Entertainment

Derry Girls cast cause festive mayhem in New Year’s Great British Bake Off

The TV stars bid to impress judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith.
The TV stars bid to impress judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith. The TV stars bid to impress judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith.

The cast of Channel 4 comedy Derry Girls cause merry mayhem when they take over the tent for a festive edition of The Great British Bake Off.

Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Nicola Coughlan, Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, Dylan Llewellyn and Siobhan McSweeney are jokingly branded “five of the most troublesome people we have ever had in the tent” by host Sandi Toksvig, who adds: “But I don’t think we have ever had more fun.”

The TV stars must attempt to impress judges Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood with an alcohol-laced sharing trifle for their signature challenge, which sees a few of them tucking into booze as they whip up sponges, jelly and custard.

Leith tells Llewellyn the layers of his bakewell trifle are “a bit casual”, while she brands Jackson’s “a bit messy and smeary”.

Hollywood tells McSweeney her trifle is “all over the place, it looks like an aquarium,” while Leith adds: “It does look like slime.”

For the showstopper the contestants must make a two-tiered cake based on their favourite decade.

Llewellyn crafts a 1960s camper van made out of lemon cake, while O’Donnell fashions the plane Amelia Earhart landed in Derry in the 1930s out of coconut cream cake.

Coughlan prepares a bowler hat inspired by 1930s Berlin and the film Cabaret out of chocolate cake, while Jackson makes a 1960s peace and love lemon and blueberry cake – admitting she had never made a cake before taking part in the show.

Meanwhile, McSweeney makes a chocolate raspberry cake in memory of her family camping trips to Cork in the 1980s.

After the final challenge Coughlan says: “I am a broken woman,” while Jackson says: “I don’t think it could have gone any worse.”

McSweeney jokes: “I’ve basically ruined the memory of my mother and father, I might not go back in.”

The Great Festive Bake Off is on Channel 4 at 7.40pm.