As in my last post about the GBBO and all others I may write, I point you in the direction of Simon on Stuck in a Book at his wonderful take on the show. As I have a busy few weeks coming up I am not sure I will post on each week but we shall see.
Well first up, the Winsome Weeper aka Ruby, stopped shedding tears this week and came up trumps with her Peacock loaf. Not sure that I could be bothered with faffing about with it as much as she did but then she is on the show and I am not so be quiet Elaine. The loser this week, Lucy, was clear from the start. She wanted to keep everything 'simple' and that is not the right attitude for GBBO. You have to show a bit of flair and go for broke – 'simple' is fine at home but not in The Tent. And Paul's comment when he saw her loaf which just looked like one of mine with tomatoes plonked on top of it, that she had had four hours and all she could produce was this, was a killer. I knew then that she was doomed.
I felt for the contestants as they made English muffins. I tried them once and they were burnt on the outside and raw on the inside and I also suffered the same fate when I once tried to make donuts. I thought they all did pretty well considering. One contestant, this year's Brendon, put his face down to the hotplate to see if it was warming up and I got a bit twitchy in case Sue elbowed him in the back and he went splat face down. She made up for this later by sticking an elbow on one of his muffins and squashing it flat. He took it well, but then he had to, though a contestant going beserk and chasing Sue around the tent with a frying pan would have added to the gaiety of the nation.
I have yet to develop a particular liking for any contestant, that usually happens in a few weeks time when they are whittled down a bit, but I am already finding one acutely irritating and that is Frances. She turned up with a match stick box to put her breadsticks in and was smirking and looking so pleased with
herself. Last week she made a sandwich cake like a sandwich which I thought was a tad too clever and I gather from the VT they show in between, that she loves a good 'concept'. My heart sank at this and I remembered an earlier series with Holly (think it was her) who was just too clever and just a little too self satisfied. The viewers began to find her a pain and I fear that Frances will suffer the same fate. I think the producers were somewhat swayed in their choice by the fact that she is a military wife and sings in the military wives choir which has had so much publicity over the last few years and pics of her husband's mates dressed in fatigues and knocking back her creations drove the point home. I don't like being led down a certain path by the producer's slant and was quite pleased when Paul and Mary were fairly indifferent to the bread sticks in a match box. Gimmicks will only get you so far.
Was rather startled by the array of hardware that Rob had brought along. Looked as if his entire tool set was on display and was slightly disappointed not to see a chainsaw amongst all his collection. Whatever happened to a wooden spoon and a bowl? When you get to this stage of baking I do begin to wonder where the fun and the enjoyment goes. And his signature bread was really pretty messy after all that.
Loved Glenn kneeling by the cooker and watching his breadsticks intently and then saying Look at me. I said I would never be one of those lunatics watching and here I am. He has a great warmth and sense of fun about him and hoping he will stay in for a bit longer. Also very fond of Ali who is a sweetie and loved the expression on Mary Berry's face when he said the idea for his Ying and Yang bread came to him in a dream.
So no great dramas this week, no slicing of bodily parts though some tension arose when Mel spotted that Deborah was wearing the same top as the Berry. She always has a huge scarf round her neck as well (deborah that is not Mary) and I cannot help but feel it must be incredibly hot working in that though it probably comes in handy as an extra tea towel or to soak up panic stricken sweat.
I am meandering a bit in this post as relying on my memory as to who did what but know that Simon will have it right so you can double check on his post. Found this week lacking in incident apart from the elbow in the muffins, but sure more will occur as the series goes on though it seems a bit mean to hope for a disaster.
Sadly, I still find myself deeply in lust with Paul Hollywood…..
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