Sophie’s pastry is ‘well baked but a little too thick’ and Prue is disappointed by the savoury filling’s ‘predominantly soy flavour’. Her sweet side fares slightly better – Prue gives a surprising wink like a classy costermonger and says ‘lovely flavour – a bit dry’.

Paul critiques Steven’s delicate clanger – it’s ‘not very robust if you’re carrying that into a field’, perhaps forgetting that every Bake Off bake is essentially field-based, albeit the toil of a very gentile meadow. Taking a bite, Paul admires the ‘beautiful flavour’ and Prue adds that the baklava is ‘absolutely delicious’.

Liam’s fragile pastry also fails the clanger banging resistance test but Prue admires his fillings – ‘so good at flavour’. The little dips prove to be superfluous. Stacey, however, achieves a perfect balance with firm but flaky pastry and ‘beautiful flavours’. Prue praises, ‘I’m amazed that you got such good texture’ and Paul seals his admiration with a handshake.

Heavy showers herald the onset of this week’s technical challenge of Cumberland Rum Nicky. Steven pithily summarises – ‘an alcoholic tart with a lattice top – sounds like a perfect drag queen’. Having been advised by Paul that it’s ‘all about precision’, the bakers discover they have no measuring jug or spoons. Steven inexplicably resorts to estimating fifty millilitres of rum in the cup of his hand, like a man with some experience of palm-based calibration.

Fortunately still equipped with rulers, the bakers score out the required fourteen pastry lengths and begin to weave their ways to a criss-cross lattice. Steven however attempts a precisely slashed and stretched lattice, which frankly flops. Abandoning his individual approach, he hurriedly chases the criss-cross crowd and produces a slightly scrappy but well-baked tart, magically transforming his fate from Nicky novice to Cumberland sorcerer. Stacey bites back at Paul when told she has too many strips on her lattice, then has to eat her words at a recount. Poor Liam’s pale offering seals the raw deal of last place.

This week’s showstopper is an elaborately shaped and sugar-crusted Savoy cake, which, along with the Prince Albert party ring, is a now forgotten feature of the Victorian buffet table. ‘Traditionally seldom eaten’, our bakers must craft an edible edifice rising from a cake base. I could listen to Sandi Toksvig say ‘sponge plinth’ all day.

In a budget-conscious staycation version of the historical segment, Sandi narrates a brief history of the Savoy cake whilst the camera fixes on a rotating exemplar that appears to be ‘sometimes lightly decorated’ with bits of paper doily.

Steven is dispensing with the doily in favour of a decorative bouquet of handcrafted fondant flowers. They’re skilfully arranged on a modest but stylish cake flavoured with chestnut purée, rum and orange that has a moist core of cinnamon apples. Precisely studded with candied walnuts, Steven tosses his pan and warns of the danger of a face full of hot nuts.

Stacey’s cake is anything but restrained as she crams her lemon and orange sponges with macarons, madeleines, jellies and meringues. Attacking her mammoth task with feisty fervour she even manages to unhinge her oven door.

Topped with a silver fondant Liver bird, Kate’s towering homage to her home city’s architecture features enough eggs to make a chicken wince. With over sixty in her bowl, Kate plans to ‘go big or go home’.

Sophie’s citrus cake is sandwiched with yuzu buttercream and encircled by a croquembouche of choux balls filled with green apple diplomat cream. Topped by a chocolate flower, Prue calls it ‘a perfect shape’ and says it’s ‘spectacular to look at’. Despite being ‘quite chewy’ Prue decides the flavour is ‘very pleasant’ and Paul adds ‘love that green apple flavour’.

Hoping for a magical comeback with his lemon and elderflower cake, Liam crafts chocolate wands and adds potion bottles of bourbon caramel sauce. Cloaking his cake in a wizardly web of spun sugar he watches his dreams dissolve into dampness. With faint flavours too, Prue calls it ‘a really great idea’ but adds ‘I don’t think you quite pulled it off’.

Kate suffers even more of her self-proclaimed ‘disasters’ along the way, with a crumbling plinth cake and a broken Liver bird, but she improvises with a little restorative chocolate. ‘Lightly decorated’ in the classic Savoy style, Paul decides it’s ‘a bit simplistic’ and most layers are ‘a bit dry’ but Kate’s pecan cake is ‘delicious’.

Steven’s cake also gets a ‘delicious’ from Paul, who adds it’s ‘very pretty’. The judges look at Stacey’s monumental sugar fest and admit the cakes are good. ‘Overall you’ve gone slightly OTT on the decoration’ says Paul, whilst Prue suggests ‘probably a titch overambitious’. Nevertheless, Stacey’s over-ambition wins the day as she’s made Star Baker.

I begin to wonder if my baker bias is an unwitting curse as loveable Liam is the latest to follow in my favourites’ footsteps. I vow not to disclose any preference for who is left.

Liam bravely blubs that this is not the end, promising that in a couple of years ‘I’m coming for Paul Hollywood’s job’. And in a tantalising insight of next week’s episode Paul promises ‘the hardest decision that I’ve been involved with in eight years of the Bake Off’. Could it be retirement? Liam, you may be back sooner than you thought.