Two of Food Network’s latest pastry prodigies are from right here in Nashville. Kids Baking Championship is a competition with a $25,000 prize for America’s most talented kid.
Sophia Elrod begged her parents for weeks to let her audition. They were a little worried about their 10-year-old being on national tv and were even more worried that she wouldn’t make it.
Sophia got the news on Easter.
“I saw a note from the Easter Bunny, and it said, ‘You might need these eggs to help bake,’ and I threw my paper down and said, ‘Are we going to the set?’ And, then I started crying, so…” Sophia said, laughing.
Sophia, a jiujitsu and soccer champ, says she was born ready for the competition. And, besides, she’s been baking for half her life.
“Probably around 4 or 5 years old she was in the kitchen throwing flour in a bowl,” said Jason Elrod, Sophia’s dad. “We’ve got pictures of it all over her. She was not clean. She’s still not real clean.”
Jason is who runs Sophia’s social media, but she makes note of who the other young bakers are online, like Tori Church.
“I just saw her on Instagram,” Sophia said, “and was like, ‘Hey, she should be on Kids Baking Championship, and then, she ended up being on Kids Baking Championship, so…”
Tori’s also from Nashville, so the chances of the two of them both ending up on the cast of nine were slim, especially since Tori was so new to the craft.
“A year ago, I went with my aunt to a little shop,” Tori said. “It was like a baking class that I took with my aunt, and we made a cake. And, I realized, I was like ‘This is what I want to do. Like, this is so much fun.”
In the last year, Tori’s started her own baking business, Crumbs Bakery, with the help of her mom Natalie — mostly, on cleanup.
Tori says her favorite thing to sell and to eat are cupcakes.
“Right now, it’s probably my s’mores cupcakes,” Tori said. “They’re chocolate cupcakes filled with chocolate ganache with marshmallow frosting and graham crackers.”
Unfortunately, Sophia was cut week one, but you can still watch Tori baking her way through the competition Monday nights on the Food Network. Tonight marks the third week of Kids Baking Championship.
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