The Intro

A Little Bit About Myself

Hello, my name is Melissa. However, if you are reading this, it is a large possibility that you already know that and you probably already know that I love baking.

But, a few things you may not know: I'm a home baker and bake on my free time; which I don't always have a lot of with my full time office job and trying to keep up with friends and family. I also have a wonderful boyfriend who lives in Germany and we have two cats who live with me in Seattle.

Oh yeah, I also live in Seattle. Pretty fun place.

But, onto the important information.

What exactly am I doing?

Simple, I am baking every challenge from every episode of The Great British Baking Show (GBBS) starting from the original season 1 episode 1.

You probably assumed season 1 was the first season on Netflix, but that is not actually season 1 that is actually called "collection 1".

Now you are probably asking, well Melissa, then what is season 1?

Let me start from the beginning. I originally found The Great British Baking Show on Netflix, like most people. But the first collection on Netflix is actually season 5 that aired in 2014.

Makes things a little more confusing, right?

I did a little digging and found the list of seasons on Wikipedia and found that the first season actually aired in 2010.

I know, I learned in high school that Wikipedia is not the place to go to find facts, but in this situation, Wikipedia was correct. I found the first ever season of the Great British Bake Off (and no, I did not miss type that, The Great British Baking Show used to be called The Great British Bake Off). Now that I found the first season, I had to do some research; meaning I had to watch the first episode.

I cuddled up on the couch with a glass of wine and my cat (Ola, my cuddly one) and watched the very first episode of The Great British Bake Off. I can not tell you how excited I was. I have seen all the collections on Netflix so many times that to see a new season, I was thrilled!

But, I had to make a decision: 1. bake from "collection 1" that was aired in 2014 and is on Netflix; or, 2. bake from the true season 1 that was aired in 2010?

After having a discussion with my boyfriend, we decided that I would start from the true season 1 that was aired in 2010. He said it seemed like I had already made the decision and he knew I wanted to start from the true season 1. In reality, I had no idea what I wanted to do. However, he is probably right. Also, starting from the true season 1 is kind of exciting. Gives me a reason to watch the first 4 seasons that I have never watched.

I guess it is time to get started!

Outline:

- The first challenge is the signature bake. The signature bake gives the bakers a chance to bake something they have practiced. To bake something they love and that is loved by others. "It tests the home bakers creativity and individual style"

- The second challenge is the technical challenge. The technical challenge is the mystery bake. This is where the judges give all the bakes the same recipe, the same instructions, and the same time limit, and hope for the same outcome. This challenge is meant to test the bakers knowledge.

- The third challenge is the showstopper. My boyfriend said a funny thing when I was explaining what the showstopper was. He said, "so it stops the show???" and the truth i, yes, it does. It is the last challenge of each episode where the bakers can show everything they got.

What I am doing after I complete each episode is write about my experience. I will spend the week after completely all the challenges writing about the ups and downs of what happened and also share one recipe of the readers choice!

I know this is going to be very hard, but I also know it will be a lot of fun. I know I will probably laugh, cry, and scream; but I also know that this will challenge me and be a great experience. Hopefully...