SOGGY BOTTOMS

‘The Great British Baking Show’ Just Had Its ‘Most Disastrous Challenge’ Ever

Would it kill Paul Hollywood to give these bakers a few extra minutes?

The Great British Baking Show is currently airing one of its nicest, least problematic seasons ever—which is saying a lot, given what happened last year—but fans still have one big gripe after this week’s episode. There’s an easy fix to the complaint, but it would be a major help to the bakers: For the love of Paul Hollywood, give the contestants more time to complete the technical challenges.

It was Paul’s week to assign the technical bake during Dessert Week. Paul can’t make anything easy: He asked the bakers to make six perfect orange and ginger treacle puddings in just an hour. Okay, sure. Let’s just follow his recipe, which tells us that the puddings need 40 minutes in the oven—meaning the bakers had only 20 minutes to complete the other intricate elements required to make these delights.

When it was time for judging from Paul and Prue Leith, none of the bakers were confident with the bakes they had delivered to the tent’s front table. Almost all of the puddings had—say it with me now—soggy bottoms. The GBBS official X (formerly Twitter) account even admitted this was perhaps the “most disastrous challenge in Bake Off history.” Yikes.

Some fans of the series were really into the group’s collective failure. Hey, they all had a grand old time screwing up together! No one was able to grasp the challenge, so at least the playing field was equal. The bakers had a good sense of humor about the situation, too, so we all got to have a laugh together.

Other viewers, however, were infuriated by this major blunder. No one blamed the bakers—seeing as most of them have been acing these technical challenges, it’s not their fault—but instead the GBBO production team. While there was nothing wrong with the specific challenge, these folks argued that the bakers should’ve had a little extra time to complete the tricky task.

The problem with this suggestion is that technicals are supposed to be unimaginably difficult. No one should complete the challenge with the same perfection as Paul. The bakers don’t receive all the instructions and are given as little time as possible to see who succeeds under pressure. There’s a very limited window between too much time and not enough.

But when 100 percent of your bakers are presenting raw dough as their final bake, well, that’s a danger to the judges’ health! Would it not be in their best interest to elongate the challenge, as to not be facing salmonella? Not all of the technical challenges need extra time, but this specific dessert bake could’ve used an extra 15 minutes.

The GBBS audience aired even more complaints when fan favorite Saku was sent home. But after three straight weeks in the bottom, perhaps her time had come. Did any of us actually want to see Saku struggling against this week’s Star Baker Dan, and other major players like Tasha and Cristy, in the finale? We’ll miss you, Saku—but we won’t miss those dribbling puddings.

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Fletcher PetersEntertainment Reporter

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