As the Great British Bake Off ramps up, InQuire’s Hannah Gilder takes a look at the Semi-Final of the baking showdown. Watch out for her diary on the final next week! Inevitably, spoilers ahead.

This week our four bakers faced some of the toughest challenges to date on the Great British Bake Off; tackling Baklava, a Middle Eastern favourite, Schichttorte, essentially a German grilled cake and fondant fancy entremets for their semi-final show stopper. Unfortunately Chetna Makan was the ninth baker to leave the competition this week after her Baklava caused a palaver with judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood. Previously nicknamed the ‘Queen of Flavours’ in the earlier weeks of the show, both judges agreed that her flaky filo pastry and lopsided technical meant she was no match for our three remaining finalists.

Builder Richard Burr caused a showstopper himself last week when he broke the record for being awarded star baker the most times in a series, and the favourite to win continued to wow viewers further when he became star baker for the fifth time on Wednesday evening.

Although the media has labelled him ‘the one to beat’, Richard, with his notorious mini pencil tucked behind his ear, looks more prepared to fit a kitchen than bake in one. Nonetheless he has definitely bought the precision and skills required in his profession to the bake off tent, Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood were extremely impressed with his “professional selection” of hazelnut mocha and pink grapefruit fondant fancies and “perfect” consistency throughout the show.

Despite the nation still grieving over the loss of the show’s beloved favourite, seventeen year old Martha Collison who managed to combine the bake off with her AS levels, there was no time to dwell during this week’s semi-final; the tension in the tent and for viewers at home was thicker than the layers of Luis’ Baklava. On the contrary, both Luis and Nancy are not to be overshadowed by the nation’s support for Richard.Not only did Luis bake Richard out of the top spot for the technical challenge, but his elegant chocolate mousse and cherry with his pomegranate, fig and pistachio entremets did not go unnoticed by the judges whilst Nancy’s raspberry nonnettes were branded “stunning” by Mary.

With the Final next week, the remaining contestants Nancy Birtwhistle, Luis Troyano and Richard Burr will battle it out to success with what promises to be the closest final episode in the history of the show.