Twelve new amateur bakers don their aprons to battle it out in series seven of ‘The Great British Bake Off’ tonight.

Hosts Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins are back, along with judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, who have devised 30 new challenges to test the bakers’ knowledge, skill and creativity.

The competition, which runs for ten weeks, begins this evening (Wednesday August 24) at 8pm on BBC1 with ‘cake week’.

The group first take on a British classic and are then faced with Mary’s technical challenge – a little cake with a fatless sponge and tricky chocolate work. Finally, the bakers have the opportunity to show the judges what they can do with their showstopper.

The best of the bunch will be crowned star baker, while one contestant will be leaving the tent.

In week two, Paul and Mary will set three biscuit challenges. The competitors start with a signature challenge, with just a few hours to make 24 identical decorated biscuits. Next is a technical challenge that requires perfect piping. The showstopper challenge requires precision baking to build a biscuit structure that reveals a little more about each of the bakers.

A total of 13.4 million people tuned in to the final of last year’s ‘Great British Bake Off’ to see Nadiya crowned as the 2015 winner.

She revisits our screens again this evening in ‘The Chronicles of Nadiya’ which airs straight after ‘The Great British Bake Off’. This is a two-part documentary series following her as she returns to her roots in Bangladesh on a culinary odyssey.

A couple of days later, Jo Brand is back to host ‘The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice’ which reviews the week’s events in the competition. 

And when the ‘The Great British Bake Off’ wraps up, Pyrex National Baking Week kicks off, from October 17-23.

l-r: Mel Giedroyc, Paul Hollywood, Mary Berry, Sue Perkins