Viewers fluffed up at swearing over Saturday Kitchen meringue 'crisis'

Saturday Kitchen host Matt Tebbutt has apologised to viewers after a studio guest accidentally swore on air.

Tebbutt was being shown how to pipe meringue on to a cake by one of the show's guests, TV cake designer Mich Turner.

The television host appeared to have thrown away one of the bags containing meringue which meant there was not enough left to cover the top layer of the three-tier cake.

Tebbutt retrieved the bag of meringue topping, but another one of the guests, believed to be chef Tom Kitchin, could be heard saying "Oh shit" off screen as they squeezed the last bits on to the cake.

Minutes later Tebbutt said: "Sincere apologies for the bad language just then, just so you know, big apologies."

The BBC told the Press Association: "All guests are briefed ahead of the programme to remind them they are taking part in a live broadcast and Matt apologised immediately."

Tebbutt was announced as the first permanent host of the BBC breakfast show following James Martin's departure last year. He presents the weekly 90-minute cookery programme on a bi-weekly basis.

He has also fronted Channel 4's Food Unwrapped and has appeared on the BBC's The Great British Menu and Great British Food Revival.

Viewers were quick to latch on to the slip-up with one tweeting: "Just rewound to find it, Tom Kitchin "oh shit" when they ran out of merengue, worth a swear that, what a crisis! #SaturdayKitchen."

Others were less fussed, with one viewer commenting: "Swearing on #SaturdayKitchen ... The world's gone mad!".