“I was nearly in tears”.

Not the words of Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman after one of her most challenging weeks in the job, but those of Luke Thompson.

Cake week turned out to be no cake walk for the 30-year-old DfE civil servant who was ejected from the Great British Bake Off tent after being told his sponge was as tough as old boots.

Unlike the would-be reality TV star, the chief inspector remains in place, but had to endure calls from the NEU teaching union for her organisation to be scrapped following a highly critical report from MPs.

The Commons Public Accounts Committee warned that cuts to the inspectorate - which has seen its budget fall by 52 per cent since 1999-2000 - were putting its credibility at risk.

Committee chair Meg Hillier said that “cuts to Ofsted’s budget have undermined families’ ability to make informed decisions about schools” - with particular concerns about the fact 1,600 schools had not been inspected for six years or more.

But it was not just the organisation that found itself in the MPs’ crosshairs: Ms Spielman herself was criticised for not speaking out more about issues facing the school sector.

In particular, she was rebuked for not giving “clearer or more direct answers” when asked about the impact of funding pressures on schools when she appeared before the committee.

But rather than emulating Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith and throwing Ms Spielman out of their tent, the MPs instead asked her to come back with a letter setting out “her reflections on the main risks to schools’ effectiveness and the systemic cause of poor performance, including the impact of funding pressures”.

Whether her missive proves to be as appetising for MPs as the “bread pinwheel of goat’s cheese, pesto, olives and sundried tomatoes” that Mr Thompson had hoped to make had he remained in Bake Off remains to be seen.