Kansas girl, 12, with sweet tooth competing on Food Network’s ‘Kids Baking Championship’
At the tender age of 12, Piper Lowe has become a TV star and her proud mama can’t help but share photos of the family’s new celebrity on Facebook.
They show Piper with assorted animals at home in rural Franklin County, about 40 miles southwest of Olathe. Bottle-feeding a hungry calf. Hugging a raccoon wrapped in a blanket.
Piper always grinning.
And there are photos and videos of Piper in the kitchen — sitting on a counter dumping eggs into the bowl of a KitchenAid mixer and bouncing a pan of batter on the counter to knock out the air bubbles.
“From a young age, there have been two things that have always made Piper smile bigger than anything: baking and animals,” Kandie Lowe wrote on her Facebook page last week.
“Whether she was creating her first cupcakes or cuddling up with her favorite furry friends, those moments have always been filled with so much joy.”
Food Network fans are getting to know Piper as she competes on the 13th season of the “Kids Baking Championship,” which began Jan. 6. The winner gets $25,000 and a feature in Food Network Magazine.
Two of 10 episodes have aired so far. Two kids have been eliminated. Piper, who is sworn to secrecy about how far she got, is still standing. The show airs at 7 p.m. Mondays on the Food Network and streams the next day on Max.
Fortunately for this farm girl, the “Amazing Animals” theme this season involves challenges inspired by “creatures big and small, including a few fluffy, furry and feather animals who drop in to the kitchen for live appearances over the course of the season,” says the show’s description.
“From sea creatures to jungle dwellers to farm animals and more, the 12 kid bakers must craft creative and delicious animal-themed treats for a chance at winning the grand prize.”
The young competitors have already been challenged to make French macarons, one of the most difficult desserts for any baker, let alone kids. Piper shaped hers like pandas.
She is so advanced in her baking that she makes custom cakes for weddings, graduations and other celebrations. She loves making pies and her crusts are perfectly flaky thanks to her great-grandma’s recipe which she knows by heart. (And kindly shared with this reporter.)
Piper’s prowess is not really surprising for a middle-schooler born into a family of men and women who know their way around the kitchen.
“I started kind of baking when I was two years old. I started following mom and grandma around the kitchen.” Piper told The Star.
“I’ve had a super big sweet tooth since I was little. But also, I’ve always loved art and baking is an art.”
“She would just sit there on the counter with me,” said Kandie. “Of course it would be more of a mess but it was fun. She helped with the mixer whenever I was doing frosting. More than anything she was in there to taste and get her fingers in there.
“She loves her sweets ... she wanted that reward.”
Piper is also a longtime fan of Food Network shows like “Beat Bobby Flay,” “Chopped” and especially “The Pioneer Woman” starring country lifestyle maven Ree Drummond of Oklahoma.
Shows like “Chopped” get Piper’s competitive juices flowing. She plays “a lot of sports.” Softball. Volleyball. Basketball. Flag football. “I pretty much play everything but my big thing is baking,” she said.
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She tried out for “Kids Baking Championship” a few years ago and was chosen as an alternate contestant before she dropped out because of a family emergency.
Early last year she tried out again, submitting a video of herself talking about her life in Kansas and why she loves baking. She did virtual interviews with the show’s producers. Then the show selected a group of kids to attend a baking boot camp in Los Angeles before the final 12 were named.
“They told us thousands tried out,” said Kandie, who thinks her daughter’s “bubbly personality” and deft baking skills helped her make the cut.
“Watching the stuff that she makes? It’s better than I can do,” Kandie said.
The show began filming in June and families were told they could possibly be there a month, Kandie said.
She went to L.A. with her daughter. Parents watched the filming on monitors set up away from the set. There was no audio “so all of us were trying to read their lips,” Kandie said.
Piper met a parrot named Chicken and a cockatoo named Teva in the first episode, filmed in a jungle-themed kitchen where the kids had to make, according to the show, “an animal texture tart with creature-inspired features like scales, feathers, fur or fins, and an edible tail is a late-breaking twist the bakers must solve in a tasty and creative way.”
Piper said that first episode was “crazy, just the first time ever being in front of the camera and having the camera person right next to you and right along with you.”
She made a tart that looked like a raccoon. If she makes it further down the competition road, she’ll have to craft a cookie animal house out of haystack cookies, with an edible water trough. And in the season finale she’d make a zoo-inspired cake.
Meeting show hosts Kardea Brown and Duff Goldman was a highlight, especially Goldman, who told her he once lived in Overland Park. “They were all talking barbecue places,” she said.
She said all the kids got along well. “Even though it was a competition we were all friends and I didn’t want to see my friends go home,” said Piper.
She even helped a couple of her competitors. “I helped Ella with the tail on her tart,” she said.
“I was just surprised at her composure because I don’t think I could have been that composed with the cameras,” said Piper’s mom. “(Viewers) only get snippets of the show. You don’t get to see everything we saw. But I really was most proud of the fact that she really did go and help her friends.
“It brought tears to my eyes watching it.”
Piper’s family watched the first episode together. But for the second show this week they hosted a watch party at a movie theater in Ottawa for a bigger crowd including Piper’s teachers, coaches and teammates.
“It’s just surreal,” said Kandie. “I always teach her you can do anything you want. I watched her do that.”
Being on Food Network is cool and all. But Piper has a VIP baking job coming up.
Her mom’s birthday is at the end of the month.
And Piper has a cake to bake.
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