Apricot and Pistachio Tart from Martha – looked stunning with the apricots presented in halves circling the baed and a scattering of green but sadly the judges thought it was a bit too wet and the custard was missing a nice shine. Also her pastry was underdone. It was overall too much of a tart apricot tart and not to the judges' tastebuds.

A Tarte Au Citron from Norman – I think he was either brave or silly to opt for this. We made this as our technical challenge in series two so unless his version was going to have been spectacularly building on that or have a little twist on the traditional he was surely going to meet disapproval from the judges? And yes he did. There was no finesse in his presentation. I think it looked perfectly traditional and as a homebake anyone would have been proud of it. It hadn’t cracked. It didn’t have the big air holes rushing to the top. It seemed perfectly baked and it was. Paul thought the flavour was stunning but also commented that it looked a mess.

The Coconut and Passionfruit Tart with a Chocolate pastry base sounded gorgeous. Nancy was the only one who opted for a chocolate pastry. Brownie points went to her for that for sure. It’s hard to get chocolate pastry right but this is a woman who has clearly made a lot of pastry. Both judges thought it was original and attractive. I’m going to be making this one at the weekend.

Kate chose Rhubarb and Custard. What a classic combo and I loved the swirl of decoration she bravely piped on half way through. She really impressed Paul with this simple but not so simple idea. However Paul wasn’t happy with the lack of custard flavour coming through with the sharp rhubarb. What a shame.

The Mancunian Tropical Fruit Tart from Luis also sounded amazing. A passionfruit, lime and orange custard in a pastry case of precision. He didn’t cut his overhanging pastry like the others. He had precisely weighed out his moong beans to fit all up to the edges and laid this on cling film which in my opinion is the way to do it. The cling film gets closer to the pastry than paper and the small beans fill up every edge making sure all aspects of the base are weighted down. His decoration was also stunning with a stencilled coconut sun and fruits placed carefully on top. Perfect, perfect, perfect. Paul said there wasn’t much he could critique.

Richard made an Almond Pastry for his Fig and Orange Tart. He was clearly using figs out of season but cleverly flavouring these by poaching them in spiced liquid prior to using them. Would this make them seep into the custard? Paul was looking forward to tasting this one but was disappointed as the orange flavour was not sharp enough for him plus as suspected the figs had made the whole thing rather soggy.

Chetna looked to her Indian roots again for inspiration this week with a tart incorporating my all time favourite dessert – kheer and mangoes. Kheer is a rice pudding and she incorporated this with her custard as well as mangoes and raspberries. She kept the flavours too subtle though and Paul thought she’d missed it with them.

So all in all not a bad round. Martha, Norman and Richard firmly at the bottom and the first tears of the series. Poor Martha.