Now Bake Off has too much sauce, say fans

TALK of ‘soggy bottoms’ and ‘hot baps’ is as much a part of the Great British Bake Off as the making of cakes and buns.

But the innuendoes on this week’s episode left viewers spluttering into their tea as it turned seriously smutty.

Examples included presenter Mel Giedroyc asking university worker Rav Bansal why his biscuit batter was ‘so stiff’, and Paul Hollywood telling retiree Val Stones her sister ‘ tastes lovely’ (the sister, it should be noted, was in gingerbread form).

But it was an innocent comment by judge Mary Berry as she sampled PE teacher Candice Brown’s gingerbread pub that sent viewers into meltdown.

Looking at the pub’s edible fittings, the 81-year-old judge said she would like to ‘ eat a bit of carpet’ – a remark taken by some to be a reference to an act not easily described in a family newspaper.

Thousands were quick to flag up the inappropriate references, saying that while the show is known for its naughty jokes the humour in Wednesday’s episode was ‘outrageous’ and the crude jokes were ‘out of control’.

Producers had clearly been aware of the potential furore, telling the show’s 470,000 Twitter followers beforehand: ‘Tonight’s episode at 8pm contains: – Carpet eating – Extreme stiffness – DUNKING.’

Referring to co-presenter Sue Perkins, who missed this week’s episode, they also tweeted: ‘You might think it’s Sue who loves the rude jokes, but, left unchaperoned, flirty Mel was being racier than ever.’

Indeed, the 48-year- old presenter was seen sidling up to Sikh baker Rav Bansal as he struggled with a bag of icing to whisper: ‘Do you need a pair of warm hands, either on your bag or you? Why is it so stiff?’, leaving the university worker glowing with embarrassment.

Two years ago Hollywood defended the cheeky humour, and added: ‘There’s a lot of stuff on the programme where there’s no innuendo intended. Because baking is very physical, you’re talking about how it feels in your hand and people read something completely different into that.’ Wednesday’s programme, which was once again watched by 10million viewers, saw Welsh hairdresser Louise Williams eliminated from the competition while Candice was named star baker.