Summer Baking Championship episode 2: Opportunities melt away

While the Summer Baking Championship premiere had some bakers sinking into those gelatin waters, Summer Baking Championship episode 2 looked to bring a chilly diversion to the table. With ice cream sandwiches and frozen dessert inspired treats, the summer heat felt a little more bearable.

As a new Food Network baking competition begins its season, it is hard to see where the bakers fall. Some soar to the top with creative takes on the challenges and others try to manage the middle. While no one wants to be on the bottom, it might be permissible to skirt the middle.

For the Summer Baking Championship episode 2 Pre-Heat, the bakers had to create an ice cream sandwich. The cookie portion of the dessert needed to have an inlaid design. Also, the bakers had to create custom ice cream from scratch.

Although there were some good desserts, it appeared that many of the ice creams were a melting mess. It seemed that the judges needed a spoon and a napkin to enjoy these offerings. It is unclear whether the kitchen was too hot or there was a technical issue.

Also, some of the cookies were too hard. Whether it is too much butter in the cookie or too thick, the simple errors cannot be overlooked later in the competition.

Still, a few bakers impressed the judges. Yohann, a top baker from the first episode, impressed with his triangle design. That type of innovation will get the judges’ praise.

The top pre-heat ice cream sandwich was Kyle’s lemon macaron offering. The judges praised that it presented a perfect bite. The flavor combination of lemon and pistachio was bright and refreshing. Most importantly, it received the first “dude” of the season from Carla Hall.

For winning the pre-heat, Kyle received an advantage in the Main Heat. In the Main Heat challenge, the bakers had to take classic frozen treats and transform them into ice cream truck confection desserts. Each one had to have an ice cream component in the dessert.

The twist for the Main Heat was that the bakers needed to use a snow cone syrup flavor in the dessert. Kyle’s advantage was that he was able to choose his snow cone syrup flavor. Similar to the first Summer Baking Championship advantage, it was very helpful in the final outcome.

The top bakers in Summer Baking Championship episode 2 were John and Kyle. It was the second time that John earned high praise. In this case, his ability to mimic that store bought ice cream cake was just what the judges wanted. It was bright, cheery, and quite delightful.

Kyle impressed with his rolled cake. More importantly, his use of the twist was perfect. The blue raspberry gel matched the flavors of the raspberry yogurt dessert. From a technical standpoint, it was superb and the flavors were divine. Kyle earned the win. In an unusual event, he was a double winner on this Food Network show.

Unfortunately, the two bottom bakers had major issues. It was clear that the bakers did not succeed in creating the elevated ice cream truck desserts. Christina and Alyssa were the two bottom bakers.

In the previous episode, Alyssa was on top. Unfortunately, her éclair was a technical miss. The melting ice cream and fallen éclair was not impressive. But, she did use the twist well.

Unfortunately, Christina had several issues. Beyond the unappealing visual, the dessert did not have the cola flavor and the cake texture was off. In addition, the caramel had an unpleasant texture. There were few positive aspects to this dessert.

Christina was the baker eliminated in the Summer Baking Championship episode 2. Which bakers will rise to the occasion in the next episode? Tune into Food Network Mondays at 9 p.m. or stream on discovery+ for new episodes.