My Bake-Off rules

Purveyors of prosaic baked goods, be warned: Patrick Collins (pictured) is coming to a prominent charity event near you. And he has no taste for mediocrity.

I’m looking for something new and exciting and different, and something that people can aspire to, the notoriously picky My Restaurant Rules critic said about his appearance as a judge at the BGF Bake-Off this Sunday.

But for Collins, who will join My Restaurant Rules co-star and former Australian Idol legend Ian Dicko Dickson and drag performer Claire de Lune at the Bake-Off judging table, the event is about more than enforcing culinary standards.

HIV/ AIDS has touched my life on more than a few occasions and if I’m going to be involved in any charity this is the one that has probably had the most effect on my life, Collins said.

I like to be involved in things that I can make a difference in.

And, in the spirit of an event whose categories include best non-edible cake, humour will be an essential ingredient on the day.

It’s a charity but it doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun, Collins said of anticipated Bake-Off banter.

Dicko, for his part, expects Bake-Off entrants to invest their creations with hard work and a sense of humour.

In return, Dicko said, they could expect more than a dash of camp.

I might go as Martha Stewart, complete with prison garb, he said when informed of Bake-Off’s sizeable drag quotient.

Even a return to the form that saw Dicko belt out a medley from Grease while judging the Lesbian Idol grand final in February is not out of the question, it seems.

I am a bit of a sucker for a show tune, so who knows? he laughed.

I like the idea of breaking into spontaneous close-knit harmonies with Patrick actually. I think we’d be an irresistible force.