About a year ago I taught myself how to make custard and choux pastry from scratch, and then proceeded to make eighteen gorgeous eclairs, dip them in chocolate, and eat all but a few in just under 48 hours. Ever since I have been haunted by the urge to recreate that glorious devastation, but have been able to hold myself back with the most paper-thin self-control, largely held in place by cooking shows that allow me to live vicariously through the culinary work taking place on screen. Also by the fact that most of these shows are consistent reminders of just how stressful making both custard and choux pastry actually is (but seriously you should still do it).
Now, it looks like the floodgates of my self-control are set to burst wide the fuck open, as production has been halted on the eleventh season of The Great British Bake Off (known as The Great British Baking Show to anyone watching in the US on Netflix).
In a statement, a spokeswoman from Love Productions, the company that produces Bake Off, said, “We continue to monitor the situation and follow the advice of Public Health England and we will delay filming on Bake Off until it is safe to proceed.”
The order of people I’m concerned most about on a regular basis goes; my younger sister, and then any contestant on any season of Bake Off at any given time when the show is airing, so of course I’m supportive of them doing whatever is necessary to ensure the health and safety of everyone involved, I just hate it for me, personally.
According to Deadline, there’s no word yet on whether a or not the air date of the forthcoming season will be pushed back because of filming delays. Typically the show films in the spring and then airs in August, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see just how long this shutdown lasts before we know when we can expect a new season.
At the risk of sounding extremely hyperbolic, the only thing that’s run through my head since hearing the news is the opening monologue to Avitar: The Last Airbender, “but when the world needed him most, he vanished.” I know we’ll get a new season of Bake Off eventually, but I shudder to think how many eclairs I’ll have consumed by that point.