The Great Sport Relief Bake Off 2016: Ed Balls, Victoria Coren Mitchell, Kimberley Walsh and Chris Kamara step up to the pastry plate

With four new celebrities to level the playing field, who will claim the top spot and who will be left on the bench?  
1/9
Laura Rutkowski3 February 2016

In the second episode of this four-part series, Jennifer Saunders hosts, while ex-Labour politician Ed Balls, writer and presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell, former Girls Aloud band member Kimberley Walsh, and sports commentator Chris Kamara undertake three challenges.

The dark horse of the competition seems to be Balls, who is said to bake birthday cakes for his children. His portfolio includes an edible iPad and a Converse shoe. Impressive.

Coren Mitchell takes a different approach to fanciful creations: “My husband [David Mitchell] is grateful to have food put in front of him but he doesn't demand that it looks like the Taj Mahal!”

Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry judge the contestants’ skills (or lack thereof) for baking 24 identical American-style muffins in the signature challenge.

The technical task requires football pies to resemble their namesake. They amusingly come to fruition despite the fact that one star in particular grapples with what a football looks like. We’re naming no names.

Perhaps the most difficult and most anticipated challenge is the showstopper, where the contestants have to produce tiered cakes displaying an extreme sport. One depicting what appears to be a stranded swimmer causes Berry to coo: “Look at his little legs.”

Perhaps it’s not the desired compliment that the creator was hoping to inspire, but it’s all in the name of charity.

With that in mind, it’s fun to watch the celebrities in the Bake Off arena, for a good cause and a good laugh.

BBC One, 8pm

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in