If you thought the Great British Bake Off was wholesome before, wait until you meet its newest queer contestant. Mike is a 29-year-old farm manager who not only grows seasonal fruit for his pastries, he’s growing his own flowers and baking his own cake for his upcoming wedding.

As the series prepares to return this week, the latest batch of 12 bakers have been announced to join hosts Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding and earn the title of Star Baker from judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith.

The new cast list introduces Mike, who hails from Wiltshire and was recently shortlisted Young Farmer of the Year at the 2024 National Arable and Grassland Awards. In addition to running the farm with his family, Mike is an advocate for LGBTQ+ farmers and in 2022 served as an ambassador to the National Farmers Union.

Mike’s official cast description describes his baking style as “homely and wholesome.”

“He likes making big, hearty bakes using high-quality local ingredients that can satisfy lots of people at parties and gatherings,” the description continues. Those ingredients include edible flowers and fruit from his own garden.

Mike and his partner Matt often discussed his appearing on the show, but had written it off as an impractical dream. When the call finally came, Mike missed it the first time around, leading him to think he’d lost his chance.

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“Then when I got through to one of the producers, she was so kind and complimentary, but I thought that there was a ‘but’ coming and that she was trying to let me down gently because I hadn’t made it, so when she said they’d like me to be one of the bakers, I was just dumbfounded and got very tearful,” Mike recalled in a conversation with Radio Times.

“I phoned Matt straight away and the first thing I said was that I can bake our wedding cake – he knew that that meant I was going into the tent and I cried again! (Matt thought baking the cake on top of organizing everything else for the wedding would be too stressful, so we agreed I would only bake it if I got into the Bake Off tent!)”

The Great British Bake Off will air weekly episodes starting Sep 24 on Channel 4 in the UK and Sep 27 on Netflix in the US under the title Great British Baking Show.

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