Turns out stressed singletons used to cracking open bottles of wine before bakes, or furious perfectionists fed up of watching friends spit out their sponge, make for great TV baking contestants.
From start to finish, the ironically titled Netflix original Nailed It (available to stream now) is an antidote to Bake Off, poking glorious gooey fun at the not-so-talented bakers among us.
Encouraged by host and US comic Nicole Byer, contestants fight it out for a £10,000 prize by replicating beautiful bakes made by the professionals. And the results are better than any Hollywood handshake.
Valentine vodka-soaked cake pops see the clueless contestants mould a mess of buttercream and sponge into barely recognisable shapes. Kissing lips are transformed into “sad, bad, injected with Restylane lips”, and broken hearts are less cute, more “ripped out of a human being” in shape, dripping in melting red chocolate.
Next up is a statuesque three-tiered teal masterpiece of a wedding cake from acclaimed baker (and guest judge) Sylvia Weinstock. Advice from the birdlike Weinstock may be to erase “all thought of failure” but that doesn’t stop one attempt leaning precariously to the side like a strange bright blue tower of Pisa.
And that’s even with ‘panic buttons’ handed to each contestant to call for expert help and another that sees Byer bellow distractions at their rivals for three whole minutes.
Loud, messy and funny, this ironic child of the Bake Off phenomenon gives the original a real run for its money.
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