Junior Bake Off: 8 Seasons of Hosts and Winners

Spoiler note: this post names the winner of every completed Junior Bake Off series.

Junior Bake Off is the youngest-skewing spin-off of the flagship tent series, built for bakers roughly 9 to 15 years old. It began on CBBC in 2011, moved to Channel 4 in 2019 alongside the main show's broadcaster, and has run with expanded episode counts and a wider age range ever since. Because every contestant is a minor, this list sticks to names, series, and years, and follows the show's own practice of using first names only for its more recent young winners.

Every Junior Bake Off winner

The move from CBBC to Channel 4

Junior Bake Off spent its first four series as a CBBC production before going on hiatus and returning on Channel 4 in 2019, the same year the network's rebrand of the main show had already settled in. The Channel 4 era widened the contestant age range and lengthened the series, and it is the version most current viewers know. Series 4 winner Nikki Lilly is the best-known name on this list outside of baking circles; she had already built a public profile through her own CBBC documentary and YouTube channel before winning, and continued that media career afterward.

Who has hosted and judged it

Aaron Craze hosted the first two CBBC series, followed by Sam Nixon and Mark Rhodes for series 3 and 4. Harry Hill has hosted every series since the Channel 4 relaunch in 2019. Judging has rotated more: Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry judged series 1, James Martin replaced Hollywood for series 2, and Allegra McEvedy and Graham Hornigold took over for series 3, with Nadiya Hussain later joining the panel. Since the Channel 4 move, Prue Leith and Liam Charles judged series 5, and Ravneet Gill has judged alongside Charles from series 6 onward.

No cash prize here either

Junior Bake Off follows the main show's lead in one notable way: there is no prize money for winning. Contestants compete for a trophy, a handshake or round of applause from the judges, and the title itself, the same non-monetary structure that keeps the flagship series feeling more like a hobby competition than a game show. That choice keeps the tone closer to encouragement than high-stakes drama, which matters more here than almost anywhere else in the format given the age of the contestants involved.

Shorter episodes, same three bakes

Junior Bake Off compresses the flagship show's format into shorter episodes better suited to a younger audience's attention span, while keeping the same three-bake structure of signature, technical, and showstopper. The technical challenge in particular tends to be simplified relative to the adult version, though the show still leans on the same blind, stripped-down recipe format that catches out even confident young bakers. Judges score for taste and technique exactly as they do on the main show, just with more encouragement built into the feedback along the way.

The wider Bake Off family

Junior Bake Off is one of several spin-offs built on the same tent format, alongside the charity edition covered in our Celebrity Bake Off winners rundown and international adaptations covered in our full list of every Great British Bake Off winner. For the American equivalent aimed at young cooks, see MasterChef Junior winners and Kids Baking Championship winners. If a young baker in your house wants to try a Junior Bake Off style challenge at home, a set of cookie cutters and kid-safe cake decorating tools make a good starting kit.