Holiday Baking Championship premiere: Who made the naughty list?

Holiday Baking Championship premiere was a mix of naughty and nice.

For Food Network fans, the Holiday Baking Championship premiere was the holiday treat that they were craving. The holiday table was filled with the holiday spirit as Duff Goldman, Nancy Fuller and new judge Carla Hall joined Jesse Palmer to sample all these tasty holiday baking confections. But, who missed out on all the holiday fun?

As the new Holiday Baking Championship season kicked off, a few changes were coming to the Food Network baking competition. Like the most recent Halloween Baking Championship, this baking competition added a few more twists. The biggest is the naughty or nice list.

While each baker is only as good as the last bake, the naughty or nice list ranks all the bakers based on the challenge. It will be unclear to see if there will be big fluctuations in the rankings. Many times, bakers who have struggled in the beginning have made it to the end.

For the pre-heat challenge, there was a big lump of coal waiting for one baker. The baker on the bottom of the naughty list would leave the Food Network competition on the Holiday Baking Championship premiere first challenge. It is not the holiday welcome that everyone was expecting.

Since Food Network often tries to incorporate baking trends into its food themes, the first pre-heat focuses on quick breads. While many people have enjoyed baking bread in their home kitchens, a quick bread does not have yeast as a leavening agent. Basically, a banana bread (or other loaf) is a quick bread.

After getting their assigned flavors, the bakers had to make quick bread wreaths for the Holiday Baking Championship premiere pre-heat. Most of the flavors were traditional. Who doesn’t like orange and cranberry during the holidays?

While this pre-heat challenge was quick bread wreath, it was more of a plate of little mini-bundt cakes. Some bakers were more successful with the “wreath” than others. Then again, flavor is always the most important factor.

For the most part, this Holiday Baking Championship pre-heat really gave a glimpse into each baker. From the decorating skills to the execution, this quick bread challenge was more than just one tasty bite.

Overall, the majority of bakers hit all the right flavor notes. There were a few questionable choices, and some flavors didn’t come through as much. The opposite was true, too. Just because Nancy loves her bourbon, doesn’t mean that the icing needs to taste like a shot of liquor.

The top two bakers, Kess and Megan, succeeded in both flavor and decoration. Kess made an apple cinnamon quick bread that made all the judges swoon. It had amazing texture and the apple and cinnamon were well balanced.

Megan nailed the decoration. It looked like a real wreath and the orange chocolate flavor came through with the candied orange and chocolate chips. It was a big hit.

In the end only one baker could win and Jess took the first Holiday Baking Championship premiere win of the season.

Unfortunately, the two bottom bakers were Jon and Jonanthan. Jon seemed to have a quick bread, but the judges thought that there was too much liquor in the icing. Icing shots were not part of the challenge.

Jonathan had a big baking error. He knew that the texture was off during the bake. The quick bread was more like a biscuit.

Due to that technical baking error, Jonathan was on the bottom of the naughty list. He was the first baker sent home from Holiday Baking Championship Season 7.

For the next challenge, the bakers had to create winter hat cakes. The cakes could be any flavor, but they needed to look like the bakers’ hat. This challenge was not as easy as it seemed.

In addition, there was a mid-challenge twist. The bakers had to include their name, embroidered on the hat.

This challenge was both a flavor and a decoration challenge. While flavor is always the most important part, these cakes needed to look like the winter hats. Even with a few liberties, the judges needed to see the connection.

While many of the bakers delivered on flavor, the winter hat appearance was lacking. Megan and Lorenzo were the top bakers. Both cakes had great flavor. More importantly, those cakes looked like the hats. The connection was clear.

Given that Megan’s cake looked the most like her hat and her snickerdoodle got a “dude” from Carla, she was named the winner. With two top places, Megan looks to be a top contender in Holiday Baking Championship.

Unfortunately, the bottom two bakers were Lashonda and Kristina. Both cakes had decoration issues. Lashonda’s reindeer cake looked like it did not make Santa’s A-team. It was a little broken.

Kristina’s turkey cake looked like a raw chicken. A little coloring could go a long way. Plus, no one could understand her name.

Additionally, both cakes had technical issues. Lashonda’s cake was missing the texture from the pretzels. They seemed to have dissolved into the ganache. Kristina’s cake seemed under-baked. The judges do not want to taste flour in a cake.

Like the uncooked coloring from her hat’s decoration, Kristina’s time in the Holiday Baking Championship would be cut short. Kristina was sent home.

Based on the Holiday Baking Championship premiere, this season is going to be a good one. From the amazing flavors to the creative decorating, it will be interesting to see what the future challenges hold.

What did you think of the Holiday Baking Championship premiere? Would you make any of these holiday treats?