sura is an instant fave. It's between her and the young Edinburgh lad for me, Clive

Rowan the music teacher looks a bit UKIP.

Lib Dem, shurely?

[daf]

Frank Sidebottom, wasn't it?

you know it was,
it really w-a-a-a-a-a-s.

thankyou!

[dissolute ocelot]

I'm guessing Lottie is the series' posh totty?

She seems like a slightly less interesting (although admittedly attractive) version of the vaguely gothy woman from last year who made lots of icky-looking cakes.

There's always someone who puts too much spice in, as well, and NEVER LEARNS.

The guy from Edinburgh (Peter, is it) seems annoyingly nice and talented. There wasn't really anyone who stood out as a Michelangelo of the kitchen, but maybe that's down to the combination of easy signature, easy technical, and a showstopper that nobody really seemed to get to grips with (Peter probably had the best approach to the showstopper by keeping it simple and stylized, but that maybe won't work later in the series when people get properly arty).

[daf]

Hermine - 39-year-old accountant from London

Hermine was born and raised in Benin, West Africa, and moved to London in 2001 to pursue further education. Growing up, she used to love helping her mum bake for big family gatherings, and then at the age of eight decided to go about it on her own. She bought the ingredients for a Savarin cake and threw herself into the challenge. She has never looked back! The French influence in Benin has instilled in Hermine a love of high-end pâtissérie – she enjoys baking intricate millefeuille, éclairs and entremets. She is also a dab hand at sourdough – so much so that her nine-year-old son now refuses to eat any other bread! A notorious feeder with an infectious laugh, she's creative at heart and loves cooking marmalades and jams to give as gifts, making beautiful labels as well as delicious fillings for the jars.

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Rowan - 55-year-old music teacher from Worcestershire

Entirely self-taught, Rowan calls his baking style ostentatious – but, he hopes, tasteful. French pâtissérie is his absolute passion – he loves the subtlety of flavour, and the style and sophistication of French baking, and he is drawn to fine, complex, layered cakes. His love of the Georgian era encourages him to reinvent 18th-century recipes whenever he can. He enjoys decorating his bakes with flowers, preferably edible ones, using what is in bloom in his garden. A fitness enthusiast, Rowan swims a mile most mornings and is a keen cyclist and occasional horse-rider. He lives in Worcestershire with his partner, who shares his passion for music, the arts and theatre, and he can often be found in the British Library researching all things 1700s.

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Sura - 31-year-old pharmacy dispenser from London

Sura grew up surrounded by family who offered food as a means to show affection, love and respect. The many Middle Eastern and Asian influences in her heritage – including Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and India – mean she enjoys experimenting with ingredients and flavours from all over the world. Never one to stick to a recipe, Sura loves to improvise in the kitchen and inject her bakes with as much personality as possible. She loves to work with fragrant and floral flavours such as cardamom, rose and orange blossom.  She now lives in London with her husband and elderly grandmother. When she's not baking or working, she can be found indulging her passions for travel, architecture and design.  

Marc - 51-year-old bronze resin sculptor from Cornwall

Marc decided to enter Bake Off in a bid to show his daughters that even when life throws obstacles at you, you can rise to new challenges and develop new passions. Born and raised in Leicester, fervent climber Marc spent his youth travelling the world and conquering mountains, before settling back in the UK and becoming a landscape photographer. Personal tragedy, including losing his leg in a motorbike accident in 2016, led him to baking bread as a form of therapy, and from there he came to baking cakes and pastries. From palmiers and chausson aux pommes to opera cakes and millefeuille, his bakes now show true finesse. He's a support worker and single parent, and, with his daughters cheering him on, he's taken up climbing again.

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Laura - 31-year-old digital manager from Kent

A Gravesend girl born and bred, Laura began baking at around the age of eight but only realised her flair for it a few years ago. She loves citrus and strong flavours, and enjoys putting a modern twist on old classics. Laura thrives working under pressure and thinks her organised nature is what particularly suited her to taking part in Bake Off. The perfectionist in her wants things to look faultlessly pretty and gorgeously dainty. She specialises in decoration and is proud to have mastered the art of piped buttercream flowers. Laura is happily married to a Police Community Support Officer, and she loves musical theatre (as a performer and audience member) and is a volunteer for the Samaritans.

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Linda - 61-year-old retirement living team leader from East Sussex

Linda discovered her passion for baking during her frequent childhood visits to her aunt's dairy farm, just down the road from her own home. She'd help to milk the cows, then carry a bucket of milk into the kitchen, where her aunt taught her to bake cakes topped with rich, creamy icing. To this day Linda buys homegrown produce from another aunt's fruit farm and uses it in her baking. Her strengths are in the classics and in home-comfort cooking, like her signature sausage rolls. A lover of the countryside and of being outdoors in general, Linda will frequently head with her partner to their local beach, to fish for mackerel and mullet. And she loves to spend time in her garden – cultivating its produce and for its positive effects on her well-being.

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Makbul - 51-year-old accountant from Greater Manchester

Self-taught baker Makbul first took on cooking at home as a means to help support his mum. He has honed those early skills through watching TV shows, reading books and drawing inspiration from famous chefs. He has a remarkable ability to measure out ingredients just by eye. Mak's strengths lie in pastry (he says he's better at puff than shortcrust); and, for celebrations such as Eid, he enjoys making traditional Asian nankhatai biscuits. He thinks baking has made him generally more patient, but woe betide anyone (even his wife) who tries to take control in his kitchen! Their three grown-up children are his harshest baking critics. Mak has recently taken up beekeeping – he produces his own honey, which he loves to use as often as possible in his bakes.

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Dave - 30-year-old armoured guard from Hampshire

As a child, Dave rarely ventured into the kitchen to cook, relying entirely on his mum's cooking – he taught himself to bake only once he'd flown the nest. Now living with his girlfriend in their first home, he loves filling his kitchen with fancy, colourful gadgets and he even chooses his appliances with Bake Off in mind! Dave bakes at least once a week – and always while listening to his favourite punk rock bands. His baking style is innovative and imaginative and his strengths lie in bread (pretzels, brioche rolls, and baguettes are particular favourites) and decoration – he especially loves a mirror glaze to give his bakes a professional-looking finish. When he's not baking, Dave can be found pursuing his other passions – cars, DIY, and taking his dog and cat for walks.

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Loriea - 27-year-old diagnostic radiographer from Durham (Voted out in week 1)

Born and raised in Jamaica, Loriea uses baking as a means to celebrate her Caribbean roots. She moved to the UK when she was 15 years old, but began baking at age five with her maternal grandmother, whose influence plays a big part in her cooking style. Loriea loves to include coconut, chillies and cinnamon in her food – and rarely follows a recipe exactly. In fact, from the moment she reads a recipe, she starts to think how she can tweak it to make it her own. Her husband, Peter, is the biggest fan of her cooking, and he especially loves her Jamaican patties. When Loriea isn't baking or working long shifts at the hospital as a radiographer, she likes practising the craft of macramé. Growing up, Loriea was really into athletics – and has even met Usain Bolt.

Lottie - 31-year-old pantomime producer from West Sussex

Lottie's Lancastrian great-grandmother was a fervent cake-baker – and for this reason Lottie believes that baking is in her blood. She has always had a fascination with cooking: when she was little, she watched cooking shows rather than playing with her toys and was often to be found making notes from cookery books. She calls herself a 'perpetually frustrated perfectionist' and, while her baking has become more refined over time, she hopes it retains an element of her dark sense of humour. When she's not baking or busy with her job producing pantomime, Lottie will be playing computer games with her young cousins, or practising yoga.

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Mark - 32-year-old project manager from Liverpool

Northern Irishman Mark fell in love with baking at a pie shop in Edinburgh – he visited every day while he was at university for the shop's delicious Mac 'n' Cheese pie. Following that early inspiration, he began to experiment: first attempting (and perfecting) a lemon drizzle cake and eventually taking on multi-tiered wedding cakes, each time looking at the science of the bake in order to perfect it. His style is hugely influenced by his Irish heritage, but also by the flavours of Africa and Asia, where he travels regularly for his work as a project manager for public health research programmes. When he isn't baking, you can find Mark walking in the Lake District, indulging his passion for wildlife, or with his wife, travelling and exploring new places.

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Peter - 20-year-old Accounting & Finance student from Edinburgh (Star Baker, Week One)

With his parents and brother, Edinburgh-born Peter grew up feasting on his mum's home cooking. But it was Bake Off that inspired him to start baking for himself – he has watched every series since the first and has been baking seriously since he was only 12 years old. He loves to honour his homeland in his cooking, using Scottish ingredients – including berries, whisky, oats and honey – whenever he can. When he's not baking, he is either upholding the family's love of numbers by studying Accounting and Finance at university, or demonstrating his competitive streak on the badminton court – he has been playing badminton for a decade and has represented his county in the sport since 2012.

[jobotic]

31-year-old pantomime producer from West Sussex

Lovely stuff

[Pijlstaart]

Not sure I'm at peace with this. Cakes, could have started with something more sombre, something reflective of the public mood. Muted colours, maybe none at all.

Not sure about Matt Lucas, no wonder they had complaints. Boris is off-limits! Leftist hate speech, attacking our diseased embattled hero. Very sad, and Paul Hollywood too, remember him back in the 80s, standing behind Derek Hatton with a spiked bat. Tim Davie'll be fighting an uphill battle with this lot. Mandatory Tear'n'Share Karl Marxloaf.

Lot of filler characters, if they're not going to bother filming the filler characters, why even have them on? Liked the musician one, probably less able to sustain an interesting conversation than he would think. Suspect he is the reason MENSA introduced an upper limit on the number of times failed applicants can reapply.

Getting a bad early vibe about Peter, absolutely a Goosebumps villain, likely a ventriloquist dummy, but anything haunted and plastic is on the cards. He's not real though, so it's fine to say.

Lottie seems to be perpetually tongue-in-cheek. Hints of Victoria Coren. Wonder why a full third of the footage is about her? Think I'm an early fan.

Sura walks cat on a lead, something not right there. Impressionable too, producers managed to convince her to kabap another contestant's pineapple hoojums across the tent for the retweets. Never saw her in-shot with Matt lucas, convinced it is him in brown-face.

These Cake Heads though, cracking stuff. Glad to have this back.

[basterfeldt]

I really like an indie band called The Clientele and they tweeted this yesterday.

thank you for sharing this, he was already my favorite and this has made my day.

[gilbertharding]

Lottie - 31-year-old pantomime producer from West Sussex- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

What kind of job is that?

And then there's

Dave - 30-year-old GUN BASTARD fromHampshire- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[Dex Sawash]

Glad to see they've got another gelfling in and an ewok too for good measure.
Sandi is not looking well.

[Pijlstaart]

Matt Lucas an egg in need of beating, making me pine for Toksvig. He's paid more than me, that's what I can't stand, I wouldn't care if he had a zero-hours contract at a bingo hall.

who is Hermine? Is she new? She can't have been on last week. Silent H, what about the rest!?

Have narrowed down the type of plastic figure Peter is, he's got liquid seeping out of his face, very wet, so he's either a bath toy or one of those piss-themselves dolls grown up. Whatever he ends up being, he's sure to have a mouldy interior.             

Laura has a discoloured face, strangely darkened dirty cheeks. Scouse Mark has an ugly wedding ring. Rowan has a cold sore. Rowan has yellow teeth. Ah, yellow teeth you say, dinkles our periwinkle chum, all the better for biting you with. Ah yes, yellow teeth like the georgians of old, for I clean them with salt and charcoal and when they rot away I shall buy a beggarman's teeth to wear as my own. Ah yes, yellow from the lead paint coating the subsiding cake-like walls of my regency lodging-house, which I chew on to avoid having to eat my own baking.

Rowan a bullshitter, deserved to go home for not finishing a God-Damned-Thing in two God-Damned-Weeks. How convenient that he's REALLY interested in the most boring time-period in history, a time-period so boring he can be assured no-one'll ask him about it and uncover how little he knows. Mak didn't deserve this, a decent family mak from makchester with an uncanny resemblance to the CGI movie version of Sonic the Hedgehog, if only his identity revolved around dressing like a disgraced magician, if only he'd decided to wear a tie to go on a baking show and he'd dithered and Oh My'd instead of trying to actually bake things he might still be there like Rowan.

[dissolute ocelot]

Based on last night, it's looking very open. Dave is probably the favourite as someone who's very neat and precise both in the baking and the assembly/decoration. BORING CUNT. But there's several who could pull something out. Lottie is the one whose spin-off baking show I'd watch, although she's destined to be out week 6.

Rowan is definitely shit and should have gone home. Obviously we can't taste what the judges are eating but his half-arsed concoctions must be like unicorn spunk on a plate for him to have stayed, the Sagrada Familia of cakes. He has to be out next, and then Linda.

Peter's hair is annoying me. He is fucking Tin-Tin. He'll be out in a couple of weeks too. And all their fucking celebratory meals. "I go to Ethiopia quite often and I always drink tea out of a fucking gingerbread globe while tossing my hair." I hope you die in one of their notoriously unreliable airlines. Sorry. I'll shut up now.

[jobotic]

I quite liked Lucas saying "she likes my comedy programmes, I don't think she knows who you are" to Fielding.

Fielding should have said "what even the racist bits?" though.

Then Lucas could have said the same.

[Cuellar]

Rowan embodies everything wrong with this country. Failing upwards. The Chris Grayling of Bake Off. Should be 'sent home' but made to stand outside the tent watching them all have fun. Let him know the bliss with which he wasn't crowned.

[dissolute ocelot]

Noel Fielding seems to be turning into an enormous torso on pipe-cleaner legs. I can't work out what he looks like, and it's annoying me. Some kind of crudely-drawn Adult Swim character probably.

[amateur]

He is looking more and more like one of his appalling paintings.