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With Paul’s decades of experience as a leading artisan baker and Prue’s prestige as a chef, they’re a formidable source of knowledge when it comes to Christmas feasting prep.

An early Christmas present: eight former bakers join us for two festive episodes of The Great British Bake Off…

They say all good things must come to an end, but our Tuesday nights are feeling rather empty now that Series 8 of The Great British Bake Off has finished. If you can’t wait until next year, here are five moments we’ll be reliving via Channel 4’s on-demand service, All 4.

The penultimate episode of The Great British Bake Off 2017 went down in a flurry of pastry, meringue masterpieces and a technical challenge that made all four semi finalists more than a little bit misérables. Sadly, it was Stacey’s week to leave the tent, but with Paul Hollywood saying it was one of the hardest decisions that Paul Hollywood has ever had to make on his eight years judging the Bake Off, she can certainly say she’s leaving on a high.   

Italian Week – or “bootcamp for bakers”, as Yan called it – was a Bake Off first designed to put the bakers through their paces like never before. To make for an authentic experience, temperatures in the tent just so happened to soar to Mediterranean levels, resulting in a sticky mess for more than one baker. Sadly, Yan’s sfogliatelle showstopper ended in meltdown, and so we had to bid her arrivederci. Though Biomedical Scientist Yan grew up in a Chinese family that favoured steaming over baking (the family oven was used as a storage space), she began to bake a decade ago while in-between 24 hour shifts working for the NHS.

The Italian Week technical challenge put the bakers’ home-cooking skills to the test with an Italian classic: Pizza Margherita. It may sound easy, but achieving the perfect crust, a crisp base and the iconic red white and green Italian flag topping is no pizza cake. The secret to the ultimate Pizza Margherita lies in authentic methods, and it was that skill and instinct the judges were looking for in this challenge. Prue even made her way around the tent pinching the baker’s rolling pins before the challenge, and for good reason – Italians achieve a perfect pizza base by tossing the dough in the air rather than stretching it out using a rolling pin.

Pastry making is notoriously tricky business, but once you understand the science behind the art form, it all starts to make sense. Here are some tips from the upper crust of the patisserie pack to help you level-up your pastry making skills for perfect pies and tremendous tarts, every time.

Pastry making is tricky business, and for many bakers in the tent, Pastry Week is a make-or-break moment. For Julia, it was one soggy bottom too many, and sadly it was time to bid her a fond farewell. Russian-born Julia taught herself to bake as a teenager, saving up money from her after school job to buy ingredients. She’s been brushing up her skills to apply for The Great British Bake Off for the last three years, and cooked her way through the competition to make it more than halfway through series eight.

The ovens are pre-heated, the knives have been sharpened and the gingham alter is poised and prepared. With just one week to go until the launch of a whole new series of The Great British Bake Off, it’s time to give you a sneak peek at the bakers who’ll be whisking, tempering and piping their way through the challenges in the latest competition to be crowned the country’s best amateur baker.