Baker Treasa Walsh at Stephens Green Dublin when TV3 launched its second series of the hugely successful The Great Irish Bake Off. The highly anticipated new series will be returning to Irish screens on Wednesday 21st May at 9pm on TV3, with 12 new passionate home bakers looking to test their skills to the limit as they battle it out to be crowned The Great Irish Bake Off's Best Amateur Baker 2014.
Pix Brian McEvoy
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Treasa Walsh
AGE: 58
OCCUPATION: Palliative Care Nurse - in Blackrock Hospice
LOCATION: Irishtown, Dublin
NATIONALITY: Irish
RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Widow. Living with her fiancé.
SIGNATURE BAKE: Blue cheese and pecan loaf – it’s a staple at dinner parties
Treasa comes from a big family and is one of six children. Treasa’s mum, who died at the age of 59 from an asthma attack, never worked and was a stay-at-home mum. She was a great home maker and baked all the time. Every day when they came home from school at lunch, her mum would have fig rolls and custard for them to eat. Treasa is using this as her inspiration for the biscuit challenge and is doing it in her memory. Treasa says her mum was ahead of her time with baking and was making quiches when no-one else knew what they were! Treasa’s dad, who died two years after her mum passed away, was a tailor, working in Cassidy’s most of his life.
Treasa has been baking for over 50 years. Treasa has done a few wedding cakes for friends and says she is happiest when she’s baking. She can’t think of anything else she enjoys more. Treasa bakes for the pure enjoyment of it. She says she is not technical at all and flavour means more to her than anything. Her worst habit in the kitchen is that she never turns the oven off! Her inspiration in the baking world is Mary Berry and she also absolutely loves Nigella Lawson. Treasa says things go wrong in baking all the time, but she has the knowledge to rectify most things. She is most looking forward to bread week – “Not because I’m great, but because I love doing it so much.”
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