Above: Celebrating the last day of the Bake Off challenge -- scroll down to find out who won!

After last year’s successful staff Chemistry Bake Off, ten courageous staff members decided to take part once again in a friendly competition based on Channel 4’s Great British Bake Off. After all, it’s not the worst thing in the world to be required to sample delicious home baked goodies every Monday morning—until it's your nerve-wracking turn to do the baking!

Each episode of the Great British Bake Off has a theme and consists of three items: a ‘signature’ bake, where contestants add a personal twist to a traditional dessert to reflect their individuality; a ‘technical’ bake, which is a mystery until they are given the ingredients and a few rudimentary instructions; and a final ‘Showstopper’ where bakers can go all out to show-off their skills. Each week one baker doesn’t make it through, and the numbers are gradually whittled down until the winner is announced.

As we did last year, each staff member was assigned to one of the 10 episodes. Weekly themes included patisserie, caramel, ‘the 70s’ and bread, to name just a few. Bakers could choose one of the challenges from their episode to bake over the weekend and bring in to share over coffee in the Cybercafé on the following Monday, where the goodies were eaten – and judged – by the other contestants. Scoring criteria included taste, decoration and how closely they fit that week's theme.

Unlike the real show, nobody was kicked off, and although the quality of entries was extremely high this year, we still chose a winner.

Scroll down to read about each week’s entry and find out who won!

Week 1: Cake week

Jo Lockhart chose the technical challenge of making ten identical homemade Battenburg cakes. She even made the marzipan icing, and used blackberries to colour the pink part of the cake.

Homemade Battenburg cakes by Jo Lockhart, Research Administrator for the Balasubramanian group.

Week 2: Biscuit week

Lisa Masters also chose the technical challenge, and produced homemade Viscount biscuits: a shortbread biscuit covered in a homemade thin mint filling and coated in either dark or milk tempered chocolate.

Viscount biscuits by Lisa Masters, Administrator for the Theory Group.

Week 3: Bread week

Emma Solaas also chose the technical challenge, which was to make a braided loaf, as demonstrated by host Paul Hollywood. She produced a braided bread which she flavoured with rosemary and pepper.

Braided loaf with rosemary and pepper by Emma Solaas, Research Personnel Administrator and one of the department's Wellness Advocates.

Week 4: Caramel week

Richard Shaw chose to make the showstopper, which was a chocolate caramel mousse gateau, a deliciously rich chocolate cake enrobed by homemade caramel mousse and topped with a rich chocolate icing.

Chocolate caramel mousse gateau by Richard Shaw, Reprographics clerk.

Week 5: Pastry week

Jacqui Worster decided to make the signature bake, which was ten identical tarts of her choice. She chose to make cherry bakewell tarts, a real classic.

Cherry bakewell tarts by Jacqui Worster, Senior Secretary for Professor Steven V. Ley.

Week 6: Autumn week

Diane Harris went for the showstopper, which was a cake made with at least one vegetable ingredient, decorated with an autumn theme. She made a carrot cake with lemon buttercream filling and cream cheese icing, decorated with candied carrot shavings, pomegranate seeds, figs, blackberries and maple-roasted pecans.

Autumn-themed carrot cake by Diane Harris, Editor of Chem@Cam

Week 7: Dessert week

Nathan Pitt also went for this week's showstopper, producing a beautifully decorated Tiramisu encased by homemade sponge fingers dipped in alternating white and dark chocolate, and traditional flavours bolstered by the individual touch of a layer of Nutella.

Tiramisu by Nathan Pitt, Head of Photography and Reprographics

Week 8: 70s week

Agata Marcyniuk also chose the showstopper, which was to make a highly decorated cake using popular colours and flavours from the 1970s. She chose to make the classic black forest gateau which she decorated with cherries, chocolate shavings, and icing swirls.

Black forest gateau by Agata Marcyniuk, Postgraduate Admissions and Education Administrator.

Week 9: Patisserie week

Xani Thorman chose to make the technical challenge, which this week was opera cake, a decadent French concoction with layers of almond sponge soaked with espresso syrup, chocolate ganache and coffee buttercream, topped with a layer of chocolate and decorated with chocolate swirls.

Ten identical opera cake slices by Xani Thorman, Head of Department Executive Assistant.

Week 10: The final

Emma Graham chose the signature bake which was two dozen perfect scones with flat tops and level sides. She baked cherry and stem ginger scones and rhubarb and custard scones.

Cherry and stem ginger scones with clotted cream and rhubarb and custard scones with custard and clotted cream by Emma Graham, HR Administrator and Head of Reception.

And the winner is....

Above: Richard Shaw enjoys his Star Baker apron, while Jacqui Worster looks on.

Richard Shaw, who made chocolate caramel mousse gateau (Week 4) was chosen as this year's Chemistry Bake Off champion. He says: "I was surprised and delighted. I thought the cake I made was nice, but never thought it would be a winner!" Richard was presented with a 'Star Baker' apron made by Emma. He says: "I love my apron, which I'm going to wear on Christmas Day to make the Christmas dinner!"

Above and left: Emma Graham made the Star Baker apron and Bake Off coasters for all the participants, which will be a wonderful memento of the past ten weeks.

Next year...

If you are interested in joining in next year's fun competition, please contact Emma Graham at ejg49@cam.ac.uk. We are all looking forward to baking (and tasting!) next year!

Below: The delectable insides of Richard's prize-winning chocolate mousse cake, Nathan's tiramisu, Diane's carrot cake and Xani's opera cake.