Great British Bake Off: Littlehampton baker survives dramatic episode

Lottie Bedlow, 31, wound up in the bottom two after a series of underwhelming bakes in episode four of the series, which was all about chocolate.

In the first challenge, the bakers had to make a brownie.

Lottie’s recipe was ambitious: twice-cooked and double-layered, with a chocolate and pecan brownie base, topped with a baked raspberry cheesecake and finished with a raspberry and pecan crumb on top.

But it all went south in the execution. The filling was raw in the middle, and in an attempt to quickly cool down the cake, the pantomime producer put it in the freezer – causing the ice to melt and drip onto the brownie below.

“It looks like an actual car crash,” she said.

Judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith agreed, with the former asking for a straw to eat it. “They look a right mess,” he said.

To make matters worse, Lottie came last in the technical challenge, where bakers had to make a chocolate babka – a knotted loaf cake of Jewish origin.

It all came down to the final showstopper challenge, where bakers had to make a two-tiered, white chocolate celebration cake.

Lottie’s recipe, flavoured with lime drizzle and passion fruit curd and decorated with sapphire geodes, was dedicated to her grandparents’ sapphire wedding anniversary.

Despite telling the judges she had practiced it 15 to 18 times, Paul said it was ‘bone dry’. But Lottie lived to bake another day after fellow baker Sura’s cake came out raw and she was sent home.