Dot Dicks on Banting & winning 'The Great South African Bake Off'

"I'll always remember hugging my husband and daughter and all of us crying," says Dot Dicks about the moment she won the first 'Great South African Bake Off'.

An administration manager who lives in Midrand, Gauteng, Dicks, who is 55 and moved to South Africa from Scotland at 14, only started baking cakes a year ago. But the extravagant wedding cake she made in the Showstopper Challenge for the finale of the BBC Lifestyle show put her streaks ahead of the competition - dancer Michaela Tsuen and property manager Teddy Zaki.

Dicks thinks it was her presentation that made her stand out among the 12 original contestants: "You eat with your eyes first."

The two-tiered vanilla and spiced carrot cake, with rough icing, reflected its creator - old-fashioned, with a fun twist.

It wasn't all plain sailing. During the challenge, the Isomalt basket that Dicks had so carefully sculpted for the top of the cake broke into pieces when she tried to pry it from the bowl. "I didn't have time to make another one, so I decided to use it as it was and construct it around the flowers, with a butterfly bursting out of it." She christened the cake "Down the Garden Path."

"I improvised, which I think is something I'm good at. But trying to get everything finished in four hours was not easy!"

She came last in the Technical Challenge. "I had never made a koeksister in my life - and I won't again!" she laughs.

Fortunately she had already wowed the judges in the Signature Bake, with her duck, salmon, and sesame and langoustine canapés.

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My husband and I have always been foodies ... I've always cooked and loved experimenting with food. We have been members of a supper club for the last seven years. But I only started baking cakes when my sister-in-law asked me to make a birthday cake for my nephew's birthday a year ago.

After that I started working with fondants and making little figurines for Christmas cakes. I didn't know what to do with all these gnomes and snowmen, so I thought I might as well bake some cakes to put them on, and that's how it grew. Since then I've been making celebration cakes for friends and family. Seeing the look on a child's face when I deliver my cakes is the best feeling. I also make a lot of sweet things for my 18-year-old daughter, Jo, and her school friends.

I wish I'd discovered how to bake earlier in life ... Maybe then I could have made a business out of it. I'm a bit too long in the tooth to become a baker now but my husband Andrew and I would love to open a guesthouse where I can serve lovely afternoon teas.

Bakers tend to be control freaks ... My husband is more flamboyant in the kitchen than I am. I'm a recipe girl. I like to be precise. I like to know that what I'm baking stands a good chance of turning out. If it's supposed to be this size, then it must be that size. Sometimes in the Bake Off, my hands were so shaky from nerves that I didn't cut things so they were quite uniform. That sort of thing irritated me. I would never, ever send a half-done cake to somebody. If I'm not happy with it, I'd rather bake it again. I don't want people to say my baking is all right. They've got to say, Well done Dot, we love that!

I love baking bread and do a mean focaccia ... Once when we were in the bush I left bread on the counter to prove while we went on a game drive. Well, it overflowed the bowl and ended up looking like something from The Day of the Triffids. I've often dropped cakes while taking them out the oven. My advice if something goes wrong? Don't let it get you down. It's only a bake. It's not brain surgery.

What went through my mind when I found out I was in the finals was ... Aaaah, I don't want to do this anymore! It's too stressful. I didn't think my bakes were going to be good enough. But then I decided to put on my big-girl panties and go bake to the best of my ability.

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Being on the show was probably the most pressurised thing I've ever done ... I lost four kilos (so I suppose it did have its upsides!) When I did manage to sleep, I dreamt about baking. The cameras, lights, and the whole process was daunting. You know you're going to be on television so you don't want to make an idiot of yourself. Funnily enough though, once a challenge started, I just put my head down and baked. I found the most stressful time was waiting for the next day when you're thinking of everything that can go wrong. But after a while you get used to it.

As contestants we formed real friendships ... We helped each other. It got emotional. You're in such a confined situation. Every time somebody was voted out, I cried.

I don't do Banting ... I think it's good that people are realising that there are different ways you can make things, and these days there are wonderful substitutes. You can still have sweet things that aren't necessarily bad for you. And I've baked with coconut flour and almond flour before. But I'm a traditional girl. I like real flour and real sugar in my cake.

What makes baking special is ... when you're cooking a meal, that's it over and done with. With baking you can have biscuits and cakes in your house throughout the day for people to enjoy. They also make wonderful gifts. It's very hard to wrap up a steak and give it to someone as a present. But a little box of home-made cakes means the world.