It was hiding right there in front of them. Friends and family were so used to seeing Brooke Walker with cake stands, they hadn’t realised the latest addition to her collection was the prize for winning this year’s Great Kiwi Bake Off.
Her glass cake stand trophy has been on a high shelf in the kitchen since she won it months ago. It was only when she served cake while everyone watched the final last week that they realised what it was.
“It was a fun secret,” the Auckland marketing co-ordinator says. “The majority of our family and friends have seen it, but it looks like a regular cake stand.”
With her fellow contestants. “The house was so fun. It was like a school camp,” says Brooke.
Brooke was thrilled she pushed herself enough to go from being an average competitor to star baker.
“My strategy was to be in the middle of the road – you’re not at the bottom, just stay another week. Once I started getting good feedback, I started to do more and it got to the point where sometimes I’d go a little bit rogue with flavours,” she says laughing.
It was the praise of judge Jordan “The Caker” Rondel that empowered her.
“I like Jordan’s influence on the way she sees flavours, so I took more risks,” tells Brooke, who works for food company Leader Brands, a supermarket range of packaged salads.
“I was really proud of how far I pushed myself,” she enthuses. “I have my tried-and-true recipes, but I put in so much more with the show and discovered new things. And it meant I just fell back in love with baking again.”
Not just baking but cooking generally, she tells.
If friends come to her Auckland home she shares with her soon-to-be husband Nick Swain, Brooke is likely to be testing out a new recipe or flavour combination – or she’s so in love with a concoction, she is making it again and again until she conjures up a new dish.
“Half the fun is learning – what’s the worst that can happen?” muses the 28-year-old.
She’s grateful Nick encouraged her to enter the competition as it was something she had always wanted to do, but didn’t have the courage.
And while it has ignited her love for baking again, she is unsure if taking out this year’s title will lead to a career in baking. But she is now tempted to take part in MasterChef NZ.
“I thought maybe baking every day, I’d come home sick of it, but I walked out knowing that I love it. I definitely want to do it the rest of my life, but how that fits I’m still quite unsure.”
She also makes and donates treats every week to her local hospice as part of the Good Bitches Bake network of volunteers. That can be a simple ginger crunch on busy weeks, or adapting a recipe to make something quite spectacular.
Brooke is not a lazy cook. She makes bread from scratch and abhors store-bought boxed baking sets. She recently turned a red velvet cake into a chai cake with chocolate ganache for her hospice drop off. But unlike other baking fanatics, she’s not lusting after the latest kitchen gadget.
She and Nick are getting married later this year, but there are no kitchen-themed items on a wedding registry. There is only one thing she’s pining for – a scullery-come- butler’s-pantry.
“I honestly don’t have that many gadgets,” she confides. “I have a food processor and a mixer. I make our kitchen work, but I would die for a bigger kitchen.”
Despite taking out the winner’s accolade, the eldest of three siblings is not really a cake fan herself. So much so, she wasn’t even going to have a cake at her wedding until the judges – Jordan and internationally-renowned chef Peter Gordon – challenged that decision.
“Cake is not my favourite,” she tells. “I’m a sucker for a good, super-basic cookie when it’s damn good. But they made me realise it would probably be wrong to not have one after winning!”
Now she’s nailed baking, Brooke wants to try her luck on MasterChef NZ.
Instead, she is going to have a cake made by Jordan, who Brooke reveals she has a bit of a celebrity crush on.
“I’m obsessed with the judges,” she shares. “They’re like the most amazing people. I think that was definitely a highlight. Peter is so funny!”
She also quickly bonded with her fellow contestants. Brooke made such good friends with the other bakers, that many will be attending her wedding.
“The house was so fun,” she tells. “It was like a school camp, but for baking. There was a real friendship vibe.”
