Mary Berry's best Bake Off moments
With the news that the Queen of Cakes is leaving The Great British Bake Off, here's what we'll miss most about her
Unless you been living under a rock cake, you'll know that Mary Berry has quit the Great British Bake Off "out of loyalty" to the BBC. The 81-year-old judge has shown solidarity with hosts Mel and Sue (but NOT fellow judge Paul Hollywood) in leaving Bake Off ahead of its controversial move to Channel 4.
This really is the end of an era in British telly. Over the course of seven series the Queen of Cakes has twinkled her way into the nation's hearts with her gentle put downs, plentiful use of cheeky innuendos and sheer, honest class...
Here are just a few of our favourite Mary Berry Bake Off moments...
When she joined the nation in tears after Nadiya won
The finale of series six saw peoples' favourite Nadiya take the coveted title, and when the brilliantly emotional baker was crowned champion even Mary couldn't help but shed a tear of joy – after helping Nadiya to dry her own tears, of course.
The fondant death stare
(That's fondant death stare, not fondant Death Star, which would definitely not be out of the question on Bake Off...)
Poor Enwezor. After blithely announcing he was using (horror of baking horrors) shop-bought fondant for his Space Adventure Moon biscuit sculpture, he found himself on the receiving end of the patented 'Mary Berry death stare'.
"This isn't shop-bought fondant, is it? Tell me this isn't shop-bought fondant. Oh dear."
That was the last we saw of Enwezor.
That time she was introduced to the baking potential of hemp
Mary has been presented with many unusual ingredients in her time as a bake off judge, but none of those occasions have quite the frisson of the time when the Queen of Cakes was confronted with a Yorkshire Loaf containing hemp. Naturally, the whole tent was blushing when Howard showed-off the controversial bake and thoroughly stumped Mary.
When she accidentally let slip who was leaving
Mary appeared on Chris Evan's Radio 2 show last year to promote the latest instalment of series six. Unfortunately, she got a little bit confused about her timings (more than one Bake Off contestant has done the same down the years) and accidentally let slip that Marie would be leaving before the episode had even aired. The awkward slip-up caused mayhem on social media, but of course we all forgave her. Eventually.
http://players.brightcove.net/4221396001/60716998-ff67-4298-8bd7-2162e15a858d_default/index.html?videoId=4430724704001
The innuendos. All the innuendos
The Great British Bake Off is almost as well known for its innuendos as it is for its cakey magic. And our Bez is definitely the best in the business when it comes to making innocent baking terms sound a little bit naughty.
"I'll eat a bit of carpet." "It's all in the wrist action." "Oh no, you've got some irregular-shaped balls." Any of these could've been our favourite, but in the end there could only be one...
Her love of boozy bakes
After Sue revealed that "Bez" enjoys a tequila tipple when out clubbing in Ibiza, we probably shouldn't have been surprised that Luis Troyano's cocktail doughnuts from series 5 went down such a treat with the octogenarian. The booze-spiked dessert might have confused the Bake Off judge at first, but after one slurp through that yellow straw she couldn't help but show her delight in yet another classic Mary Berry reaction.
Cheers Mary!
