Halloween Baking Championship - General Discussion

[CrazyInAlabama]

The lady with the gold headband (Maricsa Trejo from RIchardson, TX near Dallas) looked very familiar, but so many of the cheftestants appear on multiple baking competitions, so who knows.  

The winner of the competition receives $25,000, and a trip to America's 10 most haunted hotels.   

(Thanks to Spunkygal for the correction. )  

Edited September 15, 2022 by CrazyInAlabama

[Spunkygal]

1 hour ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

The lady with the gold headband (Maricsa Trejo from San Antonio) looked very familiar, but so many of the cheftestants appear on multiple baking competitions, so who knows.

The winner of the competition receives $25,000, and a trip to America's 10 most haunted hotels.   

Maricsa is from Richardson TX. A suburb of Dallas. She’s a James Beard semi-finalist but I’ve not seen her on any competitions.

Edited September 15, 2022 by Spunkygal

[crazycatlady58]

2 hours ago, Dirtybubble said:

The Halloween version of the baking competition shows are my favorite because of the host John and the judges.  I just adore Carla and I don't think I would watch without her and John on there.   

The bakers, meh.  There seems to be about 48 contestants so I can't remember anyone's name but none of the cakes really stood out for me.  Everyone's knife on the cake just seemed really unprofessional.  I would be mad if I spent $$$ on one of these cakes and got that sloppy decoration.

I am sure if you went to their bakery you would get a beautiful cake. They would have time to do a great job without silly twists and an unrealistic time restraint. 

[Spunkygal]

Maricsa’s bakery is open only on Saturdays and Sundays and the menu changes weekly. Here is this weekend’s menu. I’m in trouble. 

[jcbrown]

4 hours ago, Spunkygal said:

Maricsa is from Richardson TX. A suburb of Dallas. She’s a James Beard semi-finalist but I’ve not seen her on any competitions.

Thank you. I thought she was the one who was introduced as a James Beard semi-finalist but was too lazy to go back and verify. Thought it was funny that one of the home bakers was like, "I've got this even though I have no training!" against a James Beard award nominee. Must be nice to be young and male and overconfident.

[PaulaO]

The emphasis on bloody and gory cake decorations is putting me off.  Do we need a cake decorated with blood splashes?

[Spunkygal]

1 hour ago, PaulaO said:

The emphasis on bloody and gory cake decorations is putting me off.  Do we need a cake decorated with blood splashes?

Yes, yes we do. 

[threebluestars]

On the Halloween Baking Championship I better see blood cakes.

And corpses, and mummies and vampires and ghosts and all manners of Halloween things. Bring on Freddy and Jason. Load up some Leatherface. Come on Pinhead.

Otherwise it's just Baking Championship, right?

[libgirl2]

On 9/16/2022 at 6:24 PM, threebluestars said:

On the Halloween Baking Championship I better see blood cakes.

And corpses, and mummies and vampires and ghosts and all manners of Halloween things. Bring on Freddy and Jason. Load up some Leatherface. Come on Pinhead.

Otherwise it's just Baking Championship, right?

Yes! A Hellraiser theme! 

[Frost]

So glad to see John as the host!

[Guest]

That was a heroic effort by the judges to generate suspense over whose cupcakes were better in the sudden death challenge.

There was something very cute about Stephanie during the first judging, hunched over in her little hat and fur coat using her knife and fork to eat. Stephanie during the second judging? Not so much with the cute 😆

Rooting for Maricsa, with Kristi and Lauren getting points for dialing in and finding a way to turn out neat, clean efforts.

[CheshireCat]

What is it with the "it looks" comments from the judges? If it tastes okay, it doesn't matter if it looks overcooked.

Lauren's boot looked just as much or little like a pile of pastry like the guy's before her did.

But I did like the task. It was a little different than what they normally do but very doable and allowed well for Halloween decoration and flavors.

When John said Sachertorte, I wondered what a Soccer Torte is 😂 (And you pronounce the 'e' at the end of Torte. I get if the bakers don't necessarily know it. Unless you work in a high-end café, you probably don't make a Sachertorte all that often. However, the host should do enough research to know).

Did Lola put food coloring into her Ruby Chocolate? That looked very pink but it could have been my (very old) TV.

I agreed with the judges, Alexey's method of death was really well done.

I thought Kristi's glaze looked like she didn't properly cover the cake and it would have looked better if she had covered the cake and then done a little extra to make it look like something is spilling out of the bottle.

Was Marisca the one with the death by malpractice cake? In any case, I agreed with judges (again, wow) that the color looked accurate with regards to the death method. Her decorations weren't as accurate, though. But some of the death methods were very original and I liked that.

Lauren's glaze looked good, the elevator looked a bit simple.

I would absolutely hate to have all the other bakers standing around and watching me. Couldn't they have let them bake alone? (Also, did they have to stand around for an hour? It's one thing to stand when you bake because you never really stand still but just standing around and doing nothing is exhausting).

How did Marcus make it through the audition? He had four bakes and not a single one seemed to be his specialty (to put it nicely).

On 9/13/2022 at 10:23 PM, Catfi9ht said:

The weird shocked and grossed out reactions the contestants are really forced and expose the worst aspects of reality shows. I wish reality shows would stop that nonsense. Everyone knows it's fake and forced.

Kind of related: no, John, no one is "baking for their life". I get he's sticking with the theme but this was a bit too much of an over-dramatization for me.

[libgirl2]

7 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

How did Marcus make it through the audition? He had four bakes and not a single one seemed to be his specialty (to put it nicely).

I was thinking the same thing. There must have been something he was good at that got him through. He is military or ex military right? Maybe that was a reason they put him in there?

I think he knew he was out of his element. 

Edited September 20, 2022 by libgirl2

[rlc]

14 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

How did Marcus make it through the audition? He had four bakes and not a single one seemed to be his specialty (to put it nicely).

His charm? He seemed very likeable, and as they have proven time and time again, it isn't always the best baker who wins.

If they had kept Marcus and his nasty looking mint-extract-american-buttercream-over-dried-out-hockey-puck cakes, I would have thrown my croquemboot through my tv.

Edited September 20, 2022 by rlc

[mojoween]

Yeah I would have kept Marcus over Jill on personality alone.  I don’t know if she is over this or what, but she was rather unpleasant.

Puss n Boots is so not Halloween.  Nancy Fuller is FURIOUS.

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Yeah I would have kept Marcus over Jill on personality alone.  I don’t know if she is over this or what, but she was rather unpleasant.

I don't find Jill unpleasant at all. She's not especially chipper or perky, but that's fine with me. She was laughing and making jokes with the rest of them, just in a more lowkey way. She cracked me up when the peanut gallery asked her how her lemon curd was looking, and she said "Yellow! The color checks out", which made them all laugh as well. I enjoy that kind of humor.

Edited September 20, 2022 by tracyscott76

[Dirtybubble]

I don't normally like episodes where they are centered around a movie coming out, it's like a commercial right in the middle of the show, but I didn't mind this too much.  I usually like the Puss N Boots movies and John (per usual) was fun so I'll let it slide.

Loved the judges' costumes but I'm glad John pointed out the confusion in Zac's cat costume.

4 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

How did Marcus make it through the audition? He had four bakes and not a single one seemed to be his specialty (to put it nicely).

If you look at his IG page his cakes look WONDERFUL!  Enh maybe reality tv competition just isn't his thing.  *shrug*

I didn't find Jill particularly unpleasant but she wasn't a pleasant person either.  She's been pretty much forgettable so far and if she wasn't in the bottom 2 I wouldn't have remembered her from one week to the next.  *shrug*

[Frost]

I liked Marcus' personality, even though his baking prowess did not shine in any of his bakes.  I was hoping Justin would have to do the bake off.  His black fingernails gross me out.  I always imagine big chips of black nail polish landing in the food 😜  I really like a lot of the women this go 'round (I can't remember too many people's names yet).  The former culinary instructor is one of my favorites, both personality and baking skills.

[CrazyInAlabama]

I really liked Marcus, I think he's just not a competition baker.   I think the time limits on all of the baking contests are too short.     However, I would love to try his food, he seems like such a nice person, and so creative. 

I can't imagine how to be creative, work with the time limits on this show, decorate up to their standards, and still come up with creative flavors that go together.      I know there have been contestants on other competition shows that were criticize for doing the same dishes over and over.   If your bakery specialty is pastry, or pies or cakes, it would be hard to change that for this 8 week contest.   

I'm wondering how fast they do the actual contest and filming?   Since the first two episodes were two hours.    Starting next Monday they'll only have one hour of this one, followed by a cookie contest. 

Edited September 21, 2022 by CrazyInAlabama

[seacliffsal]

I am really enjoying this show.  I miss John on Wipeout as those new hosts don't do anything for me, so I am glad that he is on this show.  I think the contestants seem nice and it looks like they get along and have good attitudes.  I, too, like Marcus and agree with others that the time limits may have gotten to him.  He may not be familiar with some of the different challenges.  The desserts in which he specializes are probably really good and this show may have just been too much out of his comfort zone.  Hopefully he will get new customers as a result of his participation.

The theme of Hotel Hanson just makes me so happy, and I really enjoy how they tie-in the challenges.

[2soon2tell]

I hope the contestants get better at decorating. So far I haven’t been impressed. Nothing that screams “cover of Food Magazine “ yet.

[Catfi9ht]

30 minutes ago, 2soon2tell said:

I hope the contestants get better at decorating. So far I haven’t been impressed. Nothing that screams “cover of Food Magazine “ yet.

Seconded. The contestants in this season are okay to just bad. Even the culinary teacher (I forget her name) is good but okay for an instructor. Comparing this to previous seasons and the differences are fairly large. 

I really wish John would stop with the "Alexi is Russian" jokes. They're never funny, and it's starting to feel xenophobic at this point. 

[libgirl2]

22 hours ago, mojoween said:

Yeah I would have kept Marcus over Jill on personality alone.  I don’t know if she is over this or what, but she was rather unpleasant.

Puss n Boots is so not Halloween.  Nancy Fuller is FURIOUS.

Exactly. I don't care for movie tie ins but at least make it Halloween themed! 

[mojoween]

I hope we start getting back to one hour episodes soon.  Two hours during baseball and football season whilst trying to read a 600 page Stephen King novel is TOO MUCH.

It’s weird to have a double-sized ep and only one person went home.

[libgirl2]

6 minutes ago, mojoween said:

I hope we start getting back to one hour episodes soon.  Two hours during baseball and football season whilst trying to read a 600 page Stephen King novel is TOO MUCH.

It’s weird to have a double-sized ep and only one person went home.

i am also watching the new Quantum Leap which is on during the second hour. So like you, I want it back to one hour! 

[Spunkygal]

Looks like next week’s episode is 1 hour! Yay!

[Guest]

1 hour ago, mojoween said:

I hope we start getting back to one hour episodes soon.  Two hours during baseball and football season whilst trying to read a 600 page Stephen King novel is TOO MUCH.

It’s weird to have a double-sized ep and only one person went home.

At least the two-hour episodes weren't because they brought in two random bakers/bakers from previous seasons to have a bake-off to see who gets to enter the competition part-way through. No more of that, please.

[libgirl2]

1 hour ago, tracyscott76 said:

At least the two-hour episodes weren't because they brought in two random bakers/bakers from previous seasons to have a bake-off to see who gets to enter the competition part-way through. No more of that, please.

Good point! 

[ruffy666]

On 9/19/2022 at 11:00 PM, CheshireCat said:

Lauren's glaze looked good, the elevator looked a bit simple.

she definitely took a risk by going that simple, but it was an interesting concept and impeccably executed-- those lines were STRAIGHT and her text was perfection!  i was actually really impressed by her cake.

6 hours ago, Catfi9ht said:

Seconded. The contestants in this season are okay to just bad. Even the culinary teacher (I forget her name) is good but okay for an instructor. Comparing this to previous seasons and the differences are fairly large. 

I dunno, I feel like Halloween Baking Championship never gets the best bakers because it's a little less serious with goofier challenges...  This group doesn't seem any less talented than previous seasons to me, they almost always burn off the worst bakers in the first few weeks.  I think they 'save' the better talent for Holiday Baking Championship

[tinderbox]

3 hours ago, mojoween said:

I hope we start getting back to one hour episodes soon.  Two hours during baseball and football season whilst trying to read a 600 page Stephen King novel is TOO MUCH.

It’s weird to have a double-sized ep and only one person went home.

You are not alone.  I find myself becoming easily distracted during two hour episodes.  I realize there are still many contestants to film at this point in the competition, but two hours feels like forever.  

[CrazyInAlabama]

5 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

Exactly. I don't care for movie tie ins but at least make it Halloween themed! 

Is Puss in Boots also done by the company that owns Food Network?   I bet it is. You get some strange pairings of promotions when they're all the same huge corporation. 

[Catfi9ht]

1 hour ago, ruffy666 said:

I dunno, I feel like Halloween Baking Championship never gets the best bakers because it's a little less serious with goofier challenges...  This group doesn't seem any less talented than previous seasons to me, they almost always burn off the worst bakers in the first few weeks.  I think they 'save' the better talent for Holiday Baking Championship

Oooh. Good point. That's probably true. By the time next year rolls around, I'll probably forget and make the same remark. 🤣

[mlp]

Oddly, I didn't even notice that the show lasted two hours until the Big Bake came on and I realized it was 10 o'clock.  Strange.  I guess I'm really really enjoying John Henson.

I liked Marcus and don't like the woman who stayed so I was sorry to see him go although it was the right decision on the judges' part.  I still think I recognized him from somewhere.  I wonder if he was on one of the GGG military-oriented shows or something.

[libgirl2]

11 minutes ago, mlp said:

Oddly, I didn't even notice that the show lasted two hours until the Big Bake came on and I realized it was 10 o'clock.  Strange.  I guess I'm really really enjoying John Henson.

I liked Marcus and don't like the woman who stayed so I was sorry to see him go although it was the right decision on the judges' part.  I still think I recognized him from somewhere.  I wonder if he was on one of the GGG military-oriented shows or something.

I think you are right. He has been on my TV before. 

After the "horror" that was Molly, John Henson is a welcome sight. I don't mind two hours except for TV viewing issues. 

[TVbitch]

Loving this show again, but those croquemboots have to be the single ugliest bake I have ever seen on any Baking Championship. Ever. Ye gads. : D

[libgirl2]

8 hours ago, TVbitch said:

Loving this show again, but those croquemboots have to be the single ugliest bake I have ever seen on any Baking Championship. Ever. Ye gads. : D

I agree, I don't think any of them looked good. 

[Pi237]

I like that there doesn’t seem to be manufactured-for-drama incidents on this show. The times they’ve over baked or broken things seem genuine vs Halloween Wars, which I had to stop watching a few seasons ago because The Fake took over. Granted, they still have them doing stupid over-the-top reaction shots to every twist, etc but if it stays at this level… It won’t ruin the show for me. 

The decorating is pretty bad this season, so far. I know the time constraints are part of the challenge, but I’d rather they get more time to finish the look of their bakes. That’s way more interesting to me than ‘oh no! It’s not baked through!’ 

[Pi237]

On 9/20/2022 at 2:00 AM, CheshireCat said:

I would absolutely hate to have all the other bakers standing around and watching me. Couldn't they have let them bake alone?

That made me so tense just watching. I’d have probably snapped “shut it! I’m trying to concentrate!”

[tennisgurl]

I totally forgot it was Halloween Baking Challenge time! I really like the creepy hotel theme, its ripe for puns and unique designs, I like how they do a different horror theme every season. 

I liked Marcus, he seems like a talented baker but I think he struggled with the time limit. I imagine that it must be really hard to go from having a good amount of time to bake and get your details right to having a time limit and a small kitchen. But come on guys, you got to focus on baking your cakes! Kind of important! 

Everyone seems nice and quite chill, no drama or mugging for the camera. 

Two hours is a bit much I think, but there really isn't much that I want to cut, so a bit of a TV catch 22. The bakers need at least some time to bake and I would never want to take out the fun Halloween bits. 

I thought the killer cat cake was my favorite looking, possibly because my own cat was sleeping on my lap while I was watching. 

Edited September 22, 2022 by tennisgurl

[CrazyInAlabama]

They're rerunning season 7 from 2021, Camp Devil's Food Lake on Food Network, this is episode 2, where Renee and Jocelyn (spelling?)the bakers from past seasons rejoin the contest. 

I found the croque in boot finished products to be ugly, and a waste of time to make, and obviously just to promote the cartoon movie.    Some weren't too bad, but they were all unappetizing.   I wonder how the judges managed to bring themselves to eat them.   The one that one of the women made with chocolate looked like it was covered in mud. 

Edited September 25, 2022 by CrazyInAlabama

[Guest]

1 hour ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

They're rerunning season 7 from 2021, Camp Devil's Food Lake on Food Network, this is episode 2, where Renee and Jocelyn (spelling?)the bakers from past seasons rejoin the contest. 

Yay, Adina's season! Talented, cute, and a sardonic delight 🥰

[Popples]

2 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

They're rerunning season 7 from 2021, Camp Devil's Food Lake on Food Network, this is episode 2, where Renee and Jocelyn (spelling?)the bakers from past seasons rejoin the contest. 

Even though I didn't like them bringing back bakers from another season, I loved when Stephanie was dressed as the clown and chased Renee out of the kitchen. I had to pause the TV I was laughing so hard.

[CoderLady]

4 hours ago, Popples said:

Even though I didn't like them bringing back bakers from another season, I loved when Stephanie was dressed as the clown and chased Renee out of the kitchen. I had to pause the TV I was laughing so hard.

I've never envied someone their job more than when Stephanie did that. Psychotic clown cosplay makes everything better!

[CapeCodLuv]

On 9/21/2022 at 10:06 PM, TVbitch said:

Loving this show again, but those croquemboots have to be the single ugliest bake I have ever seen on any Baking Championship. Ever. Ye gads. : D

I don't even know how one would make an attractive boot. I did think there were a few good attempts and I loved the feather on the winning entry. But honestly, no one would ever order that from a bakery! I think Justin may go next. He's failed twice trying to make a sponge (I think?) cake which I would think would be baking 101 for a pro. I am guessing what he does for work is bake a classic (basic) tasty cake and then wow his customer's with his decorating skills. I believe he said his business is horror themed cakes so I doubt anyone contacting him is looking for a key lime pie, croquembouche, genoise, cheesecake etc. You get the idea, LOL. I could not find a website for his company but I'm sure he has one. I would love to see because I bet he delivers tasty horror themed cakes, just not sure he is a great all around baker.

[rocketinu]

Watched the 2nd year Halloween Baking championship on the other cooking channel. Judges were Carla, Sandra Lee and Damiano Carrara( who was such a terrible judge). Carla and Sandra kept giving him the stink eye. The last challenge was a gingerbread house and he just kept saying over and over he hated gingerbread. Glad he's kind of disappeared from the scene. The host was that ventriloquist.

[KayVeeTeeVee]

On 9/25/2022 at 12:09 AM, rocketinu said:

Watched the 2nd year Halloween Baking championship on the other cooking channel. Judges were Carla, Sandra Lee and Damiano Carrara( who was such a terrible judge). Carla and Sandra kept giving him the stink eye. The last challenge was a gingerbread house and he just kept saying over and over he hated gingerbread. Glad he's kind of disappeared from the scene. The host was that ventriloquist.

Damiano was a terribly negative judge.  The contestants don't need his snark, and neither do the viewers.  Please don't invite him back!  Could do without "I love myself SO MUCH" Zac whatever.  Personally, I'm eager for the next Kids Baking Championship with the best judges ever - Duff Goldman and Valerie Bertinelli. 

[Guest]

33 minutes ago, KayVeeTeeVee said:

On 9/25/2022 at 12:09 AM, rocketinu said:

Watched the 2nd year Halloween Baking championship on the other cooking channel. Judges were Carla, Sandra Lee and Damiano Carrara( who was such a terrible judge). Carla and Sandra kept giving him the stink eye. The last challenge was a gingerbread house and he just kept saying over and over he hated gingerbread. Glad he's kind of disappeared from the scene. The host was that ventriloquist.

Damiano was a terribly negative judge.  The contestants don't need his snark, and neither do the viewers.  Please don't invite him back!  Could do without "I love myself SO MUCH" Zac whatever.  Personally, I'm eager for the next Kids Baking Championship with the best judges ever - Duff Goldman and Valerie Bertinelli. 

Damiano turned up as a judge on another show soon after that (I think the Christmas Cookie Challenge) and he had definitely been given some notes as he was much more pleasant. He had learned how to critique without being overly negative. Apparently it was too little, too late though, since I haven't seen him again (or maybe it just didn't work out on his end).

I wish Zac would stick to critiquing without feeling the need to be overly clever, snarky, or smug. Watching the marathon of last season, I was reminded of him miming falling asleep because he was "bored" by red velvet. It's just very unnecessary, especially because he can give straight up criticism without putting on a show. He just seems to think it's more amusing (for him? for the audience?) to do it this way.

[MerBearHou]

Last night was a big, big step up in decoration and presentation.  The mazes were impressive.  I was sorry to see Justin go; not sorry to say bye to Margarita — she was not a favorite of mine.  I enjoyed seeing the major bonding by the various duos / teams.  Some seem to be really great pals which was nice to see.  The costumes on Stephanie, Zac and Carla are incredible — I actually look forward to seeing what they come out wearing — great job by the costume and make-up team.

[rocketinu]

So far - to me - the right ones have been going home - all the mazes were great and it came down to the bakers' individual treats.

The judges' costumes were tremendous.

[libgirl2]

55 minutes ago, rocketinu said:

So far - to me - the right ones have been going home - all the mazes were great and it came down to the bakers' individual treats.

The judges' costumes were tremendous.

I liked the scary carnival maze. It is supposed to look frightening not cute.