For a rugby-hater like myself, it’s a delight to see rugby balls replaced by rolling pins and mouthguards taken over by that far more elegant form of protective gear – aprons. Forget about the England vs. Australia match, the Bake Off final is the major TV event of Michaelmas, with college TV rooms booked out well in advance, #teamtamal featuring on social media, and “not Ian” being the astounding consensus as to who the winner should be. The steady trio of Nadiya, Ian, and Tamal share between them seven Star Baker titles, master flavours and struggle with pastry – as in all good finals, whether of the sporting or baking variety, the outcome could be anything.

In terms of the actual bakes in the Final, they should be the most challenging ones yet. However, the signature challenge fails to meet expectations in the form of filled iced buns – surely baking, filling, and icing a bun is nothing compared to last week’s soufflé stress? The finalists do manage to bring flavour to the otherwise bland challenge: Ian’s buns are inspired by the elderflowers he happened to cycle past (of course – at least he does not enthuse about them being homegrown this week), and my brownie points go to Nadiya who continues her line of Bangladeshi-inspired bakes with almond crème pat, cardamom and nutmeg.

Yet, what surprises me more than the simplicity of the task is the simplicity of the bakers’ mistakes: Ian forgets to add sugar to his dough and manages to produce a stunningly ugly icing, while Tamal’s crème pat does not set, ending up in the bin rather than the bun. What can I say? It’s the Final, for goodness' sake.

The Technical Challenge ups the ante, bringing out the finalists’ common Achilles’ heel – pastry. The particular reincarnation here comes in the form of six identical strawberry millefeuilles, involving thin layers of crisp rough puff pastry, raspberries, chantilly cream, fondant icing, and suitably underspecified instructions (the bakers are either plain confused or liberal-minded enough to consider adding to the bake the paperclips that come with the ingredients but are omitted from the instructions). There are no soggy bottoms, thank goodness, but Ian fails to bake his pastry for long enough and to produce a smooth top, while Tamal decides to grate the butter, as per instructions, and then, for some obscure reason, makes it into a block, resulting in a pastry that is, well, wrong. The pain of these failures too big for the final is somewhat compensated by Nadiya, the former Technical underdog, who actually manages to produce a presentable product.

All these flaws are forgiven in the Showstopper, which, in true Bake Off spirit, is a multi-layered traditional English cake. Ian’s five carrot cakes with a single icing carrot running across them is a fun idea, Tamal’s sticky toffee fruit cake mirroring an ancient abandoned Chinese fishing village (the theme did raise some eyebrows at first) shows pure skill in sugar work, and Nadiya brings home the emotional points by baking herself the lemon drizzle wedding cake she never had. And if Paul and Mary’s praise is to be believed, the cakes would seem to be pure heaven in terms of substance as well. Now that is what I would expect from Bake Off finalists.

Sadly, not everyone can win despite the mouthwatering, near-perfection Showstopper performances: Nadiya has her cake and eats it, too, and given the first two Challenges, she does so well-deservedly. In a way, the victory is handed on a plate to her; previous Finals have seen a more even distribution of successes and failures, whereas this time round Ian and Tamal take the hit for the team, repeatedly and in elementary ways. That said, next year’s winner will have a lot to live up to when it comes to Nadiya’s exotic flavours, beautiful artwork, and occasional alchemy.