Kids Baking Championship: The Top Creations, Season 8

See the amazing desserts these talented kids created when faced with Duff and Valerie's fun challenges.

Photo By: Michelle Renee Jackson

Photo By: Rob Pryce

Photo By: Michelle Renee Jackson

Photo By: Rob Pryce

Congratulations, Graysen!

Challenge: Shag Cakes

For the first challenge, Duff and Valerie tasked the bakers to use a grass icing tip to create a shag carpet cake. Reggie's lime olive oil cake with mandarin orange center and American buttercream is decorated with a shag lime on top. Duff thought the olive oil was "really pronounced, and it’s such a great vehicle for other stuff." Valerie loved this cake too, saying that "the lime with the olive oil really taste nice."

Challenge: Shag Cakes

Sam’s motto is to "go big or go home," so he went with a three-layer caramel white cake with a caramel filling. He used cherry buttercream in between the layers.

Challenge: Shag Cakes

Avner's chocolate cake stood out with a vanilla rainbow buttercream. For the twist, he used mandarin chocolate buttercream filling.

Challenge: Shag Cakes

Anthony topped his strawberry-vanilla cake with the word "shag" to emphasize the challenge name. His cake also had a cherry cheesecake filling and was decorated with strawberry buttercream.

Challenge: Neapolitan Desserts

During the second week, the bakers were challenged to create a Neapolitan style dessert. Anthony's vanilla & chocolate macarons were filled with vanilla mascarpone and strawberry jam.

Challenge: Neapolitan Desserts

Morgan filled her Napoleon éclair with vanilla pastry cream and strawberry buttercream. She used chocolate ganache as her topping.

Challenge: Neapolitan Desserts

Naima used chocolate ganache to decorate her plate Pollock-style. She filled her éclair with vanilla bean and strawberry pastry cream. Valerie loved the dessert, saying that "each individual ingredient is fabulous all by itself, and when you put them together it’s beyond good."

Challenge: Neapolitan Desserts

Avner’s Napoleon with vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry buttercream. He used a glaze to give his dessert a marbled effect.

Challenge: Neapolitan Desserts

Elise was happy when she got macarons for the Neapolitan challenge, as they are "her specialty." She used Swiss meringue buttercream to fill her macarons and topped them off with some powdered sugar.

Challenge: Dessert Imposter Sandwiches

The bakers were excited for the third week’s challenge: Dessert imposter sandwiches. Sam made a pulled pork sandwich with a spiced cake "sesame bun," blondie "pulled pork," apple "tomatoes," white chocolate "lettuce" and chocolate caramel "barbecue sauce." For his side, he made white chocolate coated strawberry "dill pickles."

Challenge: Dessert Imposter Sandwiches

Graysen’s BLT on white bread was made with a cream cheese pound cake "bread," candied strawberry "tomatoes," homemade fondant "bacon," coating chocolate "lettuce" and Swiss meringue buttercream "mayo." For her side, she made a "potato salad" with cake pops, strawberries & coating chocolate. Duff thought the grill marks on the bread were "awesome," while Valerie loved Graysen’s homemade fondant. "That’s really delicious," said Valerie. "I’ve never said that about fondant, ever!"

Challenge: Dessert Imposter Sandwiches

Morgan made a French dip au jus with an éclair "French roll," chocolate brownie "meat" and blackberry coulis "jus" with candied ginger. For her side, she made a "fruit salad" with chocolate & white chocolate chips, coconut gummy candies and chocolate crystals.

Challenge: Dessert Imposter Sandwiches

Reggie made pastrami on rye with vanilla crepe "pastrami" on citrus pound cake "rye" and citrus curd "mustard." His "cucumber salad" side was made with apples and strawberries.

Challenge: Dessert Imposter Sandwiches

Avner made his hometown proud with his Philly cheesesteak. His sandwich was made with a brownie "cheesesteak" on a pate a choux "roll," pastry cream "cheese," coconut "lettuce" and coating chocolate "peppers." For his side, he made a coating chocolate, coconut & cream cheese "coleslaw."

Challenge: Llama Cupcakes

A llama visited the bakers before they were introduced to week four’s challenge: making llama cupcakes. Graysen’s coconut cupcake was filled with a caramelized pineapple filling and topped with toasted coconut and coconut milk buttercream. Duff and Valerie both loved the filling, saying it tasted “like candy.”

Challenge: Potato Print Cookies

During week four, the bakers’ mission was to create a stencil out of a potato to decorate their cookies. Morgan added a star print on her lemon-vanilla sugar cookie to make it look like a lemon cut in half. Duff loved the cookie’s texture, commenting that it was “crunchy on the outside, kind of gooey in the middle. Perfect for a sugar cookie.”

Challenge: Potato Print Cookies

Avner’s confetti sugar cookie was decorated with royal icing and homemade fondant. He added sprinkles to his star-shaped center to make his cookie look more "fun."

Challenge: Potato Print Cookies

Graysen made flower-shaped lemon zest sugar cookies to go with her flower stencil design. She decorated them with lemon royal icing and homemade fondant.

Challenge: Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

For week six’s challenge, the bakers made cupcakes baked inside of an ice cream cone. Naima’s maple bacon cupcake with maple swiss buttercream was topped with candied bacon and chocolate drizzle. Valerie was blown away by it, noting that, “It tastes like a pancake with bacon and maple syrup!”

Challenge: Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

Sam topped his vanilla citrus tie-dye cupcake with swiss meringue buttercream and a white chocolate drizzle.

Challenge: Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

Graysen made a red velvet cupcake with a swirled cream cheese icing. She used a chocolate ganache drizzle and a red candy-coated chocolate to resemble the chocolate syrup and cherries usually seen atop an ice cream sundae.

Challenge: Italian Rainbow Cookies

In week seven, the bakers had to reinvent Italian rainbow cookies. Reggie made a gianduja-covered hazelnut rainbow cookie with a hazelnut gianduja butter and fresh strawberry filling. Duff thought his rainbow cookies were gorgeous, commenting that they “brought a wonderful amount of hazelnut and worked beautifully with the fresh strawberries.”

Challenge: Italian Rainbow Cookies

Morgan made an apricot Italian rainbow cookie with apricot jam, covered with chocolate ganache.

Challenge: Interior Decorated Trifles

During week eight, the bakers put their decorating skills to the test with an interior decorated trifle challenge. Reggie used vanilla pound cake with passionfruit curd, passionfruit diplomat cream and coconut mousse for his trifle and topped it with fresh fruit and homemade coconut, cashew and cranberry granola. Val loved his dessert, saying that the “cake was moist, layers were defined and the fruit design on top looked professional. The passion fruit mousse was subtle, sweet and the curd was tangy and bright.”

Challenge: Interior Decorated Trifles

Sam made an olive oil cake and used vanilla pastry cream, raspberry mousse and maple-nut granola to create his trifle.

Challenge: Interior Decorated Trifles

Morgan’s trifle was layered with lemon-vanilla cake, coconut vanilla pastry cream and caramelized pineapples. She topped it with strawberry whipped cream, granola, mangos and mixed berries.

Challenge: 3D Dinosaur Cookies

The semi-final presented the bakers with a dino-mite challenge: 3D dinosaur cookies. Sam’s T-rex was made out of a lemon-lime sugar cookie with vanilla royal icing. Duff thought it was “super cute” with a “fun, goofy face and excellent posture.”