Our first round of bakers, Jodie Whittaker, Munya Chawawa, Paloma Faith, and Spencer Matthews, kicked off this year’s The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer on Sunday, where they took on three challenges to bag Star Baker.
First up was the Signature Bake, which saw them bringing their best cake pops to the table. These needed to be identical, and the decoration had to have meaning. It was popping off in the tent, from Jodie’s chocolate orange (sunglasses wearing) suns, to Palomas poo emoji pops, Munya was after a left-handed handshake from Paul, and Spencer had his eye on the prize. Unfortunately, Munya didn’t receive handshakes from either of Paul's hands with his Ed Sheeran themed pops, as they we’re a little on the soggy side. Paloma's bake split the judges as Prue loved the flavour, but Paul found the coconut sugar too grainy. The flavours popped for Spencer’s red velvet bakes, but the soft texture let him down. Although Jodie’s bakes were giving evil Tellytubby sun, Paul thought they were delicious and moist.
Onto the Technical, and in a twist of fate, it was pretzels. Pauls words of wisdom were to twist instead of knot, to get four identical pretzels with a Red Leicester cheese sauce in two hours. In classic Hollywood style though, there were no timings for baking, meaning the celebs really had to prove themselves. In fourth place, Paloma's pretzels were more knot than twist. In third, Jodie's did well on flavour but the dough was too tight. Spencer started off strong, adding WOO to his sauce with a bit of cracked black pepper, but shaping wasn't perfect, leaving him second in the challenge. Munya was on fire, whacking the oven up to 300 degrees to achieve the crispy on the outside, soft on the inside texture the judges were looking for, his risky tactic paid off and the judges awarded him the top spot in the challenge (still no left handed handshake though).
It's Showstopper time and this week, the celebs had to bake a sandwich biscuit portrait of the judges. Munya was baking hot stuff again as a homage to Paul, but his ginger shortbreads and chilli biscuits were a little underbaked and didn’t get much praise for decoration with Paul unimpressed with his teeth, leaving him out of the running for Star Baker. Looking a lot like a GCSE art submission, Paloma's American style cookies with a vegan chocolate ganache were overbaked and weren't sweet enough for Prue. So, it was between Jodie and Spencer in the race towards the Star Baker apron. Jodie began by having a smashing time with the glass mixing bowls, but her custard cream and iced ring biscuits successfully portrayed the twinkle in Pauls eyes, and the flavours were a hit despite the missing noses from both the judges faces. Spencer got creative with an SU2C arrow in his traditional jam sandwich biscuit, which was a hit with Prue. Who will it be… with the win hanging in the balance, a proud Spencer Matthews wins Star Baker. With Jodie a close second in the running, Spencer continued to step up his game to get the top spot.
Catch up on all Stand Up To Cancer Bake Off episodes now here.
Are you rising to the challenge of becoming a Star Baker in your own kitchen? Good news, you can get your very own Star Baker apron like winner Spencer from the Stand Up To Cancer shop, plus more Star Baker merchandise to look the part while baking up a storm. 100% of the profits go to Cancer Research UK in support of the Stand Up To Cancer campaign.
