BYU-Idaho Radio · Local Idaho Kid Wins National Baking Competition
A local jr. high student is the winner of a hit TV baking competition.
One of the most popular Food Network television shows is the Kid’s Baking Championship. In it, kids compete in baking challenges and try to create the best dishes for the judges.
This year’s winner happens to be from Sugar City. His name is Keaton Ashton, and BYU-Idaho Radio got to interview him about the experience.
Being on national television isn’t a small thing, and Keaton felt the pressure. But in the end, he said he thought it was a great experience.
“I watched that show as a kid all the time, so being on the show, and then actually winning it, it was just crazy,” Keaton said.
Keaton walked us through his strategy when he first started baking in the competition.
“During the first couple of bakes, I was actually trying to watch the other bakers so I could think about what I could do better, and then at about the fourth or fifth challenge, I knew I could do it on my own,” he said.
Keaton’s expertise is his ability to bake cakes. He owns his own baking company, where he sells custom cakes to locals. He said this skill inevitably helped him realize his chance to win the competition was high.
“I thought, ‘OK, now that we’re making cakes, I can potentially win this,’ because cakes are my specialty,” said Keaton.
Keaton took home $25,000 and will have an article written about him by the Food Network. Although the grand prize is quite grand, Keaton said his favorite thing about being on the show was the friends he got to make.
“All my friends here [in Idaho] don’t have the same interests as me. None of them go home and start baking things for fun, so it was really fun being with people I could talk to about what we did that day and the stuff we got to bake,” Keaton said.
Keaton isn’t sure what he wants to do with the cash prize yet, but he knows one thing for sure. He’s going to keep baking.
You can check out Keaton’s cakes on his Instagrampage.