Whangārei doctor Alby Hailes wins latest season of The Great Kiwi Bake Off

Whangārei doctor Alby Hailes wins the latest season of The Great Kiwi Bake Off on TVNZ 1. Photo / Tania Whyte

The Great Kiwi Bake Off 2021 winner and Whangārei mental health doctor Alby Hailes is also a fashion designer - oh and a tennis player too.

Albert Hailes, famously known as Alby Hailes, won the third season of the baking reality TV show after he impressed the judges with his showstopping cake on Thursday's finale episode on TVNZ 1. Interestingly, the shirt he wore on the grand finale is his own creation too.

Hailes takes pride in winning and says it has been a very fun journey.

The Whangārei doctor remembers his first memories of baking, when he was younger and would make the seven-egg brownie recipe from the back of a flour packet, along with his cousin, to take to their tennis tournaments.

Hailes has come a long way from there and has been working on his own recipe book for more than six months.

Hailes was one of the 10 contestants on The Great Kiwi Bake Off that first aired on October 14 and he lasted the whole nine episodes.

He said the show was a huge motivation to finish his book and pushed him in the right direction.

TVNZ The Great Kiwi Bake Off trophy comes to Whangārei. Photo / Tania Whyte

The 26-year-old said he felt all sorts of emotions about winning the show.

"It has been kind of strange. In my usual workday, I get to make more intimate one-on-one conversations with people and suddenly this side of things is a whole contradiction.

"You are putting yourself out there, where a lot of people are watching you.

"I am just trying to be grounded. At the end of the day, it is baking some cakes, which has been a lot of fun."

Thirty minutes into the finale when Hailes panicked after his buttercream split four times, he put his own mental health professional advice to use.

"It was amazing the support I received from other bakers, I went out, was able to pull myself together and come back in with a fresh focus.

"I put a lot of pressure on myself in a lot of the things I do, so it was important for me to take a minute and keep myself grounded."

While on the show, Hailes used many grounding techniques to deal with the pressure.

"It is basic things aye - like feeling the air, grounding oneself with nature, mindful breathing, and just trying to remove oneself from the stress."

Hailes said the process of baking a cake in itself was very therapeutic.

"What we eat has a huge effect on our mental health.

"With baking, it is something that allows the people to connect with the food they are eating. When you teach a young child how to bake, it develops an interest and passion in them, which encourages them to develop a positive relationship with food for the rest of their lives. It brings people together, sharing and connecting whānau over food.

Alby Hailes says baking a cake in itself is therapeutic. Photo / Tania Whyte

"Connecting with others is also very important for mental health.

"Baking is a tactile experience, helps you get in tune with a lot of senses like smell, taste, and the feeling of enjoyment when you share it with others, it ticks a lot of boxes when promoting mental health wellbeing."

Although Hailes believed eating sweet things and enjoying them was a part of the balance in life, his guilty pleasure was cookies.

He once went around New York looking for the best cookie he could find and ended up eating more than 30 chocolate chip cookies.