Spring Baking Championship Season 9 episode 5 celebrates love in the outdoors

As Spring Baking Championship hits the halfway mark of the Food Network baking competition, some bakers have bloomed with success. Jai, Molly, and Luke all have multiple wins. At the same time, other bakers have skirted the middle. With only a few more challenges before the finale, it is time to grow that success. In Spring Baking Championship Season 9 episode 5, love is in the air and it is time to head outdoors to celebrate with mirror glazes and croquembouche.

The love theme has been woven into every challenge this season. With these two bakes, the theme of love in the outdoors goes from night to day. While the colors can be enticing, the execution left the judges feeling a little less impressed.

In the Spring Baking Championship Season 9 episode 5 pre-heat, the bakers looked to the sky for colorful inspiration. While the bakers could use any flavor, their mini or one large mousse cake needs to be both visually and flavor impressive.

For the most part, the cakes looked the part. Unfortunately, Josh had a big technical error with his mirror glaze. Instead of a lovely, thin glaze, it was a goopy, sticky mess. He knew that it was wrong, but there was no time to fix the mistake. It is unfortunate because his flavors were good.

Everyone expected Clement would do well. His dessert had intense strawberry flavor and the design was simple and neat. When the challenge steps away from decorated cakes, Clement shines.

But, the big winner was Christian. Given that he pushes himself with creative designs and flavor combinations, the desserts are either huge wins or slightly less successful offerings.

With his mousse cake, the space design was out of this world. The colors, sugar work, and visual was one that anyone would happily place on the center of the table. More importantly, his mousse cake had a lovely contrast in textures. The guava mango mousse was airy yet had body. It was clearly a big win.

For winning the pre-heat, Christian was able to pick his partner for the main heat challenge. He picked Molly. While some people might have thought he would have picked a baker who was doing well, not struggling, in recent challenges, Christian had a reason. It was because Molly would allow him to push the design, and potentially flavor, elements of this challenge.

As a team challenge, the main heat required the bakers to create a croquembouche spring trellis with flower macarons. The croquembouche was a team effort, but the macarons were judged individually.

Sometimes a croquembouche challenge on Spring Baking Championship can be a less than successful endeavor. In Spring Baking Championship Season 9 episode 5, there were few errors with that pate a choux. Overall, nothing fell apart, had horrible pastry, or less than flavorful filling. It was the macarons that causes the bakers’ downfall.

Overall, the visuals were impressive. Christian and Molly turned the trellis upside down for an under the water idea. It was pretty and stood out in the crowd.

Jai and Jessica needed brighter colors, but it was nice. Josh and Luke had lovely sugar art to create vines on their trellis. Overall, they were quite pretty.

Even the cream puffs had that nice crunch contrasted with the luscious cream. Even though everyone one had a creative take, one design and flavor had everyone swooning.

The Spring Baking Championship Season 9 episode 5 top team was Clement and April. The delicate flowers covering the whole piece looked like a spring wedding. From the wonderful choux to the vibrant cracklin to the intense raspberry flavor, it impressed the judges immensely.

In addition, their macarons were quite good. April won as a individual for her macaron. Nancy Fuller said that rose and pistachio macaron was simply the best. It had a delicate balance of flavors and the perfect texture.

Unfortunately, two bakers had big mistakes with their macarons. Molly, after doing well in the first couple of challenges, had a big technical problem with her macarons. While she made the cookie twice, both times it was wrong. Her cookie was very hard. Luckily, no one broke a tooth. Even though the design looked pretty, it should have stayed on the shelf just to be viewed.

Jessica had an error, too. Her filling had a grainy texture because it was broken. By adding strawberry puree, the moisture was off, and the filling was unpleasant.

The judges had to choose between a crunchy macaron and a broken filling. They chose to eliminate Jessica’s broken filling. Molly survives to bake another day.

Spring Baking Championship Season 9 episode 5 might have had pretty visuals that made people swoon, but the technical errors left viewers feeling a little less in love. At this point in the competition, the mistakes will get bakers sent home.

Although it is impossible to predict a potential winner and previous success does not guarantee a place in the finale, the last couple of challenges should make for great Food Network television.

Who will walk away with the Spring Baking Championship title? Watch new episodes Monday nights at 8 p.m. on Food Network or stream on discovery+.