So this week I’ve been watching old episodes of Great British Bake-Off and Kirsty’s hand-made Britain.\u00a0 GBBO markets itself as the competition for amateur bakers.\u00a0 We follow people who like to bake at home as a hobby.\u00a0 Now these people are home bakers.\u00a0 When I think of home baking, I think of scones, butterfly cakes, victoria sponge.\u00a0 None of it looks perfect, it all looks a little lopsided and well, home-made.\u00a0 This is not allowed on the GBBO.\u00a0 Contestants must push the envelope, take risks and above all, their finished result must look professional!\u00a0 Anybody else notice that paradox?\u00a0 The amateur home bakers must be professional!!!\u00a0 But that’s not enough,\u00a0 whilst the lovely Mary Berry likes traditional, Paul Hollywood likes contestants to take risks, try something they’d never tried before (possibly not the best tactic for a baking competition…). The first series semi final they had to make something elegant that would suit a traditional afternoon tea.\u00a0 Miranda made perfect little lemon fairy cakes, beautifully iced and decorated and professional looking.\u00a0 They were…… elegant.\u00a0 Ruth and Ed decided to experiment.\u00a0 Now I love both Ruth and Ed and would eat anything they produced, \u00a0but what was produced that day can only be described as disaster, a dogs dinner.\u00a0 So who went through to final?\u00a0 Miranda who fulfilled the brief perfectly and whose amateur buns were finished professionally?\u00a0 Of course not, she was booted out.\u00a0 And so began my confusion with the GBBO.<\/p>\n
Kirsty Allsop on the other proudly proclaims herself to be an amateur.\u00a0 In the first week of her show, she entered a cake baking competition.\u00a0 She had to produce an afternoon tea and she also entered the single cake competition.\u00a0 The judges (and who had no idea who had baked what as the programme was at pains to tell us several times) noted that Kirsty’s (anonymous) scones were overdone (some of us would say burnt, I prefer caramelised) as was her caribbean fruit cake.\u00a0 Somehow, she managed to get second place\u00a0with the afternoon tea and first place \u00a0with the fruit cake.\u00a0 Now I shudder to think what the other offererings were like if burnt scones and cake are what passes for winning entries.<\/p>\n
So my confusion about competition baking remains.\u00a0 Am I going for professional and beautifully finished?\u00a0 Or burnt\/looks like a dog has vomited on a plate?\u00a0 I think I may just stick with looking home-made!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So this week I’ve been watching old episodes of Great British Bake-Off and Kirsty’s hand-made Britain.\u00a0 GBBO markets itself as the competition for amateur bakers.\u00a0 We follow people who like to bake at home as a hobby.\u00a0 Now these people … Continue reading