Bake Off winner Syabira's showstopper has become an instant meme

Many Brits are in mourning after the latest series of the Great British Bake Off ended for another year.

The Channel 4 competition never fails to inject a much-needed dose of sweetness into our week, with contestants battling it out over the mixing bowls all while becoming close friends.

Malaysian Londoner Syabira Yusoff was crowned this season’s winner on Tuesday night after weeks of wowing the judges with her unconventional flavours

And yet, while many viewers have hailed the 32-year-old as the rightful victor, others are also asking… has the competition lowered its standards?

Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

The third and final challenge of each episode – the “showstopper” – sees competitors spend hours creating a sculptural masterpiece from an assortment of cakes, biscuits and breads, with this year’s theme set as “our beautiful planet”.

Over the course of the show's 12 years on air (including the BBC Mary Berry era, obviously), the task has thrown up some jaw-dropping displays, including an iconic bread lion created by series six quarterfinalist Paul Jagger.

Jagger's Cecil the lion has become a Bake Off legendBBC

But the latest round of offerings were… a little underwhelming, to say the least, with judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith agreeing they weren’t “exactly the neatest things” in the world.

And though Syabira’s giant orangutan holding up a forest ultimately helped snatch her the title, many viewers found it to be more of a winning meme than a stand-out work of art...

But, to be fair, at least hers tasted good.

Paul said the monkey's black-pepper genoise sponge covered in chocolate and hazelnut fur was "delicious," while Prue described its tarragon shortbread head, as “lovely and buttery and very crisp”.

And the two runners-up, Sandro Farmhouse and Abdul Rehman Sharif, didn’t exactly dish up pristine creations.

Prue called Abdul’s bumble bee-inspired choux buns a “proper failure,” while Sandro’s “World from Different Angles” was, to be fair, more than a "bit messy”.

But look, they were all great bakers overall and the heartwarming series left a good taste in everyone’s mouth, so isn’t that what really counts?

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.