Lilly Higgins's Bake Off Diary: “And the winner is . . .”

The past few weeks have flown and the Great Irish Bake Off Winner 2015 has finally been decided. Cathy MacKenna is so deserving of the coveted title.

It was an unbelievably hard decision in the end. Myself and Paul had to go through every single bake the finalists did. We reread all the producers notes of what we had said upon tasting the bakes and we looked at photos of each bake so that it was as fair as possible. In the end Cathy and Clare were incredibly close but it came down to consistency. Week after week Cathy just grew in confidence and her flavours and distinctive style of baking became more pronounced. I love her natural style of baking, especially when it comes to decorating and flavours. Her use of warm spices, seasonal fruits and earthy tones were what made her bakes stand out.

The final challenge, a wedding cake, was a lovely way for the bakers to show us everything they had. There was loads of room for creativity and they really could make what they wanted with a few guidelines like height and the loose theme of love. I only ever make wedding cakes for friends and family and it’s a really lovely present to give.

Clare’s cake was beautiful, it was just the right amount of vintage prettiness on the outside with great flavours on the inside. I’m a big fan of peanut butter and hers cake was gorgeous. I love that the cake represented her own marriage. Eimear’s ideas were great and I was heartbroken for her that it didn’t come together in the end. Her rainbow cake was a real celebration of equality, the perfect nod to the Yes vote.

This final episode was an emotional one with friends and family gathered there to support the three bakers. It was such a lovely group and the entire crew that worked on the Bake Off were so dedicated and hard working. Hopefully the show has inspired more people to bake.

Here’s the perfect recipe to try over the holidays: Chocolate Peanut Butter cake from my first book, Make Bake Love.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Oh, cake of cakes, I could sing a Christmas carol about this one. Peanut butter and chocolate is a winning combination. Covering the inside of the tins with chopped nuts adds a lovely texture and flavour but you can just use flour if you like. To go totally overboard you could pile some mini chocolate peanut butter drops or chocolate covered nuts on top. A salty, sweet dream of a cake.

The cake:

• 225g (8oz) butter
• 225g (8oz) sugar
• 4 eggs
• 225g (8oz) self raising flour
• 3 tbsp cocoa
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 100ml milk
• 60g (2oz) dry roasted peanuts, chopped

The Peanut butter Cream:

• 30g (1oz) butter
• 125g (4 1/2 oz) smooth peanut butter
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 250g (9oz) icing sugar
• 50ml milk

Preheat the oven to 180C. Butter two 7” sandwich tins and cover with the chopped nuts.

Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one by one.

Mix in the milk. Sieve the flour, cocoa and baking powder into the egg mixture.

Mix until well combined.

Spoon the mixture into the two prepared sandwich tins taking care not to disturb the nuts.

Bake for 30 mins until a skewer comes out clean. Cool on a rack.

For the Icing: Mix the butters, milk, vanilla and half the icing sugar until well combined.

Add the rest of the icing sugar and mix well until fluffy.

Sandwich the cake together with the icing , top with more icing and the remaining roasted peanuts.