Briony May bakes a flourless Chocolate tart cake | Good Housekeeping UK
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The Great British Bake Off, known as The Great British Baking Show in the U.S., is widely known as the tamest, happiest, and most gentle reality show out there...but it's still a reality show and it's a COMPETITION at that. In fact, some of the contestants recently opened up to Insider about some of the ways they feel that the show tries to turn up the drama.
Season nine constant Antony Amourdoux said, for instance, that the show seems to try and pick days with temperatures that make whatever they're whipping up more difficult."When we are making bread they choose the coldest day and when we are making ice cream they choose the hottest day. I'm not exactly sure what's going on with that but it does seem that way," he told them:"They love the drama in the tent."
© Netflixgreat british baking show laura ice cream cake
In fact, he said some bakers requested air conditioners while tempering chocolate on a hot day and producers told them no. Former Great British Baking Show contestant Stacey Hart echoed those complaints."They want failure, and they got it," she told Insider."So many things go wrong. Like when you're making spun sugar in the boiling heat and sugar doesn't like heat."
This isn't the first time someone has brought up such a theory. However, season eight contestant Tom Hetherington told Insider he didn't buy that challenges were pre-planned for bad weather. Judge Paul Hollywood also denied that the show tries to trip up contestants after co-host Matt Lucas joked that they chose a super hot day on purpose for when contestants had to make ice cream cake last season (shown in the photo above)."We didn't know that," he said at the time, according to Metro."Did we? We didn't know that." Even Antony told Insider that the show would"never set anyone up for failure."
Regardless of whether they control the weather or not (we're going to guess not!), having the show in a tent at all can make a huge difference for bakers who are used to baking in their home kitchens.
"It's completely alien to your own kitchen at home. One, you're in a tent. Two, I bake in my own little space with the radio on, and then you're there and you've got six camera men, the floor's a bit like a bouncy castle because obviously it's in a tent," 2013 winner Frances Quin previously told Cosmo UK:"The temperature fluctuates; you'd be making a meringue and it would start raining, or we'd try and make pastry and it would be 27 degrees outside. The technical challenges and lack of time and lack of fridge and work space are the enemy on that show."