Stotfold’s Dawn in GBBO debut

Stotfold Baker Dawn in this year’s GBBO

If you are currently watching the new series of the Great British Bake Off then you will most certainly recognise Stotfold baker Dawn as one of the 2022 contestants! In between her baking (you can follow her @ thebakerdawn on instagram) and dealing with her new found fame, we managed to ask Dawn a few questions about the programme and of course, her love for a really good lemon drizzle cake!

Did you ever dream that you would actually get into the Bake Off tent, and what was your

reaction when you got the call confirming your place? I dreamt about it but did I really? No, not in a million years! I just remember saying “Oh My Word!” Or possibly something less polite! I had goosebumps and was shaking like a leaf!

Stotfold baker Dawn

Can you describe your emotions when you walked into the tent on the first day, was it what you

expected it to be? Delight, excitement, nerves and ‘fight or flight’ was definitely kicking in. The tent seemed smaller than I imagined it. I just kept thinking, “I’m Alice and I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole.. any minute now the Mad Hatter is going to turn up”!

As a baker what would you say are your strengths….and what are your weaknesses? My strengths are staying pretty calm under pressure (on the surface anyway), I have a lot of knowledge stashed away in that head of mine. Weaknesses, I’ve been inclined to play it safe with flavours sometimes.

What’s the one kitchen utensil that you can’t really be without? That’s a new thing.. a Mexican elbow, something I discovered in my Bake Off utensil drawer!

If you had to make a cake of yourself in your proudest moment – what would it be and why, and what kind of cake would

it be? Ooh this is a tough one. My family fill me with pride all the time. If I need to talk about me personally then it has to be getting picked for Bake Off. I just couldn’t believe that someone thought I was good enough to take part. The cake would be a rainbow layered Genoise sponge cake, covered in sugar flowers with tiny models of all my fellow bakers peeking out from between the petals.

Is there any kind of cake or biscuit that you really don’t like and what is your all time

favourite? I really don’t like Battenberg cake at all. Another pet hate is cake filled with lots of English/American buttercream – way too sweet! I love a really good lemon drizzle cake. By really good, I mean it has to be very ‘drizzly’! Nothing beats it in my book.

Watch Dawn and the other Bake Off contestants as they compete to be this year’s winner on Tuesdays at 8pm on Channel 4.

Dawn inside the Bake Off tent.