Leanna Byrne | Editor
Twenty-two year old Senior Sophister History and Political Science student Poppy O’Sullivan is competing on the second season of the TV series the Great Irish Bake-Off on TV3.
Hailing from both Dublin and Clare, O’Sullivan has just finished her final year exams and hopes to start the law diploma course this autumn in the Kings Inns. Her interest in baking started at an early age when she helped out with her parents and her grandparents making fairy cakes and cut-out biscuits. She developed her passion further at age nine when she decided to make Nigella Lawson’s mini pavlovas and experiment recipes. Eventually, O’Sullivan set up her own little baking stall in the local market when she was 15.
“I kept experimenting with recipes and just became more and more practiced and interested,” said O’Sullivan. “I would say it became a real passion for me during my teenage years. I used to make birthday cakes for friends and bring them into school. I also baked a lot around exam time as a stress release.”
Although she will be pursuing a career in law, O’Sullivan also expressed an interest in working in the food industry in the future by opening up a café or a restaurant.
According to O’Sullivan, “there was absolutely no way that I wasn’t going to apply for this year’s Great Irish Bake-off”. She has been been avidly watching the British version, the “Great British Bake-off”, and had she known there was an Irish show last year she would have put her application in immediately.
Speaking about participating in the show, O’Sullivan said it was “one of the most enjoyable and exciting experiences I have ever had”.
“The best part was getting to meet a group of people who were all as baking obsessed as each other. We all just talked cake 24/7 and I’d say I learned more during the process than in the last 3 years of my baking practice. I know some people found it a bit off-putting baking under such pressure and with time limits but I actually found I enjoyed that aspect of it.”
The Great Irish Bake Off is on tomorrow at 9pm on TV3.
