What it’s like to be on ‘The Great American Baking Show’

Call it the power of editing. Watching “The Great American Baking Show,” you’d never know that the famous tent had a hornet problem, or that water misters were a must because the wind dried out the bread dough.

Nicole Aufderhar of Walker, Minn., was one of eight contestants on the most recent season (stream it free on the Roku Channel), and consistently impressed judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith. Aufderhar talked to the Star Tribune about all thing GABS, from the rigorous application process to why she had to miss pastry week — her favorite.

What does it take to apply?

The applications open up in early April, and it starts with just filling out a form, and then they call you, and you have to take a baking quiz to make sure you know what you’re talking about. Then there are a couple of Zoom interviews, and if you do well enough in that, you move on to the tasting round.

And that was interesting, because they only hold them in a few places around the country, and the closest one was Chicago. The producers were like, “Are you sure you want to do this?” Traveling with baked goods for that long is not super easy. But I loaded up the back of my pickup truck with a cooler full of baked goods and went to Chicago, and they obviously liked it.

The next round is being flown out to L.A., where they have you bake on camera, just to see how you bake in person — and that you actually can bake. Then it’s kind of a waiting game. And about a week after that, it’s June, I was sitting at the farmers market ... and I got the email finding out that I had been cast.

From there, you do what’s called baking boot camp, where you prepare your signature bakes and your showstopper bakes. You have to come up with your own original recipes, you have to practice them, photograph them and send it all to the producers to make sure they’re OK with what you’re doing. It’s probably the most intense part of the entire process, filming the show included. It’s very, very intense.

Since I’m self-employed, I had a little bit of an easier time than some of the other contestants who maybe had to go to the office and work and then come home. But I made it through boot camp. Then you fly out to London at the beginning of August, and film almost the entire month of August.

Where does everyone stay?

They put us up in long-stay, apartment-type buildings, on the west side of London. They’re fully suited with a kitchen so we can practice on our off days.

Is the technical challenge really a surprise?

The technical truly is a mystery. You don’t know anything until you pull that gingham cloth off your ingredients. And the technical is probably my favorite thing. I was kind of the odd one out with that. I don’t know what that says about me, but I enjoyed them.

I think a lot of time I feel like I’m not very good at being showy and presenting my bakes. I’m kind of goofy, I’m kind of awkward, so I can’t always present my bakes in the way that sounds real good. With the technical, it is just your baking speaking for itself. (Each episode is shot over two days, one is the signature and technical, and the second day is the showstopper and the judging.)

Is it difficult to deal with the elements?

You really are outdoors in the middle of a field with rabbits and everything everywhere, and the tent is full of hornets. They edit most of it out, but they are always swarming around you and around your bakes, and Paul Hollywood runs around with a bug zapper. It’s a lot. The wind was particularly difficult during bread week. I remember just trying to keep my dough from drying out while I was actively working on it. I had to have a mister to try to keep it from just cracking. They are just things you don’t usually deal with at home.

Do judges take the elements into consideration?

I wish they did. No, it’s kind of like, “Oh, too bad for you.” I was on one of the windier sides of the tent, and it was just like, well, that’s your luck, because sometimes you’re on the sunny side, and then that’s your luck then. So they’re understanding because, for the most part, everyone’s bake is going to suffer if it’s a hot day, but that doesn’t stop them from critiquing you.

You had to miss a week because you were sick!

I was devastated. I started to feel sick at the end of bread week, and I remember sitting at my bench after judging, and I just kind of said to myself, I don’t feel right. I kept a journal while I was there and wrote about how I was excited because I made it to pastry week, which was my ultimate goal. That was my dream week. And the next day I wrote, “I can’t believe it, I’m sick.” I ended up having to miss the week I was looking forward to the most. (She competed for three weeks after that.)

When I got home, I ended up in a hospital for a week and at that point it was meningitis, because my body just couldn’t kick whatever I had over there. I look at my time in the tent as before I got sick and after, and I think you can kind of hear it in my voice those last two weeks. I’m happy with what I did, all things considered.

The judges had some great things to say about you.

That was kind of fun. I knew what they had to say, I mean, obviously they told it directly to me. But with some of the conversations they have when they’re making decisions, you don’t know what they have to say about you till you watch the show when it releases. And so to find out that I was pretty much always in the running for Star Baker was quite the surprise. I’m pretty hard on myself, so I just always thought I was going home every week. It was nice to hear that that wasn’t the case.

What is one thing you’ll take away from the experience?

The friends that I’ve made from the show. These are people that truly do become your family. We talk every day, we’re still friends. That’s why I did that show. Sure, it would be fun to win, but to me, the more important thing is to make those connections and have those friendships that hopefully last for years and years.