Summer Gets Sweeter with the Return of 'Kids Baking Championship' on Food Network

School is out and kids are on summer break, but the talents of nine young bakers will be put to the test as they enter the Kids Baking Championship, beginning on Monday, August 6th at 9pm ET/PT. Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman return on the new season to challenge the skills of the bakers, ranging in age from 10 to 13, in difficult dessert trials to see who will make it to the top tier of the competition. Only one will take the cake and the sweet grand prize of $25,000, a feature in Food Network Magazine, and the title of Kids Baking Champion!

"Our viewers can't seem to get enough of KIDS BAKING CHAMPIONSHIP with more than 10 million viewers tuning in last season," said Allison Page, President, Food Network and HGTV. "The new season promises exciting new challenges featuring the latest dessert trends, lots of irresistible sweets, and tons of fun!"

Throughout the seven-week season, the kid contestants show off their skills and creativity as they whisk through new confectionary challenges, from gravity-defying cakes, to outrageous ice cream sandwiches using any sweet treat except cookies. The classic imposter dessert challenge returns as well with a new surprising Italian twist, and the bakers will also have to tackle other delectable desserts including creative cakes, bite-sized sweets and scrumptious snacks.

On the premiere, the bakers must serve selfieclairs, where they must use SELFIE photos as inspiration for creating a dozen eclairs from scratch, decorated to represent each bakers' personality and style. Duff and Valerie throw the bakers a crazy curveball, and task them with decorating an additional éclair with a hashtag that best describes them, such as #ChocolateLover, #AthleticBaker, #BoysBakeToo, etc. On Monday, September 17th at 9pm ET/PT, the championship concludes as one talented baker will RISE to the top in the grand finale.

Kids Baking Championship contestants include: Zach Atlas (New York, NY; age 13), Matthew Azuma (Glendora, CA; age 12), Mekdes Bass (Boulder, CO; age 10), Enzo Consani (Orlando, FL; age 10), Saylor Herrin (Ailey, GA; age 11), Taylor Inouye (Kailua, HI; age 12), Natasha Jiwani (Bellevue, WA; age 13), Issi Neufeld (Coppell, TX; age 11), and Davey Treen (Akron, OH; age 10).

Fans can relive the most dramatic, creative, and adorable moments with video and photo highlights at FoodNetwork.com/KidsBakingChampionship. Plus, go behind the scenes with Duff and Valerie, and discover more baking tips, and follow all the decadent action using #KidsBakingChampionship.

FOOD NETWORK (www.foodnetwork.com) is a unique lifestyle network, website and magazine that connects viewers to the power and joy of food. The network strives to be viewers' best friend in food and is committed to leading by teaching, inspiring, empowering and entertaining through its talent and expertise. Food Network is distributed to nearly 100 million U.S. households and draws over 46 million unique web users monthly. Since launching in 2009, Food Network Magazine's rate base has grown 13 times and is the No. 2 best-selling monthly magazine on the newsstand, with 13.5 million readers. Food Network is owned by Discovery, Inc., a global leader in real life entertainment whose portfolio also includes Discovery Channel, HGTV, TLC, Investigation Discovery, and OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network.

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