“I just love cake!” says Sherborne’s Carole Edwards, as she’s finally allowed to talk about her selection for the Great British Bake Off, which starts on Tuesday 13 September at 8pm on Channel 4. We’re rooting for you Carole!
by Deborah Gingell

AS one of the country’s favourite baking shows hits the TV screens next week, all eyes in the Blackmore Vale area will be on fun-loving, pink-haired grandmother Carole Edwards who will be whipping up the cream for Dorset.
Born and bred in the West Country, the 59-year-old supermarket cashier lives in a village near Sherborne with her husband Michael and has been selected as one of the 12 contestants on this year’s Great British Bake Off.
She also hosts a segment called “Compost Carole” on local radio station Abbey 104, sharing her green-fingered knowledge with listeners.
It was the artistry that she uses in her garden, and in turn brings to her baking, that attracted the attention of bosses at Channel 4.

Sugarcraft skills
She is renown for creating colourful and eclectic bakes that are inspired by her passion for horticulture and began her dedicated baking journey with a first birthday cake for her eldest granddaughter Maisie.
Since then she has refined her skills, using YouTube to teach herself the finer techniques of decoration and her favourite flavours are fruity and punchy.
Carole said that she never dreamt she would win a place in the iconic tent alongside Paul Hollywood, Prue Leith, Matt Lucas and Noel Fielding and she received the call saying she had won a place just 10 minutes before her supermarket shift began.
She said: “If you had told me I would be in the tent this time last year, I would say you were smoking something! When I got the call it was so hard not to utter a word to anyone and I had to carry on as normal.
She said that when she first stepped into the GBBO tent it was much smaller than she expected but she felt quite at home as it was such familiar surroundings.
During the first week of filming she said she had her photo taken about 200 times and loved getting to meet her fellow bakers, learning about them and making friends.
When asked if she could make a cake of herself illustrating her proudest moment, she said: “I would make one of me behind my workbench in the tent and would make a carrot cake.”
She believes that practice makes perfect and says she has refined her skills by baking things multiple times until she could make it properly.
“My strengths are definitely decorating the cake, especially using fondant, but my weakness is possibly patisserie,” she said.
The one item she would not be without in her kitchen is her bowl scraper so she gets every last bit out of the bowl, and her craziest showstopper bake would be a life-sized orangutan after seeing them in the wild in Borneo.
She summed up her love of baking by saying there is no cake or biscuit that she doesn’t like.
“I love all of them, I just love cake!”