Heat Nine Junior Bake Off

We are here in the depths of the bush,

searching for Britain's best young bakers.

They're easily spotted by their aprons and their agility with eggs,

flour and butter.

However, there are many dangers lurking here.

LOUD GROANING Aargh!

-What was that?

-It's my stomach, mate.

-Sorry.

-Thank goodness for that!

BOTH: Welcome to Junior Bake Off!

Today's bakers battle with the Battenberg...

Aargh!

..as precision piping is tested.

Harvey, what's happening?

I don't know!

And they recreate their image...

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

..with the most personal showstopper yet.

-I feel like I've got double vision!

-LAUGHTER

Today's fantastic four are about to take on two baking challenges

to secure just one precious place in next week's quarterfinal.

-It's so quiet!

-SHE LAUGHS

Ten-year-old cat lover Sophie lives in Merseyside.

My dad's always loved cooking,

and so I've been baking with him since I was little.

And it kind of just became habit.

That's pretty good.

12-year-old Macy from Coventry bakes

for her nine brothers and sisters every day.

They've been eating all the bakes I've been practising

for Junior Bake Off. It goes in, like, ten minutes.

12-year-old Harvey lives in Essex with his mum, dad,

brother and a very important egg layer.

I have one chicken called Yorkshire.

We did have another one who was called Pudding,

but unfortunately that one passed away.

I have four sieves.

-You have four?

-For four different occasions.

Joseph from Grimsby is 12,

and he's been having some pretty crazy dreams.

Once I dreamed I filled a bathtub full of buttercream

and I jumped in it.

And I ate it all.

First up is the technical challenge, designed to test

the bakers' know-how and their ability to follow a surprise recipe.

Hello, bakers, and welcome to the hallowed turf of the Bake Off tent.

Right, for your technical challenge today,

our judges would like you to make a British classic -

Battenberg!

But with a little bit of a Bake Off twist.

Not any old Battenberg.

It's a rhubarb and custard Battenberg.

-What a twist!

-Judges, what are you looking for?

What we're looking for is four equal chequerboard squares.

And there needs to be a thin, even layer of marzipan.

Fantastic. Now, before we go any further,

has everybody washed their hands? Let's have a look at your hands.

-Lovely.

-Right, guys, you have one and a half hours

to complete this technical challenge. The best of luck.

-On your marks,

-get set,

-bake!

I've never made a Battenberg before,

so I don't really know how it's going to go.

I've never eaten Battenberg either.

This is what a perfect, traditional Battenberg should look like.

You want those squares, equal,

iced beautifully in the centre,

joined together with a lovely,

thin layer of marzipan around the edge.

Mmm. That's very nice and light.

The cream is just enough to hold it together.

And then the rhubarb is just that slight tang

just to play against the sweetness of the buttercream.

You know, if they get this right,

we are going to have a very tasty technical.

I'm creaming the butter, sugar and then I'm going to cream the eggs

together to make the batter.

Eurgh!

I need to stir in the flour, ground almonds and milk.

The Battenberg got its name in 1884

to celebrate the wedding of Queen Victoria's granddaughter,

Princess Victoria, marrying Prince Louis of Battenberg.

I put the butter for the buttercream in the mixture.

I might need to restart.

(That's only about half...)

I am currently flavouring the two different dishes.

I'm using the rhubarb essence and the vanilla bean essence.

To give the Battenberg its distinctive chequerboard effect,

the bakers must dye the rhubarb half of their batter.

Bit too much!

Oh, gosh. That is really pink.

SHE LAUGHS

Why does it not want to come out?

Hi, Harvey. How are you getting on?

OK. It's all running smoothly apart from this food dye.

How pink do you want your rhubarb and custard to be?

How pink do you want your fingers to be?

-Because they're pink!

-Erm...

-Try stirring that in...

-I think, yeah.

Just stir in what you've got on the stick first, yeah.

Because you never... It's pretty intense stuff, that.

-What do you think of that colour?

-It is a pretty good colour.

Yeah?

To get four equal sized sponges,

both batters must be piped evenly into the Battenberg trays.

Oh, my gosh!

Disaster!

The bakers must keep a steady hand and twist the bag gently

to push the mixture through the nozzle.

I'm messing up so bad!

-Harvey, what's happening?

-I don't know!

Is this because Nadiya's in the tent?

-No!

-And I know you like Nadiya, don't you?

Is it making you a bit of a fluster?

No... Maybe. I'm not sure.

-It's a disaster.

-Oh, bless you!

I'm just putting the mixture into the tray.

I did use the piping bag. I'm just spreading it out a bit.

I'm a little bit worried about my rhubarb one,

cos I think there isn't enough mixture.

Remember, if you want to give this a try at home,

make sure an adult's around who knows what you're up to.

Round two.

It's not piping correctly. Now these are going to be too thin.

Oh, my gosh!

What do I do?!

I don't have enough.

Ah, I found this.

So I can try and squeeze that in here.

-Joseph, how are you doing, mate? You all right?

-I'm doing good.

You had a little bit of a mishap at first. You had to start it again.

But how's it going now? Are you back on track?

-Yeah. It's in the oven now.

-Oh, that's great!

-That's good.

-You seem pretty calm.

-Yeah.

-Good. So what's the dream, Joseph?

When you're a bit older, what do you want to do?

-Do you want to be a baker?

-That's the thing that I want to do

if I can't do the thing I want to do.

-Which is?

-Be an astronaut.

Oh! Nice work. You want to be an astronaut?

Which planet would you like to visit first?

-Pluto.

-OK.

Maybe you could do your cake shop on Pluto.

-Yeah, that'd be nice.

-Yeah.

The one that no-one visits.

THEY LAUGH

-We'd visit there.

-We'll come, we'll come.

-We'd visit.

-Don't you worry!

Bakers, you are halfway through.

You've got 45 minutes left.

So it might be worth getting something in the oven.

Not speaking to anyone in particular!

Harvey!

I'm going to get it in the oven, finally.

Well, they're looking quite good. They've risen nicely.

They look all right, I suppose.

Yeah.

Come on!

Aargh!

Oh, gosh!

They look like breadsticks.

It's a disaster!

Disaster!

I feel really sorry for Harvey.

Because it's not going well for him.

Oh, it's aggressive.

It's aggressive, it's aggressive!

Ohhh!

-Ha...

-Yeah.

Just tap it out gently.

Tip tip tappy.

Tippy tap tap tap.

Tap tap tap.

-We don't want it...

-Aargh!

-What happened?

-Gently, gently!

Look. It's coming, it's coming.

-Yes!

-Yay! Whoo!

-Look at that.

-We have a baton.

Yeah!

15 minutes left, bakers.

The buttercream's to stick the cakes together

and stick the marzipan to the cake.

You have to put it on like bricks, cement.

I'm trying to repair it by using my buttercream to stick it,

without it breaking.

OK. Rolling out the marzipan.

I'm looking for a thickness of medium thin.

Marzipan makes it taste sweeter,

but you don't want it to be too sweet.

I've done it, I've done it, I've done it.

It's all right, it's all right.

OK, bakers. You've got five minutes left.

Please don't break.

This is awful.

The pink could be brighter.

I'm just making the diamond pattern on the top.

Right, that's it, bakers.

Step away from your Battenberg creations.

Could you please bring them up to the gingham altar

and place them behind your picture.

The challenges didn't go as well as I expected.

I'm hoping they'll judge it more on taste than presentation.

The judges are looking for four precise chequerboard squares

with a thin, even layer of marzipan.

Sophie, this is a good Battenberg!

It's equal quadrants.

Gorgeous crimping around the edge. The only thing I can see is that

there's not a lot of buttercream in the cross section of the cake.

I like your level of pink that you've put in for the rhubarb.

-I think that's just right.

-I think that is really nicely baked cake,

-Sophie.

-Thank you.

-So, Joseph.

-You've got to say it,

you've got a generous hand with the marzipan.

What we didn't get is those equal quadrants.

I think there wasn't enough batter in the tin to begin with,

cos it had all gone up the piping bag.

You can taste the rhubarb.

I think just because it was so thin,

it was slightly overbaked around the edge.

But overall, Joseph, it's Battenberg-y, it tastes decent,

but we'll look forward to some great things this afternoon.

-I know.

-Spaceman.

Macy. That is a pretty good rendition

of what we were looking for.

The marzipan is equal and thin all the way round.

If I were to say one tiny thing,

I think we could have gone just a little bit pinker.

I think you're a bit light on the colour. Let's go in.

That is a really, really good rhubarb and custard Battenberg.

-Well done, Macy.

-Well done.

Harvey.

-Yeah.

-I know you got into a little bit of difficulty,

but the main thing is you did get us something.

We've got diminishing pink on this side, Harvey.

-The pink's going down.

-MARK: It's all on his hands, that's why!

THEY LAUGH

That's nice. I've got cake, I've got a bit of custard-y flavour,

buttercream, marzipan.

Despite the struggles that you went through, you got it here.

So well done.

Nadiya and Allegra will now decide which of our two bakers

have made the best Battenbergs.

In no particular order, the first of our top two is...

Macy. For delivering us a very precise,

beautiful rhubarb and custard Battenberg.

And the second person is

Sophie. For giving us a thin,

even layer of marzipan

with beautiful crimping and decoration on top.

Thank you.

Joseph, Harvey. Don't worry, it can all change.

But right now, I think you deserve a bit of a break.

-Come and taste your Battenbergs.

-Go on!

I'm really, really happy that Nadiya said

that she liked the colour of my rhubarb.

Because I thought I'd actually put too much in.

It was quite nerve-racking to have my bakes judged,

because I've only had, like, criticism from my family.

For the showstopper challenge,

our bakers need to use a very special ingredient.

-Yeast?

-Nope.

-Gelatine?

-Nope.

-Cream of tartar?

-No!

That's it, then. I give up, what is it?

-Their face!

-Oh!

So, bakers.

Any of you ever use one of these?

Of course you have.

Now, our judges don't want you to take a selfie.

They want you to bake a selfie.

Clever. Now, this selfie must be a cookie.

It can be any flavour you want.

However, it must be a whopping 30 centimetres.

And it should have a picture of yourself on it.

Now, you could be dancing on a cookie.

You can be playing sport on a cookie.

-Eating a cookie.

-On a cookie?

-Yeah.

-Mad!

You've got one and a half hours

to complete the showstopper challenge.

-On your marks,

-get set,

-bake!

It is feeling a lot calmer in this challenge,

because I know what I'm doing. I've practised it.

I'm all good.

Well, it's a selfie. So they can either just do their faces,

or they can set it in a scenario.

Hopefully, there'll be a bit of fun in it.

There are going to be massive pitfalls when they are doing

a giant cookie. We don't want them to overbake or underbake it.

We really want to showcase some really nice flavours.

So how are we going to pack that punch in just that one cookie?

I'm making a ginger cookie.

And the filling's going to be lime buttercream.

I put lime and ginger because it's like

a Caribbean kind of combination, and my dad's from Barbados.

Macy has double the work,

because she's making two giant gingerbread cookies,

which she'll sandwich together with her lime buttercream.

Her face will be piped on top with chocolate buttercream.

So what's the selfie, then? What's your picture on there?

It's going to be my face.

And then I'm going to use chocolate buttercream for my hair.

-Nice.

-And then I've got music notes that I made...

-Right, because you sing.

-Yeah.

-Excellent.

I really want to hear you sing.

I can imagine that you're a very good singer.

Stay, do you know that song?

-Yeah, do it.

-Bring it!

-Give us a bit.

# Not really sure how to feel about it

# There's something in the way you move

# Makes me feel like I can't live without you

# And it takes me all the way

# I want you to stay. #

Yay! Macy!

-That was amazing!

-That was beautiful!

Baking and singing, you've got it all.

Like Macy, Harvey is also making a gingerbread cookie.

At the moment, I'm mixing the flour, bicarbonate of soda

and ginger together.

My cookie selfie is ginger and orange, to represent my hair.

Harvey's hair will be made from dyed white chocolate buttercream.

He'll have liquorice glasses and chocolate chip freckles.

To enhance the flavour of his gingerbread,

he's adding orange extract.

What's the vision of the final cookie?

It's just going to be a massive version of my face.

Brilliant! I like the face you've got,

and the idea of a bigger one is just...

-On a cookie.

-On a cookie. Life could hardly get any better.

Do you think it's flat, though? The whole thing?

I think it's flat, I just need to maybe roll it a little bit more.

Yeah, I think that's not a bad idea, that.

-Yeah.

-Be careful not to get it too thin.

Yeah.

Sophie has chosen a softer texture for her cookie.

I'm putting salted caramel, chocolate chips,

banana and a salted crust on my cookie.

Sophie's gooey salted caramel cookie

will be topped with her face made from fondant.

And like Macy, she'll be singing.

Oh, that looks like a nice, thick batter.

I am intrigued. So what texture are you looking for

once you've baked it?

It's like the crust is quite hard on the outside.

And then the middle's like soft and gooey in the middle

-when you cut it.

-So we're going to cut our cookie?

Yeah.

OK.

My concern is Sophie's cookie is more of a cak-ie.

And she did say she was going to cut it.

We know it's going to be yummy. Is it going to hit the brief?

My cookie's going to be gooey, not hard.

And the way I've prevented that

is to put the honey and the golden syrup in.

My decoration's going to be a crescent moon

with me in a spaceship.

Because I would like to go to the moon.

Joseph the astronaut will be floating across

a cream cheese frosting moon,

set against a giant dark chocolate cookie sky.

Speckled with white chocolate drops for the stars,

and he's adding chilli chocolate for an extra kick.

Can you handle your chilli?

-Oh, yeah.

-Yeah?

-Where's the cookie right now,

-apart from all over the table?

-It's in there.

-Is it in?

-Yeah, yeah.

Oh, wow! That is one big cookie!

-Wow.

-Hello!

-Look at these faces.

-Impressed.

-Yeah.

-Good.

Right. The cookie cooks for 25 minutes.

OK, bakers. You've had half your time.

You've got 45 minutes left.

Go on, you get it out. There you go, mate.

Lovely. Smells good.

Got it!

Oh, my gosh. It's a bit cakey.

Dammit, it's burnt. It has burnt a tiny bit.

-That's all right.

-That doesn't look burnt to me.

Not burnt! It's just, you know...

Crisp.

While the cookies cool,

the bakers move on to making their selfie decorations.

I'm melting this white chocolate.

To just put it in the buttercream for my hair.

This is going to be the lime for the filling.

To make sure you can taste the lime with the ginger,

I'm adding both lime zest and lime juice.

Are you all right?

-I just spilled some icing sugar, it's fine.

-Some?!

It's not fun if it's not messy.

I've done the piping on the outside,

because when you have the other cookie on top, you can still see it.

I think this is the right colour for my hair.

It will do.

Oh!

I'm just making the roll-out icing for my face.

Sounds really weird saying that.

I think art helps for my baking

because the way that I present my bakes,

like, is quite artistic.

This is the Joseph and rocket ship.

I've done the smile scary.

I'm actually quite scared of it.

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

OK, OK, OK, OK. I've forgotten what I have left to do now.

Eyes, face.

I can't really have a face without eyes.

These are my eyes that I've created out of white fondant,

liquorice and another piece of liquorice.

Liquorice is my dad's favourite,

and I really want to do something for him.

I've always liked everything to do with music.

It's basically just sugar paper.

I'm cutting a square out, and then I'm going to put it like

in front of my face so it's like I'm singing but I'm not.

I did my hair, like, the main thing,

because it's what you first see when you look at me.

OK, bakers. I don't want to alarm you,

but you've got five minutes left. Finishing touches, I reckon.

Aargh!

Piping seems to be my nemesis today.

Oh, my gosh. Right, OK. Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up, Sophie.

-Hurry up.

-Just ignore that.

I've put a microphone on it, and I've put in music notes.

-HARVEY:

-Starting to get stressful up in here.

Yeah, I knew it wasn't going to fit.

I'm just going to have to leave it hanging off.

We keep it in the baking paper.

-That is it. Bakers, stop what you are doing!

-Yes!

You are done with the cookies!

Boom!

I'm scared it's too hard.

Hopefully the decoration and maybe

the flavours

saved my life.

There's an awful lot going on in there. It's got textures,

it's got all the little bits of white chocolate in it.

It looks very, very noshable.

We can't get away from the fact that it's a little bit burnt around here.

I'm going to go for a bit with some moon on it.

-That is delicious.

-Sometimes you think chocolate and chilli

and it's too much, but that is just perfect.

Very, very impressive effort.

That is certainly a selfie cookie.

Piping's brilliant. Really good.

Can I have a giant mug of tea, please?

LAUGHTER

Oh. You can tell just by looking from the outside,

that is a lovely, even bake.

The combination of the ginger and the lime,

-it's like the tropics in my mouth.

-Very evenly rolled as well.

The whole thing is very perfectly, professionally put together.

-Thank you very much indeed, Macy.

-Thank you.

That challenge went slightly better than the other one did.

I didn't think I was going to get the liquorice glasses done,

but I apparently did.

I feel like I've got double vision!

LAUGHTER

I love all of it. The hair is just so you.

Obviously the specs, your lovely little blue peepers there.

But this is just gorgeous detail here on the freckles.

Just absolutely lovely.

Sorry about this. Going straight in.

-Mmm.

-I can taste that orange.

That's delicious! You've got that lovely crisp edge,

and all that lovely soft in the middle.

There's a very slight unevenness to the roll, but all in all, Harvey,

that's a hilariously brilliant, wonderful selfie cookie biscuit.

I was rushing a bit, but I think they'll like the flavours,

so hopefully that'll make up

for anything else!

It's a whole picture, isn't it?

It's all about you. You've got your musical notes.

We've got a bunch of singers in here today, haven't we?

-A lot of singers in here today.

-SAM: And us. MARK:

-And us. Well...

-Ex...

-Anyway.

We've been debating as we've been watching you make it

whether it's a cookie or a cake-y.

And we've decided it's a cakey cookie, which is good.

Look at the goo factor.

-I think it's a little underbaked there, Sophie.

-Yeah.

You know your flavour combinations.

Banana, chocolate, nuts,

salted caramel and salt on the edge.

I mean, that is delicious and you should be really proud.

Yours was really good, with that icing on yours looked so good.

Like, the hair.

This morning, the technical, quite difficult, I thought.

We've got Joseph and Harvey, who really did struggle.

And then on the other hand, you've got Macy and Sophie,

who did extraordinarily well.

But Joseph this afternoon made it very difficult for you.

He really did. That is an extraordinary cookie.

Macy's cookie is just a very professional job.

She's decorated it really, really well.

-And how about Sophie?

-She delivered us some really,

really good flavours and she did really well in the technical.

So Nadiya and I need to go and work this through.

Well done, bakers.

You have all done fantastically well.

This decision has been incredibly difficult.

They have chosen their baker,

and this person produced

an extraordinary technical this morning.

And a perfectly professional showstopper.

The baker going through to the quarterfinal is...

Macy!

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

-Thank you.

-Happy?

I think my family will be really happy for me

when they find out that I've won and I'm going into the quarterfinals.

We had a cracking bunch of kids in the tent today.

Standard was really high.

But she showed us so many skills.

There was no way she wasn't going to make it through.

I'm really, really pleased that

I'm going to get to come back to the Bake Off tent.

But we've all made friends. I'm sure we will keep in touch.

Next time, the bakers have a hairy time...

See if it falls.

They get their hands on paints and brushes...

Putting the green around the ladybird as if it's grass.

..for showstoppers that are a work of art.

My stress level's round about 10 at the moment!