Heat Six Junior Bake Off

We are back at the iconic Bake Off tent,

and we are at the halfway point.

Which means five talented young bakers have already made

their way into next week's quarterfinals.

It also means Allegra and Nadiya need to find five more to join them.

-And that means only one thing...

-More delicious bakes coming our way!

-Yeah, boy!

-Woohoo!

-Welcome... BOTH:

-..to Junior Bake Off.

-Today...

-Oh...

The bakers go into meltdown with a chocolate biscuit technical.

Uh. I've got very messy fingers.

They create a food illusion Showstopper

where sweet becomes savoury...

Mm. Fancy.

But who'll bring baking magic to the tent?

Ali, what are you doing?

-And which bakers...

-Please.

-..will do a disappearing act?

Arrgh!

The four bakers kicking off the week are all 11 years old.

And they're about to take on two baking challenges against the clock.

So, who'll be the sixth person going through

to next week's quarterfinals?

We've got our names on.

Jenna, from Nottingham, bakes every weekend and after school.

I like to go really wild in the kitchen.

Look, baking beans in a jar!

The only thing I don't like is clearing up,

because that's the worst bit.

From East Sussex, Dylan's baking experience goes way back.

I've been baking for around nine years, cos I made, like, weird

concoctions out of flour and water and food colouring and breadsticks.

So small!

In the Scottish borders, Robin raises money for charity

with her bakes, but this is the first time she's had them judged.

I dreamt that James Bond was a judge on Junior Bake Off, but I won,

so that's a good thing!

Ali, from Birmingham,

has honed his baking skills by having family bake-offs.

Sometimes my cousin wins, sometimes I win.

But now that I've entered the big Bake Off,

I'm going to show him that I'm going to win.

The first challenge is the technical,

and the bakers have no idea what to expect.

Bakers!

Welcome to the Bake Off tent.

-You all all right? ALL:

-Yeah.

OK, for today's Technical Challenge, the judges would like you to

follow one of Nadiya's recipes for 12 volcano biscuits.

Also, you'll be making a very refreshing ginger beer

to go on the side.

-BOTH:

-Oooh!

-Judges, what are you looking for?

So, we want the biscuits to be crunchy on the outside

and chewy in the centre.

And they need to have a strong presence of ginger,

but not be overpowering.

Now, before we go any further, has everybody washed their hands?

-Yeah.

-Let's have look - jazz hands, please.

Excellent, guys. You have one hour to create these biscuits,

and your ginger beer.

-The best of luck. On your marks...

-Get set.

-BOTH:

-Bake.

It feels incredible baking in the tent. It's like...

I never thought I'd do this!

So, I've got the butter, the sugar and honey, and you need to

just mix it on medium heat and it should melt and form a liquid.

What I'm loving here is they look like they're all on the same team,

-don't they?

-Yeah. I think it's really important to have

12 equal looking biscuits piped with the white chocolate on top.

And you need a really steady hand to get that feathering perfect.

When you break one, you're looking for more of a bend than a crunch.

Yeah.

Mmm. Chewy texture in the middle, crunchy round the outside. Perfect.

Let's see if the bakers deliver these.

If you fancy a go at baking,

tell a grown-up, so they know what you're up to.

I'm adding baking powder and milk...

and it's going to go all bubbly soon, I think.

When mixed with heat, baking powder releases

carbon dioxide gas bubbles into the sugar-syrup.

It kind of just makes the whole mixture fizz,

and I think that's what it means by volcanic, I really don't know!

The bubbles become trapped as the mixture sets,

which creates the honeycomb.

I need to add flour and chopped ginger.

-Hi, Jenna!

-Hi.

-How's it going?

-Em, OK, I hope.

-You're all right?

-Yeah.

Jenna, other than baking, what do you do at home?

-I do dance every Saturday.

-What kind of dance do you do?

Street, jazz and tap.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-Yeah, I do a bit of street, Jenna.

-Cool.

I do a bit of street.

You're not going to do the shoulder freeze again, are you?

Well, not with that attitude, I'm not. Maybe later.

Go ahead, I don't mind.

-I don't want to put you off, Jenna.

-Oh!

-I don't want to put you off.

-And I've got a bad shoulder.

-OK.

-So I'll let you crack on.

It's not that great.

I have to make 12 biscuits

out of this dough, so I'm going to halve it

then halve it again.

So I'm just rolling out equal-sized balls and then we need to just

put them onto the baking trays.

Spread them out quite evenly.

Also do need to work quite quickly.

Minute to minute.

For a chewy, honeycomb centre...

I'm a bit nervous, cos they're a bit messy.

..it's essential the biscuits aren't overbaked.

They go in for about seven minutes.

I'm probably just going to try and make that one again.

Hi, Robin. Your biscuits, are they in the oven?

-Yes, they're in the oven.

-How do you feel it went?

I think my biscuits might be a bit messy.

Are you expecting them to spread? Cos I noticed there were kind of

-a few different shapes on the trays.

-Yeah.

I'm a bit worried about that. But I'm sure they'll be fine.

-Fingers crossed.

-Fingers crossed.

-OK, bakers, you are halfway through.

-Wow.

-Really?

-Yeah, really.

-Yeah, sorry.

"Set up two bain-maries." OK.

Basically, to melt chocolate, you put water in

a pan underneath a heatproof bowl and then stir it and it melts.

I'm pretty confident with this bit.

I do it quite a lot at home with my mum.

Oh, come on.

-Hey, Dylan.

-Hey.

-How's it going?

-It's going pretty good.

We've heard that you lived in America for quite a while.

-Two years, yes.

-Two years!

-Wow.

-So what's your American accent?

-It comes back when I speak to an American person.

-Really?

-AMERICAN ACCENT:

-Well, I'm quite American when I speak, Dylan.

-AMERICAN ACCENT: Why don't you bake some bagels?

-That's more like it.

-That's more like it.

-Is that better?

HE LAUGHS

They look OK, my biscuits. They're kind of even in shape.

I think they're all right, but I was hoping they would rise a bit more.

There are a bit flat.

-Those smell tremendous.

-They do smell good.

-Thank you.

Wire rack.

Bakers, you only have 20 minutes left.

Come on!

I erupted like a volcano.

This is my favourite part, this, the decorating.

I've got very messy fingers.

The judges also want to see a feathering effect

using white chocolate piping.

So you have to drag the toothpick up and leave that kind of spike

and then you have to do it again the other way and you get kind of,

like, that feathery effect.

Just spying on them.

Theirs are looking quite good.

This is my last one, thank gosh!

And they're just going to chill right now.

Right, stay in there...

..for ten minutes.

With the chocolate topping left to set,

the bakers can make a start on their ginger beer.

All except one.

I'm feeling a bit under pressure, but hopefully, I'll be all right.

You just need to grate the ginger, put the honey, lemon,

sparkling water, ice and mint

in the bowl.

It's crucial that just the right amount of the ginger is added and it

has time to flavour the water.

-You've got ten minutes left. Ten minutes left.

-Look at Ali's face.

Enough time to make ginger beer?

-Let's go to the shop quick and buy a bottle.

-Quick.

-How you doing, Dylan?

-I'm doing OK.

-Have you made your ginger beer yet?

-No. I'm just about to.

Good, these are done.

Come on, there. You've got one minute left. Finishing touches.

Come on. Finish up.

I'm feeling quite scared, actually.

Get them on the plate.

I'm just... Little swirls of piping, so it looks a bit nicer.

OK, bakers, stop what you are doing.

That's the end of your volcano biscuit Technical Challenge.

Hopefully, it's going to work.

If you'd now like to bring them all up to the Gingham Altar.

-Oh, gingerly does it.

-Nice.

-Thanks.

I think Jenna is probably my biggest rival,

because her biscuits were quite good.

It was an OK technical, I think.

It depends how they taste.

The judges are looking for 12 identical beautifully

feathered volcano biscuits with a honeycomb centre and

a ginger beer with just the right kick.

Let's start with Jenna, shall we?

Feathering, that's a decent job.

When I break it, you've got a nice golden colour in the middle,

slightly darker around the outside. Let's go in.

Big chunks of ginger in there.

-Crispy on the outside, chewy in the centre.

-Really, really yummy.

Let's try the drink.

It's gingery.

It's got loads of ginger in it.

SHE GARGLES

Good for me.

Dylan. I mean, overall, I love the big bold feathering on it.

Give it a bend.

-Oh, there you go.

-Ah.

Slightly, perhaps, overcooked.

Just lost the chewiness in the middle.

Yeah, that's quite well done, isn't it? But decent biscuits.

Decent biscuits. Now, I have to say this looks a little pale to me.

Yeah.

-It's almost more lemonade than ginger.

-Yeah.

OK. Robin.

Generous on the chocolate, which I love.

SNAP! Oh, there's a snap.

I'm fearing these are on the, er... the minute or two over as well.

They've gone crispy in the middle, but delicious.

And you can really get the ginger,

cos you've got big chunks of ginger in there.

Drink?

Cor!

Just needs a little bit more sugar.

Ali.

They're quite equal in size, which is exactly what we wanted

and I love your feathering.

-We get a break?

-Oh.

-Oh.

I saw a fist pump.

LAUGHTER

So you've got that nice blonde colour I was talking about

in the middle there. Dark around the outside.

You carry on, I'll just eat.

Good job all round, Ali.

Let's try this drink.

Oh, yeah!

Good.

I feel like I'm going to be indestructible.

Take on the world after this.

Nadiya and Allegra will now decide which two plates of volcano

biscuits got them fired up the most.

So the first person in our top two is Ali.

You got exactly what we were looking for in the biscuit.

-Thank you.

-Well done.

And our second top bake is Jenna's.

Because it had that nice crunch on the outside and the contrast of

textures in the middle. A good bake. Well done, Jenna.

I think you should come and taste your bakes. You deserve it.

I thought you'd never ask.

Nadiya did say that my biscuits were exactly right.

I'm, like, fist pump.

I'm quite excited, yeah. But then, anything could happen.

Like my cake could collapse and someone else's could be amazing,

but I'm hoping for the best again.

I've got some really strong competition with the other bakers,

cos they're really good.

But I think I can pull it back with my Showstopper,

so, hopefully, I can.

For the next challenge,

our bakers are going to create an illusion using cake.

Here's one I made earlier. Oh! Ah!

-Mystical. Oh!

-Psst! Sam.

-Shh. Ah!

-Sam, can I put the cake down? It's really hurting my arm.

-Shh.

-Seriously! Sam, it's really, really hurting my arm.

Well, you've ruined it now, haven't you? Thank you(!)

Oh, sorry. Oh!

All right, bakers. It is Showstopper time.

Allegra and Nadiya would like you to bake a food illusion.

Now, it could be a cake. It could be a biscuit. It could be both.

But you must sculpt what looks like your favourite meal. For example,

-burger from a brownie.

-Shepherd's pie from shortbread.

Goulash from a Garibaldi.

Now, you've got 1 hour and 45 minutes to complete this challenge.

-On your marks.

-Get set. BOTH: Bake!

I'm just going to start making the fish finger mix.

The beauty of the Show stopping food illusion is it can be

whatever is in their minds.

I want to, just for a second, glance at it and think I'm about

to eat something completely different.

-Salt.

-We want to be fooled.

To say, "Wow, that looks like something savoury."

And then put it in our mouth and realise it's sweet.

But it's really important to get the bakes right too and that they taste

really, really good.

My family and I, we love to go to the local chip shop near our house.

So I am making a...

..giant chip buttie, which is like a giant chip sandwich.

Jenna's super-size chip buttie will be made up of shortbread chips,

sandwiched between two giant slabs of lemon drizzle cake

covered in fondant icing with a buttercream crust.

-Hi, Jenna.

-Hi.

-Right, what's the plan with the shortbread?

-Cut first, cut after?

-I'm going to cut it first,

cos I find that much easier, so it's less crumbly.

I don't mind if they grow bigger in the oven, cos you like big chips,

-don't you?

-Yeah.

-You like chips sticking out the edge.

Especially the chip buttie. You don't want little, skinny fries.

-Looking forward to it. Good luck.

-Thank you.

-Keep focused.

So today, I'm making my Fool's Scottish breakfast.

We were discussing it at breakfast time and I saw my dad,

who had egg on toast, and I thought, "That's just perfect."

Robin's blow out brekkie will include

a black pudding chocolate muffin, a strawberry compote

jellybean baked beans, and lemon drizzle cake toast

topped with a fried apricot egg.

-Is this tomato ketchup and brown sauce?

-Yes, it is.

-Nice.

-Which you need in a breakfast, don't you?

-Yeah, you do.

-I'm a ketchup kind of guy.

-I'm a brown sauce kind of a guy.

-Are you really?

-Covered all the bases, well done.

I'm doing, like, party food.

Like, the food you kind of expect at parties, like mini bites.

Like, you know, the canapes.

Ali's got a lot on his plate as he's producing ten canapes

including chocolate and marshmallow burgers, mini cake pizzas,

cornflake chicken goujons, apricot salmon blinis and,

-to top it all, caviar blinis.

-Caviar?

What kind of parties are you going to, Ali?

-How are you going to make the caviar?

-We've got these, like,

black sugar balls.

-Oh.

-Oh, OK. I like it.

-Nice, nice.

But I really do think you've got to watch your time here.

-He's got a lot going on.

-See you later.

I'm making one of my favourite meals.

Fish fingers, chips, mushy peas and ketchup,

because I absolutely love them.

Dylan's fish fingers will be coated in a crumble crust.

Served with shortbread chips on the side,

Chantilly cream mushy peas and a raspberry coulis tomato ketchup.

Now, Dylan, are you happy with what you're making?

-Erm, I've made this about 20 times before.

-20 times?

-20 times.

And how many of those did you nail it?

-Five.

-Five.

It's not bad, so we've got a one in four chance of this coming right.

-Have you got any lucky mascots or lucky charms?

-I have, right there.

-What is it?

-It's a dinosaur bone.

-Which dinosaur do you think it was from?

-I have no idea.

That one that goes...

HE SCREECHES

That's very accurate.

That lovely. That's a lovely noise.

So, I'm just filling up my cake tins with mixture.

And then, once that's done, they'll be going in the oven.

It's going in.

Bakers, you have had 45 minutes.

-Got an hour left.

-So I can start my shortbread.

I'm mashing the strawberries, which is going to be the sauce for

the baked beans and the tomato ketchup.

It's my buttercream.

It's going to be like the cream cheese for three things, actually.

It's more sticky. That's really good.

So I'm just cutting out my shortbread chips

to go inside my chip buttie.

-Ali, what are you doing?

-Trying to get these mushrooms off my finger.

-Is it marshmallow?

-Yeah.

It looks very sticky.

What I'm doing is, I'm going to make a burger patty out of it.

Now I'm just waiting for the chocolate to melt.

And then that all goes in that bowl into the microwave.

Coco Pops, burger press, boom.

Bakers, you've got half an hour left.

Yes, yes, yes.

Perfect.

I'm actually quite nervous about the cakes, cos I filled them

right to the brim and they've expanded, like, so much.

I'm just going to check if it's ready, cos it might not be.

I'm just going to test it with the skewer.

If it comes out clean, it's done.

OK. I'm happy.

They're looking quite good. I just need to throw these in the fridge.

Please be cooked.

Yes.

I nearly forgot the drizzle.

Drizzle.

OK. Sort of flooded it a bit.

And now my shortbread needs to go in.

-50 minutes to go, bakers. Come on.

-Come on.

-I hope I can do it.

Just might be running out of time slightly.

That's my shortbread that needs to come out of the oven.

The shortbread is looking really good. I just need to cut it.

I'm cutting the chips whilst they're soft

so you can get a nice shape on them.

And, at the moment, the first ones aren't really going to plan.

There we go. That's a good one.

There we go. I actually need to assemble it all now.

Raspberry sauce, pizza.

Once all the elements have been created,

the bakers can start crafting their food allusions.

I'm just going to cover it with my home-made lemon curd.

It's kind of like the butter.

I just need to work slightly quicker.

Ali has got five different components.

-I don't know if he's going to finish on time.

-He's so ambitious.

-If he pulls this off, I will be A, impressed, B, amazed.

-Yeah.

Fancy.

It's what aprons are for.

I just need to decorate the lemon drizzle cake.

It's still a bit warm. I need it to be cold,

so I'm playing it quite fine.

-Please. Please. Please.

-How are we doing, Ali?

-I forgot to do the chicken goujons.

-Can you do them in five minutes?

-Yeah, should be.

-OK, we'll leave you to it.

It's cold enough.

OK.

Beans, beans, where have they gone?

Right, that's it. Well done.

Brilliant.

Thank goodness.

I think it did go quite well. The only bad bit was I kind of

forgot that I needed to do the chicken goujons,

then ended up doing that last minute.

Literally just snuck it in.

-That burger is unbelievable.

-I love the meat patty.

That looks so realistic.

Great work, Ali.

I mean, you could sell that in any top end restaurant

up and down the country.

-Fantastic. Where are we going now?

-Chicken?

The only thing is, I think the cornflakes have gone all soggy,

so it's all sticking together.

Smoked salmon, my lady.

Nice and light, nice and fluffy. And our pizza...

-Cake's cooked really well.

-I mean, for me, good experimentation.

-Next time, just make the burger.

-Yeah.

What a lovely, lovely presentation.

I mean, I am so impressed with that egg and that shine.

It looks like a proper fried egg, doesn't it?

-The beans are a bit more Halloween than fry-up.

-Yeah!

-Slightly nuclear.

LAUGHTER

Good Lord, it's cake. That's convincing.

I mean, there's so much humour in that plate, Robin.

Yeah, and the mushrooms, the black pudding.

That might be a slight overbake on that. Am I being tough?

No, that's just slightly.

-Just slightly.

-All in all, well conceived and well delivered.

-Great job, Robin.

-Thank you.

I hope the judges are going to say it's very, very nice, because

I worked really hard on it and I practised over 20 times.

That is a really good posh fish and chips.

Mushy peas, slightly light on the colour.

-Yeah.

-You'd have to say, normally, a little bit greener than that.

I'm going to go shortbread and ketchup.

-Ketchup's delicious.

-The fish fingers?

I would have liked a touch more crunch.

Cos, when you bite into a fish finger,

there's that crunch, isn't there?

But flavour wise, that plus that... That just works. Good job, Dylan.

I've done the best I can so, hopefully, the judges see that.

I really want to impress them.

I mean, that is just so much fun.

The bread, the ketchup, the chips, the paper.

You've really used your imagination.

-Lovely crunch.

-Oh, yeah.

You could tell that cake is cooked.

-Yum.

-Good cake. Beautifully light.

And that lemon curd, it just works really well with the shortbread.

Delicious. And I love the detail around the edge of the bread here.

Really good. I feel like you've entirely delivered

-on your vision there.

-Thank you.

Can you believe it's over, though? I'm really sad.

I know. I want to do it again.

Yeah. I really enjoyed it.

Well, judges, I think it's fair to say that it's been

a good day of baking all around.

Let's start with the technical.

Was it easy to pick your top two?

We really did like Ali's.

-It was the best...

-Yeah.

-..on the bake front, but then,

Jenna's was really nice on the visuals.

Did Robin and Dylan all bring it back this afternoon

with the Showstopper?

-That egg, extraordinary.

-And Dylan's gastro fish fingers

and chips, the cake was delicious.

From the untrained eye, they all look fantastic.

Did somebody stand out at all?

Well, I think we really did like Ali's.

It looks so much like a burger.

Especially that meat patty in between. That was phenomenal.

But Jenna's, she's got strength there.

The flavours and the texture, she's got lemon curd,

she's got fantastic icing,

a great light sponge.

But you did say, with Ali's, that that could be served

in a top end restaurant.

Yeah, and, equally, you could sell those as kids party cakes

for sure, for sure. They're up there. They're both up there.

-Do you want to make the decision?

-No.

-No, definitely not today.

It's too difficult.

Bakers, you have made this really, really difficult

for Allegra and Nadiya.

Unfortunately,

only one of you can go through to next week's quarterfinals

and our judges have made that decision.

This baker delivered on their imaginative concept.

And they also really, really showcased their baking skills.

The baker going through is...

..Jenna.

Hey, well done, Jenna.

High five.

I'm so excited. I feel like a firework,

cos I got through to the quarterfinals. I'm so excited.

Ali, well done. Absolutely amazing.

This afternoon's Showstopper was tough.

Ali did the most amazing burger, but Jenna did the most fantastic

chip buttie. I just love that piece of imagination.

Congratulations. Well done. That's fantastic.

The flavours that she used worked really well together.

You know, she showed that she's creative,

but she also said, "Hey, I can bake."

-Well done.

-Well done, Jenna.

Next time, the judges demand uniformity...

I'm struggling with the word identical.

..as the bakers lose their heads and chaos reigns in the tent.

Wait, I forgot to put the figs in.