A STAR baker and great weather made a recipe for success last weekend.
The Great British Bake Off 2015 winner Nadiya Hussain was the headline Guest at the Flavours Food Festival, held over Saturday and Sunday at Elsecar Heritage Centre.
Nadiya, from Leeds, has seen her career skyrocket since winning the television baking competition.
She has had stints as a presenter on The One Show and a string of cook books to her name.
But during a demonstration on Sunday, the bubbly 32-year-old revealed the baking actually helped her tackle crippling panic attacks.
“My life has definitely changed since Bake Off. If I think back two years ago, I actually was entered by my husband because I had a panic disorder and he thought I needed to do it.
“He got me onto the biggest baking show in the country and I winged the whole thing. Some days I do still want to hide. But others I get up and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else apart from here and doing what I’m doing.”
Over two hour-long sessions, Nadiya demonstrated how to create prawn and orange curry, cheese and crystalised ginger straws and Welsh cakes with her own twist - fennel and blueberries.
And she put plenty of humour and stories about her family into the show.
“I am always grateful to be here and see people actually turn up. Usually it is just my dad and brother coming to heckle me.
“Before Bake Off I only ever had an audience of three, and they were all under eight.”
And as for using pre-rolled pastry?
“I’m not on a baking show anymore. You can go tell Paul Hollywood, I don’t care!”
Elsewhere at the festival, the sunny weather brought out the crowds to soak up the live music and enjoy the foods on offer.
The heritage centre was full of exotic fragrances as food from around the globe was offered to visitors.
Craft stalls also saw strong custom and Barnsley Council was there collecting opinions and consulting the public on the Market Kitchen, set to open next year as part of the town centre Glass Works development.
The council’s Paul Clifford said visitors had come from as far as Wakefield, Rotherham and Sheffield to sample the cuisine on offer.
The heritage railway was running too.
And perhaps the most fitting stall was the Choo Choo BBQ: barbecue food cooked in a grill shaped like a steam engine.
