David Farnor | On 21, Aug 2018

With only a week to go until The Great British Bake Off returns, the big question of the new season’s air date has finally been answered: 2018’s Bake Off will start at 8pm on Tuesday 28th August, with episodes then airing weekly on Tuesday nights. The show will once again be hosted by the tasty combination of Sandi Toksvig, Noel Fielding, Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood, and promises another sizeable serving of impressive technical challgens and dazzling showstoppers.

That, of course, leaves just one question remaining: who are this year’s bakers? Here’s the full dozen, unveiled fresh from the oven by Channel 4 this morning:

Antony

Age
29

Hometown
London

Profession
Banker

Describing himself as a “Bollywood baker”, Antony grew up in India, where he learned to bake with his father. It is his father who remains his inspiration – it’s thanks to him that Antony got serious about baking. Antony’s adventurous attitude to flavour profiling is the result of a willingness to try new foods, his determination to ask probing questions of established bakers, and – in particular – his cultural roots and his travels around the world. His bold, inquisitive nature has enabled him to collect ideas and techniques that he is unafraid to use in his own creations, making his bakes at times unconventional and always interesting. He takes his research very seriously: he once tasted 50 choux buns during a single trip to Paris.

Briony

Age
33

Hometown
Bristol

Profession
Full-time parent

Born and raised in Bristol, Briony is a self-taught baker, inspired by her Nan’s baking wisdom and motivated by her determination never to let anything defeat her. Using YouTube tutorials to help her learn specific techniques, Briony has been baking seriously since 2013. She is a whizz with puff pastry – a weekly favourite at home with her husband and daughter – and has created several wedding cakes and stunning, intricately decorated novelty cakes for friends and family.

Dan

Age
36

Hometown
London

Profession
Full-time parent

For Dan, the pleasure of eating begins with what we see. A self-confessed perfectionist, Dan considers aesthetic one of the most important aspects of his bakes – he begins every creation with the aim of making it not just delicious, but also a thing of beauty. While that can cause stress during the cooking and making itself, he aims for well thought-through results, with every bake created with a genuine and knowledgeable appreciation for the process. He is a full-time father to two small children, so home-baking is part of his everyday life. He sees it as a means to create family memories, as well as family mealtimes.

Imelda

Age
33

Hometown
County Tyrone, NI

Profession
Countryside recreation officer

Imelda is one of four siblings and grew up in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, where she learned to cook and bake from her mother, in their family home. Now juggling a busy job and family life, Imelda spends her evenings and weekends making soda breads, biscuits and treats for her father and son, and cakes that she takes into work to share with her colleagues. She lives surrounded by aunts, uncles and cousins, which means catering for friends and family at large sociable gatherings is just part of normal, everyday life.

Jon

Age
47

Hometown
Newport, Wales

Profession
Blood courier

Welshman Jon loves nothing more than spending quality family time with his wife and four children and bakes in the kitchen as a way to relax after a hard day’s work. He loves a showy bake – and a showy Hawaiian shirt, too – and loves wowing friends and family with his creations. Jon loves to research new ideas and experiment with different techniques to try and achieve something unique in his baking.

Karen

Age
60

Hometown
West Yorkshire

Profession
In-store sampling assistant

Karen began her love affair with baking during the 15 years in which she and her husband owned a house in France. Although she had baked with her mum since she was little, it was the local French patisserie that really inspired her. Now, she can knock up profiteroles, Religieuse buns, tartes au citron, and even foot long eclairs to rival any French bakery. Karen is unafraid to experiment in her baking and has even been known to go into baking “frenzies” whenever there is a party or a BBQ, baking everything she can think of and freezing as she goes.

Kim-Joy

Age
27

Hometown
Leeds

Profession
Mental health specialist

Kim-Joy’s birthday falls on World Baking Day, which she takes as the surest sign there can be that she was born to bake. Born in Belgium to an English father and Malaysian–Chinese mother, she grew up in London, studied in both Bristol and Leeds, and now lives in Leeds with her partner. Her bustling, mixed-heritage background is reflected in her open attitude to all styles of baking, loving rustic baking just as much as she loves creating cute bakes with an emphasis on detail. Her baking passion, though, is bread – she has turned her hand to pretty much every style and type of bread there is.

Luke

Age
30

Hometown
Sheffield

Profession
Civil servant and house/techno DJ

Some of Luke’s earliest memories are standing on a mini step ladder so that he could reach the worktop to help his Nan bake. He has been baking independently since he was a mere 10 years old, making Victoria sponges, fruit cobblers and chocolate cake for his family. Now, inspired by early morning cookery shows and his travels throughout Europe and North America, he has tried his hand at almost every baking discipline going. His minimal and clutter-free attitude to life is reflected in the things he creates – his bakes are clean and precise.

Manon

Age
26

Hometown
London

Profession
Software project manager

Born and raised in France, Manon learned to bake with her mother and grandmother, who made everything from scratch – from breads to desserts and biscuits. However, although she grew up in a foodie French family, it was in London that Manon found her passion for baking, arriving in the city to work as an au pair and being blown away by the style and variety of bakeries that the city has to offer. Now she takes inspiration not only from her French heritage, and her London discoveries, but also from her travels around the world. She creates bakes that are pretty and precise and have bags of personality.

Rahul

Age
30

Hometown
Rotherham

Profession
Research scientist

Rahul grew up in Kolkata, surrounded by his family, and moved to the UK on a university scholarship when he was 23. Once here, he discovered an abundance of new flavours and cuisines that have inspired his ‘East-meets-West’-style of baking. As a research scientist, Rahul’s instinct is to undertake every bake with a forensic attitude to research and an uncompromising attention to detail. He is fascinated by the science of baking, but also loves to ensure (or at least try) that his creations are beautiful, full of flavour and structurally elegant, too.

Ruby

Age
29

Hometown
London

Profession
Project manager

Ruby’s love of baking is the result of having become everyone’s ‘mother’ when she went to University, taking seven male housemates under her wing, cooking and baking for them. Growing up as part of an Indian family, the youngest of four children, Ruby remembers childhood baking being about her mum making Jalebi’s, an Indian sweet. Now she loves to gather friends and family together to indulge in her cakes and pastries, as well as her infamous spicy minced lamb pastry rolls. Her baking style is pretty relaxed and boozy and she will always try to sneak some into whatever she is making.

Terry

Age
56

Hometown
West Midlands

Profession
Retired air steward

Terry’s background as a prosthetic technician, as well as spoils from his own microbrewery and allotment, are all evident in his baking – particularly in the precision, science and flavour of his creations. The design and craftsmanship in Terry’s bakes are a testament to his background in fine art. However, it is family that lies at the heart of Terry’s baking journey. As a small child, Terry learned to bake with his grandmother; while his dad taught him how to bake bread and make pastry when he was only 10 years old. And it was his daughters who finally encouraged him to take the plunge and apply for The Great British Bake Off.

 

Watch: First trailer for Bake Off 2018

6th August 2018

August is now upon us, which means one thing: it’s almost time for The Great British Bake Off. And, sure enough, the start of the month meant that Channel 4 once again popped its marketing push in the oven to warm up anticipation for the new batch of contestants.

The show controversially hopped from BBC One to Channel 4 last year, after the broadcaster poached the rights to the programme in a pricey deal. Out went Mel, Sue and Mary Berry, and in came Sandi Toksvig, Noel Fielding and Prue Leith, all joining veteran Paul Hollywood in the tent. The mix-up of ingredients paid off. The Great British Bake Off attracted an average audience of 9 million viewers per episode (10m for the final), rising to 10.5m with linear repeats. It was the biggest TV series of 2017 for viewers aged 16 to 34.

“It’s that added burst of personality and slightly altered dynamic that gives Channel 4’s Bake Off an unexpected, welcome edge,” we wrote in our review. “It’s less like the BBC’s attempt at rebooting Top Gear and more like the commercial broadcaster’s own revival of The Crystal Maze. And with Bake Off now in its eighth year, you know what? Perhaps it is time for a change of ingredients, after all – Mel and Sue can never be replaced, but between Noel’s funny voices and Prue’s scathing feedback, there’s certainly no risk of Bake Off becoming stale… As for all those ad breaks, they’re the perfect chance to stick the kettle on.”

With less pressure on the show after the proof in last year’s pudding, 2018’s GBBO can focus on other matters. And so the new trailer celebrates the inspirational effect that the biggest baking show on TV has on amateur bakers across the UK. The cast of lovingly homemade treats including a chocolate hedgehog, Welsh and rainbow cakes, Yorkshire puddings, Portuguese tarts and a bread swan song along to Beautiful (recorded by ‪Christina Aguilera‬ in 2002) before a sensational showstopper is surrounded by judges and presenters Prue, Paul, Sandi and Noel Fielding.

The bakes were created by baking expert, presenter and author Juliet Sear. The voices used include gospel singers from The Kingdom Choir, who performed at this year’s royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

The video will be followed in the coming weeks by posters paying homage to the judges and presenters, who are presented as iconic showstopper bakes.

All we need now is an official air date for the new season. Watch this space for more.

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