Episode 1 Junior Bake Off

-Sam, do you know what that is?

-What what is, Mark?

-That, there!

-That?

Course I know what that is, mate!

-It's the Bake Off tent, the actual tent.

-It's fantastic, isn't it?

Oh, it's amazing, mate. I mean, it's a national institution.

Ah, yeah. So, why have they asked us to be hosts?

I've absolutely no idea. They must be off their rockers.

-Welcome...

-BOTH: To Junior Bake Off.

Over the next three weeks, the Bake Off tent will be our home,

as 40 of Britain's best young bakers

enter the gooiest, yummiest challenge of their lives.

Lovely jubbly!

They beat thousands to prove they have the talent and passion

to merit their place here.

-Oooh!

-Yes.

All their baking knowledge will be put to the test.

It's clean!

Yeah! In your face, sponge cake!

From their ability to follow a surprise recipe...

I've never baked one of these before.

..to producing a stunning bake.

Last one and then into the oven!

Deciding their fate are two judges, both world-renowned chefs.

Cookery author, Allegra McEvedy.

They need to have something that's going to knock me off my feet.

That is properly, properly delicious.

And executive pastry chef, Graham Hornigold.

You need to be precise, you need to understand technique

and you need to understand flavour.

That's my kind of cake.

Oh, no!

So who will whisk the fluffiest mix, conquer the toughest dough

and tickle the taste buds of our judges...

Mmm, mm, mm-mm-mm-mm-mm!

..to be crowned winner of Junior Bake Off 2015?

I've forgotten to put the chocolate chips in.

Ah...

The first four bakers make their way to the Bake Off tent.

Just one will go through to next week's quarterfinals.

So which one will it be?

Ten-year-old Harrison from Worcestershire has been

practising his bakes for his mum's police colleagues.

I am here to partly challenge myself,

to see am I really a good baker? Or have all these people who

have been trying my bakes liars?

Kiah from London is 11 years old

and was taught to bake by her dad, who's a chef.

When he does say that my bakes are good and my sponge is fluffy

or my biscuits have a nice crunch, I'm really happy.

11-year-old Alyth bakes for her neighbours

in a small Lanarkshire village in Scotland.

I've never had my bakes judged by a professional baker before.

Look at all of these!

Nine-year-old Matthew from Derbyshire is the youngest of our four bakers.

I would describe myself as a friendly, happy baker.

I'm very excited.

I'm excited, but I'm also nervous.

I have mixed emotions going through me now.

Good morning, bakers!

You've got two challenges today.

This morning, you've got the technical challenge

and this afternoon, you've got the show stopper.

And by the end of today, we will find our first quarter finalist.

Now, our judges would like you to make

six identical strawberry shortcake stacks.

Judges, what are you looking for?

Nice round biscuits.

-Light texture and a buttery flavour.

-Excellent.

Now before we get cracking, guys, have you all washed your hands?

All right, Mum!

Hey, it's got to be done! Have you done it?

-ALL: Yes! Excellent.

-Fantastic.

Well, you've got 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete this bake.

The best of luck. On your marks...

-Get Set...

-..bake!

The technical challenge will test the bakers' knowledge,

as the recipe is a complete surprise.

"Place all the dry ingredients into a standard mixing bowl."

A shortcake is similar to a scone in texture.

The bakers need to combine the dry ingredients

until the mixture resembles a fine breadcrumb.

I'm just creaming the butter with the flour, caster sugar,

baking powder and salt at the moment.

Well, that's what they should look like.

Let's hope they come out like that.

They are all perfect, regular, uniform.

So what we want to see when we break it in two...

We've got a nice, light colour, you've got good crumb.

It's a very sticky dough this, but actually it's meant to be sticky

in order to come out as it does, as a proper shortcake.

Yeah, it's understanding the right balance of cream,

strawberries and shortcake.

-They've got quite a lot to think about.

-Yeah.

It's nearly there.

I just want it a little bit better, because I want it to perfection.

It's feeling amazing to be here.

When I started baking, I never thought I'd get this far.

I thought, "This is just going to be a hobby that I'm going to enjoy."

Harrison has his mum to thank for helping him practise.

She was coming up with surprise bakes for me to do

and then she'd just say, "Here you go, here's a bake."

So I have had bakes randomly sprung up on me.

Now I'm just going to mix the milk and the dry ingredients

with the butter.

The sticky dough should be handled as little as possible

so it doesn't become overworked and rubbery.

-All right, Matthew?

-Bit messy.

THEY LAUGH

You seem to have more on your hands then you do on the table.

I like that though!

-Now, haven't you got a lucky charm somewhere?

-Yes.

-There we go!

-Who's this guy?

-Bailey

We're not going to high-five you, we are going to high-five Bailey.

-I think that's the next best thing. High five.

-High five.

We'll put him back. We don't want flour on him, do we?

All right, we'll see you later, mate. Good luck.

It's crucial to chill the dough in the fridge,

as the butter will harden, making rolling out easier.

Bit behind.

I'm maybe a bit nervous about the time.

I think I might put it in the freezer for a minute.

Bakers, you have one minute.

No, they've got an hour!

-You have one hour!

-Don't worry!

Oh!

That didn't go well!

Please don't tell me it's stuck to the clingfilm.

Oh...

It's OK, it's only a little bit of dough.

It's a bit stressful, but you never know what happens in the tent.

I think it's done.

I'm just going to roll it till I think it's thin.

The bakers need to cut 18 perfect rounds

as each of the six stacks has three layers.

I like to be quite precise with my bakes,

because I like them to be all even.

Bakers, you are halfway through!

Or in other words, 37 minutes and 30 seconds into the challenge.

Time to make the strawberry cream filling.

If you fancy baking, make sure an adult's around

and knows what you're doing.

I'm at the stage of hulling and cutting the strawberries.

The strawberries should be cut into bite-size pieces

so they balance easily on the stacks.

I'm adding the double cream, and the icing sugar

and the vanilla essence to make a nice cream for my filling.

Whipping the cream to soft peak consistency will make it firm enough

to hold the strawberries and shortcakes together.

That looks like a bit of mountain that's soft,

so I think that's a good consistency.

If I was at home, my pesky springer spaniel Stan would try to eat them.

At least here I don't have any dogs to worry about.

I'm transferring the cream to the piping bag

so I can pipe it on my biscuits.

I'm quite intense now, because I've realised that we haven't got long.

I think I'm going to take them out so they're cool.

-Hello!

-Hiya, how you doing?

-I'm doing fine, thank you.

Are you having a nail-biting moment, then?

Yeah, I'm really scared.

They're not as this colour, so I want them to be exactly the same.

How long have you got left on the challenge?

Ten minutes. OK, I think I'm going to take this out.

-I would call that a good choice.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, take those out now.

-Ten minutes left.

-Get them on your wire.

-They're not...

-Oh, whoa...

-They're a bit...

-All right, I've got it, I've got it.

-OK.

Oh, no!

It's all right, it's all right. Don't touch it don't touch it.

-Pop these ones on here, like that.

-That's it.

-OK, thank you.

-Awesome.

-Great!

-OK.

All right, lovely bakers, you have five minutes!

Ooh!

I might just get this done, actually.

I wish I could have presented a bit more...nice.

This is not going well.

Oh, no, please.

OK... Nothing happened.

(You didn't see anything!)

Everyone I think is done - except for me.

I've finished my bakes and I'm all done.

I'm glad at how they turned out.

Done.

OK, bakers. That's it. Time is up.

If you would like to bring your bakes

up to the altar for our judges now, please.

OK, so, Matthew, I can see obviously you've had a little trouble

with the building, but let's see what it tastes like, shall we?

I think just another couple of minutes in the oven,

-but overall, I think that is a good, sound bake.

-Good.

Kiah, let's have a look.

As I break this down, I can see you've still got whole strawberries.

If you cut your strawberries, there'd be less wobble factor.

And at the risk of knocking the whole lot over,

I'm guessing that's what happened to THAT guy?

Yeah.

-That's good.

-It is good.

I know you were really watching your oven temperature,

making sure you kept them in as long as you could.

You've judged that very well, that's very well cooked.

Right! Let's crack on, Harrison, shall we?

You're not looking for a golden brown on this shortcake.

They are a nice, even blond.

These don't look too bad.

-They're beautiful.

-You've done a decent job there.

-Thank you.

All right, Alyth, you have nailed it, in terms of the presentation.

Thank you.

And just a minute less on that, I think, would have been good

because you've got a little bit of colouration in the biscuit there.

-They do have a nice texture though.

-Thank you.

Yeah, they've got that sconnie-ness... "Sconie-ness"?

Sconocity!

Yeah! Sconerisation?

..in the middle, which is what we wanted.

LAUGHTER

Oh, we have such a tough job.

These are four good bakes.

Graham and Allegra will now decide

which two strawberry shortcake stacks are the best.

So in no particular order, the first of our top two is this bake here,

belonging to Alyth, which we were very impressed by.

-It's pretty much picture perfect.

-Thank you.

And our second bake is going to be this one, by Harrison,

because it had a nice good flavour,

good ratio of strawberries and cream.

-Nice one.

-Right! Well done, guys, well done.

Well done, everybody.

It feels great to come into the top two.

I was never expecting it and all of the bakers did fabulous.

I said I don't like cream - I lied.

To come in the top two,

out of all four of those brilliant bakers,

I think that's just amazing.

I think the judges' comments were fair.

They weren't harsh, they were just telling us the truth

and I think we all accepted it in the best way.

My aim for the show stopper is work hard, be confident and have fun.

Mark! What are you doing?

We're meant to be introducing the next challenge!

-Mmmm...

-Don't worry, I'll do it.

So our bakers have just shown our judges that they know exactly

-how to follow a recipe.

-Mmmm!

But right now, they're about to about to invent their own

-creation filled with wonderful treats.

-Mmmm!

Come on, you, stop eating!

All right, bakers, it's time for your show stopper challenge.

Graham and Allegra would like you to bake your interpretation of a pinata,

in cake form, obviously.

Now your cake can be flavoured however you like

and it can have as many layers as you wish.

Now, like a pinata that you may see at a party,

we want your cake to be filled with goodies.

And then we're going to whack it with sticks!

-No, we're not going to whack it with sticks.

-We're not going to do that?

We're not. You've got an hour and a half to complete your pinata cake.

-On your marks...

-Get set... BOTH: Bake!

Traditional pinatas are colourful filled shapes

usually made of papier-mache which, when broken open,

spill out exciting party treats.

In a pinata cake, what we're looking for is a really fun-looking cake.

So it's got to look very, very jolly on the outside,

has to be cooked properly

and, when you take the centre out,

you make sure the structure is there for the cake itself.

And then crucially, cut in, and that cascade.

Things have got to fall out of there.

All four bakers are making their sponges using the all-in-one method,

which means mixing all the ingredients together

at the same time, but they are all using different flavours.

I want to make something inspired by the summer,

so I'm putting all my favourite fruits in this cake

and I hope it impresses the judges.

Kiah's favourite fruits will be piled into

orange and vanilla flavoured sponge,

along with a chocolate ganache, then covered in butter icing.

-Kiah, how are you?

-I'm fine, thank you.

-Good, good.

What's it going to look like?

It's going to have a crown of raspberries.

The filling of the cake is going to have pomegranate seeds,

some cherries.

-Lots of fruit going on, lots of flavours there.

-Yeah.

-Well, we'll leave you to it.

-Yeah.

Butter, yep. Sugar, yep. Eggs, yep. Flour, yep. Baking powder, yep.

Like Kiah, Harrison is also creating a fruity bake.

I've been inspired to make my fruit-filled pinata cake

by my grandma. She loves to make summer fruit pudding

and I find it delicious.

It's almost my favourite part about the summer.

Harrison's fruity pinata will be filled with strawberries

and blueberries, covered in lemon butter icing

and decorated with chocolate-dipped strawberries.

I think the tricky bit's going to be decorating my cake,

cos it's a big cake.

The cake is space-themed as I like watching Doctor Who.

That's where I came up with the idea.

Matthew's Chump Chop's Cosmic Creation will have multicoloured

layers, it will be sandwiched with white chocolate cream cheese frosting

and decorated with flying saucers and filled with sweets.

-Chump Chop's is a nickname.

-It's your nickname?

I think that could be my new nickname.

-ALLEGRA:

-Where are you at?

I'm just about to mix the food colouring into the sponge.

Hey, good alien colours. That looks like an alien to me.

Never been this messy at home.

Alyth, like Matthew, is also choosing to colour her sponge layers.

I'm making a haggi-pinata cake, which is a haggis.

There's a mythical creature in Scotland.

No-one's really seen him, so you can picture him as however you like.

But I'm picturing it as a brown furry creature.

Alyth's colourful wee beastie will be covered

in chocolate buttercream icing

and filled to the brim with sugar-coated chocolate eggs.

I am feeling a bit of pressure.

I mean, I know I did really well on the first one,

but it all comes down to this one, so...

Bakers, you only have one hour left. One hour.

I'd say that's done.

-What's happening?

-Can't zest it.

-You can't zest it?

-It's slipping.

-It's slipping.

-Oh, you're good, aren't you?

Thanks, Matthew, I am good, aren't I?

-Is Mark good?

-50/50.

Mark's 50/50, yeah, that's fair enough.

Oh, sh! Hi, Mark, you all right, mate?

Yeah, I heard that somebody needed someone who is great.

-Yeah, I've got him.

-Oh, brilliant...

I'm just putting it in the oven for about 20 minutes.

With their cakes in the oven,

it's time to focus on the buttercream icing.

It's made by mixing butter together with icing sugar.

It's also possible to flavour it with other ingredients.

I'm adding the chocolate into the butter icing.

Oh, chocolate butter icing! Wow.

Bakers, 30 minutes left, 30 minutes!

-Tense stuff.

-I don't know why we're doing this.

Sticking a skewer into the cake will tell the bakers if it's ready.

It's ready.

If it comes out clean, the mixture is cooked.

Yay - they look quite fluffy.

(Oh, no!)

No. No, no, I'm seeing things.

They're sinking.

Sinking isn't that big a problem, as long as the judges never find out.

How are you doing, Harrison?

-I am doing fine.

-How are you feeling about those bakes?

I am feeling that they are going to be good.

-This one's dipping a bit in the middle.

-So is this one.

So it doesn't matter, cos you're going to cut the hole out?

Yeah. That one's not going to have the hole cut, though.

-That's the top. Good luck.

-Thank you.

OK, the judges now know my cake has sunk.

I'm just cutting the holes in the sponge

so I can fill it with the sweets.

The hole for the pinata surprise needs to be large enough

to make the treats inside cascade and keep the structure of the cake.

But cutting it too big could make the sponge very delicate

and likely to break.

-No!

-That's all right, you can patch that up, that's fine.

-Here.

-There we go.

-It's fine. I'm with you.

-No...

-That's fine, that's fine, that's fine.

It's not very assembled well, but...

That's all right, you're going to cover it all.

-That's fine.

-Yeah, so...

Kiah's cake, I'm anxious on that one.

If she's going to put chocolate in it,

it won't do the cascade, you know, that we are looking for.

Let's see how that goes.

Bakers, you've 15 minutes until we tell you to stop.

Once the cakes are assembled, the treats can be poured in

and the final layer of sponge added.

It'll have to do.

Finally, it's time to cover the cake in buttercream

and add the decorations.

Last round's comments helped a lot for this round,

cos this cake is mainly about decoration.

But I'll try not to over-decorate it so it doesn't look nice.

Bakers, you have five minutes. That's five minutes, not long at all.

I'm just going to decorate it with flying saucers.

Huh, I've had enough.

The last touch is these stars and aliens.

OK, I'm done.

That's it, bakers. Time is up, please stop what you're doing.

Awesome.

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Graham and Allegra have asked the bakers

for their interpretation of a pinata cake,

which needs to cascade with tasty surprises when sliced open.

I'm feeling pretty proud cos,

at home, I've never completed it

in the time.

Harrison, loving the chocolate-dipped strawberries here.

I think it looks lovely, looks really nice and appealing.

Well, we got more of a sort of low waterfall than a Niagara.

The thing that I do see is that you've got a slight depression

in the top layer here, so you've got a deep layer of buttercream,

which, when you eat it, is going to unbalance the rest of the mouth.

-Yeah.

-I find it quite nice on the level,

when you get a decent amount of the icing. I'm liking that.

It's really punchy.

I didn't get to complete it all,

but I hope the judges will say that my cake is flavoursome,

the fruits go well with the flavours.

It's got a lot of character.

Obviously, you know that you ran out of time and had to rush it a bit

at the end, but a lot of it goes down on flavours.

Well, your berries seem to have just held slightly

in the centre there.

You put ganache underneath your fruits, so they cemented them in,

which is why they're not falling out.

It's a really nice, delicate, very airy sponge.

We didn't quite get the cascade, but the flavours are good

and the bake is good.

I think you just need to work on your timings, that's all.

-OK.

-All right?

-Thank you very much.

I hope they'll think my cake is really nice

and like all the flavours and they just like the idea that I made.

So, Alyth, looks lovely.

Big happy smiley face. He's a bit cheeky, isn't he?

Let's see what happens when we cut into it, shall we?

There was a crunch then.

Are we going to feel it...?

Oh, yes, yes, yes!

That is a pinata cake.

-That's exactly what we're looking for.

-Let's have a taste.

Loving this sponge. It's really, really nice and moist.

A nice, light chocolate flavour you've got

in your buttercream as well.

-I think Scotland is proud of you right now.

-Thank you very much.

I am a little nervous about what the judges are going to say,

but I'm quite excited.

Goodness me, Matthew, what a bundle of extra terrestrial fun that is.

Wow. There was a crunchy thing in there.

That counts as a cascade to me.

Seeing how much you have here, me having to look for it,

probably need a bit more of the frosting, cos it's slightly dry.

A pinata cake is always going to be a party cake

-and that is a party cake.

-Yeah.

Good effort, son.

Bakers, well done. That's it. You can all relax now.

The baking is over.

But the hard part begins for Graham and Allegra.

They now have to choose which one of you will go through

to our quarterfinals. Whilst they have a deliberation,

guys, you can take a break. Off you go.

First of all, let's talk about this morning, the technical challenge.

How was that for you? Who shone?

Alyth was a very, very clean worker,

she had really nice, round shortcake.

Harrison also, again, very focused.

And then we went onto the pinata cakes.

The only thing for me on Harrison's cake is, on the top tier, you can

see here you've got the layer of butter cream, it's slightly deeper.

It's definitely got a little bit of a squiff to it, let's be honest.

But you know, in terms of a pinata cake, it pinated on me

and I like that.

But then, my argument is that, as part and parcel of being a baker,

you need to see yourself come out onto that cake.

Now I see more of Matthew on his cake.

He loves the cosmos, it shows more of his personality.

It's hugely jolly, I give him all the points in the world for having

something that you definitely want to look at, but in terms

of the actual bake...

less convinced.

You're split. I like that, I like that. And Alyth?

Let's be honest, there's so much fun in this cake.

I loved looking at it, I loved eating it.

You know, the layers inside, all of the sponge, the cascade,

the cheeky face on top...

It's a very nice cake and she showed a lot of skill there, as well.

What about Kiah's pinata cake?

Well, unfortunately, Kiah placed a layer of ganache

into the bottom of her last layer of sponge,

so it held all of the cascade.

Yeah, I mean, Kiah didn't give the best version of herself today,

but she'll learn from that and hopefully some of the advice

we've given her will make her a better baker in the future.

Do you think you've decided on who's going to go through

-to the quarterfinals?

-I know in my mind.

-Yeah, I know who I want.

Bakers. There's been some really impressive baking today.

Our judges, they thought that one baker showed the perfect balance

between creativity and precision baking.

The baker going through to the quarterfinal is...

Alyth!

Yay!

Well done, Alyth!

It feels amazing to go through to the quarterfinal.

There was so many good bakes that everyone did

and I'm just really pleased that I got through.

-Well done, Harrison, bring it in.

-Nice one.

She deserved to win. The judges said it was picture perfect and, in that,

I think she had the most creative design out of all of us.

-ALLEGRA:

-You happy?

Yeah, I'm very happy.

She showed immense skill, concentration.

She just focused on what was in front of her.

Thank you.

She showed she had really natural, instinctive creative flair as well.

Next time, a vital ingredient goes missing...

Stupid baking powder!

..in a technical that gets vocal...

HE SINGS: Baking's rising in my oven, yeah!

..and a nail-biting chocolate show stopper.

-You just going to leave me here hanging?

-Sorry!