Here comes the Bake Off! A whole ten years of baking in a tent by amateur bakers. Lots of sweat, blood and a crazy of number of eggs later we are back in Berkshire with this new glorious bunch.
The judges and presenters gathered together dressed as the Wizard of Oz cast to launch the new series – other than the fact that Paul says he has no heart, I’m not sure if the rest made any sense. I am sure the viewers at home agreed with Noel though.
The first week in the tent is always the most nerve-racking for the bakers, getting used to the surrounding, ovens, other bakers, cameras in your faces and – something I only learned after going in the tent – talking to the camera and presenters while baking. No one wants to be the first to leave the tent; there’s nothing wrong with dropping your cake or coming last in the technical challenge but going home in the first week is the worst bit.
The first signature challenge for Cake Week was to make a fruitcake. I’m not a fan myself but it’s still a good challenge to start the series. Everyone gets straight to work and out come all those recipes straight from grandma’s cookbook – although there are plenty of twists added.
As soon as Sandi says ‘BAKE!’ we have the first casualty in the tent, with Michael cutting his finger the minute he touched his knife. A few minutes later he slices his other finger, and then his third by the time the oven has harely had a chance to heat up. At this rate he might have all his fingers in plasters by week two – I hope the tent had a large stock of plasters for him! Who can blame him though; the knives in the tent are much sharper than what the average home baker is used to.
