You’re really outside, in the middle of a field where there are rabbits and everything, and the tent is full of hornets. Most of it gets cut out, but they’re always swarming around you and the baked goods, and Paul Hollywood is walking around with a bug zapper. It’s a lot. The wind was particularly difficult during bread week. I remember just trying to keep my dough from drying out while I was actively working on it. I needed a sprayer to keep it from just tearing. These are just things you don’t usually have to deal with at home.

Do the judges take the elements into account?

I wish they would. No, it’s more like, “Oh, too bad for you.” I was on one of the windier sides of the tent and it was just like, well, that’s your luck because sometimes you’re on the sunny side and then that’s your luck. So they understand because by and large everyone suffers on a hot day but that doesn’t stop them from criticizing you.

You had to miss a week because of illness!

I was devastated. At the end of bread week I felt sick and I remember sitting at my workbench after the judging and telling myself I didn’t feel well. While I was there I kept a journal and wrote how excited I was because I had made it to pastry week, which was my ultimate goal. That was my dream week. And the next day I wrote, “I can’t believe it, I feel sick.” I ended up missing the week I was most looking forward to. (She continued competing for three weeks after that.)

When I got home I ended up in hospital for a week and by that point I had meningitis because my body just couldn’t get rid of what I had there. I think back to the time in the tent before and after I was sick and I think you can kind of hear it in my voice the last two weeks. All in all I’m happy with what I’ve done.