This first show uncovers that Queen Victoria is responsible for Britain's wedding cake tradition, that the Puritans tried to ban cake because it was too pleasurable, and that cake baking contributed to women's liberation.

Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins take the eight passionate home bakers who made it through the first round to Scone Palace near Perth to make biscuits and teatime treats.

It is week three of the competition and the six remaining bakers are making bread in Kent. If they found cakes and biscuits challenging, it's bread that's considered the real test of a baker's mettle.

It's week four of and the remaining five bakers have travelled to Bakewell in Derbyshire. This time the bakers are reinventing an often neglected British classic - the pudding.

It's the penultimate round and as the travelling marquee pitches up in the Cornish village of Mousehole, it's time for the bakers to get to grips with the most difficult of all baking skills - pastry. They bake their own versions of hearty British pies, get down to details with exquisite pastry canapés, and take a crash-course in crimping for this week's surprise bake.

It's the Grand Final and the last three surviving contestants face their biggest challenge yet - baking for the Bake Off's Afternoon Tea Party. In order to be crowned the victor, they will need to bring together all of their skills, making cakes, bread and pastry.