‘Too posh’ Flora roasted over Aga saga
IT seemed an innocent enough comment – but it landed Great British Bake Off hopeful Flora Shedden in a jam.
Viewers accused the 19-year-old Scots student of being ‘too posh’ during the first episode of this year’s contest on Wednesday evening after she said she was more used to baking in an Aga than a conventional oven.
Critics tweeted that she probably owned ‘four ponies and a Range Rover’.
But her sister Hebe, 18, hit back at the snobbery claims, saying their family actually had ‘four brown hens and a Skoda Octavia’.
Miss Shedden, the youngest competitor, forgot to preheat the oven for her blood- orange Madeira cake and explained the mistake by saying: ‘At home we’ve got an Aga and I’m so used to having it on all the time.’
A clip filmed at the family’s home in Dunkeld, Perthshire, showed the Aga, while Miss Shedden’s ten- year- old sister circled the eight-seat kitchen table on a pink unicycle.
But it prompted some of the show’s 9.3million viewers to take to Twitter to accuse Miss Shedden of flaunting her privileged upbringing.
One tweeted: ‘I already hate Flora, she’s too posh.’
Another posted: ‘ You can’t really get more middle class than a 19yo called Flora with an Aga and a unicycle riding sister.’
Miss Shedden, who is working in a gallery before beginning a History of Art degree at St Andrews University, has been tipped to go far on the show. She was praised by judges Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry for all her creations in the first episode,
But even that success only attracted more online criticism. One viewer wrote: ‘ Flora is literally that girl from school who said she didn’t revise and got all A*s isn’t she...’
Another said: ‘ Ah Flora. This year’s Miss Perfect McPerfectson, bless her.’
But Miss Shedden, who lives with her wildlife conservationist father Colin, 58, mother Tiffany, 50, and her two sisters, insisted her baking creations were not always a success.
She told local newspaper The Courier: ‘I have had lots of baking disasters, which normally occur when I am rushing around, or having to produce something at a deadline.
‘I think my family have reached the point that they are sick of my baking, but they are complimentary when they need to be.’
Musician Stu Henshall, 35, was sent home this week after failing to impress the judges.
BETTING on Bake Off was suspended yesterday after a flurry of wagers sparked fears the winner’s name had been leaked.