A Date With The Bake

It’s a new year… a new tent… and 12 shiny new best of British bakers are going to try their luck over the next 10 weeks to become the new Great British Baking Show Champion!  And those aren’t the only new ingredients in the mixer. This year A Date with The Bake is trying something new! TEAMS! Kimberly, Katie and Jake will each have 4 of the 12 bakers on their respective teams and will be reporting on their progress throughout the Bake-Off Season! This Pre-Episode 1 reveals the results of a very in-tents draft to create the teams with K, K and J only having watched the introductions to the new bakers in the Episode 1 signature challenge. Who’s team will prove to be winners and who will be left with the soggy bottoms? Find out in this prologue to a brand new season of A DATE WITH THE BAKE!

It may be March, but we are still not even a quarter of the way into 2022. That means it isn’t too late to take a peek back into the Bake Off tent and see who has valiantly returned to face the steely judges once again. Well… one steely judge. The Great New Year Bake Off welcomes favorites Nancy, Helena, Henry and the ever delightfully neurotic Rahul. It’s a delightful reunion filled with mostly successful bakes and a lot of laughs as the bakers battle to be crowned Caribbean Queen- whoops- Star Baker! But will a tricky Paul technical cause a few of the bakers to Bao out? Spoiler alert: It doesn’t. But that joke was irresistible. Kimberly and Katie school Jake on the bakers from season’s past and Jake schools them on fashion lingo that is wholly unacceptable to people just trying to get their year off to a good start. So break out those dusty cookie sheets, make sure those ovens are definitely switched and on your mark… get set… A DATE WITH THE BAKE!

It’s been a fantastic season of The Great British Baking Show, but now let the true hand wringing, oven watching and sweat mixed with tears BEGIN! It’s the grand finale and it all comes down to these final bakes for Chigs, Crystelle and Giuseppe! The final showstopper is the Mad Hatter’s tea party, will any of the bakers lose their heads? No that’s just Kimberly, Katie and Jake trying to keep their cool as the seconds tick down to the cake plate of glory! So until next time… on your mark… get set… AND OH MY GOD REMEMBER TO SHUT THAT OVEN DOOR CORRECTLY… Whew… BAKE!

It’s almost the end and the final four bakers file into a near empty Bake Off tent to bake for their lives. Not really their lives, but with the stress levels of Kimberly, Katie and Jake watching this week you would feel like it is. It’s a notoriously complicated and finicky theme that will stretch the bakers in multiple areas. Its multi layers, multi textures and all about the flavor. And these finalists are more than competent in all the aforementioned. Paul and Prue have to make a controversial decision and one of these bakers’ place in the finale balances on a cake knife’s edge. Get out your hankies and prepare to bid auf Wiedersehen to one of the competition’s most memorable bakers… ever. On your mark… Get Set… A Date with the Bake: Seminal Finale.

It’s the quarter finals in the Great British Bake Off tent and the bakers certainly aren’t free from much. There’s enough stress, tears, hopes and fears to go around. And that goes double for Kimberly, Katie and Jake. It’s a dairy free signature challenge, a meat free technical, a gluten free showstopper and a those lead to a determinedly Hollywood Handshake free episode. But is all fair in love, baking and judging? A favorite baker leaves the tent after their best bake of the series and one frontrunner baker drops the ball. And by ball we mean multiple meat free sausage rolls… Hold on to your biscuit sheets and On your mark! Get Set! A Date with the Bake: Free From Logic!

Caramel is sticky sweet/ Jurgin and ‘Seppe will be hard to beat! This rhyme might be bad but not as bad caramel that just refuses to cooperate. The bakers have dwindled to half their original number and the pressure is on as this sugary ingredient is notoriously hard to work with. The signature is all about consistency. The technical challenge is a familiar pairing beTWIXT shortbread and the sticky substance. And finally the showstopper incorporates one particularly difficult baking element that will have the bakers spinning in circles. Kimberly, Katie and Jake have a lot on their plates for this discussion. So on your mark… get set… A DATE WITH THE BAKE: Caramelancholy Blues.

The bakers return to the tent and Kimberly, Katie and Jake return to their microphones for the dreaded pastry week of The Great British Bake Off. It’s known to be complicated, finicky, temperature sensitive and no we aren’t talking about Paul Hollywood’s mood swings. But this week brings some surprises with its challenges and a surprise handshake means there might be a new frontrunner in the competition. Who’s going to flake out and who gives a multi-layered performance worthy of that Bake Off top spot? We donut know what the future folds but On Your Mark… Get Set… A DATE WITH THE BAKE: Baklava Not a Fighter.

Yes, Fraulein it is ze German Week and the bakers are shaking and quaking in their das boots. Well, except for one. Jurgin’s homeland is on the table and the pressure is on to see who can beat the resident Deutsche. It’s fanciful biscuits, cakes with names that no mortal can properly pronounce and a multi tier showstopper that is decidedly not very German at all. Kimberly, Katie and Jake take this opportunity to work on their accents, impressions and try to figure out how in the wide world these bakers are going to bake intricate chocolate desserts in a sweltering tent.  Another baker says Auf Wiedersehen and the contestants get ever closer to that precious cake plate of glory! So grab a schnitzel and on your mark… get set…. A Date with the BACKEN!

It’s all desserts all the time! It is a baking show after all so wouldn’t that mean every week is dessert week? Not here folks.  In the tent desserts are fussy and complicated and have sauces and collars and require short/long setting times. Its cracking eggs, cracking meringues and some downright good craic as bakers edge ever closer to that precious Best Baker title!  And while this week sees its second Hollywood Handshake, Kimberly, Katie and Jake have no time to celebrate because a favorite contestant has to say Adieu (to yu and yu and yuhuu). Get ready for some particularly persnikity bakes and on your mark… get set… A DATE WITH THE BAKE!

The dreaded bread week is upon us and the Series 9 bakers are ready to bust their buns! Some rise to the occasion and some just aren’t loafing it as much as they hoped. But Date with Bake Jake is back after feeling pretty crumby so Kimberly and Katie are ready for his take on the action. This episode is filled with watery dough x2 , cheeky winks x100 and let’s raise a very special toast to the absolute weirdest bread sculpture to date. Oh baby… this is a Showstopper for the books. It’s A Date with the Bake: A Very Grain Area.