Channel 4 have unveiled the 13 home-bakers competing in the tenth season of The Great British Bake Off, due to hit screens next week.
And, to be expected, the competitors are a diverse group of amateur bakers including a geography teacher, a fashion designer, a HGV driver and vet.
This year’s eagerly awaited series is championing younger cake makers as the line-up is made up of seven people in their 20’s, while the oldest contestant is 56, and the average age inside the tent is 31.
Geography teacher Alice, 28, took up baking at the age of 15 when a back operation for scoliosis left her unable to do sport.
After moving to New Zealand in her 20s she attended art school and then returned to the UK to live in London. Alice often merges her love for baking with her passion for teaching and uses her cakes in lessons to demonstrate natural activities such as coastal erosion and volcanic activity.
Mixing it up: Channel 4 have unveiled the 13 home-bakers competing in the tenth season of The Great British Bake Off, due to hit screens next week
Revealing her dream to appear on Bake Off began in 2010, she said: ‘I have wanted to be in Bake Off ever since the show has started, but I wasn’t really good enough when I was 18. To be on such a big show doing something that you are passionate about is a huge thing.
‘I also felt that to be accepted into the tent gave me the confidence to feel that I could bake. It was a dream come true!’
Likewise to Alice, fashion designer Amelia, 24, has also wanted to star on the show since it first aired. The Halifax native, has been baking since the age of five, when she watched her mother and grandmother make beautiful cake decorations.
Although now living in London, the sports-wear designer still draws on her northern roots in her baking and firmly believes that freshly farmed produce is essential for a good bake.
Pictured: This year’s contestant’s – (rear left to right) Steph, Henry, Priya, Helena, Alice, Phil, and Rosie, (front left to right) Amelia, David, Michelle, Michael, Dan and Jamie
HGV driver Phil, 56, who lives in Rainham, East London, with his wife and two daughters shared that his long-terms friend will be shocked and surprised he is on the series.
Despite baking four to five times a week, he told: ‘They had been staying with us recently and said “you make such wonderful cakes”, but have never mentioned to me that I should go on Bake Off, so I think they haven’t a clue that I would be in it.’
One of the thirteen hopefuls will be taking home the desirable title of Bake Off champion, won last year by Rahul Mandal, who, in a show first, was given fifteen extra minutes to complete his final bake in the 2018 final after a glass storage jar shattered on his worktop after being hit by a beam of sunlight.
Somerset-based veterinary surgeon Rosie, 28, uses baking to wind down from her stressful job and often bakes through the night to keep the nurses at her surgery well-fed.
He favourite bake is a box of mixed pastries and she is inspired by her rural surroundings, from the orchards next to her house to the eggs laid by her ducks and chickens.
Joining them will be Steph, 28, a shop assistant from Chester, who enjoys creating healthy bakes with added fruits and vegetables, Priya, a 34-year-old marketing consultant from Leicester who is a self-professed perfectionist and lover of baking late into the night, and print shop administrator Michelle, 35, from Tenby in Wales, who bakes almost every other day and enjoys experimenting with flavours.
Also in the tent will be theatre manager and fitness instructor Michael, 26, from Stratford-upon-Avon, who is inspired by the flavours of his Indian heritage, and 20-year-old part-time waiter and sports science student Jamie from Surrey, who likes the challenge of a technical bake such as a croquembouche.
Helena, a 40-year-old online project manager from Leeds, focuses on using American flavours as well as those from her Spanish heritage in her baking, while international health adviser David, 36, who lives in London but comes from Yorkshire, is fond of robust flavours and solid bakes, rather than fancy, colourful decorations.
The line-up is completed by support worker Dan, 32, from Rotherham, who is largely self-taught in the kitchen and made his own wedding cake, and 20-year-old English literature Durham University student Henry, who tests out his culinary skills and carefully combined flavours on his house mates.
They’re back: The series – which usually sees only 12 hopefuls hit the tent to showcase their culinary skills – will be hosted by fan favourites Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig and judged by Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith
Cut from the same cookie dough: This year’s eagerly awaited series is championing younger cake makers as the line-up is made up of seven people in their 20’s, while the oldest contestant is 56, and the average age inside the tent is 31
Hopefuls: This year’s aspiring bakers will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Sophie, Nadiya Hussain, Candice Brown and Nancy Birtwhistle
The series – which usually sees only 12 hopefuls hit the tent to showcase their culinary skills – will be hosted by fan favourites Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig and judged by Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith.
Sandi and Noel joined the baking show when it moved from BBC to Channel 4 in 2017, where they replaced Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc, who had hosted the show for six years. Also deciding not to make the move to the channel was Mary Berry.
The new series of The Great British Bake Off will begin on Channel 4 on August 27 at 8pm.
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