You may remember when I attended the Choccywoccydoodah Starstruck party last month to celebrate the launch of their forthcoming TV show. Well I can’t believe that the fourth series starts next week on 24th March on Good Food TV. How time has flown, and how I wish I could tuck into a box of dreamy choccywoccy chocolates as I’m typing this post…

So make yourself comfortable, as the lovely people at the Good Food TV channel have kindly shared an interview with the actor Stephen Tompkinson, who is the voice over for the series. Stephen talks about his involvement and the celebrity cakes featured.

I thought I’d share this interview on the blog so that ‘Choccywoccy’ fans or those who are just curious, can have a glimpse of what they can expect in the new series:

 So what can you tell us about the series and the challenges?
In the first series they get invited out to New York by Whoopi Goldberg, who’s hosting a party for a politician. She wants a cake designed in the shape of some of the iconic buildings of the city, and to have this candidate’s face put onto the Statue Of Liberty. But this has to all be done in New York, so they had to use American dairy products and chocolate, which they haven’t worked with before and it doesn’t behave in the same way. They’re not sure they can sculpt with it. The two Christines, who’ve baked for years, have to get stuck in and help out.

There’s always something different about each challenge, and each of the personalities they have to work with. Ivana Trump is having a party in the south of France, and the cake has to be made in England and then taken to St Tropez. These delicate works of art are made from chocolate… every time you go over a bump in the road or a pothole you wonder whether the thing will survive.

Then there’s the challenge set by Julien Macdonald, the fashion designer. He’s a very exacting and demanding man, and he wanted a cake to represent elements of a wedding dress he was designing. He also wanted it to reflect the gothic design of St Pancras train station, with a real clock in it! They only had four days to do it so it was a big ask. They are brilliant sculptors though, and there’s nothing they can’t put on a cake.

Jackie Collins wanted an almost life-size black panther on a cake, and the guys went down to the zoo to see how panthers moved. What breaks my heart though is that someone’s going to stick a knife into it and ruin it all!

Do you have a favourite moment from the series?

I think the Julien Macdonald cake was my favourite. It was such a work of art and I’m a big fan of the gothic style of architecture. But there was also a beautiful cake they designed for Cliff Richard, for a charity thing he was doing for Gloria Hunniford. It was helping to remember Gloria’s daughter, Caron Keating. They sculpt this angel – and I don’t want to give too much away – but things almost go horribly, horribly wrong, but a significant bit with an angel’s feather actually comes to the rescue. It’s very, very moving and was almost meant to happen.

Because these kinds of projects work with material that’s so delicate, it is literally heart in your mouth TV…
Absolutely. Just think to any taxi ride you’ve ever had across London. You’ll have to break at some point. And these cakes are big creations, and there’s an awful lot that go wrong. Going over a pothole could cause a cake to crumble or collapse. It’s a miracle they ever get anything to their destinations. The programme’s part cookery, part Grand Designs.

How about cakes? If you were to ask the Choccy team to make a cake for you, what would you go for?
I think I’d like one with some of my favourite comedians on, or even some of my favourite animals from Wild At Heart. In terms of comedians, I love silent film so I’d have people like Buster Keaton and Laurel and Hardy, and then maybe some people like Tommy Cooper, Morecambe and Wise and Les Dawson. That cake would probably last longer because no one would want to cut into that lot!

Choccywoccydooah: Starstruck is new and exclusive to Good Food, Sundays at 9pm from 24^th March (Sky 247 / Virgin 260)