Top 20 Worst Bakers on Celebrity Bake Off
#20: Judi Love
The wonderfully bubbly comedian Judi Love certainly brought her signature energy to the Bake Off tent, but sadly, her baking prowess didn’t quite match her effervescent personality. On the ‘My Celebrity Crush’ Showstopper Challenge, Judi opted to immortalise none other than the Neighbours-singing heartthrob, Jason Donovan. As you can see, unfortunately the resulting cake looked so off the mark that even Prue’s most generous smile couldn’t disguise the fact that this particular Jason Donovan had, shall we say, seen better days! Luckily it tasted alright, so we’ll be basing this one off looks alone, even though judges did say that Jason was slightly overbaked.
#19: Alex Horne
“Taskmaster’s” very own ‘Little Alex Horne’ strolled into the tent with his usual air of slightly bewildered genius, and for his showstopper, he decided to recreate a vibrant skate park. Now, if you thought this man would bring any kind of reasoning to the ingredients, you’d be wrong, but the result does look quite funny. While certainly ‘geometric,’ Alex’s skate park became an instant classic for ALL the wrong reasons! The entire structure was, in polite terms, somewhat wonky. But the funniest part goes to the judges’ reactions. It had Paul and Prue completely shattered. Paul couldn’t help but question the so-called’ savoury choux cake ahead of him, and it’s easy to understand why it was laughed at. It’s just not a good sign when a judge takes a bite and starts cry-laughing!
#18: Alan Carr
Now Alan Carr, the nation’s favourite chatty man, had quite the colourful showstopper. He made a magnificent, rainbow-themed cake, and if you just saw the final result you would be forgiven for thinking it looked alright. While Prue Leith described it as “wonderfully imaginative” in concept, her follow-up assessment of the “execution” was delivered with a pretty long pause, leaving everyone in no doubt about its actual quality. As if they hadn’t already killed Alan, Paul joined in afterwards and tested its structural integrity, or rather, the complete lack thereof, by picking up a slice of the sponge cake and breaking it apart with a loud snapping sound. Of course, Alan himself described his creation as a war crime, so if you had been paying attention during the process it’s not like you’d have high expectations anyway!
#17: Tim Minchin
As brilliant a comedian as Tim Minchin is, he proves that intellect doesn’t necessarily translate into baking acumen… His meringue tower showstopper was less of a towering achievement and more of a leaning monument to despair! Although he did try to save the situation with some of his wit. [Uneven Distribution clip] While judges might have been looking for a well-structured, perfectly piped meringue tower, they instead got an accidental and edible socio-economic critique. It did taste great, but how do you even manage to botch the look so bad? It was a truly British moment - a baking disaster so profound it could only be explained away with highbrow philosophical reasoning. While it was definitely funny, he fails a bit in baking!
#16: David Schwimmer
“Friends” sweetheart David Schwimmer who you might also know as Ross Geller, brought his typically earnest character to the ‘Bake Off.’ While his first bake went well, for his showstopper, he went for something a bit more daring in the form of a meringue rabbit. It started out looking perfectly fine too, unfortunately it had been the victim of a few accidents and quickly turned out more like Bugs Bunny if he had made some questionable decisions in life. The slightly surreal, rather unsettling creature looked like it had been in a minor altercation with a lawnmower. While David and his bake isn’t the worst this show has seen, it’s still a perfect example of good intentions paving the road to the funniest, most comical disasters.
#15: Stacey Solomon
Surely you can’t be the most competent baker or even cook if you don’t even know how to properly use an oven! Such is the case at least for beloved presenter and singer Stacey Solomon. Faced with the pressure of baking scones, Stacey, in a moment of pure brain-freeze, had put her oven on the wrong setting entirely, and realised it too late as well. Like a true professional, rather than calmly attempting to salvage the situation, or perhaps just accepting her fate, Stacey, with the clock ticking relentlessly, decided it was for the best to scrap everything and start over right at the end of the challenge! Obviously you don’t need a pro to tell you that Stacey was out of her depth… when it comes to operating an oven. She nailed her second attempt, but not without the help of Sandi!
#14: Joe Sugg
Typically, Joe Sugg is pretty level-headed. But what happened during THIS challenge can only be described as cartoonish. Fair warning, this is the type of thing that sends shivers down your spine. Joe somehow managed to cut his finger open while attempting to cut an apple, and in total slapstick fashion he calmly exclaims “I have just sliced my finger open really bad. Help.” It might be a bit morbid, but it’s something we can’t help but laugh at. It’s just dramatic enough and so perfectly British! Now, he was actually named ‘Star Baker’ for his overall performance, but failing to even cut an apple safely landed him this spot in our video!
#13: Lucy Beaumont
If you were to picture your “perfect day off” and turn it into a cake, would it look like this? [The cake] While she nailed her quiche, with this one it quickly became clear that Lucy had a rocky relationship with baking, to put it mildly. Throughout the challenge, she struggled to make something even resembling a single cohesive or appetising bake. What was meant to be her entry for the Technical Challenge, had Paul immediately ‘thinking it had been dropped.’ And it only got worse for her ‘Perfect Day Off’ which turned out to be a complete mess, just a random rock-hard mound of cookies and flour!
#12: David Mitchell
We all know David Mitchell can pull off some of the funniest, most well-spoken rants on earth, but he really can’t pull off a Pavlova, or at least he couldn’t in this Technical Challenge. What was supposed to be a delicate dance of crisp meringue and soft, airy interior, became somewhat of a catastrophic failure, shall we say. What he produced instead was a thick, dense, and utterly un-Pavlova-like disc of baked egg white, resembling something closer to a fossilised frisbee rather than a delicate dessert. The beauty of David’s failure was totally resigned, yet hilariously articulate, acceptance of his lack of baking skill, which is very much in line with the David we all know and love. We can’t really compliment his baking skills, but he did leave us in stitches!
#11: Victoria Coren Mitchell
Savoury muffins can be quite a divisive topic in themselves, even just upon hearing of it. Why do muffins need to be savoury? Well, what if we like them? “Only Connect” host Victoria Coren Mitchell set out to ask these questions right here on ‘Bake Off.’ If you aren’t put off by the words “Bloody Mary Muffins” then these are just for you! What most people would consider to be questionable, is nothing but another dessert for ‘VCB.’ Unfortunately they didn’t turn out as well as intended, and instead of a savoury delight, judges were in for a bit of torture. For what it’s worth it was pretty creative, but maybe creativity isn’t what Victoria needs! And that showstopper didn’t hit either. Fun ideas, not so fun tasting!
#10: Lee Mack
This fine fellow who you may know as Lee Mack opted to do what he does best in this Bake Off challenge; quick-witted comedy. Deciding that his baking talents weren’t quite cutting it, he sort of gave up and went for juggling eggs instead. It would’ve been great if he could’ve juggled them into a stand mixer instead, but he just dropped the eggs. It might’ve been a part of the bit, but it didn’t save his turnovers from being a total disaster. Suffice it to say that sometimes it’s probably for the better to simply lean into the chaos, at least he produced a few laughs.
#9: Martin Kemp
Martin Kemp of “Spandau Ballet” stepped out into the hallowed tent with the cool composure of a pop legend. But in a moment that has since become a classic ‘Celebrity Bake Off’ blunder, Martin somehow managed to confuse buttercream for his cake mix. In other words, he baked frosting! That’s the sort of basic, fundamental mix-up that makes you question anybody’s credibility in the kitchen. This mistake would end up setting the stage for his remaining bakes, which turned out slightly rushed. Even national treasures can get bewildered by the simple act of baking, it would seem.
#8: Munya Chawawa
If there’s one thing we could say to these Ed Sheeran cake pops, it’s that we’re in love with the shape of them. Only the king of satirical impressions, Munya Chawawa, could come up with something as brilliant as these. Proposing to craft edible cake pops depicting the varying emotions of Ed Sheeran, the cake pops emerged rather… unstructured. Prue, ever the purveyor of precise critiques, was quick to comment on their good looks. [Raw] But after all, they were still soggy and raw, as Paul described. Munya’s self-deprecating response only sadly further cemented his place as a wonderfully terrible baker.
#7: KSI
KSI may be a colossal YouTube personality and rapper, but he’s not exactly known for his delicate touch in the kitchen. His appearance here on “Bake Off” only cemented that even further. While attempting a latticed cherry pie for the technical challenge, a bake that requires plenty of precision and a light hand, the resulting product was in a manner of speaking ‘to die for.’ It doesn’t help that he broke down into laughter over his own mistake of flipping it upside down onto a dish. Judges did their best to avoid tasting it, which is no wonder considering how his fondant fancies right before this, went. It didn’t take much for his competition to do substantially better!
#6: Yung Filly
Get ready to dive into a truly spectacular episode of baking amnesia. Up against the challenge of making chocolate fondant puddings, a bake that demands absolute precision and, well, at the bare minimum correct ingredients, popular content creator Yung Filly had completely forgotten to add flour! Yes, the very foundation of most baked goods! And as you would expect the resulting chocolate masses had literally zero structural integrity. Fondants are notoriously temperamental even at the best of times, and they demand a perfect balance of flour to rise correctly. As you can imagine the result was quite deflated and sad, and the reactions were quite priceless too! But you could also at least hope that it was a learning experience for Yung Filly.
#5: Nick Hewer
You may have been caught in this bloke’s piercing gaze on “The Apprentice” before, but he’s sported one of the funniest expressions ever right here in the “Bake Off” tent! Every whisk of a bowl, every glance at the oven, every Paul Hollywood critique was met with the look that conveyed a man struck by a primordial fear of god; wrestling with the existential dread of underbaked pastry. You’ve gotta commend him for being a survivor, but as for carrying himself, he seemed to be completely stunned by the pressure!
#4: Big Narstie
The ‘old-skool’ Grime artist Big Narstie brought his strongest baking game to the tent, and while his personality was a delight, his baking skills were… distinctive. For the signature challenge, where bakers are supposed to showcase their personal baking styles, Big Narstie delivered what were affectionately and hilariously dubbed ‘doggy biscuits.’ They were meant to be an edible self-portrait, but he failed in the funniest way possible! You know how you gotta roll out the dough and THEN use the cookie cutters right? Well, Big Narstie decided to do it in-hand instead. A questionable decision that would confuse even the youngest amateur bakers. Looks like the pie afterwards had Paul shook as well!
#3: James Acaster
James Acaster put up one of the funniest fights on the show if you could call it that, and came up with some of the most legendary answers to the judges while attempting to fend off the criticism! In the signature challenge, Paul humorously called James’s Flapjacks “a little wet”-looking. Of course James was ever so quick to retort; [It’s not baked yet] Unfortunately and hilariously enough, the mixture REMAINED wet for the entire process! The disaster would only continue further as he got through the Technical Challenge, with Prue exclaiming [It does have the ingredients we gave you] And even with his Showstopper, containing what James described as “sweet egg flavour,” it seemed like judges were doing their best not to rip into him. It seems baking just isn’t for you, James!
#2: Roisin Conaty
Now for a woman who set a completely new bar for the rest of the celebrity bakers; Roisin Conaty. Of course, if you’ve seen the episode, you know she didn’t exactly raise it! There were numerous mistakes, like for instance completely forgetting the ingredients in her own cupcakes mid-bake. Beyond the culinary amnesia, she consistently produced bakes that were, to put it politely, “rustic.” Her gingerbread resembled something that had been unearthed from an archaeological dig rather than lovingly baked. Although she did try, as Paul went on to say, that was the worst gingerbread he had ever had!
#1: Jamie Laing
And for the most terrible celebrity baker, the man whose culinary ineptitude left judges’ taste buds scarred for life… Jamie Laing. Despite his great-great-grandfather inventing the digestive, it seems baking talent isn’t inherited but rather learned. He’s baked the most infamous banana loaf in existence, by somehow deciding to throw all his ingredients into a food processor simultaneously. It turned out as a dense, rubbery, greyish mass that looked straight out of a horror movie. And to solidify Jamie’s position as a disaster artist of sorts, Paul declared it the worst cake anyone had ever baked him on the show. Didn’t help that Prue spat it out either! He may be charming, but he’s no baker!
Who do you think is the worst celebrity baker to appear on the show? Let us know in those comments below
