Thursday 31 August 2017

Great British Bake Off humble pie

The sweet, sweet taste of humble pie - truthfully I'd prefer mine with a quenelle of ice-cream or perhaps some crème anglaise please, but let's not get all Mastercheffy!

OK, I'll admit that I was, shall we say, a bit sceptical about the move of Great British Bake Off from Auntie Beeb to the 'wild child' that is Channel Four, but I'm pleased to say my fears were unfounded, and I'm adult enough to admit it.

Yes, it's not quite the same - although Prue does a reasonably good impression of Mary Berry, and Noel and Sandi could morph into Mel and Sue with a change of wardrobe and different haircuts.  In fact, Sandi's floral bomber jacket in episode one was taken straight from the Berry school of dressing if I'm not mistaken.

But happily I can report that the main concept remains unchanged, the tent is the same, and they still have the fancy Neff ovens with no perceptible controls and hideaway doors which make most of our ovens at home look clumpy and old-fashioned - and people still fail to switch them on correctly.

Paul remains that mixture of twinkly blue-eyes and badger grey, dispensing the Hollywood handshake with the similar rarity of unicorn manure, so I can just about get over the other cast changes and the adverts which annoyingly pop up at around 15 minute intervals, usually at key-critical moments.

Because, ultimately, it's all about baking.  It's about 12 ordinary people, not professional cooks, creating culinary alchemy with flour, eggs, butter and sugar - plus a few other ingredients, and a lot of time, effort, hugging and tears of frustration and/or relief.

We sometimes need to be transported and cocooned in a world where cakes and baking are a form of escapism, and we can forget about the various horrors on the news, even if it is just for an hour.  Well, better make that an hour and a quarter now, because of those pesky aforementioned adverts.



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