May the best (least awful) cake win
Let’s face it, folks: We’re not all great bakers. And now there’s a place for home bakers to humiliate oursel … er … do the thing we love and win a US$10,000 prize.
That place is Nailed It! Each episode of the Netflix series pits three dessert makers against each other. They clearly love to bake. But like me and probably you, their love exceeds their skill set.
Reportedly inspired by YouTube clips in which amateurs try to recreate astonishing baked goods, each episode challenges baketestants to tackle two desserts, like a jelly-filled doughnut iced with pirate symbols or a multilayered wedding cake topped with handcrafted fondant flowers.
Comedian Nicole Byer is the brassie host, and chocolatier Jacques Torres is head judge, who presides along with a guest judge drawn from the ranks of baking badasses.
Mistakes will be made! One guy forgot to add eggs to his batter. A retired cop microwaved chocolate for such a long time that it began smoking. Five-second bursts of heat are better, the judges sagely note.
Nailed It! winks at us as we laugh at it, poking fun at the seamlessness of reality shows. A stagehand pops up from under a table when a prop is missing. When a judge isn’t sure what the prize is for a bake-off, she’s pointed in the direction of the teleprompter.
Final baked goods often resemble lumpy clumps of dough topped with oozing, garishly tinted frosting. The best (or least awful) cake wins; money is shot at the victor via a money gun.