Despite turning 80 on Tuesday, Mary Berry is showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, the cookery writer – who boasts 70 cookbooks and has a new TV show and cookbook Absolute Favourites out now, as well as being a judge of The Great British Bake Off – has said that appearing on the nation's most popular baking programme is a "doddle". "The Bake Off for me is an absolute doddle – I know my subject, I know about cakes," she told The Telegraph at the newspaper's reader event just days ahead of her birthday.
The Bake Off judge is clearly a favourite with the show's contestants, too. Former baker hopeful Ruth Clemens, who appeared in the BBC1 show back in 2010, honoured the judge with an eight-tiered birthday cake. Each tier of the one-off creation represented a decade from Mary's life, highlighting a cake trend from that time. The GBBO runner-up posted a picture of the results of 28 hours of hard work on Instagram. "In honour of Mary Berry's 80th Birthday today - my cake collaboration with Stork! 8 tiers celebrating each decade of Mary's life from the 1940's to the 2010's. Weighing a huge 16.5kg and including a Piñata cake, Victoria Sponge and Gin lemon and elderflower drizzle to name but a few! Happy 80th Birthday Mary Xx," she wrote alongside the snap.