The Great British Bake Off stars got the Christmas celebrations underway a week early by uniting for a festive meal together on Sunday. And despite having two of the nation's most celebrated chefs among the group, it was presenter Sandi Toksvig who prepared the dinner for her co-stars Noel Fielding, Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith.
Prue shared a photo of the "gang of four" at the dinner table on Instagram, telling fans: "Christmas comes early to the Gang of Four. Sandi makes a mean roast duck." The image shows the group sitting with tumblers of red wine and Christmas crackers on the table. Sandi shared the same photo on Twitter, adding the caption: "Just yer average December Sunday lunch guests."
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The Great British Bake Off stars united for a Christmas lunch
Sandi cooked up quite the feast for her guests; she decided to swap traditional turkey for roast duck, served with roast potatoes, broccoli, carrots and beetroot. Sandi's Danish rice pudding rounded off the meal, with Paul winning a marzipan pig (made by Noel) after finding a whole almond in his dessert.
Paul, Prue, Noel and Sandi struck up a close friendship while working on their first series of Bake Off together following its move to Channel 4. And while the series has already ended, they will be back on our screens in The Great Festive Bake Off, which will see returning contestants battling it out to impress the judges. There will be eight bakers in total, including Selasi Gbormittah, 31, and Val Stones, 67. Paul Jagger, 51, is also in the line-up, having impressed in series six with his lion bread.
Paul won a marzipan pig made by Noel Fielding
In November, Sophie Faldo was crowned the winner of The Great British Bake Off, although her victory was revealed prematurely when Prue accidentally tweeted the result before the episode aired. Sophie later spoke out about her reaction to the mistake while on Lorraine. She said: "It [the tweet] had been up about 42 seconds and I spotted it. I had to read it a few times and go, 'That is what I think it is'. I quickly rang Prue's assistant and they got it down, but it was out."