Heat Eight Junior Bake Off

Hey, Sam, fancy playing the baking word game,

where you start the next word with the last letter of the last word?

-I love a good game, go on, then, you go first.

-OK, baking powder.

OK, that ends in R so, royal icing.

-Ganache.

-Eclair.

-Rhubarb.

-Buttercream.

Marzipan.

-Nadia.

-Allegra.

-A tent.

-Cheat!

-You're a cheat!

-BOTH: Oh!

Welcome to... BOTH: Junior Bake Off.

Today the bakers get a workout...

I need to do some yoga.

..with a speedy Italian Technical.

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

And desserts are deconstructed...

It's quite...

..then reconstructed into show stopping cakes.

It's massive!

It's day eight of the heats

and four more brilliant bakers are ready to don their aprons for a day

of baking challenges...

I can't believe I'm on Bake Off.

..before one of them goes through to next week's quarterfinal.

12-year-old Lottie from Cheshire enjoys singing and dancing,

but her first love is baking.

When I woke up I saw, like, cakes in my head,

and I can't really believe I'm actually here.

It feels like a dream.

From Gwynedd, Welsh speaking baker Ffion is ten.

IN WELSH:

This is like a dream come true.

12-year-old Mehdi from London was inspired to start baking by his mum,

who is French.

Last summer when I went to a cooking camp,

where I made mainly tiramisu and yoghurt cake,

which are French things, except for tiramisu,

but after that I started taking the baking to another level.

Mehdi, can you do mind?

-Do you want a double knot?

-Yeah. Please.

Ten-year-old Bristolian Harry is used to competitions

as the fly half and captain of his rugby team.

I'm excited because... I don't know how you call it.

I'm going to step on the carpet that champions have set foot on,

that's the way.

Bakers, welcome to the Bake Off tent.

-Are we all all right?

-ALL: Yeah!

-Yay!

-Well, for your Technical Challenge today,

Allegra and Nadia would like you to

make tre piezza biance.

Is that how you pronounce it?

Actually, it's pronounced tre pizzette bianca.

That's exactly what I said.

Basically three mini white pizzas

topped with a garlic cream sauce,

grilled peppers and drizzled with pesto.

It sounds awesome.

Judges, any words of wisdom?

So we want a nice thin base and crispy around the edges, please.

And because we're looking for a thin pizza,

really think about how much topping you put on.

Fantastic. Now, before we go any further, let's see your hands.

Are they clean? ALL: Yes.

So shiny and bright!

Good. OK, guys, you have one hour to make three pizzettas.

-BAD ITALIAN ACCENT:

-On your marks...

-get set... BOTH: ..bake.

Wrong one. I'm a bit all over the place.

I have made pizza before at school

but that was a few years ago.

So, Allegra, this is your recipe and I know you like thin,

crispy bases on a pizza.

None of those big, doughy things that you could sleep on, pillow-y.

I like it crisp around the edge and nice and thin throughout.

I think a common mistake when you're doing a pizza is too overloaded it

with toppings, and I think that's what the bakers

-need to be really careful about.

-Here we go.

Madonna, that is good, that is really nice.

The creaminess, the sharp notes from the pesto as well.

The pepper is giving it a nice hit. It's my kind of pizza heaven.

I've put the 70g of flour and the yeast in and slowly added water,

and now I'm just going to add the olive oil and salt.

The olive oil adds flavour to the dough

and helps make the base crispy when baked.

"Once combined put the dough onto the floured surface."

The point of kneading is to make it

really smooth and elastic-y and really marshmallow-y.

It takes a lot of muscle.

It's getting there.

Harry, are you finding it difficult to knead?

It seems very hard to get it marshmallow-y.

Yeah.

Kneading complete.

The dough is left to prove for 30 minutes,

giving the yeast time to work its magic to give the pizza base

a light and airy texture.

-Hi, Harry.

-What are you doing now?

Well, I'm just going to make the white sauce.

It's like a garlic cream, isn't it?

-Yes.

-Do you like garlic?

-Not so much.

-No?

-Well, I like it in spaghetti bolognese.

-I'm expecting great things.

-Thanks.

All of the cream.

I've seen my mum make lots of white sauces.

I'm not completely lost.

Garlic.

When the sauce has reduced, mix it.

Oregano, pepper and grated Parmesan cheese.

Stir, stir, stir.

Oh, that's good, it's thickening now.

-Hi, Ffion.

-Hello.

-How are you?

-I'm great, thank you.

When you are not baking at home, what else do you do?

Gymnastics.

Would that help with baking?

If I get strong arms, that would help with kneading and mixing.

-What, strong arms like these, Ffion?

-Wow.

-Say yes.

-Yes.

-Good.

-You are unbelievable.

-I know I am.

So, looking at the competition, I know it's early days,

who are you worried about? Who do you need to beat?

Yeah, don't worry, now, nobody is listening.

Obviously you need to beat them all.

Well, Mehdi is quite fast now so...

-He's fast.

-He's fast.

-But you're a gymnast.

-Exactly, your strong and fast.

-Flips and that.

OK, guys, you've had 30 minutes which means you are halfway through.

Pesto.

Parmesan. Chop it.

If you are going to bake, let a grown-up know.

Large bunch of basil.

Finally, garlic,

toasted pine nuts and olive oil will help bind the pesto together.

Guys, you've got 20 minutes left.

See my dough quickly.

-Perfect.

-I'm just going to put some flour down so it doesn't stick

and I'm going to roll out my dough.

Allegra likes thin pizzas

so I'm rolling them quite thin.

Stay. Ah, I remember.

I need to put Parmesan and cheese in my sauce.

I'll start rolling out my pizza bases in a minute.

Yeah, they're more or less equal.

I think my main worry is they are going to say it's not thin enough.

I'm just putting the sauce on the pizzas.

I think I'm doing OK.

Before baking, the pizza is topped with sliced char-grilled peppers.

In on time.

I'm going to have to be very quick with this.

Oh, really quickly, really quickly.

Harry, you forgot the topping.

Oh! I remember!

I need to get these in the oven really.

I think it will be fine.

Harry, we don't want to alarm you,

but you need to get that in the oven.

-Yeah.

-OK.

-It smells lovely.

-Oh, I need to put the red peppers on.

-Oh!

Could you do that at the end maybe?

-Could do.

-Get in the oven.

-Get it in the oven.

-Get it in the oven.

It needs to go in the oven.

Bakers, you have just ten minutes remaining.

My stress levels are like...

I need to do some yoga.

I think I might give them another two minutes or so.

Hurry up, hurry up.

Bakers, you have just three minutes left,

so get those pizzas out of the oven,

let's get them finished, let's get them plated.

They turned out better than I expected them.

Yeah, I just really hope they are cooked on the bottom.

Very, very, very stressed.

Get it out as quickly as possible.

Harry, you've got less than 30 seconds.

I would get your other two pizzas out, if I were you.

Oh, they look good anyway.

He's happy. He's happy.

How are you doing, Harry?

-Not very well.

-You've got enough time, Harry, go on!

You have a few more seconds to get a bit of pepper on there.

Come on, come on, come on!

Ugh!

OK.

-Rustic, I like it.

-Bakers, that is it.

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

Right, bakers, if you would all like to bring your three pizzas

up to the gingham altar.

The time goes really, really quickly,

and you think you still have got

about 20 more minutes and you've actually got, like, five.

The judges are looking for three thin and crispy pizzetas

with a garlic cream sauce and evenly distributed toppings.

So, let's start with Ffion.

These look really nice. They have got a lovely brownness to them.

I think you've got just about the right amount of topping.

Cooked all the way through on the bottom, and nice crisp edge.

That's lovely and thin.

Nice pizza, Ffion.

You wouldn't want it any thicker than that.

-Thank you.

-Lottie, there's lots of cream sauce,

but they look slightly undercooked.

Yeah.

A nice cut on the peppers, I like the way you blobbed the ricotta,

it's a good-looking pizza.

You have given that are really good knead, really nice bubbles in here.

Just a couple more minutes and this would have been Monty.

-Yeah.

-Moving on, Mehdi.

-Slightly verging on deep pan.

On the other hand it looks really appealing.

-That is...

-Silence is good.

That eats really well.

I'm going to have another bite just to see if you got lucky.

Mm, a really good balance.

The distribution of topping works just right so, well done, Mehdi.

-Harry.

-Harry.

I do love a pepper.

But you might have forgotten a few bits on here.

Yes, I didn't have enough time, so I just chucked it on.

Wow, it has got a good base there, Harry.

-It's really thin.

-Let's get into it.

The base is lovely, it's just missing the toppings.

Thank you.

Judges will now decide which two plates of pizzetta

are the most deliciosa.

In no particular order,

the top two are firstly Ffion,

for giving us a nice thin pizza with crisp edges.

And the second person...

..is Mehdi.

Your base was slightly thick, but it was cooked.

-Well done.

-Lottie, Harry, honestly,

everything can change with the Showstopper this afternoon.

Right now I think you deserve a bit of a rest,

come on taste these lovely pizzas.

I was very nervous because I was the first to be judged,

but it went really well.

I think one of the nicest things was that they took another bite

which most of the time is a good sign.

It kind of went like that when she

held it and that's not really pizza-y.

I was a bit like... Oh!

I tell you what, getting that pizza dough thin and crispy

-was a tough Technical.

-It really was.

Next up the Showstopper Challenge

where our bakers get their just DESSERTS.

That's not very nice, Sam.

No, it's a clue to what they are baking next.

-Just DESSERTS.

-I'm such an idiot.

-Yeah, you are.

Welcome to your Showstopper Challenge.

Allegra and Nadia would like you

to create your favourite dessert in cake form.

For me, my favourite is banoffee pie.

What's your favourite pudding, dude?

-Yorkshire pudding.

-OK, best of luck, guys, you have one-and-a-half hours.

-On your marks...

-..get set... BOTH: ..bake.

I have done it in a time limit, but it was quite...

Huh!

Today it is dessert to cake day.

The difference is dessert, spoon, cake, knife.

This is a hard challenge because their favourite pudding

is already in existence and they need to deconstruct it

and put it together between layers of sponge.

The baker that's going to excel is the one that's calm and collected.

They have to know exactly what it looks like

and what their vision is.

I'm sieving the flour and baking powder

and caster sugar into a bowl.

All of the bakers start by making their sponge mix.

My bake is called blackberry crumble and custard cake.

Just a simple Victoria sponge.

Ffion's favourite blackberry crumble pudding

will be constructed from four layers of Victoria sponge

sandwiched together with home-made blackberry sauce,

piped custard, fresh blackberries and a crunchy crumble.

Hi, Ffion.

-Hello.

-What was your inspiration for this cake?

I love blackberry crumble so much.

And you are doing your custard layer in between as well?

-Yeah.

-Do you make custard often?

Not very often because I often use custard powder.

-Yes.

-But I wanted to try and make custard.

How do you get the perfect custard?

When you are cooling put the clingfilm on the custard.

-What does that do?

-Stops it from forming a skin.

-Sounds like you have done your research.

-Yes.

That's slightly red.

I'm making, at the moment, lime cake.

My inspiration is jelly and ice cream

because I have it on Christmas Day

because I don't like Christmas pudding.

Harry's lime cake will represent the jelly and it will be topped with a

strawberry tier covered in icing to resemble melted ice cream.

He'll decorate with chocolate drizzled fresh strawberries.

I am loving all the bright, bold colours.

So, that's strawberry flavour?

-Yep.

-And that one's lime flavour?

-Yeah.

-How have you flavoured this strawberry one?

-Strawberry essence.

-OK. And the lime one?

-Lime essence?

-No.

-Oh.

-Lime zest.

And, Harry, what have we learned from this morning?

-To keep track of the time.

-That's it.

I'm doing a lemon meringue cake.

My brother always gets lemon sherbets from the shop when we go to

the sweet shop. My grandpa loves lemon meringue.

I like the colour yellow because it's really like... Bing!

Lottie's take on a lemon meringue pie

will feature two layers of lemon sponge

with a meringue base and middle, topped with lemon curd cream,

meringue kisses and fondant flowers.

So what's the vision here?

We've got two cakes waiting to go in the oven.

Yeah, I've got to put some of the meringue on here.

Onto the raw cake?

-Yep.

-And meringue cooks the same time as the cake?

-Yeah.

-Wow.

-I'm intrigued.

-I've got a picture of it.

-Can we have it the right way up?

-Wow.

So, look, it's meringue, cake, lemon curd,

and then cream, and then mini meringues.

How much did you have to pay your art teacher to do that for you?

-Oh, I did that.

-You did that? That's so lovely.

Nearly there.

Mehdi has looked to his roots

to create a classic French dessert cake.

Right now I'm making the sponge for my framboisier which is normally

it's called a fraisier because you use strawberries,

but I'm changing it by adding another layer

with a ring of raspberries around the outside.

Mehdi's framboisier will be comprised of three layers of sponge,

sandwiched with a layer of raspberry mousseline,

fresh berries and pistachio cream.

I want to know how we're going to eat the pistachio

because pistachio's quite a hard flavour to...

-I'm using pistachio paste. It's home-made.

-Home-made?

Wow, how did you do that?

I made it when we were on holiday in France.

Pistachio is one of my absolute, all-time favourite flavours,

you're off to a cracking start.

I'm going to put this in the oven now.

Quick. One.

Quick.

Two.

They're in. Relief.

With all their cakes in the oven,

the bakers can turn their attention to their fillings.

I'm whisking the caster sugar and egg yolks together

to make my custard.

Mehdi is also making custard,

but he's turning his into a creme mousseline.

I've added butter, that's what makes it creme mousseline.

I'm just putting some of the lemon zest in my cream

and I'm going to put some lemon curd as well.

I've added the pistachio paste to that one

and I'm adding the freeze-dried raspberry powder to the other parts.

Those are two of my flavours that I like.

I'm doing the mini meringues that will go on top.

I don't need this many, but it's nice to have spares

in case they all collapse.

Have you seen my...my cake, look?

It's massive!

OK, guys, you've had half your time,

that means you've got 45 minutes left.

That one is good,

that one is good.

Yeah, those need to come out.

I like art, it's one of my favourite subjects.

The trickiest thing is decorating it

because I've got to be really careful.

As you can see, some of them have lost their little petals.

Once the cakes are cooled, the bakers can start assembling.

I pricked this because I need to put blackberry sauce and it needs to,

like, suck it in, so it tastes nicer.

That's gone a bit lopsided.

I think they are all right, that's how they normally are so...

Working as hard as I can now.

Oh, I've squashed one, that's why we have spares.

I'm putting blackberries on,

but I'm going to pipe the custard in between these.

When piping you have to keep a steady hand,

as I found out when I first started doing piping.

Sprinkle a bit of this crumble.

Oh, hello. No.

I need to assemble the cake. Now.

OK, bakers, you've got 15 minutes left.

OK.

I'm going for the pressing technique.

In this bowl is just ground pistachios

and freeze-dried raspberry pieces and I'm going to sprinkle around.

Ten minutes left.

I'm getting nervous.

Going to have to speed up a little bit now.

Quickly, quickly, quickly.

There we go.

Over the lime cake like ice cream is melting.

Oh!

Put that under there, it can drip into there.

Yeah.

The moment of truth.

Yay!

I need to...

You might just want to wipe around it a little bit.

60 seconds to make it as beautiful as you possibly can.

Strawberries.

Bakers, that is it, step away from your dessert cakes.

Lots of fun. I mean, it has got that look of melted ice cream.

It does look like melted ice cream to me.

It cuts really, really well.

Look at that!

-Wow!

-Shall I cut this one?

-Yeah.

I have no clue what that is going to look like.

THEY LAUGH

I want it to be so red that it hurts my eyes.

Hello! My eyes are hurting!

Bobby dazzler, wow!

You promised lime, you gave us green and you gave us lime.

And that cake is baked perfectly.

It's not the neatest thing in the world, but that wasn't your vision

and we have really enjoyed it, thank you very much indeed.

It's a cracking effort, my friend.

Obviously, we've got a bit of disappointment on the edging.

If you had just pared it back and

just done really thin layers, it would have held up.

Wow, the colours are brilliant, you know.

I love the colours. The raspberry mousseline, I'm getting raspberry.

-I'm getting pistachio.

-The creme mousseline is very light.

That's really adventurous and really clever.

Ffion, it looks absolutely wonderful, it's totally straight.

Let's go in.

Oh!

Mmm. You can taste that blackberry.

What is the crunch from? Crumble.

-Crumble.

-I think you were really clever to pipe the custard,

because if you had done a big mass of custard,

all that crumble would have just gone soggy.

Really delicious, very nice indeed.

That is like sunshine on a plate.

It's got glitter and it's yellow and it's bright and it's fun

and I'm looking forward to trying this.

Wow. That is gorgeous.

Totally impressed.

You get the different textures

and the lemon curd is delicious all the way through that.

I have got that very distinctive meringue flavour

that we all know so well. It is really, really clever.

If you put the meringue on top,

it would have made it a bit too like the pie,

so by putting it in the middle you really have fulfilled the brief.

I don't think I could do it better.

A great piece of work, Lottie, well done.

I did it!

-My thing collapsed.

-Did it?

I thought mine went really well.

Judges, another eventful day in the tent.

A strong day in the tent.

Let's start with this morning.

A really clear, one, two, with Ffion and Mehdi,

and then what we needed from this afternoon

was a completely different skill set.

Harry, you were raving about the flavours of that cake

and the way it looked inside.

He wanted to give us melted ice cream, we got melted ice cream,

but we got delicious cake.

And then we've got Mehdi's.

He didn't quite execute it exactly as I think he wanted,

but it tasted really good.

Ffion gave us a blackberry crumble and custard cake

and we got that when you eat it.

And then we go to Lottie.

It's slightly knocked us off our perches,

because it was something truly special and different.

Yeah. Which makes our decision very difficult.

Bakers, what a day.

You've all been absolutely fantastic, but, as you know,

only one of you can go through to the quarterfinals.

This baker has shown true innovation

and tantalised the judges' taste buds.

The baker going through is...

..Lottie.

Congratulations, Lottie.

Well done. Well done.

-Happy?

-Lottie took something as simple as a lemon meringue

and she created the most delicious lemon meringue cake.

-Well done!

-It was an extraordinary achievement.

You know, putting the cake and the meringue in at the same time,

she really slightly blew me away today.

Very, very impressed with that young baker.

I'm really excited about telling my family

because we will probably have a big party

because we like parties quite a lot.

Yeah.

Next time the bakers battle with a Battenberg...

-What's happening?

-I don't know!

..and they recreate their image...

Oh, my gosh!

..with the most personal Showstopper yet.

Hopefully someone eats it before I have to look at it more.