Great British Bake Off Final: The Bakes

Re-live the best bits from last night's Bake Off final...

After ten weeks of sweat, toil and tears, the Great British Bake Off has finally come to a controversial close. Nobody saw dark horse, Frances, coming up the inside. But her ability to match her astounding creativity with equally fantastic flavours saw her bag the coveted Bake Off trophy.

The judges chose some particularly unusual signature and technical bakes for the final show - a traditional picnic pie and tricky American pretzels. Predictably, Ruby rose to the challenge producing a sumptuous vegetarian picnic pie and second place-worthy pretzels.

It seemed like she had the win in the piping bag, but then came the showstopper challenge - a three-tier wedding cake. This challenge had Frances written all over it; a celebration cake where the mind could run riot when it came to decoration.

Surprisingly, Frances didn't overcomplicate it. Her contemporary, stylish wedding cake saw her sale to victory, but it was definitely a close call.

Check out all of the bakes from this year's nail-biting final here...

Frances's Rainbow Picnic Pie

Things kicked off with a bake you'd more likely find in an Enid Blyton novel - the picnic pie. Frances stepped up to the challenge with this delectable-looking rainbow picnic pie. In the words of Paul Hollywood, it was just ten minutes away from perfection. But Frances still left the judges' table looking pretty pleased with her comments.

All colours of the rainbow

Inspired by the unpredictable British weather, Frances' picnic pie was jam packed with rice, two types of trout and five different summer vegetables!

Kimberley's Chicken and Pig Pie

Vegetarians look away now! Kimberley's meat feast picnic pie was certainly not for the weak-hearted. Combining layers of chicken mousse, pancetta and pork tenderloin pate all packed around a black pudding centre, Kimberley even included pink pig-shaped cuttings in the outer pastry case - lest we forget it was a meat pie! Unfortunately, cooking her filling inside the pie turned out to be a big mistake. Meaty juices soaked through her pastry base, leaving Kimberley with a very soggy bottom! Definitely not good during a Bake Off final.

Ruby's Vegetarian Picnic Basket

She claimed she could never stand up to the 'style queen' of the competition, Frances, with her vegetarian picnic basket, but we think Ruby did pretty well. Unsurprisingly, so did the judges. Paul praised Ruby's perfect bake, and by the end of the first round Ruby was a whisker ahead of the competition.

Perfect layers

In stark contrast to Kimberley, Ruby's fabulous lattice creation was a vegetarian's dream - packed with halloumi, mozzarella, couscous, sun dried tomatoes and mozzarella.

Ruby's Sunset Wedding Cake

After somewhat obscure signature and technical bakes, it was nice to see a showstopper challenge that we would all be familiar with - the three-tier wedding cake. Ruby denounced weddings as an 'exercise in narcissism', so it's no surprise that her sunset-themed wedding cake failed to impress the judges. Paul criticised the 'dry' middle tier, and Ruby ended her Bake Off days looking moodier than ever.

Looks delicious

Passion fruit curd filled Ruby's Victoria Sponge top tier, followed by a middle tier of fresh raspberries with mascarpone cream and finally a base tier of lemon victoria sponge with lemon curd.

Kimberley's Languages Of Love Wedding Cake

For Kimberley, it was a case of substance over style in her showstopper wedding cake. Her flavours wowed the judges: a chocolate fudge cake bottom tier with little raspberry flavoured cake pops throughout; a middle tier of orange and pistachio chequerboard sponge; and crowning it all a lemon and elderflower cake with poppyseed buttercream. But her over reliance on shop bought decorations left the judges disillusioned.

Frances' Midsummer Night's Dream Wedding Cake

We've always known she was the queen of design, but finally Frances overcame her flavour failings to create a Bake Off winning showstopper!

Frances Wedding Cake 2 Bake Off Finals

Paul praised Frances' 'fantastic' bottom tier of rhubard and ginger. Her middle tier of lemon victoria sponge filled with raspberries and cream was divine. And finally a top tier of carrot, apricot and orange - all scattered with natural, edible confetti!

Frances Wedding Cake Bake Off Finals

After ten weeks of baking madness, it was Frances's contemporary design that scooped her the winning prize - and well deserved it was!