(crowd chanting, cheering) 5..4..3..2..1!

    After a spirited beginning, things calmed down mighty fast at the Pillsbury Kids 
Bake Off at the Strong Museum. After all, there's work to be done. And this group of 
girls and boys quickly get down to business: sorting and preparing ingredients, 
arranging utensils and zeroing food timers. Parents are allowed to look on and cheer 
but must stay a few feet away from the action and the Pillsbury ovens. And from the
sidelines, Horseheads, New York's Donetta Morey-- behind the kitchen no. 25 boundary 
area for her son Ryan-- admits extensive practicing of today's food entry- cherry 
cheese cake- has dulled the family's appetite for the desert.

DANETTA MOREY: Very tired of the cheese cake. And after a couple weeks time maybe 
I'll attempt to have another one. We've given some to bake sales, and the neighbors..

    As the mixers begin to whirl around these kids and their concoctions, 13-year old 
Ryan Morey doesn't buy into the theory that calls cooking women's work. Though Pillsbury
reports over 60 percent of the hundreds of bake-off entries this time were from girls.

RYAN MOREY: Sometimes when my parents get home late and they have to eat and run I cook
dinner. I cook little snacks for my brother and I just cook all sorts of things. I watch 
a lot of cooking shows and there's mostly men. I think men and women can both cook.

    And Ryan's mom says if sports doesn't work out, they've already checked out some
culinary schools as a possible lead inot the cooking profession. One person who is truly
working at it is one of today's judges, Diane Stoneback, a newspaper food editor from
Allentown, Pennsylvania. She says that's the way to do it: get kids interested early in
trying out new things 'cause they don't know what they're missing.

STONEBACK:  And I try it with my own kids and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
If it's just too exotic they draw the line. But if it's something they can relate to and
that they've had a hand in it makes them much more enthusiastic and proud, too.

    Elegant Glazed pears, Spinach Quiche, Angel Hair Pasta- Three Cheese with Mushrooms
are just a few of the dishes going off to the judges- award-winning entries- if you ask
their creators.

FLYNN: Now, what makes these cookies award-winning? Why would the judges give you the nod
of these?

GIRL BAKER: Um, because they have extra chocolate chips.. lots of 'em.. and they're very
special.

FLYNN: These are what..?

BOY BAKER: Apple roll-ups. They're small, like apple pies.

BOY BAKER: I'm making a cake right now.

FLYNN: And what have you got goin' today?

BOY BAKER: Devils food cake. I made it a triple-layer cake. And also, to cool it down I
have dry ice which I'm gonna crush and put on top of it. That cools it down in a couple
minutes. 

GIRL BAKER: This is my mom's broccoli pizza recipe. We made designs with the cheese and
that's kind of like a creative-type thing.

    Besides cooking being just plain old fun, these 9 to 13 year olds agree, being in
charge certainly has its advantages.

BOY BAKER: Because you get to eat the stuff afterwards.

    And even that inevitable mess left behind can be a negotiating point when you're
captain of the kitchen.

FLYNN: What don't you like, because I'm thinking that the clean up could be a problem..

BOY BAKER: Yeah I hate clean up but that's why I turn to my brother Ethan. He's the
dishwasher. He washes.. very good.

FLYNN: Do you feed him? Is that.. his "cut", he gets some food.. is that the idea?

BOY BAKER: Yeah-up.

    This year's winner, impressing the judges with Taco Stromboli, Webster's Jessica
Naranchio. She'll be spending a weekend in Disney World with her family.. courtesy of
the Pillsbury Kid's Bake Off, this month at the Strong Museum. Bill Flynn WXXI News.