Series Overview:
This is The Wonderful World of Cake: a 6-part celebration of our most famous tea-time treats, from old-fashioned birthday indulgences to ostentatious celebration cakes to edible guilty pleasures
The UK’s obsession with the sweet stuff has turned into a billion-pound industry, making us the number one cake consumers in the world. In this engaging and warm series, we lift the lid on the factories which create our most beloved brands and flavours, and reveal the outrageous cake makers baking the bold and the bonkers as they push the boundaries of sponge as we know it.
Episode 1
In this episode of The Wonderful World of Cake, we sneak a privileged glimpse inside renown behemoth McVities, learning the secret of how the Titan of Teatime – the Jaffa Cake – is made! For over 100 years, the Jaffa holds a special place in our affection. So much so that the hi-tech McVities Factory in Manchester employs 600 people, working 24/7 to produce 4,000 Jaffas every minute – a whopping 60 tonnes a day and 15,000 tonnes a year! And yet, this golden delicious chocolate covered disk is still the subject of a huge debate… is it a cake or a biscuit? Watch to find out…
Meanwhile Chef and Food Historian Dr Neil Buttery has decided to take on the ultimate Jaffa Challenge: can he break the World Record for the largest Jaffa ever baked at over 1.5 meters wide? Buttery needs to construct the cake from 20 individual sponges and 8 wobbling Jaffa jellies, before smothering them in melted chocolate, so for his capable assistants, he enlists the help of an army of primary school kids – a recipe for success, surely? A far cry from baking with kids, ‘million-dollar baker’ Debbie Wingham has made her name creating cakes for the rich and famous, including the likes of Justin Bieber and Drake. The secret to her success? It’s all in the bling – Debbie’s signature look is to cover her cakes in diamonds, with her most expensive cake valued at a whopping £11.7 million! Debbie newest commission is for a 5-star hotel in Spain – a tiered peacock cake which will tower over 12 feet above the ground. Such height is a first for Debbie, and as she finds out, transporting the fragile peacock cake from her satellite kitchen to the venue along those infamously tricky Spanish roads is not without its challenges!