“I’M not serving green carpet to Mary Berry.”

Adamant, Cathryn Dresser scooped up the remains of the strudel dough she had clumsily sent flying through the air only to get mottled in strands of carpet and started again from scratch.

Needless to say, the incident has gone down in Great British Bake Off history.

“We still watch the episodes - I recorded them - and the bit with the carpet still makes us laugh,” the 30-year-old chuckles. “The strudel landed at Danny’s feet. I really couldn’t serve Mary Berry green carpet. I just couldn’t.”

Edging closer to the coveted final each week despite some teacake and bun-induced panic attacks - was quite beyond anything she had dared to hope.

It certainly seemed impossible just a year previously when her application to the second series of the BBC programme failed to fetch her a spot in Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry’s baking arena.

“I filled in the form for series two and heard nothing,” she recalls. “I filled it in again for series three. I thought I wouldn’t hear anything the second time but I did.

“Each time I made it to the next step was such a massive bonus.

“I did find Paul very scary. Because Paul and Mary are in the judging role they don’t spend a huge amount of time with us. They had to be impartial. Mary is even nicer in real life. Paul judged us a bit more harshly but that’s because he really wants us to do well. I had a bit of meltdown in the episode were I left and he came to me and said, ‘You can finish this challenge. Just make things a bit simpler’.”

Since her Bake Off days, Cathryn’s life has transformed beyond recognition. Despite being eliminated just before the final, the programme was a stepping stone for the mother-of-two. After the show she launched a market stall with fellow contestant Sarah Jane in Sussex. Soon Cathryn was invited as a demonstrator alongside Paul Hollywood (“It was still scary”) at the Good Food Show. She has also appeared ITV’s This Morning. Last year she released a book, Let’s Bake, featuring many easy recipes to encourage little ones to have fun in the kitchen.

“I love baking with my kids; they are almost seven and 11. And they were able to be really involved with this book and taste the recipes. I wanted to write a book that was different and played to my strengths. It’s more simple and the recipes don’t take too much time. I wanted to show how easy baking can be.”

As modest in real life and self-effacing as she appeared on the Bake Off, Cathryn’s baking ambitions blossomed relatively late (in her opinion anyway). Moving out at the age of 18 and leaving her family not to mention her expert baker mother behind, prompted her to take up the cake-making baton.

Since opening her own shop, The Little Handcross Bakery last August, Cathryn has not had a moment to herself.

“It was maybe a bit foolish of me,” she quips. “I have to start at 3am - it’s just me doing all the baking - and I’m quite often here until 7pm. It’s hard work but it’s good fun. It was a tricky juggling act with the children. I bribed them with cake at first. It doesn’t really work anymore. It’s made me a much more confident baker.”

While she freely admits nothing compares to whipping up a good Victoria sponge, gorging on them is quite another kettle of fish.

“What I love most is making cakes but I don’t really each much of it. It doesn’t do it for me. Maybe it’s because I make so much of it.

“I love bread – I could eat sandwiches all day long.”

Lessons learnt from the Bake Off have guided her business decisions. Chief among them was steering clear of the dreaded peanut butter filling.

“ I made a peanut butter recipe on the Bake Off and I don’t actually like peanut butter. So I couldn’t really judge whether it was good or not and it wasn’t. One important thing I’ve learned is that you should only make things you like yourself. The flavours have to be to your taste.”

A word to the wise.

Cathryn will share tips and show off her baking skills at the Swindon Food & Drink Festival on Saturday, June 27 at 2.30pm. To buy tickets to the event go to swindon-festival.com.

To win a copy of Cathryn's book Let’s Bake and family tickets to the Swindon Food & Drink Festival answer the question below:

Cathryn Dresser appeared in which TV show?

a) Great British Bake Off b) X Factor c) Come Dancing

Email your answer to swinad@garden-events.com

Terms & Conditions: One entry per household. First Prize: Two prize winners to win a Let’s Bake cook book and a Festival Family Ticket. Second Prize: Five individual Family Tickets (two Adults & Two Children under 16) to be won. The competition will be drawn on June 22 2015. Open to persons 18 years and over. The Family Tickets will be posted out in advance with winners notified in writing. For full terms and conditions visit www.newsquest.co.uk/terms.