As the old saying goes, when it comes to sweets: a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.
But Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith has found her own solution: eat nothing but cake.
Dame Prue, 84, says she simply skips breakfast and lunch, so she doesn’t gain weight.
An added bonus is that it leaves enough room for a delicious glass of wine, he says.
However, there is a catch: he adopts the cake diet only for the time it takes him each year to film the Channel 4 series.
Dame Prue Leith has revealed she adopts an all-cake diet during her time filming Great British Bake Off.
Prue Leith with judge Paul Hollywood and Bake Off hosts Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding
Speaking to The Today Podcast, Dame Prue said: “If I look at a cake I get fat so I don’t have breakfast or lunch, I just eat cake and that’s the worst diet in the world.” .
‘But I only do it for 20 days a year or something like that.
“I don’t avoid dinner and when I think about dinner, I calculate exactly how many calories I’ve put into my body during the day and usually there are enough calories left for a glass of wine, so that’s my dinner.
“I have cake, cake and then a glass of wine, but not every day, it’s two days a week.”
His comments come as Bake Off nears the end of its contract with cash-strapped broadcaster Channel 4, eight years after the show defected from the BBC for £25m.
After the next series, which will begin filming in three months, it will have to be renewed, and that will probably lead to a bidding war.
TV experts suggest that fierce competition from rivals such as ITV and Netflix could mean the show, which sees amateur bakers compete against each other each week, becomes too expensive for Channel 4. ITV bosses are said to think it would be a perfect program for them to have.
But Channel 4 insiders say they can “throw all their money on it” because Bake Off and Gogglebox are their only shows effectively guaranteed to attract more than a million viewers.
A TV source said: ‘Bake Off is one of the biggest shows on TV and is not only great for the ratings but also has huge commercial potential.
“There are all kinds of opportunities for product placement and sponsorship, so while it won’t be cheap to buy, it could end up being a lucrative purchase.”
Love Productions, which produces Bake Off, left the BBC in 2016 after their demands for more money were rejected.
Channel 4 stepped in and paid a whopping £25m for the series. But the move was unpopular with some cast members: original presenters Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc quit in disgust, as did national treasure Dame Mary Berry, who was a judge.
Talks between Love Productions and Channel 4 are believed to have started several weeks ago, with a new three-series deal up for grabs. Netflix has aired previous Bake Off series around the world, but ITV has emerged as the most likely destination if Channel 4 is forced to pull out of talks.
Speaking to The Today Podcast, Dame Prue said: “If I look at a cake I get fat so I don’t have breakfast or lunch, I just eat cake and that’s the worst diet in the world.” ‘
Channel 4 has been hit by a huge drop in TV advertising, with up to 200 jobs said to be at risk at the broadcaster.
But in 2016 he managed to withdraw Bake Off from the BBC after the corporation’s bosses indicated that the financial demands of Love Productions made the program “unaffordable”.
Broadcast on Channel 4 in 2021, Bake Off achieved 7 million viewers, with a record 9.2 million the previous year.
But in 2023, only 4.38 million viewers tuned in to watch the series finale.
The show, now judged by Paul Hollywood and Dame Prue, and presented by Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond, launched on the BBC in 2010.