September Writing Prompt: The Invisible Bake

This harvest season, turn to a staple of contemporary comfort TV for writing inspiration.

Recently, Season 13 of The Great British Bake Off began airing on Netflix (billed as “Collection 10” on the streaming site). The return of the show is like a high holy day for my partner and me. And with a new baby in the house, we could absolutely use some of the show’s cheery, relaxing vibes.

Matt Lucas, Noel Fielding, Prue Leith, & Paul Hollywood of GBBO (Eater London)

There was a meme making the rounds as of late that, infuriatingly, I can’t locate, which sums up my feelings. It was a picture of the four hosts above and said something like “Shoutout to the four people who are solely responsible for my mental health this fall.” Yeah. That’s the vibe.

GBBO is worthy of its own Poets Watching TV post (and believe me, it’s coming) but one aspect of the show that feels particularly poetic to me is, interestingly, the Technical Challenge. Sure, there is plenty of raw, imaginative creativity involved in the Signature and Showstopper bakes, where contestants are free to do whatever they’d like within the confines of a particular form (formal poetry, anyone?) but the Technical feels poetic to me because of the way it engages with the known and the unknown.