Spring Baking Championship Season 4 episode 4: It’s an egg-stravaganza

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. This week’s Spring Baking Championship features eggs in all the delicious baked goods.

When it comes to baking, certain ingredients are a must. Eggs are a central ingredient in many baking recipes. In this Spring Baking Championship episode, the bakers need to make the incredible, edible egg even better.

The judges examine contestant Christina’s dish from the main heat challenge, as seen on Food Network’s Spring Baking Championship Season 4

In the pre-heat challenge, the bakers had a challenge before they even started baking. To find the theme for their spring éclairs, the bakers had to find hidden eggs that revealed their éclair themes. Unfortunately, the egg hunt seemed to frazzle the bakers a little.

An éclair is made from pate a choux. For a few bakers, the pate a choux was more flat a choux. What should have been a fairly straightforward challenge was more complicated by the technical issues.

Overall the éclair flavors were good. From bright lemon to cherry, all the éclairs seemed quite tasty. The biggest difference between the bakers came from the decorations. Only one baker had the prettiest éclairs.

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Cristina’s éclairs were hands down the prettiest spring éclairs. The pale pink colors with little flowers were picture perfect. While Nacho’s rainbow éclairs were cute, those treats couldn’t outshine Cristina’s éclairs. She won the pre-heat.

This pre-heat win was Cristina’s third pre-heat win. She seems to have the magic touch when it comes to winning pre-heat challenges. It seems that her decorations give her the edge in these challenges. But, those early wins haven’t given her success in the main heat.

Judge Lorraine Pascale examines contestant Nacho’s dish in the pre-heat challenge, as seen on Food Network’s Spring Baking Championship Season 4

For the main heat, the bakers had to make edible baskets with two baked treats in the baskets. The twist was that the bakers had to use hard boiled eggs in one of the baked, sweet treats. Sorry, no savory baked goods (that’s right no scotch eggs). Cristina’s advantage was that she didn’t have to incorporate hard boiled eggs.

Since the main heat always has a mid-challenge twist, this basket challenge twist was a little disappointing. The bakers had to use a flavored jelly bean in their baked treats. Bakers who choose jelly bean flavors wisely definitely had an advantage with this twist.

Host Ali Khan announces the main heat challenge, as seen on Food Network’s Spring Baking Championship Season 4

As the winner of the pre-heat, Cristina’s lady finger basket was pretty. Her decorations are always on point. The concept was a smart choice. Still, she had a few technical flaws in her baked treats. While it was a decent basket, it wasn’t the best basket of the group.

With Nacho, who can’t help but route for him? His smile is infectious and you can’t help but laugh when he says “fluffy.” Nacho’s basket didn’t disappoint. The white chocolate basket with colorful cookies looked like spring. Using balloons as a basket mold was smart (he was fortunate that they didn’t break).

Also, Nacho used both the hard-boiled egg and jelly bean twist well. The cinnamon jelly beans worked well with the Mexican wedding cookies. His coconut macaroons had a great texture, too. Nacho was a top baker. Could he make it as far as his wife did in Spring Baking Championship Season 2?

The judges examine contestant Nacho’s completed dish from the main heat challenge, as seen on Food Network’s Spring Baking Championship Season 4

The most impressive basket of this week’s Spring Baking Championship was Caleb’s waffle basket. When Judge Duff lifted the whole basket and it didn’t break, that basket was functional, smart and tasty. Other bakers should have thought of a waffle basket.

Caleb’s basket wasn’t just impressive because of the basket itself but also his treats inside it. The blondies with egg yolk butter cream was creative. The flavors worked but also incorporated the hard-boiled egg. Also, his blueberry crumble using the jelly beans was a smart choice. Although the crust was under-baked, it was a good dessert.

For the second week in a row, Caleb won this episode of Spring Baking Championship. Caleb does well with the main heat challenges because he can show his creative side. While he may not have the decorating prowess like Cristina, his flavors and desserts seem to be on point. Which do the judges’ value more, flavor or decoration? Shouldn’t the winning baker have both?

Unfortunately, two bakers had bad days in the kitchen on this week’s Spring Baking Championship. Heather’s problems started with her baskets. After forgetting to grease her pans, her first basket was unusable. While she was able to get a substitute basket on the plate, the dessert was very sad.

Jessica found herself in a familiar position, the bottom two bakers. Overall, Jessica seems to lack the confidence in the kitchen. A few tweaks to her desserts could make them amazing. Unfortunately, technical mistakes and poor decorations continue to be her downfall.

In this week’s challenge, Jessica’s pie dough basket was under-baked. Also, her brownies were dry and the meringues were under-baked. These multiple technical mistakes couldn’t be overlooked. With no pretty spring decorations either, it was Jessica’s time to go home.

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Truthfully, Jessica had many opportunities in this season’s Spring Baking Championship. She had been in the bottle several times. Deciding between one bad bake by Heather and multiple weeks in the bottom, it was clear that Jessica should have been the one sent home.

Looking at this week’s challenge, what can the home baker take from these challenges? While most home bakers probably won’t use hard-boiled eggs in a baked treat, it could inspire some creativity in the kitchen. Who doesn’t have a bunch of hard boiled eggs left over from Easter? Maybe those eggs could be used in something other than egg salad sandwiches.

What would have been nice in this week’s Spring Baking Championship was a better description of pate a choux. That recipe could be quite helpful for any home baker. From éclairs to cream puffs, that recipe is the basis for many baked treats. Maybe Food Network could have had a little how-to video or social media link to help the home baker make this recipe.

Another episode of Spring Baking Championship Season 4 has come to a close. Have a few top bakers emerged? Maybe, but each baker is only as good as his last bake. Do you have a favorite baker this season and do you think that he will win?

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