She impressed judging duo Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry with her spice-infused recipes, but Great British Bake Off 2014 semi-finalist Chetna Makan maintains she faces her best critics at home.

“They love it when I make new things,” she says of her two young children, Sia and Yuv. “But they’ll say if they don’t like anything. They’re very honest.”

The youngsters like to help out too – “They chop stuff and make little cakes,” – says Chetna. The family, who live in Broadstairs (her husband Gaurav is a GP), are well accustomed to Chetna’s unique recipes, which introduce colourful spices, aromatic herbs and other Indian ingredients into traditional western bakes.

For Brits with a taste for real Indian cuisine, and aspiring home cooks who’ve followed her journey, however, she’s hoping her debut book – the Cardamom Trail – will act as a springboard for culinary creativity.

“If people don’t generally cook with spices, how would they know how to use them in baking?” says Chetna. “Baking requires measurements, so you can’t just put things together and that stops people trying. I’m hoping the book will leave people feeling confident enough to mix things up.”

Indian ingredients star – chillies and chickpeas, turmeric and tamarind, poppy seeds and paneer – but Chetna was conscious they should all be easy to source in supermarkets and Asian grocery stores. She says: “I am not very active at ordering stuff online, so I kept it exotic but easily available.”

The book features an explainer section on spices. Chetna says: “I’m not a professional, I’m a home cook. So when I look at spice books and they go into detail about where it’s grown and how it’s grown, as much as I want to know that, I can’t use that information when I’m cooking. I need to know what it goes with and how it tastes. I’ve kept things short and sweet.”

Chetna’s enjoyed a whirlwind two years since appearing on Bake Off (she’s included in the 2015 GG2 power 101 List, which celebrates Britain’s most influential Asians), but says she’s not planning more TV work, stating while she’d love the chance, there’s a lot of competition.

She still keeps in touch with her fellow contestants though . She says: “We’re really close friends. We try and meet every two to three months to have a weekend at one of our homes with our families.” She is thrilled that her YouTube channel, Food With Chetna, is doing well.

She says: “I get to do what I want, however I want. It’s my platform. I release one new recipe every week and I’ve had great feedback.”

The Cardamom Trail: Chetna Bakes With Flavours Of The East by Chetna Makan is published by Octopus Books, priced £20.

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If you fancy trying your hand at baking with Chetna, give this recipe from her new book a whirl...

PISTACHIO, CARDAMOM AND WHITE CHOCOLATE CAKE
(Serves 10-12)

For the cake:
225g unsalted butter, softened
225g caster sugar
4 large eggs
250g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
1tsp cardamom seeds, crushed to a fine powder
100ml milk
50g pistachio nuts, roughly chopped
50g white chocolate chips
For the icing and decoration:
150g white chocolate
150g unsalted butter, softened
Few drops of vanilla extract
Handful of pistachio nuts, finely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Grease 2 x 20cm round cake tins and line them with non-stick baking paper.

2. To make the cake, cream the butter and sugar together with an electric whisk or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, ensuring that each addition is well incorporated before adding the next. Now add the flour, baking powder, cardamom and milk. Beat for one minute until the mixture is light and creamy. Now fold in the pistachios and white chocolate chips with a spatula.

3. Fill the prepared tins with the batter. Bake for 30 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean. Leave the cakes to cool in the tins.

4. Once the cakes are completely cool, make the icing. Break the white chocolate into a heatproof bowl and set it over a pan of steaming water until melted, ensuring that the base of the bowl doesn’t touch the water beneath it. Leave it to cool slightly. Now cream the butter in a separate bowl and add the melted chocolate and vanilla extract. Mix well until light and creamy.

5. Spread half the icing on one cake, then align the second layer on top. Spread the remaining icing on top and sprinkle with the chopped pistachios. This cake will keep in an airtight container for up to four days.