The Great British Bake Off 2025 star reveals heartbreaking story behind competition journey in first-look clip
Bake Off returns tonight.
Prepare to activate your sweet tooth as The Great British Bake Off is back... and it's cake week!
As ever, a new batch of amateur bakers are headed into the tent as they are guided through 10 weeks of challenges set by judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith.
Tonight (2nd September), the bakers are tasked with producing a Swiss roll with an inlay design, as well as working out how to make fondant fancies before serving up a stunning landscape cake.
And it will be an emotional affair too, as one baker shares a heartbreaking story behind one of her bakes.
In an exclusive clip shared with RadioTimes.com, Jessika reveals that she's using "special apples" for one of her bakes.
"I lived with this wonderful lady called Betty," she says. "She was in her 90s [and] she had this apple tree."
Jessika explains that Betty wanted to see her on Bake Off, but sadly passed away before she got the chance.
You can watch the full clip above.
Jessika is among the 12 bakers all vying for the chance to be named Star Baker in tonight's episode and hopefully, one of the recipients of a Hollywood handshake - and there will be quite a few this year.
Speaking ahead of the show's launch, Hollywood said: "I like judging really good things, and I find that, with the standard being so high, you have to look at the little nuances of the baking to see where the faults are.
"And you will find them, if you look hard enough. Which is our job. Nevertheless, I had to dish out a few handshakes this year!"
Hollywood has praised this year's bakers, noting that the standard of baking has become "better and better".
"That's not to take anything away from the bakers in series 1, they were of their time, but the baking has improved," he explained. "The challenges are a little more tricky. But they’ve all risen to the challenge and created things that have been really incredible."
The Great British Bake Off returns to Channel 4 on Tuesday 2nd September at 8pm.
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Authors
Katelyn Mensah is the Senior Entertainment Writer for Radio Times, covering all major entertainment programmes, reality TV shows and the latest hard-hitting documentaries. She previously worked at The Tab, with a focus on reality TV and showbiz news and has obtained a BA (Hons) in Journalism.
