As I was channel hopping around the TV yesterday evening what should be on the Food Channel but the very first episode of The Great British Bake Off? Talk about serendipitous!
As I watched that first encounter in the, now legendary, white tent, I couldn’t help feeling a tad proud that I and my fellow bakers from series 1 helped create a global phenomenon. Little did we know, that when we crossed the threshold of what is now baking hallowed ground, we would be founding a much-loved baking show.
It has changed considerably over the 14 years, from being nomadic (a logistical nightmare for Love Productions, I'm sure – amazing concept, but impractical) to a more stable and permanent place on an estate in the Berkshire countryside. In that pioneering episode, the tent was smaller, there was no running water, there were less camera crew, the floor flexed as you walked across it (not good for the ovens or what was baking) and none of us knew how things were going to pan out; unlike today, we had no baseline to work from as it hadn’t been done before. Talk about rabbits in the headlights but we were excited, nervous, and, I don’t know about my fellow bakers, but I was terrified as my face showed. Mary and Paul were charming, Sue and Mel supportive and mischievous, but like the rest of us, no one knew how it would all work out.
I was in awe of my cohorts, their bakes seemed more complex and exciting than my pistachio and cranberry cake, which Mary didn’t like, both she and Paul said it was dry. It was a tough judgement that made me emotional, something I didn’t expect.
There were no Hollywood Handshakes, no star bakers, and each technical section was timed with the judges prowling around us; I recall they left the tent as the Victoria sponges went into the ovens. There was a top three and a bottom three. I was in the latter.
Our final bake wasn’t called a ‘showstopper’, but just went by its generic term. For a Chocolate Celebration Cake I made, what I now call my, ‘Carmen Miranda, Psycho Pineapple, Chocolate Celebration Cake’ - layered chocolate sponges filled with mascarpone and raspberries covered in ganache topped with chocolate-dipped fruit including a wedge of pineapple shoved in at a jaunty angle (to this day, I have no idea why!) with chopped pistachios round the outside. It may not have competed with the other bakers but Paul and Mary seemed to like.it. Alas, that didn’t save me from leaving the tent.
Various people have commented that the first series was brutal compared to today’s version. It has developed into a quintessentially cosy British show albeit with global success and international spin-offs.
I was the first person from Scotland to be on the Bake Off and as such I was invited back into The Tent along with five other Scottish bakers for the Great New Year Bake Off, a Hogmanay Special. We all knew what to expect, we were there to have a fab time baking. I, for one, didn’t feel intimidated this time round, it was all about having fun, doing what we love, in a place that we respected, with another doyenne of baking, Prue Leith, crazy presenters Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding who not only thinks out the box but acts out the box too, and of course the Silver Fox, old blue eyes himself, Paul Hollywood.
For your fix of soggy bottom innuendoes, tune in to Channel 4 at 7.40 this evening and see what high jinx we get up to. It will be a blast!