TV review
The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up to Cancer ***
Channel 4, 8pm
COURAGE, brilliance, tenacity: Prime Ministers have been handed the keys to Downing Street for many reasons down the years. Ruth Davidson might be the first to succeed via her meringues. Or her chocolate orange loaf, maybe even her tiramisu sandwich biscuits. The leader of the Scottish Conservatives whipped up a storm last night on The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up to Cancer. Beat that, Nicola “Can’t Cook, Won’t Cook” Sturgeon. Stick that in your mixer, Boris. She may not be the next Mary Berry, but Ms Davidson’s moreishness to Middle England went up tenfold last night.
As in Scottish politics, she was flattered by the chocolate teapot opposition of a reality TV star, a singer, and a musician. But there was more to her game besides this and her baking ability. She blended humility (“I don’t think I’ve ever felt so outside my comfort zone”) with puppyish enthusiasm (“It feels mad we’re actually in the actual Bake Off tent!”) and humour.
This being Bake Off, world capital of soggy bottomed innuendo, there was no shortage of Carry On-style lines, with Ms Davidson declaring at one point that “When they look quite golden I’m going to whip 'em out”. (She was talking about biscuits.) As for the shot of her covering a pyramid cake base with whipped cream, the only thing missing was a blast of “Je t’aime”.
Besides earning a coveted handshake from judge Paul Hollywood for her loaf, Ms Davidson was a hit with Prue Leith. “It’s an absolute pleasure to watch you working. You make a mess and you just say, ‘Oh well, keep going’.” Who knew Prue, besides being a former Michelin-starred restaurateur, was a scholar of post-war Tory rule in Scotland?
Kezia Dugdale: I've received death threats and horrific abuse on Twitter
Challenge after challenge followed, with the tension so high that at some points I almost cared. By the time the hour was almost up, and having made an Irish tricolour themed cake to her partner Jen as a showstopper, Ms Davidson was so relaxed she was necking strawberry daiquiris. Still, she was keeping one eye on that yet to be awarded Star Baker title. “I’m just a bit worried I made it a bit early and it might fall apart,” she said of her showstopper.
Oh Ruth, in baking, as in Tory leadership contests, only time will tell.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel