'Great British Baking Show' Leftovers Are Fed to Pigs, According to Noel Fielding

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While you binge-watched The Great British Baking Show (or Bake Off, for you purists) over the holidays, you may have found yourself wondering just what they do with all the cakes, biscuits, pies, and patisserie after Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood take their dainty bites and the episode is over. Well, it turns out that the answer involves "pigging out" on the leftovers, however that term applies to the fate of those baked goods twice over.

On last night's airing of The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, an annual special hosted by comedian Jimmy Carr, GBBO co-host Noel Fielding sat in on the panel while finalist and fan favorite Kim-Joy (from the most recent season) made a cameo to ask one of the quiz questions. Keeping with her cutesy decorating aesthetic, Kim-Joy first brought out a plate of meringues each bearing the likeness of the panelists and host, before Carr asked her what happens to all the spare cake on the cooking competition.

"The crew will eat it," Kim-Joy explained. "They know which ones are the best ones, so they all descend on the bake." Who wouldn't? If Paul and Prue just dubbed something a winner, it's probably worth eating. Then Noel chimed in: "Do you want a juicy bit of gossip, Jimmy?" Of course!

"Prue, occasionally, if there's any cakes leftover, she takes them home for her pigs." Fielding then joked that "pigs" is Leith's pet name for him and co-host Sandy Toksvig before clarifying, "She genuinely has pigs." (Watch the whole exchange on YouTube.)

Whether or not it's Prue's own pigs dining out on delicious desserts, the rumor has come up before... from Prue herself. Back in 2017, Leith admitted she had taken food from the set to her neighbor's pigs. "I used to bring them all home from Bake Off in a big box, all the bits," Leith revealed at the time, according to The Telegraph. "My neighbour keeps pigs, so these pigs got the most amazing cakes and bread."

And while pigs are known for eating just about anything, the revelation did cause some concern from the pigs' veterinarian and, naturally, the National Pig Association which put out a statement on the dangers of feeding pigs sugar in response. But apparently, Leith got the message from the aforementioned vet: "Anyway the vet has banned that practice and said the pigs were getting too fat. They were already huge pigs. So now there's no more cake. But one of the cameramen has pigs and his vet hasn't said no."

So whether it's Prue's neighbor's pigs or one of the crew's, and currently or just in seasons past, it seems at some point or another the TV-famous treats have indeed headed for the trough.