The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up to Cancer is back as judges Paul Hollywood and Dame Prue Leith welcome more famous faces into the tent.
The five-part series, hosted by Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas, starts on Tuesday, March 22 at 8pm on C4 and sees four celebrities each week dig out their rolling pins and food mixers as they compete to win the Star Baker apron all in the name of charity.
We caught up with Paul Hollywood and Dame Prue Leith for a video chat to find out more about The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up to Cancer…
The Great Celebrity Bake Off is back for a new run! Which celebrities did you enjoy meeting on the show?
Paul Hollywood: “Ellie Goulding. I love her music and she’s a decent baker. Emma Willis was funny too and I’m a big The Inbetweeners fan so Blake Harrison made me laugh just looking at him. His baking made me laugh as well, but for different reasons!”
Dame Prue Leith: “I loved Ruby Wax. She’s such an interesting woman and great fun.”
Did things get competitive?
Paul Hollywood: “Ellie really wanted Star Baker, she’d practised, and Tracy-Ann Oberman was very driven. Mo Farah was single-minded. He knew he wasn’t the best but he had tenacity.”
Dame Prue Leith: “A lot of them think it will be a laugh but then they get into the tent and want to win. Mo was a delight. He was totally ungrand although he’s sporting royalty.”
Matt Lucas bakes in one episode after a celebrity drops out. How did he do?
Dame Prue Leith: “Matt Lucas didn’t do badly. But he had trouble with his marzipan.”
Paul Hollywood: “He knows the right things, but can’t put it in the right order! He got tetchy because something went wrong and he was nervous.”
Which challenges did you enjoy setting?
Dame Prue Leith: “We had meringue roulades in one episode. And Blake made a martial arts arena out of choux buns!”
Paul Hollywood: “Yes roulades are the best thing ever but when they do it badly, it’s also the worst thing ever! For me, anything with choux I’m happy, especially if it’s filled with creme pat or cream.”
Were there any disasters?
Paul Hollywood: “A couple of things didn’t turn out the way they expected, so there was a bit of winging it. And a couple of celebs did stuff that made me giggle.”
Dame Prue Leith: “We are kinder to them though. We don’t ask them for three-tiered fantasies!”
Do you give them any tips?
Paul Hollywood: “Yes, with the celebs, we step in quietly and say, ‘What you should be doing is this.’”
Dame Prue Leith: “That’s one of the nice things, it’s more relaxed. You can’t stop them in the regular Bake Off, that would be unfair, but on the celebrity one, it doesn’t seem so terrible to help them a bit.”
What makes Stand Up to Cancer such a special charity?
Paul Hollywood: “A friend of mine is the most amazing woman who went through breast cancer and has just gone through ovarian cancer, but she smiles all the way through it. Stand Up To Cancer is all about support and fighting this awful disease that affects so many of us.”
To donate to Stand Up To Cancer, head to channel4.com/SU2C
