Hairy Bikers' castle feast (From Craven Herald)

Hairy Bikers' castle feast

11:32am Saturday 26th July 2008 in News By Newsdesk

"Hairy Bikers" Dave Myers and Simon King dropped in at Skipton Castle to bake up a wedding treat.

The television cooks are in the middle of filming a new BBC series on baking.

And, as part of their nationwide exploration of the country's love of bread, cakes, pastries and pies, they were at the castle to cook up a wedding feast.

Dressed for the part as Henry VIII and Anne of Cleeves, they cooked up one of the earliest known pies - Bride's Pie. "It's made up of oysters, lamb testicles and calve testicles," said Simon.

Dave, as Henry VIII, and Simon, as the unfortunate Anne, were dressed by Ann Middleton, of Skipton's Antix Fancy Dress.

The bikers set off from Henley Royal Regatta earlier this month on their two BMW touring bikes and are travelling the length of the country trying out Bakewell Tarts in Bakewell and a mystery meat pie in Scotland. Before stopping off in Skipton, they were in Otley where they sampled wedding cakes made by Trevor Backhouse of Patisserie Viennoise.

"This is our first series exploring Britain, inspired by the success of our one-hour winter special," said Dave. "But, rather than our usual 1,000-mile trip on our motorbikes, we have made this a freewheeling, anarchic journey through a wide-ranging subject."

And Simon said: "Think Hairy Bikers with a liberal dusting of flour and you've got your hands in the dough mix that is The Hairy Bakers."

* The Hairy Bakers is a four-part series and Christmas special for BBC 2 that is due to be screened later this year.