Baking celebrity Chetna Makan's first book has hit the shelves.

The Broadstairs baker launched The Cardamom Trail yesterday in London, surrounded by friends, family and fellow Great British Bake Off competitors.

The book is full of European and Indian recipes which she says are inspired from her childhood.

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Ms Makan said: “There are lots of unusual recipes in there.

“It is a baking book but it doesn’t only focus on cakes there are lots of twists and turns and people who don’t have a sweet tooth can definitely benefit from the savoury recipes too.

“A lot of hard work went in to the book and it took more than six months to write.

“The effort went into designing every recipe to have a connection with my childhood.

“They might have been inspired by something my mum used to make or maybe my neighbour.”

The book will delve into the history of Indian herbs and spices and teach readers how to match foods and flavours.

It was launched at The London Library private members club.

The mum-of-two added: “The book launch was fantastic, it went so well.

“I had great support from friends and all the bake off team came to celebrate.

“My publishers were there along with lots of foodies.

“I am so excited to finally have the book out, I have been waiting for this day for so long.”

Morelli’s Gelato have also teamed up with Ms Makan to produce an exclusive limited edition gelato; peanut and sesame brittle and caramel, which went on sale yesterday.

She said: "It's inspired by one of the sweets we have in India.

"The whole combination of sesame, peanut and caramel is amazing in an ice-cream."