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This week, Sandi taught us about the Danish tradition of screaming as you chop the head off your boy or girl birthday bake. Kind of cute, kind of… nightmarish. What she didn’t introduce us to was the Danish birthday song, where the person celebrating chooses three instruments that the singers have to mimic (bagsy trombone). Neither did she mention the tradition of adorning your entire house in the Danish flag on your big day. Or lagkage, which is basically layers of cake filled with cream, strawberries, jam and all your birthday wishes. The Danes know how to party.

It was Danish Week on GBBO, with Scandi-Sandi and Not-So-Nordic-Noel leading the charge through three challenges hailing from the land of vikings and Danish pastries. Manon’s French bakes have been en pointe so far, but the Norse Gods were apparently not smiling on her Danish baking, and we sadly had to send Manon on her way home this week. But fear not – before she set sail for fairer lands, we had one last catch up with her.

For the first time in Bake Off history, eggs, milk and butter were thrown out of the tent flaps for Vegan Week. There were tarts, meringues and towering celebration cakes, all without the help of dairy.

It was the Bake Off’s first ever Vegan Week, and what a week it was! Every baker rose to the challenge of baking without using any meat, eggs or dairy in their own unique way, cooking up a cacophony of plant-based puds. Sadly, we had to wave pud-bye to Jon, as he became the seventh baker to leave the tent. Here are his final words with us.

This week, Sandi set Noel a fiendishly difficult word puzzle that would test his intelligence beyond measure: a riddle-drawing of an angry bread roll in the blazing sunshine. A hint was needed.

Pastry Week: an episode characterised by crumbling nerves, pressure (and pie fillings) bursting out of every crevice, and a higher-than-average incidence of soggy bottoms. Not only was it a pastry-palaver of epic proportions for everyone involved, but a sad day indeed for every Bake Off fan as we had to bid goodbye to Dan, who, despite flaking a little at the tricky challenges posed this week, had a mostly-showstopping run on the show in which he won Star Baker once and clocked up no less than three Hollywood Handshakes.

Nutritious and delicious, these individual quiches make a perfect lunch served with a salad. 

The first ever Spice Week on The Great British Bake Off was ushered in by Noel yelling “Spice up your life!”. He may have been a little over-excited about the amount of gingerbread he was about to consume. And as the bakers dived headfirst into their Signature Challenges, it was clear that they were no Wannabes, with Ginger Spice cakes that had Prue crying “Viva Forever!” with pleasure. Paul’s advice for the technical was a little enigmatic: “Too much of something is bad enough, but too much of nothing is just as tough.” Erm, righty-ho Paul…

Whew, did Spice Week leave anyone else feeling hot under the collar? Flavour was the name of the game in week five of this year’s Bake Off, and nobody brings more flavour (sartorially and baking-wise!) to the tent than our Karen, from Yorkshire. Before we waved a final farewell to both her and Terry, who also left the tent this week, we caught up with her for one last brew, as is the Sheffield tradition.