Paul Hollywood used to be a bit scary. He was usually the bad cop on The Great British Bake Off, with Mary Berry or Prue Leith as the goodie. These days, he’s softened, like butter at room temperature. To match the bonhomie that we’ve seen on that ever popular Channel 4 programme, which was recently recommissioned for a sixteenth series, he’s also released an equally cheery new read. Celebrate: Joyful Baking All Year Round is his fifteenth book. It features colourful, seasonal, fun and indulgent baking, and, in the introduction, describes this art as a ‘hug’. The book’s recipes include sprinkletti cake, pear bakewell tart and a lush chocolate fudge cake. The cover features Hollywood, 59, wearing a pink shirt, with a big grin on his face as he sprinkles a final magic ingredient onto a two storey and very showstopping ‘drip cake’ that’s groaning with a cornucopia of fruit. “I think keeping it bright and light, entertaining, and happy, that's what the book's all about,” he says. “When you're baking at home anyway, it's a special thing for you to do, and then for the other people to receive it as well and enjoy it”. He’s definitely entering his positive era. Perhaps that’s because he’s hitting 60 next year. It’s a number that definitely doesn’t bother him. “I don't really care about my age. I've been going gray since I was 16. I'm now more salt than I am pepper,” says. Hollywood, who is often described as a ‘silver fox’. It is strange to think he’s been on The Great British Bake Off for such a large chunk of his life. When they started filming, he was in his mid-fourties. However, all these years later, he still loves it, despite the very long working days. “It's not like work, because it's such a lovely atmosphere. The crew goes back 16 years, so we're very much a tight unit, and there's such a great atmosphere in there,” he says. “You've got the bubbly, effervescent Alison Hammond, and then you've got Noel, who's like a brother to me, and I love Prue. So there's this lovely blend of people. And of course, the bakers change every year, and they're just fascinating. I love getting to know them over the period of time we’re together”. I’ve also noticed that, these days, he seems to dole out more of his signature approving handshakes than he used to, while he’s judging. However, he insists that that’s down to the contestants. He hasn’t become easier to please. “That's probably because of the quality. It's got better because if you look at the baking last year, and then the baking from series one, it's a totally different game,” says Hollywood. “That's why more handshakes are happening because they are better bakers. They just create things that are much more professional”. Hollywood’s own baking, and the recipes in the book, are very much influenced by his travels. When he’s away from home, he loves ‘sticking his nose’ into a good bakery and having a look around. “I've traveled a lot in my career and I’ve been to cities around the world, from St Petersburg to Miami to San Francisco down to Cape Town and everywhere in between,” he says. “And that's where a lot of the ideas come from, for the Bake Off challenges as well, but also for the book and how to develop flavours”. The book mentions international bakes including the Japanese milk bread, shokupan. “I was there for about three or four weeks, actually,” Hollywood says. “I use the yudane method, which is all about infusing the flour with the boiling water, and it creates a very soft, light bread. And for toast, it's just delicious”. Although Hollywood loves to travel abroad, he also feels a deep connection to home, and especially Scotland. He found out more about his Celtic background after appearing on an episode of BBC genealogy programme Who Do You Think You Are? back in 2015. They covered the fact that his great-great-grandfather was in the City of Glasgow police force in the late Nineteenth century, and they unearthed other links to that MacKenzie side of his family. “Before we started filming the program, they said to me, where do you feel more at home? And I said, remote mountain streams, and feeling small in amazing scenery, and I ended up being taken to Gairloch and Poolewe, where my family were from, where we had the croft,” he says. “I was sitting on this little rock, looking out and they said, do you remember what you said and played it back. And I went, oh my God, this is it? This is the place. You end up going back to a place where your ancestors are from where you feel more comfortable. And I was shocked, absolutely shocked”. Apparently, the Edinburgh-based fashion designer, Siobhan Mackenzie, saw him on the programme, and gifted him a kilt in his family tartan. Hollywood also likes a Scottish bake or two, though there aren’t any in the new book. “I do like Dundee cake and it’s something I've added to books in the past. Anything with cranachan I've used as well. We've used that in Eton messes, with whisky, which works beautifully,” says Hollywood. “There is also a meat pie in my new book, which is related to football matches. Now that is quite a Scottish thing”. He loves pie. That, and quiche, pizza or sausage rolls. He’s actually more of a savoury fan, than a sweet one. “Weirdly, because of my job,” he says. Still, baking isn’t about scoffing it all yourself. As the new book says, it’s about ‘making something for someone else to show them you care’. So, is Hollywood happy to bake on demand, if a pal should ask? “I've been dropped in it a couple of times, with a couple of hours to go,” he says. “If I can't make a cake, I end up doing something like a meringue, with fruits, then spinning white chocolate over it. And I think, that'll do”. We’d happily take that, as Paul Hollywood’s edible version of a hug. Celebrate by Paul Hollywood is out on June 5, Bloomsbury