This season of The Great British Bake Off has come to a close, with Syabira Yusoff crowned the winner.

The 32-year-old from London beat Sandro Farmhouse and Abdul Rehman Sharif in the final episode of the series, having impressed judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith with her unconventional flavours and unique baking style.

While there was a lot riding on the last challenges for the three finalists, previous 2021 winner Giuseppe Dell’Anno and Rahul Mandal, who took the crown in 2018, both agree the finale feels like any other week.

“It wasn’t very different from how I felt throughout the whole show, to be honest,” Dell’Anno admits.

Mandal adds: “It’s exactly the same. But because there are only three people there, everything finishes really early.”

Here’s what it’s really like behind the scenes at GBBO…

It’s actually less stressful than you might think

Dell’Anno, 46, actually found competing less stressful than the build-up. “Very often I get people telling me, ‘Oh you were so chilled, you came across so relaxed’. It’s because the time before the show was nerve-wracking,” he says.

“For me, getting ready for it was horrendous. It was very stressful, there was a lot of work to do, I had to learn a lot of new baking skills I had never tested before, so that was very difficult.”

Dell’Anno – an engineer by trade – compares it to a university exam. “You’ve got to study up, you’ve got to do the assessments, all of that preparation stage was very stressful. But when I was on the show – again, the parallel with the university exam still holds. I’ve always been very chilled during university exams, and I was chilled in the tent, because you think, I’ve done what I could do. I gave it my best shot to get ready for this, so I might as well relax and enjoy it.”

This was his mindset “throughout the show, including the final”.

Contestants don’t do their own washing up

This isn’t just the case in the finale, but throughout the whole series. Mandal, 34, says: “Thank gosh for that. If I had to clean up my own bench after I finished in Bake Off, I probably wouldn’t even apply for it!

“For me in particular I had the messiest bench possible. When you leave and come back you have your bake on one side of the table and everything is spotlessly clean. That’s just the magic – we have lots of home economics fairies.”

There are no do-overs

The stakes might be high in the finale and one mistake could cost you the crown, but bakers shouldn’t expect any second chances.

Mandal, author of Showstopping Cakes (Kyle Books, £26), says: “In Bake Off they film everything in one take. If you’ve done something and it turns out great – great! If it doesn’t turn out great, you just have to accept it.”

No one expects to win

This was certainly the case for Dell’Anno, who has just released his first cookbook, Giuseppe’s Italian Bakes (Quadrille, £20).

“I never expected my name to come up, because I didn’t think I was doing enough to win – I wasn’t going crazy on it, I wasn’t losing sleep on it or coming up with innovative ideas.

“I was just doing what felt natural to me. That look of shock on my face when my name came out – that’s exactly what it felt like, I was completely numb.”