Ten weeks, 25 fiendishly difficult fondant fancies, a colony of gingerbread houses and this year’s search for Britain’s best amateur baker has come to an emotional end. The show has a loyal following of over seven million viewers who have witnessed joy, tears and quite a few soggy bottoms along the way, and it even enjoyed a larger audience than the Paralympics swimming finals.

The programme has seen us through the Jubilee year and the Olympics, and provided a particularly British blend of stoicism and naughty humour throughout another rainy summer, with the familiar Union Jack bunting fluttering around the marquee. The trio competing in last week’s all-male final were first faced with the task of creating a puff pastry pie in their last signature challenge, and judges Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry plumped for Brendan’s garlicky vegetarian creation as the round’s winner. James was let down by his ‘soggy bottom’, while John’s sausage filling sent Mary Berry into innuendo overdrive.

The endearing self-deprecation of the competitors lends a particularly British element to the programme, with Brendan mentioning at one point that he hoped he “wouldn’t be struck down” for expressing his desire to win, adding that he comes from a background of “high-quality guilt”.

There were also the usual asides from Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc, with Perkins winning this week’s pun award for “It’s over – I’m not taking the pithivier!”, when telling the contenders to step away from their worktops and dust themselves down after the episode’s first challenge. Next up was the order from High Priest Hollywood and Priestess Berry to make 25 identical fondant fancies. This proved to be the undoing of the group, as the recipes involved few instructions and several time-consuming stages, as they baked the sponge base, added marzipan and apricot jam and found themselves stumped as they prepared to apply the icing. Was it more prudent to dunk or to pour? The background music became more and more tense as the three fabulous baker boys pondered how to tackle the innocuous-looking patisserie. Post-technical challenge, Brendan was philosophical, James was determined and John was fretting. Reader, baking doesn’t get any tougher than this…

With nerves in tatters and a growing certainty that the unflappable Brendan would win, it was time for the final task of the series: making a chiffon cake to commemorate the finalist’s most memorable moments of 2012. I could have bet my balloon whisk on Brendan’s triumph. Brendan went for a family reunion cake, John decided on a heaven and hell theme, and James chose to make four separate cakes representing England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland, with a fifth cake acting as a centrepiece as 2012 was “a big year for the United Kingdom”. Did any of them bite off more than they could chew?

Following a fraught preparation period, during which James dropped one of his cakes and had to make a new one from scratch, the budding chefs presented the fruits of their labours to the exacting judges. James was left crestfallen after his cakes were “far too dry”, while James’s chocolate cake with meringue clouds was “beautiful, with a lovely shine” and Brendan’s consistent elegance was praised.
The bakers’ efforts were all lauded, although if James had chosen to make one cake rather than five separate ones, the result would perhaps have been different. A surprise verdict declared John Whaite this year’s winner, after a raft of trials and triumphs. The usually critical Paul Hollywood declared John “fantastic” and John said the win “meant the absolute world” to him.

We have seen the contestants through ten weeks of macaroons, raspberry tarts and babas, and for anyone fearing an abrupt comedown after a sugar high, fear not. Baking royalty King Paul and Queen Mary will be back on our screens next Tuesday with a culinary masterclass, and winner John has announced plans to release a recipe book.