Spring Baking Championship recap: Nicely crafted cakes

With the finale quickly approaching. Spring Baking Championship is pushing the bakers to get crafty and prove that they are worthy of the Food Network crown. While the Spring Board might give a glimpse into the current rankings, each baker is only good as the last bake. Who is blooming at the right time?

For the pre-heat, the bakers had to create skillet desserts that incorporated a tropical fruit. While the idea was to mimic a camping experience, the reality is that skillet desserts make a tasty individual treat. It is almost like the one sheet pan recipe of the dessert world.

This Spring Baking Championship pre-heat challenge really showed which bakers want to win. From pushing flavors to creative plating, not all desserts are created equal.

While it was hard to create a pretty visual with this dessert, Derek pushed the envelope with this decoration. The colors and design mimicked the pineapple theme.

Overall, the judges focused on flavor. It was interesting how some of the desserts had a bitter note. From Chantae’s s’mores skillet with banana to Keya’s kiwi with cornbread, the flavors were slightly off. The bitter notes seemed to leave the judges with a bad taste.

On the other end, Derek’s Mai Tai inspired pineapple skillet made the judges smile. Veruska earned praise for her subtle use of passion fruit. Both bakers seem to be on a roll.

In the end, Derek soared to the top of the Spring Board. After too many close calls on Spring Baking Championship, he was finding his stride once again.

For winning the pre-heat, Derek received a big advantage in the main heat. He received a 10-minute head start for the main heat, a first for this season. That extra 10 minutes was a big advantage for the main heat.

Spring Baking Championship asks the bakers to weave a tasty tale.

In the main heat, the Spring Baking Championship bakers had to take on crafting cakes. While that name sounds unusual, these cakes had to visually represent crafting themes like needle point and quilting. Although flavor is still paramount for the judges, this challenge was mostly about the visual.

Even this challenge’s twist was about the visual. Adding a signature to the cake was almost a throwaway. Didn’t the bakers have to do something like this before (or maybe that was a previous season)?

Overall, the cakes were quite impressive. Given the amount of detail required for these crafting cakes, the bakers really shined. From Veruska’s knitting to Derek’s needlework, it was clear that everyone had hand cramps at the end of this challenge.

Even though the visual was the showpiece, the flavors either made or broke the bakers on Spring Baking Championship. Derek was smart to prove to the judges that he can make a tasty berry filling. He definitely redeemed himself.

Although Duff Goldman thought that the coconut flavor was a little artificial, Derek was clearly a top baker. This cake was his big comeback. After two bottom finishes, he is proving that he wants to earn the Spring Baking Championship title.

Veruska also impressed the judges. As Kardea Brown said, Veruska’s cake was Nancy Fuller in a bite. The outside was sweet and lovely, and the inside was a bit pop of flavor. The chocolate with port cherries was rich yet light at the same time. It was a huge hit.

Winning this main heat was Derek. It was good to see him back on top, but he cannot let a silly mistake cause another slip.

Similar to Derek’s fate from the past couple of episodes, Keya fell to the bottom this week. Although the judges appreciated the detail on her cake, there was a bitter flavor in her cake. Also, her cake was a little too moist.

Chantae was the other bottom baker. Unfortunately her cake faltered both on the visual and the flavor. The crochet didn’t really look like the theme. It needed more detail.

Also, Chantae had some bitter flavors in her cake. While Carla Hall likes a good pucker, Nancy Fuller would prefer a little less tart.

The baker eliminated in this Spring Baking Championship episode was Chantae. Compared to the other bakers, her cake didn’t earn the blue ribbon.

Going into the semi-finals, these bakers better stay focuses. Who will get their ticket punched for the finale?