The gamble worked, and thanks to Candice Brown’s filo hack, she cruised through the challenge. “When [the judges] came round, they said: ‘This is a stroke of genius. Well done,’ and I nearly wet myself with relief because it could have gone one or the other way,” Brown revealed.
Brown wants to make sure the audience knows that while sure, “Bake Off” is for their entertainment and culinary edification, it’s real. There are no second chances if a pastry fails, no pausing the clock if a baker needs more time, and no special off-screen facilities where the actual cooking takes place.
“Okay, so it really is just a tent. It really, really is just a tent,” Brown said, describing the place where the baking action takes place. “So when it is hot, it is beyond, and when it is cold, it’s absolutely freezing, and when it’s wet, it floods.” Brown continued: “And it will always be the opposite of the weather that you want it to be. So for instance, Chocolate Week, you can guarantee it’s going to be 35 degrees [Celsius] outside, which means it’s about 40 odd inside. When it’s meringue, you need it to be completely bone dry, but of course, it’s probably the wettest weather that we’ve seen since Noah’s Ark.”
Beyond the weather, Brown revealed how tight the timing is. “When they say: ‘Stop,’ that is it,” Brown said. “When they say stop, you have to stop. And what I realized, it’s surprising what you can get finished in one minute. When they go: ‘You’ve got one minute left,’ it’s surprising what you can get done.”
To see what Candice Brown is baking up these days, follow her on Instagram or pick up a copy of her latest book “Happy Cooking.”