Bake Off with a soap flavour

A BATTLE of the soaps is being cooked up in the Bake Off tent this Christmas as the show returns for its yuletide special.

- Chris Riches

Emmerdale actors Chris Bisson and Sheree Murphy, both 49, EastEnders' Natalie Cassidy, 41, and Dean Gaffney, 46, and Corrie's Shobna Gulati, 58, will compete to be festive star baker in the one-off show.

And special guest Paloma Faith will be belting out a Christmas classic.

The line-up is a departure from Christmases past, which have had former Bake Off contestants from the regular series returning.

Otherwise the ingredients are being kept the same, with Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith judging, and Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond presenting.