Heat Five Junior Bake Off

Mark's just burning a few calories

in readiness for day five of the Junior Bake Off heats.

-How many's that, mate?

-Ten.

-Impressive.

Welcome to Junior Bake Off.

Today, it's a tea-time technical...

So, your cream first, jam next.

..with scones and cream...

It doesn't look how it's meant to.

..and showstoppers, where it's all about the colour.

The only problem is, it's gone too green.

..and timing is crucial.

I'm scared, hurry up.

Today's four bakers are raring to go,

with two challenges to demonstrate their baking skills.

But which one will go through to the quarterfinals?

I want to see Sam and Mark.

11-year-old Nikki from north London bakes every single day,

and sometimes in the middle of the night.

Baking is one of the things that takes my mind off...

Sort of, the things I have to struggle with,

having an AVM.

And it's one of my all-time favourite hobbies,

and I just want to bake my heart out today.

What's this for?

11-year-old Olli's from Somerset.

His dad owns a cafe, which has come in pretty handy.

My dad's given me a lot of tips with recipe reading and stuff like that.

But I've been telling myself,

"Don't burn it. If you don't burn it, it's fine."

That's the fondant rolling pin.

Nine-year-old Elodie from Buckinghamshire

is one of the youngest in the heats.

She bakes at home with the help of some feathery friends.

I live with four chickens who provide lots of eggs,

which is really good for my baking cos, yeah, we get lots.

Hamish is ten years old and from Edinburgh.

He's a boy scout and, like any boy scout, his motto is, "Be prepared."

My game plan is to take it slow and steady,

but also go quite fast.

But not so fast that I mess up my cakes.

Good morning, bakers.

How are we all doing? Feeling good?

-ALL:

-Yeah.

This morning's Technical Challenge,

you have got to follow Allegra's recipe

for eight squashed fly scones!

Ew!

No, wait, before it gets a little bit weird.

the flies are actually lovely currants that go into the scones,

and they should be served with cream and a home-made jam.

So, judges, what else are we looking for?

So, the scones need to be golden brown,

well-risen, with a soft crumb when you break into them.

And we'd like a jam that's nice and thick, but not too sweet.

Now, before we go any further, can I have a look at your hands?

Are they all washed and ready to go?

-ALL:

-Yes.

-Fantastic.

Best of luck, bakers.

You have one hour to give us eight squashed fly scones.

-On your marks...

-Get set...

-BOTH: Bake!

The Technical Challenge will test the bakers' knowledge

and ability to follow a recipe,

a recipe none of them have seen before.

I've made scones before with fruit in,

so I'm not too scared about that.

I just hope I can do it all in the time.

I've made cheese ones, normal ones,

but I've never with currants.

So it is a bit different, but it's cool.

Allegra, why do you call these squashed fly scones?

Well, it's a childhood memory.

My mum was from Cornwall.

And when we made them, we used to put these currants in them,

and I used to say they looked like squashed flies.

I mean these are a gorgeous, golden colour.

That's what we're looking for.

It needs to have a good rise, and when you break into it,

it really should kind of crack in half with a gentle crumb inside.

And we've asked them to do a lovely blueberry jam.

-I'm going in.

-Let's go in.

Can't stop myself.

Mm.

That is just boom-shack-a-lacka-boom.

-NADIYA LAUGHS

-Yum.

I think I'm the only person in the room

who's not actually made scones before.

So that means I will read the recipe quite carefully,

just to make sure I get it all right.

I'm adding in the currants,

or the squashed flies, to the ingredients and butter.

Egg...

Whisk the milk and egg together,

and pour on to the dry mix that I've got here.

The dry mix of baking powder and self-raising flour

will help the dough to rise.

You don't want to overwork it too much.

That's why you just flatten it out slightly with your hand.

Overworking the dough will stretch the gluten in the flour,

which will result in a denser, less well-risen scone.

-OLLI:

-Yes!

-Hey, Olli.

-Hi.

-How are we doing?

-I'm good.

-They are high.

They're high before they've even gone into the oven.

-You come from the West Country, don't you?

-Yeah, I do.

-The home of scones.

-Ha-ha, yeah.

Are you cream then jam or jam then cream?

Cream then jam, I think.

So you're cream first, jam next.

Oh, I'm the other way around.

See, my mum was from Cornwall, and we do it the other way around.

-We've leave you to it, Olli.

-Thank you.

-HAMISH:

-I need to do the egg wash to put on top.

So they just need to be on the top so they go brown.

If you fancy baking, make sure an adult knows what you're doing.

So I'm putting them in the oven for 20 minutes.

BEEPING

Bakers, you've had half your time.

30 minutes left.

"Make the jam by placing blueberries

"in a small saucepan over a medium heat."

The blueberries should be completely squashed

for their flavour to infuse into the jam.

-NIKKI:

-I'm just flattening them now, and then I'm going to add in

the four tablespoons of lemon juice and the six tablespoons of honey.

Elodie, how are you?

-Good.

-What's happening here?

I'm trying to juice a lemon.

I don't know what... I don't know what you're going to...

You're probably going to need to cut that in half first, I would think.

Yeah. Yeah, shall we cut it in half for you?

Juice it up, juice away, Elodie.

-Thank you.

-Juice away, sister.

Now, Elodie,

are you "scon" or "scoan"?

Yeah, it's...

-"Scoan".

-BOTH: "Scoan".

I'm "scoan". You're "scon," aren't you?

-I'm "scon," yeah. Sorry, it must be a Midland thing.

-Yes.

I'm just going to keep count in my head.

One more.

-Nikki.

-Hi.

-How are you doing, you all right?

Good, thank you, yeah.

-Under control?

-Yes.

Nikki, seeing as we're doing a scone challenge,

-now, I say, "scoan"...

-Yeah.

-Mark says "scon".

-I say "scon".

-What do you say?

-"Scon".

-"Scon"?

-Yes!

-Interesting.

What made you start baking?

So, when I got diagnosed with my medical condition,

I ended up being at home a lot.

It's just been one of those things that you can sort of zone out,

and you don't have to think about anything else,

you can just follow the recipe.

-And you get to eat loads.

-Yes, exactly. Best bit.

I've got you, I've got you. All right, we'll see you later, Nikki,

-all right. Good luck.

-Thank you. See you.

Should be OK.

It needs to cool quite well.

Cos I don't want it to be hot.

Ten minutes, bakers.

-NIKKI:

-I think I can do it.

My scones come out in exactly three seconds.

TIMER BEEPS

-OLLI:

-Oven gloves.

-ELODIE:

-Do you want to borrow mine?

-Thank you.

-You're welcome.

Oh, gosh.

This one looks a bit like it's just ripped apart in the middle.

Some of my fellow bakers' ones look a lot better.

Right. Cream.

Come on, guys, only five minutes left.

I feel like I need to get a bit of a move on, really.

So I'm just whisking the cream.

I just want to make sure it doesn't get overwhipped,

cos that's the worst.

The cream should end up in soft peaks.

If the bakers overwhisk,

the cream will split and could end up like butter.

I'm just about to redo my cream with some new cream,

cos this didn't go how it's meant to.

Hopefully, I'll have enough time.

Bakers, you've got one minute left.

Come on, finish up!

Much better.

That's...

OK, bakers, that's it.

Your Technical Challenge is over.

-Bring your scones...

-"Scoans."

..cream and jam up to the gingham altar,

and please place them behind your picture.

My scones were slightly overcooked,

but I just hope that the judges like them.

I think my scones were quite good, and my cream wasn't overwhipped.

I think it went OK.

The judges were looking for eight uniform scones,

golden brown in colour, with a good rise.

NADIYA: Hamish.

These are a lovely colour, but they're a little bit flat.

Did you have some dough left over?

Yeah.

Yeah. As Nadia says,

they just haven't quite got the rise that we would have liked on them.

So we want to just break it open.

A good scone should break clean in the middle.

And that's what we've got. The jam's nice and thick.

Lovely and sweet.

But you've got a couple of bits of blueberries

that you haven't squished down.

Your cream is excellent.

So you made a good call to do it again.

Moving to Olli. They look very nice indeed.

The main thing is you got a great rise.

The crumb in the middle feels nice.

Let's try your jam.

Lovely and thick, and you've squashed all that fruit right down.

Because you squished the blueberries down,

it's got a strong blueberry flavour.

-You have actually really nailed that.

-Well done.

Nikki. Just by looking at them,

they needed to come out of the oven two minutes before.

They're slightly overbaked.

-That's a good break.

-That's a good break, I got a good break, too.

-Yep.

Let's try this jam.

-Mm.

-For a jam, it's really fresh and clean,

and you can really get that fragrance of the blueberry.

-Nice bake. Just a minute or two less.

-Well done.

Thank you.

Elodie.

Those are golden brown scones.

From the rise, they have come up quite nicely,

and colour-wise, they're absolutely gorgeous.

Not overcooked underneath.

Lovely break.

Really nice. That just absolutely came off in my hands.

Ooh, now that's a different-looking jam.

You can tell straight away that you didn't squish that fruit down.

You can't taste the blueberries.

We needed it to cook down a little bit more.

-But they're very nicely baked.

-Thank you.

Nadia and Allegra will now decide which scones are the best.

THEY WHISPER

So, in no particular order, the first person in our top two...

..is Elodie,

for giving us perfectly golden-brown scones that were delicious.

And the second in our top two

is Olli,

for the great rise and the best jam on the table.

I think you should come and taste these scones,

-or "scons," whatever you call them.

-Scones!

I worked my hardest with it,

so I'm extremely happy, being in the top two.

I'm feeling like I could get a place in the quarterfinal.

I'm feeling very positive.

-NIKKI:

-I was really pleased with the comments.

The only sort of bad thing I got, really,

was how they were slightly overcooked,

but besides that, they were all really good.

The competition is really, really hard to beat.

In the showstopper, I'm just going to have to bake my hardest

and make sure that everything in it goes to plan.

Are you all right, mate? What's up?

I can't eat any more.

Come on, Mark. You can do this.

You've just got to believe.

Just listen to that voice inside your head that says,

"I can and I will eat more cake."

I can't.

Pull yourself together, man!

You've got to keep fighting.

You've got to keep eating.

What are you?

A pussycat or a tiger?

A dog or a wolf?

A bear or a...

even bigger bear?

But why, Sam?

Because we've still got the showstopper to do.

Oh, all right, then, fair enough.

Welcome back, bakers, to a very exciting showstopper challenge.

Our lovely judges would like you to make

an ombre cake.

Now, "ombre" is French for "shade,"

apparently.

So your cake must be shaded from light to dark

on both the inside and the outside.

Other than that, it can be any flavour, any shape that you wish.

You've got 90 minutes, the best of luck.

-On your marks...

-Get set...

-BOTH: Bake.

So an ombre cake, it should be really easy on the eye.

There has to be a gradual change of shading from dark to light,

light to dark. It just should be a pleasure to look at.

Oh, wow, I'll get a towel.

The crucial point, really, is when they're colouring that batter,

and colouring that butter cream, they've got to be really careful

about how many drops of food colouring they put in.

So it's got to be obvious before it's even baked.

All the bakers are making a minimum of three layers of sponge

in order to achieve the ombre effect.

I live near Bournemouth.

And every year they do Bournemouth air show.

So I'm making a Red Arrows cake,

so like the sky, it's light blue, dark blue and white.

Olli's sky blue tribute to the Red Arrows

will have five layers of mint-flavoured sponge,

sandwiched together with home-made jam and fresh strawberries.

And then, inside, what colour are the sponges?

That's going to be like the sun, so it's red, orangey red,

yellow to white, but if the yolks are in it, it makes it darker,

so I take away the yolks, it makes a white sponge.

Where are you at?

I've just beat my mint sugar together,

and I'm combining my egg whites, milk and vanilla.

-Is that fresh mint?

-Yeah.

-Olli, you've got it going on, brother.

-Yeah.

-Good luck.

Bye. Thank you.

This ombre cake is sort of inspired by the rose and chocolate ice cream

that I had when I was in Cyprus when I was little.

I've got a picture of, like, my whole family there,

Dad, me, and then my sister and my brother.

So that's what my cake's inspired by.

Chocolate ganache will represent Nikki's holiday ice cream,

which will be melted over shaded rose buttercream,

topped with pistachios.

Inside will be four different flavours

of layered chocolate sponge.

So the inside is going to be a vanilla sponge,

and then a white chocolate sponge,

and then a milk chocolate sponge and a dark chocolate sponge.

I think it's nice to use natural things, instead of food colouring,

just to show the colours of your bakes.

So, fingers crossed it all turns out OK.

My ombre cake is made to look like a camp fire,

because I really enjoy camping.

In the inside, it's an orange and ginger-flavoured cake.

It goes from dark red to yellow.

As well as his ombre on the inside. Hamish will also be using

five different shades of Italian meringue icing on the outside.

He'll decorate with shards of boiled sweets to represent his camp fire.

I really need the colour to be in the bake,

otherwise it won't be ombre, so the colours need to stand out.

The bakers need to be precise when adding their food colouring.

17...18...19...

Too little or too much could ruin the desired ombre effect.

I'm making a chicken ombre cake.

The flavour I'm using is orange,

and the ombre effect is two shades of orange on the outside.

A chocolate nest will sit on the top of Elodie's chicken-themed cake,

and the orange ombre on the outside will be reflected on the inside

with four layers of shaded orange and vanilla sponges.

Good afternoon, Elodie.

-Afternoon.

-How are you?

-I'm good, thanks.

-Well, that's tremendous.

-What is that?

-Look at that!

-That's my chicken.

Cos you love chickens, don't you?

-Yes.

-Have you named this one?

Nope.

-Ooh!

-OK, I think Mark's a pretty cool name.

Mark, is that all right?

-Yep.

-Yeah! What are your other chickens called?

-One's called Edith, the one I'm doing this cake about.

-Cool.

So, why is Edith so special? Why does she get the cake?

Um...

OBJECT CLATTERS Aahh!

-Because she just does, OK?

-OK, OK!

THEY LAUGH

So just put them in the oven now.

The colours look really well, and I hope they'll be good

when they're put together in the right order,

giving it the ombre effect.

Bakers, you've had half your time, you've got 45 minutes left.

With the cakes in the oven, the bakers can start on their icing.

The flavours of my icing are rose.

Because one, I love, like, the flavour of it.

And I think, because my sponge is sort of chocolaty,

I think they go really well together.

I'm measuring the amounts I'm going to be putting

in my Italian meringue icing.

Italian meringue icing is made by whipping egg whites and sugar

over boiling water.

Hamish. Is this quite a tricky thing to make?

Well, you can't stop mixing it once it's on.

So you're going to be busy for a while, aren't you?

-Yeah, just six to eight minutes.

-Six to eight minutes.

-Wait, one minute left for my cakes.

-One minute.

-Yeah.

So hang on, though. You've got one minute left on your cakes.

You need to get them out of the oven, but you need to whisk this

for six minutes continuously. What are you going to do?

I can stop for a bit and take it off the heat.

-Can you?

-Oh!

-Can you?

We can help you, we can help you.

Yeah, do you want me to carry on?

-Yes, please!

-At this speed?

Yes, that's good, that's a good speed.

I'm scared! Hurry up!

I'll keep them in for an extra two minutes.

BOTH: Two minutes!

Cook, get back on here! Go, Hamish!

I'll take back over.

Go. Oh!

Just 30 minutes to go, guys.

Right.

That one's fine.

-OLLI:

-I think they're good.

But that one's the white one.

The only problem is, it's gone too green, with the mint.

Oh, no! These aren't going to plan. No.

They've stuck to the thing, so...

I'm just going to try to stick it together when I assemble the cake.

-ELODIE:

-I've just got to quickly get these in the fridge to cool.

The butter cream. I need to colour it, quickly.

-ELODIE:

-Olli, are you all right?

-Yeah, I'm fine.

Are you doing good? I am a bit off...

But I'm not quite... I think I'll be fine.

So, I'm going to start assembling the cake.

Bakers, 15 minutes to go.

Come on. You can do this.

-ELODIE:

-I do need to get a bit of a move on.

I've still got to cover the whole cake.

-HAMISH:

-I'm assembling mine as a tiered cake.

But it seems a bit smaller today than it did at home.

So far so good.

Having abandoned his green sponge,

Olli's cake will now consist of four layers.

I just really want to get it done.

I'm going to put a darker buttercream around the top.

-NIKKI:

-I just turn it around like that,

and then there is the light one.

But I think they look quite ombre.

I hope so.

This is a tough challenge.

-This is a super tough challenge.

-Yeah.

Ugh! It's not good.

That looks really sloppy.

It's not really meringue, is it?

It's sort of... It's halfway to meringue.

It's not holding its shape, and that's what it should be doing.

Hard peaks, hard peaks.

Oh, no!

Getting the ombre effect in the icing is quite hard.

Bakers, only five minutes left.

I think that's enough time.

Quickly do a few touches.

Bakers, that is it.

Wow.

Step away from the shade.

I think my icing went a bit different today.

The yellow kind of slopped down from the top,

so it looked not as ombre as I was wanting it to be.

I can feel the heat coming off your bonfire cake from here, Hamish.

It's absolutely hot to go.

You've got the shards here,

to represent the fire coming out of it.

Bonfire sticks at the bottom.

Huge amounts of imagination,

but that meringue, it has slipped a bit.

If you'd just whipped it for a little bit longer,

it would have held that shape so much better.

Let's check your ombre, Hamish.

Wow, that looks excellent!

I love the colours.

That's a rocking ombre cake.

Got the orange, feeling the ginger.

Nicely balanced, well-cooked cakes.

-That's yum.

-Just that one small thing.

Set your meringue to a stiff peak, next time.

The showstopper went all right.

But the icing could have been a bit neater,

and I probably shouldn't have done it as rushed as I did.

What a beautiful tribute

to your lovely chicken, Edith.

It's just lovely, and you've got the piping around the edge.

Maybe a little bit more gradation of ombre on the outside.

-Yeah.

-It looks a bit uni-orange.

-That is absolutely...

-Gorgeous, Elodie.

That's the magic of an ombre cake.

I can taste the orange and I can taste the vanilla,

and all four of your cakes are perfectly baked.

-Agreed.

-You should be really proud of that.

I had to take a layer out, but I'm happy with it.

I'm very proud of myself for doing it.

Maybe slightly, you could have blurred your lines slightly more,

cos I can see, as it were, stripes

as opposed to a sort of smooth gradation from dark to light.

But, you know, that's a fantastic job.

-What are we going to get?

-What are we going to get?

-Ah.

-Some of the layers have come out better than others,

-haven't they, Olli?

-Yeah.

-I think it is fair to say.

You've got thin layers of cake,

with the moisture from jam and strawberry,

-it's kind of welded into one, slightly.

-Yeah.

It's quite wet at the bottom here.

Mm, mint!

The strawberry and the mint together,

that works really, really well.

-It's delicious. Nice one, Olli, thank you.

-Thank you.

I am looking forward to what the judges say.

I just hope that it's ombre enough

in the middle, cos you can't really tell.

Nikki. That is absolutely stunning.

Thank you.

And really good ombre, you have a gorgeous smooth finish.

And also, it's got humour in it. This explosion of pistachios

where you've dropped your ice cream!

-Yeah.

-So annoying.

And yeah, it's such a beautiful cake.

Is it going to be as beautiful on the inside?

Wow. That is an ombre.

-Happy?

-Yes.

That is so light.

It's like eating clouds.

But it is really moist at the same time.

Absolutely delicious.

With the crunch of the nuts to finish it off,

that's a really, really accomplished piece of work, Nikki,

-you should be very proud of yourself.

-Thank you.

-Well done.

-ELODIE:

-How do you think that went?

-NIKKI:

-OK, I think.

-OLLI:

-Yours was good, my one's not that good.

They said it was really nice.

Yeah, but the icing wasn't the best, come on.

Judges, another strong day, and especially this morning,

the Technical Challenge.

Yeah, it was really tough, wasn't it? Trying to decide.

But the most important thing is definitely the bake,

and that's why we picked Olli and Elodie.

So let's talk about the afternoon, ombre cakes.

One person's absolutely nailed it, and that is Nikki.

I mean, she's the only one that's done something

that you could see in a patisserie shop anywhere in the world.

So she's made herself a contender.

Hamish, how did Hamish get on this afternoon?

Lovely inside, but on the outside,

you've got to say it's pretty drippy.

Olli, he was in our top two, but his cakes were really thin

and kind of welded into one.

We didn't quite get that full effect of the ombre because of that.

And then you've got Elodie, who's got a great bake on the inside,

but she didn't give us the ombre on the outside,

which is what we asked for.

So what do you do? What do you do, guys?

Oooohh!

Bakers, what a day.

You should be so, so proud of yourself.

However, Allegra and Nadiya can only take one of you

through to the quarterfinals.

This baker excelled themselves this afternoon

to produce an ombre cake that astounded the judges.

The baker going through to the quarterfinals is...

..Nikki.

THEY APPLAUD

Well done, Nikki. Well done.

Well done, lovely.

I really wasn't expecting to go through to the quarterfinals,

and so it's crazy,

and I can't really comprehend my words right now.

Well done, really good cakes. Really good cakes.

We decided to put Nikki through

because, even though she wasn't in the top two this morning,

what she gave us in her ombre cake was, quite simply,

what we were looking for.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you.

-That's just fantastic.

The most smooth, delicious ombre,

from bottom to top, in a beautiful pink.

She sailed right through.

-MARK:

-Yeah! Well done, Nikki.

Next time, the bakers go into meltdown...

Oh!

..and their bakes go bonkers.

I've got very messy fingers.

-When sweets...

-Cutting out my shortbread chips.

..become savoury.

Ooh, fancy.

HE SHRIEKS