Spring Baking Championship recap: Romance on the rocks

Before the wedding bells ring, Spring Baking Championship looks to spark some romance in the Food Network kitchen. While Valentine’s Day might be a memory, the Food Network is looking to propose a beautiful union. In this team challenge, the “I dos” better not end in an “I don’t.”

When the Spring Baking Championship tackles a team challenge, there are usually both highs and lows in that challenge. Truthfully, it comes down to the compatibility with the bakers. If both bakers have the same vision, they can stroll into the next challenge. For the bakers who lack chemistry, the end might be near.

For the first challenge, the teams had to create proposal desserts. While no one had to hide a ring on the plate, the matches may not have been made in Spring Baking heaven.

Since Natalie won the last episode challenge, she was able to pick her partner as well as assign the other teams. Given this big power play, it is interesting that she didn’t choose more strategically. Granted picking Derek as her partner was smart, but she could have paired the other bakers differently.

Unfortunately, Natalie’s advantage did leave to a happily ever after. By forgetting to remove the seeds from her blackberry compote, her team fell with the bottom of the Spring Board.

In an unexpected turn, Jamal and Chiantae put a ring on the pre-heat win. Their angel food cake rings with chocolate and raspberry wowed the judges. Not only did the visual convey a proposal, their flavors were swoon worthy.

For winning the pre-heat, Jahmal and Chiantae were able to re-organize the teams. Of course, they decided to break up the team of Derek and Natalie. Derek became partners with Madiha and Natalie became partners with Keya.

In the main heat, the teams had to create a wedding cake. But, nothing is that simple on Spring Baking Championship. Since love is blind, the bakers had to create half of a wedding cake and they couldn’t see each other’s creation. To say that this challenge was difficult is an understatement.

Throughout Spring Baking Championship Season 7, the challenges have been more demanding. From unusual flavors and ingredients to this blind wedding cake challenge, the bakers might not have realized that achieving Food Network glory would come at such a high cost.

Although the two wedding cake halves do not have to be identical in flavor and decoration, they need to look like they go together. The wedding cake themes included tropical opulence, desert chic, bohemian, and mystical.

Given the final results, all the teams did quite well. How Derek and Mediha almost perfectly matched their fondant colors was definitely mystical Either they are expert communicators or there was a hole in that screen. Even Keya recovered from her Food Network kitchen mishap.

Even with the twist of an aphrodisiac ingredient, the bakers’ wedding cake flavors were on point. Bright flavors with a nod to theme were clear in all but one cake.

Unfortunately, Stephanie and Veruska missed a huge opportunity with their Tropical Opulence cake. While the flowers and greens had a lush feel, the flavors had nothing to do with tropical.

With a multitude of tropical fruit flavors to choose from, Stephanie and Veruska should not have chosen mixed berries. From pineapple to guava to even passion fruit, the tropical fruit options are many. Unfortunately, their stroll to happily ever after was marred by that big flavor obstacle.

In an unexpected result, Stephanie was eliminated from Spring Baking Championship. Similar to last episodes elimination of Laurent, no one would have guessed that Stephanie would go out on a wedding cake challenge. The judges felt that the cake was missing fig. The flavors might be spring forward, but there was no tropical filling or fig.

Although many people might disagree with this week’s elimination, it seems that this season might have a jinx in the kitchen. Similar to other cooking shows that might have a bad station, the bakers might be falling under a similar fate. Could another upset happen in the next episode?

What do you think of this week’s Spring Baking Championship episode? Do you think that the judges made the wrong decision?