|
|
Post by Navybelle on Dec 2, 2018 2:15:32 GMT
The Holiday Baking Championship season 2 is showing today, one after the other. It's been fun to watch, though I always wish I could taste what they're tasting - especially when they love something and are raving about how delicious it is. I'd love to try something like that, but I'd definitely cry if I had some of the disasters they did. There never seems to be enough time, and it looks so stressful! But wow, they're so talented and come up with really neat ideas for all the themes. There's a contestant, named Maeve, who reminds me so much of another reality personality, Sammy Samantha of Project Runway; I couldn't place her at first when I tuned in today, but then when I wasn't looking at Maeve and only heard her voice, it came to me!  |
|
|
|
Post by Kao on Dec 3, 2018 23:10:14 GMT
I'm watching that right now, lol. It also came on Saturday as well.
I watched the Holiday Gingerbread Showdown last night and the theme was the movie Elf. I felt so, so bad for the lady with the blue hair as her Elf bust completely fell apart right before judging and there was a height requirement to the piece. All she could do was lay the head down on the base of the sculpture and surround it with powdered sugar for snow. :/ It was very kind of the judges to tell her if there was a reward for having perseverance and grace under pressure she would win because something went horribly wrong with her tasting element too and she bounced back. The person who won had a beautiful sculpture, and I was happy for her as her tasting element was also nice as well.
I didn't notice this until last night, but Adam's kinda...good looking, lol.
|
|
|
|
Post by Arielflies on Dec 4, 2018 1:55:05 GMT
I noticed that he's gained a bit of weight. Yeah, but with this comp, other than walls, how much really is gingerbread? |
|
|
|
Post by waywyrd on Dec 4, 2018 13:45:04 GMT
I always thought Adam was cute.  I was worried for Douglas last night on the Baking Championship, he sure wasn't having a good night. Plus he ended up with the worst flavors - matcha and maple?? Bleah. Tiramisu is one of my favorite desserts so I was drooling over all the other flavors... |
|
|
|
Post by Kao on Dec 4, 2018 20:14:34 GMT
I noticed that he's gained a bit of weight. Yeah, but with this comp, other than walls, how much really is gingerbread? Well, he's always been a big man. The weight gain shows a little in his face, but his body is nice and thick! 
They have to have at least 70% gingerbread in their creations.
|
|
annab
FORT Regular
Posts: 213 
|
Post by annab on Dec 4, 2018 22:38:44 GMT
I always thought Adam was cute. I was worried for Douglas last night on the Baking Championship, he sure wasn't having a good night. Plus he ended up with the worst flavors - matcha and maple?? Bleah. Tiramisu is one of my favorite desserts so I was drooling over all the other flavors... I'm a big Tiramisu fan. Some of those flavors made me rethink my Tiramisu. I'm ashamed to say that I have not tried making my own ladyfingers. Now that I have seen it done, I might give it a go! Gearing up for a bourbon Tiramisu . Talk about sad, I felt bad for the peanut butter rugelach. The idea sounded good, but I bet it is the butter that helps separate the layers that peanut butter wouldn't be able to do. I'm glad Douglas won. He was having a rough patch. |
|
|
|
Post by Arielflies on Dec 5, 2018 0:53:49 GMT
I think of Lady Fingers ringing a bowl as lining and I think Trifle. I've never had Tiramisu so didn't realize it looked so much like a Trifle. I love the layering of custard and fruit in a Trifle.
|
|
|
|
Post by Kao on Dec 10, 2018 4:21:31 GMT
Watched Holiday Gingerbread Showdown tonight and had mixed feelings about who won. While the winner had an extremely beautiful detailed house it looked like a Victorian home and the assignment was to create Santa's Workshop. The only thing that made it Santa was the sign on the house and the fact that Santa's sleigh broke down in front of it and a elf was trying to fix it. I felt that the other contestant's house fit the brief better. There were plenty of elves in their individual houses making toys and doing things, a small train with naughty and nice sections, and Mrs. Claus baking cookies in her big house at the top of the structure. It looked more like Santa's workshop and should have won.
|
|
|
|
Post by waywyrd on Dec 10, 2018 12:51:37 GMT
I think that Victorian house was just gorgeous. That one judge dinged the other lady for covering up all the gingerbread with decorations and icing, so maybe that's why she didn't win? Hers was beautiful too, though.
That factory...ugh. I get what he was going for, but it just wasn't pretty to look at.
|
|
|
|
Post by Kao on Dec 10, 2018 22:06:13 GMT
That one judge...was a trip. Upon rewatching, she was so filled with vitriol at that particular contestant I was thinking "Dang, did she run over your kitten or what? What's the problem here?" Nowhere in the rules does it say that the gingerbread can't be covered up, and in the past contestants have had theirs covered so I don't know what she was on about. The Victorian house was beautiful but if we're going by rules it did not meet the brief.
The factory, while a nice idea, simply wasn't in the same league as the other two.
|
|
|
|
Post by waywyrd on Dec 11, 2018 13:39:57 GMT
I'm glad Douglas made it to the finals on Baking Championship...I think he might win the whole thing. And I must be one of five people in the world who likes fruitcake. The guy on the Christmas Cookie Challenge last night looked so familiar. He must have been on another one of these shows. |
|
|
|
Post by Arielflies on Dec 11, 2018 14:09:01 GMT
The top three on Holiday Baking are all very worthy. Each has had good days and bad days and squeaked by on an overall bad day with fruitcake. Pulling for any of the three.  Have you ever tried Harry & David fruitcake? From what I remember - all fruit without the cakey glue. |
|
|
|
Post by Kao on Dec 11, 2018 14:45:35 GMT
This year I don't care which of the final 3 wins; they're all worthy of the title. I'm hoping they get some good bakes next week, as springing that fruitcake on them at the last minute really wasn't fair.
|
|
libgirl2
FORT Addict
Posts: 1,740
Member is Online
|
Post by libgirl2 on Dec 11, 2018 17:25:05 GMT
This year I don't care which of the final 3 wins; they're all worthy of the title. I'm hoping they get some good bakes next week, as springing that fruitcake on them at the last minute really wasn't fair. I love fruitcake, even bad fruitcake! But yes, that was not a great twist to spring on them. |
|
annab
FORT Regular
Posts: 213
|
Post by annab on Dec 11, 2018 19:10:18 GMT
I'm glad Douglas made it to the finals on Baking Championship...I think he might win the whole thing. And I must be one of five people in the world who likes fruitcake. The guy on the Christmas Cookie Challenge last night looked so familiar. He must have been on another one of these shows. Haha.. you might be one of the rare breed. That said, I listen to a cooking show on the radio every Saturday. Okay, that sounds weird, but they talk about food, give some recipes and all sorts of things like that for a good 3 hours. They were saying that the understand why people don't like fruitcake because so much of it is done 'wrong'. A real, well-cared for, fruitcake (it needs 'feeding' I guess) tastes wonderful and shouldn't be passed up. I was sad to see Chantal go. If a dessert is difficult to get into, I get it. Oh, in the first round Sarah had olive oil as one of her ingredients, but got dinged because the judges couldn't taste it. Really? I'm with Duff, olive oil is not something one should taste (distinctly, I should qualify). I'm not unhappy with the final 3. |
|
|
|
Post by Kao on Dec 12, 2018 1:08:14 GMT
I felt so bad for Chantal last night. When the judges were talking about the different textures in her dessert sshe had this sad little smile. It was like she knew she was out of the running.  I heard that British fruitcake is lighter, fruity, and more boozy than its American counterpart and would like to try some. |
|
|
|
Post by waywyrd on Dec 17, 2018 15:33:36 GMT
A gingerbread train that runs...now I've see it all. When the mean judge on Gingerbread Showdown actually said she liked that tree, I knew that one would win. She seemed to dislike everything else, or at least nitpick something about it. I thought the display with the kids and huge nutcracker was adorable - she was very good with making "characters," and her icing was perfect. The guy who made the huge ornament did okay, but it just didn't seem as pretty as the other two. Baking Championship finals tonight!  |
|
|
|
Post by Realitychick on Dec 17, 2018 17:04:58 GMT
I thought the huge nutcracker and the whole scene she put on was wonderful and captured the theme the best.... But based on how the judges had chosen prior winners knew that the theme doesn't really matter. The woman who won is VERY good at what she does but I preferred a more Holiday scene. Very excited about the final tonight for Baking Championship!!!!
|
|
|
|
Post by Kao on Dec 17, 2018 18:21:28 GMT
Knowing what I know now, I'm very put-out at who won the Holiday Gingerbread show. I did a little research and apparently the winner is a "professional gingerbread builder" who is well known for entering (and winning) contests in the US and abroad, which puts her in an entirely different league from the others on this show (who are everything from amateur to professional bakers who only dabble with gingerbread on occasion). Also, the helper who created her wise men is also a sculptor. I wouldn't be surprised if FN didn't headhunt this woman to be on the show, but considering how she's going up against basically amateur bakers it's extremely unfair to both them and the show's integrity. Considering how she somehow "won" last week while not following the brief (over another baker that DID follow the brief, plus had a just-as-nice gingerbread sculpture) it seems like the fix was in. I won't be tuning in next year.
IMO, the woman who did the Nutcracker scene should have won. It was on theme, was intricate, and had lovely Christmasy details everywhere.
|
|
|
|
Post by Arielflies on Dec 17, 2018 21:42:01 GMT
The showed the winners episode by episode, but something is wrong. I thought episode 1 was won by another man and there were four altogether, not three. That really confused me.
|
|
|
|
Post by Kao on Dec 18, 2018 0:48:13 GMT
There was 4 episodes. The last show was all three of the previous winners coming back for a chance to win 25k.
|
|
|
|
Post by Kao on Dec 19, 2018 5:00:23 GMT
Following a Food Network theme, I was slightly disappointed in who won the Holiday Baking Championship. I knew Lerome was sunk the minute he used those slightly burnt hazelnuts, which was a shame because everything else was so nice. I would have given the prize to Sarah as her cake looked like a stack of Christmas gifts, tasted terrific, and the "surprise" inside took a lot of effort to do. But yeah, give it to the guy who slopped up the paint job on his cake, the judges couldn't taste half the flavors in it, and the Christmas tree "surprise" inside looked more like a ship in an 8-bit video game. :eyeroll
|
|
|
|
Post by waywyrd on Dec 19, 2018 13:18:54 GMT
I didn't mind Douglas winning, though I wish he hadn't painted those sloppy stripes up the side of the cake. I would have been happy with any of the three winning, but you're right - those burnt hazelnuts sunk Lerome, and they seemed to make a big deal out of the bits of cake falling out of Sarah's "surprise" inside. |
|
ccl
FORT Regular
Posts: 419
|
Post by ccl on Dec 19, 2018 16:38:05 GMT
I think all three had somewhat disppointing bakes. Lerome’s marble did not look good and I wish he wouldn’t have used the burnt nuts. How many times have we seen programs where the baker or chef thinks that the judges won’t notice a bit of burnt items? Better to just go without, especially as it was a relatively small component of his cake.
Sarah’s looked a bit messy but Douglas’s stripes were messy too. And hers tasted like what she said it would as opposed to Douglas’s lack of orange. Though her red buttercream put me off, it was too vivid. And the judges were more impressed with Douglas’s overall look and his chocolate collar (how come he could have a chocolate collar if they weren’t allowed to use chocolate, apart from Lerome?). So, basically, it was a bit of a mess and I am not sure exactly how Douglas won, unless they considered past performance.
|
|
|
|
Post by Kao on Dec 19, 2018 21:56:10 GMT
You know, you bring up a good point ccl about the chocolate usage. Maybe the ban was just on milk and dark chocolate and he used white? Or maybe they're just not consistent on what they say.
Having a red buttercream isn't on the same level as having a cake with half the flavors missing, the thing that didn't even resemble a tree in the middle, and super sloppy paint job. While some of Sarah's fondant was coming apart at the seams the taste was delicious, and the ornament in the middle was cute. I know it fell apart at one point, but that was how she cut into it, not how it was designed. Going by the judges opinions Douglas cake had the most wrong with it. So, why did he win?
|
|
|
|
Post by Kao on Dec 28, 2018 18:45:01 GMT
I watched a Gingerbread competition show on FN the other night that made the woman who won the Holiday Gingerbread Showdown creation look like a shack! It was a professional-level gingerbread competition, and the things that people came up with was amazing. They weren't limited to houses either, which made things more interesting. One guy made a bonsai tree, while another had 4 deer sitting at a table playing cards. The winner created a zepplin-looking car (complete with steampunk gothic looking garage). Definitely worth watching if you can find it on demand.
|
|
|
|
Post by woodiedog on Feb 6, 2019 23:27:22 GMT
Kids baking championship show.
The episode I just watched had teams of two bakers.
Teams had to create cakes with opposite themes.
One team was light and dark (or night and day).
One team was land and sea.
One team was big and small.
One team was fire and ice.
Some teams paired a boy with a girl. On those teams, the boys were completely overruling the girls! One boy was shushing his female partner. Another boy demanded that he was doing night and she had to do day. Another boy who wanted a certain flavor tried convincing the girl that the other flavor was better for her side of the cake.
I was shocked, shocked, shocked at their boorish, chauvinistic behaviors! I mean, these boys are 9!!!
Where did they learn that girl's opinions don't matter, that boys are superior, have better ideas, etc.
I'm glad that the little girl who was completely steamrolled during the competition won for best cake.
If I were a parent of little boys, I would make them watch this and point out how NOT to act!
|
|
|
|
Post by Kao on Feb 7, 2019 4:34:40 GMT
I never watch the kids baking show. Besides the boorish behavior that Woodielog noticed I hate it when they cry when something goes wrong with the cake/they lose/etc. I hate seeing distressed kids in general, and it happens a lot on this show.
|
|
|
|
Post by silver18 on Feb 14, 2019 5:50:08 GMT
Giada's new cake show.... man that cleavage..I dont get it. She needs to learn to dress for the ocassion.
|
|
|
|
Post by waywyrd on Mar 18, 2019 14:48:17 GMT
New season of Spring Baking Championship starts tonight! |
|
