Student hoping political cake brings Bake Off glory

Senior Feature Writer & Food Writer

Tuesday 16 October 2012

SCOTLAND'S Great British Bake Off finalist James Morton will be holding a party with friends and family tonight as the winner of the third series is announced.

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Cate Devine

Mr Morton, a Glasgow University medical student, originally from Shetland, has known the outcome of the hugely popular baking contest for four months, with the result finally to be revealed on BBC2 at 9pm tonight.

We'll have a report on the outcome here soon after the final However, one of his final cakes may not be to everyone's tastes, as Mr Morton has promised viewers a "political cake that will divide Scotland". His younger sister Martha and two of his best friends attended the filming of the last leg of the competition in June and have been sworn to secrecy ever since. Mr Morton said: "It will be a relief to have the cat out of the bag at last, and I intend to stay undercover for as long as I can afterwards." The student will join the estimated six million viewers who are expected to watch the three finalists battle it out. Mr Morton is up against 63-year-old Brendan Lynch and 23-year-old John Whaite, and was in the middle of university exams during the filming of last week's penultimate episode, which averaged a record 5.6 million viewers. Tonight, the three contestants have to up their game with a signature pithivier – a round, enclosed pie usually made by baking two disks of puff pastry, with filling stuffed in between. This is followed by the technical challenge of dainty fondant fancies, and finally a showstopper chiffon cake which is extremely light, contains no butter and is notoriously difficult to bake. The pressure at the final stage is revealed when he turns to see the tin containing his chiffon cake mixture slip off a stool and crash to the floor. However, he said he quickly recovered. He said: "It's a political cake that will divide Scotland, and which 72% of people will be in favour of. It has Union Jacks on it as well as the flags of all the other nations of the UK and all I can say is the Jacks are greater in number than the sum of the other flags. It's a philosophical cake with a hidden message." Asked if men were better at baking than women, he replied: "The Great British Bake Off has shown baking is not just a hobby for women, that it has equal attractions for men. I'd put a tenner on more men watching us baking than end up watching the footie."

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Student hoping political cake brings Bake Off glory

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