24 things you probably didn’t know about ‘The Great British Baking Show’

“The Great British Baking Show” premiered in 2010 in the UK.

Channel 4/Love Productions

“The Great British Baking Show” is actually called “The Great British Bake Off” in the UK.
Bakers can bring ingredients from home, and the winner of the show doesn’t get a big cash prize.
Applicants must be amateur bakers, complete a lengthy form, and meet with a psychologist.

“The Great British Baking Show” has been one of the coziest competition shows on television for over a decade.

The series — also known as “The Great British Bake Off” — follows amateur bakers as they whip up pastries and intricate desserts under tight time constraints.

It first aired in 2010 on BBC Two in the UK and is now on its 16th season.

From surprising rules to behind-the-scenes secrets, here are a few things you might not know about “The Great British Baking Show.”

The show has a different name in the US because of Pillsbury.

The series is called “The Great British Bake Off” in the UK and “The Great British Baking Show” in the US because the American baking company Pillsbury owns the trademark for the term “bake off.”

The term was used in 1949 when the brand celebrated its 80th anniversary by asking consumers to share their best recipes using its flour.

The top 100 submissions were entered in a live competition in New York City in the Grand National Recipe and Baking Contest, which later became known as the Pillsbury Bake-Off.

The UK cannot get enough of “The Great British Bake Off.”

Nearly 11 million people watched the first episode of the 11th season, making it Channel 4’s largest non-film broadcast since 1985, according to the network.

In 2016, the show also made history when 15.9 million viewers watched the season-seven finale, the largest audience the UK had recorded since the London Olympics in 2012.

It’s still one of Britain’s most popular shows, which cocreator and executive producer Richard McKerrow chalked up to the nature of the series.

“It is a television series, but we always try to think of it as an event, almost like a Wimbledon, or an Olympics,” McKerrow told The New York Times in 2020.

Over 12,000 people apply to the show each year.

The season six contestants of “The Great British Bake Off” (season three of “The Great British Baking Show”).

PBS PressRoom

Of those 12,000 applicants, 300 to 400 people get a first-round audition, and 50 to 60 applicants make it to the second round. The final 12 are picked after the filmed technical challenge.

The show looks for bakers with traditional skills who also use new techniques. Ultimately, the decision comes down to the contestant’s skills, not their personality.

The show’s producer Sam Beddoes told BBC Good Food, “When it comes down to deciding who goes on the show, it’s based on baking, not personality. You can have brilliant characters, but if they’re going to go out in the first round there’s no point.”

There’s a long application process to become a contestant.

The Great British Baking Show — BBC/Netflix

The “Bake Off” application process includes multiple steps, starting with a preliminary form. Season seven’s Rav Bansal told Business Insider it’s the “longest application form in the history of forms.” After that comes a phone interview and a screen test.

Additionally, prospective contestants have to complete an off-camera skills test that requires both sweet and savory bakes, season-four baker Ali Imdad told Business Insider in 2021.

“… a food technician there will try your bakes, critique them, and if they like what they’ve seen, they’ll put you in the next round, where they’ll get you to bake some scones and bread,” Imdad said. “Sometimes there will be judges there to critique you. Sometimes it will just be food technicians.”

Potential contestants also meet with a psychologist before being selected.

great british bake off — Sandy in the sixth season of “The Great British Bake Off.”

PBS

Season-nine contestant Antony Amourdoux told Business Insider in 2021 that the remaining 30 to 40 applicants must meet with a psychologist to make sure they can handle the stress of competing on the series.

From there, the final group of 12 or 13 finalists is selected.

Before the show begins, contestants must have plans for their final bakes.

According to The Guardian, before filming, contestants must turn in the “10 signature and showstopper bake recipes” they would make in the finale if they make it that far.

The recipes are then examined by the show’s food producer.

Amourdoux told Business Insider that the process can still be overwhelming, despite contestants being given ample time to prepare and practice the recipes.

“When we write our recipes, that in itself is a nightmare of a process,” Amourdoux said. “We have to write step-by-step what we’re doing, what ingredients we need, and how much exactly you need if things go wrong.”

The contestants truly don’t know what the technical rounds will entail.

Season-eight baker Stacey Hart told Business Insider that the technical rounds on “GBBO” are really “a surprise.”

She said that contestants in the back sometimes have a slight advantage because they can see what people in front of them are doing. Bakers aren’t allowed to turn around to watch what the others are doing.

Amourdoux added that even once the challenge is announced, bakers don’t have a lot of information to go off.

“The technical round is a nightmare,” he told Business Insider. “None of the instructions are thorough. The instructions they give you are sort of all half-baked.”

The series has a “home economics” team to ensure the show runs smoothly.

Although episodes typically take two days to shoot, the “home economics” team starts working a few days before filming so they can gather the necessary ingredients.

“Basically we’re in charge of everything to do with the food and the equipment,” Georgia May, a member of the team, told The Guardian in 2014. “We’ve got to make sure the contestants are happy. They can specify what brand of a product they want, we have to get it and then de-brand it for screen.”

Bakers can request specific ingredients.

Once contestants get their recipes approved, they submit the list of ingredients they’ll need, within reason.

“If you need a rare vanilla bean that can only be sourced from a remote region of the Amazon jungle in South America, then they may offer an alternative or encourage you to provide it yourself,” Bansal told Business Insider.

Hart also said contestants can even request the exact brand they want for each ingredient.

Contestants can choose to bring their own equipment and supplies.

stacey hart great british baking show — Channel 4

Although it isn’t a requirement, Hart told Business Insider she chose to bring her own supplies since she was more familiar with her equipment.

“I used to walk up with bags and bags of my own stuff all named with labels because I just trust my own pans and I just trust my own knives and spatulas,” she said. “My car was filled with all of my pots and pans and everything — even down to my cooling racks.”

The ovens are tested each day before shooting.

The show’s home economics team tests the ovens daily by baking Victoria sponges, a type of cake.

“We mark each one, then get a runner to stand at each station with their cake mix so we can be sure they’ve all gone into the oven at the same time and can be properly tested,” May told The Guardian in 2014. “We just have to be certain we’re fair.”

The baked goods don’t go to waste.

Though it seems like there are too many bakes to eat, Amourdoux said there are over 100 people in the tent, so they don’t go to waste.

“As soon as they are allowed to eat it, everything just disappears in minutes,” Amourdoux told Business Insider. “The crew and production team dig in, and each of the bakers is sent bites of each other’s bakes, so we all get to taste each other’s as well.”

Judges, not producers, decide who stays and goes.

Contrary to reality-show stereotypes, the judges have total control over who gets the boot.

Former “Great British Baking Show” judge Mary Berry told BBC Good Food, “That’s why we might get three girls in a final, or three boys — maybe it’s not great television, but that’s just what happened.”

“We always judge on what takes place on the day — not the week before, or the week before that,” she added.

“The Great British Baking Show” has its own illustrator.

Tom Hovey has worked on the show since its inception in 2010 and has also produced the graphics for its spin-offs, including “Junior Bake Off.” He has drawn thousands of baked goods.

After each episode is filmed, Hovey receives photos of the finished bakes, and he spends about a week illustrating.

“My illustrations are a representation of what the bakers hope to create,” he told the BBC. “Even if the bakers don’t produce what they’ve intended to, I have a degree of artistic license to make them look good.”

There are more people in the tent than you think.

It may look spacious on camera, but former contestant Amourdoux told Business Insider that the tent can get a bit cramped.

“The start of each episode is shot in the tent, and then after that everything else is shot on the outside,” he said. “That’s because there are close to 100 people right in the middle of that small, little tent.”

Filming days can last between 10 and 16 hours.

Great British Bake Off oven — BBC/Netflix

Amourdoux told Business Insider that contestants start filming early in the morning and don’t wrap up until 6 p.m. or 7 p.m.

“Normally they shoot on the weekends because some contestants work — like, I was working,” he said. “So Saturday will be the whole da,y and Sunday will be early in the morning to around midday.”

Season-eight baker Tom Hetherington told us in 2021 that filming for that long “becomes very exhausting and very stressful.”

Contestants are interviewed several times a day.

The show’s 2013 winner Frances Quinn told Cosmopolitan in 2019 that contestants are interviewed about eight times a day so the producers can get enough content for an hourlong show.

“They just have to get so much footage for an hour show,” Quinn said. “You’re being interviewed about eight times a day, just so they’ve got every type of answer and every type of question has been asked.”

Producers want a camera filming every time the ovens are opened.

In the beginning, the 12 contestants may outnumber the cameras — but toward the end, Quinn said contestants should always expect a camera in their face.

” … They want a camera on you every time you’re going in the oven, looking in the oven, bringing something out of the oven,” she said. “The thing is to not express when something goes wrong — that’s when the camera will be on you.”

The tent conditions can affect the bakes.

Fluctuating temperatures, bouncy floors, and lack of time are just a few things that make conditions tough in the tent, said Quinn.

“It’s completely alien to your own kitchen at home,” she said told Cosmopolitan in that same interview.

“The temperature fluctuates—you’d be making a meringue and it would start raining, or we’d try and make pastry and it would be 27 degrees outside. The technical challenges and lack of time and lack of fridge and work-space are the enemy on that show.”

However, the production team can sometimes be understanding of weather-related challenges.

Although many temperature-sensitive bakes — like those that call for ice cream or chocolate — often fall on the hottest days, Hetherington told Business Insider the team was once forgiving during a challenge that required a spun-sugar piece.

“Because they have to do beauty shots of the cakes on the turntable before the judging, they said to us, ‘Look we know that lots of the sugar work are going to dissolve because of the humidity, so if you have time you can make a spare one,'” he recalled.

Hetherington added that this was the only time he remembers that sort of leniency, though.

Bakers wear the same clothes for two days in a row while filming.

Though episodes are filmed over two days, the bakers and judges have to wear the same outfits for continuity reasons. But after only a single day of baking, those clothes can get quite dirty.

“It’s easier if you’re a presenter or Paul Hollywood, because I’ll tell you what, he’s only there for about an hour. After that, he goes and changes and chills out,” Amourdoux told Business Insider. “But if you are a baker, you are sweating in those clothes and you’re proper stinky.”

Amourdoux said that some contestants brought an extra identical set of clothes. Bansal said that others ended up washing their outfits in the hotel bathtub.

Contestants are not allowed to have their phones while filming.

great british baking show rav — Channel 4

Hart told Business Insider that although it may have been stricter on her season (since it was the first that aired on Channel 4), bakers aren’t allowed access to their phones during filming.

“We weren’t allowed to have our phones during the day, which was upsetting,” Hart said. “In fact, my son broke his arm one day and I didn’t know.”

She added that they’re allowed to check their phones and communicate with the outside world once they leave the set.

However, they can’t exactly tell their family and friends they’re on the show until it airs.

Contestants sign a nondisclosure agreement and aren’t allowed to tell most of their loved ones about their accomplishments until after the show airs.

Hart said she told her kids and close friends that she had signed up for a course.

“My kids didn’t know where I was because of the NDA,” Hart told Business Insider. “They would tell the world, my kids, they couldn’t keep that secret.”

The winner of “The Great British Baking Show” doesn’t receive a major cash prize.

Unlike cooking-competition shows like “MasterChef” where contestants compete to win $250,000, “The Great British Baking Show” offers no cash prize to the winner.

Instead, winners receive a bouquet of flowers, a cake stand, and a bit of fame.

This story was originally published on October 23, 2020, and most recently updated on October 14, 2025.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Content Accuracy: Keewee.News provides news, lifestyle, and cultural content for informational purposes only. Some content is generated or assisted by AI and may contain inaccuracies, errors, or omissions. Readers are responsible for verifying the information. Third-Party Content: We aggregate articles, images, and videos from external sources. All rights to third-party content remain with their respective owners. Keewee.News does not claim ownership or responsibility for third-party materials. Affiliate Advertising: Some content may include affiliate links or sponsored placements. We may earn commissions from purchases made through these links, but we do not guarantee product claims. Age Restrictions: Our content is intended for viewers 21 years and older where applicable. Viewer discretion is advised. Limitation of Liability: By using Keewee.News, you agree that we are not liable for any losses, damages, or claims arising from the content, including AI-generated or third-party material. DMCA & Copyright: If you believe your copyrighted work has been used without permission, contact us at dcma@keewee.news. No Mass Arbitration: Users agree that any disputes will not involve mass or class arbitration; all claims must be individual.