Pamela makes a childhood cake

As triumphant music plays over the footage of her attempt, Pamela walks determinedly to the shed, where she picks up a sand shovel and small bucket, filling it up from a nearby sand pile. In the studio, her fellow competitors – all fully aware of her plan once she begins scooping sand – all congratulate her on her thinking.

In Finnish, the word for ‘sandcastle’ is ‘hiekkakakkuja’ (literally ‘sand cake’) and, when creating one, children will rap the bucket with the shovel to loosen the sand and chant “Älä tule paha kakku, tule hyvä kakku” (‘Don’t be a bad cake, be a good cake’) as a sort of ‘spell’ to keep the sand from crumbling apart, once it leaves the bucket. Pamela does exactly this, creating a ‘sand cake’, and promptly sitting on it.

In the studio, Jaakko praises Pamela’s “inspired” thinking. Pamela sits on a cake after 1 minute and 21 seconds, and wins the task (much to Eero’s outrage and annoyance, who had been only a second slower). However, when she proceeds to tease Eero over the scores, suggesting that he should once again employ his pouting lip, Jaakko deducts a point from her for mocking Eero’s physical appearance (even though she was clearly making reference to Jaakko’s own past comments about Eero’s pouting).

(Written by Jenny R and proofread by Karl Craven)

(Illustrations collected by Jenny R and adjusted by Karl Craven)