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.
Move over unicorns, there's a new animal after our hearts. The nine young bakers must create llama cupcakes in a chosen flavor. Hosts and judges Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman also welcome a special guest -- a real live llama!
Part of running a successful business is being a good leader, so Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman hold interviews to hire two team leaders who will assign flavors in the cream puff cake challenge to give their team the best chance at winning. Bakers with the same flavors are put head-to-head during judgement, and the side with the most wins earns immunity for their whole team. One baker from the losing side heads for the exit.
As a bakery owner, Duff Goldman receives some VERY unusual requests from customers, and he's using them as the inspiration for a "Make It Work" desserts challenge. In this test, Duff and Valerie will ask the bakers to make a delicious dessert using an unexpected flavor combination, like strawberry and balsamic or banana and grapefruit. The kid bakers who can go with the flow move on, while the least successful dessert maker goes home.
Potatoes aren't just for french fries anymore -- they're for decorating. Hosts Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman ask the eight remaining bakers to carve potato cutouts and create colorful potato-print cookies.