A Mansfield pre-teen will compete on the next edition of Kids Baking Championship.
Jaxon Remillard, 11, will try for the title against 11 other contestants, ages 9-13. There are some other Texans competing: Gavin Crawford, 11, of Pearland; and Madison Totaro, 11, of Austin.
Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman co-host the show and mentor the 12 contestants through challenges over the span of 10 weeks. The winner gets to claim the title; $25,000; and a feature in Food Network Magazine.
The sixth season debuts with a bacon cupcake challenge on Jan. 7 at 8 p.m. on Food Network.
Before the season starts, Jaxon and his mother, Beth, talked about the show, future plans and baking tips. (Note: This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.)
When did you start baking?
I started baking when I was about 10 or 11 with my grandma. And then every time I was over her house, we would make something. And then that's pretty much where I got it from.
Did she teach you any tricks?
Um ... not really. I mostly got all my tricks from baking so much, YouTube and watching all the baking shows. And that's pretty much the inspiration that I had.
What was your favorite baking show to watch?
My favorite baking show before I figured out that the kids' baking show existed was the Halloween Baking Championship because there would be teams and experts and a pumpkin carver. And at the end, everything just looked so cool.
So once you found out about the kids baking championship, how did you get involved?
So after I started baking, getting good, a friend of ours sent me an application and said, 'apply and we'll just see if you make it or not.' I just did some interviews, and then bake things and show them. Then after that, they would get all their contestants that they chose and see which ones are the best and then they would do the show."
Did you have a lot of fun?
The show was amazing.
'Amazing,' like how?
Because I got to meet a bunch of new friends and really got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
What are your top three tips for anyone new to baking?
My top three tips would be hard work, dedication and try your best and just keep going at it until you get what you want.
Do you want to continue doing this as a profession or just something fun?
When I get older, I want to open my own pastry shop. (Beth: "The sky is the limit." She also said, "I'm really, really, really, really proud of him.")
By the way, can you teach me how to make it so the bottoms of my muffins don't burn? The tops are beautiful.
(Through laughter) Do you know what you did? (More laughter) I think you should just put, like, cupcake tins and then they'll keep their shape and they won't burn.
