Heat Seven Junior Bake Off

-Everything all right?

-I'm trying to think of a word

that describes the Junior Bake Off tent.

-Intense.

-Yeah, inside the tent.

You know how sometimes the atmosphere

can get a little bit "ooh, aargh!"? What's the word that describes that?

-Intense.

-Yes, inside the tent. I just said that.

It's really annoying me. What's the word?

The word you're looking for is "intense".

The word's inside the tent? Brilliant! I'll go and find it.

-See you in a sec.

-Welcome to Junior Bake Off.

Today, the judges demand uniformity...

I'm struggling with the word "identical".

..with a cupcake creation...

I gave up on piping.

..the bakers lose their heads...

Wait! I forgot to put the sticks in.

..in a bonkers biscuit Showstopper...

Ah, ah, ah!

..and chaos reigns in the tent.

This is terrible.

Way more honey.

-I'm really nervous.

-I'm terrified!

Today's four are ready to do baking battle

for a place in the quarterfinals.

But who will it be?

12-year-old Maisie is from Swindon

and she's known for her baking at school.

I bring things in and when we finish exams, I make massive cakes.

It's my friends that actually encouraged me

to sign up for the Junior Bake Off and I'm very glad that they did.

Mia, what's this?

JJ from Tyne and Wear is 11 and he was inspired to bake by his family.

I've basically learned from my aunties.

Scones and cakes and things like that.

I just love baking so much.

Mia is ten and she's from Belfast.

She's been baking since she was three years old

and has brought a secret weapon with her to the tent.

I'm wearing my lucky shoes.

They have silver on them and silver is my lucky colour.

I'm going to work very hard today

and try to impress people as much as I can.

Nine-year-old Jamie from Doncaster

practises his bakes on his grandma's friends.

Making for the judges is more scary

than making for my grandma's old folks' home.

But I'm in it to win it and I am very competitive.

Hello, bakers. How are you all doing? Good? A bit nervous?

-Yeah.

-Don't be! Don't be. You'll be absolutely fine.

Now, for your Technical Challenge,

Allegra and Nadiya would like you to make 12 prune and carrot cupcakes.

Now, these cupcakes will be free from refined sugar.

They will instead be sweetened by the prunes

and topped off with a honey-cream-cheese frosting.

Judges, what are you hoping for?

We want cupcakes that are all baked perfectly

and iced in exactly the same way.

We want the cakes to be moist but not raw.

-Yeah, that'd be bad!

-That would be bad!

Thanks, judges. Before we get cracking,

have you all washed your hands?

Can we see them?

They look clean. They look clean.

Now, you've got an hour to complete this Technical Challenge.

-On your marks...

-Get set... BOTH:

-Bake!

This is the first time the bakers have seen the recipe,

so the Technical will test their baking instincts.

Jamie... I can't find the grated carrot.

Oh, yes!

Now, Nadiya, I have to say that carrot cake is one of

my absolute favourites. This has got the addition of prunes.

We're looking for a moist cupcake that's risen really, really well.

We're also looking for some of that fantastic frosting on top,

well piped.

-Mm!

-You've got those lovely plump prunes

that give you all that sweetness

but you've got the tang from the cream cheese frosting as well.

-It's a great balance.

-It's nice and light.

The consistency of the carrot strands in it...

All of it just totally works. Really good.

Prunes, oil and honey, eggs in a small food processor.

When you bake, make sure that a grown-up knows what you're doing.

The prunes have to be all kind of chopped up.

Next, the bakers add cinnamon and ginger,

to give the cakes their spicy flavour, followed by the flour.

To make 12 identical cupcakes,

the batter must then be divided evenly between the cases.

So, I thought, to get it more even,

I was going to pipe it into the cupcake cases.

I'm trying to do a little bit and then keep going over them.

It'll make sure they get an even bake.

-Hi, JJ.

-Hello.

-Hi.

Good morning. How are we doing?

-Good.

-Do you like carrot cake?

Yeah. My mum especially likes carrot cake.

-Does your mum bake?

-No!

She's very bad at baking.

Are you the baker in the family?

-Yeah.

-How are you going to make sure that each cupcake is equal?

-By eye?

-My gut.

-Your gut instinct?

That's always good.

OK, guys, you've got 45 minutes left.

Ooh!

TIMER BEEPS

Beep, beep, beep, beep!

How long has it got to go in the oven?

-15 minutes.

-15 minutes - you're on!

Now, Jamie, I hear you have a couple of nicknames at home.

-Is this right?

-Yeah, I do.

-Talk us through 'em.

Jammy Dodger.

-Jammy Dodger?

-Jammy Dodger?

-Yeah.

-Right.

-Jimmy Jams.

-Jimmy Jams.

-Jimmy Jams, yeah.

-I heard another one, though.

-Go on.

-I heard Calamity James.

-Is that right?

-Yeah.

-Why is that?

-Er, sometimes...

at home, I drop things.

-Have you dropped anything so far?

-No.

-We're all right, then.

-Good!

-We're all right.

-I got honey all over the worktop, though.

That's fine - we can clean that up.

-All right, mate.

-See you in a bit.

-You make your cheese-cream frosting.

-See you later.

-Bye.

To make the frosting,

the bakers combine cream cheese with orange zest...

..orange juice...

..and just enough honey to sweeten the mix.

More honey.

Way more...

Way more honey.

I flipped the wrong one!

I forgot to put the flour in my mixture.

I thought it was a bit runny.

I don't know how, because I read the recipe three times,

but I'm just going to start again and then hope for the best.

Maisie forgot to put the flour in!

Yeah. That batter looked suspiciously liquid.

Anyway, so what she's done...

She's a positive girl. She's going to make another batch.

-What do you reckon?

-She gets them in, sticks them in the freezer,

she could cool them in time to maybe ice them.

I'm just saying, she might be able to ice them.

Add the flour.

-Bakers...

-You've got 22 minutes left.

Maisie, how long do they take to bake?

-15 minutes.

-OK. We've got it.

-You've got this.

-I HAVE got this.

-TIMER BEEPS

-Oh, is that mine?

I think they're ready.

I forgot something in the recipe - the cake recipe.

I didn't add my honey.

I don't have enough time to make more,

so I am glazing my cakes with honey.

Bakers, you've got five minutes left.

Come on, crack on. You can do this!

I've done a few pieces of piping but not many,

so I'm really worried about everything.

Yeah, I think they need a couple more minutes.

While the judges haven't specified the pattern,

they want each cupcake to be piped identically.

The decoration is definitely my strength.

I'm just going to do a few little stars on it

and maybe layer them up a bit.

Come on. You need to get them cooled, get them iced.

-They're cooked!

-Yeah! All right!

Maisie, you open the freezer door.

Mark, you start putting them in. Go, go, go!

-Lovely.

-Thank you.

This is going to be the quickest piping I've ever done in my life!

Bakers, you've got one minute left.

Maisie, we need to get those on the plate.

-OK.

-Best do it. Go for it.

-We can do this.

-Thank you.

I gave up on piping... because it was going everywhere,

as you can see.

Come on, Maisie. Come on, Jamie.

Bakers, that is it.

Stop what you are doing.

Well done! Excellent work.

It is now time to bring your prune and carrot cupcakes

-over to the gingham altar.

-Take your time.

It's definitely the toughest bake I've ever had to do.

It all went a bit wrong in every way.

I'm just so happy that it's over.

Allegra and Nadiya are looking for 12 identical cupcakes,

evenly baked with perfectly piped icing.

Let's start over here.

So, Mia, we have got 12, pretty much identical, so well done on that.

I like the detail on the piping.

You haven't just gone for a single swirl -

you've gone for little rosettes.

Really nice cake. Very nice indeed.

They are perfectly cooked.

I think that's got just enough sweetness in the frosting.

Jamie, I'm struggling with the word "identical".

There are some things that you've done fantastically well here -

I like that, I like the generosity -

and then some that you'd have to say were a little bit different.

I ran out of cream cheese. It went all over my face.

BOTH: Oh!

I like the bake on that.

That's a really good bake.

The frosting on top - you've got the sweetness just right.

JJ, they definitely look identical.

I can't help noticing that yours have got that extra glaze on top

-and extra sheen.

-I forgot the honey in the actual recipe,

-so I thought if I glazed it with some honey, it might...

-Soak in.

Yeah, good thinking. Winging it - it's a good way to go.

-I can tell that you haven't got the honey in there.

-100%.

But it's a very good job and I love the look of them.

-Maisie.

-They call her Two-Times Maisie.

What is amazing, though, is to have produced, on a second run,

within an hour, cupcakes that look like this.

That's an extraordinary feat, Maisie.

It's just slightly undercooked.

It's a good rendition and given your dramas, it's pretty extraordinary.

Nadiya and Allegra must now decide

on their top two sets of carrot cupcakes.

First up is going to be...

Mia, for nailing the brief pretty perfectly. Well done.

The second is going to be...

..Maisie, for having overall best decoration,

beautiful piping and keeping your head when you were under pressure.

OK, well done, Mia and Maisie.

Lads, don't worry about it - you've still got the Showstopper to come.

-Come on, get involved.

-Have a taste.

It feels brilliant.

I never thought I'd do that well,

but, actually, I realise that I can do it now and I feel more confident.

I'm actually really surprised,

considering I had to rush them and do them twice,

so I'm really, really happy.

It didn't go as well as I hoped.

I'm hoping I can bring it back in the Showstopper.

Being surrounded by all these amazing bakers

has really inspired me to start baking,

so I've been taking baking lessons.

-Really?

-Yeah.

Mark! That is great news. Well done. I'm really proud of you.

Oh, cheers, buddy. In fact, you'll never believe this,

but that cake right there has been made by me.

No way! You made that?

-I did.

-Mark, that is phenomenal!

A professional could have made that.

Has anybody seen my cake?

Next up, showstopping biscuits.

HE SIGHS

Bakers, welcome to your Showstopper Challenge.

Allegra and Nadiya would like you to make 12 biscuit pops.

Now, biscuit pops are to be eaten like lollipops.

They can be any flavour you want, any size, any shape,

but they have to be stuck on end of a stick.

-Yeah!

-Awesome! You've got 90 minutes to complete this challenge.

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

-Get set...

-BOTH:

-Bake!

It's a biscuit-pop challenge, so we are expecting all of the biscuits

to be on sticks and to be able to hold them up.

Because we're talking about biscuits here, they need decorations.

They've not just gone for a slab of fondant,

they've gone for a bit of piping, gone for some detail.

They've got to have thought it through from start to finish.

All the bakers start by making their biscuit dough.

I need to cream together my butter and my sugar

until that is light and fluffy.

Just making sure it doesn't crumble.

You don't want a crumbly biscuit pop.

Today, I am making picnic biscuit pops.

I've been having a lot of picnics

and I thought that would be fun, to bring it into a bake.

Maisie's picnic-themed biscuit pops will be shaped and flavoured

as watermelon slices, lemonade glasses and strawberry ice creams,

hand-piped with glace icing.

-Hi, Maisie.

-Hello.

-Hey, Maisie. You've marked your bowls.

So that I don't get confused.

That is a good thing to do.

-Thank you.

-You've got strawberry...

I've got strawberry, lemon and watermelon.

-Great.

-Can we smell this?

-Yeah. It doesn't smell that good in the bottle!

-Does it not?

-Are you getting watermelon?

-It smells very sweet.

-I'm about to do something really stupid.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-Ah!

-It doesn't taste very good from the bottle!

-Don't put too much in, Maisie.

-Yeah.

I'm just beating egg,

sugar and butter together.

I'm making sweet-shop-flavoured biscuit pops.

Jamie's sweet-shop biscuits are designed to look and taste like

lemon sherbets, strawberry bonbons and sugared almonds.

My dad always buys sweets for the car if we're going on a long journey

and he always likes to buy those particular sweets.

Unlike Jamie and Maisie,

JJ has opted to use just one flavour in his biscuit dough.

I'm going to make cinnamon biscuits because cinnamon has a nice taste

and a great smell.

I'm going to try and do Halloween and spooky ones.

JJ's spooky cinnamon biscuit pops will be shaped as vampires,

eyeballs, skulls and pumpkins,

which he'll decorate with fondant and glace icing.

-JJ, how are we doing?

-Is Halloween your favourite part of the year?

Yeah. Definitely.

-And Christmas - I like Christmas.

-Yeah, me too, JJ.

-High five. I'm with you.

-This guy!

-Love a bit of Christmas.

-He starts talking about Christmas in March!

-I really do - it's true.

-Hey, Mia.

-Hi, Mia.

-Hello.

-How are you doing?

-Good.

-What we are having today? What's the vision?

Scrumptious skulls.

We're going to eat skulls?

Are these your cutters that you're using? Can I have a look at them?

-Look at these cutters.

-Oh, I see. They're Mexican.

They're Day of the Dead ones.

How many times have you done this at home?

Only once but it went well, so I think it'll all go well today.

-And did you get them on the sticks?

-I got everything fine.

Mia's skull-shaped biscuit pops

will be flavoured with honey and orange zest

and decorated with fondant icing.

The bit I'm most worried about is probably getting it done in time.

Once the dough is ready, it can be rolled out and cut into shapes.

My lemon-flavoured dough is in a lemonade glass.

I'm just going to cut them out and transfer them onto my baking tray

in a minute, and then put my sticks in them.

Let me give you a top tip. With the lollipop sticks,

lay them out on the tray and when you cut out your shapes,

press your cookie into the stick and that will just wrap around the stick

-and stop it from falling out.

-You've done it good!

The sticks must go into the soft dough

before it's baked and goes hard.

Bakers, you've got 45 minutes left - we're halfway through.

With all the biscuits in the oven,

the bakers prepare their decorations.

This is definitely the best part of all the recipe.

I love getting them into their shapes.

You need to make sure you have loads of icing sugar down

because they stick.

I forgot to put icing sugar on it.

Maisie is the only baker not using fondant icing.

She'll be hand piping all her decorations.

I need to separate all of my icing sugar

to make all of the different coloured icings.

I'm trying to stay as organised as possible

cos when stuff goes everywhere,

it makes everything else so much harder.

Bakers. You have had one hour.

You have 30 minutes remaining.

They're done.

I'm putting them in the fridge for about ten minutes.

Let's go.

Oh, wait! I forgot to put the sticks in.

That's a problem. So forgetful!

I don't know if they'll be...

Oh, no. This is terrible.

Hi, Mia. What's happening? How you getting on?

-I forgot to put the sticks in.

-You forgot to put the sticks in?

Yeah. And they're too warm to put the sticks in.

-OK, so they're biscuits.

-Yeah.

-They're just biscuits.

Why don't we stick two together with a stick in the middle,

so you'll have six biscuits?

They look really plain at the moment but it's going to get better.

I love decorating.

It's, like, the best.

Just roll that out and take bits off of it and then...

I'll roll out, you take bits out and stick biscuits together.

I'll be the sticker. I'll be chief sticker.

I think I'll stick that.

Don't push it too hard!

You to do that, I'll do another one.

Mia, this is the most stressed I've ever been in the Bake Off tent.

We do nothing, us. We walk about having a lovely time.

Five minutes left, bakers.

I'm going to run out of time.

There we go.

No!

Oh, oh!

Oh, God.

Just a little bit.

OK, one minute, guys.

Come on, Mia!

OK, that is time, bakers.

Stop what you're doing.

Well done.

Brilliant!

Jamie...

It's really well conceived.

It's a lovely design.

It could be a little bit more delicate but, you know,

the most important thing, biscuits on sticks, in hand - got it.

You can taste the strawberry.

It tastes like a strawberry bonbon.

I'm happy!

Could have done with a couple of minutes extra in the oven,

cos it's slightly undercooked in the middle. But the almond...

Now, that has a better bake on it.

Excuse me. I'll be left alone with this almond pop, please.

-That is delicious.

-That is really yummy.

It's really nice.

-All in all, I think that's a very good sweet shop.

-Yeah.

The Showstopper did not go well.

I kind of ran out of time and I forgot to put the sticks in.

Well, who said biscuit pops have to be vertical?

That's what I say. Look, look, look, look.

-It does it.

-Yay!

I love the hearts as the eyes.

-It's crumbly and buttery...

-And orangey.

..with a hint of orange, which is yummy.

I think it would have eaten better as the single.

I think your plan A was a better plan.

It's a lot of biscuit for a girl to get through.

-Good save, though.

-Well done, Mia.

JJ, you've definitely set the scene.

I can see that's Halloween-themed.

To be fair, some of them are thicker than others,

but the main thing is the visual effect is,

it's the end of October, for sure.

-Biscuit pop it?

-Let's biscuit pop it.

-That's a good biscuit.

-There's a really nice,

subtle level of cinnamon to the bake.

The thicker ones are slightly softer in the middle.

So they probably needed just a couple of minutes extra.

-Job well done.

-Yeah, good job.

-To me.

-To you.

-To me.

-To you.

THEY CHUCKLE

Maisie, what fun times.

In terms of the design, just lovely.

Really prettily done.

Loving the detail of the straw.

So cute!

And this one's the strawberry ice cream.

Lovely bit of piping on the cone.

I'm getting SOME strawberry.

-Would you like more?

-Yeah.

Watermelon.

Wow! I really like that.

She loves bubble gum and all those synthetic flavours.

As an overall picnic of biscuit pops,

that's delivering to the brief, lady!

That was amazing. The comments were good and bad.

I think it's really even now.

So, judges, what a day! What a brilliant day!

Shall we start off with the Technical?

The boys this morning -

they weren't quite as good as the girls, obviously,

the girls being the top two.

Our top two were a fair top two.

Young Maisie did blooming well to pull that back.

And not only pull it back and put something on the table

but put the best-looking thing on the table, second time round.

Nice. Interesting. So that brings us to our biscuit pops.

With JJ, you could see that that was a Halloween theme, couldn't you?

He gave us great cinnamon biscuits. I thought they tasted delicious.

-I mean, Mia, we asked for biscuits on sticks...

-They stand up!

..and she gave us biscuits on sticks. She clawed it back.

Going on to lovely Jamie.

-Jamie did great.

-And I'm sorry... That does smell like a bonbon.

-It really does.

-It smells so like a bonbon.

-Takes me back to my childhood, that one.

-Yeah.

So, to Maisie.

She's the only one who took on any serious piping in the cone here.

Fun, fun, fun on the little straw coming out the top there.

So, have we got any idea who's going through to the quarterfinals?

We're going to have to talk about that, yeah.

-They're going to need to talk.

-They're going to talk.

-Shall WE talk about it?

-No.

-OK!

Got to say, well done, bakers.

You've all done fantastically well.

But this is it. It's the moment of truth.

As you know, sadly, only one of you

can go through to next week's quarterfinals.

Allegra and Nadiya have made that decision.

And this person impressed our judges with their focus,

their all-round baking ability and their fine attention to detail.

The baker going through to the quarterfinals is...

..Maisie!

Yay!

Well done, Maisie. Well done.

I feel amazing. I can't stop smiling.

I am very glad that my friends talked me into doing it

and I think they're going to be very glad that I did it as well,

and I cannot wait to tell them.

What Maisie did this morning was pretty phenomenal.

She also had a lovely concept of a picnic.

It evoked the English summer.

She'd really thought it through from start to finish.

-You've all done absolutely great.

-Yeah.

I mean, in the Showstopper,

she showed off all her skills

and she showed off her technical ability,

so I think, all in all,

she's definitely the right person to go through to the quarterfinals.

In the next heat, the bakers take on an Italian Technical...

Can't wait to have a bit of pizza with my pepper.

..and create their favourite desserts...

in cake form.

It's massive!