I've always collected vintage kitchenalia because it's beautifully made, and I love to see things that have been used down the ages.

I think my father couldn't wait to get home to his wife, but I don't know if he was so keen on us children.

Before the start of each new series, I go shopping for my 'Bake Off' wardrobe. I've got increasingly confident with my look and now wear much more colour than I did at the start.

What a privilege and honour it has been to be part of seven years of magic in a tent - 'The Great British Bake Off.'

All-in-one dishes are among my favourites. I'm very much in favour of using the oven as much as possible - for casseroles, roasts and other one-pot meals - rather than the hob, where dishes need much more attention.

Freak diets I don't think work. It's control.

I hate Gordon Ramsay's programmes: I don't know if he's been told it makes good television.

I'm very keen on the family getting together around the table because you learn so much of what's going on. With a full tummy, they begin to talk to you. People now have busy lives, but once or twice a week, it's lovely to sit all around together.

You've got to pay an awful lot for your hotel before you get fresh orange juice. If a hotel has got proper orange juice - and you do expect it if you're abroad - I rank the hotel highly.

I was brought up to believe that it's family first. Of all the people my parents knew, the family was most important. You always turn to your family, and the family supports you. We do what we can to support our young and go and see the grandchildren if they're doing plays at school and their sports events.

I usually wear only a bit of pink lippy, but for TV, they add a few extra lashes to brighten my eyes and some colour to my face, as without it, I look pale and uninteresting.

I never fry a doughnut! If you want a doughnut, go and buy one once in a blue moon. It's about everything in moderation.

I never leave anything until the morning. I put my jumpers, scarves, and shoes out the night before. You never know what is going to happen. You don't want to get stressed.

Oh, I'd never put my elbows on the table.

The very best hotel I've stayed in is the Intercontinental on Park Lane. We went there for the Chelsea Flower Show a few years ago, and it was sheer luxury. Everybody had a smile on their face. I came home and changed all my pillows because the hotel ones were so beautiful.

My parents were very strict about manners and being polite to others. I brought my own children up that way, too.

Our aim is to get people to enjoy 'Bake Off' at home and for our bakers to enjoy what they are doing. We don't want to catch them out. It's a very happy occasion, and it's about encouraging people to bake at home.

I think to eat cake is very good for us, but it's the size of the slice and how often you have it.

Family life is fragmenting in this modern age, but it's up to all of us to keep it together.

I do not like a quiche with wet, undercooked pastry underneath, and that is that.

I mainly cook British food with a few things I've had on my holidays. I went to the Canary Islands a few years ago, and we had all sorts of different mushrooms on brioche with pancetta on top, and it was delicious. I had it most days for lunch, so I thought, 'I'll do that when I get back,' and now it's in my cookbook, an absolute favourite.

I've always had a strong interest in how food is produced and in knowing where it comes from.

I am not great at computers. If I were to try shopping through Google, I'd end up with 33 vests.

When you're on the way up, you have to take all the jobs because bills have to be paid.

I do like going out and finding free food. I've done it since I was a child. Fishing prawns and shrimps from the sea is wonderful, as is picking blackberries, sloes and mushrooms. Having a guide while out looking for mushrooms is really important, though, as picking the wrong type can be quite dangerous.

At my dinner parties, I like to serve cheese after the main course because you still have red wine in the glass, and it goes very well with the cheese. And that is what they do in France, and I think they set a good example.

I won't cook in deep fat. Years ago, I met a fireman who said most kitchen fires were caused by deep fat, and I don't think that's changed. Oven chips are good enough for my grandchildren, and they're chuffed with that.

I honestly think there shouldn't be sugared drinks. All my grandchildren drink water all through the day. I've just had them to stay, and at breakfast, they have water. They don't even know what sugary drinks are.

I'm just very grateful that the media has been so kind to me, because there's nothing unusual about me. I'm just a mum and a granny who is teaching cookery on TV. Basically, I'm very ordinary.

It should be that every child, when they leave school, can do ten meals, because when they leave home, they've got to be able to eat healthily. Blow the science of it and everything else. They've just got to be able to know what's good for them, how to buy it, and how to make a few dishes that they enjoy and don't cost too much.

When I started, you had cochineal food colouring that would turn things pink, but you could never make it red. Now, red is no problem - and if you look at supermarket bakery sections since 'Bake Off' began, you can get everything.

I have no burning ambitions, and I can honestly say the thing I love most is 'Bake Off.' That will always come first.

I still think it's essential for a parent to cook with their children. Weighing out the ingredients and learning where the food comes from is educational, but it also helps to place meal times at the heart of family life. We never had dinner in front of the TV.

I was rather hopeless at school, but the one subject I seemed to be good at was domestic science.

Lots of people have written to say 'Bake Off' has inspired them to bake with their children. I feel proud about that; it's exactly what I used to do with mine.

I won't do 'Strictly' or any of those ghastly reality programmes. 'I'm a Celebrity' would be the end. It makes me shudder.

As parents are usually working, they haven't time to teach children about cooking, and it's a wilderness. They should be given healthy recipes - some standbys so that when they leave home, they don't live on junk.

Dad thought something very fishy was going on when, at 22, I was offered a job for £1,000 a year - more than Dad paid his own staff - for inventing cheese recipes and writing leaflets at the Dutch Dairy Bureau in London.

I don't go to fancy Michelin-starred restaurants often.

It helps to have a happy home life to keep up alongside your career.

My husband is not in the slightest bit domesticated, but as the years go, by he's getting better. He can make an excellent omelette.

When I thought I couldn't write recipes, my boss at the time advised, 'Write as you talk.'

I eat carefully because people don't want to see a large person judging cakes. They'll think to themselves, 'That's what happens when you eat cake.'

Many people think children must have chips. I don't think any household should have a deep fat fryer.

To be able to walk out the door when you come home from a job and wander into the garden to do a bit of watering gives you time to be creative in your mind.

I can't pass a plant stall without feeling I must have one. But my greatest extravagance, I suppose, is roses. We've got masses.

It is something you can't predict, and it is the huge sadness in your life, losing a child.

A lot of other reality shows on television can be bullying and aggressive, but we wanted 'The Bake Off' to be an antidote to that.

I'm immensely proud to have been made a CBE, but I don't ever use the letters after my name unless someone has included them in correspondence.

Wherever possible, I like to use home-grown or locally produced ingredients.