The Great British Bake Off winner on the stress of the show, growing up in a family of seven children, and why egg and cress sandwiches made her cry
Before The Great British Bake Off, I never thought to bake a cake in four hours or do something that elaborate. It’s so surprising how the stress and desperation pushes you. I’d call it a human instinct to survive: no matter what I do, I have to serve something at the end.
I grew up in Malacca City, in the south part of Malaysia and I’m the second of seven children and the first daughter. The thing about being the first daughter is you have to do everything. It starts in the morning: I had to do the laundry, get ready for school, cycle to school, do my homework, cook for dinner, tidy up everything and repeat every day. So I’m used to a very tight schedule, being busy. When I don’t have anything to do, I’m always rearranging stuff in my house.
