Cupcake win! Had a great result using Bob's Red Mill buttermilk for my cakes. Nice buttercream color as well from the Ann Clark food coloring I picked up and the 1M piping tip! Nice to finally report on a triumph hahah! Couple of news stories - Network ITV has given new GBBO host Alison Hammond a very nice contract to lock her into the network. In another article (both of these from the Irish Mirror) Prue talks about how nice it is to have another woman on the show and that she didn't get a lot of the jokes when it was 3 men. A quick "Who are they" segment about Juniors host Harry Hill (not his birth name) where we learn a bit about him including his original profession - I was very surprised! Heat A of Juniors follows the "formula" two very young and absolutely adorable little ones - Lola and Quique - are my out of the box favorites. Lola's attitude on baking is what EVERYONE's should be! "Hey Ho, let's give it a go!" Mia age 11, Macy, 10 and Eliza are the "middle of the packers", Will, 11, is the one I feel is going to bring nice artistic flare. Joey, 11, is probably the "ringer" who is a liiiiitle arrogant but knows his stuff it appears, and then the "veteran" is Kezia at age 13. Paul was substituting for Liam who was out sick so the kids had a nice surprise when he showed up! First technical challenge was "mini piggy rolls" essentially swiss rolled sponge with berry and mascarpone filling coated in pink chocolate and decorated to look like a pig. The big test here was "the sponge". Very easy to overbake this or not cool it right and you get a cracked mess... which many did. One comment - they only had an HOUR for this... that's a tough call. Mia had the most problems... and only delivered 3 of the 6 ... which landed her last in the technical. Lola - who approached the whole thing with a smile created what Paul called "abstract art" and landed 7th. There were a few that were dry and not so nice looking... Quique went a little chocolate crazy, Joey came out decently and Kezia was the definite "most attractive pigs" which landed her the technical win. In the showstopper, the bakers had to create a cake depicted their proudest moment. There were some sweet stories, and a lot of "lemon cake" choices. Fondant or Buttercream were the typical toppers with a few interesting flavors. three interesting cakes: Macy with carrot cake (it collapsed a bit - as carrot cake can do - under the weight of the fondant); Quique with an almond cake that used olive oil, and Joey with a Japanese Chiffon cake. This paid off for Joey even though he overbaked them and they burned a bit... but they still tasted amazing. He pulled out the Star baker with this. Picked up a tip - when using artificial flavors - like will and his bubblegum buttercream - a little salt can balance out the artificial flavoring. As usual - on day one of Juniors... nobody goes home. follow us on IG: @scrummyhandshakes