Episode Five - Ellie Goldstein, Gloria Hunniford, Jim Howick, Jamali Maddix

Finally, Model, actor, author and changemaker Ellie Goldstein, TV presenter, national treasure and TV royalty Gloria Hunniford OBE, Actor and writer Jim Howick, and Comedian and writer Jamali Maddix put their baking skills to the test to help raise awareness for Stand Up To Cancer. 

The celebrities take on a retro recipe for brandy snaps in the Signature, try not to be too cheesy in the Technical, and reveal all with a ‘my best kept secret’ cake Showstopper. 

Watch or stream the final episode of The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer 2025 on Sunday 13 April at 19:40 on Channel 4.

Ellie Goldstein

Can you bake?

No, I can’t really bake.

What’s your favourite baked good?

My favourite is chocolate brownies!

Would you describe yourself as someone who loves food? What’s your favourite thing to eat?

I absolutely love food. My favourite thing to eat is chicken wraps, and wedges.

Do you cook much in everyday life?

No, I never cook. I find it difficult.

I’m told you love Challah bread. Do you ever make it yourself?

I love it, but I’ve never made it myself.

Do you have something you cook regularly?

Not really. My mum does it for me!

What’s been your biggest success in cooking?

Making my Showstopper cake.

Have you ever had any disasters?

Yes, if I try to make something to eat.

Being a fashion model takes a lot of confidence. Are you good at handling your nerves?

I’m really good handling my nerves! I don’t get nervous.

You have been on the cover of Vogue, you’ve modelled for Gucci, you’ve written a book, you’ve acted. What achievement are you most proud of?

I’m really proud of everything I’ve done, especially acting. And I love being on TV.

You have said you love bright colours. Will you be making very colourful bakes?

I’m making some colourful food on Bake Off.

How important is it to you to show that people with learning disabilities are just as capable of baking as everyone else?

It’s so important to me. Everyone is capable of trying to bake, even if it goes wrong.

What are the strengths and weaknesses you’ll bring with you into the tent?

I’ll bring my outgoing personality, and fun into the tent. And I won’t bring any weaknesses!

Are you a fan of Bake Off?

I love Bake Off!

What’s it like, walking into the tent for the first time?

Walking into the tent for the first time was so exciting. I couldn’t wait to start baking!

What’s the worst thing you could be asked to make in the competition?

Any type of cheesecake.

Have you sought advice from anyone ahead of the show?

I spoke to my sister, Amy, because she’s really good at baking.

Is it an intimidating moment when you look up and see Paul studying you?

No, not really. It was, it was great, and those blue eyes!

Are you competitive? How badly do you want to win?

Yes, I’m competitive and I want to win.

What would it mean to you to get a Hollywood handshake?

I would love it. I would be over the moon!

Why is SU2C important to you?

Stand Up To Cancer is important, as I’ve lost my Uncle and Grandma to it.

Gloria Hunniford

You’ve written a cookbook! Presumably, this will be a walk in the park for you…?
Quite the opposite! I’ve never baked. I do cook, but I’ve never baked in my life. When the publisher suggested I write a cookbook, I said “Don’t be ridiculous!” but they said “Think about it over the weekend.” And then I remembered that I had all my grandmother’s and mother’s old handwritten recipes. They were brilliant Irish cooks, and so when the guy rang me again on the Monday, I said “I would be useless, I’d poison the nation, but my mother and grandmother are a different story.” The cookbook is full of what people want to make these days, it’s organic, stuff that’s grown in the garden, it’s Irish bread and potato bread, all of that. It wasn’t really my input, it was the input of the family. 

Can you bake?
In a word, no. My mother would have given Mary Berry a run for her money. She was a brilliant cook. She was a housewife. Although we had no spare money, my dad wouldn’t let my mum work, so she was on it in the house 24/7. She was a wonderful baker, she used to win awards for her baking at the local horticultural show. In our house, for example, she made 13 different types of bread every Saturday. Each loaf would have a cross on the top. And one quarter of it was kept for our family, and the rest was all shared among the neighbours, so she was a very popular woman. She could bake anything. The horticultural show came once a year, and she might win two golds and five recommendations, and she was so proud of it. I think that was her creative outlet, really. 

Describe your baking style in one word.
Awful! And when I was approached for this, I made it clear that I don’t bake. I had a couple of practice runs at home, and I really quite enjoyed it. I think I’m not doing too badly for a novice. I never had to do it at home, I was spoiled as a child and a teenager with all my mum’s cooking. When I got married for the first time – I’ve only had two husbands – I was only 21, and I asked my mum to teach me how to make a wheaten bread, and she said “I can’t, because it’s a handful of this and a handful of that, so I can’t really tell you.” So I was never taught how to bake.

Do you cook much in everyday life?
I do cook, and I like to cook from fresh as often as I can. 

Do you have a go-to dish?
I have a number of them. When I was working for Ulster Television in Northern Ireland, I had my own programme, and a famous chef from south of Dublin came to my home in Hillsborough, where we lived at the time, and he taught me and the viewers how to make six marvellous things, like a Steak Diane, like a good spag bol, a good curry, and I remember all of those things. Add to that some of my mum’s things, and what I’ve learned myself, and I’m not too bad. I like to cook when I have time to do it. When I don’t have time, that’s when it becomes a bit of a problem.

What have been your biggest culinary triumphs and disasters?
My biggest disaster was in Northern Ireland. I was having some people in for dinner – we used to do a lot of dinner parties in those days. At this age, I don’t give many of them anymore, but I still like going to them. I thought I would try duck, but I knew one duck only went so far, so I got two ducks, and I could not get them to cook. Every time I put a knife into them, blood ran out. I’d taken them from frozen and not thawed them enough, and it was a total disaster. All the vegetables and the potatoes and everything were great, but the duck was such a disaster, I had to go down to the local chippy and get some chicken and serve it. 

Did you try and pass it off as your own?
Oh no, definitely not! As for my best dishes, I make quite a good monkfish and prawns done in a mushroom and cream sauce. 

What are the strengths and weaknesses you’ll bring with you into the tent?
Strengths: I’m a trier, and I like a challenge. Weakness: I’ve never baked. I tried baking at home to practice, and the first batch of biscuits I made turned out like turds. Terrible. But my Showstopper bake, which I also practiced, turned out quite well. It’s inspired by my father, who was a newspaperman by day and a magician by night. 

Are you a fan of Bake Off?
Very much so. And I’ve interviewed and worked with Prue Leith quite a bit. I’m fascinated by the fact that, in America, she is treated like a pop star, because the programme is so popular over there. 

Does being a fan of the show add a certain frisson, walking into the tent for the first time?
Oh, absolutely! I’ve seen it so many times on TV, and now I’ll be able to say “I’ve done that walk!” “I know that table”. I’ve always really enjoyed the show. The celebrity version is really fun, and I love the public one, because some of them are such amazing bakers. 

Were you nervous, at first?
Totally. It’s all unknown to me. Of course I was, because I’ve never baked before, and there’s always someone on the show who’s brilliant. 

Is it an intimidating moment when you look up and see Caroline or Paul studying you?
Yeah, I just think “Move on, because I’m busy!” You’re concentrating on something, and all of a sudden you have to chat.

Are you competitive? How badly do you want to win?
I am competitive in as much as I want to do my best, and I don’t want to look like an absolute idiot. But I’m not so competitive that I want to win all the time. It’s lovely if you win but, for example, I was always a tennis player, but I was just glad to have the hit and the exercise, rather than having to win all the time. My grandchildren would say that I’m pretty competitive when we play games at home. And I’m very quick to say “You’re cheating,” or “you’ve got the wrong answer” or whatever.

What would it mean to you to get a Hollywood handshake?
Having watched the programme, it’s always very satisfying if Paul approves of what you’re doing, but it won’t break my heart if I don’t get one. 

Jim Howick

Can you bake?
I can sort of bake now. I sort of specialise in pasties and pies and all things savoury, that can be improvised, and mistakes can be hidden with gravy and mash and peas. But I have a new-found respect for bakers, because it is an exact science. It’s a chemistry lesson and a craft rolled into one. I’m an average baker, but I’ve got a long way to go before I can safely say I can bake well.

Describe your baking style in one word.
Slapdash.

What’s your favourite baked good?
Probably a Victoria Sponge. Something simple, but made really well. 

Is it true your mother-in-law runs a tea shop?
She does, yeah, she runs a tea shop in Acton called Tea Darling. 

That must be handy. Did you ask her for advice?
Oh, absolutely. I booked her in for two lessons. Bless her, she only has Mondays off, because Saturdays and Sundays are quite busy for her, so I managed to book her for two Mondays, including a bank holiday, I might add, to come round to mine and give me tips about baking, like covering the mixing bowl with a tea towel so the whole kitchen doesn’t get covered in icing sugar, which has happened on occasion, and the kitchen ends up looking like a ski slope. So yeah, I’ve absolutely plumbed her for advice. 

Would you describe yourself as a foodie?
I think to a certain extent, yes. I do eat out quite a lot. Where’s the ceiling on foodie? I do try and go to as many new restaurants as possible, and I enjoy trying new things, and eating quality food. But I also enjoy getting a doner and chips or something like that. I enjoy cooking, I enjoy barbecuing – I splashed out on quite a posh barbecue/smoker, and I cook Christmas dinner on that. I cook the turkey first, for 2hrs 40, say, and when that’s resting I cook the beef. And it’s absolutely delicious. So I’m a bit of a barbecue bore. But I’ve never ventured into the world of cakes, because I’ve always been afraid of the chemistry of it all. It is an exact science, and if you get the measurements wrong, then you’re in trouble. And Paul Hollywood is going to try it. 

What’s been your biggest culinary triumph?
I’d count cooking my first Christmas dinner on a barbecue as a triumph. The meat was smoky and delicious, juicy and tender.

What are the strengths and weaknesses you’ll bring with you into the tent?
I’m terrified of disappointing my mother-in-law. I think that’s both a strength and a weakness. Obviously she makes cakes every single day, and I want to do her proud. Weaknesses? I’m quite messy and disorganised, but I kind of get it done. I’m a kitchen paratrooper, I get the job done, regardless of the mess around me. You’ll see on the show. Had I been in my own kitchen, I think I would have been an hour over. I was an hour over when I practiced it in my kitchen, and I didn’t sleep that night. Which was a problem, as the next day was my first day on Bake Off.

Are you a fan of Bake Off?
I am, yeah. I don’t watch an awful lot of television, I kind of pick and choose what I want to watch. I don’t watch complete series of it, but I do dip in and out. And ,my wife is a big fan, she watches every episode.

What’s it like, walking into the tent for the first time?
Oh, it’s completely overwhelming. It feels like a fever dream. You can’t believe it’s actually THE TENT! It feels like a Bake-Off-themed party, and it’s not real. And then there’s about six cameras in there, and then Paul Hollywood walks in, and you think “Oh, okay, we are actually here.” It’s a surreal thing, to be inside the real Bake Off tent – it’s a national treasure all on its own. It’s iconic, and to be in that location is a really surreal thing. It was a gradual thrill, but it was terrifying at first.

In Yonderland, you played one of the cake ladies. Explain what that was all about…
That was a joke on the sort of paradox of a quaint cake-baking competition in a village resulting in a war with another cake-baking village. They take baking quite seriously in the provinces. I grew up near a village where they had vegetable-growing competitions and cake baking competitions, and so we thought it would be funny to have women who took it so seriously that they actually went to war over it.

Have you come close to all-out war in the tent over your bakes?
No. Only with myself. I’ve seen a couple of Bake Off disasters in the past, where people have almost completed a really difficult, ostentatious bake, and they’ve dropped it, or its smashed somehow. I think if that had happened to me, I would have had a breakdown in the tent. You approach the whole thing thinking “It’s for charity, it’s a bit of fun,” but you can’t get away from the competitive aspect. If there’s a competitive seed in you, it will grow into a huge oak tree. I can’t imagine what it would be like to almost complete the task, and then for it to break in front of your eyes.

So how badly do you want to win?
All I want is a handshake. Winning is spread out over a number of bakes, I’d be happy with one really good bake and a handshake. If I get that, then I’m satisfied. Winning would be a bonus – of course everybody wants to win, but I just want to give a good account of myself.

If you could have one of your Ghosts castmates in there alongside you to help you bake, who would you choose?
Oh, Martha [Howe-Douglas], 100% Martha. She’s a real foodie, and a proper cook. I wouldn’t be surprised if Martha was on MasterChef at some point. Yeah, that’s an easy question to answer. Simon [Farnaby] is a real foodie as well, and he also has a flashy barbecue, we’re in a bit of a club. But Martha is a proper, proper foodie, and she could be a critic or a cook. She could work in food if she wasn’t in comedy. In fact, she would, I’m sure she would. And she probably will. She’ll go on to do it, I’m sure. 

Is it an intimidating moment when you look up and see Caroline or Paul studying you?
Yeah, it’s terrifying. It’s almost like going snorkelling and seeing a shark. You’re enjoying the beautiful fish, and then all of a sudden this blue-eyed shark appears. No, they were very nice and sweet and not too intimidating, they just know their business very, very well. They know exactly what’s wrong with your bake, they know by how much you’ve overcooked something, what the temperature probably was when you cooked it, just by the texture and the taste. They are masters of their craft, so that in itself is intimidating, but they, as people, are very, very sweet and nice.

Why are you doing this? Why is SU2C important to you?
I don’t know anyone who hasn’t been affected by cancer in some form or another. It’s something that will affect almost one-in-two of us. Those that I know who haven’t suffered with cancer, they have had friends or relatives who have had cancer, and have been in a position of supporting them throughout their illness. Or they’ve been grieving them. So it’s for them. It’s such an enormous thing. It feels like we’re in a constant battle to fight it. I don’t profess to being an expert in these things, but it does seem that we are gradually making breakthroughs.

Jamali Maddix

Can you bake?
No. I can’t bake, but I understand the concept. Like, I understand that it normally involves flour, and you put it in the oven. I understand the concept, but I don’t bake. 

Describe your baking style in one word.
Freestyle.

What’s your favourite baked good?
All of it! I’ve got a bad sweet tooth. I eat anything. Any cake, definitely. 

You’ve said in the past that you like sweets so much that once, when you gave them up, you got the shakes. 
Yeah, it definitely changed my mood and that. I felt the withdrawal. I’m addicted to sugar.

You’ve also said that you’re really into cooking. How often do you do it?
I don’t get to do it often. I probably try and cook once a week. I eat out, mostly, because I work outside the house, so I have to eat out.

Do you have a go-to dish?
Not really. The other day I made Yemeni chicken with the rice and all the currants and all that, but most of the time I’ll just make a shepherd’s pie or something. 

What’s been your biggest culinary triumph?
I think the thing about cooking is if you cook something that’s edible, it’s a triumph. 

On Off Menu, you chose as your main course alligator and shrimp cheesecake. Is that a real thing?
Yeah, I had it in New Orleans. 

What’s alligator like?
It’s kind of like most protein, really. It’s kind of fishy, but with a more meaty texture. 

If they gave you a cheesecake round in Bake Off, would you give it a go? 
No, no, no, no! I’d keep it basic. I’d make a key lime pie or something. 

What are the strengths and weaknesses you’ll bring with you into the tent?
I haven’t really seen the show before, so I don’t really know what to do. I guess my weakness is a lack of a gameplan, and a lack of practicing. And I guess my strength is a lack of a gameplan, and a lack of practicing. 

Is not being a fan of the show potentially an advantage, as you’re not intimidated walking into the tent for the first time?
I guess so. I think the thing about the show is it’s all for charity. I’m not expected to be good. If Paul goes “That’s a bad cake!” I can go “Yeah, but it is for cancer! Do you hate charity or something?”

Have you sought advice from anyone ahead of the show?
No, but I did do one practice. I did one sponge.

How did that turn out?
A bit shit.

Is it an off-putting, that moment when you look up and see Paul studying you while you’re busy baking?
No. He seems alright. He’s just a bit of a grumpy guy, but I appreciate that as a grumpy guy myself. 

Are you competitive? How badly do you want to win?
Nah. I don’t mind. It’s for charity. The thing is, if I was a real baker it might be different. I’m not trying to transition to a career in baking. When it comes to baking, I’m not competitive.

Why is SU2C important to you?
I think it’s a good cause. Cancer is one of those things where the majority of us know someone who’s been affected by it – either having it, or losing someone to it. The hope is that with enough funding, more steps can be made towards treating it, so if I can do a little thing to help that, I think that’s something worth my time. 

Stand Up To Cancer is a joint national fundraising campaign from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4 that brings the UK together to speed up progress in life-saving cancer research.