Holiday Baking Championship Season 5 episode 2 recap: Who got stuffed?

In Holiday Baking Championship Season 5 episode 2 recap had the bakers channeling their creativity before feeling totally stuffed by the end of the episode.

Holiday Baking Championship Season 5 episode 2 has everyone feeling a little grateful this week. As the holidays approach, everyone is starting to think about the feasts and festivities that come with the holidays. Of course, dessert is one of the highlights of the holiday season. In this episode, the bakers creative some desserts that could end up on your holiday table.

During the holidays, especially Thanksgiving, pie is a hugely popular dessert. While everyone has a favorite pie, it isn’t always the same for everyone. Is there a solution to this holiday dilemma?

In the pre-heat, the bakers split into four teams of two. Each team had to create four pies on a single sheet pan. While this challenge is a strange idea, it could have a lot of appeal. Why bake four different pies when you could make just one.

Four pies, one sheet pan sounds like one of those food videos. It is one idea that sounds great in theory, but needs some technique expertise to ensure that it is done right. No one wants some pumpkin pie mingled in with chocolate crème.

Judges Lorraine Pascale, Duff Goldman, and Nancy Fuller pose for a photo at the judges table, as seen on Holiday Baking Championship, Season 5. photo provided by Food Network

Thinking about this idea, it sounds like a home baker’s dream. But, the idea is better in theory than in execution. The key to this challenge is a delicious pie crust. If the pie crust isn’t perfection, it is doubt that a team could win.

For the most part, the teams had some good, flakey pie crusts. Big kudos to Sherry for getting redemption on her pie crust. While personally haven’t used vodka in pie crust, the judges enjoyed this pie crust. Maybe the evaporated vodka could make my pie crusts better. Just no sipping while baking or you could forget the pie in the oven.

It was curious that the teams really had varying flavors. I would have thought that the four pies should have had some type of cohesion. Luckily there was no cross over of flavors. That scenario definitely would have spelled disaster.

The judges choose Chantal and Lerone as the winning pair. They thought that the flavors and the pie crust were the best of the group. Unfortunately, Nolan and Julia had under-baked pie crust. Luckily the pre-heat wasn’t an elimination challenge or they could have been sent home.

For winning the pre-heat, Chantal and Lerone were able to choose their ingredient first in the main heat challenge. In this challenge, the bakers had to make stuffed cakes with a seasonal ingredient. While Food Network has done a similar challenge in other shows (remember the candy spilling out of cakes), this challenge is more of a filling.

Most of the filling ingredients were fruit based. This idea seems more like a filling than a stuffing. Even though the middle of the cake tended to be empty, I still think of these cakes as being filled.

Of course, there is always a twist in the main heat. The twist requires that each dessert must have mint. That flavor can be quite difficult. Too little mint and the judges can’t taste it. Too much and the flavor takes over the entire dessert. These bakers needed a deft hand.

Contestant Douglas Phillips discusses his dish with host Jesse Palmer in the pre-heat, as seen on Holiday Baking Championship, Season 5.

Similar to last week, Douglas was in the top. His dessert looked picture perfect. Duff said that it was 95% perfect, just missing a textural element.

Truthfully, this dessert is the one that I would have devoured. The chocolate, cherries and mint made my mouth water. Too bad I didn’t have taste-o-vision on this one.

Still, while my favorite stuffed cake, it wasn’t the winning cake. Chantal’s pear stuffed cake was the winner. By stuffing whole stuffed pears into the cake itself, her cake was the most unusual.

When this cake was sliced, it gave a stunning visual. The cake was equally impressive in flavor. The ginger was spicy, strong and delicious. It was a creative and tasty cake.

Unfortunately, two bakers were on the bottom. Dan’s apple cake was a disappointment. In a last minute scramble he was able to create a stuffed cake. Still, his cake had many flaws. The cake wasn’t moist and there was more sugar than apple flavor. Lastly, the mint didn’t come through in the dessert.

Nolan was also in the bottom. His cherry filled cake had both visual and technical flaws. First, the mint didn’t come through in the flavor. Second, his mousse was too loose. It didn’t set correctly.

Lastly, his cake décor was unfinished. While he tried to make some fondant look like wood panels, they weren’t visually appealing. Also, the scattered leaves weren’t pretty. It looked more sad than festive.

Unfortunately, Nolan was sent home. I think that he just had a bad day in the kitchen. It is unfortunate since last week he seemed to do well. Unlike the home baker where we can just throw away those baking mistakes, Holiday Baking Championship doesn’t overlook a bad day.

What did you think of Holiday Baking Championship Season 5 episode 2 recap? Could one of these desserts end up on your holiday menu?