CHOUX knew pastry could cause such distress.

This week filled pastry parcels, choux pastry éclairs and a show stopper that no-one had ever heard of, let alone pronounce, all saw bakers holding their head in their hands, rushing around like headless chickens and crying. Yes Martha, bless her, shed a tear over her éclair.

And very, very sadly we saw Brighton’s very own baking queen Kate Henry leave the tent just two weeks after she was crowned star baker.

What’s most upsetting – apart from that she appears to be a lovely person and talented baker – is that she didn’t even do that badly.

In comparison to some of the shockers we have seen over the years which see people swiftly exit the show – I don’t feel Kate was massively behind the rest of the bakers this week.

In fact, I think Martha is extremely lucky to still be in the show.

It’s the quarter finals next week so the competitors obviously need to be top form.

But mainly Kate was reprimanded for having undercooked samosas – due to her not realising the deep fat fryer had turned off – and “messy” éclairs which on the whole, according to the judges, tasted pretty good.

I admit she did struggle and was in the bottom two, and Martha did do slightly better on the other two challenges – but she was in a disastrous whirlwind for the show stopper – having to enlist the help of Richard and Chetna at the last minute to finish her éclairs on time, which Paul and Mary mostly deemed messy and said her American-style breakfast éclair of nougat, bacon and maple crème didn’t work.

Although I can imagine the tense and stressful atmosphere – ironically for something so enjoyable to eat – must be overwhelming and I honestly don’t know how my Kouign-amann would have turned out if I had to suddenly attempt one blind.

It’s with great sadness I say farewell to Kate on the show. Despite rooting for her due to her Brighton routes, from the first episode I thought she could be a serious contender for the final.

Best of luck to her in the future – I hope she keeps up the baking!