#aziraphale bakes

[gleafer]

The Great British Bake Off saga continues! (New comic in the works!)

He wants that handshake OR ELSE, Paul!

[lonicera-caprifolium]

Happy Hanukkah to everyone celebrating! ✨️

[beebopboom]

“…and no more old bookshop”

That’s what it stopped Aziraphale short in s1, didn’t fully convince him but it made him pause. And Crowley knew that.

flash forward to s2,

“You can’t leave this bookshop.”

Crowley uses the same line again and yet it means so much more now. Which makes it all more devastating to hear,

“Nothing lasts forever”

That’s not part of the song and dance they have played through before. They can’t wiggle themselves out of this one.

Even back in s1, although they made a pit stop at the Ritz, they didn’t truly bring the issue back up until they were in the bookshop. To start to plan.

It’s their safe haven

And now that it’s torn down and exposed the only thing he can offer more of, is himself.

and yet after everything, all the heartbreak, Aziraphale still says,

“But, um….my bookshop.”

While retreating into his East end corner, putting distance between him and the Metatron, to make himself closer to Crowley, to see if he’s still there.

and if that isn’t some of the biggest proof that Aziraphale did not want to go, did not want to leave Crowley. Well.

[quirrelli]

Fondly inspired by the time Michael actually did this

[parttimesarah]

From Michael’s appearance on Comic Relief’s Celebrity Bake Off [1/2]

[aziraphalalala]

Aziraphale has the softest hips. Hips to grab. Hips for miles, connected to thighs that are plump and muscular. Crowley wants to bite them, which is why he always seems slightly distracted in the angel's company.

[thescholarlystrumpet]

Celebrity Bake Off - Michael Sheen (5/??)

[marauderswolf22]

please can we normalize headcanon of crowley looking like this on a party in the 2000s and the view of aziraphale gasping for air a few meters away

[aziraphales-ineffable-bookshop]

I don't know where this is going yet, but when the Metatron says it's predictable no one asks for death - when faced with the possibility of destruction, Aziraphale has always chosen the option that keeps the two of them safe from their respective sides and ensures they won't be destroyed for their "fraternising". No matter what, Aziraphale chooses to protect them, even if it means never getting what he wants.

[gleafer]

I played with some Twitter friends! Enjoy!

I draw what you ask, but not what you’re expecting!

[halfbakedideas]

…this is essentially aziracrow, no?

[elly-sweetheartcrowley]

Maybe he did slither over :)

[dilfcr0wley]

I NEED DAVID TENNANT ON GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF NOWWWW

[ineffablesheets]

Aziraphale: It’s important to follow the rules, Crowley.

Crowley: Right, like that time you miracled your favorite out-of-print book back into existence?

Aziraphale: That was an emergency! They were going to shred it, Crowley!

[drconstellation]

The Altar of Eccles Cakes

(updated 21 Oct 2023, for Grain Offerings example) (updated 21 Nov 2023, for link to First Temptation)

The mysterious plate of Eccles cakes. Are they really to "calm people down?' And why do they just ...disappear? They must be there for a reason?

Yes, they certainly are. They are just the first course of a fascinating meal on offer in S2.

So far, most of the meta around the Eccles cakes has focused on the meaning of their name. Eccles is an old name for church. We could view it as Aziraphale trying to calm Crowley down. They are also known as "squashed fly cakes." The white outside and the black inside could be seen as a metaphor relating to Gabriel. Or it hints at the Roger the Stunt Fly, that contain Gabriel's memories, flying around the book shop, who's purpose we don't find out about until the end. There is even a link to the 1650 Sorry Dance that Aziraphale mentioned, in that were banned by Oliver Cromwell for being pagan! (Did I get that right? I've not kept the post link.)

[Edit: They also represent the First Temptation as Jesus fasts in the wilderness for 40 days before the Entry into Jerusalem at the start of the Passion narratives, where bread was made from stones.]

Take another look at the blocking in this shot. The dark horse statue, representing Crowley - even wearing his sunglasses! - has the placating plate of Eccles cakes placed before it, in supplication. Yeah, it didn't work this time, but it's the thought that counts. What we have here is Aziraphale making an Sin offering to the altar of Crowley, to ask for atonement in advance for what he has done (taking Gabriel in.)

Once you frame it in that reference, you realize its not the only altar offering made during S2. It also adds a bit more depth to some of the other scenes, where they have all been mentioned already in some way, but it certainly helps to explain the Eccles cakes!

Firstly, we need to mention the main types of altar offering that are made:

Burnt offerings - for general atonement of sins and for expression of devotion to God. It could be a bull, a ram, goat, or a bird in the form of a dove or pigeon. Such as this magnificent example in the Job minisode.

Aziraphale certainly devoted himself to the sin of gluttony on that occasion. (hang on, that didn't come out the right way, did it...?) But he was still devoted to God, despite his nocturnal conversation with Crowley while they waited out the storm in the cellar.

Grain offerings - a voluntary expression of devotion to God. This was grain prepared in different way, but always seasoned, unsweetened and unleavened. Recall at Gomorrah Lot offered to prepare the visiting angels unleavened bread as part of a meal.

Originally when I wrote this post I didn't think I had any Grain offering examples, but a few days later as I was writing my post on The Ineffable Ducks I realized where the missing S2 Grain offering was - in S2E1, when Crowley yells at the Azerbaijani spies in St James Park. The ducks are usually offered bread, which is leavened with yeast, so technically not quite correct, but when you review all the instances of feeding the ducks crumbs or bread crumbs it certainly fits. Unless you are Crowley, and you'd rather have the current state of quiet "frozen peas" between Heaven and Hell. See my Ineffable Ducks post for an elaboration.

Peace offering - This could be cattle, sheep or goat without defect, but the main purpose to was consecrate a meal between two or more parties before God and share that meal in a fellowship of peace and commitment to each other's future prosperity.

You know where we see one of these? At the eldritch ball!

I did see a nice meta about the vol-au-vents recently, mainly about their name, but I don't seem to have saved it, and can't find it again. They are usually filled with chicken (a bird) and the eldritch ball is ostensibly the shopkeepers monthly meeting, after all, where they are there to talk about their mutual prosperity in the future. Just so happens its also an opportunity for Aziraphale to talk to Crowley about their future...oh, and Nina and Maggie's, as well, of course!

Sin offering - atonement or unintentional sin. It would have the elements of a Burnt offering, as well as a Peace offering, but not be shared. These are what the plate of Eccles cakes are, so they were never meant to be eaten. They were an olive branch to Crowley regarding Gabriel, but he turned it down. So they softly and suddenly vanish away, never to be met with again.*

There is one more altar offering that needs to mentioned, another Sin offering. The one Crowley consumed in Elspeth's place in The Resurrectionists minisode in 1832 Edinburgh - the laudanum.

It pretty clear to most observers that Crowley did a good and "kind deed" for Elspeth here, which angered Hell in the process and then he was dragged forcibly downstairs to be duly punished for it. There is a post here from atlas-hope that suggests this is a parallel of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, drinking the cup of God's wrath to absolve Christians of their sins. They point out the laudanum is even poured into a goblet. Crumbs, that's a hefty bit of spiritual lifting, dear demon. What were you thinking, Anthony J. Crowley? It might cast that conversation you had with the carpenter back on the mountain in a new light, or least make us look back twice at it. (Plenty of time for contemplation before S3 arrives...)

Remember, a Sin offering has elements of both a Burnt offering and a Peace offering: a giant Crowley gets Elspeth to promise to devote the rest of her life to being "properly good, not just pretendy good" and the money Aziraphale is forced to donate to her ensures her future prosperity. Sounds like a win-win situation there, Elspeth!

[*OK, if you don't get the ref, its from the Hunting of the Snark. The Snark represents happiness, a most elusive thing to find, and more often than not its a fruitless search, and you find the terrible Boojum instead. During the third verse the Baker recounts the lecture his uncle gives him about how to hunt the Snark, and to be aware of his fate if he is unlucky enough to encounter a Boojum. It kind of fits in with S2, I feel.]

[innefableidiot]

I BAKED THE SILLIES

Or at least tried