Scots star Lulu on her new love of baking thanks to the Great Comic Relief Bake Off and why she revels in being a grandmother

07.01.2023 - 23:29 / dailyrecord.co.uk

Watch a trailer for series six of the Great British Bake Off

SONGBIRD Lulu didn’t exactly learn baking at the knee of her homely mother in a flour-dusted country kitchen.

In a tenement flat in the east end of Glasgow, her busy mum turned out no-frills cooking in the scullery while the young Lulu spent all her pocket money on sweeties when she craved a bit of sugar.

Not learning to bake was never a drawback – until she signed up for the Great Comic Relief Bake Off.

She said: “I wasn’t brought up in a household where you’d smell baking from the kitchen every afternoon. My mum did basic cooking and I learned how to do that. I’ve always had a sweet tooth. I’m Glaswegian so it comes with the territory. But in our house it was all about getting money to buy sweeties, not making cakes.

“When I agreed to do Bake Off one my friends emailed me, ‘Do you know how difficult this is?’. I said, ‘No – I don’t bake’, to which she replied, ‘You idiot!’

“Now that I’ve done it, I know what she meant.”

Lulu, who performed at a gig for the Commonwealth Games, is one of 16 brave celebrities who agreed to present their offerings to cake queen Mary Berry and king of breads Paul Hollywood for this year’s Comic Relief.

Talk show host Jonathan Ross, presenter Alexa Chung, comedian David Mitchell and award-winning actor Michael Sheen are among the novices all prepared to expose their potentially soggy bottoms to scrutiny. It has given Lulu a new pastime to share with the great loves of her life – her grandchildren, five-year-old Bella and Teddy, two.

Her London home is close to the house the kids share with their parents, Lulu’s son Jordan and his wife Alana.

Now she can bake with the children, redressing a family imbalance a little. Their other grandmother –