Oh, to become a star-baker – to earn that coveted Hollywood handshake, to have Mary Berry as your adopted nan (don’t we all wish?), or just to avoid soggy bottoms – the Great British Bake Off tent is filled again with high hopes. From pastor Lee to support worker Rav, and from PE teacher Candice to nurse Kate, a new baker’s dozen embark on their ten weeks of whipping, creaming and relentless innuendo. And what a well-baked bunch they are, with no soggy bottom of a baker in sight.

The challenges have grown progressively harder over the GBBO years, and series seven kicks off with the ideal of ‘back to basics’ to counteract this trend. A quaint drizzle cake as the first signature challenge could not be more spot-on. Don’t be fooled, though: GBBO has not been reduced to a battle of gyp room microwaving skills. The new simplicity of the challenges leaves no room for error, but instead giving plenty of space for creativity.

As always with the early episodes, there are too many cooks in the kitchen to allow enough time to focus on all the bakes. The broth is far from spoilt, though, and some bakers already shine with more intriguing bakes than others.

Louise’s orange liqueur and lemon drizzle cake comes in the form of two half balls stuck together into an orange shape to bring together the visuals and flavours – and the halves awaiting construction earn the title ‘page three of drizzle cakes’ from Sue. Former Cantab engineer Andrew is equally into his construction work, really capitalising on transferable skills and creating an equation to achieve an even drizzle through his rosemary and lemon sponge. On the flavouring side of things, Rav spices things up with ginger spice and yuzu.

Alas, the implementation of the bakers’ ideas cannot be equally drizzled with praise: judges Paul and Mary are subjected to alcohol overkill, cake-turn-pudding, and, God forbid, dense sponge. What is remarkable about the first bake, though, is neither the bright ideas nor the not-so-bright bakes but the heroic effort showcased by some of the bakers. I’d normally frown upon such simply barbaric mistakes as leaving out ingredients, but all is forgiven when the dubiously serene Selasi forgets to add cinnamon to his sponge (I mean, it’s only the main ingredient of his cake) and reinvents it in the drizzle, and Jane, after leaving ground almonds out of her sponge, raises her cake from disaster to praise.

Cambridge graduate to compete in Great British Bake Off

The technical challenge continues the new Bake-Off Basics line, asking for twelve identical Jaffa cakes. Though runny chocolate presents a hazard, Jaffa cakes should land at the easier end of GBBO technical challenges. Or so it would seem viewed from the comfiness of my home kitchen: the contestants face existential angst in trying to decide what size jelly layers they should be cutting, and, indeed, which way round the cakes should be built. There isn’t much character to the small-scale mass produced cakelets but my heart goes out to Andrew, whose engineering prowess does not save him from presenting his cakes the wrong way round.

Luckily the showstopper manages to remedy all the blandness of the technical challenge. The task – a mirror glaze cake with genoise sponge ­­­– is much like the signature challenge in being misleadingly simple. The cakes, thankfully, are mostly anything but plain: Michael’s matcha tea cake continues Rav’s Japanese flavours and Andrew’s ‘Ultimate Indulgence’ lives up to its name – orange sponge with salted caramel cream and orange glaze with caramelised hazelnut (excuse me if I glaze over here; I’m certainly more than willing to indulge in Andrew’s sponge).

The style points go again to Selasi, who seemingly effortlessly produces flavour perfection with raspberry, sloe, and white chocolate (never mind the not-so reflexive mirror glaze); he is definitely one to watch, casually mixing away at his batter, doing a ‘dunno, just ’cause’ shrug when asked why it should be done over boiled water.

Unfortunately, the showstoppers also deliver the biggest pancakes. Even a second attempt doesn’t produce a non-rubbery sponge for Candice, and Kate’s sky blue swallow cake is more saccharine in concept alone than anything baked in the tent; the swallows remind her of her wedding, as she proudly bakes away in matching swallow earrings and dress. If it weren’t for the sickly over-sweetness of the idea, it would be a touch heartbreaking when Paul Hollywood describes the finished product as more closely resembling penguins floating in the sea.

But what would GBBO be without sponges bouncing off windows and species of birds being redefined? Cake Week delivers the perfect mixture of mishaps, food porn, and innuendo, and proves a tasty starter to the weeks to come, nailing both substance and style. Whether we’ll witness the creation of a new Nadiya (now presenting Chronicles of Nadiya – someone at the BBC must be very proud of that one), or smooth Dr Tamal is, as yet, unknown. What looks certain, though, is that these amateur bakers are definitely ready to come out of the oven – ready, set… BAKE!

Bake Off continues on Wednesday. Episode one can be watched on BBC iPlayer.