Week Four brings on desserts and my expectations are rising accordingly to soufflé-like heights: apart from perhaps Cake Week; desserts, the queen of courses, allow the most obvious opportunities to combine flavours and create intricate structures.

The signature challenge calls for twelve identical crème brulées (which have always remained too much of a challenge for me)… but with a twist. They must be bruléed under the grill, no blowtorches allowed (after all, no such things existed when Mary was a young and aspiring baker). Timing is key here: for the caramelised topping, there is merely a second’s difference between crisp and burnt, and the custard could end up as either a ‘bru-lake’ if not set enough, or fancy scrambled eggs if overdone. While the golden middle of custard consistency, Paul’s “delicate little wobble”, provides the episode with endless innuendo, it escapes many of the bakers.

The puddings range from Paul the Contestant’s alcoholic scrambled eggs (it is rather touching how he vouches for it having worked at home) to Sandy’s mysteriously soup-like creations (after an excessive half an hour in the oven, Mary and Paul can only laugh at the result). Yet what disappoints me is not the lack of the correct wobble but the absence of creativity, with most contestants sticking to the standard fruity or boozy flavours. Only Ugne’s marula fruit creation (an African fruit in essentially liqueur format) and Sandy’s liquorice version of the classic do not fail my expectations of a parade of flavours in the Bake Off tent.

The technical challenge ups the ante by bringing on the “mothership of the meringue cake”, the Spanish Windtorte. This cornucopia involves two types of meringue, the crispy French cream with strawberries and the gooey Swiss cream with raspberries. Although each time the cake faces its stint in the oven the risk of ruined meringue is increased, there are no major disasters, the worst off being Alvin’s over-baked desert and Nadiya’s messy meringue explosion. That said, there is no outstanding excellence either. Some bakes do make me raise my eyebrows, however – what on earth made Sandy bend her lid into a V-shape?

At least the bent lid is an attempt at uniqueness – the same cannot be said for the showstoppers, three tiers of baked cheesecakes. Just as with the crème brulée, the bakes are disappointingly unadventurous, the contestants again sticking to mainly fruity combinations in flavours (extra credit has to go to Alvin for being utterly adorable choosing the flavours his family members love the best), and lacking exciting themes in presentation. These are supposed to be the same people who were building bicycles, lion faces and even the Brighton Pavilion out of bread last week! Two of the bakes salvage the situation somewhat: Mat’s cheesecakes are a trio of chocolate bars, (peanut butter, coconut, and honeycomb), while Nadiya goes for a selection of fizzy pops (ginger beer, lemonade, and cream soda – the latter involves boiling down actual soda into a syrup for over ten hours), complete with a levitating soda can with lemon meringue soda pouring onto the layered cakes.

But what Dessert Week lacks in the ambitiousness and flamboyance of the puddings it gains in the bakers' character development (which I complained about in Week One). Sandy’s sass does not cease to entertain (she is up there with Mel and Sue with her wobble jokes), Star Baker Ian is officially identified as the teacher’s pet and as such is becoming increasingly annoying, and Flora’s uncertainty wins all the cuteness points. Dessert Week may have failed to produce the culinary masterpieces I had anticipated, but for the first time in four weeks I feel like the contestants are finally out of the oven.