With our favourite baking show soon to hit our screens again, we caught up with some of our favourite former contestants to talk about life after GBBO
If you’re anything like us, you’ll be counting down the days until the next series of The Great British Bake Off hits the screens! About to hit its twelfth season, the show is a cultural institution, and has helped revive an interest in home baking over the past decade. The contestants never fail to capture our hearts, while their talent often turns them into household names. We caught up with Steven Carter-Bailey, Kim Joy, Hermine and Peter Sawkins and chatted about all things baking.
STEVEN, SEASON 8 FINALIST
Steven comes from an artistic family, but didn’t know what his talent was until he started baking. On Bake-Off, he became well-known for his amazingly decorated novelty cakes. The country (well, team GBF) were devastated when end-of-game nerves saw him lose out at the final. But Steven has continued to bake, and his cakes are getting more and more ambitious!
Can you tell us about your journey since the Bake Off?
It was all quite exciting. I immediately went into doing live cooking demos, which is very common for Bake Off. I got to travel around the country doing food festivals, which I loved. After that I moved into TV, and did some presenting for ITV London. I was also invited to teach the first cake decorating class for Leith’s Cookery School and discovered that I loved teaching. I would like but I find it addictive – it’s like having a super power. I’ll be going back to do it again.
What is your favourite cake that you’ve made recently?
Lady Gaga recently performed at the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris inauguration. It was a really inspiring gig, as it marked a new phase for America, and I decided to recreate her in cake form. The cake went viral – people really liked it.
And your biggest recent cake fail?
I made a flamingo cake for my goddaughter recently. It was a big deal; her dad even made a special stand for it. The cake ended up being three feet tall and really unsteady. I had to take it all the way from my flat in London, down the stairs to the car and then drive it to Wiltshire. I can’t look at photos of it without remembering that drive and seeing it there in the back seat, and just hoping that it wouldn’t fall over and break.
What was your Bake Off experience like? Did you find it stressful or fun?
It was a heady mixture of both! It’s stressful, but that comes from within. You’re appearing on television in people’s homes and being judged by them, which is a lot of pressure. Towards the end of the show I lost
