WHEN it comes to baking a Kildare student has proven that he has all the ingredients needed.

23-year-old James Gavin will feature as a contestant on TV3’s Great Irish Bake Off which kicks off this Sunday, 25 October, at 9pm.

James, who has just finished studying medicinal chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences at DIT, will battle it out with other bakers on the reality show.

Photo: Brian McEvoy

James says he comes from a foodie family and his love of baking developed as he made creations from pastry left over from his mother’s rhubarb and apple tarts.

Since then it has been a case of trial and error as he is a big fan of experimenting and trying something new.

He is the youngest living at home with his parents Pat and Chris and his brother and sister David and Sara. It was David and Sara who encouraged him to take part in the show and on the last day for applications he flooded them with photos of his creations on instagram. He was delighted when he was chosen to take part.

He feels most experienced with bread, the most difficult attempted being brioche. He also feels confident with desserts, cakes and biscuits and has tried chocolate soufflé, black forest gateau and macaroons. He feels least confident with pies, only doing these a couple of times a year and the most difficult attempted being chicken and mushroom pie in shortcrust pastry.

For his first audition he baked a fruit charlotte, which collapsed due to a transportation incident.

When asked what dessert he would make for a dinner party he just can’t decide.

“I would just have to go for a trio of something,” he said.

Although he can’t decide on a signature bake James is known for his cupcakes with seasonal flavours. Some example flavours are Earl Grey cupcakes with a strawberry jam core, Earl Grey butter cream, a roasted rolled oat and buttered brown bread Toast crumb or cored vanilla cupcake filled with lemon curd, topped with toasted handmade marshmallow fluff.

Food has always been a part of life for James. He has fond memories of, after a hard day working on his uncle’s farm, going back to his Granny’s for brown soda bread fresh out of the oven.

He works front of house in ‘Antoinette’s Bakery’ and is starting to get more involved in the baking.

“I had just started when I told them I needed a lot of time off for the show,” he said. “Hopefully I will get to do some training there now.”

His advice for baking is simple, do as much preparation, weighing and measuring as possible, and have the oven preheated.

“It sounds like a simple thing but as soon as you start looking at the recipe turn on the often. It is a lot easier to cool things down than it is to heat them up.”

Although he has to keep under wraps how he did on the show he says is was a great experience and hopes in the future to start his own blog and publish a recipe book.