There’s no mistaking the pattern on Tom’s cake – a striking tartan blanket that wraps up his blueberry compote and mascarpone cream. Paul says it’s ‘unique’ and Prue praises it for being both ‘light’ and ‘delicious.’

Aaron admits that piping his intricate honeycomb design is sending him cross-eyed, but it proves to be worth the effort. ‘A great job,’ says Paul, and Prue is equally impressed by the (oddly honey-free) filling of lemon curd cream and blueberry and elderflower jam.

With two ‘I’s in their names, it’s perhaps fitting for Nataliia and Iain to also attempt ocularly onerous creations. ‘It looks as if it’s been embroidered,’ exclaims Prue, admiring the Ukrainian-born baker’s work, and Paul says her filling of passion fruit, mango and cream cheese Chantilly is ‘delicious.’ Meanwhile, Iain painstakingly recreates Queen’s University Belfast brick by brick, and Prue is pleasantly surprised to find his mix of marshmallow cream, cherry jam and coconut digestives is not as sweet as she’d feared.

Reaching for the piping bag for a different reason, Nadia tries to mask a crack in her cherry and almond roll. The judges decide it’s been weighed down by ‘heavy’ almond flavouring and that the cherries are ‘too sweet.’

Toby’s tangy rhubarb and custard roll tastes, according to Prue, reassuringly ‘like rhubarb and custard,’ which she admits she loves. Paul agrees it has a ‘lovely’ flavour but ‘the texture’s a bit chewy.’

Finally, it’s the turn of Hassan, who offers up a chocolate, coffee and caramel cake with a blue rose design. Well, that was the plan. ‘Not your best morning,’ says Prue, which, considering it’s his first in the tent, is doubly disappointing. Paul concedes that the flavour is ‘stunning,’ but he adds, ‘it looks like it’s been dropped out of a tree.’

Landing on their first technical challenge, the bakers are given five minutes to taste an exemplary fondant fancy before they’re tasked to create nine of the pesky little cakes in two and a quarter hours. Yes, it’s the return of the ‘technical with a twist’ – welcomed by viewers if not by those competing. With no recipe and a selection of ingredients, including several ‘red herrings,’ the bakers must rely on their intuition and tastebuds, and nobody achieves a truly successful marriage of the two. Most mistakenly add ground almonds to the sponge, Leighton incorrectly identifies raspberry as cherry, and Pui Man thinks it’s rose. With a batch of solidly overbaked little cakes, high-flying Tom falls to the bottom of the pack and though his fellow bakers applaud Toby’s triumph, Paul insists he’s the best of a bad bunch.

On to the showstopper, and with the carving and construction needed to create a landscape cake in four hours, Prue wisely acknowledges that her love of a ‘tender’ cake may not be the best choice. Nevertheless, there are plenty of bakers willing to risk it.

Prophetically named after Downhill Beach, Iain’s softly textured chocolate and stout creation shows little hope of staying the course as it slides dramatically from its cake stand smack bang into a strategically placed ad break. Having set himself the challenge of rescuing the reputations of Iains from Belfast (the former famously binned his Baked Alaska in series five), this one bravely sets about restoring structural integrity to his bake. The supportive properties of acetate, fridge and his fellow bakers do the trick, and the finished cake gets an ‘incredible’ from Paul.

Jessika is on safer ground with her spiced apple sponge, toffee apple sauce and vanilla mascarpone frosting, which includes a little lake of pea flower tea. ‘Stunning’ is Paul’s verdict, and Prue agrees ‘it’s really delicious.’ And it’s another ‘stunning’ from Paul for Nataliia’s Ukrainian landscape of chocolate and rum sponge with cherry jam and a blue mirror glaze river.

‘It’s not the lightest of cakes,’ says Prue, as Pui Man places her coffee and walnut recreation of Hong Kong’s Lion Rock firmly in the heavyweight category. However, it is judged to be ‘delicious,’ despite Paul finding himself on the receiving end of some coffee liqueur that’s ‘a little too punchy.’ Nadia fares better with her liqueur levels. Prue loves the flavours of coconut and lime, but her sun-drenched tropical island is ironically ‘overbaked.’

Three bakers are beaten by the clock. Aaron’s Barcelona park of coconut sponge with miso caramel is considered ‘a little unfinished looking’ by Prue, and Paul thinks it’s missing citrus. ‘Like a bad dream’ is his assessment of Hassan’s white chocolate bamboo forest minus foliage, though Prue loves the ‘beautifully spiced’ cake beneath. Meanwhile a little jelly sea detaches itself from Toby’s Sidmouth seaside scene of brown butter sponge and strawberry jam to leave a cake that Paul regards as ‘a bit simplistic,’ adding ‘it’s basically one cake on top of another.’

It's a criticism that’s also levelled at Jasmine and Leighton. Paul thinks her three-tiered Scottish highland cardamom cake with pistachio and blackberry mousse needs ‘more landscape,’ although Prue concedes ‘it’s beautifully done.’ Leighton’s Welsh countryside Victoria sandwich is judged to be both ‘wobbly’ and ‘tough.’

Lesley’s tree stump cake with a landscape painted on the side miraculously manages to avoid any ‘off brief’ accusations and her flavours of chocolate, cherry and kirsch are deemed to be ‘spot on.’ Which leaves Tom, who, after a disastrous technical, is determined to redeem himself. ‘Beautifully baked, beautifully executed,’ says Prue, admiring Tom’s stylised take on an Icelandic landscape. Eschewing Nordic flavours like birch and berry in favour of chocolate, orange and hazelnut, he serves up an artfully river-riven opera cake that has the potential to propel him to the dizzy heights of Star Baker with all the force of a Reykjavík geyser.

Instead, it’s Nataliia’s consistency across all three challenges that secures her victory. Amalfi Coast-loving Leighton narrowly escapes e-lemon-ation, leaving poor Hassan to sadly fulfil his own prophecy. ‘How far do you think you could go in this competition?’ asks Noel on day one. ‘Maybe tomorrow,’ Hassan replies.