Celebs bake up a storm
THE HEAT IS DEFINITELY ON AS FAMOUS FACES DO BATTLE IN THE BAKE OFF TENT FOR A GREAT CAUSE
THE beauty of the celebrity version of this show is that the baking skills can range from appalling to expert, which makes for excellent telly either way. Plus the contestants are all natural born performers. In this episode, the four stars are all quite competitive, all eye-balling each other throughout.
Host Matt Lucas welcomes to the tent Hollywood actor James McAvoy, pop star AnneMarie, comedian David Baddiel and Olympian Dame Kelly Holmes.
“This is pressure,” says Dame Kelly. “It’s like being on the start line.”
Their first challenge is to make deep-filled decorative tarts. James gets going on a lemon meringue pie, telling an anecdote about a food fight in Montreal while filming “X Men…. er, one of them”. David makes a tart called ‘Revenge for mother’s disappointing desserts’, with a tin of mandarins the star of the show. Elsewhere in the tent, AnneMarie has burst into a rendition of Castle on a Cloud from Les Mis as she attempts a banoffee pie.
There’s a lot of panic, yelling and occasional violence, not helped when Prue gives the following advice for the technical: “You need a really gentle touch and pray.”
They must make six buttermilk cheese and chive scones, with their own butter. “What the hell is a cheese scone?” asks Anne-Marie. Finally, the celebs must make a 3D marble cake that represents themselves in animal form.
There is much piping of icing fur, some over-marbling and it all gathers at a frantic pace. They all want to win, but will they even reach the finish line?