The Bake Off Is Back!
Twelve new bakers, a new judge, two new Fresh Bakes calls, and new ways to play. Episode 1 lands on Tuesday 22 September at 8pm on Channel 4, and The Weekly Dollop is ready!
Preheat the Ovens
The best time of year is almost upon us
Preheat the ovens! Iron your aprons! Tune your TVs! The best time of year is almost upon us. Here at The Weekly Dollop this is Christmas, New Year's, and Easter rolled and baked into one. The Bake Off is back!
And this year, at The Weekly Dollop, we are going bigger and better, with more ways to interact and more ways to play. Series 17 opens on Tuesday 22 September at 8pm on Channel 4. Read on to get excited, read about the changes, and learn how to bring your friends to the table.
Meet the Bakers
Twelve strangers, one tent
Twelve new bakers file into the tent this year, and Channel 4 has told us this much:
- Clara, 24, a marketing graduate from Hertfordshire
- Connie, 63, an NHS hospital discharge lead from London
- Danni, 25, an HGV service centre administrator from Dorset
- Gabe, 32, an artist and drag king from the West Midlands
- Gary, 67, a retired garment technologist from Nottinghamshire
- Molly, 31, an accessibility coordinator from London
- Moyin, 22, a political economy student from Essex
- Mo, 21, a law student from the West Midlands
- Nikki, 50, an advertising post-producer from London
- Shannon, 29, a project planner and scheduler from Gloucestershire
- Tom, 25, a hairdresser from West Yorkshire
- Yannis, 28, a paediatric doctor from London
Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding return as hosts. That is everything the paper knows, and the paper refuses to guess the rest. Odds open once we have seen them bake.
Newsroom Articles
📐 What Has Changed, and Three Ways to Play
Change is upon us. Prue has stepped away, and Nigella replaces her. In the same vein, Fresh Bakes is changing too.
Firstly, a new category: Soggy, Stodgy, or Split. Call which of the three words is said first in the episode, or None if you think the judges hold their tongues. Secondly, the Over/Under now counts every word that starts with over or under, not just a fixed list of them. Overbaked, underproved, and overwhelmed all go on the tally.
For those who play the Full Monty, I have put my numerical PhD to work and rebalanced the scoring between Fresh Bakes and Roll Models, so your calls carry as much weight as the luck of the draw. Mathematical!
I have also engineered new ways to play, to make my games open to all of you out there, whatever your appetite.
1. The Full Monty. Fresh Bakes, Roll Models, and Dollipops. Your dealt baker banks points all season, your six calls bank more, and Dollipops reward chiming in with a comment or a guest column.
2. The Fresh Bakes league. Six calls a week, ranked against your own friends, with Dollipops if your founder switches them on. No draft, no Roll Model.
3. One-off weekly Fresh Bakes on the public board. No account. Play one week, miss the next, come back for the Final. The most flexible of the three.
More ways to prove :-) you have what it bakes :-) to succeed.
To start a league of your own: create a profile at theweeklydollop.com/profile (sign in by email, no password), name your league and press Start a league, then press Make fresh invite and send the link by WhatsApp, Messages, or copy and paste. Friends open it, sign in by email, and land at your table. A link lasts 14 days, and making a fresh one replaces it. Have it done before the Episode 2 deadline, for reasons the editor explains below.
💌 Pass the Paper Along
Oh yay! So excited to be back! So many beautiful faces in the tent already, and I have not even met them yet. I have been working hard all year to make this year's batch of Dollops better than ever, and to get the paper out to more of you than ever before.
Sharing it is the easy bit. Send a friend theweeklydollop.com, or send them straight to the Fresh Bakes page at theweeklydollop.com/play. They need no account, no code, and no password: they choose a public board nickname, make six calls before the episode, and post them. The calls stay changeable until the deadline.
Once the results are in, the play page lets them copy or share their score card straight into the group chat. And anyone who would rather have the paper delivered can leave an email address at the letterbox on the front page, and the Dollop arrives every Sunday.
I hope everyone has fun.
⏭️ Pay Close Attention in Episode 1
A reminder from the editor's desk. Episode 1 is to get acquainted with the twelve new bakers. Learn who you want to root for and who rubs you the wrong way.
You may post a public Fresh Bakes slip for Episode 1, for fun and for bragging rights. League play, in every kind of league, starts with Episode 2 on Tuesday 29 September. Have your league made, and your friends in it, by then.
🍋 From the Junior Desk
Well. It is my first (and, I hope, last) year at the Dollop, and everyone in the office has worked themselves into a frenzy. I cannot wait to write about Victoria sponges and lemon meringues instead of anything that matters.
At least it will be funny seeing how many Fresh Bakes predictions you lot get wrong each week. I will be counting.