The new season kicks off with Cake Week as eight of America's best amateur bakers strive to impress judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith; for the Signature, they must create towering vertical layer cakes.

Hosts Andrew Rannells and Casey Wilson direct aspiring bakers who face exhilarating challenges. Paul and Prue wisely judge, sending one home a week until one is crowned America's best.

The tent fills with the smell of freshly baked loaves as Bread Week begins, and judges Paul and Prue come up with increasingly harder challenges; the signature is focaccia, and the olive oil flows.

With the finale in sight, Pâtisserie Week turns up the heat; the Signature dessert is a high-wire act creating decorative custard pies; in the Technical, Paul and Prue set a mysterious and highly intricate French pastry.

The Signature has the bakers taking on baked meringue bombs; the Technical has them creating raspberry and pistachio entremets; the finalists are asked to create a celebratory three-tier masterpiece for their Showstopper.