0/5

The Great Australian Bake Off

Yummy cakes, a sense of joy and Maggie Beer. Bake-Off rises in its second incarnation for LifeStyle FOOD.

2015-10-10_0249

Cast your mind back to 2013 when Nine aired The Great Australian Bake-Off.

Filmed in a marquee at Werribee Mansion it was hosted by Anna Gare, Shane Jacobson with judges Dan Lepard and the very stern Kerry Vincent. But while colourfully-produced, the show was bounced around Nine’s schedule on Tuesday nights.

Two years later the show is back, now produced by FremantleMedia Australia with hosts comedians Claire Hooper and Mel Buttle and judges Maggie Beer and Matt Moran. Now filmed in an Aussie shed, the new lease of life is considerable improvement.

The opening credits will have you licking your lips. Sorry MasterChef, you can keep your BBQ challenges, we just want to get to the desserts.

Cakes, scones, pastries, pies, eclairs and cupcakes. Yum! You’ll put a kilo or 2 on the hips just from watching this thing.

Based on the immensely popular Great British Bake Off (which just drew the UK’s biggest TV ratings of the year), this show has a warm heart. With Maggie Beer on hand how could it not? It doesn’t “eliminate” contestants, it “farewells” them, complete with a Maggie embrace.

Hooper and Buttle keep things light with their humour (although it was hard to discern each in their narration).

There are 12 Aussie bakers of varying backgrounds, from the 18 year old Tintin-lookalike Nathan, to medico-baker Dr. Pete, CWA cooking champ Mariana and industrial designer Brendan.

This lot can whip up all manner of scrumptious dishes, immaculate in their technique, with precision and flair.

They will face-off in 30 challenges across the series, comprising three tests each week: the Signature Bake, the Technical Bake and the Showstopper.

In the first episode they create their “signature cake,” varying from cheesecakes to elaborate chocolate creations. But earthy Matt Moran expects more than just chocolate, he wants tempered chocolate.

“The CWA deal with icing sugar not tempering chocolate,” worries Mariana. “That’s a little bit more cheffy.” Damn straight.

I felt a little incomplete that no winner of the round was declared.

In the Technical Bake Maggie Beer gives them a recipe for a Constitution Cake complete with bush tucker, wild fruits, quandongs and wattle seed. This challenge is a blind tasting.

In the Showstopper the judges want a cake with a surprise inside layer. I feel for the contestant who already served up Pinata cake with surprise chocolates. Nevertheless, others get creative with profiteroles, Guinness, citrus, union jacks, and even a sponge shoe.

The series maintains a sense of lightness with pizzicato music and lots of laughter amongst its feelgood contestants. There’s never a sense of arched competition nor the token nasty judge.

But when cakes fail to rise or begin melting and sliding, there is just enough drama.

“It looked like a Tarantino film….” sighs one contestant.

Another sits cross-legged on the floor never taking his eyes off the oven and his precious cakes.

With Maggie Beer waiting to bear-hug him goodbye, who can blame him?

The Great Australian Bake-Off airs 8:30pm Tuesday on LifeStyle FOOD.

16 Responses

  1. I dont watch any of the MKR/MC cooking shows on FTA find them annoying. but enjoyed the first episode, but loses points for the use and over-use of the word “Moist” most cringworthy word ever.

    Hosts do a good job and i will keep watching it every week.

  2. I’m no fan of Australian TV, indeed my default position until shown otherwise is that any given Australian TV programme will be inferior to an overseas alternative but even I was surprised when during a recent trip to Asia I saw Australian Bakeoff and just how dire it was. It looked like the results of a first year TV production course at one the lesser institutions. Of the countless overseas format knock offs in Australia I can think of only three that are the equal (in in fact all are world class and probably surpass the originals): The Amazing Race, Spicks and Specks and Have You Been Paying Attention. Given this and the previous attempt, why would we expect this attempt to be any better?

    1. MasterChef Australia reset the show globally. Grand Designs Australia doesn’t have Kevin McCloud but is immaculately produced. Both produced by FremantleMedia Australia (until Shine took over MCA), who did not produce TGBA for Nine. HYBPA? is a Working Dog original not a format. You’re welcome to disagree with the review, but I would ask you to view it first.

      1. As I don’t have pay TV I doubt I’ll see it unless and until I come across it in a hotel room somewhere on cable but while as I said my default position is that Australian TV is generally rubbish I’m happy to acknowledge and point to the (in my view, rare) exceptions and would be happy to be proved wrong in this case. I’m aware that HYBPA is technically an original but anyone who has seen the BBC’s Have I Got News For You will wonder how Working Dog avoid either being sued or paying royalties as it seems to be a direct (and better) copy. Good luck to them too, Working Dog are close to TV geniuses and hardly ever misfire and if the BBC can’t be bothered to keep an eye on their IP then that’s their lookout.

  3. We watched the 15 minute preview (look at the on demand section to view it) and I got to say I love the lack of Diary Room/Confessionals constantly updating and talking about something that we just saw happen10-20 second ago. Take note MKR and Masterchef.

    1. Well let’s think about this. It struggled on FTA with so many time changes, yet STV does the opposite to this and mostly sticks to timeslots. LifeStyle channels are amongst the most popular on Foxtel and their viewers are big devotees. Grand Designs Australia is at 5 seasons, Selling Houses Australia is at 8 seasons.

  4. Another day another rip off of a British show,right down to the two comedy women at the start, Will they do 90 ways to say Bake.
    Mind you this is the 2nd go at it, will have a look but mainly to compare the Presenters and Comedy team with the original one

      1. I dont mind what the people who had the original idea do but why do we ape them,surely to god some one out could have thought up something original or is that beyond us ?
        Just a Question any idea when Person of interest is returning?

Leave a Reply