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Has Bake Off inspired you to update your kitchen?

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Great British Bake Off
Profile photo of Siobhan Chan Siobhan Chan Senior Food Researcher
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It’s the time of year when all water-cooler conversations turn to baking and Bingate – the Great British Bake Off is back on our screens. And the series seems to be inspiring people to buy new kitchen appliances.

This year, some people have been are ‘up in arms’ about the change in stand mixers from the iconic KitchenAid to this year’s Kenwood kMix.

Personally, I can’t imagine ever getting so het up about a bit of kit on a TV show – even if it is one that I’m slightly addicted to.

But appliance websites say that people are flocking to buy the equipment used in this year’s series.

Bake Off’s sliding-door oven

Part of that is because of the vintage look in the Bake Off tent – the bunting, Bakelite-look kit, and rum babas conjure up a delicious village fête feel.

The oven with a door that slides away seems to be the biggest winner so far, with one online appliances store saying that they’ve seen sales more than double since the series began.

But given that one contestant had problems turning it on last week, producing a sorry-looking batch of arlette biscuits that saw her kicked off the show, I do wonder how easy it is to use.

Retro fridge-freezers

The sales of retro fridge-freezers are up as well, with the Gorenje model replacing the pricier Smeg brand. It looks like people are favouring bright colours over the sleek look of most fridges on the market, but with mousses failing to set at crucial moments, are they really worth the money?

Have you kitted out your kitchen with items from the Bake Off tent? Are you more tempted to bake when you’ve got brand-new equipment to try out? Or can you do just as good a job with what you’ve already got?

Comments
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Member
alfa says:
19 August 2015

We find the filming of Bake Off this year atrocious.

The constant panning, close-ups, flicking around just make us dizzy.

The close-ups are too close with the top of heads chopped off and zooming right in to what a contestant is doing shows you nothing at all.

What we all want to see are the finished products but most of the time all we got was a close-up of part of the item, such a shame.

I think the camera person is ruining this years series.

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Phil says:
19 August 2015

Quick answer; no.

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John Ward says:
19 August 2015

I just hope all the cakes, pies, tarts and buns are made with UK milk and other home-produced ingredients wherever possible.

I don’t suppose the refrigerators are covered by any warranty as they are used in a marquee that is subject to wide temperature variations. Or do they turn them off and leave the doors open between episodes?

The slide-away oven door makes a major contribution to safety in the kitchen as drop-down and side-opening oven doors can give rise to accidents, potentially made worse if the cook is holding a scorching casserole at the time. I think Neff is the only make that has them.

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dieseltaylor says:
19 August 2015

The only thing worth observing is how useful it is to have eye-level equipment – when you are standing -up : )

As to replacing equipment on the basis of what is glimpsed on a TV show I am sure that Which? readers at least are made of sterner stuff and look at the readers long term comments. Of course casual readers of Conversations can also look at the subscribers comments. I see another unhappy Logiks steamer buyer has added a comment in the last few days! : )

Given for some trials the contestants practice at home it must be dire to be playing with a new oven when put to the test. I would certainly want to calibrate both my home oven and the TV’s oven and even try it out for areas where burning might occur.

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