It’s week four of and the remaining five bakers have travelled to Bakewell in Derbyshire. This time the bakers are reinventing an often neglected British classic – the pudding.

There will be sticky toffee puds, peach and blueberry ”boy-bait’, rhubarb and orange betty and a cherry queen of puddings.

But the surprise bake set by judges Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry really tests the baker’s ability to cope with the pressure. Will the bakers rise to the occasion?

As the puds go in the oven, Mel and Sue roam the country finding out how and why puddings changed from ‘meat’ to ‘sweet’, visiting the birthplace of school puddings and discovering how puddings helped change Britain’s image overseas.

It is week three of the competition and the six remaining bakers are making bread in Kent. If they found cakes and biscuits challenging, it’s bread that’s considered the real test of a baker’s mettle.
In the shadow of Sarre Windmill, the bakers will be kneading, proving and knocking back their dough under the watchful eye of baking writer Mary Berry and master baker Paul Hollywood. And as they battle it out to produce the perfect loaf, Mel and Sue will be tasting Britain’s earliest bread roll, finding out what happened to bread during the Industrial Revolution and relating the hidden history of the sandwich.
Making bread is an ancient skill. Which of the bakers will best cope with the pressure and who will be the one who has to leave the Bake Off?

The Great British Bake Off sees passionate home bakers take part in a bake-off to test every aspect of their baking skills as they battle to be crowned the Great British Bake Off’s best amateur baker. Each week the nationwide tour sees keen bakers put through three challenges in a particular discipline.

Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins take the eight passionate home bakers who made it through the first round to Scone Palace near Perth to make biscuits and teatime treats.

Judging their efforts are renowned baking writer Mary Berry and master baker Paul Hollywood.
Over two days the home bakers are set three increasingly difficult challenges as they bake their signature biscuits, attempt many a baker’s nemesis – scones – and finally a tower of petit fours with meringues, choux pastry and macaroons.

As the bakers battle it out, Mel and Sue find out how the digestive became Britain’s favourite biscuit; ask what’s so Scottish about shortbread and discover why Sir Ranulph Fiennes has the world’s most expensive biscuit.

Which of the eight bakers will wow the judges with their originality and skill? And which two bakers will fail to make it through to the next round?

BBC 2 8:00pm-9:00pm Tue 17 Aug

The Great British Bake Off sees ten passionate home bakers take part in a bake-off to test every aspect of their baking skills as they battle to be crowned the Great British Bake Off’s best amateur baker. Each week the nationwide tour sees keen bakers put through three challenges in a particular discipline.

The competition kicks off with cake in the Cotswolds, then moves to Scotland to tackle biscuit baking, then Sandwich in Kent for bread, Bakewell in Derbyshire for puddings, Mousehole in Cornwall for the pastry challenges, and London for the grand final.

Judging the baking are renowned baking writer Mary Berry and professional baker Paul Hollywood; presenting the show are Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, who trace the very particular history of British baking by visiting local baking landmarks and discovering why people bake what they bake today.

This first show uncovers that Queen Victoria is responsible for Britain’s wedding cake tradition, that the Puritans tried to ban cake because it was too pleasurable, and that cake baking contributed to women’s liberation.

The ten bakers tackle three increasingly difficult challenges as their cake-making ability is tested. They start with their signature bake – the cake they love that says something about them. Next up is the technical challenge – a blind recipe for Victoria sandwich that delivers drastically different results. Finally they tackle the ingredient even professionals fear – chocolate. Whose chocolate celebration cake will win the day? And which two bakers will leave the show at the end?

The Great British Bake Off sees ten passionate home bakers take part in a bake-off to test every aspect of their baking skills as they battle to be crowned the Great British Bake Off’s best amateur baker. Each week the nationwide tour sees keen bakers put through three challenges in a particular discipline.The competition kicks off with cake in the Cotswolds, then moves to Scotland to tackle biscuit baking, then Sandwich in Kent for bread, Bakewell in Derbyshire for puddings, Mousehole in Cornwall for the pastry challenges, and London for the grand final.

Judging the baking are renowned baking writer Mary Berry and professional baker Paul Hollywood; presenting the show are Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, who trace the very particular history of British baking by visiting local baking landmarks and discovering why people bake what they bake today.This first show uncovers that Queen Victoria is responsible for Britain’s wedding cake tradition, that the Puritans tried to ban cake because it was too pleasurable, and that cake baking contributed to women’s liberation.

The ten bakers tackle three increasingly difficult challenges as their cake-making ability is tested. They start with their signature bake – the cake they love that says something about them. Next up is the technical challenge – a blind recipe for Victoria sandwich that delivers drastically different results. Finally they tackle the ingredient even professionals fear – chocolate. Whose chocolate celebration cake will win the day? And which two bakers will leave the show at the end?

The Guardian said

Light/Late Lunch duo Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins are reigniting their on-screen partnership to present this WI-friendly national bake-off. Ten amateur cooks from different regions of the UK compete each week to pull off the finest flour-sugar-egg combos. As is becoming commonplace with food shows, there’s a faintly ridiculous challenge at the end of it that makes it even more amusing. This week, it’s a chocolate-celebration-cake-conundrum. Try to watch without drooling.

Finally confirmed The Great British Bake Off will air on BBC2 8PM Tues 17th August

But I don’t yet have any confirmation of that.

mirror.co.uk reports

this autumn they are reuniting on BBC2 with a quest to find the UK’s best amateur baker.

They’ll front a six-part series The Great British Bake-Off – a bit like MasterChef except with, er, bread. And cakes.

Filmed in locations all over Britain, the pair have one aim – to get the whole country baking again.

Are you a keen amateur baker? Are you passionate about your hobby? Can you turn out a half decent cake, tart or loaf of bread? Do you fancy putting your skills to the test?

BBC2 is making an exciting new prime time series called ‘The Great British Bake Off’ and is looking for amateur bakers from across the country to take part. During the series the bakers will be given a series of baking tasks and one will ultimately be crowned the UK’s best amateur baker.

However long you’ve been baking for, we’d love to hear from you. If you’re interested in applying to take part in the series and would like to find out more, please email baking@loveproductions.co.uk or call 0207 067 4855.

To apply you must be over 16 on 1st May 2010. As an “amateur baker” your main source of income cannot come from commercial baking and / or cooking in a professional environment and you cannot have ever worked full time as a baker. You cannot have any formal NVQ or other professional catering qualifications acquired in the last 10 years.