Bake Off 2021 sees 19-year-old Student Freya join line up: “I’ve dreamt of being in the tent” since age nine

By Jonathon Crump

The Great British Bake Off will return for its 12th series soon, with its contestants now announced.

The previous series saw a significant return to form for the show’s viewership, with an average of 9.2 million viewers watching the final live.

This year’s contestants will include a police detective, software developer, a retired midwife, and a Bristol-based chief engineer.

The 12 contestants have been filmed in a bubble due to the Covid-19 pandemic, like last year.

Last year’s Great British Bake Off winner was Peter Sawkins, who became the youngest ever Bake Off champion at just 20 years old.

At 19 years of age, Freya from North Yorkshire will be looking to steal that title by the end of this year’s competition.

What do we know about Freya?

Freya is a psychology student who currently lives at home with her parents. Apart from baking, her big passion is horses, and one of the reasons she continues to live at home during university is to take good care of her horse, Winnie.

She credits both her passions to time spent with her grandmother growing up.

Becoming a contestant on TGBBO sees her fulfilling a big ambition.

She has said, “I’ve dreamt of being in the tent since I saw it for the first time in Bakewell, although I never imagined I actually would get there. I’ve always been the type of person to have huge dreams so I couldn’t quite believe one had come true."

What does her Bake Off strategy look like?

Around one year ago, Freya began making plant-based versions of classic bakes for her father. It’s now her goal to bake in such a way that no one can tell her entries are vegan.

Indeed, if she were stranded on a desert island and given one item to take with her, she has said, “Realistically I should probably take some seeds or something to plant some kind of vegetable garden to survive from.”

As a baker, she states, “I am a massive perfectionist, so my strengths are definitely intricate details.”

When it comes to weaknesses, she says that hers “is probably the faffiness of pastry and bread.” But that “as a baker I think it’s really important to accept things don’t always go to plan and doing so is definitely not my strong point… but I am learning.”