The Bake Is Back - the countdown to Great British Bake Off 2026 starts here

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Trailer for the new series just dropped - no transmission date yet though.

Anyone else excited to see how Nigella gets on as the new judge? A worthy successor to Pru and Mary, I think.

Just watched the show!

I loved Nigella. I have never watched her in anything before, so GBBO is my first experience of her and I thought she was fab. I loved it when she told Paul off when he tried to embarrass one of the bakers (the Portuguese lady) by making an unnecessary comment in front of everyone about one of her cake layers previously having being underbaked (which he tried to dress up as a joke) and Nigella told him it was really bad manners to bring it up!

Loved Alison and Noel - as always ❤️

Loved Mo and his Ginger cat comment! It was so funny!!! It’s like when someone asks me what type of car I drive and I say “I don’t know, a white one.” 🤣

I really like the tall guy who did well….. cant remember his name at all. The one whose self portrait looked like a Simpsons character? And he did the glazed walnuts? He just seems like a really nice lad.

Loving all the regional accents too!!

Overall, I really enjoyed the show apart from all the adverts!

There are a few contestants who I’m not keen on at the moment but I will keep an open mind and see how things go as people tend to grow on me the more I see of them.

100% That's what I thought.

Yes, I know it’s not a slice of cake, but in yesterday’s episode they had to eat 36 bites from 36 different cakes by 12 bakers, in three sets of 12. And because there’s a trend for big, tall cakes, with different types of filling between different layers, they can’t just take a ti y bit of cake and a touch of the filling immediately adjacent, otherwise they’d be missing the other filling two layers up.

I have a healthy appetite and ate a single, average/sized slice of stout cake with cream cheese icing that evening, probably five forkfuls ’ worth, and there’s no way I could have gone straight on to eat se en more of the same thing without feeling sick.

I know there are fewer cakes as the show progresses, but there a trend for ever more elaborate showstoppers that involve completely different cakes stick together, so the judges have to taste a bit of the coffee cake, the Black Forest gateau and the macarons to test them all.

Each episode of the Bake Off is filmed over two days (I guess a weekend?). I read that every week they have to have two exact versions of the same outfit.

I don’t think anyone on this forum has been rude or unkind about Danni; they’ve just said they find her annoying. There have been similar comments about other contestants and the presenters too.

But you can have a gold star for being the most tolerant and non-judgy person if you like.

It's quite spread out though. Not sure on how it works but I would think they'll have cake to eat/judge Saturday morning and then again Saturday afternoon and then once on Sunday....I wouldn't even skip breakfast for that...ok, maybe breakfast.

I think the early episodes are always difficult because there isn't much time to introduce everyone and you are obviously watching a very edited version of a full weekend condensed into an hour slot. I quite liked Danni. When they showed her saying she was bored you already knew what was coming. It's an entertainment programme and I felt entertained.... I'd also watch it if it was twice as long.

No, just they have to wear the same clothes both days! I think they can hand them into to be cleaned overnight if they’re obviously covered in flour or melted chocolate. I mean, no one would double their clothes buying to be on GBBO!

From what previous contestants have said, expenses aren’t generous. They only pay travel expenses once you’ve actually been cast and are in the tent (so travel to pre-casting screen tests is on you) and likewise, it’s only the actual ingredients you cook with on the day in the tent that are paid for — all the ingredients you use to practice at home are paid for by you.

Oh that's quite a relief that they can just re-wear! I did know that being on Bake Off was really expensive for the contestants. The weekly travel time must be insane too if you live far away, even if the costs are covered.

I think so. I mean, the practising and the travel, and it taking up two full (very long) weekend days, plus travel, must be brutal. One of the bakers from previous seasons described being up at 6 am on the Saturdays and getting the bus back to the accommodation, after 8 pm, exhausted.

And the other thing is that you have to submit all your recipes before the filming starts, and they have to be original, because some go in a GBBO book and on the C4 website, so you can’t just rip off Nigella’s Guinness cake recipe because of copyright. So if you discover you can’t in fact make a shortbread, macaron and chocolate ganache Taj Mahal in four hours after you’ve sent in the recipe, tough luck, you’re stuck with it.

I wonder what they do with the souvenir consolation cakes. I have visions of them turning up on Antiques Roadshow in a hundred years time, slowly decaying under a glass dome while the AR presenter tries to make sense of a muddled story about a tv baking competition, a tent, judges, soggy bottoms and failed fondant.

Exactly, you're not allowed to dislike or find someone annoying now?

I notice no one flinches if people make horrible comments about Paul and now Nigella. People criticised Pru all the time

Why is it different for Dannie?

Ooh, how do you know that? That's really interesting. Does that mean every baker knows from the beginning all the bakes and showstoppers for the full season and submits their recipes for all of them, even though they might be out early? I always thought you learn as you go along, so the bakes get more elaborate and presumably so do one's recipes?

I guess you're "allowed" to criticise anyone you like but other people are allowed to have a response to that.

I don't actually remember very much criticism of Prue at all, what do you remember her being criticised for?

A fundamental difference might be that criticising Paul and Nigella is punching up, while criticising a 25 year old with possible autism could be seen as punching down? There are some people who are natural targets for bullies, and they can have their life made a misery on social media. Laura in series 11 had a terrible time and it mostly focused on her weight. I think some of us might feel a little protective of Danni for that reason.

But also, for some of us Bake Off is a point of loveliness in our week (or year for some of us sad sacks) and we don't necessarily approach it with the usual robust and cynical mumsnet spirit. But hopefully the thread can accommodate a range of perspectives without turning personal!

I think Howard and Jane discussed this on the Bake Down Podcast, and they get the challenges up to around week 6 or 8 in advance, but the last few they get while they are in the tent.

BTW, if anyone listens to it, Jane doesn't seem to be doing Bake Down this year which is a real loss, but Howard had Christiaan from series 15 on this week and it was great because he has that hybrid Dutch/Welsh/something else accent which makes him utterly compelling to listen to.

From previous contestants’ blogs and interviews, though they have to be quite guarded because of the terms of their contract. Danny Bryden from season 3 is much the most analytical I’ve read about the programme being a product and the bakers just being an ingredient on the way to that product. She says they had to send in all recipes except the ones for the final before filming started, in waves with a couple of weeks apart. And points out it’s quite a big ask — you devise your own recipes (which obviously takes research and experimentation and practice to see if they work), and then hand over copyright for the ‘reward’ of being filmed baking them and being assessed on them.

Obviously it’s possible some things have shifted down the years, and/ or after the move to Ch 4, I suppose.

He was the season after Danny, so some timings might already have shifted in the interim, I suppose.

@Jazzagal500Danni is not ‘profoundly autistic’, which, while not a diagnostic term is a clinical descriptor meaning IQ of less than 50, often non verbal and requiring lifelong round the clock care. My niece is profoundly autistic and fits this definition.

Lots of people have been annoying over the years, its ok to be irritated by other people's mannerisms that you dont like, no punching up or down, thats a ridiculous concept

Yes people criticised Pru a lot, her god awful necklaces, her son being a Tory, her mannerisms, people felt she was cold and unpleasant at times.

I really enjoyed it not got a favourite just yet

loved Nigella and I thought this presenting team so far works really well together. Looking forward to some Nigelllaisims

Nigella is great! And can people just leave Danni alone- I bet she is lovely to work with and she comes over as very sweet person.
That plant is called Sticky Willie by lots of people, she’s not making it up, although round this way we’d say goose grass.

Fab-aroonie 👍😉 I never knew what it was called. Just complained about the cats being covered in sticky buds 😻

Yes, C4 ditched those. Pity; I loved them,

Who was it who said "It's just bloody cake"? I thought that was great.

Because what you are criticising is behaviour that is the result of a disability.

You wouldn't, after all, criticise Molly for being lazy for always sitting down. It's in exactly the same category.