Great British Bake Off: this is how Sussex's contestants did on the first episode

Lottie, 31, from Littlehampton, and Linda, 61, from Bexhill were among the 12 contestants who were seen walking into the famous tent for the first time, with the hopes of being crowned the country's best amateur baker.

Click here to find out more about Lottie, and here for Linda's story.

The first episode consisted of three challenges: making a battenburg cake, a pineapple upside-down cake and a cake bust of one of their heroes.

In the first challenge, Lottie opted for a rhubarb and custard battenburg with a striped marzipan around the outside and a star shaped design in the middle, while Linda paid homage to her cousin, who had passed away, with an ambulance-shaped cake.

While judges Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood enjoyed Lottie's offering - despite criticising both her sponges of tasting the same and pointing out some assembly issues - they had harsher words for Linda.

Despite loving the idea of the cake, they found her sponges to be extremely dry, leaving her on the back foot for the technical challenge: baking six small pineapple upside-down cakes.

Sadly, Linda came last this round too, with her cakes being almost inedible due to being welded to the ramekins by the overcooked caramel and smashed back together.

But Lottie came fourth, with the judges praising the overall result.

For the final round, Linda had a lot to prove - and opted for a lemon and orange flavoured bust of her musical idol Bob Marley, rendered in green icing.

Lottie's hero of choice was journalist and filmmaker Louis Theroux, who used a skull-shaped cake mould to create the coconut and lime confection.

There was a reversal of fortunes here, as Lottie's cake was criticised for being 'bone dry' by Paul, despite the look being good.

But Linda's cake was universally praised for its taste - although Paul said he wished there had been more detail on the face.

In the end, this was enough to save Linda, who along with Marc narrowly avoided going home over Loriea.

Lottie was safe.

Tune in next week to see how Sussex's bakers do.