Presenters Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig will return as hosts of The Great British Bake Off on Tuesday, August 28, at 8pm on Channel 4. To celebrate, Ella Walker is catching up with one of last year's contestants.
Liam Charles does "cool things now". The 20-year-old who, despite not winning last year’s Great British Bake Off, was the stand-out contestant of the series, gave hosts Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig serious screen-time competition, and had that certain ‘we love you’ factor Mel and Sue used to rake in.
A year on and the Hackney-born drama student has landed his own telly gig, co-hosting Bake Off: The Professionals, and has written his debut baking book, Cheeky Treats.
The book packs in decadent cookies, colossal layer cakes (more of which later) and savoury bites too, like his pattie quiche and curried goat pie.
"Shout out to Nan," says 20-year-old Charles, "because she inspires my savoury bakes. Being from a Caribbean background, [eating] curried goat, jerk chicken, ackee and salt fish, I try to combine the two – my modern ‘hipster’ side [he says this wryly, with air quotes] and then my foundation of being Caribbean."
Frustratingly, there aren’t many high-profile Caribbean bakers out there, but he’s hoping to change that: "That’s the plan."
Charles’ fascination with baking, fuelled by food shows on TV, kicked in four years ago, when he was 16 and began to think, "I can do this myself", when faced with Sainsbury’s ready-made cheesecakes and microwaveable apple crumbles ("I started off with those, I’m not gonna lie").
He’d sketch out bakes on a whiteboard in his kitchen – and still does, Cheeky Treats is scrawled with his analytical doodles – drawing cross-sections of cupcakes ("So I could understand how it all worked"), and bring his cakes into school on Mondays. A teacher asked if he wanted to do a bake sale and he "went all out, it was absolutely mad…. We sold out in stupid time," he recalls.
You’d have wanted to be in his year at school too. Nicknamed ‘Cake Boy’, for sixth form prom he baked every person in his year a customised cupcake with biscuit initials. But what is it like, being 16, and a lad, baking? "It’s all right!" Charles says with a grin. "But obviously, some people don’t really understand it. It’s [usually] either football, music or girls. I had an element of all those things, but baking definitely was the main one for me."
Wanting to overcome that lack of understanding was part of what he put in his Bake Off application. "There is a broader range of people that bake, not just Susan from Cheddar, you know what I mean?" he says. "There are people in urban areas that bake as well – and I know quite a few – but I felt there was no one representing that voice, so, I’m trying to be part of that."
Refreshingly, he’s frank about the fact that baking from scratch isn’t cheap – often, a microwaveable apple crumble actually makes more financial sense. "I’ve always looked after my money well," he says, explaining how he saves money from birthdays and Christmas so he has a pool to buy ingredients with.
"When student loan comes in, yeah, it’s the best thing ever. Some people are prone to get drink – whatever, by all means – but I’m like, ‘Yes! I can buy ingredients, I could buy that new food processor I want!’"
It’s a balancing act, he says: "Because obviously you don’t want to skimp on [the] quality of ingredients, but you also want it to be feasible." His advice is, if you’re new to baking, to start off small, no matter how badly you want to "go to Lakeland and just buy everything!"
Just buy what you need, "then build up, build up, build up". He’s currently building up to entremet – that’s "fancy" concoctions of sponge, jelly, creams and mirror glazes, for those still in the Victoria sponge stage.
Building is something Charles takes literally – he’s obsessed with layer cakes. Take his salted nutter layer cake, a tower of chocolate, nuts and salted caramel ("Everything good").
"Anything to create drama in a cake, I’m down for," he says, explaining that a two-layer cake is fine but, really, "every time you have a cake, it has to be an occasion, because you can’t really have cake all the time. So, it’s like, go for the four layers!"
There’s just something special about slicing through a quartet of sponges, he adds: "You can feel, by the knife, the textures when you cut into it, and lift it up and you see one, two, three, four and what’s in the filling – it’s like a massive story.
"Bite a couple times, chew, swallow, poo it out later on," that’s essentially what eating cakes involves, "but it’s very nostalgic, and if I can capture memories in a bake, or bring out thoughts or feelings, it’s the best thing."
As we begin gearing up for the next series of Bake Off (set to air at the end of summer), Charles says he feels he’s almost recovered from his experience in the tent. "Getting there, 80%," he reasons with a grin. "I had post-traumatic bread disorder – ha ha – bread is obviously not my strongest point."
Immediately after the show, he stayed away from the stuff, "but I gradually got into it; start with the loaf again, try the enriched doughs again, just slowly recovering, but I’m getting there – baking rehab. I’ve got some pretty sick bread recipes."
Bread disasters aside, Charles is already being touted as something of a national treasure. "Oh my good giddy aunt," he responds, laughing and collapsing in his chair. "That’s a massive accolade, isn’t it? A year ago, before I was on Bake Off, I was making meringues just in my kitchen and stressing over biscuits."
"Then to be called a national treasure is like, it’s actually crazy," he buzzes, shaking his head. "Thank you?! Ha, that’s all I can say."
The Great British Bake Off airs on Tuesday, August 28, at 8pm on Channel 4.
