Whether you love her for her peacock cake, gingerbread pub, lipstick shades or teary outbreaks, Candice has shone bright in the Bake Off tent from day one. We get the lowdown on her time in the tent and what makes the 31-year-old Bedfordshire PE teacher tick…

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1. Her signature dish is…

… sausage rolls – a girl after our own hearts. Candice says: “Sausage rolls are always asked for by my family, so to make those in the final was great. I made crackling curly tails and managed to fill the tent with smoke”. It's happened to the best of us...

2. Her favourite week in the tent was…

Tudor week. She says: “I loved Tudor Week, making the peacock cake and the pies as I am a pie and mash kind of girl. That was a great week and I just loved it.”

3. Her lowest moment in the tent was…

… “bread week, when Paul wouldn’t eat my bread as it was completely raw. Mary said she would try a bit, and I felt that I wasn’t good enough and I shouldn’t be in the tent. I felt that I had really let them down and that was hard for me.”

4. But her high point was…

… “winning star baker three times. I still feel it was such an achievement to get in there and in the first week I really felt out of my depth. Biscuit week should have been my weakness, yet I pulled it off, and Pastry week I really enjoyed.”

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5. She’s not all about the glitz and glamour

Despite the fact Mel applied Candice with an emergency coat of lipstick in the semi-final, Candice says she isn’t super girly: “There are two different sides of me. I would prefer a quiet night in the pub than going uptown in lipstick and heels. I like getting glammed up, but give me a pub with a pint of cider, a packet of pork scratchings and a sticky carpet with the family watching the rugby any day.” Candice, we like your style...

6. But she is all about the family

From welling up when talking about her nan, to building a gingerbread pub in ode to her parents, it’s clear Candice is a serious family girl. “Family values are so important to me, I get on brilliantly with my mum and dad, brother and sisters. I love my whole family, and they are so proud of what I have achieved. They really enjoyed the episode where I made the King Billy pub cake, as it was such a big part of our life. The practice hadn’t gone that well and then when I made it on the day I got star baker and I rang to tell them, and they said they couldn’t wait to see it.”

7. And her leading men…

Candice’s boyfriend Liam was with her every step of the way, as was her beloved furry friend. “After it was announced I was the winner, Liam, my boyfriend, picked me up with the trophy between us and Dennis, my pug. We were all hugging each other and I will keep that moment forever, I will remember that squeeze for the rest of my life. What a feeling.”

8. Her big ambition is...

... to start her own business. “If I can get my little vintage shop selling tea and cakes with random antiques that would be my ultimate dream. Let’s wait and see what will come my way but I will be grabbing it with both hands and running with it, that’s for sure. It would be crazy not to wouldn’t it?"

9. She’s going to hide her GBBO trophy…

... in her antique chest. “‘When I got home after the filming of the final it was very strange because we got stuck in traffic, and we got in very late. I went straight to bed and got up for work early the next morning, I couldn’t talk about it and nothing had changed. I questioned whether yesterday happened! I have an antique chest upstairs, and that’s where I hid the trophy so only Liam and Dennis could see it. I kept it well hidden, even though I would have liked to wear it round my neck all the time!”

10. It's not the end for her and the series 7 bakers

“The other bakers are all so incredibly talented. We have all had such a great experience together, and I know we will be friends for life.”

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More on GBBO

Rhodri Marsden's GBBO series 7 episode recaps
10 things you didn't know about GBBO's Nadiya
How to win The Great British Bake Off - Nadiya Hussain
How to rescue baking disasters - by GBBO finalists
Mary Berry's Top 10 baking tips

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