Twelve young sibling teams step into the pastry school style kitchen and learn that they must try out for their spot in the competition. Hosts and judges Duff Goldman and Kardea Brown put the teams through two rounds of skills challenges to assess which 10 teams will move on and which two teams will be eliminated before the competition even starts! In the first skills test, the nervous teams put up their best cupcake. For the second skills test, the teams must create a pie from scratch that's good enough to prove they have what it takes to compete. First impressions are everything, and in the end, two teams do not make it through the tryouts.
For the final big bake, Duff Goldman and Kardea Brown encourage the last three bakers to "think outside the cage" and create a zoo cake inspired by the monkey enclosure, the African safari enclosure and the forest predators enclosure. Then, since people love to eat popcorn at the zoo, for the last twist of the season, the young bakers must use popcorn in their zoo cake. The most successful cake maker will earn the title of Kids Baking Champion and $25,000!
It's every kid's favorite part of the school day -- recess! And what would recess be without the timeless game of hopscotch? Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman ask the kid bakers to honor this classic game by making blondie hopscotch puzzles! Whose blondies will be hopping into Duff and Val's hearts and who will be hopping home?
Ice cream cones are for more than just holding ice cream. Hosts Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman challenge the seven kid bakers to create impressive ice cream cone cupcakes in order to stay in the game.
What's the tastiest fundraiser at school? A bake sale! For this challenge, hosts Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman are the customers as the kid bakers work in teams to decorate their own bake sale booth and stock it full of their assigned sweets. The baker with the least successful desserts will have to pack up their booth and go home.
There is one event that is the staple of any baking business, and it keeps Duff busy all year round -- birthdays! In order to find out which flavor they’ll be making, the kid bakers must record a commercial for their baking business and sell Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman on why they'd make a great birthday cake. The top commercial maker will assign the flavors, and the best young baker wins $25,000 and the title of Kids Baking Champion!
Fruit is an important element of baking, so Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman challenge the final three bakers to make fruit cakes, but not the holiday kind. Instead, they have to make cakes that look like actual fruit! One baker will walk away with the title of Kids Baking Champion.
It's time for lunch, and cafeteria lunch dessert imposters are on the menu! Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman assign each kid baker a different lunch menu with items they must "imposterize" and serve up on a classic cafeteria tray. When lunchtime is over, who will head back to class and who will head home?
This isn't your grandma's cookie! Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman challenge the kid bakers to put their own stamp on one of today's biggest trends: the loaded cookie. They want the bakers to really go crazy while making batches of two different types of over-the-top cookies. The more toppings, filling and frosting the better for this semi-final challenge!
For this Italian-bakery themed challenge, hosts Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman task the remaining six bakers with creating Italian rainbow cookies featuring classic flavors like apricot, cherry, almond, lemon, hazelnut or espresso.