Nice buns

Who reigns supreme on ‘The Great British Baking Show’?

Hosts Paul Hollywood (left) and Prue Leith (right) with contestant Peter Sawkins, photo courtesy of The Great British Bake Off

SPOILER ALERT: The following has information about the winner of the latest season of The Great British Baking Show. We have updated the headline and images based on reader complaints of a spoiler. Our apologies, and happy thanksgiving!

After an intense final bake, where surprise finalist Dave botched babkas, and beloved nervous wreck Laura made a mess of everything as usual, adorable Peter fought his way to claim the trophy for the 2020 season of The Great British Baking Show.

The finale episode aired Nov. 24 in the U.K. (Each week the show is released in the U.S. on Netflix, three days after it airs in the U.K.)

Besides being an adept baker who analyzed every bake with the precision of an engineer, Peter (last name Sawkins) quickly became a fan favorite with his refreshing wide-eyed enthusiasm, his unusual technique of listening to his cakes to determine if they are baked (a technique that actually works), and his tendency to vigorously blush at the slightest bit of attention.

Can we hug him now?

Known as the Great British Bake Off everywhere on Earth except the U.S.*, The Great British Baking Show is arguably the greatest reality-TV competition in production today, and not only because it’s fun watching bakers create weird desserts (make dough with fat from around a cow’s kidney, wrap around an entire lemon, bake in a steam bath, and then eat the whole lemon?). The show is all about the drama of watching British people struggle against their innate Britishness, their culture of bottling up their emotions, yet catching a glimpse of their eyes flashing with panic as things go terribly wrong. That famous British saying “Keep Calm and Carry On” is hard to live by when your cake sinks or your mousse melts, and the entire nation is watching you fail.

Related: ‘British Baking Show’ contestants appear to be everyone’s favorite new couple

Bake Off is also unapologetically sexy. There are endless raunchy puns throughout the show, with giggles about any baked good that happens to be shaped like a penis, and in a world of loaves and eclairs (filled with cream!), phallic-shaped things are common. Host Paul Hollywood is a thick and sexy man, King of the Bears, setting hearts racing with more than competition nerves as he prowls his way around the baking stations with his judgmental, blue-eyed gaze.

Paul Hollywood aside, Bake Off is the realm of the twinks. The show boasts a long legacy of young lads like Peter, sometimes they identify as gay and sometimes not, who presumably honed their baking skills after years of staying inside and baking with their mothers instead of rough-housing outside with the neighborhood boys.

Almost every season has at least one, and they are always cute. Fan favorites like Henry Bird, Michael Chakraverty, Liam Charles, and Andrew Smyth did not win their seasons (Andrew made it to the finals), but they all won over audiences with charm, wit, and big smiles, and they have moved on to careers in social media and TV.

There is an American version, The Great American Baking Show, but it never grabs any sort of audience. Americans are far too willing to complain and act pathetic on TV, and on a show that is supposed to be about rising above adversity, American drama does not work. Endless complaining is integral for the Real Housewives, but on Bake Off, it flops like an over kneaded loaf.

And baking, at its core, is all about love. Who wants to eat a cupcake soaked with tears?

*Pillsbury already had their own baking competition in the U.S., called “Bake-Off Contest,” and they own the copyrights to the name. It’s not on TV but it is fun.

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