Bake Off Crème de la Crème

The search for the creme de la creme of British pastry begins with Tom Kerridge welcoming three teams of expert chefs to the competition. Ahead of them lies a truly intense day of cooking in front of three of the biggest names in British pastry. Battling it out in the first heat of this intense bake off are three young chefs from a five-star hotel, a team which invents desserts for a leading supermarket and a trio of chefs who work in secret restaurants hidden away in the city of London. Judging and scoring their efforts are Benoit Blin, chef patissier at Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, Claire Clark MBE, world-renowned pastry chef and consultant, and Cherish Finden, executive pastry chef at The Langham, London. In the first challenge, the teams must produce three different mouthwatering patisserie items - framboisier - a classic layered slice, paris-brest - a handcrafted miniature, and a cylindrical petit gateau invented by the teams themselves. They must make 36 perfect and identical items of each pastry and with just three hours to do it, the pressure is almost too much for some. In the second challenge, the team must transform an ordinary dessert into an incredible fine-dining experience with their showpiece. For this heat, it's apple crumble and custard which gets the five-star treatment, complete with towering edible showpiece sculptures that are simply unbelievable. With heart-stopping moments, frank and uncompromising judging and cooking techniques we've never seen before, which team will score the most points and earn themselves a place in the semi-finals?

The search for the creme de la creme of British pastry continues with Tom Kerridge welcoming three more teams of expert chefs to the competition. In the second heat of this incredible bake off, a team from the British Armed Forces meet the only all-women team in the competition and a team from a world-famous London hotel. To secure a place in the semi-finals, the teams must impress the formidable judging panel of Benoit Blin, chef patissier at Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, Claire Clark MBE, world-renowned pastry chef and consultant, and Cherish Finden, executive pastry chef at The Langham, London. In the Miniatures Challenge, the teams are asked to produce 36 opera slices, 36 babka knots - a handcrafted breakfast pastry - and 36 petits gateaux in the shape of a sphere, invented by the teams themselves. Each item in each batch must be uniform in appearance, finished to the very highest professional standards and of course utterly delicious. They have just three hours to make all 108 pastries. In the Showpiece Challenge, the team are asked to reinvent a popular British dessert as a fine-dining experience and present it as a dazzling showpiece display. The humble dessert getting the five-star makeover this week is trifle. Two teams take gardens as their theme, one English, the other Japanese, while the third team performs a feat of chocolate engineering. The results are simply jaw-dropping but which team will please the judges?

The search for the creme de la creme of British pastry continues with Tom Kerridge welcoming three more teams of expert chefs to the competition for the third heat out of five. To secure a place in the semi-finals, the teams must impress the formidable judging panel of Benoit Blin, chef patissier at Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, Claire Clark MBE, world-renowned pastry chef and consultant, and Cherish Finden, executive pastry chef at The Langham, London. Eager to please the judges this week are two teams of chefs who work in upmarket patisserie shops, while the third team hails from the kitchens of an exclusive Scottish hotel. In the Miniatures Challenge, the teams are asked to produce 36 petit antoine chocolate slices, 36 macaroons religious and 36 pyramid-shaped cakes invented specially for the competition. With just three hours to make them and sky-high expectations from the judges, teamwork, time management and calmness under pressure are essential. In the Showpiece Challenge, the teams are asked to reinvent a popular British dessert as a fine-dining experience and present it as a dazzling showpiece display. This week, the dessert getting the five-star makeover is lemon meringue pie. There is no shortage of drama, with clouds of dry ice, a surprise hidden inside a lemon and a fragile swan made entirely of sugar. But which of the lavish desserts will get the highest score from the judges?

The search for the creme de la creme of British pastry continues with Tom Kerridge welcoming three more teams of expert chefs in the fourth heat out of this tense competition. Competing in this episode are a cookery school teacher with two of his former star pupils, a trio of pastry chefs from a five-star London hotel and the only all-French outfit in the competition who work in a high-end patisserie. The team with the most points at the end of the heat will earn their place in the semi-finals and awarding the points are three of the biggest names in pastry - Benoit Blin is chef patissier at Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, Claire Clark MBE is a world-renowned pastry chef and Cherish Finden is executive pastry chef at The Langham, London. In the Miniatures Challenge, the teams are asked to produce 36 St Marc slices, 36 sfogliatelle, an Italian ricotta-filled pastry shell, and 36 small domed cakes invented specially by the teams. Identical batches of perfect bakes are what the judges are looking for so this is all about precision cooking in high volume with immaculate results. With just three hours to make 108 pastries, which captain will take their team to the top of the leader board? In the Showpiece Challenge, the team are asked to reinvent a popular British dessert as a fine-dining experience and present it as a dazzling showpiece display. This week, sticky toffee pudding gets the five-star treatment. The teams' extraordinary designs include a model of the Lake District and a brandy snap tower which glows in the dark. Ambitious and risky, but will the judges be impressed? And who will be back to bake again in the semi-finals?

The search for the creme de la creme of British pastry has reached the last heat, with just three teams left hoping to secure their place in the semi-finals. Tom Kerridge welcomes a team from a fine-dining restaurant in Liverpool, a team from Leeds led by a self-taught chocolatier and three pastry chefs from south Wales who are representing their country in this year's culinary Olympics. To secure a place in the semi-finals the teams must impress the formidable judging panel of Benoit Blin, chef patissier at Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, Claire Clark MBE, world-renowned pastry chef and consultant, and Cherish Finden, executive pastry chef at The Langham, London. In the Miniatures Challenge, the teams must cook against the clock and have just three hours to produce 36 dacquoise slices, 36 fruit tartlets and 36 petits gateaux in the shape of a cube. They need to make every batch identical in size and shape and avoid Cherish getting out her ruler. But will they impress Benoit and Claire with their innovative flavour profiles? In the Showpiece Challenge, the team are asked to reinvent a classic homemade dessert as a fine-dining experience. For this heat, chocolate cheesecake is transformed into three stunning showpiece displays. One team takes its inspiration from the ancient Aztecs while another travels back to ancient Greece. The third team opts to avoid a theme altogether, instead focusing on making the best possible cheesecake. Which tactic will pay off when the final scores are revealed?

The search for the creme de la creme of British pastry has reached the semi-finals. Fifteen teams started the competition, but now just six remain. And things are about to get even tougher. In the first semi-final, Tom Kerridge welcomes back three winning teams from the heats. James's team of supermarket inventors secured their semi-final spot with a fairy-tale apple crumble in the first heat. Liam's team from the British Armed Forces was next to impress the judges with a stunning trifle showpiece. And Sajeela's team from the Hilton on Park Lane triumphed with a towering take on sticky toffee pudding. Now they must prove themselves once more and up their game as the judges set one of the sternest tests of a pastry chef's skill; breakfast pastries, or what's known in the trade as viennoiserie. The judges want the teams to make 144 perfect pastries in three hours: 48 croissants, 48 brioches and 48 Danish pastries.

It's the second semi-final in the search for the creme de la creme of British pastry. Three teams are back to showcase their high-end skills, hoping to secure their place in the final. For the Miniatures test, the judges want the teams to make three different types of petits fours - bite-sized pastries which are often served with coffee at the end of a meal. For the Showpiece, the teams must build large and decorative chocolate structures to display three different types of sweets - calissons, marshmallows and moulded chocolates.

The search for the best team of pastry chefs has reached the final. 15 teams started the competition but now just three remain, all hoping to be named the creme de la creme of British pastry. Taking their place in the kitchens for the last time are Sajeela, Sam and James, a well-drilled unit from a five-star hotel, whose semi-final saw them triumph with their breakfast pastries and dress up as samurai warriors to present their stunning Japanese bureau. Competing against them are Mark, Helen and Sam, a tutor and his former pupils from an international cookery school. These masters of chocolate won their semi-final with a stunning chocolate egg sculpture, which earned high praise from all the judges. The third team is made up of Christophe, who runs a chain of patisserie shops in south London, and Josua and Valeria, who bring the baking traditions of Germany and Italy to their kitchen. Their metaphor for the banking crisis earned them a wildcard place as best runners-up from the semi-finals. The challenge now facing the teams is to present a fine-dining dessert banquet with enough desserts to feed 100 guests. The teams have been asked to design their banquets to reflect their unique personalities.