Great British Bake Off 2014: Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood Reach A Shock Stalemate

Eurovision jokes, dodgy accents and some cakes fit for a princess... It could only be European Cake week on The Great British Bake Off.

Admit it, you sat down at 8pm last night and thought, 'Aww, no Norman!'. Right? Mind you, I'm almost relieved our lover of simpler things wasn't in the tent this week; this madness would have blown poor Norm's exotic-ometer.

Things got tense. Real tense.

Nancy forgot what the "male judge" was called. Richard's pencil didn't save his layers from crumbling. Martha's chessboard decorations failed to impress. This was Bake Off at its best.

We've got six exceptionally talented contestants being pushed to the limit here - five hours for the Showstopper challenge? I felt stressed just watching them all beavering away, fighting for their place.

Norman's exit felt inevitable. This was going to be much more difficult. Alas, the Bake Off Gods (producers, we imagine lurking around the edge of the tent) had spoken. Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood didn't have to give anyone the chop. But they made sure that Richard and Kate knew just how close they had come to packing up their ingredients. Both previous Star Bakers, they earned the chance to bake another week despite their disastrous week.

We've reached the point of the competition where it is now exceptionally hard to decide who should go. I've genuinely never struggled to pick out of six people - be it singers, bakers or dancing dogs and magicians - and I've been watching reality TV for a long time!

Chetna and her wonderful flavours, Martha and her sheer determination to please everyone, Luis and his impeccable designs... each of the group brings something special to this delicious hour of TV. And that is exactly why 10 million of us are hooked. Who wasn't chuffed for Kate finally winning Star Baker last week? The bridesmaid finally had her moment in the spotlight... It couldn't all end just seven days later! Chetna could have started a nationwide Mexican wave as she threw her arms in the air last night, enjoying her moment of success that had been six weeks in the baking. Douze points for our reigning Star Baker. All eyes will be on Chetna next week to see if she evades the curse...

With four weeks to go, the competition has never been tighter. One mistake will separate the remaining bakers. As Dame Berry herself said: "Exceptional". Paul and Mary have now played their one-off 'everyone stays' card, giving the remaining six a stern warning about how close it really is. Special thanks to Diana and her shock exit for making that possible.

If we've learned one thing this series it's that the Great British Bake Off viewers are a passionate bunch. When a baker is wronged, we love nothing more than to kick up a fuss! Well cancel that front page folks, not this week.

Was it an easy way out for Paul and Mary? Of course. A competition has to have its losers, but for one week only, it felt good to see the talented half-dozen survive a few mishaps. A first in five series, I think we can forgive our judges for having their cake and eating it on this occasion. After all, it does conveniently fix up the numbers for the remaining four weeks.

So it was with a somewhat tragic sigh of relief that I finished my Bake Off notes with a smile last night. And then came the realisation... We've got to do it all over again next week, and this time, someone will be saying cheerio.

Who goes? For once, I'm glad we don't decide.

[Great British Bake Off Episode Five: No Sur-PIES As Norman Calder Is Finally Binned]

[Great British Bake Off Episode Four: Did Iain Watters Deserve To Go For His Self-Confessed Meltdown?]