Episode 6 Junior Bake Off

-We are halfway through the Junior Bake Off heats.

-Halfway, really?

Yeah. Five brilliant bakers have already won their place

in next week's quarterfinals,

which means there are five places still up for grabs.

OK, so that's five heats, with four bakers. That's 20.

20 more this week, that's 40.

Divided by four equals ten.

Yeah, what he said.

BOTH: Welcome to Junior Bake Off.

LIQUIDIZER BUZZES

Today's bakers face a brittle bake...

Oh, my biscuits broke.

..in a Technical that requires a gentle touch.

It's very tense.

'And its celebration time...'

-Yes.

-Yeah, come on.

'..with the ultimate birthday cake Showstopper.'

Party on.

That's what we say to that.

These four baking boffins will face two challenges,

after which one of them will go forward

into next week's quarterfinals.

Corey, from the Forth Valley in Scotland, is 11 years old,

and has baking in his blood.

My uncle co-owned a baker's shop,

and my great-grandmother baked all the time, and she taught me.

At her home in Dorset, 11-year-old Alice is head baker.

'I'm the youngest, so...'

it's good to be better at something then my brother and mum.

I'm feeling quite nervous but I'm quite excited as well.

For ten-year-old Sufia from West Yorkshire,

baking has been part of her recovery.

Ever since I had my accident to my eye,

I wasn't able to do much, but then my mum, she said,

"Try and bake on your own," so I made my first cake.

I found it really fun, so...

I just started baking as my new hobby.

Ten-year-old Finlay from Northumberland

is no stranger to having his bakes judged.

I'm really used to competitions, because I enter

lots of village shows and win, like, prize money and rosettes.

The first of today's challenges is the Technical,

which tests baking knowledge and ability to follow a recipe -

a recipe none of the bakers have seen before.

Well, hello, bakers. Are you doing good?

-Yeah.

-Yay.

-Fantastic.

Now, the Technical today is stained-glass window biscuits.

Now, obviously, you're not good to be using real glass,

because, let's be honest,

-it'll taste disgusting and it's highly dangerous.

-Exactly.

Now, these need to be cinnamon biscuits.

The stained glass bit is going to be made from boiled sweets,

and you need to make six.

Judges, what are we looking for?

-Six biscuits...

-Ha-ha-ha-ha!

..with a good snap, uniform shape and colour.

We'll also be looking for neat piping,

-and transparent sugar windows.

-Excellent stuff.

Now, guys, before we go any further, have you all washed your hands?

-Yeah.

-OK, now, you've got one hour and ten minutes

to knock up your stained-glass window biscuits.

-Are you ready?

-Yeah.

-Fantastic. On your marks.

-Get set.

BOTH: Bake.

Very good. I'm finally here,

getting to show off my skills and have fun.

It's quite cool cos you've got loads of cool equipment.

Left...

I'd never really heard of a stained-glass window biscuit before.

I made them for my Christmas fair,

but my mum did the stained glass part.

Graham, there's no doubt that these are

the perfect stained-glass window biscuits.

I mean, look at that baby - absolutely gorgeous.

All the same size, all the same colour.

What we're looking for is that they've got this beautiful piping.

Considered piping, nice action.

We need to hear a snap at this point.

-BISCUIT SNAPS

-Lovely.

Good crunch. Just the right amount of cinnamon, as well.

If you read the recipe, you shouldn't have a problem.

HE WHISPERS TO HIMSELF

You have to sift all the dry ingredients and then blend them.

The flour, sugar and bicarbonate of soda

is spiced up with a dash of cinnamon.

The next bit of the recipe tells me to add the butter

and blend it till the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.

LIQUIDIZER RUMBLES

Next, I'm going to put the syrup and the egg into a bowl.

My mum always does this when she beats, but...

and it just means to, like, combine it all together.

LIQUIDIZER RUMBLES

Getting the right dough consistency

is crucial to getting the biscuit to snap.

It's quite crumbly, and then it's also got the wet stickiness to it.

Too wet, the biscuit will bend.

Hopefully it is the right texture,

but I'm not sure.

Head girl Sufia raises money for her school by baking.

I do make a biscuit, time to time -

for, like, fairs and parties -

but mostly it's cakes.

-Morning, Finlay.

-Morning.

-How does the dough feel for you?

It feels a little bit sticky and, like, crumbly.

You're on home turf here,

-cos I've heard you've made award-winning biscuits.

-Yeah.

-Ooh.

-What award?

-Erm...

-The Finlay Great Biscuit Award.

-Ha-ha-ha!

No, it was in my local show. I decorated biscuits.

-Nice.

-So you were listening to what we said earlier about decoration?

Yeah, I think I'll be quite good at piping the shapes.

I like the confidence, Finlay. I like the confidence.

I'm going to wrap it up in clingfilm, so, erm,

to put it in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Getting the dough to fridge temperature firms the butter,

making it easier to roll out.

I tried to roll it out but I did not remember to put it in the fridge,

so no wonder it doesn't work.

Oh, nice and cold.

You need to make sure that you get an equal thickness

all the way through.

The same thickness ensures an even bake between the biscuits.

I'm hoping to get it about

the thickness of a £1 coin.

Oh, no, it's cracking.

The dough should be firm enough to keep its round shape

once the middle is removed.

-Morning, Sufia.

-Morning.

Now, how are you going to get that out?

-She's got it. Nailed.

-Ah.

And you did that with the judges watching you.

-Got to make you feel pretty confident?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Later.

-Best of luck. We'll see you in a bit.

-Yup.

I'm just patting these down to try and seal the cracks.

I need to cut up my last biscuit and then put them

in the oven for five minutes.

If you're going to try your hand at baking,

make sure a grown-up's around knowing what you're doing.

And then it's another three minutes, I think, with the boiled sweets in.

Oh!

I'm not happy.

-Are you all right, Sufia?

-Are we all right, Sufia?

No. When I was about to put them in, they just fell.

OK, all right, so we can help with that. We can help.

-We can help here, right.

-All right. Are you going to do them again?

Have you got time, do you think?

We'll pick them up, you crack on.

You'll be all right. You'll be all right.

-That's all right. Got it, yeah.

-That's all right.

-It's all right.

-We can do this. We can do this.

Optimistic.

OK, bakers, you've got half an hour left.

-That's plenty of time. Keep smiling.

-Ha!

It helps, it shows in your baking. Trust me.

It's very tense, the atmosphere. It's very tense.

Yeah, I'm OK, but I was just a bit shaken.

I'm hoping it doesn't slip this time.

Well, I'm no connoisseur, but I know that that looks beautiful.

-Yeah, nice.

-It smells good.

-Oh, that's cinnamon-tastic, mate.

-Ah...

-I think these are looking fine.

-Yeah, they're in the oven.

I'm currently putting the boiled sweet in,

to give the stained-glass effect.

A bit just fell off them.

I'm going to try and fix it.

Here. There you go, that's fine now.

I'm just going to put them back in for another three minutes.

Oh, they look perfect.

-All right, mate?

-Nice work, Finlay.

-Oh...

-They look good.

-Yeah, they're coming out.

-Are you happy with that?

-Yeah, pretty happy.

-You should be.

-Do you think they're done?

You're the biscuit award winner.

Bakers, you've got 15 minutes left.

15 minutes.

Oh, my biscuits broke.

I'll just try to patch it up with some icing.

Yeah, no-one will notice.

There we go. I think that they're looking quite ready,

so I don't think they'll need any longer.

I can't believe it.

Come on, get cracking, get cracking, come on.

The final stage for the bakers is to pipe the biscuits

with a design of their choice.

I'm getting the icing in the bag, so as soon as they're cooled,

I can pipe them.

My biscuits haven't come out yet,

and they haven't fully spread.

I'm OK.

SHE SIGHS

Bakers, you've got five minutes left.

Enough time for the finishing touches.

Decorating is one of the best parts of making these.

The smaller the hole in the piping bag,

the more delicate the decoration.

I think the icing might take away a couple of points.

One minute!

No...

Go...

Bakers, time is up.

-That's it.

-Step away from the vehicle.

-The biscuits.

The biscuits, step away from them.

SHE SIGHS

HE SIGHS

Well done, bakers.

If you would all like to bring your biscuits up to the altar, please.

Put them behind your picture.

I am really happy they were finished on time.

The icing on top of the biscuits definitely went wrong.

I stuck on a little bit of extra biscuit,

cos part of it fell off on one of them,

and I covered it up with a little bit of icing,

so I hope they don't notice that.

Allegra and Graham are looking for six uniform biscuits with

transparent sugar windows, and neat piping,

that when broken open, give a good snap.

Sufia...

These look nice. I'm liking the designs. They're all different.

I like that. He likes everything to be exactly the same.

I like things to be all a bit different.

I'm just going to go for the snap.

-BISCUIT SNAPS

-It snapped.

-Mm-hmm.

Nice level of cinnamon in here.

-That's a well-made biscuit.

-Yeah, well done.

-Corey.

-The piping...

Did you have trouble with your bag, did you, yeah?

-Over-fill it?

-I think so.

We haven't got total translucency on these biscuits, have we?

On the windows. Let's see what it's like, shall we?

-BISCUIT SNAPS Oh, I heard that.

-Ah-hah.

Yeah, you can taste the cinnamon again.

One thing I am seeing, you've got different depths of the biscuits,

so this one will be finished first, this one will take a bit longer.

Yeah, basically, your front-right is good,

your back-left needed a bit of work, but decent bake.

Alice, nice baking.

I like your piping as well.

And that is a clear, clear view through the biscuit.

All quiet for the snap, please.

-BISCUIT SNAPS Ah!

-Ha-ha.

THEY MUNCH

Good layer of the cinnamon for me.

They are a little overbaked, and that's because of the thinness.

-Yeah.

-It's a very small point.

-Beautifully presented biscuits, Alice.

-Thank you.

And now for something completely different, here's Finlay's.

-Wow, so you've got your cracking here on the top...

-Yeah.

-..and heavy as your icing hand is, we can still see that.

-Yes.

We can see through it. Isn't that pretty?

-Yeah, it's lovely.

-Lovely, very nice.

-BISCUIT CRACKS

-I heard something.

Look, it wasn't the definitive snap.

I think that's just down to the thickness of the rolling, there.

For me, it's just a little under.

Yeah.

Graham and Allegra will now decide

which two stained-glass window biscuits have come out on top.

The first bake in our top two is this one,

-so well done, Alice.

-Thank you.

Nice even sizes, beautiful piping, and a clear window.

And the second bake in our top two...

is Sufia.

You have a nice even roll,

nice piping, and transparent windows.

Fantastic. Well done, guys, well done.

Well done to all the bakers, especially to Alice and Sufia.

Don't worry, Finlay and Corey, you've still got the Showstopper

-to do, and it could all change.

-It could, indeed.

-Yeah.

Guys, before that, though, come up and taste your bake.

-Yeah, come on.

-Taste them, will you?

-Very good biscuits, guys.

-Lovely.

-Yeah.

'I was really happy with my bake'

and I never made them before so it's very good.

-Can I try yours, Alice?

-Yeah, sure.

They are snappy, aren't they?

'Alice is my biggest competitor'

because she's got really good taste, she's got really good even bakes,

and then, also, her decorating is really pretty.

You're liking that, aren't you, Finlay?

'I think the reason why the girls came in the top two is

'because they decorated theirs prettily,'

and not the heavy-handed approach done by the boys.

'Yeah, I think I'll do a lot better'

in this challenge, mainly because I know what I'm doing on this one.

'I have practised, practised, practised.'

-Hey, Sam, Sam. I've got a joke for you.

-Oh, yeah, go on.

-What you call a baker with a cold?

-Oh.

A COUGH-ee cake.

Ha-ha, all right, you know that one. What did the fork say to the cake?

Want a piece of me? Ha-ha! It's a good one!

-Why couldn't the teddy bear finish his cake?

-Oh, erm...

Because he was stuffed! It's a classic.

You know my jokes, all right. All right, what's the next Showstopper?

Oh, I've not heard this one.

I don't know, Mark, what is the next Showstopper?

-No, it's not a joke, I'm asking you.

-Oh, I don't know.

Come on.

Hello there, bakers, this is your Showstopper Challenge,

where Allegra and Graham would like you to make

your dream birthday cake.

Our judges want to see you guys using your favourite flavourings,

your favourite colours, your favourite hobbies.

I mean, you could even use your favourite CBBC presenters.

It's entirely up to you. It's your cake.

You have an hour and a half to do this. Best of luck.

-On your marks.

-Get set.

-BOTH: Bake.

This is a chance for these young bakers to really harness

all their creativity and put it into one cake.

I want to see imagination,

I want to see fun, and I want it to taste good.

I am a perfectionist.

I'd like to see technical ability shown in these cakes,

and ideally, they'd measure

not only the depth of the sponges they're basing into the cake,

but also how much buttercream or whichever they're layering it with.

Just added my eggs in.

Next, I have to combine the milk, the juice and the vanilla extract.

All the bakers are flavouring their sponges.

I'm about to add the orange zest.

I do think chocolate and orange go well together.

They're my favourite flavours.

Alice's chocolate and orange layer cake will be covered with

chocolate ganache and decorated with bees,

made from a very special ingredient she's brought from home.

-How are we doing, Alice?

-Good, thank you.

Alice, I'm a big fan of honey.

I've just spotted you have this picture here, and a little pot.

Well, I keep bees with my mum...

-Right.

-..and that's some of our honey.

Is it going to be a tall cake, this, Alice?

-Yes, it's going to have five layers.

-Whoa.

-Five?

They're quite small layers, though.

-Cool.

-LIQUIDIZER HUMS

I'm just go to add a little bit of flour, to stop it curdling.

Finlay is going for a larger cake, with two layers.

My cake is orange and chocolate,

but the chocolate's going to come in just a little later.

Finlay will be adding chocolate chips to his orange sponge,

which will be sandwiched together using home-made orange curd

and shaped like his favourite instrument.

-My birthday cake is going to be an accordion.

-An accordion?

-Yeah.

-What, do you play it?

-Yeah.

-Please tell me it's here.

-Yeah, it is.

-Yes!

-Where is it?

-Below there.

-What?

-Can you get that out?

I'll do that. I'll sieve that.

-You play the accordion.

-It's pretty heavy.

-I know, it is.

-I have to carry that to school.

-Do you?

-Yeah.

# I am sieving icing sugar

# I am sieving icing sugar... #

Second verse.

# I like cake

# I like cake

# Yeah, cake

# Yeah, cake. #

-Beautiful.

-Well done, mate.

-I'll put...

-Beautiful.

-Well done, mate.

-Right, you've got one minute left to finish up your bake.

-Ha-ha-ha!

LIQUIDIZER BUZZES

Today, I am making my dream birthday cake, which is

a mobile phone cake, because I love technology.

This is a traditional Victoria sponge with my twist.

Corey's mobile phone cake sponge will be sandwiched together with

cream and raspberry jam,

smothered in chocolate-chip buttercream

and covered in fondant icing.

-How are you doing, mate, you all right?

-Yeah, I'm doing good.

I'm thinking this is going to be

-the biggest mobile phone in the world.

-Probably.

-Yeah?

Are you going to show us any difference in the way you

-decorate this afternoon?

-Yeah, it won't be quite as messy icing.

-Right.

-I'm going to do black fondant,

then a white fondant screen, with fondant apps.

-Fondant apps?

-Fondant apps?

-Yeah.

-That's brilliant.

-Very cool.

-Are we going to be able to download those apps?

-Maybe.

-Download them into my mouth.

-Yes, that's what we want.

That's what we want.

I've made the big cake batter

and now I'm just going to divide it,

so that I can put different colours into them.

Sufia is the only baker adding her favourite colours to her sponge.

I really like painting and I'm quite artistic,

so I thought a paint palette would be really good,

but then, inside, there's a surprise.

Inside, Sufia's cake will be multicoloured

lemon-and-vanilla flavoured sponges,

which will be covered in chocolate buttercream

and decorated with fondant icing paintbrushes.

Wowzer, Sufia, what a colour.

-Lovely colour.

-Yeah, that is exceptional.

-How many cakes are you making?

-Just two.

It'll be sandwiched by buttercream.

-And is there a flavour on the buttercream?

-Yeah, chocolate.

Of course. Cocoa and chocolate.

No, the chocolate buttons are for...

-Ha-ha!

-The chocolate buttons are for Sam,

-by the looks of things.

-Ha-ha-ha.

Bakers, you have had half an hour.

Last one and then into the oven.

Check them at 15 minutes,

and then they come out at 20.

The birthday cake was first popularised 700 years ago,

thanks to canny bakers in Germany.

300 years after that,

it was the Germans again who began the tradition of adding candles.

I'm watching out for, like, once it's brown on the top,

you know that it's ready.

They feel all right.

That's what they should look like

and it's good to see that the chocolate chips are at the top.

Corey, you've got to be pleased with that.

-Yeah, it's turned out better.

-Yeah, they look good.

-Yeah.

They're just quite soft.

-TIMER BEEPS

-One of my cakes has cracked,

so I'll just patch it up with some buttercream.

Oh...

While the cakes are cooling,

there's time to prepare the fillings.

Chocolate ganache should be shiny and smooth,

so no lumps of chocolate in it,

and that's why you have to stir it so much,

and you can't use a wooden spoon,

cos that absorbs the moisture.

Alice, how's it going?

Good, I think.

I feel as though, Alice, that you need an extra pair of hands,

-because you've got five cakes to sort out.

-Yeah.

-Are you OK?

-But they're quite small cakes.

-Right, OK.

-Yes.

-You seem pretty calm.

-All right.

-How are you feeling?

-Yeah?

-Yes.

-Calm on the surface, but underneath it's like, "Ah!"

-Like the duck, yes.

-Got you.

-Yeah, like the duck.

This big bowl of buttercream is going to go on the top,

and in the middle, for sandwiching the layers.

Bakers, you have 15 minutes.

Once the birthday cakes are assembled,

the bakers can decorate them to express their personality.

Perfect.

The decoration on my cake's really important.

This is the piano bit.

I'm going to have to half that.

Corey, how's it going, mate?

-Not very good.

-Not very good?

-This looks like tough work.

Right, the best thing to do

-is to get it into the rough shape that you want it, yeah?

-Right.

I'll show you a little trick.

When you dust, instead of sprinkling it on like this, just...

-Yeah, there we go.

-Ha-ha-ha!

-Yeah?

And you get a nice little fine dusting.

Start from the centre, roll out.

Start from the centre,

-roll out.

-Nice!

-That's it.

-That helped?

-Yeah.

-Nice work.

Bakers, five minutes left!

Come on, get a move on.

I can do this.

HE SIGHS

I really am running out of time.

I need to get more colours on.

I need to get my fruit. Everything.

The icing, it's going really badly.

It's picking up crumbs.

I'm just piping a little bit more icing on.

I'm going to try and fill that void full of icing.

Tilt it like that.

OK, you push. Well done, lovely.

SHE EXHALES

I'm trying to get this really nice and smooth.

Ooh!

-Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

-Well done, mate.

-Yes.

-Come on!

One minute, bakers, one minute.

Finishing touches - anything like that.

Make it pretty.

I'm going to do it.

Bakers, time is up.

Step away from your birthday cakes.

That's it. SHE MOUTHS

-Happy birthday, mate.

-It's not my birthday.

Graham and Allegra have asked the bakers to create

a dream birthday cake that's full of flavour,

has well-constructed layers,

and demonstrates their personality.

Well, Sufia, this is a realisation of your dream.

It has got fun and party, and birthday,

written all over it for me.

It really is an imaginative cake.

Now, let's see that sponge.

Oh, yeah, bright colours.

Party on, Sufia.

-Is that exactly how you wanted it to come out?

-Yes.

-Could have done with a little bit more lemon.

-Yeah.

So it gives it that nice acidity

-running all the way through the middle.

-Yeah.

-I think it's slightly raw in the middle, a little bit.

-Yes.

-I really... I'm nuts for it. I really enjoy it.

-Thank you.

It's made me smile ever since I saw it. Very happy with that.

Well done, Sufia.

Let's see how technological your bake is.

That remind me of a proper party cake, that.

Wrap it in a napkin, throw it in a party bag. Yes, please.

-It does look really nice.

-It's a bit under in the middle -

just a little bit, by the jam.

It's got all those classic Victoria sponge flavours to it.

It's nice and firm. You can cut straight through it.

Moist enough so you don't need a drink.

I think it's a really nice cake.

I love this.

This is great, because of the look -

the bonkers-ness of the design.

You had a dream and you've put it down on a cake board,

and for that, you get points.

I'm looking for even layers, and a nice, moist cake.

I'm really liking the freshness

that the orange zest that went through the sponge brought.

It's a really nice, moist cake. Good bake.

Alice, there is no doubt, that is a thing of art and beauty.

And when I cut into this, am I going to find nice, even, moist layers?

Hopefully.

And that's exactly what I see. Really nice inside here.

-Precision baking.

-You love that, don't you?

-Ha-ha-ha!

Nice dark chocolate.

You can see exactly where it's come from in your imagination.

I know what your garden looks like. Good effort. Thank you, Alice.

Our lovely judges have now got to deliberate on who

they think should go through to our quarterfinals.

-Really good icing.

-Yours was, like, a proper birthday cake.

Yours was massive. Mine was tiny.

Yeah, yours was pretty big.

Judges, massive day today. Big day.

So, this morning, in the Technical Challenge, Alice and Sufia,

they were your top two.

What we see about Alice is that she is all about precision, isn't she?

So we had six identical perfect stained-glass window biscuits.

-That's Alice all over.

-You've got to give credit to Sufia.

When she was placing her biscuits in the oven to bake,

they fell onto the oven door,

so she had to remould them, totally unflustered. Good to see.

This afternoon, how has it gone?

Both Finlay and Corey both did great sponges.

Just, not executed the finish, and the finish is what you need.

Let's talk Alice's cake, then, cos that is...

Well, to me, to the untrained eye, that is a thing of beauty.

Well, I was looking for precision baking,

in terms of making sure that the layers were nice and even.

There was a good distribution of the buttercream,

and as we look at this, you can see exactly that.

I'm going to put in a word for Sufia,

because I was looking for something very imaginative,

very different, a little bit out there.

There's just something about that that just appeals to me.

Do you reckon it's classic versus abstract, really?

I think it's basically Graham versus Allegra.

-Right, well, we're not getting in the middle of that.

-Ha-ha-ha!

Well done, bakers.

You have done absolutely brilliant today.

You really, really have.

Allegra and Graham can only pick one of you bakers

to go through to the quarterfinal,

and this baker showed attention to detail

and a natural flair for baking.

The baker going through to the quarterfinals is...

..Alice. CHEERING

-Well done, Alice.

-Well done.

It feels amazing to be going through to the quarterfinals.

Everyone did absolutely brilliant.

I thought Alice's bake was excellent.

She got all the details perfect.

'Every flower, every bee, it was great.'

Alice is amazing. She just has her vision and she just delivers it,

and for that, she deserves to win.

I'm a perfectionist, and I saw that in Alice's work,

she had decent layering,

she had good understanding of the techniques, and she delivered.

Our next four bakers attempt to tickle our judges' taste buds...

Mmm, mmm, mmm...

..with a tricky, bready Technical...

It's stuck to the bottom.

..and show-stopping surprises on sticks.

The face almost fell off.