The Great British Bake Off

The bakers' first signature challenge is to make a madeira cake. It's a well-loved cake, but which of our bakers will try to impress by reinventing this classic, and who will play safe in a bid to get perfect madeira with its traditional crack? The technical challenge is Mary's frosted walnut cake, a pre-war classic that is as British as they come. On Day Two the bakers have to go all out to impress with their first show-stopper, the black forest gateau. This retro classic from the 70s has it all - chocolate, cherries and cream. It's ripe for a reinvention, and these 12 bakers are ready and willing.

With cake week under their belts, the 11 remaining bakers must now prove themselves with biscuits. The signature challenge is to create 24 biscotti. Twice baked, these Italian specialities have to be crammed with flavour and have a crisp crunch. Paul chooses the technical challenge, arlettes, a labour-intensive reverse puff pastry biscuit from south west France. The show-stopper is to create and build an edible biscuit box filled with 36 biscuits of a different flavour. Judges Mary and Paul want to see the bakers exercise their creative muscles with clever construction and beautiful decoration, while not forgetting that flavour is king.

The ten remaining bakers face bread week. Starting with the signature challenge, the bakers must tackle a Bake Off first and make quick breads. The bakers have just an hour and a half to get creative with their flavours. Ranging from sweet chocolate loaves to manchego and prosciutto stuffed bread, the finished loaves are a delight. In another Bake Off first, Paul sets baguettes as the technical challenge. A seemingly simple recipe, but the pressure of the tent gets to a few of the bakers. For their show-stopper, the bakers must make edible 3-D bread sculptures. Mary and Paul have to work their way through a bicycle, a snake, an array of flowers, a lion and even the Brighton Pavilion, all made of bread. The results are impressive - so much so that one baker renders Paul speechless by making the best bread sculpture he's ever seen.

For the nine bakers left, it's time to tackle the sweet ending to every meal - desserts. The signature challenge comes in the form of a French classic, the creme brulee. The bakers need to achieve the perfect wobble of the creme and an audible crack of the brulee. While some will reach perfection, others will serve up scrambled egg and custard soup. Mary picks the technical challenge, and it's a European medley; the spanische windtorte from Austria, with a nod to Spain and some Swiss and French meringue thrown in. It may only be meringue, cream and soft fruit, but it's tricky to construct and needs to be decorated with delicate fondant violets. Stacked cheesecakes make up the show-stopper. Mary and Paul are looking for faultless baked cheesecakes, beautifully flavoured and stacked in a show-stopping way. However although the bakers don't disappoint with their inventive ingredient combinations, not all of the tiered cheesecakes are structurally sound.

The remaining bakers must bake without sugar, gluten or dairy, though thankfully not all in the same challenge. The signature challenge sees the bakers create a variety of sugar-free cakes, from an upside-down pineapple cake to carrot cakes. For one baker, going sugar-free isn't enough as they take the healthy option one step further and bake a cake without any traditional forms of flour. Paul picks the technical challenge: gluten-free pittas, which are made with a very sticky dough that tests the bakers' skill. Which of them can get the desired pocket within their pittas? For their show-stopper, the bakers must make dairy-free ice cream rolls. Mary and Paul are looking for silky-smooth ice cream, surrounded by jam and a light sponge. Coconut milk provides the base for all the ice cream and tropical flavours are in abundance.

With bread, biscuits and cakes under their belts, the bakers must now prove their skill with pastry. The bakers make frangipane tarts for their signature challenge. Fruit is the obvious addition, but one baker hopes that a pina colada-flavoured tart will win the judges' approval. Paul sets the technical challenge, a traditional cheese-filled pastry from Cyprus - the flaouna. The bakers are faced with ingredients they've never heard of, that make a particularly pungent filling. Once the bakers have overcome the smell, they just need to work out what a flaouna looks like - a mini pizza, a Cornish pasty or none of the above? The showstopper is the classic 70's canape, vol-au-vents, which just happens to be the personal nemesis of one of the bakers.

For the first time in Bake Off, an entire episode is devoted to a period of history. The Victorian Era gave birth to modern baking and the bakers must take on challenges themed around this period. The signature challenge is a stalwart of the Victorian dinner table, game pie. For one it's the chance to use a genuine antique from 1850, while others take a more modern approach and dabble with spices. Mary dusts off her antique cookbooks to find a technical recipe that dates back to the late 1800s. The bakers battle with time as they must first make a perfect fruit cake, and then create their own sugar paste and marzipan and indulge in some very detailed royal icing in a bid to create a cake that resembles a tennis court. For the show-stopper, the bakers make charlotte russe, a dessert much loved by the Victorians which has a silky bavarois centre surrounded by sponge fingers and topped with jelly.

The five remaining bakers must work their way through childhood favourites and delicate french fancies to a mountainous choux pastry masterpiece. They start with a brief to create 24 cream horns for the signature challenge. Creating two different flavoured cream horns isn't enough for one ambitious baker who also makes two different types of pastry, while another hopes to appeal to Paul's inner child by making a banana and custard filling. Mary sets mokatines as the technical challenge, delicate squares of light genoise sponge filled with coffee buttercream and then decorated with two types of icing. The showstopper challenge earns its title, as this time the bakers must create a religieuse a l'ancienne. Three tiers of choux pastry eclairs filled with creme patissiere, beautifully iced and decorated with buttercream, the religieuse is a marvel to behold, yet leaves the bakers in fear. Time and gravity are against them as they to try create something that looks and tastes amazing and, crucially, stays standing.

The pressure is on as the remaining bakers must get to grips with the one of the most difficult ingredients: chocolate. First up is the signature challenge, where the bakers must make chocolate pastry for a chocolate tart. Mirror glazes, tempered chocolate and peanuts abound as Paul and Mary work their way through ganaches, mousse, caramel and the occasional fruit flavouring. Mary sets a technical challenge that's so quick it needs a staggered start, putting all the bakers on edge. Matters get no better when they each discover they have to make a chocolate souffle. As the tension mounts, who can keep a cool head and deliver a well-risen and beautifully light souffle? Animals and architecture take centre stage as the bakers get artistic and create spectacular chocolate centrepieces for their showstopper.

Only three of the original twelve bakers remain and now they face their last three challenges. The signature challenge sees the finalists tackle enriched dough to create delicious filled iced buns. The technical requires them to conquer something they have all struggled with, and finally, for their last ever showstopper, they must make a classic British cake. Mary and Paul expect nothing short of perfection.

After ten weeks of baking highs and lows, calm descends on the Bake Off tent as Mary and Paul take up the reins to make the signature, technical and showstopper challenges that they set the bakers in the first couple of weeks of the series. Step by step, they take us through the recipes, methods, tricks and tips to ensure that even the most amateur bakers can get it right at home every time. Mary kicks off with a classic madeira cake followed by her frosted walnut cake. Paul makes hazelnut and orange biscotti and shows us the right way to make the technically tricky arlettes. He then demonstrates how to make a foolproof plait. Mary provides a handy tip on how to stop ramekins from slipping in a bain marie and closes the show with her take on the retro classic black forest gateau.

Back in the Bake Off tent, Mary and Paul roll up their sleeves, baking the challenges that they set the bakers in Bread and Desserts weeks of the Great British Bake Off. Paul is in his element as he shows how to make soda bread in under an hour and then bakes baguettes, perhaps the most iconic of all French breads. Mary makes cappuccino creme brulees without a blow torch and creates the classic meringue cake which foxed the bakers in week 4 - the Spanische windtorte. Paul shows us how to decorate a pie and Mary reveals her tip for making a checkerboard cake before going on to bake a tiered white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake.

This week Mary and Paul recreate the bakes from the second half of the series and show us the skills, secrets and tips to ensure perfect results every time. Mary goes sugar free with her version of a sugar-free carrot cake, before making an apricot frangipane tart. Paul shows us the correct way to make the Cypriot flaounas which left the bakers bewildered in the technical challenge from pastry week. He then makes a game pie with hot water crust pastry followed by a show-stopping lime and passion fruit charlotte russe.

In the final masterclass of the series, Mary and Paul heat up the ovens and get out the mixing bowls one last time to create the signature, technical and showstopper challenges from the last part of the Great British Bake Off. Mary makes a tennis cake based on the 19th-century recipe that was the technical challenge from Victorian week. Paul makes two types of cream horns - the first filled with a mocha creme pat and the rest with a limoncello tutti frutti cream. Mary shows us how to be delicate, precise and perfect with her mokatines, and Paul gets to grips with an epic construction in choux pastry - le religieuse a l'ancienne.