Spring Baking Championship review: Easter bonnets are picture perfect

In this week’s Spring Baking Championship review, the bakers went from ooey gooey treats to picture perfect Easter bonnets.

Is your Easter bonnet ready? This week’s Spring Baking Championship was bursting with colorful Spring treats. While this week’s episode might have had a few sticky situations, these bakers are definitely rising to the occasion. But, did one favorite baker have a precarious mis-step?

For this week’s Spring Baking Championship’s episode pre-heat, the bakers needed to create colorful marshmallow treats. While the colorful aspect wasn’t the difficult part, the marshmallow, itself, proved to be a little extra sticky.

The key to making a good homemade marshmallow is the sugar temperature. If the temperature fluctuates too much, the texture will be off. The key is to have a smooth, luscious texture that almost melts in your mouth.

For the most part, these bakers made great marshmallows. Truthfully, fans should take some notes during this pre-heat. Making marshmallows isn’t too difficult. When you taste a real one, you might never go back to those bagged or boxed varieties.

Still, there were a few mis-steps in the pre-heat. In this week’s episode, Duff made a reference never before heard on a baking championship episode. He compared Cory’s orange colored (really brown) granola krispy treat to pub cheese or pimento cheese. While everyone had a good laugh, it was a sad, sad plate.

Cory wasn’t necessarily alone in the poor decorative choices route. Saber’s chicks look more abstract than real. Marqessa’s mint green, grasshopper-esqe treats were a plated disaster. In some cases, the pre-heat desserts should have been eaten with their eyes closed.

Winning the pre-heat was Karina. It was abundantly clear that she would win this challenge. Her blueberry macaron with marshmallow and fudge center was divine. It was a Spring vision and extremely tasty.

For winning the pre-heat, she received a huge advantage in the main heat. She was able to assign the flavors to all the bakers in the main heat.

It was interesting that Karina didn’t try to use this advantage more strategically. She didn’t target hard flavors on the more successful bakers. Maybe this season’s competition is friendlier that people realized.

For the main heat, the bakers must make Easter bonnets featuring a particular tropical fruit flavor. In some cases, the bakers went for one big bonnet and a couple bakers went for smaller versions. But, did all the bakers create a beautiful Easter bonnet worthy of the holiday?

Looking at the various tropical flavors, all the bakers handled the flavors well. In previous seasons, a few home bakers might have be thrown by lychee or kiwi. This week, all the flavors were balance.

Even with the added twist of malted milk balls, these bakers achieved good flavors and balance in the final products. Since everyone left in the competition is a professional baker, those skills seem to be coming through loud and clear.

Like previous weeks, Saber was in the top, again. The French pastry chef seems to be able to create both plated desserts and these larger decorative pieces equally as well. His Easter bonnet was delightful and beautiful. The little nest was a cute touch.

With his flavor, key lime, Saber was able to find the right balance of tart. The lime was bright yet not overwhelming. He definitely deserved to be in the top.

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The other top baker was Karina. After winning the pre-heat, it was good to see Karina on top again. After finding herself in the middle this season, these two challenges were her breakout moments.

Her delicate pink bonnets featuring lychee were enchanting. She ensured that every detail was perfection, including the expert mirror glaze.

More importantly, her flavors were on point. The lychee had just the right amount of sweetness. Additionally, it was balanced nicely with the malted chocolate.

Karina won the main heat. As the double winner this week, could Karina be on a role in Spring Baking Championship?

One confusing aspect to this week’s judging was Tracy getting another pass. In previous episodes, Tracy has had a few mis-steps. This week’s challenges were the same.

In the pre-heat, her bold, almost overwhelmingly pink marshmallow desserts bordered on tacky. For the main heat, she had almost the same color issue. While her use of a bundt cake was somewhat clever, her dessert just was lacking.

To the observer, Tracy doesn’t seem engaged in this competition. Each week it seems like she is just doing enough but there is always something missing. Yes, last week’s chocolate cake was delicious, but she forgot the twist ingredient. Can Tracy put together one solid bake?

In a big turn of events, the bottom two bakers were Ricardo and Marqessa. Ricardo has been impressing the judges week after week. Unfortunately, his Easter bonnet was definitely a look that would get people talking, but not in a good way.

The judges compared his Easter bonnet to a garden salad. The pieces of cake (aka moss), red roses and yellow bunny embellishment was almost garish. This decorative bonnet might look better if the bunny hopped on it.

What Ricardo didn’t deliver in the visual, he made up for in taste. The pineapple flavor was sublime. With the hint of malted chocolate, the judges were impressed with his flavors. Again, maybe the judges should have eaten the cake with their eyes closed.

Marqessa had a bad day in the kitchen. While the judges thought her dessert was under-whelming given the two hour bake, they didn’t know about her multiple failed bonnets. In truth, Marqessa was lucky to put a dessert on the plate.

Also, she started the challenge in a negative mindset. She didn’t like kiwi and wasn’t happy to bake with it. That negativity seemed to creep into her whole dessert. In a way, her attitude might have set herself up for a poor bake.

Unfortunately, the baker sent home on this week’s Spring Baking Championship was Marqessa. Although Ricardo’s bonnet was a fashion don’t, his flavors saved him for another day.

Did the judges choose the right bottom bakers? Which baker do you think has the best chance at being named Spring Baking Champion?