He's Bojan Petrovic and he only started baking seriously about a year ago, bringing cakes into work, and learnt his skills from watching Youtube cooking videos. He comes from a Serbian family and makes a mean burek.

Friends encouraged him to apply for the reality baking TV show, in which 12 bakers compete for the title of Australia's best baker in a picturesque shed under the watchful eye of judges Maggie Beer and Matt Moran. "It was a bit nerve wracking trying to think about what you have to make for the auditions, you have to make something sweet and something savoury for the auditions in Sydney," he says.

He made an opera cake layered with pineapple jelly and raspberry cream, inspired by summery Calippo ice lollies. And for the savoury component he did a baked scroll with mushrooms, prosciutto, herbs and garlic.

"The scary thing was getting the opera cake to Sydney, because the second layer was jelly, which is the first time I'd tried making proper jelly from fruit," he recalls. (No, he did not drive to Sydney in a tow truck). "I got there very late, literally five minutes before the interview started. I still had my work shorts on and just one of my polo shirts from my soccer club here in Canberra, I had that on, and... I had thongs on! Basically they saw the real me, I guess."

Petrovic says he learnt the judges different tastes on the show - Maggie doesn't like things too hot, and isn't keen on artificial colours, while Matt Moran likes his flavours to be daring. And the technical bakes, where everyone has to follow a set recipe to make a mystery dish, were always a challenge.

"It's one thing making things at home, and even when you make it perfect first off. [On the show] you've got the cameras and then Maggie and Matt coming through and Claire and Mel coming through, it's a lot harder," he says with a laugh.

But he wouldn't change a thing. "It was a very awesome experience, it was unbelievable. If I went 10 times worse than what I did I would still do it all again. I learnt so much," he says.

The Great Australian Bake Off airs on Lifestyle Food on Foxtel on October 13.