The Great British Bake-Off 2023

[daf]

Great British Bincake - Back tonight!



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ABBI - Age: 27  |  From: Cumbria  |  Veg grower and delivery driver

Yorkshire-born Abbi first learned to bake alongside her mum, honing those early skills during her teens, when she became enthralled by the Victorian era and especially the traditional bakes of the time – steamed puddings, fruit cakes and more. Now she takes her inspiration from her environment and the beautiful English countryside around her home. A lover of the great outdoors, she forages for seasonal ingredients – the bigger and bolder, the better – and puts her homegrown veg to good use. Abbi's bakes aim to combine comfort and familiarity with a strong nod towards nature, and a feeling of creating something magical – bakes with a touch of fairytale!

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AMOS - Age: 43  |  From: North London  |  Deli and grocery manager

Film and theatre enthusiast, theme-park lover and hospitality professional, Amos grew up in Nottingham with his mum and sister, but now lives and works in North London. As a child, Amos was always amazed by his mum's ability to whip up delicious bakes at a moment's notice – making her both the inspiration and the role model for his own commitment to some serious baking. Amos describes his bakes as a labour of love – his style is colourful and chic with keen attention to detail, and he loves exploring different flavour profiles. He compares his baking style to the converted church that he now lives in, calling both his style and home 'traditional with a modern twist'.

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CRISTY - Age: 33  |  From: East London  |  Mum and PA

Life with four children means that, for Cristy, there always seems to be a birthday to bake for and an exciting party to plan. She describes her baking style as enchanted and pretty – bakes that conjure up a sense of childhood. Cakes are her speciality, and she draws flavour inspiration from her own Israeli heritage and from her husband's Jamaican roots. She is a dab hand with decoration and gets a thrill out of making sure the results look perfect. When she's not organising a celebration, you can find her having an outdoor adventure, letting her hair down with her friends, or solving a Rubik's cube – in under 4 minutes!

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DAN - Age: 42  |  From: Cheshire  |  Civil engineering resource planner

Dan's interest in cooking began when he went travelling in South America in 2007. His particular loves are pies and puddings: before he and his wife bought their first home, they lived with his in-laws, during which time his mother-in-law taught him how to make perfect shortcrust pastry. Subsequently, his passion for pies has evolved into a penchant for patisserie! Perfectionist Dan loves a baking challenge and will often find the hardest bake in one of his many (more than 300!) cookbooks and start there, throwing everything he's got at creating a masterpiece. When he's not baking, he loves to play football with his two young sons, work out in the gym, or forage for edible treats in the countryside around his home.

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DANA - Age: 25  |  From: Essex  |  Database administrator

Dana's passion for baking started at the age of 16 when she identified a gap in her family's traditionally Indian culinary repertoire. As a self-professed untidy baker, Dana would avoid stepping on her mum's toes in the kitchen by catching the bus to her dad's house to indulge her need to experiment with her bakes. Now she has a kitchen of her own (and a cockapoo, Gracie, to clean up after her), Dana has become the family's go-to celebration cake-maker. Her style is rustic and homely, but always pleasing to the eye. She loves a semi-naked cake with neat lines, pretty piping and minimalist decoration; and although she likes to keep her flavours safe, Dana will often incorporate a twist or two, adding in familiar spices associated with her Indian heritage.

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JOSH - Age: 27  |  From: Leicestershire  |  Post-doctoral research associate

Josh is a chemist by trade and brings his scientist's precision and keenness to experiment into the kitchen, taking careful notes on each part of the baking process and perfecting all his techniques for gorgeous results. He likes to take his inspiration from old baking books, reinventing classics to give them a modern twist, often by introducing alternative flavours and including the seasonal fruit and vegetables from his kitchen garden. Josh has been playing rugby for his local team for more than 15 years, and once a month he bakes lots of treats to reward his teammates after a rigorous training session. He dreams of having his own artisan bakery one day.

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KEITH - Age: 60  |  From: Hampshire  |  Chartered accountant

Apple pies and fairy cakes – which he learned to bake with his mum – form the baking backdrop to Keith's childhood, along with his mum's love for traditional dishes from her home in Malta. Since those formative years, Keith has never stopped baking. Recently, though, he has returned to the baking books of the early 1970s to attempt recipes that were once 'beyond' him. He loves the challenge of taking on more complex bakes and has grown in confidence with bread. His partner, Sue, has got very used to waking up to the smell of a freshly baked loaf! They live with their poodle, Maisie, just a few steps from the sea.

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MATTY - Age: 28  |  From: Cambridgeshire  |  PE and science teacher

Matty is the type of baker who swats up on online patisserie videos before bed. No matter how good he gets, though, he strives to equal the impressiveness of the bake that first caught his imagination: a teddy-bear cake that his late nan made him for his fourth birthday. Now the family's designated baker, he always has a list of cake requests for upcoming celebrations. He describes his style as rustic but neat, and his flavour preferences as quite traditional – he particularly loves chocolate, citrus and nuts. Once his days in the tent are over, his next – and even bigger – challenge will be to make his own wedding cake, a special commission from his fiancée, Lara.

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NICKY - Age: 52  |  From: West Midlands  |  Retired cabin crew and volunteer

Nicky describes her baking as 'like a pair of comfy old slippers; little traditional bakes that evoke fond memories'. For Nicky herself, those memories are of her Gran's kitchen table where, as a little girl, she would roll out pastries and decorate cakes – which she says was as much fun then as all her baking is to her now. Her favourite bakes are still pastries, but she also loves making breads, and fun birthday cakes for her niece and grandchildren. When she's not baking, Nicky volunteers for a pet-therapy charity (along with her dog, Bracken) and loves to ski, which she has been doing since she was only three years old.

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ROWAN - Age: 21  |  From: West Yorkshire  |  Student

'Go big, or go home' is Rowan's motto, and one that he has always applied to his bakes. His earliest baking memories are of scones, pork pies, shortbread and traditional jam tarts (which he claims as a Northern delicacy). A student of English literature, when he's not writing up a storm, Rowan is also a keen host, applying his creative eye to his cooking – he aims for clean lines and interesting decoration in his finished bakes. Just like his much-admired, knock-out cocktail-making skills, Rowan expresses his grand, opulent side in his bakes, wowing his uni friends with his creations. He made his own 21st birthday cake – a three-tier, 12-layer extravaganza.

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SAKU - Age: 50  |  From: Herefordshire  |  Intelligence analyst

Sri Lankan-born Saku places the traditional flavours of her heritage at the heart of her baking – particularly the curry spices, which she claims make for the best pie fillings, while liberal sprinklings of cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg find their way into her sweeter bakes. At her family home in Sri Lanka, Saku didn't have an oven until she was 18, so she turned to baking only when she moved with her husband to the UK, in 2003, and particularly when she became a mum – rustling up treats for her children's lunchboxes by replicating the snacks she saw in the supermarket. Self-taught, she is now a dab hand with a whisk and relishes using her homegrown ingredients from her pride and joy – her vegetable patch.

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TASHA - Age: 27  |  From: Bristol  |  Participation officer

The best thing Tasha remembers about baking as a child was licking the sugar icing from the tops of the fairy cakes she, her mum and her grandma used to make. At secondary school, she made cakes for her friends and was soon encouraged by her Food Technology teacher to develop her skills as a hobby. Much like her attitude to life, Tasha's baking is fearless. She uses it as a way to express herself creatively, often embarking upon near-impossible designs – with impressive results! When she's not baking, Tasha loves going to the theatre to see a West End show and she has a passion for travelling the world. Tasha makes history as the show's first ever deaf contestant.

And please welcome the new addition to the 2023 Bincake presenting team - Alison Hammond!


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Previously :

Spoiler alert

2022 Thread

[close]

[amputeeporn]

Noel Fielding must be really sweating all these Brand stories mentioning him canoodling with a 16YO girl while he was 33...

[jobotic]

Yeah, reckon he'll direct all his flirting towards Nicky in this series.

[pierre boo-lez]

Anyone who uses "bakes" as a noun is a cunt. Sorry, I don't make the rules, that's just how it is.

[bgmnts]

Cant stand bake-off but love daf's threads so yes please!

What happened to Matt Lucas?

[sovietrussia]

I've got a feeling I will take (have taken) a dislike to Dan. I will be happy* to be pleasantly surprised.






_{*no I won't}

[curiousoranges]

How in the fuck is someone retired at 52?

[Huxleys Babkins]

How in the fuck is someone retired at 52?

Money.

[curiousoranges]

Then cabin crew are clearly overpaid. Must have been Qatar or something, rather than Eastjet.

EDIT: Ski-ing holidays since she was three years old?

[dontpaintyourteeth]

this cunt cancelled yet?

[mjwilson]

Then cabin crew are clearly overpaid. Must have been Qatar or something, rather than Eastjet.

EDIT: Ski-ing holidays since she was three years old?

I went skiing earlier this year and some friends took their 3-year old along. He didn't do a whole lot of skiing to be fair, but he had a nice time and hopefully got used to the general idea.

[bgmnts]

Then cabin crew are clearly overpaid. Must have been Qatar or something, rather than Eastjet.

EDIT: Ski-ing holidays since she was three years old?

I thought that, rich family I suppose.

[Chairman Yang]

Yeah unsurprisingly, this year's Tory Scan has come back an unblemished 100%. Reckon Nicky's the most likely to kill you and Dan's the most likely to try.

[FeederFan500]

I thought that, rich family I suppose.

Huge kitchen, checks out.

Dan reminds me of Big Suze's Hunk of Munk

[Dex Sawash]

VPN season is here.

 Predictions
Wife's obvious favorite- Amos
First out- Rowan
"I'm so weird, get it"- Abbi

I reckon Matt has shrunk to nothing and been blown away by a moderate breeze.

[Fambo Number Mive]

The show listing everyone's jobs might make entering the show a bit off-putting to unemployed bakers.

[Pijlstaart]

Would rather be listed as unemployed than a PA. You can just lie, I think, it's good to lie.

Thought we'd just cancelled Noel Fielding last week. Lurking behind the Hot Topic clothes racks like a crocodile at the waterhole, waiting for children whose parents don't love them, halloween slut heels clacking down the alley as he runs away from the 14 year olds he's let overdose behind a camden pub. I'm sure we cancelled him last week, it's all bad stuff, we must have cancelled him last week. Pretending to be one of those chinese century eggs so they'll put him  in the ground marinating in little boys' piss.

Curious that Paul Hollywood thinks of himself a barrel, as documented in previous series I agree he IS hollow and made of wood, but more gourd than barrel, tiki mug is pretty much on the money. Alison Hammond unfortunately a classic Matt Lucas costume, and one that demands a backlash.

All weird looking people, it makes me feel very lost and alone.  Daryl's clothes are too tight, might as well be naked, he's always shaking about as he signs, big wobbly tummy and big wobbly genitals too, they should keep him behind a screen for the sake of the nation. Why not just disembodied lace gloves? Don't like Rowan, don't feel the need to explain. Really don't like Matty, don't feel the need to explain.

Early Tasha supporter, but not sure she'll be in it for long. Hope she's one of those bigot deaf people from the deaf separatist movement, would love to get lanced by her as she dangles over the palisade with a necklace of ears. Lot of movement, good meme potential. Quite like Abbi too, amalgam of every character in Flowers, 40% chance she's lying about having ever gone outside and is too ashamed to admit she spends her life on pinterest and phone games, but we can live in hope.

I liked Amos, but a big guy in a tent makes me nervous, and I suspect he's a hodor. These misfits have axes to grind and if they realised they could warg into him by standing behind and pressing X there's no telling what would happen, maybe for the best he went out.

[dissolute ocelot]

Not seeing a huge amount of interest in this. After week one, don't really care about any of the bakers. Why is there no weird gothy type this year doing an animal cake of a plague rat or coronavirus? It's nice having a deaf person but not as cake-related as having a vegan or coeliac. Alison is fine presenting, but less interesting than Noel's tragic attempts to be weird. Mel and Sue still gold standard. Having a really easy technical is nice for week one, but dull viewing. Fuss over beavers was weak, it's just a chewy rodent. And Godfather parody, no thanks, just tell us about cakes, plz, and then let us watch people fucking them up.

[The Late Satoru Iwata]

Deaf girl is nice. Makes my TV screen happy to display her lovely face.

[Clatty McCutcheon]

Then cabin crew are clearly overpaid. Must have been Qatar or something, rather than Eastjet.

EDIT: Ski-ing holidays since she was three years old?

Just says 'loves to ski, which she has been doing since she was only three years old', not that she went on ski holidays abroad. Since she's originally from Dundee it might well have been trips up to Glenshee in the back of a Transit van to hurtle down sheets of icy refrozen snow slopes in horizontal wind-driven sleet.

[Beagle 2]

Slight Brexit vibes from Keith but his reaction to Hollywood's sex face at his vertical layer cake was quite touching. Getting Pru to say beaver felt cheap, if Keith knocks up a gaping anus cake and shouts SAY IT I'll be fully team Keith.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Nicky looks like an Elf on the Shelf come to life.

[JesusAndYourBush]

It's marshmallow not marshmellow. Twats. We're not American.

FFS most of them are doing it.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Really enjoying this series so far. Finally feels like we're getting challenges designed to produce decent bakes and not just manufacture failure and tears. There's less to discuss, but the show is massively better off for it.

So, feeling a bit sorry for Keith as he'd probably have made it at least halfway through the series the past few years with a showstopper like that.

[Mr_Simnock]

I don't usually watch bake of but now we have -



I think I could get right into this series

[Pijlstaart]

Watching Noel Fielding turn up each week covered in discarded children's halloween costumes makes me sick, squeezing his genitals like toothpaste through the gaps of a carved pumpkin, just cancel him! They were meant to cancel him.

I really dislike loads of these people, maybe the worst batch of bakers there's been. Rowan thinks wanking makes him down to earth, dread to imagine his browser history, headingley gin bar groper. He's had the neckbeard two weeks running too and a slight yellowy patch on the right side of his neck, one of those kids who had their sexual awakening during the nativity play. Maybe I'm being unfair.

Dana a hun, overemphasises the last letter of every word, monster munch crumbs on the crushed velvet sofa. Convinced christy was a bully at school, and peaked then, refuse to believe she's 33. Dan has or will definitely get away with killing someone, low intrigue killings, COPD patients, seaside hermits, he'll get away with it. You know exactly what Daryl looks like naked, always a bit hunched over, wider than he is deep. No.

Glad to see Abbi pick up steam, she's got that brambley hedge resource war vibe, would love to wake up and find she's foraged everything edible from my subsistence ditch, going full Gorn at me with chunks of drystone wall. Tasha maybe AI generated, a video game character, blue eyes and whopping great forearms. Glad to see they're doing well.

Not keen on biscuits.

[daf]

I always tend to latch on to one of the bakers (... or potters ... or sewers - depending on which 'Great British' spinoff I'm watching). This year it's ...  (checks photo crib-sheet) ... Tasha.

Putting on my psychological underpants, I think the main thing that draws my inner cheerleader is "niceness" ... also a cute hooter will help - this one looks like something PG Wodehouse was fond of describing as 'tip-tilted'. (I think he'd approve of my choice - all his heroines tended to be ordinary good-hearted secretaries or struggling chorus-girls down on their luck, rather than your arrogant brassy broad with a boring nose).

[dontpaintyourteeth]

I couldn't watch that pottery show because it had someone I knew in real life in it who was very, very annoying

[daf]

Watching Noel Fielding turn up each week covered in discarded children's halloween costumes makes me sick, squeezing his genitals like toothpaste through the gaps of a carved pumpkin, just cancel him! They were meant to cancel him.

I get the same feeling with this as I did when Rolf rumours started rumbling while the last Animal Hospital was going out on Channel 5 - this, thought I, aint never getting repeated baby!

All the channel 4 series will have to be severely edited to ribbons, or banished to the memory-hole along with those scouts eating on the rollercoaster on 'Jim'll F**ed it' or an episode of Eggheads featuring CJ "i done a murder...or did I?" de Moooooooooj.

[daf]

I couldn't watch that pottery show because it had someone I knew in real life in it who was very, very annoying

Was it the one who appeared to be a Leigh Francis creation?

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edit : Got them mixed up - that was from the Sewing one!