Great British Bake Off viewers 'still not over' controversial moment 10 years after it happened

Following the long-awaited return of The Great British Bake Off, fans have been reflecting on some of the much-loved baking show's most shocking moments.

With that in mind, if the words 'ice cream gate' don't seem to ring a bell, you might want to keep reading...

Cast your minds back to 2014, before GBBO moved from the BBC to Channel 4, and when the show was fronted by national treasure Mary Berry.

It was 'Dessert Week', and that year's batch of amateur bakers were asked by Mary's co-judge Paul Hollywood to whip up their version of a Baked Alaska for the episode's 'show-stopper' challenge.

For those unfamiliar with the lip-smacking pud, it's a dessert consisting of rich ice cream and spongey cake, which is topped with a lightly blow-torched meringue.

Viewers were immediately filled with dread, concerned with how much could possibly go wrong when constructing a cake with the propensity to melt.

Thankfully, however, construction engineer and series frontrunner Iain Watters was able to keep his cool throughout the challenge.

Well, until the last 15 minutes of the segment during which he made the heartbreaking discovery that his dessert had been removed from the freezer.

Iain was heartbroken by the 'sabotage' (BBC)

One of Iain's competitors, Women's Institute judge Diane Beard, claimed she'd noticed the ice-cold pudding was cooling off in her fridge, as opposed to his.

As such, she removed the pudding and placed it on the end of her counter on what was described that very same episode as one of the 'hottest days in the tent'.

Naturally, Iain was furious, begging to know: "Why would you take an ice cream out of the freezer?"

"Sorry Iain," Diane replied. "Well, you've got your own freezer haven't you?"

"It's soup," then-presenter Sue Perkins told Iain, to which he replied: "The only reason it's stayed there is because I put a tin around to hold the caramel in."

It was then that he removed the tin, only for the whole dessert to melt into a puddle on his hands.

Despite Sue insisting that the pudding could still be presented, Iain had clearly had enough, and swiped his not-so Baked Alaska into the bin before storming off.

Iain shocked viewers by binning his dessert (BBC)

When the time came for the judges to rank the group's dessert, Iain explained what had happened, apologising for having binned his creation, having since discovered that his cake had only been out in the open for a matter of minutes.

Sadly, the judges had no choice but to eliminate him from the series, after which fans of the show criticised both producers for allowing the mistake to have been made, and Diana for having carried it out.

That said, however, following a series of online attacks, Iain spoke out in Diane's defence.

By this point, Diane had herself quit the show the following week, having allegedly suffered from a fall behind the scenes.