'I like a bit of goo': Nigella Lawson ensures Great British Bake Off is well and truly back – Janet Christie

Now in its 17th series, Bake Off continues to be an audience favourite with its celebration of the nation’s love of both cooking and camp, with dollops of doubles – cream and entendres – and strategically placed cherries, and who better to layer it on like an oozing sandwich cake than the sizzling sixty-something celebrity chef who is famously pro-indulgence.

In the much anticipated launch show, exiting judge Dame Prue departed in a “proving box” Tardis (a nod to another great British institution) and her replacement emerged, declared herself to be in her “absolute dream” and donned a zippy figure-hugging black jumpsuit as the baking commenced and she blended in with the established team.

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‘Something savage’

While host Alison Hammond does sympathy and belly laughs, Noel Fielding does zany and zesty, and judge Paul Hollywood delivers Blue Steel gazes and to the point judgement (“you’ve overcooked it”), their new co-host Nigella does sexy chef, murmuring sibilant bon mots such as “frisson”, “there’s something savage about the cardamom” and “I like a bit of goo”.

“Could there be a more Nigella word than sumptuous?” asks Alison Hammond, speaking for us all.

But Nigella also has decades of experience in the kitchen and a shedload of bestselling cookery books to her name. And she dispenses advice and encouragement – “don’t let the sugar shout, let it sing” – while heaping on the praise along with a lingering eye contact that would make a jelly shudder and renders a shy young baker so tongue-tied that his communication skills become limited to a blink.

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Buttercream and mascarpone

The ingredients for another ratings-topping crowd pleaser are all there – celebrity judges, competition and a fresh batch of 12 contestants who are more than competent and come with sympathetic back stories, all eager to be crowned star baker and win the glass cake stand and bunch of flowers, because it’s about cooking kudos not cash.

Of course there’s also the chance of a future as a food writer/chef/telly star – and if they’re really really lucky, a handshake from the husky-eyed charmer Paul Hollywood with his warm as a freshly baked bun hands.

Sticking to the tried and tested format of Signature Bake, Technical Challenge and Showstopper, the tent was awash with buttercream and mascarpone, cherries and cardamom as the variously eccentric bakers set to.

Triumph and disaster struck for “Indeedaroonie!” Danni with her love of foraging and fixing electronics, and Molly’s perfectly baked sponge ended up on the floor while Clara’s sugar dome shattered. But they fought back to survive and Nigella made everything better, summing it all up in Caramel bunny tones with a mollifying: “None of us are the finished article.”

Indeed. Nigella’s only just begun and the Bake is well and truly back.