Halloween Baking Championship recap: Ghastly brains & frightening phobias

By Cristine Struble | Oct 10, 2017

Each week the bakers face new Halloween inspired baking challenges. This Halloween Baking Championship recap conquerors ghastly brains and frightening phobias.

Halloween is the time where the sweetest treats look disturbingly gross. While the taste may be amazing, the appearance is Halloween inspired to the max. This week’s Halloween Baking Championship recap has the bakers create ghastly brains and face frightening phobias.

This season of Halloween Baking Championship hasn’t really pushed the bakers yet. The challenges have been relatively straight forward. The themes aren’t too difficult and the bakers seem quite comfortable. Fans of the show want to see more. Either the desserts need to be super creative or the themes need to be harder.

Halloween Baking Championship recap, episode 3, photo from Food Network

The themes of this episode, ghastly brains and frightening phobias, had great promise. Some of the desserts lived up to the Halloween theme and other desserts fell flat, literally. But, every baker can have a bad day. Although, a bad day on Halloween Baking Championship gets that baker eliminated from the competition.

The pre-heat challenge had baker working in teams of two. The pair had to create a right brain/left brain combined ghastly brain. Not only did the brain need to look scary, but the two “brains” flavors needed to work together too. In this case, two brains may not be better than one.

Before anyone can tackle the decorating aspect, the two brain cakes need to work together. If the flavors oppose each other, the brain won’t work. No amount of cool decoration can save a bad flavor combination.

Halloween Baking Championship recap, episode 3, photo from Food Network

Unfortunately, one team, Jonathan and Tyler, have a major brain meltdown. While their idea to create a baked Alaska was creative, the brain melted before the judges could eat it. The judges got brain soup. It was a major cake fail. Even if they intended brain soup, which they didn’t, they would have been in the bottom.

The winning bakers were Ray and Jasmin. Their cake flavors blended well together. While Jasmin’s cake was overwhelmed by white chocolate, the dual cake combination was the best of the bunch. Plus, their decorative design was impressive. By winning the pre-heat, these two bakers received an advantage in the main heat.

Halloween Baking Championship recap, episode 3, photo from Food Network

For the main heat, each baker had to incorporate a phobia into his dessert. From insects to rats to clowns, the phobias were typical Halloween inspired themes. The bakers seemed to take the easy way out on these desserts. How cool would it have been if the bakers had actually used ground insects in their dessert? This show is the Halloween Baking Championship, not bake next door.

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Of course, each main heat challenge has a twist. The bakers, except for the pre-heat winners, had to incorporate spaghetti “worms” in their dessert. While this twist sounds odd, the ingredient isn’t that too hard to incorporate. The spaghetti can had some crunch to any dessert.

Even though these desserts were meant to be creepy and gross, only one baker really delivered on the frightening phobia theme. Ray’s cockroach cupcake was insane. The look was incredibly creepy, as if the bug was really crawling on the cupcake. Even more gross was the crunch. Each bite sounded like a bug being squished.

Of course, Ray couldn’t win on decoration alone. His cupcake flavors were amazing. Each flavor worked together for a perfectly composed bite. Ray was a top baker.

Halloween Baking Championship recap, episode 3, photo from Food Network

Jonathan’s phobia was snakes. Snakes can make people jump back in fear. But, Jonathan’s cheesecake featuring a snake wrapped around the base was picture perfect. The tres leches cheesecake had decadent flavors, but also incorporated the spaghetti “worms” well. The added crunch offered a great balance. Jonathan won the challenge.

Unfortunately, two bakers were in the bottom. Looking at all the desserts, Jasmin’s clown and Dina’s ghost were obviously on the bottom. Jamsin’s clown was a comedy of errors. Like the clown trying to juggle too many items, this dessert had way too many flavors. It was one big jumble. Plus, her clown collapsed. A fallen clown is just sad, not scary.

Halloween Baking Championship recap, episode 3, photo from Food Network

Dina’s dessert was a nightmare, but not a good scary nightmare. While she tried to use ghost cutters to create the look, her desserts looked like big brown blobs. They could have been rocks (or something stinky). No amount of silver simmer dust could save these decorative disasters.

Beyond sad ghost decoration, the flavors of her chocolate dessert couldn’t save the dessert. The balance was off. Failing in both the flavor and decoration, Dina was sent home.

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While this Halloween Baking Championship recap is over, I’m left wanting more. The bakers seem to be holding back with their desserts. From simplest designs to mediocre flavors, these desserts don’t seem Halloween Baking Championship worthy. Where’s the over the top decorations? Where’s the extreme or creative flavors?

What will next week’s Halloween Baking Championship episode bring? Hopefully something truly Halloween inspired and ghoulishly good.