Go with Flo to see her bake at show...

CAKE Queen Flo Atkins, who starred in TV’s Great British Bake Off, is to demonstrate her cooking talents at the 2018 Southport Flower Show, partnered by Everest.

Liverpudlian Flo found fame as one of the contestants in the first series of GBBO to be screened by Channel 4, charming TV audiences with h her traditional f family recipes.

Her gini infused raspberry biscuits in the second e episode were credited with sparking a tenfold increase in sales of gin & tonic baking flavourings at one major supermarket.

She also told ju judge Paul Holly lywood that she d didn’t need a timer for her recipes because she had been ‘making bread for 40 years’.

Flo took up baking for her son’s restaurant as a ‘coping mechanism’ following the loss of her husband of 48 years, Richard, who died from leukaemia.

It was her daughter who applied for her place to appear on Bake Off after spotting an advert.

At the age of 71, Flo became the oldest contestant in the history of the show.

Flo said of her appearance on GBBO: ”Since my husband Richard died after a very happy 48 years of marriage, my daughter Nicola was trying to get me to join all sorts of reading and craft clubs, and I just didn’t want to do it.

“So my family came up with the idea of me going on Bake Off and Nicola applied.”

Flo, from Huyton, Merseyside, will be giving two cookery demonstrations at the 2018 Southport Flower Show on Thursday, August 16 and Saturday, August 18 in the Food Village.

Flo’s son Stephen, a former head chef who trained at Southport College, now runs This is Livin restaurant and bar in Crosby.

Flo continued:”I’ve spent many happy times in Southport over the years and have heard great things about the flower show.

“It’s fantastic how it has grown and food is now such a big part of the event.

“I can’t wait to meet the visitors and get baking!”

Chef and cookery school entrepreneur Brian Mellor runs the demonstration kitchen at the show. Brian owns and teaches at Harthill Cookery School, Cheshire, which was named Britain’s Best Small Cookery School in 2014.

The show attracts more than 50,000 visitors over four days each year and has a host of celebrities in attendance, from chefs to gardening experts and TV stars.

For tickets and more information on the show, which runs from August 16-19, visit www. southportflowershow.co.uk