The Great British Bake Off 2025 sees 12 more contestants get ready to try to tantalise the taste buds of judges Paul Hollywood and Dame Prue Leith with their culinary efforts.
Hosted once again by Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding, the 16th season gets underway on Channel 4 in the UK on Tuesday, September 2 and on Netflix in the US – where it is called The Great British Baking Show – from Friday, September 5. And as the competition kicks off with Cake Week, Paul and Prue are putting the new bakers through their paces in the tent with three tough challenges – a swiss roll Signature, fondant fancies for the Technical and a landscape cake for the Showstopper.
Here, Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith tell WhattoWatch.com all about The Great British Bake Off 2025 and why it has been the toughest season to judge…
The Great British Bake Off is back! What were the bakers like this year?
Paul Hollywood: “The bakers this year are amazing and really nice. What we’re attracting now is not just bakers, they’re engineers, they’re artists, they’re creative, so their bakes are elevated to another level. ‘This was the hardest year to decide who’s going to leave. The quality was excellent.”
Prue Leith: “Every year, I think it can’t get better. But it does! They were a good mix. We had very artistic people, like hairdressers and a wedding stylist and designers, so their Showstoppers were amazing. And they were good fun!”
How did they get on with Cake Week?
Prue Leith: “The swiss rolls were difficult, because they had a pattern inlaid into the sponge, which is tricky, but some did it beautifully. The landscape cake was difficult too, but some did maps with rocks and mountains so they had real depth. And there were some good fondant fancies. We ate too many!”
Paul Hollywood: “Cake Week is always a good week. The fondant fancies were great. And with the landscape cake, the artistic bakers really stepped up. The cakes looked so real with the way they did the grass, and with the tools they used to pipe the fondant and create a diorama.”
Have there been many Hollywood Handshakes this year?
Paul Hollywood: “There were probably slightly less handshakes, it took more to please me this year than in the past, but that’s not because of the standard. But if I don’t give a handshake, it’s, ‘Oh, Paul’s been stingy’. If I give out too many, it’s, ‘Paul’s devaluing the handshake!’”
You’ve got some new themes this year Back to School Week and Meringue Week. What has been your favourite week?
Paul Hollywood: “Bread Week! The Technical challenge was glazed doughnuts, which are my favourite thing! And at one point in this series, we readdressed Bingate [in the fifth series in 2014, contestant Iain Watters famously put the ice cream for his baked alaska into the bin after it melted]. I can’t tell you much, but Bingate gets put to sleep. And it’s brilliant! And with Back to School Week we got some classic bakes that I remember.”
Prue Leith: “There was a lot of cake and custard! I liked Meringue Week but meringues can be so sweet and I don’t like soft meringue, I like it baked in the oven with a crisp!”
Have the challenges got harder, particularly the Technicals?
Prue Leith: “The ones that were set 16 series ago were simpler. Now, the bakers can’t just rely on the recipe, because we won’t tell them. It’ll just say, ‘Make a creme pat.’ We’ve got to have ways to distinguish between people who know baking from those who are technically good at reading a recipe.”
Paul Hollywood: “Yes, now we take away scales and recipes. We’re changing it around to challenge our bakers on their baking knowledge. They need to understand it, and really feel it, to get further in baking. The Bake Off now is hard!”
And finally, can you both see yourselves continuing to judge Bake Off for the foreseeable future?
Prue Leith: “Yes, why not? I’ve got to give up some time and go before I’m pushed! But I’m loving it. I look forward to it. And it’s a lovely job.”
Paul Hollywood: “Bake Off is an institution now. With the current line-up we will all go [eventually] but there should be a Bake Off forever!”
The Great British Bake Off starts in the UK on Tuesday, September 2 at 8pm on Channel 4 and will be available on the channel’s streaming site from the same date. And in the US it will air as The Great British Baking Show from Friday, September 5 on Netflix.