THE GREAT British Bake Off is one of the most joyful and wholesome shows currently on TV – but even they’ve had some hairy moments that have drawn the wrath of fans in its time.
In fact, every season has never fallen short of some sort of scandalous scene, whether it be game sabotage, a double entendre gone too far, or some culturally insensitive tasks.
Paul Hollywood and his crew of co-judges and hosts may have tried their best to keep things on the straight and narrow, but sometimes things just came out of their hands.
But it nearly almost always resulted in some incredibly hard to miss telly, for better or for worse.
Here are just some of the most notable scandalous moments from the Great British Bake Off tent, and what exactly went down.
‘Offensive’ Theme Week
Every series of GBBO will have at least one theme week that’s unique from all the others that came before it.
For example, series nine had vegan week, the 2021 series had a ‘free-from’ week – where contestants had to make gluten and dairy free bakes – and 2023 had the bizarrely named ‘botanical week’ where creations were based around nature.
However, its series 13’s Mexican Week that caused the most outcry – especially as Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas were seen doing ponchos and sombreros before doing mock Mexican accents.
Their performance was so bad some claimed it could ‘hurt trade relations’ with the country.
Professor Ana Elena González-Treviño, of King’s College London, said: “Collating Mexican cuisine with a simplistic, outmoded and ignorant stereotype puts an end to the merit that may have been in the inclusion of the Mexican theme in the first place.”
Joe Sugg collapses in the tent
In perhaps one of the most terrifying moments in the tent, Joe Sugg collapsed while participating in Celebrity Bake Off.
Tasked with making a traybake, Joe finds himself in trouble in seconds after slicing open his finger while peeling his apple.
He then got light-headed and collapsed onto the medic who had come to his aid.
While James Blunt and Alison Hammond (at the time just a participant, not the host) looked on worried before Joe tried to laugh off the situation by asking: “Did I just pass out? That’s a good start…”
Thankfully after a bit of fresh air he was able to pull through.
Baked Alaska Gate
In season five, the entirety of Britain was sent into a meltdown after a contestant spat over Baked Alaska.
During the midst of the competition, Iain Watters was left heartbroken and furious upon the discovery Diana Beard had removed his ice cream from the freezer, causing it to melt.
With the entire concoction now a mess, and with no hopes of redeeming it, host Sue Perkins looked on mortified as Iain gave up and threw the entire thing in the bin.
When it came to presentation, Iain had no choice but to give judges Paul and Mary Berry the bin itself to explain what happened – resulting in him being sent home.
Viewers were in uproar over what happened, with the resulting ‘Baked Alaska-Gate’ being one of the show’s most standout moments to date.
Though Paul later appeared on Loose Women to defend Diana, explaining Iain had already tried and failed to make the ice cream once, with his recipe and consistency off – so Diana moving it ultimately didn’t make a difference.
Custardgate
In series 4’s dessert week, Deborah Manger and Howard Middleton found themselves in a trifle (sorry) when making the traditional dish on Bake Off.
Due to the haste of the creation, and both using the same fridge, Deborah ended up using Howard’s custard by mistake.
When Sue ran to see what was wrong, Deborah was on the verge of tears over her error, unsure what to do to save Howard.
Thankfully, Howard was a little more upbeat with the situation than Iain was during his Baked Alaska moment, and simply used hers. The judges then opted to taste the custard separately to take into account the mistake.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief – including Deborah, who was clearly mortified by the whole incident.
Not so sweet mix-up
Rochelle Humes found herself making the ultimate baking error on the Great Sports Relief Bake Off – by finishing off her attempt at making Eccles cakes by sprinkling them with salt instead of sugar.
With the clock ticking down its final seconds, Rochelle was mortified but could do nothing but serve up the cakes in the technical bake to Paul and Mary.
Naturally, their reaction was less than satisfactory, with Paul spitting his bite out into his hand within seconds after realising what had gone wrong.
Don’t worry though Rochelle – you weren’t the first, with John Whaite having the same mistake in series three episode one (and he went on to win!)
KSI takes his rage out on his bake
KSI caused a bit of a stir on Bake Off during the technical challenge, where he aggressively started punching his pastry while making a cherry lattice pie.
He later declared it was his arch-rival Logan Paul’s face – a fellow YouTube star who, at the time, he was preparing to face off against in a boxing match.
To cause more trouble, with his cherry pie turning into a runny mush, he tried to place it on Jade Thirlwall’s stand to make it appear like hers.
“I am not taking the fall for you!” she told him, before cutting him down by telling him: “That’s almost as bad as your rapping, isn’t it?!”
Thankfully he saw the funny side, even if the cherry pie was an absolute disaster.
Prue’s premature announcement
Prue Leith ended up having to make a huge apology on Twitter after announcing the winner early back in 2017.
The star was on holiday when the episode aired, and so had scheduled her congratulations – only got the time wrong, meaning it posted hours earlier than she meant it to.
As a result, fans found out who had won the show before the 90-minute finale aired.
“I am so sorry to the fans of the show for my mistake this morning,” she wrote. “I am in a different time zone and mortified by my error.”
Shop bought shocker
Series five contestant Enwezor Nzegwu was two episodes in when he received a cold stare of doom from Mary Berry – after she discovered he had used store-bought fondant in his showstopper bake.
The proud dad had made a spaceship out of biscuit and fondant for biscuit week – and did not try to hide the fact his fondant wasn’t homemade.
Paul announced it ‘was an issue’ that he had not made fondant from scratch.
As a result, he was sent out on his ear – sending a stark warning to anyone who dare risk doing something similar in the future.
Noel’s homophobic slip-up
Responding to rumours Paul didn’t get on with Noel Fielding, the Mighty Boosh funnyman retaliated by uploading a jokey photo which appeared to imply Paul having sex with him.
He captioned it: “This should put to rest any rumours that me and blue eyes @PaulHollywood don’t get on 
ha ha ha x”
However, the move completely backfired, with fans calling the joke of them being gay together being “outdated, overused, and homophobic”.
“Gay sex isn’t there for your cheap & nasty humour,” wrote one fan underneath the picture, while another encouraged him to “rethink his attitude” when using homosexuality as a punchline.
Another sarcastically added: “He’s so clever and funny. And it’s really great and not at all damaging when the punchline to a joke is ‘they’re gay’.”
The Great British Bake Off is available to stream on Channel 4.
