Great Bake-off, tea party

 24 professional cupcakes

 - actually, it's not cupcakes. It's "small, exquisite cakes" for formal afternoon tea, of bakery quality. Not entremets, but cakelets.

I don't like the American style cupcakes. I like the small European cakes, like Mazarins, Runeberg's tarts, congress tarts... but I suppose Mazarins and congresses are, well, tarts, and not cakes. Runeberg is a miniature cake, though. But I suppose it's too simple for Paul's taste. He expected something one would see on the shelves of a French or Japanese patisserie.
I like the idea of single portion upside down cakes. 

Final showstopper: 24 miniature tarts, 24 scones, 24 choux buns, and 24 finger sandwiches on self baked bread

I like things simple. My favorite tea sandwich is the cucumber sandwich (cucumber and butter, not cream cheese), my favorite scone is plain. I love tarts. And I think I would make choux swans, because of how they reacted on David's swans. What about black swans of chocolate choux pastry? I personally don't like chocolate choux pastry, I like the canvas of plain choux, but it might be interesting enough for the finale.

I think Mari Bermain's Florentine tarts looks nice, though maybe one might want to make something fruity, as the rest of the options are pretty bready. (I like bready, but this is about impressing the judges... and I think the Brits are proud of their summer berries. And I am really good at making Crème Pâtissière ;-)) (Also, Mary Berry was missing fruits. They do give color to the tea tower.)

I wonder if I would have been eliminated for making calla lily sandwiches in stead of finger sandwiches? :-D

I made these, and it was hard to get the to stuck shut. If I'd do them again, I'd use clothespins to keep the lily together at the stem. I would also give the cream cheese more flavor. They are really pretty. I suppose one could remove the darker green skin and seeds from cucumbers, salt and dry it, and chop finely, and mix with cream cheese to make these cucumber sandwiches... sort of like tzatziki, perhaps? 

Maybe make shokupan  as the sandwich bread? And pumpernickel as the brown bread? Keep it simple and serve roast beef on brown bread. Or maybe egg salad with radishes and cress. Gives more color to the tea tower. 

Also, serve clotted cream and maybe some unusual jam flavor for the scones? I like the black currant flavor. Not too sweet, but not too bitter either, like red currants can be, and not so bland like strawberries can be. And they do have a lot of flavor, almost spicy flavor.