After eight years of auditioning, Esquimalt resident Jen Childs has finally made her debut on one of her favourite shows, The Great Canadian Baking Show.
The eighth season of the CBC series premiered on Sunday, October 6, featuring 10 enthusiastic competitors from across Canada. Each year, bakers from all over the country compete for the title of Canada’s best amateur baker.
According to the show, Childs holds the record for the most applications submitted to the show, having auditioned every year since its first season. Her family even dubbed the annual process “baking season,” as her kitchen experimentation kicked into high gear each time casting opened.
Originally from Oshawa, Childs has been baking since childhood, inspired by her parents and a Betty Crocker cookbook that sparked her love for ambitious bakes — like her early attempt at a Baked Alaska. By the time she was in high school, she was making gingerbread replicas of her family home. “I’ve always been pretty ambitious,” she laughed.
Now settled in Victoria, Childs balances her bookkeeping work with her passion for baking, often incorporating local ingredients, like Island Saskatoon berries, into her creations.
Geoff George/CBC
She describes her style as “cohesive, thematic, and natural,” and her Black Forest cake from the premiere episode showcased this perfectly.
“The cake had moss on the ground made from ginger snap cookie crumbs dyed green. I lean toward a more natural aesthetic because baking itself is natural,” she told Daily Hive.
For Childs, part of the thrill of being on the show was receiving real-time feedback from the judges. “In everyday life, people aren’t very critical, right? It was really neat to get some feedback on my baking, and that was part of it for me,” she said.
Geoff George/CBC
She also described the joy she finds in baking, saying the moment someone takes that first bite is the culmination of her favourite aspects of the process — planning, execution, and sharing the finished creation.
Childs admitted that talking about herself on camera was one of the more challenging aspects of the TV experience. “I kept talking about the group, and the producers kept asking me what I was feeling,” she said.
Her expressive, yet introverted, nature made it tricky to step into the spotlight, but she embraced the experience as a bonding opportunity with her fellow bakers, calling it “baking summer camp.”
Childs noted that while she was initially concerned about being intimidated by her fellow contestants, she chose not to look up their social media profiles during filming. “If I had been looking at all of their bakes [online], I think it would have been very intimidating,” she said.
Geoff George/CBC
To celebrate her appearance on the show, Childs’ family and friends threw a viewing party at Spinnakers in Victoria, where they cheered on her debut.
After eight years, Childs’ time on The Great Canadian Baking Show is well-earned and a testament to one of life’s — and baking’s — greatest virtues: patience.
Check out The Great Canadian Baking Show on CBC or CBC Gem. New episodes will stream weekly on Sundays at 6 am on CBC Gem, followed by broadcasts on CBC TV at 5 pm.