Great British Bake Off: Stotfold's Dawn 'delighted and stunned' not to be leaving the tent

Great British Bake Off star Dawn said she was ‘delighted and stunned’ not to be leaving the tent after another week of disappointments.

The Stotfold baker has made it through to week five of the competition - despite a series of mishaps that had her fearing she might be for the chop.

Dessert week saw the bakers tackle a classic sponge pudding, lemon meringue pie and showstopper designed to have a hidden secret.

Dawn’s traditional steamed puddings were deemed ‘uneven looking’ by judge Prue Leith, but they earned a ‘well done’ from Paul Hollywood - who outraged viewers by earlier referring to her as ‘mum’... despite being just four years younger than her!

The technical challenge saw the bakers making a lemon meringue pie - a task Dawn had high hopes would catapult her to the top of the charts.

But it wasn’t to be, as she found herself short of pie filling.

Frustrated Dawn said: “There’s nowhere near enough filling. I’m absolutely heartbroken about this. It’s going to be awful.”

And she said she felt “really bad” as her friends rate her lemon meringue as “off-the-scale good”.

She was placed seventh in the challenge - second from last - with Paul Hollywood saying: “This is a mess. The pastry shell is all over the place. Where is the filling?”

She described herself as ‘fuming’ and added: “I’ve made about 500 I reckon in my life, so I’m just mad at myself.”

For the showstopper, the bakers were challenged with creating a sponge cake with a hidden surprise inside it.

Ambitious Dawn aimed for not one but two surprises - a mousse toadstool along with lemon jelly flowers.

“It’s lemon redemption jelly with added basil. Let’s just hope it’s not a touch Basil Fawlty,” she joked, referencing the famous Fawlty Towers character, adding “It’s really a massive risk.”

Unfortunately for Dawn, the risk did not pay off, with her hidden surprises failing to keep their shape.

She described herself as ‘in trouble’ and ‘mortified’, saying “Mine looks like a car crash. My bag is just there ready to go. See ya.”

But despite leaving something to be desired when it came to presentation, the judges praised Dawn’s delicious flavours, with Paul calling the combination ‘technically perfect’ and Prue kindly saying: “What was a delicious surprise was the jelly”

“The feedback was better than I thought. I mean they did like the flavours. That was the only positive thing that could have come out of that,” Dawn told the cameras.

Viewers live tweeting the episode speculated it could come down to Dawn or Carole.

Discussing the showstoppers Paul Hollywood said: “Dawn’s didn’t look very good but tasted amazing.

He added: “Dawn’s a good baker I just feel she’s messed up at little things which has snowballed into something quite big and you think ‘she could go’.”

But ultimately it was Carole who left the tent, with Dawn making it through to week six - which will have a spooky Halloween theme.

However, she gave Carole a hug as she departed and could be heard saying “so sorry mate,” to her new Bake Off friend.