Alison Hammond and Prue Leith reveal what really happens in the Bake Off tent

Prue Leith and hostAlison Hammond are two of the most important ingredients in The Great British Bake Off, which returns to Channel 4 next week.

Prue, 85, replaced Mary Berry in 2017 when the show moved over from the BBC, while Alison, 50, has only been on board since March 2023, when she began filming the 14th series.

Since then, the pair have become close on and off screen and here they chat about bakes, age just being a number and what to expect in the new series…

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What’s going to get everyone excited?
ALISON You’ve got six men and six women from all over Britain. They’re all really exciting bakers. It’s not just about the baking for them. They’ve got families and really good jobs as well.

PRUE This year we had quite a lot of designers and engineers, and it showed in their baking. They were so much better at construction.

ALISON They just take it so seriously. It’s like a science to them, because that’s how they are within their work. People are going to be blown away. There’s a few failures as well, as to be expected. It’s going to be so much fun. Paul’s on form, Prue’s on form, Noel is just so funny. It’s classic Bake Off.

PRUE We also had a lot of artistic people, like hairdressers and stylists.

ALISON We’ve got a bridal designer, too That comes out in their bakes. We say it every year but it’s a wonderful series.
Last year’s series was extraordinary. Did you think, ‘How can we possibly follow that?’

ALISON Every year I think that. And, literally, we follow it even bigger and better. This show is one of those shows where everyone goes on a little journey and discovers themselves, so it always ends up in something wonderful.

PRUE Certainly, baking in Britain has got better. In Covid, it got a huge fillip because everybody was at home baking and now you meet people all the time who bake or cook. It used to be mostly women. I went to lunch yesterday with two friends in their 90s. He got into cooking over Covid, so he cooked all our lunch. In your 90s, to discover cooking, is a bit late.

ALISON There’s something to be said about technology. You can go on TikTok and put in Victoria sponge and you’ll see every single different variety of sponge. And these guys are on it. They are looking online. They are working out the techniques. Some of the bakers are so young and so good.

PRUE I’m as bad. If I need a recipe, I reach for my phone. And I’ve got rows and rows of cookbooks.

ALISON If I want a recipe, I’m looking at Prue or Paul’s books.

You’ve got two new weeks – Back to School and Meringue. The showstopper for Meringue Week is a French ice cream cake, a Vacherin Glace. They have to make ice cream in the tent.

PRUE It’s like a meringue cake filled with ice cream. Frozen.

When you think about ice cream and meringue and the Bake Off tent, you think about the nightmare that was Baked Alaska-gate years ago – about seeing that ice cream going in the bin.

PRUE That was before Alison’s time and it was even before my time. Going in the bin – that’s the only time that’s ever happened.

ALISON There is another bin-gate this year. I’m not going to elaborate on that but you’re going to love it.

For Back to School week, please tell me we get to see the four of you in your school uniforms.

ALISON I actually said we should have done that. I wanted to wear school uniforms and no one was up for it. I wanted to wear our old ties.

PRUE I’m old enough that, when I went to school, you wore a gymslip.

How did that week go?

ALISON I turned into a teacher. I just told everybody off. I loved it. I liked the school cake, that was delicious. And they had to make the sprinkles.

PRUE Paul’s favourite thing in the whole world is school cake and custard.

ALISON I couldn’t believe they made them make the actual coloured sprinkles as well, it was very difficult.

The cakes look so tempting. How are you avoiding eating too much?

ALISON I’ll just have a little taste of Paul and Prue’s before they scrape them into the bucket. It’s never on camera. I only go for the good one. I’m not going near the others – even though they taste really good as well.

As soon as Alison arrived, you two got on like a tent on fire. What do you enjoy most about working together?

PRUE The thing that Alison has brought to the tent is merriment. She is so extreme, she’s so loud all the time.

ALISON I am grumpy sometimes. But if I am grumpy, I still laugh about it.

How does the age gap affect your friendship?

ALISON I just see it as Prue’s been in the queue longer than me. She’s seen a bit more. But we’re still the same sort of people. We want the same thing. We still want love, we still want to laugh.

PRUE If you think of the best sort of party around a table, it’s when you have a mixture of ages. If my 50-year- old children are with my 80-year-old friends, they are interested in each other because it’s a different world.

ALISON You can still learn from the young ones. I learn so much from my son and he’s only 20.

You’re both very similar – positive, optimistic and sunny people.

PRUE It just seems the natural thing to do. What’s the point of being grumpy and miserable? My mother, when we were sulky, would grab the corners of her mouth and pull them into a smile, and say, ‘Put a smile on it’.

ALISON If you’re around really negative people, if you watch a room you see it go from one person to another. But if you go in happy and lift up the room, you see how catching it is. Which room would you rather be in?

• Bake Off starts Tuesday September 2, stream or watch every week from 8pm on Channel 4.