Exclusive: The Great Christmas Bake Off this year will be the first ever soap special
C4 series returns for festive fun with icons from Corrie, Emmerdale and EastEnders and with a Showstopper Challenge that takes the biscuit
The Great British Bake Off will celebrate Christmas with its first ever soap-themed special featuring stars past and present from Eastenders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale.
The line-up will feature Natalie Cassidy and Dean Gaffney, better known as Albert Square’s much-loved Jackson siblings Sonia and Robbie. They will be joined by Emmerdale legends Chris Bisson, who’s played Jai Sharma since 2009, and Sheree Murphy, who left at Tricia Dingle back in 2004. And the fifth soap star battling it out to be named this year’s Festive Star Baker is Coronation Street favourite Shobna Gulati, who appeared on the cobbles as Sunita Alahan for a decade until 2013.
One insider said that this year’s trio of tasks would push the actors’ baking skills to the limit. “For the Signature challenge the bakers will be asked to put their own spin on the traditional yule log, and for the Technical they need to make delicate Christmas trees out of meringue. But as ever, the biggest challenge will come with the Showstopper, which will see them having to re-create one of their favourite festive soap storylines – in biscuit form. Will Wellard make an appearance? Could Sonia’s trumpet pop up? Perhaps we’ll see rum’n’raisin versions of the Woolpack or the Rovers. Absolutely anything is possible.”
Paul, Prue, Noel and Alison discuss what they’d like to see in their Christmas stockings (
Mark Bourdillon)
Alison and Paul have a Christmas cuddle ahead of the upcoming soap special (
Mark Bourdillon)
The Great Christmas Bake Off, featuring judges Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood and presenters Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond, is traditionally a huge crowd-puller, with ratings reaching over 5million when catch-up viewing is included.
In the past they have featured favourite bakers from previous series plus themed specials based on the cast of hit comedy Derry Girls and award-winning drama It’s a Sin, while another special had C4’s history experts donning their aprons.
Hollywood has previously given his top tip on how to make the perfect yule log, saying: “The secret with a Swiss roll sponge is, when you bring it out, put it on some paper with a little bit of icing sugar and roll it up straight away. And then leave it to cool, while it’s rolled up.”
But sadly the advice comes too late for this year’s stars to benefit – because they’ve already filmed the Xmas special. As is traditional, Channel 4 will also have a New Year special of the hit show.