At the age of 10, Teddy Zaki faked being sick to stay home from school and bake. More than 30 years later the truancy has paid off: he's opened his dream bakery in Johannesburg.Zaki, a runner-up in last year's BBC Lifestyle series The Great South African Bake Off, presides over Just Teddy at the Market Shed at 1Fox Precinct in Fordsburg. He specialises in French patisserie.The reality show was the push he needed to make his dream come true.Zaki said he was mesmerised by The Great British Bake Off and had watched the show religiously."Baking is in my blood. I preferred staying home and baking with my older sister to going to school.story_article_left1"After finishing school I joined the family's property rental business but continued cooking and baking. Eventually the family couldn't cope with the amount of cakes I was baking."Zaki said he thought he was making the biggest mess on the show and was amazed by the number of people rooting for him."After the show people asked me where they could buy my cakes. I was overwhelmed by the responses I received from people on the street," said Zaki.Last year's winner, Dot Dicks, said she had not entered the show to change her life and had never wanted to open her own bakery. "The whole experience taught me so many things. I am still an amateur baker. Maybe one day I would like to open a guesthouse and use my knowledge there," said Dicks, an admin manager.Next month 12 contestants will don their aprons for the second season of the local Bake Off.Dicks encouraged them to have as much fun as possible."They must read the recipe and read it again," said Dicks, who still bakes birthday and wedding cakes.Fellow runner-up Michaela Tsuen, a sales consultant at a jewellery store in Johannesburg, said her dream was to open a small restaurant specialising in good food and great baked goods. "The Bake Off opened my eyes to an industry I didn't think of going into," she said...