Rahul Mandal, the winner of the ninth series of The Great British Bake Off (GBBO), thanked his colleagues for their friendship as he posted an Easter cake photo on Instagram.

Along with a photo of a chocolate and orange cake, decorated with an egg-shaped biscuit, Rahul posted a touching comment to his colleagues.

In it, he thanked them for making him feel a part of their circle.

He said: “During my time in UK, the holidays are the hardest time to spend!

“During weekdays of term time, you have your colleagues and students around during the week, whereas in the weekends especially during holidays … you left on your own!

“It is difficult to be alone! Being an introvert and shy in a new place, it is challenging to trust people and make friends.

“And there are so many people who are there to hurt and make fun of the shy.”

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Easter is the time to celebrate spring, rebirth of nature from the grey cold winter, an awakening of colour, flowers, and leaves! During my time in UK, the holidays are the hardest time to spend! During weekdays of term time, you have your colleagues and students around during the week, whereas in the weekends specially during holidays…you left on your own! It is difficult! When as a species your brain and mind is wired to be in a community and surrounded by other people, it is difficult to be alone! Being an introvert and shy in a new place, it is challenging to trust people and make friends. And there are so many people who are there to hurt and make fun of the shy, the weakest! For me, after certain point, rather than making friends I get used to loneliness. It hurts, it makes you feel even weaker and it destroys your confidence. But, thanks to some of my colleagues, it changed slightly! Being through a lot, I took time to trust them and being friends. I still go through a lot of ups and downs every day, which on my own would be very, very difficult. This cake is just a ‘thank you’ to them! Thanks for helping me, thanks for making feel a part of your friend’s circle, thanks for tolerating me, thanks for stopping me when I am about to do any mistake! This cake is for them, who brought spring to my rather cold and lonely life, thanks a lot! It is a Chocolate and orange cake sandwiched with caramel and coated with chocolate fudge buttercream and orange buttercream! (No wonder why so much “buttercream”!) and decorated with a Fennel Egg shaped biscuit, decorated with royal icing! (and the stained glass bit is mango and passionfruit flavoured)! . .Happy Easter! Hope the spring bring love joy and happiness to your life.  And help others, share the joy and happiness with everyone specially the quietest student/colleague in your group! Please don’t be the person who hurt the weakest! Be nice. There is nothing wrong to be nice to others, it doesn’t cost us much, apart from just ‘be nice'! . .#bakeoff #greatbritishbakingshow #easter #easteregg #biscuit #royalicing #royalicingcookies #chocolatecake #lonliness #confidence #thankyou #kindness PC: @yunokcraze

A post shared by Dr Rahul Mandal (@bakewithrahul) on

The post received more than 5,000 likes from Rahul’s fans in under two hours.

He added: “Thanks to some of my colleagues, it changed slightly… Thanks for helping me, thanks for making feel a part of your friend’s circle, thanks for tolerating me, thanks for stopping me when I am about to do any mistake!

“This cake is for them, who brought spring to my rather cold and lonely life, thanks a lot!”

Rahul became a favourite on the 2018 series of GBBO after he told the programme that he started baking to make friends when he moved to the UK at the age of 23.