This time, she takes the cake

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This article was published 29/09/2023 (1121 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For Heather Allen, the difference between baking at home and baking under the tent is best described with a sporting analogy.

“This is street hockey versus the NHL,” says the Winnipeg competitor on the upcoming season of The Great Canadian Baking Show. “(Nothing) prepares you for baking under those circumstances.”

And Allen, 40, spent a lot of time preparing.

The local literacy educator auditioned five times prior to being cast on the CBC reality cooking show, which unfolds under a giant white party tent and is inspired by The Great British Bake Off.

“It became this annual spring thing, where I would audition and I would have a wonderful time. I wouldn’t get in, but I didn’t care, because the whole process was really positive,” she says.

Allen was hooked after her first audition, to which she brought a blueberry and lime choux pastry concoction meant to represent Winnipeg’s yearly pothole season.

Even though the dessert didn’t result in a callback, glowing praise from the pastry judge felt like a win.

“She looked at me and said, ‘You can be really proud of this,’ and I just cried. To have that confirmation that I could do something well after having given up on my original dream was an incredible experience,” Allen says.

Allen grew up in a North Kildonan household where fresh baking was a staple. While her childhood was full of homemade eclairs and meringues, she didn’t come back to the craft until later in life.

Being forced to cut her doctoral studies short due to a family emergency left her craving familiar comfort.

“To get to that point and to stop so close to the finish line was really devastating, so I got really depressed, and as part of that depression I would sit there and watch The Great British Bake Off,” she says.

When the Canadian version aired, her husband encouraged her to apply. Preparing for the annual auditions became a family affair. Allen’s kids, 8 and 11, have picked up her love of baking and are quick to offer their own reviews of her experiments.

“They think I can do anything, but they’re also super-critical,” she says with a laugh. “They’ll test the bounce-back of my cake with the back of my fork and they’ll discern my crumb.”

When she finally got the call to join nine other home bakers under the hallowed tent, Allen’s family wasn’t the least bit surprised. She, on the other hand, was downright astonished.

“Honestly, I think I was just in shock the entire time,” she says of filming. “Even just walking into the tent that first time, I was still in a dissociated state, like, ‘Oh my God, I’m inside the TV, how did this happen?’”

To keep focused, she went into the competition with a singular goal: to highlight Manitoba ingredients.

Allen is a first-generation Canadian (her mother is from England and her father hails from Germany) who has cultivated a sense of home through foraging. Contestants were allowed to bring select ingredients from home and Allen packed her bags with preserves made from locally harvested grapes, sour cherries, saskatoon berries, hawthorns and hazelnuts.

“No shade to (previous) bakers from Manitoba, but no one was getting up and representing the heck out of Manitoba. We have so much here to be proud of and I was really happy to get the chance to do that,” she says.

The highlight of Allen’s experience was connecting with other equally obsessive bakers from across the country.

“We just had this atmosphere of unconditional love and support. We’re all still best friends; we all talk every single day.”

The seventh season of The Great Canadian Baking Show premières on CBC Television Sunday at 8 p.m. New episodes are also available to stream Sundays on CBC Gem beginning at 9 a.m.

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @evawasney