Talented Westgate cake-maker Nicola Bradshaw will appear on TV screens after taking on a ‘Big Bake’ challenge in Canada.
Nicola, who runs the Little Brown Fairy Cake store in Station Road, is famed for her wacky creations including a 6ft BFG, Dobbie, John Coffey from the Green Mile an array of dark, weird and wonderful characters and even a life-size Santa.
But now the former Thanet College interior design student has taken her talents across the globe to compete in The Big Bake on Canada’s Food Network channel.
The programme is a larger-than-life baking competition series with themed episodes. In each episode, three professional baking teams have five hours to design, bake and decorate a grand-scale cake creation based on a particular theme. The team that creates the most ambitious, eye-popping and delicious cake goes home with a $10,000 prize.
Nicola filmed in Toronto last November with teammates Karen Mitchell from Sugarlicious cakes in Nottingham and Elza Baldzhiyska from Nightwitch cakes who lives in London and is “a cake god,” said Nicola.
Despite the amazing team Nicola says “everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.”
The theme for Nicola’s team and the two they were competing against was Santa in Space and the cake had to be at least 5 ft tall with two or three dynamic features and at least one that moved.
Nicola, 54, became a contestant after the network messaged her Instagram page.
She said: “We were flown to Canada for five days, two of those were travelling. The three of us had five hours to make the 5 ft cake which is pretty much impossible. And they threw in a bonus bake that we also had to complete.
“I spent a lot of time swearing but you do learn from the experience, there are things you would do differently another time.
“I think we will be TV gold as anything that could go wrong, did go wrong!”
The teams are joined by presenter Brad Smith and the results are rated by judges Eddie Jackson, Ron Ben-Israel and Danni Rose.
Nicola said: “You don’t notice what’s going on around you or what the other teams are doing, I’m not even sure how our cake looked in the end! I know it was a mission and when we finished I got a hug from the presenter.”
The Big Bake episode is being aired in Canada tonight (November 27) and on ITVBE at 8pm on December 10.
Nicola has also created an epic masterpiece cake of Charles Dickens in the form of Gonzo with Rizzo the rat which is being raffled for the Community Kindness- Thanet Christmas appeal.
The raffle is being held on December 22 – tickets available in Little Brown Fairy Cake, Station Road, Westgate. The lucky winner taking home the Rizzo fruitcake creation.
Community Kindness-Thanet is appealing for help to fulfil its annual mission to provide gifts to hundreds of isle children and adults who might otherwise completely miss out on any Christmas joy.