Great British Bake Off – The Final

Ah, yes. Baking: the new rock'n'roll. It's artsier than a Damien Hirst sculpture, funnier than a Tim Vine sketch show and more precise than a Higgs boson particle. There's no doubt about it, in 2012 baking has captured the national zeitgeist.

While once we swooned to Sarah Beeny's make-over tips, marvelled at Kevin McCloud's architectural genius, or were dazzled by Phil and Kirsty's home-finding skills, in Austerity Britain, we've fallen in with food, rather than homes.

Not least because we can afford a flapjack – an extension is out of the question.

Reality TV – and, unusually, Bake-Off is a reality show rather than a freakshow – is at its best when it focuses on real people with authentic passions. And Bake Off does just that.

There was a faint whiff of testosterone and icing sugar as three male finalists took to the kitchen last night to dazzle judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood took in the final. We had The Buddhist, The Geek and The Hip Student going head to head.

Berry and Hollywood are the UK's second best double act. Berry's icy blue eyes pierce the contestants, peering deep into their soul. This year, remarkably, at the tender age of, well, let's say 55, (ahem, cough), she's become something of a fashion icon.

Hollywood's Clooney-esque good lucks and easy charm, meanwhile, make him the thinking woman's crumpet, or is that cup cake, or is it Victorian Sponge? Whatever it is, women adore him the way men like Nigella. He's Phwoar for girls.

In 2012: Britain's Great Year of Celebration, only the Queen and James Bond have captivated us more – and one of them's a superhero-made-flesh while the other's, well, The Queen, so she's a real life superhero. The superhero's superhero.

The format of Bake Off works like a dream. Hollywood is the programme's Simon Cowell, but he's nice. He offers an honest critique of the contestants' efforts: "That's rubbish," he said, at one point, because, yes, you've guessed it, it was rubbish. But he smiled, so it was okay.

Berry is the voice of experience. She's been there, baked it, got the t-shirt.

During this series' final 60 minutes, we had fondant fancy fondle-age, Turkish Delight disasters, hair-dryers that were used to blow-dry cakes – yes, you read that correctly – hair dryers that were used to blow dry cakes and more besides.

The three guys – Buddhist Bakernator Brendan, Chic Geek James and Hipster John – went at it like greyhounds from traps. They duelled with pithiviers, only one of them suffering the dreaded soggy bottom; they wowed us with fondant fancies and, as we entered the final stages with the Showstopper Challenge, it was still all to play for.

The beauty of the programme was that it's something we can all relate to. Show me a man who doesn't like a sausage roll and I'll show you a lactose-intolerant vegetarian. Show me a woman who doesn't fancy a ginger snap and I'll show you a gluten-phobic diabetic.

We all, or, almost all, enjoy baking and, to a greater or lesser extent, it's something we're all capable of doing.

It came down to the final mouthful.

Paul tugged at his salt'n'pepper goatee beard, Mary almost apologised to James as his final cake proved a flop and Chic Geek was a gonner. The Buddhist and The Hipster smiled a secret smile.

There was a final flurry on a green and pleasant country lawn before the victor was announced: The Winner Is . . . The Hip Student.

And boy oh boy did he deserve it. Anyway crazy enough to take a hair dryer to a cake deserves a prize.

Can't wait for the next series.

Andy Richardson