In 2010, with a background in street art and no paid work lined up, illustrator Tom Hovey moved to London. He applied for a job at an unknown cookery show, and two days later found himself working on the first series of The Great British Bake Off. “My job is to illustrate what contestants planned to create, not what they baked in the tent,” he says. After growing up in south Wales, Hovey now lives in Bristol, where he runs his own studio. For the show, he sketches the bakes by hand before adding in colour digitally. Although his own attempts at baking have been ill-fated, he enjoys drawing the contestants’ creations. “I love the detailed cakes that are over the top. Anything that makes me laugh at how bonkers it is.” Ahead of two Bake Off Christmas specials, here he chooses some of his favourites.

Two Great British Bake Off festive specials will be on Channel 4 over Christmas