New TV cook Claire: 'Who doesn't like cake?'

Steps star Claire Richards joked she doesn't plan to eat everything she makes in her new role as host of a cookery slot on ITV's Lorraine. The 34-year-old singer and mother-of-two - who is currently a size 16 after her latest weight-loss drive - will present Lorraine's Cake Club on the ITV1 morning show. Claire, who has publicly slimmed down only to pile on the pounds three times, said: "Apparently it's not a good idea for me to be hosting a cake club because clearly I'm going to eat everything! So silly." The Tragedy singer - who has competed in Celebrity MasterChef - revealed it was her dream to become a TV cook as she made an apple cake on the show. Claire said: "It's a little dream come true, I can't believe it's finally happening. It's really exciting, I'm a bit nervous though. "I did use to bake as a child all the time. On a Saturday I used to get all my ingredients, I used to put them in all my mum's bowls - which used to drive her mental because I'd dirty everything - and then I would pretend I was on a cooking show myself. "Let's face it, who doesn't like cake? I think most of us like some kind of cake somewhere along the line." Viewers are being asked to send in their own recipes in the hunt for Britain's best cake. Claire said cooking was a great thing to do with her two young children Charlie, four, and two-year-old Daisy. She said: "I do bake with the kids. They love it. Daisy is a little bit young at the moment and she just wants to make a mess, but Charlie loves it - he likes breaking the eggs."

CATEGORIES

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.