The Great British Bake Off's celebrity special in aid of Stand Up to Cancer returned on Tuesday night (March 12) with some of the best and worst celeb baking yet.

In the tent were presenter Rylan Clark-Neal, comedian James Acaster and actors Michelle Keegan and Russell Tovey, alongside hosts Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig.

First up, judges Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood asked the celebs to create flapjacks, each with their own unique twist.

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GBBO SUTC Russell Tovey
Mark Bourdillon//Channel 4

Rylan went with a lemon and white chocolate flavour, James chose cherry bakewell, Russell's was chocolate brownie, while Michelle went with an after-dinner mint flavour.

Russell and Michelle managed to impress the judges the most with their bakes, while Rylan and James got off to a less-than-great start.

Next up was the technical and this time the group were faced with one of the hardest challenges ever put to the celebs.

The four had to produce six cream horns (or as Noel called them, unicorn horns) which were all perfectly baked with lamented pastry.

Great British Bake Off SUTC Episode 2 James Acaster
Mark Bourdillon//Channel 4

And while everyone found it a struggle, no one had a harder time than James, who calculated his measurements wrong, ended up with excess dough, and in the end had to resign himself to making just one cream horn, which didn't look anything like a cream horn.

When it came to the judging, the best Prue could say about James's bake was that he had used all the ingredients, while Paul said he could taste scrambled egg

Unsurprisingly James came last with Russell, who had only managed to make three, coming third, Rylan second and Michelle first.

For the final showstopper challenge, the celebs had to make a 3D depiction of their 'happy place' with at least 10 meringues and different colours.

Russell chose to depict a camping trip he had in Kent with his best mates and dog Rocky, Michelle made a coconut-based depiction of her first skiing holiday, Rylan recreated a rock in Ibiza where you can make wishes, while James went for an Adventure Park theme with Tuck Shop sweets.

When it came to the taste test, Russell's sadly left Paul with a metallic taste in his mouth which was totally unintentional.

What wasn't unintentional was James's overly-salty sea, with the comedian telling the judges he had "put loads of salt on in for a laugh". But despite this, Paul told James he thought it was "brilliant".

Great British Bake Off SUTC Episode 2 Michelle Keegan
Mark Bourdillon//Channel 4

Rylan also impressed the judges thanks to his piping skills, but it was Michelle who really stole the show, with a bake which Paul called "artistic" and "exceptional".

In the end, it was Michelle who walked away with the title of Star Baker, for making a bake worthy enough of the non-celebrity competition.

After winning, Michelle revealed it was one of the "proudest" moments of her life and said she'd be wearing the apron from now on in her kitchen.

The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up to Cancer continues next Tuesday (March 19) at 8pm on Channel 4.


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Stephanie is a writer who specialises in pro wrestling, covering everything from AEW and WWE to NJPW. 

After graduating with a degree in history from Queen Mary University, London, she went on to study journalism at Birbeck University. 

Outside of her journalism work Stephanie is also a YouTube content creator focusing on AEW and interviewing talent from AEW, WWE, and across the indie wrestling scene. She has also worked for Revolution Pro Wrestling as a backstage interviewer and commentator.

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