Spring Baking Championship Southern dessert bake-overs were sweet perfection

Did you watch the Spring Baking Championship Southern dessert bake-overs episode? This week’s episode was filled with all types of surprises.

Lord Honey! The Spring Baking Championship Southern dessert bake-overs episode was a definite sweet treat. With a few surprises along the way, this week’s episode offered a lot of Spring baking inspiration for the home baker.

For the pre-heat, the talented professional bakers took a step back from all the elevated French desserts and complicated recipes. Could these bakers transform canned biscuit dough into a picture perfect dessert? This challenge is definitely a lesson for any at home baker.

Who hasn’t had canned biscuit dough? Sure that can might not taste as great as homemade biscuits, but it can be used in many ways. Watching these bakers transform that convenient item into something creative is quite inspirational.

Since just transforming canned biscuit dough isn’t enough for these bakers, they had to incorporate some other Southern favorite beverages, sweet tea, lemonade and bourbon. Of course, everyone wanted bourbon. That beverage held the most possibilities.

Looking at the majority of desserts, the bakers wanted to roll out the biscuit dough as thin as possible. It seemed that everyone wanted to change the overall texture of the canned dough. The goal was to make it thin and crispy.

While the bakers did have to use the Southern beverages, those ingredients seemed to take a back seat to the biscuit dough. It would have been nice to see something a little more creative with those flavors. Truthfully, only one baker really found a creative way to incorporate his beverage.

While Saber (aka Kitchen Ninja) created superb peach bourbon cream horns, Cory’s tart was the shining star. His thin layered tart with chocolate tea filling was sublime. The tea flavor (with additional tea flavors) really came through. Plus, his flower stencil made it very Spring-like.

For winning the pre-heat, Cory got an advantage in the main heat. Continuing the Spring Baking Championship Southern bake-over trend, the main heat had the bakers giving cake-overs to classic Southern cakes. The idea was to lighten up these sometimes rich, decadent desserts.

Spring Baking Championship fans got a huge surprise when Cory’s advantage was revealed, Jason Smith. The ultimate Southern baker would be providing Cory with some help during the challenge (10 minutes of help to be exact).

Jason, with his vivacious personality and colorful jackets, is always a fun addition to any Food Network program. While there was only one Lord Honey reference, it is refreshing to see him on the Food Network.

In a way, Cory didn’t really use his advantage well. Jason tried to share some advice about Hummingbird cake flavors (Cory’s cake flavor) but Cory didn’t really seem interested. Having Jason prep pineapple and bananas seemed like a waste. It is curious that Cory didn’t have a different plan to use his advantage more wisely.

Overall, looking at this cake-over challenge, the bakers didn’t really seem to push themselves. While the challenge was to lighten up the traditionally heavier cakes, the desserts seemed more make under than make over.

Even the end of challenge twist didn’t seem to rattle the bakers. Some of the twist ingredients (like molasses and apple butter) didn’t push the bakers or make them pull something exciting out of thin air. Given that all the bakers are professionals (the home baker was eliminated a couple of episodes prior), it would be nice to see how these bakers can handle a difficult twist.

The most surprising element to this week’s episode was Tracy’s status. She had to make over a tunnel of fudge cake. While the judges adored her chocolate cake (considered one of the best chocolate cakes in the competition), she forgot her twist ingredient (molasses covered walnuts).

Even with this omission, Tracy was safe. It seems that completely omitting a required ingredient should have landed her in the bottom. After last week’s debacles in both challenges, it seems that Tracy continues to make into the next round. She must have some special baking magic in her mixer.

The top two bakers were somewhat surprising. Ricardo had a flaw in his chocolate cakes. While he could remove them from the pan, the cakes, themselves, had divots. There was no way that this bake was intentional. Making that statement was just silly and the judges should have called him on it more.

Additionally, his desserts did not really convey Spring. Apple butter, chocolate and raspberries could be a fall dessert. This dessert shouldn’t have been a top two.

Saber’s dessert was a visually beautiful French inspired take on a red velvet cake. Also, he used his twist ingredient well (the sesame twill was smart). Still, nothing was said about him using liquid nitrogen to flash freeze the cake.

While a blast chiller will bring the temperature down, it is different than pouring liquid nitrogen on the cake. How did the judges not notice the texture change?

Still, Saber won the cake-over challenge. It could have been the stunning cake that he made. Still, Cory’s cake was equally as pretty, actually more Spring-like in color and presentation. The problem with Cory’s cake was that the judges disagreed over the spices or lack thereof.

Even though Tracy forgot her walnuts, she wasn’t a bottom baker. The two bottom bakers were Jordan and Marqessa. Marqessa committed the quintessential Food Network Baking Championship error, using an extract. Haven’t these bakers learned from previous season? Extracts are always a definite no.

Marqessa had a lovely decorated coconut cake. She was able to lighten the flavors without losing the concept of a coconut cake. Unfortunately her icing (with that rum extract) was a problem.

Jordan’s take on a Lane Cake was far removed from the traditional recipe. While the concept was to lighten up this traditional Southern cake, she made too many changes. The cake strayed too far from the original cake itself. Additionally, her cream that included her twist ingredient (pepper jelly) was too gritty.

Jordan was the baker sent home. Her cake transformation was a little too different from the original Lane cake. Also, her plate decoration was a little too bland in comparison to the other bakers.

With Spring Baking Championship Southern bake-overs in the books, the bakers move onto Easter bonnets next week. Who do you think will make the picture perfect Easter creation?