MAJOR SPOILER WARNING for Season 16 Episode 1 of the “Great British Baking Show”
Just 12 of Britain’s best homebakers have made it onto the Season 16 of the “Great British Bake Off.” This batch of bakers may just be the most interesting yet.
And by interesting, I mean probably one of the most unpredictable groups of bakers anyone has ever seen. You never know who is going to be successful in the challenges, since bakers have done well in the first challenges but struggled in the second or third. The 12 bakers are Aaron, Hassan, Iain, Jasmine, Jessika, Leighton, Lesley, Nadia, Nataliia, Pui Man, Toby and Tom. The judges remain the same with Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith returning together for the ninth time. Hosts Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding also returned for their third season together.
There are three challenges every episode. There are 10 episodes in total, which represent each week or theme of the challenges. The three challenges are the Signature bake, the Technical bake and the Showstopper bake. For the Signature, bakers are free to create whatever they want, as long as it fits inside the limitations set by the judges. For the Technical, bakers are required to bake the same thing as everyone else — they will be given a recipe by one of the judges, and then they will be ranked from worst to best. For the Showstopper, bakers must use their full creativity to bake the most elaborate challenge. The requirements for this challenge are generally looser in order to let the bakers shine.
At the beginning of every season, it is tradition for there to be a comedy sketch. For example Season 14’s caricature of “The Godfather,” titled “The Breadfather,” featured Paul welcoming the then new host Alison into the fold. A far cry from Season 14’s, Season 16’s premiere bored me to tears. Yes, I get it, it’s supposed to be a play on “Jurassic Park”. But seriously, if you are going to make a sketch, don’t use a theme with a predictable storyline. I mean, common sense please. If you wave at a dinosaur five feet away from you, they are going to eat you.
It’s safe to say the bakers this year brought the standard to an inferior level. I was extremely disappointed when numerous blobs of flattened rolls graced the screen, instead of the prestigious Signature bake which should have been there. The presentation looked unprepared and unprofessional, unfortunately, as I would later find out, fitting of this season. It’s the swiss roll, a staple, people. However, there were a few refreshing cakes. My personal favorite was Iain’s depiction of Queen’s University in his home city, a chiffon sponge with marshmallow cream, cherry jam and coconut digestives. The overall look was very difficult to achieve, as it involved lots of steady piping which could not seep into the other colors of the design.
The second challenge, the Technical challenge, proved to be the most annoying challenge I’ve ever seen. For this specific one, the judges didn’t give the bakers a recipe and gave extra ingredients to confuse the contestants with what ingredients to use? And then the bakers were another problem. Hong Kong immigrant Pui Man decided to mix up raspberries with… rose water? That is the most random flavor one could come up with and a stupid decision to make. A question for another contestant: How hard is it to drizzle white icing across a cake? Leighton needed to be kicked off the show at the very moment he decided to pipe lines the size of a water hose onto his fondant fancie.
After a tough first few days, the bakers finally came upon their third challenge, the Showstopper, which was to make a landscape cake. A landscape cake is exactly what it sounds like: a miniature version of a scenery. For example, one could bake the Great Wall of China or a beach in the Maldives. Being the heavily biased person I am, Hassan and Leighton’s cakes were the ones I wanted to see collapse. However, one baker’s cake did actually collapse. I watched in dismay as poor Iain’s cake was too warm and melted. Astoundingly, he was able to pull it off and impressed the judges with his unique designs, with his only critique being the icing was on the heavy side. He was by far my favorite because he came back from failing and created a masterpiece.
In a heartwarming win, the Star Baker, or the winner of the competition for the week, was Nataliia for her Ukranian-landscape cake completed with mountain ranges and rivers. Much to my pleasure, Hassan’s bamboo cake was not enough to “shoot” him up the rankings, and he was sent home. Because of this, I’d have liked to think the judges and I were on the same page. Turns out, we weren’t.
Come the second and the most dreaded biscuit week, the bakers already look like they are expecting the worst. And I can’t blame them. Biscuits are by far the most annoying thing to bake and construct. Gingerbread houses are a perfect example of this dread. The disappointment after a broken piece is exactly what these bakers go through with every miniscule crack. With a single crack, the perfection is gone, ruining the entire appearance of the bake.
At first glance, the Signature bake didn’t appear too hard. I mean, 12 slice-and-bake biscuits, how hard could that be? Apparently, hard enough to where time was an issue. I just can’t understand why one hour and thirty minutes is not enough time to get a biscuit, which they have made before, in the oven. Pui Man shouldn’t have stuck fondant onto a biscuit which was clearly only supposed to be a biscuit. I genuinely wondered if she was trying to give the judges something to critique. I was also really disappointed about the apparently unannounced theme of either almond, orange or chocolate biscuits. I was seriously wondering if there was coordination, or if creativity just abandoned the tent.
The Technical challenge didn’t get much better, featuring a pared down recipe to make hobnobs with directions like “Make 12 biscuits.” Once again, Pui Man was at the bottom of the pack, failing to make the biscuits and the caramel. As a fellow Asian, I watched with worry as she dug herself into a hole she wasn’t going to get out of. Though I suppose by now, we can determine she isn’t the brightest of the bunch. Toby, however, miraculously made it to the top again. His ability to follow a vague recipe is amazing, but I wish he would’ve put those skills towards his Signature and Showstopper bakes.
The Showstopper challenge was a real make-or-break for the bakers. They were instructed to make a time capsule and sweet treats representing important things in their lives. After the showstopper, only Aaron and Leighton had disappointing creations, and I secretly reveled in the latter's failure. Aaron’s cherry blossom bridge cracked, and Leighton’s piano was quite drab. My favorite was Jasmine’s picnic basket with gingerbread and dark chocolate-and-orange biscuit for the insides with three different flavor combinations was quite a killer. I believe Jasmine deserved the Hollywood Handshake, but the honor went to Paul’s favorite baker, Tom, who baked his granny’s home. I personally found the creation to be drab and lacking detail, while Jasmine’s was neat and had a professional look to it. Paul, just because a young man reminds you of yourself does not mean you have to rig the whole show for them to win.
Overall, I was very impressed by the spark this group seems to have. Though not the most astounding bakers, they were certainly a refresher from last season’s lousy contestants. Prue and Paul may not be the judges I was looking for this year, with their once again biased and favoritism-infected rankings. Fielding and Hammond may be the farthest thing from funny comedians you can get, with their jokes which produce forced laughter out of the contestants and raised eyebrows from me. But the warm camaraderie, supportive environment and relaxing vibe this show has will always have an affectionate place in my heart.
