Rahul has sweet recipe for Bake Off glory... and earns 15 extra minutes of fame

WHILE many viewers complained that he was lucky to reach the final, others loved his nervous manner. And last night Rahul Mandal won the Great British Bake Off after creating an edible rock garden made from nearly 200 elements.

But his detractors may be annoyed that judges gave Kolkata-born Rahul, 30, an extra 15 minutes to complete his showstopper after a storage jar shattered on his worktop, meaning he had to start the challenge again.

The research scientist, who began baking to make friends after moving to the UK – and until two years ago had never made a cake – needed a kiss on the forehead from presenter Sandi Toksvig to calm him down.

His closest rival was super-shy Kim-Joy Hewlett. The third finalist, Ruby Bhogal, revealed she had to bolster her self-belief by scribbling inspirational quotes on Post-It notes and plastering them over her fridge.

With so much attention focused on the finalists, judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith were almost by-standers.

Toksvig and her co-presenter Noel Fielding had more to do, mostly comforting the contestants and talking them out of their panics.

During the technical challenge, when the finalists were sent outside to bake pitta breads on open fires, Rahul, pictured, flung his arm up in the air like a schoolboy desperate to be excused games. ‘I need help, am I doing it right?’ he pleaded.

And after presenter Sandi gently explained that she wasn’t able to give advice on the show, he muttered sadly, ‘I’d better just not come tomorrow. Just utter disgrace.’

‘I am very, very, very nervous,’ he admitted at the start of the final signature bake, featuring decorated doughnuts.

Not that he’d ever been brave enough to actually try tasting one. ‘It looks like deep-fried bread,’ he fretted. ‘I’m not going to eat it.’

As tension mounted in the tent, Rahul recited his catchphrase ever more quickly: ‘I literally don’t know what I am doing.’

Eventually, his anxiety reached such a pitch that it became paranormal, and caused one of the glass storage jars on his workbench to detonate. The production crew blamed the 32C heat in the marquee.

‘This is a sign from God that I need to stop baking,’ he wailed as he swept up the fragments.

Kim-Joy tried to match his levels of eccentricity, by building a ruined temple in Atlantis out of gingerbread, and Ruby popped a unicorn on her profiteroles, but there was only ever going to be one winner.

‘Oh no-no-no,’ he mumbled. But oh yes, he is this year’s Star Baker.