Scrap the January diet and instead stay home with a traybake – that’s certainly what you’ll feel like doing if you pick up a copy of Edd Kimber’s latest baking book, One Tin Bakes.

It sees the former Great British Bake Off winner turn his attention to the many delicious things you can make in a simple, standard brownie pan.

To mark its release, we grilled Bradford-born Kimber, 35, on the bakes he relies on, the snacks that get him through, and the foods he just can’t handle…

Your death row meal would be… I would say probably something Japanese, maybe ramen from when we travelled to Japan two years ago. There was a ramen in Osaka that I think about all the time, that’s quite sad, but it was amazing! It is something we talk about a lot. For dessert, I would go to Italy and just have really, really good gelato. There’s few things better than really good homemade gelato.

The thing you still can’t make is… This is going to sound so pretentious, but the thing I haven’t mastered is croissants. The one thing I think is useful is that I don’t think we should ever be afraid of failing in the kitchen, because it’s a very hard thing to teach yourself from being successful. If you make something perfect every time, you never really learn why it’s working. So actually, failing is a really valuable way of learning. I’m definitely not an amazing cook, I’m much better at baking.

Your favourite store-cupboard essential has to be… Chocolate. Chocolate is one of the ingredients I will never ever bore of using; it’s an endless flavour profile. Chocolate isn’t just that one thing.

The kitchen utensil you couldn’t live without is… One would be my stand mixer, just because as a person who is a professional baker, it is lifesaving time-wise. And then the other one is really boring, it’s an offset spatula. It’s a tiny little spatula on an angle and I use them maybe 20 times a day. It’s a £2 piece of kit but they’re just incredibly useful.

Your late-night snack of choice has to be… Anything salty-savoury, so like a pretzel or peanuts. I think that’s just because I work with sugar all the time.

Your signature dish is… I make a lot of pasta. Mainly because I spend days and days in the kitchen, I like things I can whip up without thinking too much about. And so, very often, I’m looking in the cupboard and seeing what’s there and just throwing something together. I like that style of cooking.

The bake you make more than any other is… Chocolate chip cookies. People love them and you can gift them. I often will give friends a bag of frozen cookie dough, so they can have it in the freezer and they can just bake them whenever they want. And also, they really hit lots of craving points. If you make good one, they’re just the best thing in the world.

You like your eggs… Any way, I love eggs. But I would say scrambled is probably how we have them most, but I think my favourite way would be a hot olive oil-fried egg, very crispy on the bottom because it cooks so quickly, and the yolk is still super runny.

Your favourite childhood dinner was… I was a bit of a picky eater, to be honest. I banned our family from eating beef because of mad cow disease – I was so worried about it. And then I decided I hated beansprouts, so we never had stir fries any more.

I would probably say, my dad used to make this meal when we were kids, he still makes it now actually, and it’s a Thai green curry and it’s an old Delia recipe. It’s not really a proper Thai curry, it’s more a fragrant coconut milk, brothy thing. It’s something my dad makes for us when we go home. It’s a very special thing and it’s delicious.

Last night you ate… It was a leftover pasta, I was working on sausage rolls, so I had some leftover sausage meat we cooked the off in little pieces with fennel, plum tomatoes, lots of chilli, cream; incredibly simple but very satisfying.

If you’re ordering takeout, it has to be… There’s a ramen place near us that we go to all the time.

Your ultimate hangover cure is… A bacon sandwich – and Diet Coke.

You really cannot stomach… I don’t like blue cheese, at all. I’ve tried many times, I just don’t like it. I hate, hate, hate goat’s cheese.

One Tin Bakes by Edd Kimber is published by Kyle Books, priced £17.99. Photography by Edd Kimber. Available now.