The line-up for this year's Great British Bake Off has been unveiled and there's good news for Northern Ireland fans of the show with a local face included in the 2022 batch of bakers.
It comes after last year's series featured no Northern Ireland representation, leaving many local fans who were looking forward to another year of Signature Bakes, Technical Challenges and Showstoppers feeling disappointed.
After the line-up was revealed, many took to Twitter to question the exclusion of an NI contestant from the line-up.
Read more: Here's how past Northern Ireland contestants have fared on GBBO
But included in this year’s line-up is 23-year-old Rebs (Rebecca) Lightbody, a former Ballymena Academy pupil, who spent her childhood in the countryside in Northern Ireland and can Irish dance and play the tin whistle.
The Masters Student from Co Antrim says her earliest baking memory is of being a child, aged only three years old, helping her mum in the kitchen, and of eating her granny’s renowned lemon meringue pies.
More recently, she returned to baking as a way to unwind from the stress of a busy life in the tech world.
Flavour is paramount for her, and she has more recently started to play around with Middle Eastern ingredients – in a nod to her boyfriend Jack’s Turkish family heritage.
As Judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith return alongside presenters Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas for the latest instalment, with specialities ranging from adding Malaysian twists to British classics to creating Matcha-infused bakes, 2022 is set to be a year of fierce competition.
Last year, amateur baker and chief engineer Giuseppe Dell’Anno from Bristol was the first Italian to take home the top prize. He saw off competition from Crystelle Pereira and Chigs Parmar in the final episode to win the 12th series of the Channel 4 baking contest.
Previous Northern Ireland contestants who have graced the famous Bake Off tent have had mixed fortunes on the show down through the years since it first aired in 2010.
Holywood man Andrew Smyth came second in 2016, but engineer Iain Watters memorably lost his cool after his Baked Alaska melted, causing him to throw it in the bin in a rage.
Portadown native Mark Lutton managed to make it to week six before being eliminated from the 2020 show during Japanese week after what judge Prue Leith described as “a disaster of a showstopper”.
Co Tyrone woman Imelda McCarron was among the 2018 batch of bakers but was the first contestant to leave that year's show.
The Great British Bake Off returns on Tuesday, September 13 on Channel 4 at 8pm.
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