Ten-year-old Mikey Roe reckons he knows the secret to the perfect scone.
And he has a good track record, winning the junior section of the inaugural Canberra Scone-Off last year.
One of his secrets is using buttermilk. The other is to not overwork the dough.
"You need to not handle them too much," he said.
The year 4 student at Queanbeyan East Public School was very excited to take home the junior scone baking championship last year.
Even when it didn't look as fancy as his competitors'.
"I just made a plain old scone and I think the lesson to that is, 'Never judge a book by its cover'," the sage 10-year-old said.
And the Scone-Off - and Mikey - are back.
Entries are open for the second Canberra Scone-Off, to be held at the Kippax Uniting Church on Saturday, November 16, raising money for community projects run by the charity UnitingCare Kippax.
The scone baking competition will be judged based on seven categories: plain scones, savoury scones, date scones, pumpkin scones, gluten-free scones, junior (for school-aged bakers), and "other scones" for all other categories. It costs $5 to register for each category.
As well as the baking competition there will also be morning tea (tea/coffee and biscuit) and Devonshire Tea (coffee or tea with fresh scones, jam and cream) served at the Kippax Marketplace kitchen all morning and up to 1pm. There is also a BBQ a Mini Monster Marketplace with individual stallholders, Christmas items, cake stall, and a hall full of pre-loved goods.
This year's Scone-Off was officially launched by "Special Minister for Scones", Yvette Berry, at the Macgregor home of scone maker extraordinaire, Frances Noble.
Frances is a "Kippax Uniting Care legend", baking literally thousands of scones for charity over the years.
Her secrets are in the ingredients.
"My secret weapon is definitely cream and lemonade," she said.
Canberra comedian Sarah Stewart will be at the Scone-Off this year, providing some light relief. Hopefully as light as the scones.
She will be putting a cat among the pigeons - asking is scone pronounced "sc-own" or "sc-on"?
"I'm very concerned about this because I do believe there is a huge mispronunciation," she said.
"And being that I'm English and come from the Motherland, I believe the pronunciation is wrong and the actual pronunciation is 'sc-own'. 'Sc-on' is very posh, whereas I like to say, 'sc-own'.
"I guess we'll have to sort that out on the day."
Scone-making is also a bit of a family affair for Mikey.
His mum, Steff, won the date scone category last year.
"I cut the dates up really finely," she revealed.
The Canberra Scone-Off will be held from 10am to 1pm on Saturday, November 16, at Uniting Church Kippax on the corner of Hardwick Crescent and Luke Street in Holt.
It will be free to attend the Scone-Off and watch the competition and the live comedy. Bakers can enter online.
The link to enter is here.
