Nothing quite ushers in the autumn season like the return of The Great British Bake Off. From bone-dry cakes and by-the-skin-of-the-teeth oven timings, to Noel Fielding's jumpers and Alison Hammond's warm energy, it's the perfect hunker-down-inside watch for when the weather starts to turn.
The new bakers were as keen as ever to get cracking with those eggs and where the average Joe would have faltered at the shake-up to the technical challenge they rose to the occasion… Well, most rose to the occasion.
The technical twist was not the only change this season. We couldn't help but notice that the bakers had swapped their beads of perspiration forged under the oppressive summer heat for padded jackets and puffs of visible breath in the cold air.
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"It's not whipping up," said John of his macarons. "I think it's the temperature in here. It's so cold." That's a phrase we've never heard in the Bake Off tent before and yet his was not the only bake battling against the low temperature.
Andy's chocolate collar was also setting far too quickly, but Hazel's chocolate slab fared well as – to her advantage – it set without the need for a fridge.
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The question is: what happened to Bake Off's tradition of letting the contestants perspire their way to victory? Was Bake Off 2024 filmed outside of its usual time frame?
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When was Bake Off 2024 filmed?
The Great British Bake Off's 15th season was filmed between late spring and summer, which fits the pattern of the show's usual schedule. So why did the bakers have hot water bottles at the ready? For the same reason many of us barely divorced our coats this year: 2024's summer season was a bit of a blustery bust.
Since its fifth season, Bake Off has been filmed at Welford Park in Berkshire (with the exception of the two-year Covid period between 2020-2021) and Berkshire's average temperature in May this year was a cool 14 degrees Celsius.
Let's hope conditions improve for the bakers as the episodes go on. Unless ice cream cakes are on the menu, in which case they may need those chilly temperatures to give them an edge.
The Great British Bake Off and its spin-off Bake Off: An Extra Slice both air on Channel 4 in the UK. In the US, it's known as The Great British Baking Show, and streams on Netflix.
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TV writer, Digital Spy Janet completed her Masters degree in Magazine Journalism in 2013 and has continued to grow professionally within the industry ever since. For six years she honed her analytical reviewing skills at the Good Housekeeping institute eventually becoming Acting Head of Food testing. She also freelanced in the field of film and TV journalism from 2013-2020, when she interviewed A-List stars such as Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. In 2021 she joined Digital Spy as TV writer where she gets to delve into more of what she loves, watching copious amounts of telly all in the name of work. Since taking on the role she has conducted red carpet interviews with the cast of Bridgerton, covered the BAFTAs and been interviewed by BBC Radio and London Live. In her spare time she also moonlights as a published author, the book Gothic Angel.
