9 out of 10 Bake Off voters say Paul and Mary were wrong to send Iain home

Dessert Week spelled disaster for baker Iain, who threw his Baked Alaska in the bin after his ice cream was left out of the freezer. Mary said afterwards, "If he doesn't present something for us to taste, how can we let him stay?"

However, viewers of Wednesday's episode felt Iain had been hard done by, especially as it appeared from the episode that Diana had been at least partly responsible for the freezer mix-up. More than 10,000 people have now voted in RadioTimes.com's online poll, with over 90 per cent saying Iain should not have been sent home.

Diana has since defended herself, saying, "I think it was very bad editing. There is nothing I can do about it. I’m just stating my side of the case. I’ve no idea why they did that. It’s very unfortunate and I think the Bake Off is the worse for it."

The 70-year-old was the target of a social media backlash following the episode, but said, "Iain doesn't hold me responsible at all."

Iain meanwhile has received the backing of voters online, who maintain that Paul and Mary made the wrong decision when it came to deciding who should leave the Bake Off tent this week. The BBC maintain that Diana was not responsible for Iain's departure.

"As shown in the episode, Iain became the fourth baker to leave the tent because he didn't present Mary and Paul with anything to judge in the showstopper challenge and both judges were very clear about the reasoning behind the decision," a BBC statement read. "Due to the extreme temperature in the tent that day, many of the bakers struggled to get their ice cream to set as seen in the episode. Diana removing Iain's ice cream from the freezer for less than a minute was in no way responsible for Iain's departure."