What Edd Kimber will be cooking up at first Bakewell Baking Festival

Fabulous baker boy Edd Kimber is returning to a Peak District town in triumph, determined to lay the ghost of his first visit.

The Great British Bake-Off champion of 2010 will be rustling up mouth-watering delicacies during this weekend’s brand new Bakewell Baking Festival.

Edd said: “It’s the world’s first outdoor baking festival and should be really good. Bakewell is a nice place to visit and the town is perfect for the vintage theme of the festival. As a big part of the town is being taken up with the festival, it should give Bakewell a real buzz and a nice atmosphere.”

He tantalises the tastebuds by reeling off the culinary masterpieces lined up for his demonstrations on Sunday, June 9. “I’ll be making strawberry shortcake - a four-layer vanilla cake filled with strawberries and cream, very British, very sweet, nice and impressive,” he said. Salted caramel brownies and soft caramel truffles are also on his radar.

For health-conscious, gluten-intolerant foodies, Edd will be advocating the use of spelt, a grain which is easily digestible. Helped by former politician Edwina Currie, Edd will conjure up spelt scones, heavier than traditional scones but just as tasty. and spelt chocolate sable biscuits which have a crumbly texture.

One of his three demonstrations will include a question and answer session and spectators can find more of Edd’s recipes in his two books, The Boy Who Bakes and Say It With Cakes, which he will be signing at Bakewell Bookshop.

“My job is to develop new recipes,” he said. “I don’t put them into books unless I have tested them.”

He’s keen to collect recipes which have been handed down through the generations. “I love it when people come up to me and say ‘this is my great-grandma’s recipe,” he said. “I have put a lot of my family’s recipes in my books.”

Edd, 28, has the greatest respect for his family, especially his parents who encouraged him to follow his dream of doing something that makes him happy. “I always see myelf as lucky to make a career out of doing what I absolutely love,” he said.

However, his nearest and dearest unwittingly played a part in what he called “a bad episode” during his first visit to Bakewell three years ago when he was halfway through competing in the countrywide tour of Great British Bake-Off.

“It was a very odd day,” he said. “The show was very intense and I was working full-time as debt collector for a bank in Yorkshire, which was a stressful job.

“Bakewell was the first time that family could come and visit us when we were filming. I was anxiously waiting for my relatives to arrive from Yorkshire and Lancashire but then actually seeing them made me more nervous and I didn’t do very well on that show.”

The rest, as they say, is history!