The Great British Bake Off 2023 winner has been named.
The fourteenth season concluded tonight, Tuesday November 28, with Dan, Matty, and Josh returning to the tent for the final time.
There have been lots of baking mishaps, the return of Noel Fielding’s legendary sweaters, and plenty of innuendos in the previous 10 weeks.
This season, Alison Hammond replaced Matt Lucas and joined Noel, Dame Prue Leith, and Paul Hollywood for the first time.
And we now have a winner.
Matty won The Bake Off after a multi-layered Showstopper cake, a lardy cake Technical, and a Signature bake out of choux pastry.
Despite feeling ‘deflated’ after finishing third in the technical, the 28-year-old PE and science teacher from Cambridgeshire overcame Dan, 42, and Josh, 27 in a tough final.
In response to Matty’s ‘Final Celebration’ Cake, Dame Prue branded it ‘great’ while Paul said: ‘Absolutely delicious’.
And it turned out to be his winning bake, leaving him dumbfounded at the news.
‘I don’t know what to say, everyone said you should go on Bake Off and I thought it was a throwaway comment and never really listened to it,’ he said.
‘I never thought I’d be on this, let alone win it.’
Earlier in the show, the judges spoke about Matty’s journey to the final, with Dame Prue saying: ‘I have never met a more cheerful, smiling uncomplaining and willing baker.
‘He was just having such a good time, learning as much as he could, taking on board everything either of us said.’
Meanwhile, Paul said that he ‘got better and better and better’.
‘If you are going to smash it you do it in the last challenge, and that is exactly what he did,’ he said.
‘That chocolate cake was one of the best chocolate cakes I have had for a long, long time.’
After the final, Matty said: ‘It was a lovely evening we had some bubbles to celebrate and needless to say I made some bakes.
‘I have kept the trophy hidden away in a box in the loft, but I think it will have pride of place in the dining room from now so everyone can see it.’
He added: ‘Without a shadow of doubt I was the official underdog throughout the series so I think everyone was surprised when I made it to the final and then won it, including me.’
The Great British Bake Off is available to watch on Channel 4.
