Great British Bake Off champ Candice Brown sparks rumours she’s got engaged and is about to say ‘I dough’
Lipstick-loving PE teacher wore a massive sparkler on her engagement ring finger while promoting the Great British Bake Off’s official recipe book... but are wedding bells calling?
SHE’S the pouting, lipstick-loving Cockney who became culinary royalty after being crowned Bake Off champion.
But Candice Brown could be making it a double celebration this week after sparking rumours she has just got engaged and is about to say “I dough”.
The 31-year-old PE teacher wore a massive sparkler on her engagement ring finger yesterday, while promoting the Great British Bake Off’s official recipe book.
Sharp-eyed fans had noticed the same ring in an Instagram picture earlier in the week.
And another recent Instagram post of her cooing over a friend’s baby has even got some wondering if there could be a bun in the oven sometime soon.
But the Star Baker yesterday laughed off rumours that she was talking wedding bells and children with boyfriend of four years Liam Macaulay, 30.
Candice joked: “Liam might have something to say about that. If that happened he doesn’t know about it.
“That’s my love of vintage jewellery, wanting to wear various things, and obviously wearing things on a certain finger makes people talk.
“It’s funny. It’s lovely that people are interested and want to talk about it. The support is just so lovely.”
Her boyfriend’s colourful past has also set tongues wagging in recent weeks.
A year before they met, Liam was serving a 16-month jail term for dealing cannabis.
Police arrested him after he was caught with six packs of the drug, worth an estimated £6,970, in his car. He and an accomplice were busted while driving from Edinburgh to Inverness in 2009.
Candice, who works in the special needs department of a secondary school in Bedford, had to keep her Bake Off victory secret from her students after filming wrapped in June.
So is she being treated any differently now the nation knows of her triumph?
She said: “Teenagers have no sympathy for tired teachers/secret bakers. Life hasn’t really changed.
“It was straight back to work — although I am now Miss Brown or Lady From Bake Off.”
It’s rumoured that Candice could rake in more than £1million from endorsements in the coming year and she has set her sights on owning a tea shop.
She’s certainly come a long way from her modest East End roots.
Candice credits her beloved “nanny” Margaret with her Bake Off victory.
Margaret ignited her passion for baking when she was just four, and encouraged her to pop on a pinny and help out.
She said: “My nan was the best. Her baking was amazing.
“I spent a lot of time growing up with her and my grandad and she was always baking and cooking. I stood next to her on the brown dining chair that I dragged through to the kitchen watching in complete adoration.”
Candice said she will remember the moment she won for the rest of her life
Her mum Susan told her: “You always used to like to wear Nan’s glasses. Come to that, you wanted to wear her shoes too.”
Super confident Candice’s only real wobble during the competition came when she was reminded of the woman who inspired her to bake.
Producing a raspberry Bakewell tart during pastry week, she told host Mel Giedroyc: “It’s quite nostalgic for me.” Her eyes filled with tears when she reminisced about her gran’s version of the classic tart, saying: “It was a really, really good Bakewell. Mum texted me this morning saying Nan would be really proud.”
For Wednesday’s finale, Candice created a show-stopping 49-piece picnic, featuring sausage rolls and scones, that she dedicated to “Pearly Kings and Queens” as “an ode to where me and my dad are from”.
The Bake Off champ was born in East London but the family later moved to Bedfordshire. In her teens she pulled pints in the King William IV pub, aka the “King Billy”, that her parents ran in Kempston.
Now it’s likely she’ll be pulling in lucrative endorsements.
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“She is like a young Nigella Lawson. She adds a bit of sex appeal to baking. I’m confident she can earn £1million.”
Candice became known for her love of bold lipsticks, even promising to wear a different shade each week. Now she wouldn’t rule out creating her own make-up line.
She said: “Who knows? It does give me a good excuse to go out and buy a new one every so often. A girl can never have too many lipsticks.”
Despite her glamourpuss image, she is very down to earth away from the cameras. She said: “There are two different sides of me. I’d prefer a quiet night in the pub than going uptown in lipstick and heels.
I like getting glammed up but give me a pub with a pint of cider, a packet of pork scratchings and a sticky carpet with the family watching the rugby any day
Candice Brown
“I like getting glammed up but give me a pub with a pint of cider, a packet of pork scratchings and a sticky carpet with the family watching the rugby any day.”
Candice is the final Bake Off winner for the BBC, after Channel 4 signed a deal with the show’s producers. But the switch won’t put her off watching it in future.
She said: “I cannot wait. I’ve always watched it as a fan and I’ll look forward to seeing what happens in the new series.”
“Marmite” contestant Candice was one of the most divisive in Bake Off’s history. Some viewers quickly tired of her pouting and “irritating smugness”, while others hailed her as “stunning” and “amazing”.
Candice herself reckons she suffers from a lack of self-belief, insisting that the victory over fellow finalists Andrew Smyth and Jane Beedle would give her more confidence.
She said of her win: “When they said my name, it meant more to me than anyone will ever realise. I have low self-belief, even though my friends and family constantly build my confidence up.”
Candice, whose elaborate bakes impressed Paul and Mary, particularly a gingerbread replica of her parents’ pub, said she is looking forward to putting her feet up now the show is done.
Her self-esteem also took a battering after she was trolled on social media.
Talking of the negative messages, Candice said: “It’s hurtful. I thought, ‘Oh, I’m making cakes, this is all right’ and then ‘Bam, look at your face’ or ‘Bam, look at this’.
“It’s not in my nature to be mean, I’m not that sort of person at all.
“I thought if I just answer back in a way, ‘OK, I hope you have a lovely day’ and ‘You don’t spell my surname like that, it’s spelt this way’ — and actually I found that helped me.
“Yeah, it’s hurtful, it’s not nice but actually that’s a tiny, tiny amount [of people]. The support is lovely.”
After taking the 2016 Bake Off crown she won’t just have a pout on her face — but a great big smile too.