‘Good morning, Miss Hammond,’ trill the bakers in unison, after some encouragement from Alison to get into the spirit of Bake Off’s first ever ‘back to school’ week. Tasked with turning a lunchbox staple into, in Prue’s words, ‘something really, really good,’ lessons begin with a two-hour practical exam on flapjacks. 

Jessika swiftly decides she is catering for a more adult palate, swapping out the traditional golden syrup for a red wine reduction. Her stem ginger and chocolate squares are rounded off with gilded poached pear tops, which Prue says are ‘so interesting and different.’ ‘I like the flavour,’ she adds, ‘but the texture is a little gluey.’

‘I think they look neat as a pin,’ says Prue, admiring Jasmine’s raspberry, chocolate and hazelnut flapjacks, and Paul agrees, ‘you’ve ticked all the boxes.’

Bonus points for neatness also go to Toby and Iain. Toby’s tasty carrot-cake-inspired wedges feature dates, walnuts and a cream cheese icing but he’s marked down for his heavy hand with the cinnamon. ‘It’s a shame,’ says Paul, ‘because the texture is great.’ ‘Just slightly underbaked,’ is his verdict on Iain’s banoffee fingers.

Nataliia attempts to rescue her scorched pecan, cherry and amaretto bake with a little creative knifework, but it’s no match for Paul’s sharp eye. ‘I think they’ve been cut a bit oddly,’ he observes, adding they are ‘a bit dry.’

‘Not your finest hour,’ concludes Paul, as Lesley gets told off for making the ‘huge mistake’ of adding a shortbread base to her cherry and almond flapjack. On the flipside, it’s Nadia’s topping that proves problematic, as her tempered chocolate fails to set. ‘Too much chocolate,’ concludes Prue, although lurking somewhere underneath ‘the cherry is perfect.’

Chasing top marks for originality, Tom hides his chunks of flapjack inside apple-shaped chocolate shells filled with apple purée and custard. It’s an ambitious approach and he runs out of time to add the finishing touch of stalks. Nonetheless, it’s admired for being ‘clever’ by Prue, and Paul adds, ‘I really love it.’

Aaron’s shaping may be classic, but he’s pushing the boundaries with his flavours, topping the oaty rectangles with pristine lines of Earl Grey flavoured whipped ganache and lemon jam. ‘That’s delicious – the lemon gives it such a lift,’ exclaims Prue, and Paul declares it ‘beautiful’ and ‘a triumph.’ 

‘And then we’ve asked them to make lump free custard,’ explains Prue, as she and Paul prepare to sample an exemplary version of the technical challenge from the peaceful confines of their little tent. Cue Paul attempting to pour a jug of said sweet sauce, which appears to glug and blob unappetisingly onto his plate. However, the professional pair style it out with aplomb. ‘Almost anything tastes better with custard… but this is the best,’ declares Prue, assuredly. Personally, I prefer something with a little texture and contrasting tartness, but ‘the best’ in Prue’s view is school cake – a hefty slab of vanilla sponge, topped with white glacé icing and sprinkles.

‘I thought school cake would be too basic’ says Iain, but the judges have complicated matters by providing no recipe and insisting on ‘old school’ methods, including making the sprinkles from scratch.

Having forgotten to add vanilla, Nadia retrieves her sponge from the oven and hastily stirs through a worryingly generous remedial dose. ‘I hope that doesn’t affect the bake,’ she remarks, but either way she still finds herself at the bottom of the class. ‘Beautiful cake’ and ‘excellent sprinkles’ put Jasmine in first place again.

By the time we reach the showstopper, those homework and detention jokes are wearing a little thin, and this week’s theme is perhaps proving to be less abundant in source material than the programme makers first thought. So, the bakers have four and a half hours to create a stall display for a summer fete. And the fete is at a school. Not tenuous at all.

Nataliia isn’t sure what a fete is, but she tells Alison that she once saw two girls trading blows in the street. ‘I’m not talking about a fight… I’m talking about a fete,’ Alison clarifies. Anyway, Nataliia’s fighting spirit is on display as, after disappointing results in the first two challenges, she pulls off an impressive showstopper. Her citrus backpack cake, shortbread pencils and mousse-filled apples may not be strictly ‘on brief,’ but Paul loves the ‘beautifully soft, well baked sponge’ and Prue agrees it’s ‘all really, really good.’

Also staging a comeback, Nadia serves up a giant vanilla cupcake, shortbread biscuits with a lemon curd dip, strawberry glazed doughnuts and some seriously impressive brownie burgers in doughnut buns. ‘Very clever,’ says Paul. And brownies are back to give another meaty illusion in Lesley’s huge steak pie, which is, in reality, coffee and walnut flavoured. Apple shortbread biscuits and lemon meringue lollies complete a display that’s judged to be ‘charming.’

‘Fascinating’ is the verdict on Tom’s fusion of summer fete and science lab, which features petri dishes of deliberately ‘mouldy’ crème brûlée and a coconut shy of mousse-filled chocolate coconuts. Both are a little ‘thin’ and ‘runny’ but have ‘lovely flavours.’ And Tom also serves up the first of four ‘hook-a-duck’ bakes. His red velvet cake version picks up a ‘delicious’ from Paul.

Hook-a-duck cake number two is an orange and elderflower number by Jasmine, whose meticulous attention to detail extends to a perfectly pretty batch of raspberry hopscotch biscuits and rosemary pretzel quoits that are a clear winner with Prue. ‘Style with substance,’ Paul concludes.

Number three is Toby’s lemon and blueberry cake. ‘Are the ducks just fondant?’ asks Prue; clearly disappointed that she’s hooked a prize of pure sugar. However, the cake itself is ‘beautifully baked’ and his strawberry and cream choux tennis balls are ‘absolutely delicious.’  ‘I love the look of these,’ smiles Paul, admiring Toby’s witty reinvention of a childhood favourite – the Pot Noodle sandwich. Bread slice shaped Parmesan biscuits hold strands of chicken pâté and ricotta, and instant satisfaction is guaranteed as Paul says, ‘mmm, texture’s fantastic!’

Unfortunately, Jessika is less successful with her stout cake, which inexplicably never seems to bake at all. ‘Texture’s all wrong,’ decides Prue, and Jessika can’t disagree. Her ‘Prehistoric Pantry’ is also stocked with marshmallow and raspberry footprint biscuits and chocolate dinosaur eggs filled with chai spiced ganache. ‘I’d like that in small quantities,’ ventures Prue, but, as Paul points out, ‘it isn’t.’

With two successful bakes under his belt, Aaron goes into the showstopper as a strong contender for Star Baker, but his sports day themed display is far from a personal best. Prue is bowled over by his peach cream cricket ball biscuits, but his iced bun tennis balls are ‘underproved’ and the giant macaron stopwatch centrepiece is ‘flat’ and ‘untidy.’

Which leaves Iain, whose hook-a-duck lemon tarts float on a jelly pond, alongside a funfetti cake shaped like an old school computer monitor and a little Jenga-style stack of millionaire’s shortbread. ‘Gritty’ buttercream and too many inedible props lead Paul to say it’s ‘not as good as I know you can do.’

Convinced his time in the tent is up, Iain gets one more chance to prove his worth, as it’s Jessika who is forced to bid farewell to the class of 2025. Jasmine continues her winning streak, and the programme makers await our verdict on this week’s theme. Well, in the words of many a disappointing school report – must try harder.