'I tried Manchester's version of Great British Bake Off - and suffered a tent meltdown'

Great British Bake Off fans have been eagerly tuning in for the new series of the beloved baking show, with this year's competition being one of the fiercest yet. At the start of this month, 11 bakers returned to the infamous white tent to battle it out to make sure their sweet treats get a famous Paul Hollywood handshake.

With three bakers already chopped from the Channel 4 show, viewers at home are sometimes left wondering how things can spiral out of control so quickly on the long-running show. From soggy bottoms to collapsing cakes, some bakers have been left heartbroken by the Channel 4 judges' comments at the end of the gruelling bakes.

So, when the Big Manchester Bakes opened in Spinningfields, Manchester, I jumped at the chance. And it's fair to say it's much harder than it looks to complete the tasks in the tight 90-minute deadline.

The Big Manchester Bake isn't affiliated with the Channel 4 reality show itself, but it follows a very similar format, allowing guests to put themselves in the baker's footsteps in their own version of the iconic white tent.

But I couldn't do it alone, so I took along my close friend and baking genius to try out their autumn-themed baking contest. With us both boasting some baking experience in the past - her more so than I - we thought we were going to have it in the bag. But boy, were we wrong.

When we entered the baking extravaganza, we stepped into a world plucked out of Alice in Wonderland, decorated with candy-striped beach huts and baking utensils scattered around the glittery paradise.

After gathering a drink at the bar, we were handed an apron and a chef's hat before we walked into the white tent situated at the back of the store. Inside were 12 baking stations, kitted out with ovens, stand mixers, and a fully stocked decoration station with every flavour and sprinkles imaginable.

We were set the task of baking a four-tiered cake, which was baked and decorated according to a monthly theme - and this month was titled Forest Friends. The team leader advised us to get our cake mix in the oven within 15 minutes of our hour-and-a-half slot.

Normally, this wouldn't have caused a panic, but being surrounded by other budding bakers made it hard not to flap under the pressure. Somehow, putting the pre-weighed ingredients into a bowl becomes much harder than it looks, and we were both soon rushing around like crazed hens.

The first issue we faced was when we spent too long reading the instructions, ending up five minutes behind schedule. Despite the clock ticking down, we persevered and eventually got the cake in the oven, earning a celebratory sip of Prosecco.

Next came the Swiss meringue buttercream icing, which took a lot longer than expected to make. In total, it took around 10 minutes of mixing to finish the icing, which required constant monitoring.

While that was burning a hole in the stand mixer, we tried our hands at fondant icing, which didn't come without its hurdles. Instead of attempting to cover the whole cake with fondant like many of our contenders, we decided to make a scene of woodland creatures who would sit atop a tree stump.

The sympathetic instructor continually reminded us of the time and kindly helped us to improve our icing to make it the perfect colour for our woodland scene. She also provided us with ample baking tools to help improve our work throughout the event.

Things took an awkward turn when it came to construction, although our cakes emerged from their tins without fault, they were still steaming away which wasn't helped by the fact that I forgot to turn off the oven until the end of the event.

As we attempted to layer our cake layers, now smothered in icing, they decided to go off on their own journey south of the border. Ultimately, we resorted to holding our cakes in place with four dowels, but it's fair to say our 'tree trunk' closer resembled the leaning Tower of Pisa.

It's fair to say the stress you see on Bake Off is very much real, as we worked down to the minute to mask our mistakes before the bell rang out. Then it was time to carefully take our desserts down to the final bench, where it was judged against the 11 other teams.

Much to our surprise, our 'perfectly messy' cake wowed the judge and finished in a respectable second place, pipped to the post by a cheeky fox cake that certainly stole the show with their decoration and flavour.

Despite the stressful moment mid-baking, I thoroughly loved the experience and would definitely go again. Who knows, we may even be better a second time round, now we know what to expect.

The baking meltdown only added to the experience, giving us a taste of what the bakers experience in the tent every week on the heartwarming show. I can confirm that our autumnal cake tasted amazing, not that I'm biased.