Nestle New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker

2:00pm – Tuesday, January 10 on TV 3

Before returning to our screens for a brand news season in the New Year, Nestle New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker is once again celebrating New Zealand’s love affair with home baking with a repeat summer screening, premiering on Tuesday, January 10 th at 2pm on 3. This local reality series, hosted by New Zealand’s Next Top Model judge Colin Mathura-Jeffree, with judges Dean Brettschneider and Jade Lipton, features eight top amateur home bakers from across New Zealand competing for the title of New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker.

Avid bakers, the contestants were chosen from hundreds of applications from across the country. Each bringing their own signature baking dish to the show, as well as their unique style of baking and personality.

From cupcakes, pies and pavlovas, to baking and decorating the perfect cake, each episode will hold a fresh and delicious challenge to test the contestants baking versatility and inventiveness.

They may be the best in their kitchen at home, but are they the best in New Zealand?

Find out when we go back to the beginning of season two in the Nestle New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker repeat screening, premiering on Tuesday, January 10 th at 2pm, and screening weekdays at 2pm on 3.

7:30pm – Thursday, April 7 on TV 3

New Zealand, the time you’ve been waiting for is here! This week sees the last eight weeks come to a dramatic conclusion when Colin Mathura-Jeffree names the Nestle New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker winner on Thursday, April 7th at 7:30pm on 3.

Hosted by New Zealand’s Next Top Model judge Colin Mathura-Jeffree, with judges Dean Brettschneider and Jade Lipton, over its season Nestle New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker has seen eight top amateur home bakers from across New Zealand competing for the grand prize and title of New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker.

From hundreds of hopefuls who auditioned, eight were chosen. These bakers were then pitted against each other in the hope of becoming New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker.

Now only three bakers remain, but even though there can only be one winner, judge Dean Brettschneider says all eight contestants are already winners in their own right.

“Throughout the show, each contestant developed their own style and personality under pressure of time and a new set of baked products each day,” he explains.

“The most pleasurable thing for me was to see that each day the contestants learnt from the previous day and took on board what we [the judges] said about their products.”

And not only did they walk away with some valuable lessons, Brettschneider says all eight participants took away the true spirit of baking.

“Baking was the hero of each day as the contestants were so nice and really seemed to enjoy each other’s company,” he explains, “often sharing ideas, experiences and often helpful tips. This is what baking is all about… bringing people together and enjoying life with simple pleasures.”

But it wasn’t only the contestants that were the big winners of the series; Brettschneider says Nestle New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker was great in helping to put baking back in the spotlight.

“The reason for getting involved with the show was to continue my vision to help put baking further in the public spotlight and food world,” he explains. “I saw this as a great opportunity to do so, combined with a lot of fun.”

And fun will certainly be the ride that the Nestle New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker winner will be on following this week’s finale. Make sure to find out who this talented baker is when Nestle New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker concludes on Thursday, April 7th at 7:30pm on 3.

In this weeks episode contestants have to bake a spectacular chocolate cake fit for a wedding and Jade wears a painting drop cloth with a hole for her head and a belt around her waist. Minutes into the episode Dean lets us know that so far most contestants
are missing the mark, they are meant to be making the worlds best
chocolate- cake fit for a wedding, but alas they are into making a
wedding that that HAPPENS to be chocolate. There is also to be a twist at anytime.

So the ladies make cake. I love making cake, I often make bithday cakes instead of buying gifts. And let me tell you now that having different mousses as your cake filling is so much better than icing or cream. While watching this episode those of us present in our house all agreed that that I would have been better suited to this show than Masterchef (no crayfish in sight!). But now after watching an Eddie Izzard show (If you don’t know who Eddie is you have never truly laughed, British man and the best comedian EVER) and he raised a  very, very valid point about making a cake:

Eddie Izzard from Stripped: Cake mix, when I was a kid, was a
brilliant thing. You’d make a cake for your mum,  with a big wooden
spoon, la la la, and then you’d put that thing all in the bowl, and then
they said you could lick the spoon, and then— [mimes having a spoon in his mouth] “Oh my God. This is fantastic. Oh, wow! [points at cake]
What are we doing with that? This is just— this is good! This is
ready!” And then they’d take that, they’d put it in an oven, and it
would come out LESS GOOD!

After having seen Chelsea lick her fingers 2 episodes ago and eating a lot of cookie batter myself, you have to wonder why hasn’t someone just served cake mix and who was it that thought ‘hey lets put it in the oven, make it dry and less tempting. Dont lie to me or yourself, the stuff is fantastic and you know you love it!!!

So on NZHHB do contestants, judges, crew dip a finger??? during or after a challenge? If you have played any part in the show and know, please let me know if people get to lick the bowl.

Back to the baker women: most of them have made another key mistake in how they bake their cakes, they are filling very high tins with litres of batter, trying to force them to cook in 1 and 1/2hrs when they need 2, having a panic attack as time ticks away, then pull them out of the oven and have them sink along with all their hopes and dreams. They should have lined many tins with thin layers of cake that would only take 25-30minutes of baking and done this a couple of times, this way if they ran out of tin then only 1inch of cake would be ruined, not an entire tier of the whole damn thing. Then again uncooked cake mix in the center of a cake could be a naughty yummy…..

They all get to decorating. Catherine’s husband has been the incredibly handy man once more, jimmying up a cake stand and false tier for her and she has beautiful fresh flowers to decorate. When Dean is upset by the idea of the false tier and flowers, Jade is swift in setting him right in the common practice that this is. Paula’s cake has a simple elegance in it’s white fondant and black flowers, but it is missing the bottom tier due to a sinkhole. Gretchens cake………….*sigh* her draped chocolate fondant looked sad, she had some OKish roses on top, but really it just looked like a bad top hat. BUT THEN to really lessen her chances, she wanted to give it a gloss so she thought she would glace the whole damn thing with apricot jam!!! It looked like…….oh, no words can describe the mess. And Carolyn: she did well in having all three of her tier different types of chocolate but her final decorated cake looked like a small child’s drawing of a wedding cake.Was realy expecting something more fantastic than what they all put up.

But what is the twist I hear you ask? Today no one is going home, Carolyn and her 3D kids drawn cake win the mystery weekend this week as the judges decided to give it to the woman who best managed her time, clearly not based on the best looking cake. No one goes home as next week they have to cook all the goodies that will be served along side the cake, but they will have assistants, a significant male from their lives. I am guessing that they are expecting them to be bumbling idiots getting in the way so hopefully some good drama. 

And now onto watching Masterchef. Go out there and eat some cake mix XX     

Greetings and salutations one and all. So sorry, this is NZHHB recap for last weeks episode, life was a little hectic last week, but fear not my fair friends, I shall also have this weeks episode also up tomorrow

Towering deserts is the name of the game tonight and first thing that I notice about all the contestants is that they all look like the have had a big night out on the piss (am I allowed to use that colloquialism?Oh well I did). All droopy eyed, horse voices from ‘social smoking’, a good handful of slurred words and general confusion. Chelsea tells us about a technique she learned in the ‘Masterchef Class’ Dean took them through: wrong show hunny.

Gretchen this week was dressed by an angry chocolate-chip cookie dough(just because I can brag, I just made the best triple chocolate-chip cookies ever, I dare you to ask me for the recipe) and one thing I cant get over is the inappropriate footwear they all have on, either flats or just under the knee boots, which go by a term that I know I can definitely not say here.

Colin really enjoys using adjectives with flare and once again says that damn “done your dough” saying and I am contemplating hunting him down to let him know how much I hate it.

Unfortunately most of the contestants cant think of much outside of profiteroles and croquembouche ( I had to Google for the correct spelling) and Chelsea already seems a bit out of her depth: she has never made one before but being a keen bean she is going to attempt it while changing a large portion of the recipe and wants to ‘towering it up and made it look pretty’, not a smart move especially as she has only had a few hours sleep. Her desert is too ambitious for her as when it is up for judging, while her spun sugar is very good the profiteroles appear to have climbed up into some strange pile that resembles the left overs of a croquembouche, after it was been demolished by ravenous children.

Catherine is making a brownie pyramid with another brownie pyramid and tops the lot with a chocolate orb. The orb is made over a balloon on a stand that her husband put together for her. This gives lots of ammunition to the Jeering Jade who thinks that people from a farm are all country bumkin/ hillbillies and are lower on the food change. Shame on you Jade, maybe some fresh cream straight from the farm will mellow out your bitterness.

Carolyn has aquired a road cone from somewhere, possibly from a big night out that they all look guilty of and is using his as her mold for her profiteroles. Everyone has their doubts as to whether the profiteroles will stick or not but it all is a towering triumph….well that is until she decides to dump a whole heap of toffee over it and it looks like a child’s science fair project gone wrong.

Gretchen is making some spice cake with whole pears poking out and a spun sugar ‘halo’. A bit risky doing a cake as this is maybe more of a morning tea treat and not truly a dessert. Her spun sugar starts well just not quite the shape she wants. so wanting to impress Dean she goes about trying to shape it like it is playdough but this is a no-no with spun sugar, it is way too delicate for the hands of an angry cookie dressed woman. In the end it is all scrunched into a ball, dumped on the top of the cake, and if spun sugar could be suicidal from feeling it has no purpose in life or a dish, then this sugar would be holding the gun to it’s head upon judging.

What I love to laugh at in this show is that you have mainly woman in their mid 30′s to 40′s and you then have a male judge walking around giving little tips, telling them what to do, the woman, sometimes, are all ‘ I know what I am doing, you may have your professional way but I am a woman and you are a silly man, now leave me be to cook while I tend to the children, iron the shirts and have dinner and a whiskey ready on the table when my husband returns from work at 5′.

Paula is pretty on the ball for today and just cleanly and timely cruising her way through. Her desert looks beautiful I love Paula, she should win just because I said so.

Colin continues to potter around being a general pest, doesn’t he have models to annoy? But then again I do enjoy having a laugh at him.   

Agrh!!! JADE GO AWAY!!!!!!!

You have to have a good giggle when Colin gives the countdown and when he says “step away from your benches” Chelsea dunks her fingers into the bowl for a good lick.

Judges try all the desserts while the contestants all wait in the secluded viewing cupboard jam packed with sponsor placement, talk about how they know best and come to their decision and this week Chelsea has done her dough…what the hell does that even mean anyway!!! Wouldn’t done dough result in beautiful bread??? I digress. Catherine takes the win this week with her geometrical brownie tower, I think it was staying away from the profiteroles that really gave her the edge. As the winner she of course gets the mystery weekend and due to her husband assitance behind the scenes Dean suggests she gives him a little something more than just a weekend away…..

Chocolate cakes fit for a wedding next episode which I shall have for you tomorrow. With my own nuptials only 44 days away I watched this one with particular interest as our cake is to be chocolate so until tomorrow xx …………. WHAT! really only 44 days to go!?!?

7:30pm – Thursday, March 10 on TV 3

The pressure rises as the contestants have to create a Towering Desserts in this week’s unmissable Nestle New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker, screening on Thursday, March 10th at 7:30pm on 3.

Hosted by New Zealand’s Next Top Model judge Colin Mathura-Jeffree, with judges Dean Brettschneider and Jade Lipton, Nestle New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker features eight top amateur home bakers from across New Zealand competing for the title of New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker.

Avid bakers, the contestants were chosen from hundreds of applications from across the country. Each bringing their own signature baking dish to the show, as well as their unique style of baking and personality!

Known as the “Global Baker”, Nestle New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker judge Dean Brettschneider says that being involved in Nestle New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker has been a dream come true, allowing him to share his love of baking with the whole of New Zealand.

“The biggest highlight [about being involved in the series] is that it has put baking on the map within the food world,” he says. “We have had enough of the cooking shows and it’s time for baking to shine.”

“A good friend of mine children even said ‘let’s have a family bake off’ after watching the show,” Brettschneider continues.

From cupcakes, pies and pavlovas, to baking and decorating the perfect cake, each Nestle New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker episode holds a fresh and delicious challenge to test the contestants baking versatility and inventiveness.

“I am also very proud of the contestants as they’re going from strength to strength throughout the show and are listening to the comments and improving by each episode, Brettschneider continues.”

But which contestant will come out on top, and whose dough will not rise to the occasion? Find out when we get one step closer to naming New Zealand’s Next Hottest Home Baker in Nestle New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker, screening on Thursday, March 10th at 7:30pm on 3.

Last Night on New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker the six remaining contestants had to bake using all the 6 mystery ingredients in their stylish brown paper bags. Some contestants were good, some not and someone went home, the end…………………..

Nah, I wouldn’t just leave you with that but what I will say about last night is, that I want a rematch. It is my opinion that last night was the most unfair judging on the show to date. The contestants all got their mystery bags and had to create baked goodies for children. As per usual we have judges Dean, beaming away at Gretchen and Jade, who looks like she has been styled to go into a ‘Star Wars’ casting audition (Do I need to pay George Lucas for saying Star Wars?….). Carolyn asks if they can please define children and they are told it is 16 and under and here we have our first problem for the day. 16 and under includes, hungry pubescent boys, self conscious tween girls, ‘veges are gross’ school kids, picky toddlers, puree fed babies and breastfeeding infants. So really no guidance what so ever. The contestants are allowed their favourite recipe books with them and Colin uses that horrid line ‘someone will have done their dough’ once more, if he says it again next week I may write a strongly worded letter.

There is a mix of sweet and savory items in their bags, there is no cheese in sight and while some bags have fairly straight forward ingredients, others have random curve-balls like fennel. Carolyn is making a fruity ANZAC biscuit and low and behold it is one of Dean’s recipes, maybe she is jealous of Gretchen and trying to get his attention. I do think though that it is a bit off using the judges recipes, they should work with a base recipe and adapt it, to make it into something original, not something complete from a book. Steve feels more confident, Chelsea keeps smiling away, Paula is very controlled, Gretchen is out to impress, Catherine is making ‘turd’ cookies and Carolyn is cruising. All in all the challenge is rather uneventful.

I do however, have a bone to pick with Judge Jade. Can someone PLEASE knock that woman off her high horse!!!! Yes she is trained, a professional and has done her dues in the industry but that does not give her the permission to talk about contestants in such a condescending manner. In her side interviews she is often laughing at their attempts and is all ” So’n'so was trying to bake whatever by doing blah blah and I was thinking, oh my god how could they be so stupid, I never would have done that, I know they are home bakers but they should know, by some magic, all the professional techniques and skills I have been taught. What dumb-bos!”. Even when she was impressed with Paula she was laughing in a belittling manner, as if her skills were a fluke. But I shall try to breathe and push through the rest of the season with her.

OK, and this is where we come to my biggest problem with this episode: the judging. Dean, Jade and Colin go around tasting everything. They speak of how somethings are to complicated for kids,some things are too simple, too much flavour, too little flavour and as a general whole contradicting themselves for 10minutes. Dean at one point even goes to the pantry, pulls out Queen food colouring and sprinkles (filling this episode product placement quoter) and says how they should have been using heaps of this sort of stuff. I bet if they did they would complain that they shouldn’t be pumping kids with artificial colours and synthetic ingredients. Either way they are damned if they do, damned if they don’t. But how can you have an episode where you are trying to bake food for kids and you have professional bakers judging what kids would like. WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN!!!!! They should have had kids also trying the food along side the judges, letting them know what they thought was the yummiest. This is not fair and I want a rematch!

After all the judging, contradicting and condescending, the top three for the day are Catherine, Carolyn and Paula. Paula gets her first win for the day, Gretchen is green with envy as she is only ‘safe’. The bottom two are Steve and Chelsea and we’re all wondering if they will eliminate the shows gender diversity or the ethnicity diversity. Sadly Steven is the one to go as he didn’t use all the ingredients in his bag, thus missing the brief, and Chelsea stays for another day, maybe Jade didn’t want her too go so she could laugh at her more.

I wanted Steve to stay, primarily because he was the only male and I wanted him to have a chance to out do all the women but alas no. Not a very exciting episode, but by the looks of next week we should have an hour more dramatic than Shortland Street as they have to make towering desserts with wow factor.

But please tell me: Am I the only one who thinks that Jade has a real ‘attitude’ going on that is really hard to watch??? 

FOOD TELEVISION – Sundays from 13 February, 4.00pm

Tune in to exclusive lessons, tips and tricks from the judges Dean Brettschneider and Jade Lipton from this home-grown show featuring eight top amateur home bakers from across New Zealand competing against each other, and putting their baking skills to the ultimate test!

FOOD TELEVISION – Saturdays from 12 February, 4.00pm

This home-grown show features eight top amateur home bakers from across New Zealand competing against each other, and putting their baking skills to the ultimate test! Each episode holds a fresh and delicious challenge for the contestants testing their versatility and inventiveness, baking against the clock in an effort to please discerning judges Dean Brettschneider and Jade Lipton in the attempt of being crowned Nestle New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker.

7:30pm – Thursday, February 10 on TV 3

Premiering on Thursday, February 10th at 7:30pm on 3, this summer’s hottest local competition series, Nestle New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker, is once again celebrating New Zealand’s love affair with home baking.

Hosted by New Zealand’s Next Top Model judge Colin Mathura-Jeffree, with judges Dean Brettschneider and new judge Jade Lipton, Nestle New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker features eight top amateur home bakers from across New Zealand competing for the title of New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker.

Avid bakers, the contestants were chosen from hundreds of applications from across the country. Each bringing their own signature baking dish to the show, as well as their unique style of baking and personality!

“They’re incredibly varied, they came from all across New Zealand,” Mathura-Jeffree says of the eight contestants. “Their common link, however, is in a bowl and in the recipes, and of course the wanting to share their yummy goodies!”

From cupcakes, pies and pavlovas, to baking and decorating the perfect cake, each episode will hold a fresh and delicious challenge to test the contestants baking versatility and inventiveness.

“I am so glad to be part of all this great series,” Mathura-Jeffree continues. “I get to taste the bake goods of some of the country’s top bakers…”

They may be the best in their kitchen at home, but are they the best in New Zealand? Find out when we get our first introductions to the eight bakers who could become New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker. Nestle New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker premieres on Thursday, February 10th at 7:30pm on 3.

We’re passed half way on the new season premieres that are happening this week.  There are a few more on the horizon though, like Masterchef New Zealand which returns on Sunday the 20th of February on TV One. I suspect Marcus Lush’s North will also appear there as well.  However, to whet your appetite for Masterchef, Simon Gault has his Intrepid Journey at 8:30pm on One. That, of course, if you’re not watching TV 2′s new super-powered show in No Ordinary Family. Bones returns to TV3 at 8:30 as well.

Before those, Police 10-7 is back on 2, Nestle New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker is back on 3 and American Dad is back, albeit on Four. Futureama, The Cleveland Show and South Park also all return to the new channel tonight.

The show of the night though is An Idiot Abroad at 9:30pm on TV3. I cannot emphasize this enough. If you love Ricky Gervais, it’s a must watch.

On Four, new comedy The Good Guys debuts at 9:30pm as well.

And if you don’t have Sky and you’ve managed not to listen to the radio, read an online news site, Facebook or Twitter, then Prime has highlights from the Halberg Awards from 11:30pm.

What are you watching tonight?