Dogwood Stars on the Great British Baking Show...Disaster Follows

[dogwoodmaple 380]

This offseason, Helsinki Titans superstar forward Maple Dogwood made his way to the United Kingdom as a guest star on the latest season of the Great British Baking Show.   

"Growing up, I was always in the kitchen with my parents helping them out and really took a liking to all things baking. Plus, I have a massive sweet tooth and love to cook up concoctions.  Last year, I made my wife a four-layer birthday cake that was completely from scratch. The cake, the icing, even the sprinkles!  And it was absolutely delicious.  It ruined the kitchen for like a week, but the cake was top notch.  One of the things that drew me to Bake Off was that you have these great kitchens to work in and someone comes after you and cleans everything up!" Dogwood said with a grin. 

 

After getting approval from his Helsinki coaching staff, Maple set off for the UK and started filming.  Unfortunately for the future Hall of Famer, things did not start or end well.  During the first episode, the contestants were tasked with making a classic creme brulee - something Dogwood had made a thousand times before.

 

"Creme brulee is pretty basic and I felt really confident in my baking skills.  But things started to go awry when it came time to brulee the top.  Everyone got these miniature blow torches and they were acting like they were professionals with them - I'd never seen this kind in my life!  I had no clue how to use it, how hot it would get, nothing.  So I'm over here trying to light mine and apparently I was just letting off a ton of gas from the torch and then boom.  An explosion."

 

The entire baking tent was engulfed in smoke and immediately they halted filming.  Fortunately, nobody was injured and the fire was able to be extinguished rather quickly, but it still shook Maple nonetheless.

 

"After that, they told me I could still be on the show and stuff like that had happened before, but I was really nervous to give it another go.  Not to mention that we had to essentially shoot the entire episode over again, which made me feel really bad for the rest of my competitors. But I thought that I've come this far I was due one mulligan.  Unfortunately, I needed another," Dogwood said.

 

During the re-filming, Maple got the sugar crystalized, but while the judges were going through their grading process, he put down his blow torch and accidentally set it to 'auto' mode.  Unbeknownst to everyone, it was also right next to some flimsy fabrics and very close to the edge of the tent itself.  As Paul Hollywood was grading the competitor directly next to Dogwood, the flames jumped and singed off Paul's beloved eyebrows and caught the entire tent on fire.

 

Again, everyone made it out unharmed, but that was the last straw for Dogwood. The show's hosts offered him a deal - leave now and they would destroy all the tape they had already filmed.  That was something Dogwood could not pass up.

 

"I think it worked out best for everyone that I left.  And I hope my fellow competitors enjoyed the rest of their time on the show.  They did get a nice new tent and facilities out of it, courtesy of yours truly..."