We look at where Mary Berry is scoring outside her day job and how cake can found relationships in our tongue-in-cheek Stop the Week. 

Bakery hottie

Much like a fine wine, bakery totty Mary Berry has grown better with age, sneaking her way to a rather respectable number 73 on FHM 100 Sexiest Women in the World list.

Not a bad accolade for someone who recently celebrated her 80th birthday - though rumour has it she was seen clubbing at Pacha in Ibiza just nine years ago. To give you an idea of her competition, she beat movie star Emma Stone who ranked at number 74 and is officially just one small step down from mega-star Angelina Jolie, who triumphed at number 72.

Up to the top of the poll and former Coronation Street star Michelle Keegan claimed the winner’s spot, followed by teenaged model Kendall Jenner and name-of-the-moment Jennifer Lawrence. But back to Berry - British Baker isn’t sure exactly what swung it for the bakery babe - charm, charisma, a certain wicked humour regarding co-star Paul Hollywood?

Or maybe baking is simply the way into FHM’s heart.

A piece of cake

Tinder is out and baking is in - see Audrey Shulman’s blog on baking her way to a boyfriend. She began her quest to meet men via Cakebarring (a trademarked term) by sitting in bars with homemade cake and passing out slices to eligible-looking men. She has since met a boyfriend through this method and has turned her recipes and dating stories into a book ‘Sitting in Bars with Cake: Lessons and Recipes from One Year of Trying to Bake My Way to a Boyfriend’.

She told AM New York that her boyfriend loves cake - lucky, that.

(Abrams Publishing)

It seems there is an art to it though, as some of Shulman’s friends, inspired by her success, took some cupcakes to a bar with the same idea. It turns out that cupcakes are not the road to happiness due to their transportability - the gifted men simpy picked them up, said their thanks and vanished.

“There’s something about cutting a piece of cake for a guy that makes him stick around - it’s almost as if there’s an implied conversation that should happen afterwards since you’ve just made an effort to give him something,” said Shulman.

It seems to be a one-way process though, as some male friends of Shulman tried it out on girls with pie - but the girls were just suspicious.

The Tweeners

We know the bakery industry is ripe for new hybrids and innovations - we’ve had the whoopie pie, cake pops and cronuts - make way for the Tweener. Creator Merangz touts them as “not too big, not too small, just perfectly in-between”. I think we’ve found the inspriation for the name.

The mini layer cakes are for sharing and come in a variety of flavours, filled with plenty of curds and compotes. Flavours for spring are passion fruit cheesecake; lime and coconut; and cherry bakewell.

Let’s hope the Tweeners follow in the footsteps of the Inbetweeners, which are here to stay.