Kate Garraway and Sarah Beeny are brilliant broadcasters at the top of their game, but ask them to bake a Battenberg or a brioche and they don’t know where to begin. Which is why entering The Great Celebrity Bake Off For Stand Up To Cancer will be a bit of a challenge. “I’ve never really baked,” laughs Sarah, 53. “I think I’m a bit too impatient.”

Kate, 57, tells a similar story. “I’ve never really done it. I love cooking and always seem to know how to combine ingredients to make something delicious but that’s different because you can taste it as you go. Baking is a different ball game entirely.

Sarah Beeny doesnt’ like cakes but she likes The Great British Bake Off ( 
Image:
Mark Bourdillon Love Productions)

“You take egg and flour and butter, that taste and look like one thing on their own, then put them together and they create something completely different. Baking is alchemy. So, I don’t think I’ve come out proving myself a Merlin, but I’m hoping not to be the Wicked Witch of the West.”

The pair are joining comics Adam Buxton, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Jamali Maddix and Phil Wang, model Ellie Goldstein, TV veteran Gloria Hunniford, actors Jim Howick, Tommy Tiernan, Meera Syal, Sophie Willan and Maxine Peake, presenters Roman Kemp and Amelia Dimoldenberg, married podcasters Chris and Rosie Ramsey, singer Self Esteem and property expert siblings Scarlette and Stuart Douglas in the famous white tent.

The celebs are all taking part in support of Stand Up To Cancer, a joint national fundraising campaign from Cancer Research UK
and Channel 4. Hosts Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding will be providing encouragement as the stars take on a signature bake, a technical bake and a showstopper.

Original judge Paul Hollywood is back, while Prue Leith’s long-standing friend and former colleague Caroline Waldegrave is standing in for Prue. And it doesn’t look like they are going to be very impressed with Sarah and Kate as not only does Sarah not bake, she also doesn’t even like cake.

“I don’t actually like cake much,” she whispers. “Can I say that? They’re really low on my priority list. I guess you’re a pudding or a cheese person, and I’m a cheese person. Starter or pudding? Starter. Give me smoked salmon rather than dessert. That’s got bang for bucks!”

Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding are hosting ( 
Image:
Mark Bourdillon Love Productions)
Kate enjoys cakes but admits the savoury bakes are equally as tempting. “You can’t go wrong with a Victoria Sponge with a fresh cream middle, I love cake,” says Kate. “But I also love savoury bakes – sausage rolls and so on. It’s all delicious.

The pair also don’t mind admitting they have had their fair share of nightmares in the kitchen. For Sarah, it’s a cottage pie that haunts her. “I’ve had millions of disasters, loads! I once cooked a cottage pie and didn’t have enough space to keep it in the fridge. It went off and it smelled so bad I had to dig a hole in the garden to bury it.”

Kate’s most notable cooking catastrophe took place at Christmas. “A few years back I was cooking for my entire family for Christmas Day, and it was the first time I’d done Christmas lunch for the family,” she says. “I put the turkey in, and after a while I thought, ‘I really can’t smell much.’

“The oven had broken. So, I had to go next door, and beg the neighbours to use theirs, but of course they had their turkey in the oven. So, it ended up being a Christmas lunch at supper time, and for lunch we had cheese and biscuits. By the time we ate, they were hungry and slightly drunk, which arguably is the best state to be in if you are eating a meal I’ve cooked.”

Kate Garraway, Sarah Beeny, Adam Buxton, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Jamali Maddix and Phil Wang, model Ellie Goldstein, TV veteran Gloria Hunniford, actors Jim Howick, Tommy Tiernan, Meera Syal, Sophie Willan and Maxine Peake, presenters Roman Kemp and Amelia Dimoldenberg, married podcasters Chris and Rosie Ramsey, singer Self Esteem and property expert siblings Scarlette and Stuart Douglas are in this year’s Celebrity Bake Off ( 
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Baking for Paul and Caroline is nerve-racking and Kate admits that she got flustered. “They’re just watching you, and they don’t really say anything and you can’t read their expressions,” she says. “It makes me drop everything and get even more clumsy and just panic. They look at you, and they look at each other, and you think, ‘What are they thinking?’ So yes, it’s very intimidating.”

Despite the pressure, Kate admits she started to dream about winning during her time in the tent. “You start off thinking, ‘This is so much fun, I’m loving just having the chance to take part.’ Then without realising it you get swept up and really want to blow Paul and Caroline away, or at least get their approval. I think if I just get it cooked and don’t poison anyone that’ll be a win for me!”