GINGERBREAD coliseums, cakes that slice open to reveal a whole new design, beef Wellingtons that look like something you’d normally find in a medical textbook – we really have seen it all during The Great British Bake Off.

It’s one of the reasons the show has made for such compelling viewing, although there are other factors. Like the judges. Mary Berry has long been hailed as the queen of baking, but this series has also seen her emerge as a fashion icon.

One particular floral bomber jacket was so eye-catching, it reportedly went on to sell out on the high street.

Then there’s stern but fair Paul Hollywood, who has become something of a heart-throb. He made number 17 in Heat’s 2011 Weird Crush poll, between Simon Cowell and Ed Balls.

But for him, the show is all about the baking. “The whole thing about The Great British Bake Off is, from our point of view, to get people baking, to get people to understand what it’s all about. And it’s worked,” he says.

“I don’t think we’ve done anything special with the programme, but I do think baking has always been part of our culture, whether it’s your grandma or your granddad, your mum, your dad or your sister, it’s something we can all do and something that relates to when most of us were young.”

As Sue Perkins, who hosts alongside her comedy partner Mel Giedroyc, is keen to point out, the results have been all the more impressive given the pressures the contestants are under.

“It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve tried it at home, because at home you’re not shaking with a silverback gorilla staring at you saying, ‘I don’t like this’, and Mary’s cornflower-blue eyes drilling into you, expecting perfection, Tonight’sTV By Steve Pratt email: steve.pratt@nne.co.uk and someone like me pawing at you and licking your boiling butterscotch. So we do up the stress ante here.”

The three remaining wannabe master bakers would do well to bear that in mind as they prepare to battle it out in this week’s final. They must impress Berry and Hollywood with a signature pithivier (that’s a type of pie to non-baking experts), a batch of fondant fancies, and their final showstopper, which will be made using the notoriously difficult chiffon sponge.