Halloween Baking Championship finale: Crowning the queen of glowing treats

By Cristine Struble | Oct 31, 2017

Three bakers enter the kitchen with dreams of winning the Halloween Baking Championship finale. But, only one baker’s treats were sinister and sweet enough for the judges.

This season’s Halloween Baking Championship has had the bakers create all types of spooky, creepy and delicious Halloween treats. But, in the Halloween Baking Championship finale, the bakers found more tricks than treats. Both challenges included a glowing aspect to their finale desserts.

The pre-heat challenge was a huge task for the bakers. Each baker had to create a spooky dessert bar with three different Halloween treats. But, the bigger challenge was to create a centerpiece that glowed in the dark.

Halloween Baking Championship finale, photo from Food Network

Did you know that tonic water glows in the dark? What a fun tip for the home baker. Anyone else looking to try this trick at your next party? From gelatin shots to gelatin molds, everyone can impress their friends with this culinary trick.

The pre-heat challenge proved difficult for the bakers. Creating a cohesive dessert table wasn’t as easy as it sounded. Jasmin’s table had a scary, adult themed table. From the treats to the tablescape, the dessert table had a great appearance. The other bakers’ tables were more friendly and less frightening. While still appealing, the judges wanted more.

Besides the look, the bakers had a few mis-steps with their treats. For example, Jessica’s brownies appeared visually appealing, the taste was less stunning. Even though we eat with our eyes, visuals can’t save a dry brownie.

Halloween Baking Championship finale, photo from Food Network

The winner of the pre-heat was Jasmin. She did the best job of combining appearance and flavor. Jasmin has been on a roll in the competition. While she faltered a little in the beginning, the last couple of episodes had her at the top. She was definitely the baker to beat in the finale.

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For the main heat, the bakers had to create a jack-o-lantern, Halloween themed cake that had a light-up effect in the cake. Basically, the cake had to have some type of lighting effect in or on the cake. This effect is common in some baking competition shows, like Halloween Wars. Usually, the effect is done with sugar. A glowing light can easily be placed behind sugar to create the lighting effect.

As the winner of the pre-heat, Jasmin was able to choose her cake flavor. The other two bakers could not use the same cake flavor for their dessert. Jasmin chose a chocolate cake. Jonathan, king of the chocolate cakes, knew he couldn’t bake another chocolate cake this season. Jasmin’s advantage didn’t seem like such a big advantage.

Halloween Baking Championship finale, photo from Food Network

The main heat was a baking nightmare for Jessica. Her concept of creating a jack-o-lantern out of cake was quite ambitious, especially since her cake was a dense carrot cake. With no supports in the cake itself, the cake came crashing down while in the blast freezer. Even though her chances of winning were unlikely, she still was able to salvage a cake out of the pieces.

Jessica’s cake was a visual nightmare, but the cake tasted quite delicious. Truthfully, the cake was too dense for her particular design. Jessica may not be a cake designer, which is different from being a baker. Cake designers need to know how to place structure in a cake for it to stand tall. If this challenge was based on taste alone, Jessica would have had a great chance of winning.

Halloween Baking Championship finale, photo from Food Network

Jonathan’s cake was quite impressive. His two tiered jack-o-lantern cake looked picture perfect. From the coloring to the smooth fondant, the cake was quite impressive. But, his use of lightning could have been better. A few lights between the layers was a little disappointing.

Jonathan’s cake was a pumpkin spice cake. His flavors were well balanced. The spice notes didn’t overpower the pumpkin flavors. Unfortunately, the baking soda wasn’t well blended into the cake. The judges could taste the baking soda, which is a baking don’t.

Jasmin’s cake was the spookiest cake of the three jack-o-lanterns. Also, her cake had the most decoration. The voodoo themed jack-o-lantern had a hat with tarot cards. The detail on each item was quite impressive.

Halloween Baking Championship finale, photo from Food Network

Since Jasmin had the advantage, she tried to push the flavors of her chocolate cake. The cake was moist and full of chocolate flavor. She used hazelnut in the chocolate buttercream. While not inedible, the chocolate and hazelnut flavors seemed to fight with each other. The flavors needed to be more balanced.

Based on both the pre-heat and the main heat, Jasmin was crowned winner of Halloween Baking Championship. She excelled in baking skills, flavor and decoration. The combination of all those factors earned her the win.

Jasmin won $25,000 and the title. What’s next for the winning baker? Previous Baking Championship winners have gone onto bigger stardom. Jason Smith, the recent winner of Food Network Star, was a previous Baking Championship winner. Maybe we will see Jasmin in another Food Network Show.

Next: Iron Chef returns to Food Network

Want more Baking Championship programming? You don’t have to wait long. The Holiday Baking Championship season starts next week. We will be covering all the sweet treats for the season. Check back next week to read our recap and predictions.

Until then, Happy Halloween and happy baking!