Millions of Britons gathered on their sofas on Wednesday night to watch Nadiya Hussain, a 30-year-old mother-of-three from Leeds, be crowned this year’s Great British Bake Off champion.
Advertisement
The BBC One show, won by Nadiya Jamir Hussain, was seen by an average of 13.4 million viewers, according to overnight ratings figures.
Nadiya also explained that she decided to make a lemon drizzle cake for her showstopper because she never had her own wedding cake.
For her final show-stopping piece in the finale she made a cake decorated with a sari in the blue, red and white of Britain’s Union Jack. “She paid tribute to husband Abdal, 34, presenting his favourite, a lemon drizzle cake, with regrets that she’d never been able to have the traditional sponge at their Bangladeshi ceremony”.
“My family are constantly telling me that they are very proud of me, and that really helps me through”, she told the Radio Times. I’ve had the luxury of being at home to look after my children, but they’re all at school now and I thought, I’ve got to do something for me.
Nadiya, 30, admitted she “went into the tent as the smallest baker but walked out feeling a giant”.
Not only has this series been one of the most exciting when it came to anticipating who would be booted off each week, but it’s also had a few of the most hard challenges to date including the unusual task of making a Victorian-era inspired pie and one which saw the amateurs construct a nun-like sculpture made entirely of eclairs.
“This moment is so much bigger than me”, she said, and the world agreed with her. Ian forgot to put sugar in one of his batches of iced buns and Tamal was criticised for his lack of royal icing shine and his failure to make a creme patisserie that he could use. I’m never going to say “I can’t do it”.
Yet the Luton-born mum still shook her head seemingly in disbelief each time she was praised for her work.
Upon finding out she is the glorious victor, Nadiya can not contain her happy tears and is lost for words in front of the camera!
“But actually, in the end, she couldn’t enjoy it because I was in there baking and she had no idea what was going on”.
Undeterred by the risk of soggy bottoms, research has shown a whopping 28 per cent of us have been inspired to recreate each week’s offerings at home ourselves.
Advertisement
Mary, 80, said: “She was nervous but she had the look that said she can do it”. In the technial challenge where contestants are given only the bones of a recipe for something famously tricky, Nadiya fretted over the maths of assembling three layers by six, but ultimately came out with the most even batch of the three, while Ian’s candystripe icing fell apart in Mary’s hands.
