Bake Off judge admits past challenges have been "too difficult"

Whenever you sit down to watch The Great British Bake Off, it's pretty likely that you'll be left open-mouthed at some of the astonishingly difficult challenges the amateur bakers are tasked with creating.

And if that's the case for you then you're not alone as even one of the Channel 4 show's own judges has admitted that some of the challenges over the years have been too harsh.

From soufflés to Vegan tropical fruit pavlovas, the technical challenges have more than lived up to their name in recent series, but now Paul Hollywood has stressed again that series 10 will scale things back a little to ensure that the bakers – and viewers wanting to get involved at home – continue to enjoy themselves.

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"It's been interesting to come up with some unusual things this year – the challenges I think have been scaled back a little bit," he said (via Metro).

"I thought sometimes we've been running away with some of the challenges being too difficult.

"On series one, people could approach them and make them and want to enjoy making them. But if you make them too difficult people will go: 'Not interested, I was with you right up until that point and then you've lost me.'"

His fellow judge Prue Leith agreed, arguing that even the most competent bakers can fall down when faced with a tricky technical.

noel fielding, prue leith, paul hollywood, the great british bake off 2018, gbbo

Channel 4

"Sometimes you can see a baker in the beginning and you think he or she will be fantastic and will just walk it," she added. "And it's quite worrying because you don't really want somebody to just gallop ahead.

"[But] they all at some point do really badly, so there's a sort of seesaw and it's really confusing."

Channel 4 has been busy teasing the imminent return of the baking competition with a rather trippy trailer, featuring a cameo from none other than the Cookie Monster.

Richard Grassie//Channel 4

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The broadcaster has also unveiled a mesmerising woodland image of the judges and presenters – Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig – around a huge Alice in Wonderland-style table covered in cakes.

We're so ready for our Bake Off fix now...

The Great British Bake Off will return to Channel 4 on August 27.