Great Australian Bake Off 2018 episode 1 – Cake Week: The opening episode is cake week, and the 12 bakers have to make a marble cake, chocolate madeleines and a children’s birthday cake. A dozen bakers tackle some challenging bakes on their first week in the tent, as they show off their cakemaking skills for judges Matt Moran and Maggie Beer.
The Great Australian Bake Off follows 12 home baking enthusiasts as they are put through a series of challenges to find Australia’s Best Amateur Baker.
Great Australian Bake Off 2018 episode 1 – Cake Week
The Great Australian Bake Off is an Australian television baking series that is based on the BBC baking competition The Great British Bake Off. The series first premiered on 9 July 2013 on the Nine Network and ran for one season with presenters Shane Jacobson and Anna Gare and judges Dan Lepard and Kerry Vincent.
On 1 April 2015 it was announced that the series had been picked up by pay television channel LifeStyle Food and production company FremantleMedia Australia for a second season which premiered on 13 October 2015 with presenters Claire Hooper and Mel Buttle and judges Maggie Beer and Matt Moran.
In December 2020, there was speculation the series was to be picked up by Seven Network, however in March 2021, Foxtel was in “advanced discussions” for a series return. In June 2021, it was officially renewed by Foxtel with auditions open from June to 18 July 2021.
Maggie Beer
Maggie Beer is an Australian cook, food author, restaurateur, and food manufacturer living in the Barossa Valley. Beer is one of the judges on The Great Australian Bake Off alongside Matt Moran and is also a regular guest on MasterChef Australia.
Despite not having any formal training as a chef, Beer has accumulated a triumphant career spanning almost five decades. Her only paid cooking job was at a Scottish sailing school during a European trip in her early twenties. She stated: “I used the whole of their larder for the four-month season in eight weeks because I’m a very generous cook, that’s the only way I know how to cook”. After relocating from Sydney to the Barossa Valley, Maggie and her husband Colin established the Farm Shop in 1979 which morphed into the Barossa Pheasant Farm Restaurant later that year.
The restaurant became known for serving locally sourced pheasant as well as a pâté, known as Pheasant Farm Pate. In 1991 the restaurant was awarded the Remy Martin Cognac – Australian Gourmet Traveller Restaurant of the Year award. Maggie and Colin operated the hugely successful restaurant until 1993. Later, she became a partner in the Charlick’s Feed Store restaurant in Ebenezer Place, located in the Adelaide city centre.
Matt Moran
Matthew Moran is an Australian chef and restaurateur also known for being a guest on various TV cooking shows. Moran is also well known as a celebrity chef on various TV cooking shows. The Chopping Block which began airing on the Nine Network on 6 February 2008. It was produced by Granada Productions and was hosted by Moran himself. It ran for two series of 8 episodes each. In 2011, Moran joined the 3rd season of MasterChef Australia as a judge.
Moran also featured in the television program Paddock to Plate, which began its second season on The Lifestyle Channel on Foxtel on 3 September 2014. In April 2015, Moran and Maggie Beer were announced as the judges of the second season of The Great Australian Bake Off, which began airing on LifeStyle Food on 13 October.
