Jennifer Saunders triumphed in the first round of The Great Comic Relief Bake Off with a cake inspired by Edina Monsoon, the character she played in Absolutely Fabulous.
The bake was several layers of chocolate cake sandwiched together, covered in icing and fashioned to look like a bed. Surrounded by miniature bottles of booze, it contained a fondant figure of a hungover Edina lying beneath the sheets.
Jennifer was competing against her Ab Fab pal Joanna Lumley, singer Lulu and Aussie megastar Dame Edna Everage in the celebrity bake off challenge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-C7khtzh1Q
Edna, who came out of retirement to take part in the competition, struggled in all three rounds of the competition kitchen. In the first round, where the stars had to cook a giant cookie, the Dame was unable to wrest her giant cookie from its baking tin so resorted to cutting into the aluminium with a pair of pliers!
After declaring that she would not be measuring out her ingredients, she said, "I'm a bit unconventional in my cooking. I'm not bound by rules". Unsurprisingly, Mary and Paul were not impressed by the star's ginger and macadamia nut cookie, which had her catchphrase "Hello Possums" piped in icing on it.
The Dame wasn't alone in making errors because Jennifer added too much baking powder to her cookie which was supposed to look like a piece of toast.
"It's slightly bigger than anticipated," she told her Ab Fab pal Joanna. "It's turned into a monster!"
Meanwhile, Lulu created a giant Scottish shortbread biscuit in the shape of her pet dog Clyde, while Joanna created a sandwiched cookie bound together by ginger cream.
Edna didn't fare well in the technical challenge either when the bakers had to create 12 mini fruit tarts in an hour and 20 minutes. She came last, while Lulu came third, Joanna came second and Jennifer triumphed in first place.
However, Edna did impress with a Sydney Opera House cake for the showstopper challenge, but it was Jennifer's Ab Fab cake that won the day.
Joanna's showstopper was supposed to be inspired by the Northern Lights but things didn't go to plan and ended up being retitled "A Walk In A Winter Wonderland". She said it was "disgusting" and it seemed Paul agreed with her because she had added too much baking powder.
Meanwhile, Lulu's record player cake to celebrate 50 years since she hit the charts with her single Shout didn't turn out as planned either. Paul said it was a bit flat but tasted fantastic.
Jennifer, who was named star baker, said she was "dizzy with happiness" at the result and goes through to the final on Red Nose Day for a chance to be named overall winner.
The next episode, on Wednesday 25 February, sees Abbey Clancy, Gok Wan, Jonathan Ross and Zoella attempt to rise to the challenge.
