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Horn of Plenty has viewers in stitches but 'Bake Off's' rudest technical brings one contestant to tears

Ep9.  Prue and Paul.
Ep9. Prue and Paul.

The Great British Bake Off’s semi-final featured a bake so ridiculously rude looking that it seemed to have been picked purely for laughs, but it proved so tough that it brought one baker to tears.

Stakes were high in tonight’s episode with a place in the 2020 final to bake for, so judge Paul Hollywood decided to set the contestants a near-impossible task - to bake a Danish cornucopia in a heatwave.

Watch: Find out who's missed out on the Great British Bake Off semi-finals!

Read more: Dessert week disappoints with disgusting pudding

For those not in the know (which included all of the bakers and most of the viewers), a Danish cornucopia is also called a Horn of Plenty and is a horn-shaped patisserie made of an almond sort of biscuit, baked into rings and assembled by sticking together with caramel.

It presented an opportunity for some classic Bake Off innuendo as Hollywood asked fellow judge Prue Leith “do you want to try some of my horn”, but surprisingly that was not the moment that brought Laura to tears.

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Almost as soon as the technical challenge began, the usually calm and resilient Laura started to panic and cry.

Looking at the assembly instructions, she said: “This is literally my worst nightmare, I don't have a logical brain, I can't do this.

“This is literally my worst fear, not being able to present anything in a technical.”

Host Matt Lucas helped to calm her nerves a little, but all of the contestants struggled with the bake and poor Laura came in last place with her effort.

She said: “Horrible challenge, worst one yet. I thought the matcha pancakes were bad.

“Abomination, that is.”

During judging, Leith said: “It does look like the baker just didn't understand at all what they were trying to do here.”

However, the mood was lightened by some amusingly-shaped Horns of Plenty.

Read more: Bake Off’s most controversial moments ever

Hermine also had a tough week thanks to the traditional Bake Off curse of any theme a contestant has previously been good at.

The French baker is generally acknowledged as a bit of a pro with anything patisserie, but the weight of expectation proved too much for her in patisserie week.

Dave and Peter had better weeks, especially Peter, who after being close to elimination last week made a dramatic comeback with a Hollywood handshake in the signature bake for his savarin.

The Great British Bake Off final is on Tuesday, November 24 at 8pm on Channel 4.

Watch: Matt Lucas HILARIOUSLY mocks Boris Johnson