As the lucky last seven moved on to the technical bake - jam doughnuts, which are five for a pound down the Co-Op but not so easy from scratch – Cathryn started doing her own commentary, laced with textbook GBBO innuendo. Timing the moment when the proving stopped and the deep-frying started was crucial. Cathryn eyed her rivals, then her balls of dough. "I would be the first person in the oil. Maybe I should just take the oily plunge."
What Cathryn described as "doughnut doom" was spreading across the kitchen. Having not known when to start, nobody knew when to stop frying. Sarah-Jane was yet again displaying that key sign of imminent Bake Off eviction: ignoring the established method and freestyling. "I'm not going on time," she said, crackling with uncertain bravado. "Just on the colour I think doughnuts should be."
"These are raw inside," said Paul Hollywood of Sarah-Jane's efforts. Worse followed. "It just looks like dough," ruled Mary. "You can see the stretch marks on it." In the Bake Off, stretch-marked doughnuts are a source of great shame.
Ryan was in trouble too, having mistimed his proving, leaving him scuppered before the frying. "They were pretty much crêpes when they went in there," said Paul. At least, I think that's what he said.
Danny's doughnuts were excellent but the winner of the round was James who, as he does with almost every task, said he'd cooked millions of them down the years. He's 20! He must have emerged from the womb with a spatula and a muslin bag of wet dough.
The showstopper was an enriched celebration loaf. Danny secured star baker status with a European wreath – mmmm, festive! - while James unleashed another creation with more syllables than ingredients: a "whisky kugelhopf-brioche baba". They don't sell those down the Co-Op.
Brendan was confronted by Paul about his 1970s fetish, which was unfortunate timing as he was about to construct a Black Forest Christmas stollen that was as modern and cool as Wizzard's Greatest Hits on eight-track cartridge. It had turrets. Tasty, though.
Ryan confirmed he was gone with an abject apology of a char siu bao, dry and dull yellow. Could Sarah-Jane correct her earlier mistakes and save herself? Paul took a bite of her bake.
"It's raw." Ah.