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Post by Arielflies on Oct 13, 2020 5:16:06 GMT
More Devil this week. Carla is so precious...Duuuude. Good show, good flavors, not so great designs.
There was an advert for a Halloween Worst Cooks special and Carla is in that as well. Ever since ABC cancelled her food/lifestyle show, she has been making out like a bandit. Maybe she is in constant lockdown at the food network studio in NYC. Anyway, good to see her as a Goddess and a Diva Devil.
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Post by waywyrd on Oct 13, 2020 11:38:50 GMT
Halloween Baking Championship: Who knew you could make great desserts with spinach and sauerkraut? I agree that some of the designs weren't great, but there were a couple nice ones. They're always throwing too many twists at them, I'm surprised everyone does as well as they do.
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Post by Kao on Oct 13, 2020 14:18:36 GMT
I was very much intrigued by some of these desserts, especially the ones made with tomato, sauerkraut, and spinach. The judges really loved them. I used to put sugar on my sauerkraut when I was a kid so I know it would be good in a dessert, plus there's a red one they sell around holiday time that is sweet as well. I can also see tomato going over to the sweet side, especially fresh ones. I'm still trying to figure out the spinach.
I really liked the judges costumes last night, very simple but stunning.
It's getting to the point in the competition that it sucks no matter who gets sent home. The right person went (he should have chopped up the peppers more, and soggy half-raw crust is not a good look) but you could tell the judges really felt bad about it. Also found Carla's pic last night, lol.
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Post by Kao on Oct 20, 2020 21:43:53 GMT
So much fun last night with making them pick clothing and masks for a costume, then creating a cake based off the costume. I'm glad that the lady who made the unicorn dress/cake was the top baker last night because at first her idea was simple but then she created something fabulous. I'm also glad Sinai made it to the end as well. Is this the first time we've had four bakers in the final show? It's next week.
I've given up on the Big-Time bake, too boring, lol.
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Post by Arielflies on Oct 20, 2020 21:45:44 GMT
I know...usually finale is three bakers.
Just bake Zac a boozed up Unicorn cake and he says he will be a happy camper. Notice how much alcohol is used this year?
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Post by waywyrd on Oct 20, 2020 22:32:50 GMT
I'd be glad to see any of them win, I don't have a particular favorite this year. I like them all! Seems so soon for the finale, but the holiday baking shows are coming up shortly, so there's that.
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Post by Kao on Oct 21, 2020 2:32:23 GMT
HBC always starts mid-September and the finale is always the week of Halloween, so they are right on time.
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Post by Kao on Oct 21, 2020 20:31:00 GMT
Either Lorraine is quarantining in London or she didn't want to quarantine onsite in NYC with everyone because she is not going to resume her judge duties for the Holiday Baking Championship this year; Carla will be taking her place. I love Lorraine but it makes sense, especially since she has homes in NY and London and her people are in London. I believe Carla is either DC or Brooklyn based which is a lot closer, plus she signed a contract with FN to be a regular contributor.
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Post by Arielflies on Oct 28, 2020 5:36:35 GMT
Another new show for the holidays - Candyland hosted by Kristen Chenowith. I also saw David Bromstad in the promo (judge?) and that guy from San Diego (can't remember his name) who is on EVERY baking show, it seems.
So far I haven't seen Jason Smith in any of the adverts - will he be around this season?
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Post by Kao on Oct 28, 2020 14:20:39 GMT
Jason tends to be on the Winter/Spring schedule (ie: Best Baker in America, Spring Baking Show, weird off-brand 4 week long FN shows, etc). I saw the Candyland promo and not gonna lie I'll be watching but I had to laugh when I saw David. I guess it's another channel crossover since they are all owned by Discovery and I saw Guy Fieri on Discovery channel during Shark Week on a show where he and his son fed sharks chum and visited them underwater in a cage.
Halloween Baking Championship: I liked everything about it. I liked that it was 2 hours long. I liked that instead of picking a third person to go to the finale they had the bottom 2 do a bakeoff (with the top 2 acting as sous chefs). I really liked the floating cakes. And while all three cakes were lovely in their own way I guess the judges decided to go for the cake that was more minimalism in approach but tasted delicious. Congratulations, Sinai!
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Post by Arielflies on Oct 28, 2020 16:37:01 GMT
I so agree with the finale! I was wondering if the four were going to be in the final bake, but it was handled brilliantly. Sinai - such a happy surprise after the other two (for the most part) had split the wins during the season.
I really liked the way production was creative in set/prop design. It was a lot of fun to walk through the creepy haunted house each episode to land in a different inspiration room each week.
Karla (and the judges) really got into it and were terrific. LOVED IT!
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Post by waywyrd on Oct 28, 2020 23:29:30 GMT
I would have been happy to see any of them win it, but I'm glad for Sinai. The look on her face when they announced she was the winner!
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Post by MFWalkoff on Oct 28, 2020 23:56:22 GMT
All season I kept thinking about all that makeup Carla had to clean off after each episode...
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ccl
FORT Regular
Posts: 432
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Post by ccl on Oct 29, 2020 0:58:25 GMT
And Zac had all that glitter this week.
I think Sinai won because her cake was the best in terms of taste. The judges literally had no criticism for it whereas the other two chefs did get criticized. And a great tasting cake with good but “simple”decoration should always win over lesser tasting cake. And it’s not like her cake was *that* simple in terms of decoration ....she did have the fondant decorations on each level (most on the top) and the marbled top.
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Post by cablejockey on Oct 29, 2020 16:45:48 GMT
Just love Halloween baking champ! I look forward to it every year! This year was fun, creative and I loved all the bakers. Too bad they all cant win something after all the stress and baking they go thru!
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ccl
FORT Regular
Posts: 432
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Post by ccl on Oct 29, 2020 17:08:23 GMT
This year seemed to be mostly cakes (was there any not cakes? I just recall the cookie from the face off; maybe pies one time) whereas normally, as I recall, there’s more variety. So I did miss that, and the two rounds per show. But I’ll take what I can get in these times.
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Post by Kao on Nov 3, 2020 23:42:38 GMT
Holiday Baking Championship: Really liking the contestants this year; they are sweet, cinnamon roll people who seem genuinely happy to be there. It also looks like they shot in LA on the same compound they shot the Halloween shows at, so more than likely everyone quarantined together.
The rolls everyone baked for the preheat looked really good. There were a lot of Yums at judging and not a lot of "Ughs." Even the guy who got cut after the preheat did okay, it was just everyone else did somewhat better. I felt bad for him because he really loved being there but someone always have to go home first.
The main heat was clever; pick a winter hat and recreate it in a cake while utilizing the main ingredients on the tag on the hat. This is a really good batch of bakers because even the cakes that didn't look great tasted fantastic, and the person that went home had one fatal error (raw dough in places). I liked the fact that Duff told her he liked her cake as she left because she truly picked the hardest of the hats to make into cake form. The winner really deserved it because her hat looked gorgeous, plus it tasted fantastic. It's too early to have favorites yet because everyone in this group is really sweet without the whole "Look at me; I'm gonna be a Food Network Star" Sara shtick that made the show slightly annoying to watch last year.
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Post by Arielflies on Nov 4, 2020 3:17:41 GMT
Here is a map of Terranea at Palos Verdes to the west of LA proper. I can't tell where they might be stationed but probably the ballroom - it looks like the largest building. This is also where Val and Jenna (DWTS) got married. Their instagram had a photo of them going back to the spot.
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Post by waywyrd on Nov 10, 2020 16:04:17 GMT
Holiday Baking Championship - ice cream cakes strike again! I don't remember the name of the one who got the boot, but that poor cake was such a mess. Most of the final creations were quite nice, though. And now I have a craving for key lime pie. I like everyone on this season for a change and don't want any of them to go...unlike on Holiday Wars, a few of those people get on my nerves.
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Post by Arielflies on Nov 10, 2020 16:30:40 GMT
There was a Kid's Baking special called Holiday Sweetings and it, too, was filmed at Terranea. Duff and Valerie (who admitted to being 60) welcomed back some fan favorites - at least they were all my favorites - to win a $10,000 baking package. They held this one time contest last year as well. Oh, Duff pulled out a DUUUUUDE. Carla is wearing off on the rest of the staff.
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Post by MFWalkoff on Nov 10, 2020 16:46:01 GMT
I'm not in love with the new 'naughty/nice' blackboard on HBC. I am in love with the addition of Carla. Also, Jon may be a nice guy but I want all man-buns outlawed on TV and in life.
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Post by Kao on Nov 10, 2020 17:06:39 GMT
If you guys haven't watched the Christmas Cookie Challenge (which premiered last night) please do so. The cookies designed on last night's episode were the most stunning on that show EVER. Even the 2 people who were sent home would have been kept on a past season, the skill level was that high.
I'm gonna have to watch HBC again because while it was on I was distracted doing something else. I remember a guy who won the preheat choosing Mango as the added ingredient for the main heat and the bakers either loving or hating it, depending.
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Post by Arielflies on Nov 10, 2020 21:56:14 GMT
Uh, hate was the word
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ccl
FORT Regular
Posts: 432
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Post by ccl on Nov 11, 2020 2:03:29 GMT
I'm not in love with the new 'naughty/nice' blackboard on HBC. I am in love with the addition of Carla. Also, Jon may be a nice guy but I want all man-buns outlawed on TV and in life. I keep thinking about how someone has to rearrange the chalkboard after each challenge. I thought it would be their names stationary in the first column and then the scores for each challenge next to them but it seems like the name column also might move as Jamaal won the first challenge last night and was listed first on the chalkboard afterwards but I don’t remember his name being up there before. I’m going to have to pay more attention. Cranberry key lime pie.....mmmmmmm.
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Post by Arielflies on Nov 11, 2020 5:04:57 GMT
If you guys haven't watched the Christmas Cookie Challenge (which premiered last night) please do so. The cookies designed on last night's episode were the most stunning on that show EVER. Even the 2 people who were sent home would have been kept on a past season, the skill level was that high. Watching it now on DVR. Impressed that this year they changed up the judging in that it is only Ree and Eddie and they interacted with the bakers on both challenges. You're right, the designs are wow this season.
ETA: they added another judge for final judgement.
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Post by Kao on Nov 11, 2020 15:08:03 GMT
Watched HBC again and fell out when that guy's cake literally fell apart during judging!
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Post by waywyrd on Nov 11, 2020 15:40:30 GMT
Watched HBC again and fell out when that guy's cake literally fell apart during judging! Oh, that poor cheesecake never had a chance! I would never try to make cheesecake or yeast breads in that amount of time like some of them do. Sometimes it works out, sometimes...not so much.
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Post by Kao on Nov 16, 2020 19:03:25 GMT
Candyland: This is really cute! Before they started the show they did a BTS of the amount of detail and candy that went into creating the different areas, which was really nice. All the contestants were really amazed, they spent 5 minutes just showing them wandering around, eating candy. They had to make some sort of sweet for the twist, and while in the game you forfeit a turn if you lose on the show they had the loser go to Liquorice Land to complete a task before returning to their team, which I thought was a very nice way to do things. Each team was assigned to a different section of Candyland, and they had to create a "Candyland Creature" based on that area. Teams were made up of the usual cake maker, sculpter, sugar worker, etc. The winner made a lovely ground creature with lollipops growing out of its back. The losing team were very good sports about it, and the team leader said that being on the show itself was magical and a win. Overall, it's a lovely show and looking forward to next week.
While there were mostly new faces I noticed quite a few peeps from previous Halloween/Holiday Baking shows including RAY (who I personally think is on the FN payroll for the amount of shows he's been in, lol).
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Post by Arielflies on Nov 16, 2020 19:07:58 GMT
Candyland: While there were mostly new faces I noticed quite a few peeps from previous Halloween/Holiday Baking shows including RAY (who I personally think is on the FN payroll for the amount of shows he's been in, lol). That was my first thought when he appeared and, magically, he was assigned a team leader.
Still in the middle of watching.
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Post by Kao on Nov 16, 2020 19:41:30 GMT
From what I understand about FN is if they like you (and you have a good attitude and work well with others) they will invite you to appear on other shows as well. Maeve is another one that pops up a lot. I don't mind because both Maeve and Ray are good at what they do and make for good tv. I also imagine they might have had trouble getting enough people who were willing to quarantine for weeks on end. Plus the sky is literally the limit at FN, many people (like Aarti, Nacho, that hot guy with the big booty that judges the gingerbread shows, etc) started out as contestants and end up on the payroll as a judge.
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