Paddy McGuinness had viewers in stitches on The Great Stand Up To Cancer Bake Off as he created an eye-catching tribute to his home town Bolton made with gingerbread. The Great British Bake Off tent was rocking with laughter as the Top Gear and Question of Sport host put his baking skills to the test on the charity spin-off of the popular Channel 4 baking show.
Supported by hosts Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas, Paddy was one of a new batch of celebs facing judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith for three challenges. Bolton-born Paddy was joined by Loose Women star Coleen Nolan, Inbetweeners actor Joe Thomas and Ted Lasso star Ellie Taylor.
For his showstopper he made a gingerbread chimney in a nod to the mill town where he grew up with a Bolton Mess dish on the side. "Bolton is a mill town," he explained. "When I grew up in the seventies I could see chimneys everywhere."
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The presenter and comedian announced that he would be making 150 gingerbread rings standing 5ft tall. Disaster struck when it collapsed and he had to start again making another batch, saying: "We do not get stopped by a ginger biscuit."
Paddy then ended up using sticky tape to construct the gingerbread around a stick, which he topped with a strawberry. "I left the chimey at that and made a couple of rings," he explained.
He explained to the judges about his finished work that he was aiming to make "Bake Off's biggest erection." Prue was enamoured with Paddy's Bolton Mess dessert, and told him: "Terrific job, although slightly off brief." And Paul also congratulated him despite saying "the idea was terrible and the execution was terrible."
@X__Sassy__X laughed on Twitter: "Gotta love Paddy bloody brilliant and funny." @uisgebeatha said: "Paddy's limp biscuit kebab erection is surely going into the Bake Off history books."
@jacqui_archer praised: "Paddy for his effort and for making me cry laughing at his chimney stack." And @Sanassee applauded: "Paddy just embraced the chaos from the start and I respect that."
But @AutumnSummers said: "Paddy should have stuck to his ginger rings." And @VoxPopu07251706 asked, amused: "#GBBO What is Paddy doing? I thought he was making 150 rings - not one tall one. No wonder his shaft collapsed!" And the show official account @BritishBakeOff said: "Paddy McGuinness trying to bake a five foot high chimney with 150 ginger rings on Bake Off is probably as good as 2023 is going to get."
Paddy tweeted jokingly: "Nailed it. I’m holding Hollywood to account for my erection! #GBBO #BoltonMess." @JJBentley89 replied: "No Fred dibnah at the top made out of Kit Kats tho paddy?" And he quipped: "He wouldn’t have risked climbing it!"
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