Spring Baking Championship Season 7 episode 1: Boogie with the bovines

In Spring Baking Championship Season 7 episode 1, the 11 new bakers are ready to sow the seeds to sweet victory. While the judges, Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Kardea Brown are looking for spring flavors and delicious delights, the bakers cannot expect an easy stroll through the Food Network kitchen. Not everything will be coming up roses this time around.

Usually, the first challenge is difficult for the bakers. Although the task at hand might be straightforward, everyone struggles to find their way. From understanding the judges’ preferences to learning the ropes in the kitchen, Spring Baking Championship isn’t always as sweet as it seems.

For the first challenge, the bakers had to incorporate some farm stand ingredients into their breakfast treat. While everyone might like a carrot cake muffin, parsnips are not often dessert ingredients. Still, these bakers should be able to incorporate any ingredient and make a delicious breakfast treat.

Since there are 11 bakers starting this competition, it is hard to determine who is and is not a potential top baker. The bigger take away from the first episode is that the bakers are not afraid to bring new flavor combinations to the table. As Ali Khan shared, global flavors have found their way to Spring Baking Championship.

From Jamaican flavors to Indian ingredients, the first challenge seemed to have been picking from a global farm stand. In a way, it was nice to see a variety of desserts on the judging table.

The biggest takeaway from the pre-heat was that the bakers impressed the judges. Although a few bakers had errors, like greasy doughnuts and no glaze, the majority of bakers had good first bakes. Overall, these vegetable breakfast treats were quite tasty. Maybe these breakfast treats could inspire people to eat more vegetables.

Similar to the Holiday Baking Championship, the infamous ranking list is back. While the bakers can see where they fall, it is a fun way for Food Network fans to watch over the season. Sometimes the best bakers in the beginning might not be on top of the leaderboard in the final episode.

Winning the first pre-heat of Spring Baking Championship Season 7 was Veruska. For her advantage, she was able to choose her special ingredient for the main heat challenge and no other baker can use that milk in the main heat challenge. Veruska picked coconut milk and many bakers were not happy.

Why are there dancing cows on Spring Baking Championship?

While make people are happy with spring arrives, cows are especially happy. As explained during the episode, cows get really excited when they can return to the pasture after the long winter. Whether or not the cows dance is a matter of interpretation.

For the main heat, the bakers had to create dessert featuring a particular milk and incorporate dancing cows into the decoration. While the various milks were a challenge, the artistic interpretations of cows proves that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. No one was expecting a cow dancing on a pole. Still, everyone could feel the spirit of the dancing cows even if the dessert were not having the judges jump up from the table.

Of course, there is always one baker who hits it out of the park and another baker who has an epic fail. Although no one wants to see those falling cakes, broken icings and other issues, the bakers are not always perfect. Unfortunately, there is no do over on Spring Baking Championship.

Still, the most “mooving” dessert in this Spring Baking Championship was from Derek. From the flavor of his raw milk cake with strawberries to the dancing Scottish cow decoration, his cake was utterly delicious in every way. He soared to the top of the Spring Board.

Unfortunately, two bakers were delegated to the back of the barn. Mediha had issues with her flavor. The addition of the almond extract in her icing made for a pungent almond flavor. As seen in previous Food Network baking competitions, the judges do not like the flavor extracts. It might be wise to leave these ingredients out of the mixing bowl.

Additionally, Dayron was a bottom baker. While the tipsy cow might have caught everyone’s attention, the oat milk cake seemed to be missing oat flavor. Even though the cake was ambitious, there were too many flavors in the cake. Overall, the cake needed more cake. It was a ratio issue.

In the end, Dayron and his dancing cow took their last fling around the dance floor. Maybe if there was more cake to balance all the liquid, the cow and cake wouldn’t have been so tipsy.

Based on this first Spring Baking Championship episode, it is clear that these bakers are going big in this season. From decorations to flavors, Food Network fans should expect some exciting desserts.

What did you think of the first Spring Baking Championship episode? Did the judges make the right decision?