NJKBCFan

And suddenly, I don't like any of the boys! Jackson and Karthik were bullies, and Davis was pretty rude (tho at least it appeared that he tried to be polite). Madison is now my favorite, as she handled it with maturity. Glad she won it! Paige and Nyah definitely deserved the team win. They really nailed the challenge. And I loved how well they got along, including saying everything in unison! Very cute, and a great counterbalance to the rudeness seen in the boy-girl teams. Jenna - yeah, time to go. I feel bad for her because I bet she is a much better baker than she was able to show in this show. Similar to Soleil in Season 4. Maybe something about being from New Jersey? lol I think this was the first week where I really enjoyed the challenge. Gave them room for creativity, both with flavor and decorating, some nice techniques. Great job, bakers!

Darn! Even more bummed now! Did you ever get to talk with him about his experience on the show? Would love to hear about it, particularly with regards to some of the questions being asked here about things like did they have recipes, did they know about the challenges beforehand and how much did the producers coach them?

Bummed about Misha. He was my pick to win it all after the first episode. At this point, I feel like Davis is going to be this season’s Bryn or Cole, a favorite to win but eliminated in the semifinal. Agree that he’s definitely got skills. Personality-wise, he reminds me a little bit of Beverley from Season 4. I know macarons are known to be difficult to make, but it still surprised me how much trouble a lot of the kids had with this challenge. Maybe it was because of all the pre-season hype about how good these kids were supposed to be, but after this episode I feel like they are pretty similar in skill as previous seasons. Personality-wise, I still put Season 4 ahead as no one is as adorable as Linsey or Bryn, but agree that all of these kids are very likable.

I am friends with a professional baker who says that even she does not have every basic recipe memorized, so I'd have to imagine that you are correct and the kids have notes with them. And probably the producers give them some heads-up about what to include in their notes ahead of time. As far as coming up with something in seconds, remember that these challenges are usually 2hrs of baking and we only see about 20 minutes. Also, I remember in Season 4 one of the kids (Luke?) spent much of his airtime trying to come up with ideas for his desert imposter.

A few folks here have talked about these kids coming across like they are acting. I don't agree. To me, they feel pretty natural. Maybe they are a bit more well-spoken and mature, but none of it seems anything more to me than these kids having some confidence (maybe Davis is the exception to this). Season 5 I felt like the kids were a little too excited by simply being on the show and maybe over-reacting to every little thing, and in comparison these kids are much calmer.

I agree that they probably have recipes so they don't need to memorize, as we've seen some kids trying to figure out how to make bigger batches (ie. they have a recipe but need to make 3x the amount and it throws them off sometimes). I remember Duff asking a baker in a previous season "is that your recipe?", so they probably are able to bring their own recipe books. But I don't think they know the challenge ahead of time since we've seen in previous episodes a few times where the kids are trying to guess what the challenge will be based on how the set is decorated. So far in this season, very few instances of any of the kids really setting themselves apart. Davis kind of did this week where he took the very basic challenge and tried to do more (eg. 2-layers, butter cream, gnosh coating, patterned sprinkle decoration); it feels like in previous seasons more of the kids did this kind of thing.

Once again, this challenge seemed pretty simple, so not finding it particularly interesting. And honestly, their decorating skills tonight left a lot to be desired, although they had less time today with only 90 minutes. But I do find almost all of the kids likable (definitely more than last season’s kids), so hopefully they get more opportunities to stretch their skills a bit more.

This show has never had a host. And I don't think the interactions with the kids are scripted. If anything, I think she runs out of things to say and goes to the "I'll leave you alone" thing to end the conversations gracefully. And last season, she had that really embarrassing thing with Nat where she tried to swing Nat's arms to get her to relax. It was very cringy. :-o

Thinking about this a little more, maybe the critiques were boring because the challenges were so simple? Basically a cupcake with bacon and a cheesecake with a two-color pattern, not a lot of stuff to critique.

Huh, I thought the last season was too short because too few kids! Didn't get a chance to really know the kids, and didn't get to see enough variety of challenges.

Agree with the other person here who is not a fan of the Canadian kid. Not sure if he's playing to the camera, but he's definitely a little bit odd. That said, he does seem to have some sophistication in his ideas and if he gets his execution down better he could go far here. Perhaps he is this season's Beverley? Also, I like Paige here but can definitely see her as an annoying adult lol! Overall, these kids seem like a really good group from a personality standpoint. Season 5's kids seemed a bit too happy just to be there, whereas most of these kids are already in the groove of the competition and doing good work. Am particularly impressed with the poise of the younger kids. Having said that, these first two challenges seem really simple compared to past seasons; maybe the producers decided to ease the kids in rather than give them something more challenging right at the start that might freak them out? I do hope that the challenges will become more, um, challenging as the season goes on. Meadow appears to be very tough on herself. Maybe she is this season's Linsey (who was also super-tough on herself) and will go all the way to win it? I'm also still liking Misha even though his cheesecake didn't come out great this week. And I'm starting to like Karthik.

That’s pretty cool! Are you willing to tell us which kid? Would be great to ask them some behind the scenes questions, like how much prep do the producers give them versus how much do they have to know without help (eg recipes, ingredients, etc).

The kids this season definitely seem more likable than last season. Less giggly about being on the show, these kids seem pretty confident. The challenge (bacon cupcake with additional flavor, plus marzipan twist) seemed like a pretty simple bake compared to the last two seasons (eclairs last season and cookie cakes the year before), so maybe that had something to do with why the kids were more confident. That said, a couple of the kids did some cool stuff with it. I'm going with Misha to win the whole thing.

Doh! I guess my predictions are a little off. Lol!

From the press release, here are the names/ages/hometowns of the kids: Kids Baking Championship competitors include: Jenna Alnatur (Clifton, NJ; age 9), Gavin Crawford (Pearland, TX; age 11), Paige Goehner (Blaine, MN; age 11), Misha Jones (Annapolis, MD; age 12), Brooklyn Kyzar (Silverhill, AL; age 12), Kasey Moeggenborg (Rockford, MI; age 13), Jaxon Remillard (Mansfield, TX; age 11), Meadow Roberts (Minneapolis, MN; age 10), Nyah Rosado (New Rochelle, NY; age 11), Davis Sams (Vancouver, BC; age 13), Madison Totaro (Austin, TX: age 11), and Karthik Vemparala (Somerset, NJ; age 11). Read more at http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2018/11/27/the-new-year-starts-sweet-with-the-return-of-food-networks-kids-baking-championship-219014/20181127food01/#mCG43TRVG0SEEy3U.99 If past seasons are any indication, the oldest kids have the best chance of winning. So before seeing any episodes, I'm picking Kasey, Davis and Brooklyn for the finals, and Kasey for the win.

Season 4 marathon on right now!

Yes, they do look pretty awesome! Hopefully they are nice kids, too!

New cast: https://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/kids-baking-championship/photos/meet-the-contestants-from-kids-baking-championship-season-6 Show premieres on January 7!

Here is the Food Network photo album of this season's best creations: https://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/kids-baking-championship/photos/top-creations-kids-baking-championship-season-5 It's a little telling that they only have 9 photos (and only from 2 of the episodes) compared to 19 from last season (with some from almost every episode). Here is the cast account on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_kids_baking_championship/ Pretty cool as it appears that the Season 4 kids created the account and passed it along to the Season 5 cast. In this post, they list all of the accounts for the Season 5 kids:

I enjoyed the finale. It wasn't super-climactic, but it was still fun to watch. Am happy for Nat that she won, but actually would have been fine with Taylor or Matthew, as I felt like Taylor's cake looked like it met the challenge the best and Matthew did the most unique/creative stuff (and kind of got screwed because there weren't enough regular cake pans available). All of that said, I agree with the sentiments expressed here throughout the season that the level of baking here didn't really wow me, and that continued through this episode. Maybe part of it was because this was a short season and the kids didn't have as much time to really get into a groove? Or maybe because of the meh-challenges? Who knows. Am happy for these kids and enjoyed the season enough to not regret watching it. Congrats Nat and all of the bakers! Yes, I saw on Instagram that they were casting for a new season in July. I'm guessing it will air in January like all of the previous seasons.

Macaroon vs. Macaron: https://www.berries.com/blog/many-differences-macarons-macaroons I'm rooting for Nat.

I watched some of the Season 4 marathon in the lead up to this episode, and it really did remind me of how much more talented the kids were last season. Yes, some of the kids who were eliminated early didn't show their talent very well, but every week there were at least a few desserts that made you go "wow, that's impressive!". Even just how those kids talked about how they were baking seemed like they really knew what they were talking about. I could totally want any of the top 6 bakers from last season to make me a birthday cake. I don't really get that sense from this season's kids.

But macaroons and macarons are two different things, no?

Last night's episode was ok. No melt-downs, and some of the desserts came out quite nicely. I was impressed with Nat's cupcake, Matthew's macarons, and Taylor's guava bundt. Neither of Izze's desserts looked appealing to me, but she executed them well enough and apparently they tasted great. Still a little disappointed at the lack of real decorating-oriented challenges this season (decorating a mini picnic table doesn't count). Too bad this is only a 7-episode season, as it does feel like the kids are finally finding a bit of a groove. As for the elimination, I think Izze was the right choice because Matthew and Taylor's best treats were better than Izze's best treat, while all three of them were similarly mediocre on their second treats. I also think Matthew was being given a little bit of an edge to keep a boy in the finals. And now we have an all-Asian final, which might be a first for these kinds of shows.

Btw - Season 4 is marathoning all day Monday.