Entertainment

Celebrity Bake Off crowns its first star baker of the series

The show has returned to Channel 4.
The show has returned to Channel 4.

Jenny Eclair has been named star baker on The Great Celebrity Bake Off, narrowly beating Louis Theroux to the prize.

The comedian, 59, impressed judges Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood with her choux pastry during the charity special for Stand Up To Cancer.

Host Sandi Toksvig quipped that it was “amusing” they had captured the moment a celebrity called Eclair made her own eclairs.

Northern Ballet’s The Great Gatsby – London
Jenny Eclair (Ian West/PA)

She competed against documentary-maker Theroux, former Love Island contestant Ovie Soko and stand-up Russell Howard in the tent.

After being announced as the winner of the new series’ first episode, Eclair said she was “thrilled”.

She added: “It is ridiculous. It is the silliest thing I have ever done, really, because it is the most unlikely thing. The (star baker) pinny is staying on, and once the pinny falls off I might have star baker tattooed across my chest.”

Leith said Eclair was “streets ahead of the others” and dubbed her “a natural baker”.

“I hope she keeps going because she is really good at it,” she said.

A disgruntled Theroux said: “I would like to think I came second. Paul didn’t say that but I think we all know that I did.”

Eclair and Theroux secured so-called Hollywood handshakes during the first challenge.

Both impressed him with their biscuit designs, while Soko and Howard lagged behind.

“I’m so delighted I nearly wet myself,” Eclair said after her Frida Kahlo biscuit earned a handshake.

Soko replied: “I want to say I am happy for you but I can’t.”

Eclair also triumphed in the technical challenge, where each baker was tasked with making four mille-feuille pastries.

Theroux came a close second while Soko was third and Howard took fourth, with Hollywood calling his attempt a “mess”.

The show-stopper challenge saw the celebrities making 3D choux pastry sculptures featuring 30 filled and decorated buns.

Soko crafted a passionfruit cream sculpture of himself lazing on a beach.

Howard baked his perfect Sunday on the sofa, featuring vanilla and cream sculptures of him and his wife watching Liverpool play football.

Theroux created a orange zest and stem ginger sculpture of himself relaxing on a red lilo on an azure sea.

Eclair’s colourful sculpture showed her swimming topless with pigs in Barbados.

The Great Celebrity Bake Off returns to Channel 4 next week with James Buckley, Patsy Palmer, Richard Dreyfuss and Scarlett Moffatt.