The Great British Bake Off - Season 3

The first episode is all about cake and the pressure is on from the very first challenge. The bakers tackle an upside down cake for their signature bake, and to keep their place in the Bake Off tent they each attempt to produce a truly showstopping cake.

The atmosphere in the Bake Off tent is charged as 11 bakers attempt to make flatbread. The revered technical challenge has the bakers in a twist as they attempt Paul's recipe for the notoriously difficult 8 strand paited loaf.

Things are hotting up as the remaining 10 bakers do their best to wow Paul and Mary with some unusual flavour combinations for their tartes tartin.

The bakers get their just dessert as they face three challenges all designed for a sweet tooth. Today's technical challenge is a main stay of French baking, the crème caramel. Proceedings are rounded off with a mammoth 6 hour challenge to produce a mighty showstopping layered meringue.

The bakers turn their attention to pies. For their first task they must master a perfect Wellington. When they've recovered it's straight into a fiendishly difficult technical challenge – hand raised pies. None of the bakers have used a pastry dolly before and it proves the downfall of many!

The bakers go all out to impress Mary and Paul with two types of delicious sponge puddings. The technical challenge sees them face a queen of pudding, a recipe direct from the archives of the Queen of Bakes, Mary Berry. And finally a show-stopping strudel that stretches the bakers to their limit.

There are still seven bakers left in the Bake Off, but two must go this time. Facing three sweet dough challenges, the bakers start their campaign by creating their signature regional buns, and Paul opens his recipe vault for the technical challenge surprise recipe of Jam Doughnuts.

It's the biscuit based quarter final, and Paul and Mary are taking the challenges to another level. The signature bake sees the bakers  attempt to deliver a batch of perfectly baked crispbreads, and time and temperature work against them to produce six perfectly tempered chocolate tea cakes for the technical challenge.

There are only four bakers left vying for a place in the final. The weight of the occasion is getting to the most unflappable of the bakers as they frantically work against the clock to deliver petits fours to Paul and Mary's exacting standards. The hardest technical bake ever seen on Bake Off finds two of the bakers left wanting as their fraisier cakes collapse, and it's possible to hear a pin drop in the kitchen as the bakers pull out the stops for their showstopping choux gateaus.

After weeks of pastries, cakes and bread, three bakers have made it to the final. To prove themselves to judges Paul and Mary, they will have to make some first rate fondant fancies. But ultimately, it all comes down to their final ever showstopper - creating a masterpiece with a notoriously difficult Chiffon sponge.