Cake Wars - General Discussion

[yeswedo]

Discuss all things Cake Wars here!

[NYGirl]

So episode 1 was strange. After watching Halloween Wars pumpkin carvers I expected so much and I was underwhelmed aside from the Rockefeller Center piece.

Speaking of Halloween Wars what the hell is Robert from the winning team doing on this show as one of the wise men?

[caci]

I really liked the winning team"s design. They definitely redeemed themselves after the Vegas/Elvis disaster.

[NYGirl]

I really loved the Jack Frost made of sugar.  I giggled a little bit at the host's antics tonight.  He was so silly.

 

That witch was so badly made.  I still can't get over the difference between this and the Halloween Wars..could it be the pumpkins?

 

I didn't like that space alien scene that the judges were expounding on. 

[TimetoShine]

That witch was horrifying. If she came to deliver my gifts, I'd tell her to take them back whilst running in the opposite direction. I thought the life-sized Jack Frost from We Three Kings was stunning. Really well made. 

 

I don't think this show is terrible in comparison to Halloween wars (there are some beautiful pieces) but there are some people who just aren't as talented. I actually think the carvers are at an advantage in relation to the one on Halloween Wars because they can/do use basically anything when doing their carvings (the birds last week were also stunning). 

Edited November 17, 2015 by corinne

[xingcat]

I thought there was some stunning work on display this past episode. I didn't agree on the small challenge with the judges about the sweater in the cheese-carved gift box...the sweater was there, and there was a whole story to it!

 

I did agree with them (who wouldn't?) about the winner and loser of the larger challenge. That Jack Frost was AMAZING! The type of thing that the best contestants on Halloween Wars have pulled off in the past.

[caci]

I was really surprised at how amazing Jack Frost was. Usually, a larger sculpture of a person doesn't turn out so well. That was very well done. On a side note, the male judge is very annoying. He needs to go away.

[needschocolate]

I think the team that made the witch should have gone home as I thought it was by far the worst, but I am glad the team the went home is gone.  The woman who did most of the talking for that team was starting to bother me - too whiny.  Maybe now that she is gone won't have any more "oh no! I broke the ornate sugar piece that is crucial to our design! There is nothing else to do but remake it.  I hope I have time!"

 

The big Jack Frost was great.  I also liked the leprechaun and tooth fairy.  

 

I thought it was funny that two teams made Jack Frost, but the team called Jack Frosters didn't.  

[JessDVD]

I've been waiting for Halloween Wars to expand to all seasons for years and my day has come! And AARON SAMUELS is hosting. (On October 3rd, he asked me what day it was)

 

Team Creepy Witch and Team No Skills/Now Eliminated are clearly over their heads. I think the other 4 are all pretty well matched. I'm looking forward to the rest. It's somewhat reminiscent of Food Network Challenge, which I miss a lot.

[TimetoShine]

I admit to not paying complete attention but I thought most of the designs were not that good. There was a dragon flying with his eyes closed, a Santa with black eyes and a Santa with a lazy eye. 

[backgroundnoise]

I think the problem with the dragon was that it was sitting, not flying, and was too big relative to Santa.

 

I loved the magical bird display--I thought it was exquisite.  It looked like a glass sculpture.  None of the others came close, IMO.

 

I really liked the challenge behind both parts, an outrageous toy and new vehicle.  Most were pretty clever, at least as ideas, even if they didn't get executed as well as they could.  The idea behind the machine that turned veggies into toys(?), candy(?) wasn't realized enough to know what it was supposed to be.

 

The least imaginative vehicle was the fire truck, IMO, but kudos for keeping it suspended.  That's what the magic carpet group should have done, because, yeah, you couldn't tell what it was just lying there.  If the magic carpet group had been able to suspend it at all, and have the pyramids and Great Wall as being far below still on the earth, it might have worked better.

[JessDVD]

Magic carpet: great idea in principle, terribly executed. At least they were eliminated and now the 4 best teams can duke it out for the end.

 

Bird: lovely

 

Fruitcake as a tasting element: flat-out nasty 

 

Firetruck: not bad, cute little village!

 

Judges: I swear, just looking for things to criticize

 

Dragon: not doing it for me

 

Rocket sleigh: meh

 

Judges: too cranky. I want Kerry Vincent. Or Ron Ben-Israel from season 1, that would be fine.

[needschocolate]

The magic carpet was all sorts of wrong.  

 

• It didn't look like a carpet - did it even have a design on it. The judges were right when they said that they didn't know if it was a carpet of the ocean.  
• The proportions were all off - Santa towered over the pyramid and great wall, but was overwhelmed by the size of the carpet.
• It made no sense - why were the landmarks on top of the carpet?  Was Santa delivering them to children?  And everything was just randomly placed.  

 

The sugar guy on the eliminated team seemed like he could do pretty good work, but the cake person was just average, and the sculptor was amateurish.  When they did a montage of their past work I realized that their only hope of staying in the competition was if they never had the sculptor be in charge of making a human-ish character,  He needs to look around and notice that the other sculptors were carving the faces and not sticking radishes into carved out eye sockets to make bulging eyes and that other sculptors were painting their characters a normal color not just going with the vegetables natural oranges and greens. 

[Rammchick]

Doesn't it seem that these groups are far less talented than those we've seen on other, similar shows?  There appears to be one front runner (not sure of the name, but they sculpted that bird this past week) and the others are nowhere near in the same league.  The group that went out this week was the same one that did that awful witch last week.  I used to teach comparative anatomy, and all I could think of when I looked at that piece was that the skin had been flayed off her face and we were looking at the muscle groups underneath.  Really horrible.

[JessDVD]

40 minutes in and I am SO OVER the orange team, whatever their name is. I don't know if they actually fought that much or if the show is playing it up, but watching people who are supposed to be a team, be obnoxious to each other, is not engaging TV to me. Farewell, good riddance.

 

I think the last 3 teams are all fairly well matched. I think the name is Jack Frosters, the gray aprons, has the best skill level, if not the best design level. They consistently have had the feedback that there are no seams between their cake, sugar, and vegetables.

[NYGirl]

I agree with respect to the brown team.  They were so nasty to each other.  I've never seen that on a TV show before.  Good riddance is right.

 

I agree about the Jack Frosters and I don't want the 3 Wise Men to win because Robert won the Halloween Wars.  I also agree with the poster above that these teams are not as talented as other teams in similar shows.

 

So Kevin's brother from Home Alone?  Time has not been kind.

[backgroundnoise]

The scale on the losing team's design was insane.  Couldn't they see how off it was?  It looked so amateurish.  And they were not a pleasant team to watch with all their sniping at each other.

 

I liked the Jingle Bells one the best, but it was a step down from last week's magical bird.  I agreed with the judges though about the lamppost.  It didn't seem to go with the song.

[BusyOctober]

I thought all of the designs were poorly done overall.  There were a few highlights in most but none of them were winners.  If I were judging I would have awarded "Least Suckiest Attempt".  The eliminated team was absolutely dismal. Their design (or lack of) and their attitudes should have earned them the boot a few episodes back in my opinion.

 

The Toyland team...shouldn't there be TOYS in there somewhere??  I didn't understand why the little boy & girl figures were so happy and delighted.  WTF were they looking at?  No toys, no Santa, no candy.  Just a soldier and a clock. Yay? Might as well have been entering a military run sweatshop where they watch their youth tick away year by year. 

 

I did like the Jingle Bells team (the horse was great), but the woman's voice is starting to grate, especially when she says "Good job Froggy!" or "Oh no, Froggy!" in her Marilyn Monroe-Cindy Loo Who baby voice.  I feel like she's speaking to a puppet or a Kindergartener. He is super talented with sugar though.

 

We just watched "Home Alone" this weekend. "Buzz" was a good judge- enthusiastic, and looked like he was enjoying it.

[Josette]

 

It made no sense - why were the landmarks on top of the carpet?

 They said they were souvenirs Santa picked up.

 

 

The Toyland team...shouldn't there be TOYS in there somewhere?? ... Might as well have been entering a military run sweatshop where they watch their youth tick away year by year.

 

 Well, the guy did say the kids were leaving Toyland.  But I really thought it could have been more festive and fun.  I didn't like the green, either.

 

Also, scale aside,  I didn't think "Deck the Halls" was really evoking the song at all.  They deserved to go home, but I wouldn't mind that bread pudding recipe.

[rasalas]

Has anyone noticed that whoever wins the small challenge that starts the show never wins the elimination challenge? I think it's happened only once , maybe twice in all seasons of the Halloween Wars version. So why do they make such a big deal about winning the "advantage" of an extra helper from the first challenge? It doesn't really make a difference.

[Rammchick]

Totally agree about the losing team. It was absolutely awful how horrible they were with each other, or really, how that guy in particular treated the sugar artist. On a similar but opposite note, I'm pleased to see how supportive and complimentary the 3 Kings team is with Robert, since his team in Halloween Wars was so nasty to him.

Too bad the Jack Frosters hadn't developed their idea a little better. Their horse and sleigh was just adorable, but it really was a big, empty, white backdrop with other elements that didn't belong. I love those carved pineapple poles that one guy does, but they don't fit on every piece and shouldn't be there. By virtue of the type of fruit it is, it just reads too tropical.

[Maverick]

The Jack Frosters are good but they're getting a little reptative to me. Animal with cartoony face? Check. Carved fruit tower? Check.

Still it was better that Toyland. It wasn't a mess, but it was close. That toy soldier was unfinished...and probably wouldn't have looked that great if it had been. And those kids....looked liked pigs. Just sayin.

Am I the only one who thought the guy on Team Self Destruction didn't get sick but rather just walked out and refused to present that mess? That "I feel dizzy" sounded dubbed in. He was that bad they would have mentioned early in the episode.

[NYGirl]

one of them even forgot to make a Santa. Just his head was on the floor. I laughed at that.

Edited December 2, 2015 by NYGirl

[JessDVD]

Anyone remember offhand when the We 3 Kings guy was on Halloween Wars? This new crop of competitors on the FN cake etc shows is not quite as memorable for me as the old Challenge competitors, who I would really like to see competing on these shows. I assume that either they or FN have accepted that their day in the sun has set and have moved on.

 

That guy on the orange team was so nasty to the sugar artist! I understand snide comments made in stress, it is a stressful experience and when things are going bad and tempers fly, I understand. But he would just snip at her when they were just working, no stress shown. Although she didn't seem to be the most competent of sugar artists either.

[Maverick]

The cake guy on We Three Kings was on the most recent season of Halloween Wars (his team won).  The carver on We Three Kings was on season 3 of Halloween Wars.  The carver on Mistletoes of Mayhem was on season 3 and season 4 of Halloween Wars. 

[needschocolate]

I guess there are only so many food carvers in the world and most of them are busy working on cruise ships.

 

Anyone remember offhand when the We 3 Kings guy was on Halloween Wars? This new crop of competitors on the FN cake etc shows is not quite as memorable for me as the old Challenge competitors, who I would really like to see competing on these shows. I assume that either they or FN have accepted that their day in the sun has set and have moved on.

 

That guy on the orange team was so nasty to the sugar artist! I understand snide comments made in stress, it is a stressful experience and when things are going bad and tempers fly, I understand. But he would just snip at her when they were just working, no stress shown. Although she didn't seem to be the most competent of sugar artists either.

 

I watched part of some show called Outrageous Christmas - all about really large Christmas food items (giant chocolate santa, display of 1,000 gingerbread houses, etc...).  Bronwen Weber was on because she made a life size, edible Christmas tree.  It was gorgeous and she was as perky and pleasant as always.  It made me realize how much I miss the old FN Challenges, the ones that were all about the cake, before they added stuff to cause drama, like making them find things in the middle of a swimming pool.  I even miss Kerrie Vincent.

 

As for the bickersons on the brown team - they were horrible.  There has to be some bad history between the carver and the sugar artist. Then again, if there was, we probably would have heard about it all the time ("We were supposed to get married, but he/she cheated on me two days before the wedding.  And now we have to work together!").  

[backgroundnoise]

Since the challenge was to make a display inspired by a classic Christmas carol, the judges shouldn't have been told what the song was ahead of time.  That should have been part of the judging, IMO, that the team was able to get the song across in the display.  No one but the Jingle Bells team did that, even without actually showing the lyrics on the backdrop.  Jolly Old Saint Nick and Deck the Halls were so generic, those displays could have been for any Christmas song, and there weren't enough toys in Toyland to make that song apparent. 

 

I don't know of any song that talks about decapitating Santa Claus, though.   Hee, I laughed too.

 

I was hoping one team would do the Twelve Days of Christmas.  They wouldn't have had to get through all twelve days, they could have had a calendar on the wall showing it was only the 6th day or something.   Or Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer would have been awesome. 

 

They picked some pretty bland songs, IMO, which made this week's entries so blah compared to last week.

[JessDVD]

Yes, the song choices stunk. The Jolly Old St Nicholas display could pretty much have been about any Santa Claus song out there. It seemed like the teams were choosing their songs although I've generally suspected those "planning" times are staged, since they have to have armature and so on available beforehand. And out of the entire lexicon of Christmas songs, they chose *those*?

 

Talking about FNC has made me realize how much I miss it too. Someone needs to get Mike McCarey, Bronwen, Joshua and Jason, and the others on shows like Cake Wars. I'd totally watch those greats compete on something like Cake Wars.

 

Also: my 6 year old is currently in the play room next to the room with my desk where I am, playing with her Legos and re-enacting an episode of Cake Wars. I've heard the words sugar, chocolate, and tasting element.

Edited December 2, 2015 by JessDVD

[needschocolate]

Also: my 6 year old is currently in the play room next to the room with my desk where I am, playing with her Legos and re-enacting an episode of Cake Wars. I've heard the words sugar, chocolate, and tasting element.

 

Let me know when she exclaims "Oh no! I just dropped my sugar piece! I don't know if I have time to make a new one!"

 

By the way, you may want to put anything breakable out of her reach.  

[Josette]

 

Although she didn't seem to be the most competent of sugar artists either.

 

Yeah, based on the Stocking Stuffer, it looked like she couldn't make one sugar toy bag in the hour's time given while others were making various items.  Maybe that wasn't really the case, but it seemed that way.

[qtpye]

I watched part of some show called Outrageous Christmas - all about really large Christmas food items (giant chocolate santa, display of 1,000 gingerbread houses, etc...).  Bronwen Weber was on because she made a life size, edible Christmas tree.  It was gorgeous and she was as perky and pleasant as always.  It made me realize how much I miss the old FN Challenges, the ones that were all about the cake, before they added stuff to cause drama, like making them find things in the middle of a swimming pool.  I even miss Kerrie Vincent.

 

God, I miss the old Food Network Challenges.  I do not know why we do not have them anymore?

[LittleIggy]

The right team went home (WTF was Charlie Brown wearing?), but the 2nd place team should have won. I didn't see anything wrong with the character's expressions. On the other hand, the features on the 3 Kings figures were heavy and thick. Snoopy was the only good character.

Edited December 8, 2015 by LittleIggy

[Madding crowd]

I didn't see anything wrong with those characters expressions either; they looked the same or better than the expressions on the others. I agree that the Mistletoes shouldn't have spent so much time adding in the judges, but the male judge seemed offended rather than flattered. He kept saying "We shouldn't be at this party" as if it were a real event. I also think the second place team should have won-I just enjoyed their scene more. 

[Rammchick]

Perhaps the Jack Frosters weren't given the win this week to amp up the tension for the finale. They are definitely head and shoulders above the 3 Kings and have been the best team since the beginning. It's almost like the judges were looking for things to ding them for.

[JessDVD]

I've felt like the judges are throwing the Jack Frosters under the bus for no good reason all along. I agree they are a little one-note, but for pete's sake, if that one note is GOOD, that's not nothing either?! They kept harping on the characters' expressions, yet neglected to mention that they were the only team that created characters that remotely resembled the original ones. We Three Kings' characters were too heavy handed with the thick ropes of black fondant for smiles and eyes. The Mistletoes' were in the right direction, but their piano was hideous and not remotely accurate (have they ever SEEN one before? Three black keys, two black keys).

 

I thought the eliminated team's design plan was good but I would have executed it differently - rather than trying to recreate the judges exactly, made some Charlie Brown-style characters that resembled them. It was too weird of a contrast having these human looking things (that skin tone was way off) at the Charlie Brown party. It made me think of that Sesame Street Challenge from days of yore, where Lauren Kitchens made the three judges as Sesame Street characters. They loved it. Although all 3 of them had better senses of humor than these two, and that includes Kerry Vincent in the 3.

 

Anyway, topic. I liked all 3 teams and wouldn't have been sorry to see any of them in the finale. I think W3K has the best design skills, and JF have the best cake/sugar/carving skills. It'll be interesting to see which comes on top.

[JessDVD]

 Also, scale aside,  I didn't think "Deck the Halls" was really evoking the song at all.  They deserved to go home, but I wouldn't mind that bread pudding recipe.

 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/cake-wars/recipes.html- recipes from the show. Bread pudding was on page 2 when I looked at it, but it doesn't seem to be in any order so it might not come up on page 2 for you.

[Maverick]

It made me think of that Sesame Street Challenge from days of yore, where Lauren Kitchens made the three judges as Sesame Street characters. They loved it. Although all 3 of them had better senses of humor than these two, and that includes Kerry Vincent in the 3.

 

 I loved that idea/cake.  And while Kerry did have a sense of humor about it, Patrick Costen (the other regular judge at the time) was not impressed.  He acted much like the judge did this week.  In Patrick's case, he really took offense to his muppet character having a unibrow...like he thought the baker was accusing him of having one.

[JessDVD]

Wow! I am amazed that they gave the win to Jack Frosters. The whole time, they kept praising W3K for what I thought were not the strongest pieces (Toyland? Those awful Charlie Brown faces?), and dinging JF for nitpicks. I couldn't believe JF did another one of those fruit totem poles though.  W3K's design was... weird. Nothing about it spoke remotely Christmas to me. And I thought they just threw candy on there for the sake of throwing candy on there. JF's landscape was weak, but I want to take those penguins home with me.

 

Hardcore eyeroll at the segment of filler with the kids who are way, way too old to believe in Santa Claus, being all "IT'S SANTA" to the poor underpaid intern who dressed up as Santa and handed out wrapped empty boxes to the kids.

 

Jonathan Bennett is so weird.

 

Anyone heard of any of the guest judges from anywhere else? The only one I knew anything about was the older brother from Home Alone, in the sense that I've seen Home Alone a few times and know that Kevin had an older brother. Halloween Wars, I hadn't always heard of the guest judges, but I was usually at least familiar with them, or would look them up and see that they are famous, I just hadn't happened to have heard of them (like Elvira, from the last one)

[LittleIggy]

I'm glad JF won. That bald guy from 3K looked as if he should be an extra in a movie about prison gangs! ;-)

[stormy]

I'm glad JF won too.

W3K's gingerbread house looked like it came out of Hansel and Gretel not Christmas.

[BusyOctober]

I was only half tuned in but I am baffled by the 3K win in the first round.  They didn't make a snow globe, their sugar work broke and the Abominable Snowman looked only partially frosted...I could see the rice cereal/modeling chocolate in some patches of unfrosted spots.  Did I miss the part of their backstory where they explained the monster had mange?  The JF team completed the challenge specs.  A sugar GLOBE was made.  So a cloudy completed globe is sub par to a shattered incomplete piece?  Huh? 

 

The bald dude on 3K reminded me of a thinner, more verbally advanced Vin Diesel.  I can't stand Vin Diesel, so I turned down the volume every time Vin 2.0 was shouting at me how much he wanted to win.  And bias aside, I thought their house looked less finished than the other one. They took almost all the candy to toss on the front lawn but forgot to finish the house details.  I really liked JF's waffle cone roof!

[Rammchick]

Food Network attempted to amp up the suspense as much as possible, but it was obvious all along that the Jack Frosters were in a totally different league than the rest of the teams. Their work had so much life to it, and was just really cute by comparison, thanks to Beth's talent. I wish their carver hadn't done those stacked melon poles, but all in all, their piece was a good effort. Even Froggy made a halfway decent tasting element this time.

[backgroundnoise]

I'll probably tune in to the new season starting in January, but think I'm going to have to mute my TV during the actual work time.  The constant yelling, and I mean YELLING, about getting it DONE with 50 THOUSAND DOLLARS ON THE LINE, over and over again got quite annoying to me.  Even the talking heads were annoyingly repetitive.

 

Does anyone else think all the breaking sugar pieces were scripted?  It just seemed very convenient that, oops, a piece broke every episode but the team was somehow always able to immediately replace it. 

 

This was one episode where I thought We Three Kings ought to have won.  I wasn't too wowed by either display, but W3K's looked more complete.  I didn't get the JF's top little, what was it?  A box on top of the house--what was that supposed to be.  The scale was all wrong with Rudolph's head.

 

I didn't think the W3K should have been allowed to grab entire jars of the candy.  They were able to haul away too much too fast.  They should have had to at least scoop it out.

[NYGirl]

I'm glad the Jack Frosters won. I was afraid for a minute that W3K was going to take it. I do have to say the Vin Diesel guy was very gracious in his parting comments. I just didn't want Robert to win 2 competitions in a row. He wasn't that great of a decorator.

I didn't like that they took jars of candy like that.

[needschocolate]

Does anyone else think all the breaking sugar pieces were scripted?  It just seemed very convenient that, oops, a piece broke every episode but the team was somehow always able to immediately replace it. 

 

If not scripted then at least re-enacted.  The tray with the apples was hanging almost half way off the table, with the 5-6 apples on the end that was over the edge. And Vin 2.0 is just standing next to him saying, "So, you're going to use the sugar apples to hold the tasting element" even though they likely discussed it when they were planning, and I think he may have even mentioned it when he was talking before the apples broke.  Plus, from what I have seen from Vin 2.0, he wouldn't just walk over and stand there talking, he would have yelled from the other side of the room.

[JessDVD]

I always assume at least half of the episode is either staged or re-enacted (or possibly both). As if the teams just drew a quick sketch and then handed that to their construction guys. They had to have planned that in advance, there's no way they just made it up on the spot. I think most of the sugar breakage scenes are probably re-enacted, the odds that the camera would just so happen to be on the sugar as it falls every time, is pretty unlikely. And there are probably plenty of other interesting bits that never make it to the episode. I'm glad I'm not in charge of editing 5 hours of competition down to 42 minutes.

 

My kids watched the finale today and both shrieked for joy when JF won. We also had a discussion this morning about how sugar can break.

[laschifosavita]

I didn't like that they took jars of candy like that.

I liked that it ended up being part of the reason they lost.  Flinging candy all over the place is the opposite of being a polished and cohesive design.  It's disappointing that JF's design would have been even better if they had the candy they wanted.  W3K had so much candy on their display that I couldn't even tell if they had used it.

[Biosynth]

Just desserts for candy hogs.

 

I'm happy JF won.  :)

[formerlyfreedom]

A place to discuss particular episodes, arcs and moments from the show's second season. Please remember this isn't a complete catch-all topic -- check out the forum for character topics and other places for show-related talk.

 

Season two starts January 11, 2016 and the topics for the season include; Star Wars, Dr. Seuss, Kung Fu Panda 3, Minecraft, Valentine's Day, Shark Lagoon, and Shrek.

[JessDVD]

Well, highlights from last night:

 

How none of the cakes had the slightest bit to do with the new movie. I know it was filmed months ago but on Food Network Challenge (which I am constantly comparing to this show), when they would do movie challenges before the movie came out, they would show the competitors the movie. Pony up, FN.

 

I want Ron Ben-Israel to come to my house and read everything I have to read, out loud to me.

 

My favorite part was the lady with the flame explosion thing "dropped" her pan of sugar onto the floor and then fixed it by jabbing the broken pieces into the cake. When they showed her "running into" the teammate with the pan and "dropping" it, you can see the cake with the broken sugar pieces already jabbed into it, on the edge of the screen. ... Right. Also, her characters looked nothing like anything.