The Queanbeyan electrician, who entered the competition on a whim at the last minute, was faced with cooking a cake called 'Mistique' by renowned pastry chef and dessert specialist Christy Tania on Monday night's episode.

The mammoth dessert had 65 recipe steps and Harvey was given four-and-a-half hours to cook the creation, alongside fellow contestants Mimi Baines and Matt Sinclair.

"I was going well for probably the first half of the cook and then I had an issue with one of the elements in the cake and that sort of threw me off for the whole rest of the cook," said Harvey.

"I wouldn't say it was a disaster – I still got everything up, but there were just a few issues so it was just a bad day really.

"I think out of all the different elements that were in the actual dessert there was probably one or two things that I'd never done before so it was pretty crazy. I'd probably made less than five cakes in my life before! Desserts and pastry skills are definitely not my forte so to go into a challenge like that it was tough."

While his MasterChef journey is over, it's a whole new beginning for Harvey. Since finishing up on the reality show, he has quit his job and started working in the kitchen at Kingston Foreshore's Local Press. He's also in the process of writing an ebook, which is due out by the end of this year.

"It's a compilation of the basic recipes that I needed to get through the show. When I came home I think I had three books just full of recipes," he said.

"So the ebook is kind of based around not having a whole finished dish as a recipe, but it looks at all the separate elements like pastries and pasta and all those kind of things."

He's got his eyes firmly set on a future in food, with plans to open his own cafe by the end of next year. In the meantime he's got a busy period ahead with knee surgery, his wedding, and lots of events with Local Press scheduled before the end of the year.

"It's ridiculous, my whole life has just been turned upside down. We were sort of really settled and relaxed and everything was going well, and now for this to happen it's really changed everything – in a good way though," he said.

"It's been amazing. I just want to make the most of every single chance and opportunity."