Flora Shedden left the Bake Off tent last night when her white chocolate horses failed to cross the judges’ finishing line.

After winning the technical challenge, and producing an attractive, but overbaked, chocolate tart in the signature, her white chocolate carousel horses for the showstopper creation just didn’t make the Paul Hollywood grade.

There were no real disasters in the signature challenge this week, and Nadiya even received the Hollywood “lingering” handshake for her “fantastic” chocolate peanut tart. Ian was told his was attractive, but lacked flavour, and Tamal’s had great flavours.

The technical challenge this week was a chocolate souffle and there were looks of panic as all of the contestants admitted they had never made one. Mary told us it was one of the most difficult things to make and in order to make things harder for the four bakers, they provided only basic instructions, which relied on the baker knowing how to make a souffle!

Ian was visibly struggling and it was impossible not to feel sorry for him when he said “my mind has gone blank, I can’t remember how to make creme patisserie”. This tricky chocolate pud needs to have a good rise but be soft and gooey in the middle we were told and Tamal’s had a good rise and good flavour, Ian’s was over-folded and didn’t have much of a rise, Flora’s had good flavour and was baked well, which won her the challenge, and Nadiya, who came last, said she would rather give birth than make another souffle.

For the Showstopper challenge, Ian produced a chocolate well, which received scant praise from the judges who told him he hadn’t done enough work. I haven’t been Ian’s biggest fan over the weeks, but come on, it was a chocolate well with a working crankshaft that drew liquid chocolate from the bottom - and the best they could say was it was “original and contemporary”.

Tamal’s bell tower was “impressive but not very neat” and Nadiya, who looked truly terrified at this point, produced a beautiful peacock that looked and tasted good. Flora’s “wonky” carousel was pulled apart and the judges struggled to find anything good to say.

Nadiya won Star Baker again and when Flora was told she was going home, a red-eyed Ian admitted he had got through by the “skin of his teeth”.

Next week is the Great British Bake Off final.