It’s the finale, y’all! And we are all cordially invited to doff our fanciest duds and visit Hotel Henson for some killer nuptials! In a finale designed to truly celebrate our bakers’ craft - no tricks or twists or sudden deaths - we are treated to the cheesiest, dreamiest snacking boards and the most dramatic, delectable black wedding cakes we’ve ever seen. The BEST way to cap a killer season, and the best way to make OUR journey to the thirteenth floor, where these four dum dums are taking up residence!
Halloween Baking Championship opens this week’s episode with the most terrifying taunt yet: John Henson as into a 1920’s thirst trap bartender.... MEOW, fellow bakers. Me. OW. After creating boozy throwback death eclairs in the pre-heat, our bakers must face their worst fears whilst producing not one, not two, but THREE ENTREMETS IN TWO HOURS. What did we learn from this episode? A) Even terror sloths are adorable B) Zac is a killer baker, a drag queen AND a shark attack survivor C) Black Licorice can go to Hell? If you answered D) all of the above, you were watching the same episode as us! Break out that side of ranch and join us on the couch as we dish on the penultimate episode of season 8!
Is that a shard of glass in your eye, or are you just watching the grossest Halloween Baking Championship season ever? Maybe both (and we’re into it)! HBC serves up a preheat full of jigglin’ eyeballs and heebie jeebies and then the bakers must twin out on identical cakes inspired by the creepy girls living in room 222. The scariest part? They all KILLED this challenge, which meant one beloved baker was sent to the 13th floor for the tiniest flaw. Join us this week for your fill of eye veins, haunted bed ruffles, and horrifically good flavor combinations!
MEAT CAKES??? How do you spell “full body vocal gross-out shudder”? Cause we did a LOT of that this episode, and we likey. Our bakers follow up some light arson in the preheat with quite possibly the grossest challenge (and CAKE: we’re lookin’ at you, Kristi) in Halloween baking history. We never would have expected a baking competition show to viscerally remind us that we are all quite literally made out of meat, but here we are. Top their incredible performances with the fact that Chris now has to bake a prosciutTOE cake, and these hosts give this episode five knives!
Maggots, maggots, maggots! Halloween Baking Championship brings the noise and the funk this week in two heats designed to horrify our senses. In maybe the most disgusting thriller yet, the bakers were challenged to deliver us the most putrid, rotting dishes they could, using fermented ingredients and their grossest horror instincts. *insert hurl sound* We’ll be honest. The smashed dessert killer challenge was a little bit of a letdown after a thrilling pre-heat, but if it got John Henson to axe through a door Jackie Nic style, sign us up. JOHN SMASH!!
No Thriller. All Killer. And, TWO bakers take a trip to the 13th floor ALL in a one hour episode?? Food Network, what are you doing to us?! In this week's trip to Hotel Henson, our fearless bakers team up to create haunted maze cakes delicious enough to make anyone risk getting lost inside them. Join us as we trim the delectable hedges on this episode, break down the fact that none of us know what an entremet is, bid a fond farewell to two of our beloved bakers and acknowledge the record-setting exit of one of our FBC hosts from the competition!
In a daring publicity stunt for his notorious hotel, John Henson announces a new pet-friendly policy with a celebrity appearance from Dreamworks’ Puss n’ Boots. In a challenge that makes as much sense as the cross-promotion, our beleaguered bakers must turn their Choux into shoes and try not to die doing it. Next, they must make that most famous cake none of us have ever heard of, the "soccer tour"*! These chocolate cakes surprisingly featured zero yellow cards or athletic legs but DID include some beautiful mirror glazes.
The episode culminated in a sudden-death bake off featuring two bakers we're not ready say good-bye to and the baked good every baker inexplicably hates: the cupcake. OH THE HORROR!!!
* Sacher-Torte, if you're Austrian.
There's a crispness in the air and a spooky, pumpkin spice infused fog rolling in over the hill so, you know what that means...it's time for Food Network's Halloween Baking Championship, y'all!! And for us four dumdums, that means it's DRAFT DAY!! Join us as we prepare to check in to John Henson's 'Hotel of Horrors' by placing our team selection fates in the hands of the Wheel of Death™! LET'S DO THIS!!
What the everloving CLUCK?!? Spring Baking Championship caps off a doozy of a season with a sprinkle-covered nightmare of their own making! After our beloved contestants pour their hearts out in a tearjerker of a pre-heat, the show continues with the psychological torture springing a tone-deaf head-to-head, sudden death bake off on them, causing one of our beloved bakers to call it quits. WHEW.
Has this show officially jumped the shark? Are they actually conducting a psychological experiment? On a lighter note, how badly do we all want to taste Jaleesa’s outrageous chocolate cake? Tune in as we celebrate these bakers one more time and slowly lose our minds as the spring chaos has one last crack at us all!
All aboard! It’s wine-o’clock, and Spring Baking Championship is celebrating with a booze cruise of an episode! How do you incorporate cheddar and wine into a cake? Could cocktails convince the judges to like cupcakes? Will Dennis EVER be granted an advantage? Grab your life preservers because this episode is a wild penultimate ride…
Just when you think the Spring chaos may have reached its peak, the team at SBC whips up yet another jumbo cookie salad sized surprise with the return of Carolyn! In this episode, our beloved bakers take on an Easter Bunny-sponsored preheat featuring candy themed Pâte à Choux, before teaming up to put the "CUTE" in charcuterie with main heat farm animal-inspired dessert boards. What could be BAAAAAAAH-D?
Pinkies up Bakers of the World, cause we're taking a trip to Scone Country! Spring Baking Championship asks our bakers to start the day off right with carbs and butter in a pre-heat featuring the Best Biscuit Nancy Has Ever Had... Then it's off to art school... on the farm? Bakers must whip up painterly cakes featuring scenes from Molly's farm using only a palette knife. Two floating tractors, one tomato fiasco and a Nice Looking Chicken later, and we are one week closer to the finale and crowning our Spring Baking Champion!
Bakers of the world, do we have a sweet Springtime treat for you! Current Spring Baking Championship baker, FBC favorite and Team J.T. superstar Tom Smallwood joins us on the pod to talk about diving, dodgeball, drag, and oh yeah, baking! Come for the behind-the-scenes dish, and stay to find out why he's the friend you need to have (which only PARTLY has to do with baked goods). Everything's coming up Tom!
Follow Tom on Instagram @cheftom_pastry and on Twitter @PastrychefTom
Bakers of the world, grab a cup of milk cause this one’s SPICY. Spring Baking Championship takes us out to the ballgame…to distract us from a main heat that’s so Basic™ y’all burned Twitter to a crisp with hot takes. We’re here for it (and you), with our own salty rage feelings, flying burritos, and other trash bag desserts for the ages. Join us in this dumpster, as we light a fire fueled entirely by cookie salad.
Better late than never! The spring chaos continues as our intrepid bakers tackle Cherry Blossom Season, and your Fantasy Baking Championship hosts fight an ill-timed lawnmower in this festive and floral episode! Cherry blossoms two ways! A schmear of Kindness! The return of the advantage to the pre-heat winner AND the twist! It’s enough to make the bakers (and us) a little misty...
Bakers of the world, we are four episodes in to this season of Spring Baking Championship and the chaos we have come to expect from Spring is being delivered by the basket! A pre-heat that asks our beloved bakers to turn an upside-down cake on its head - wouldn't that be a regular cake? A main heat modern take on a traditional pie - a.k.a. "Jen's Dream Heat"? A pre-heat winner who gets no advantage in the main heat, despite crushing the challenge AND giving us all the feels while doing it?! And, WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH THE MAIN HEAT TWISTS?!?! Grab a slice, embrace the chaos and let's get into it!
Hang on to your tea cart because this one’s a wild ride! And we don’t mean the Spring Baking episode - that one is perfectly civilized and spectacular and features an edible porcelain pineapple teapot that’s so exquisite it makes us want to throw things- no, we’re talking about THIS episode of FBC. Long time listeners, you’re no stranger to our weird back-road car trip detours, but this one really takes the tea cake. We don’t know what happened, but if you’re here SPECIFICALLY to hear us fawn over cookies the size of a steering wheel and outrageous edible tea cups, you have our full permission to fast forward at will. Otherwise, sit down, tighten your seatbelts and keep your arms and legs inside the teacup at all times because this episode is DEFINITELY a Mad Hatter affair!
Camp Devil’s Food Lake is not done with us yet as Halloween Baking Champion Renee Loranger joins us with the gory details of how she hacked and slashed her way to victory with nothing but an icing spatula and a killer instinct! Longtime friends of the pod know that Renee has often popped in to encourage us in our own baking (if you can call it that), and it was a devilish delight getting to dish with her post-victory. The opening of her dream bakery Sugar Pop! What Reality Show is she gunning for NEXT?! Also, BRANDED DRUMSTICKS! Join us for a bloody good time...
Follow Renee on Instagram at @renee_k_loranger
Follow her bakery, Sugar Pop Baking Co. on Instagram @sugar_pop_bakingco
And check out the official site HERE: https://www.sugarpopbakingco.com/
Laissez les bons temps rouler! Host Molly Yeh admits she's butchering Cajun French but letting the good times roll right into the kitchen as the bakers head down to the big easy for some Mardi Gras madness. Our bakers put the fat in Fat Tuesday with King cake inspired treats followed by a boozy parade float cake fit to carry a krewe of Beignets right into our judges' mouths. Is a beignet just a square donut? How much cinnamon is too much cinnamon? Why is there a plastic baby in my cake?? Join us for these questions and more as we welcome a new surprise baker (hello Stephon!) and crown (or rather, ribbon?) this year's Mardi Gras King baker!
