Ready, set, bake!

Chieveley girl competing on Junior Bake Off television programme today (Thursday)

A TEN-YEAR-OLD girl from Chieveley has beaten thousands of entrants to make the heats of the BBC programme Junior Bake Off.

Chieveley Primary School pupil, Freya Watson, was inspired to apply after becoming an avid fan of the recent BBC 2 series, The Great British Bake Off.

The junior version of the programme features 32 nine to 12-year-olds making cakes, biscuits, pastries and breads for judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, with one of the youngsters being crowned champion.

Freya, who lives with her parents, Elaine and Mark, and 12-year-old sister, Gemma, will star in the eighth and final heat of the competition, which is scheduled to be broadcast on CBBC at 6.20pm today (Thursday) and repeated on BBC One at 3.05pm tomorrow (Friday).

“I can't wait to watch it with my family,” Freya said. “Then on Friday my school is going to watch it together on iPlayer. My friends are very excited because they are fans of the Great British Bake Off and now the junior show.

“It was very exciting to be on the show but it was also a pressured situation because I was cooking in front of the cameras. Merry Berry and Paul Hollywood were very nice to me.”

Freya, who is a member of Cold Ash Girl Guides, is now aspiring to open her own bakery in the future and has been invited to the village bakery, G W Shepherd & Sons, to experience how a bakery is run.

“My dream is to open my own bakery,” she said. “I've always liked baking ever since I can remember. My favourites are scones, Victoria sandwich and brownies.”

If successful in today's show, Freya will go through to the semi-final which is due to be aired next week.