Halloween Baking Championship

Complete season breakdown

Every episode and bake

The first season uses two Halloween-themed heats in each of four episodes, moving from small treats and costume desserts to doughnuts, pumpkin bakes, haunted creatures, and a final haunted-house cake. This guide records the complete challenge sequence and includes one original home-kitchen adaptation inspired by the graveyard pumpkin brief.

1. Episode 1 · Trick-or-treat candy and costumes

   Trick or Treats

   Oct 5, 2015

   The opening contest turns trick-or-treat staples into decorated cupcakes before asking the bakers to interpret familiar Halloween costumes as desserts.

   • Preliminary heat

     Candy-filled creepy cupcakes

     Make 12 Halloween cupcakes using a blindly selected trick-or-treat candy, with both the candy and a creepy presentation built into the finished bake.

   • Main heat

     Classic costume dessert

     Create a dessert that clearly represents an assigned classic Halloween costume.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2Episode source 3

2. Episode 2 · Mashups

   Monster Mashups

   Oct 12, 2015

   Every brief combines elements: first, prepared grocery items are remixed into individual treats, and then a spooky subject and a flavor must become one coherent dessert.

   • Preliminary heat

     Grocery-item mashup treats

     Combine two prepared grocery-store baking items, such as refrigerated cookie dough or frozen pie crust, into 12 transformed treats.

   • Main heat

     Spooky theme-and-flavor dessert

     Build one dessert around both a selected flavor and a separate spooky theme, making the two assignments read as a single idea.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2Episode source 3

3. Episode 3 · Haunted farm and graveyard

   Field of Screams

   Oct 19, 2015

   Autumn farm imagery drives both rounds, beginning with menacing doughnuts and ending with pumpkin desserts presented as graveyard scenes.

   • Preliminary heat

     Creepy doughnuts

     Make doughnuts with a frightening design inspired by autumn hayrides and farms.

   • Main heat

     Graveyard pumpkin dessert

     Create a pumpkin-based dessert and stage it with a clearly readable graveyard theme.

   Make our home version →Episode source 1Episode source 2Episode source 3

4. Episode 4 · Haunted house finale

   Haunted House Party

   Oct 26, 2015

   The finale first tests sculpted haunted-house creatures, then gives the remaining bakers a long-form architectural cake challenge to decide the champion.

   • Preliminary heat

     Haunted-house creature dessert

     Make a dessert that looks like an assigned creature associated with a haunted house, such as a mummy, zombie, vampire, or skeleton.

   • Main heat

     Haunted-house cake

     Construct a complete haunted-house cake with enough flavor, structure, and Halloween detail for the championship finale.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2Episode source 3

Inspired by the briefs

Bake it at home

These are original Baking Show Guide adaptations for a home kitchen. They are inspired by the challenge briefs, not the contestants' recipes or an official recipe from the show.

Inspired by Episode 3

Pumpkin Graveyard Bread Puddings

Individual pumpkin bread puddings with cocoa-cookie soil and simple chocolate headstones, designed as an approachable response to the episode's graveyard pumpkin challenge.

Time

1 hr 2 min

Makes

6 individual puddings

Level

Easy

▶View ingredients and method

Ingredients

• 300 g day-old brioche or soft white bread, cut into 2 cm cubes
• 240 g pumpkin puree
• 300 ml whole milk
• 120 ml double cream
• 100 g light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 60 g dark chocolate
• 6 rectangular plain biscuits
• 80 g chocolate sandwich cookies, finely crushed

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180 C, or 160 C fan. Grease six 250 ml ramekins and set them on a baking sheet.
2. Whisk the pumpkin, milk, cream, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, and salt until smooth.
3. Fold in the bread cubes and leave them to absorb the custard for 10 minutes, pressing the bread down once midway through.
4. Divide the soaked bread and remaining custard among the ramekins. Bake for 28 to 32 minutes, until puffed at the edges and just set in the centers.
5. Melt the dark chocolate gently. Dip the front of each rectangular biscuit in chocolate, then use a little extra chocolate to write a short headstone mark. Leave to set.
6. Cool the puddings for 10 minutes. Cover each top with crushed sandwich cookies and press in one chocolate headstone before serving warm.

This is an original Baking Show Guide home adaptation, not an official show recipe or a contestant recipe.

Use pure pumpkin puree rather than sweetened pumpkin pie filling so the custard does not become overly sweet.

The puddings can be baked a day ahead; reheat them before adding the cookie soil and headstones.

Open the full recipe →

Episode guide sources

Challenge details verified 2026-07-14. multivu.com, foodnetwork.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Season result

The winner stays hidden until you choose to reveal it.

Full cast

Everyone recorded for Season 1, listed alphabetically without result spoilers.

Season fact sources

en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org.

Complete season breakdown

Every episode and bake

Season two runs five two-heat episodes built around monsters, candy, circus imagery, remembrance traditions, and edible haunted architecture. The final asks for both a decorated cookie tree and a large gingerbread structure; this guide also offers one original home adaptation of the earlier mummy pastry brief.

1. Episode 1 · Monsters and zombies

   Monsters, Monsters, Monsters

   Oct 3, 2016

   Small monster treats open the season before the bakers scale up to fully edible zombie desserts.

   • Preliminary heat

     Bite-sized monster treats

     Produce 12 small baked treats that each read as a creepy monster.

   • Main heat

     Zombie dessert

     Create an edible zombie-themed dessert featuring raspberry and an added sugar-work element.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2Episode source 3

2. Episode 2 · Mummies and hidden candy

   Cravings From the Grave

   Oct 10, 2016

   Ready-made pastry is transformed into quick mummy treats, followed by cakes that hide candy beneath designs based on classic Halloween icons.

   • Preliminary heat

     Mummy pastry dessert

     Use prepared pie dough to make a fast dessert styled as a Halloween mummy.

   • Main heat

     Candy-stuffed Halloween-icon cake

     Bake a cake inspired by an assigned Halloween icon and conceal candy inside so the filling is revealed when the cake is cut.

   Make our home version →Episode source 1Episode source 2Episode source 3

3. Episode 3 · Haunted circus

   Haunted Circus

   Oct 17, 2016

   The circus begins with clown cake pops and moves into a freak-show round where mismatched creatures and performance traits must become one dessert.

   • Preliminary heat

     Scary clown cake pops

     Make six cake pops decorated as distinct creepy clowns.

   • Main heat

     Freak-show mashup dessert

     Combine an assigned creature with a separate circus characteristic in one strange but cohesive edible creation.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2Episode source 3

4. Episode 4 · Tombs and Day of the Dead

   Spirits Rising

   Oct 24, 2016

   A monster-tomb dessert leads into a colorful confection honoring the visual traditions associated with Dia de los Muertos.

   • Preliminary heat

     Monster tomb dessert

     Make a dessert that resembles a monster's tomb and incorporate funeral flowers into its final design.

   • Main heat

     Dia de los Muertos confection

     Create a dessert inspired by the color and artistry of Dia de los Muertos, with habanero added as the round's flavor twist.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2Episode source 3

5. Episode 5 · Haunted cookies and gingerbread

   Ginger Dead House

   Oct 31, 2016

   The finalists decorate cookies for an edible haunted tree, then construct themed gingerbread houses in the season's longest and most structural bake.

   • Preliminary heat

     Haunted cookie tree

     Bake and decorate creepy Halloween cookies sturdy enough to hang from a decorative haunted tree.

   • Main heat

     Ginger dead house

     Construct a spooky gingerbread house based on an assigned structural theme and add a separate ginger-and-chocolate treat.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2Episode source 3

Inspired by the briefs

Bake it at home

These are original Baking Show Guide adaptations for a home kitchen. They are inspired by the challenge briefs, not the contestants' recipes or an official recipe from the show.

Inspired by Episode 2

Berry Mummy Hand Pies

Flaky rectangular hand pies with a thick mixed-berry center, narrow pastry bandages, and small candy eyes for a home-scale mummy bake.

Time

52 min

Makes

8 hand pies

Level

Easy

▶View ingredients and method

Ingredients

• 2 sheets ready-rolled shortcrust pastry, about 640 g total
• 180 g mixed berry jam
• 1 tablespoon cornflour
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 16 small candy eyes
• 1 tablespoon icing sugar

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200 C, or 180 C fan, and line two baking sheets with baking paper.
2. Stir the jam, cornflour, and lemon juice together until no dry lumps remain.
3. Cut 16 rectangles, each about 7 by 11 cm, from the pastry. Set 8 rectangles on the prepared sheets and spoon a narrow strip of jam mixture down each center, leaving a 1 cm border.
4. Brush the borders with beaten egg and cover with the remaining rectangles. Press the edges with a fork and cut two small steam slits in each top.
5. Cut the pastry scraps into thin strips. Brush the tops lightly with egg, lay the strips across at different angles like bandages, and trim them level with the pie edges.
6. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, until crisp and deeply golden. Cool for 10 minutes, then attach two candy eyes to each pie with a dab of thick icing made from the icing sugar and a few drops of water.

This is an original Baking Show Guide home adaptation, not an official show recipe or a contestant recipe.

Keep the filling away from the border so the layers can seal cleanly.

Add the candy eyes only after baking so they retain their shape.

Open the full recipe →

Episode guide sources

Challenge details verified 2026-07-14. multivu.com, foodnetwork.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Season result

The winner stays hidden until you choose to reveal it.

Full cast

Everyone recorded for Season 2, listed alphabetically without result spoilers.

Season fact sources

en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org.

Complete season breakdown

Every episode and bake

Season three spans six episodes and consistently pairs a compact themed bake with a larger transformation challenge. Candy-filled cookies, witch pastries, edible brains, cream puffs, candy-bar flavors, and a glowing finale all appear; one original slime-filled cupcake adaptation brings the opening brief into a home kitchen.

1. Episode 1 · Hidden candy and slime

   Filled With Surprises

   Sep 25, 2017

   The season starts with two reveal bakes: candy must be sealed inside decorated cookies, and a gooey filling must escape from the main dessert when it is cut.

   • Preliminary heat

     Halloween candy-filled cookies

     Bake 12 decorated cookies around hidden candy and incorporate an assigned spooky theme into the design.

   • Main heat

     Slime-filled dessert

     Make any dessert with a gooey slime center that leaks out when cut, then add a small edible creature that appears to live in the slime.

   Make our home version →Episode source 1Episode source 2Episode source 3

2. Episode 2 · Witches

   Bewitching Treats

   Oct 2, 2017

   Witch imagery shapes both rounds, from baked fingers and toes with a dip to larger character desserts completed by edible brooms.

   • Preliminary heat

     Witch fingers and toes

     Bake 10 witch-inspired fingers and toes and serve them with a complementary dipping sauce.

   • Main heat

     Witch dessert with edible broom

     Create a dessert that looks like a witch and include a separate edible broom in the presentation.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2Episode source 3

3. Episode 3 · Brains and phobias

   It's All in Your Head

   Oct 9, 2017

   Teamwork is required to assemble matching halves of an edible brain before each baker interprets a common fear as an individual dessert.

   • Preliminary heat

     Two-part edible brain

     Working in pairs, make two separate edible brain halves that align as one seamless brain when brought together.

   • Main heat

     Phobia-inspired dessert

     Create a dessert based on an assigned common fear, such as rats, spiders, clowns, snakes, ghosts, or insects, and work cooked spaghetti into the design as Halloween worms.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2Episode source 3

4. Episode 4 · Scream puffs and masks

   Sweet Screams

   Oct 16, 2017

   Classic cream puffs become character-driven scream puffs, then frightening masks provide the visual direction for the main desserts.

   • Preliminary heat

     Halloween scream puff

     Turn cream-puff pastry into a creepy character dessert based on an assigned Halloween subject.

   • Main heat

     Scary mask dessert

     Make a dessert modeled on an assigned frightening mask and incorporate one unpopular Halloween treat into the bake.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2Episode source 3

5. Episode 5 · Candy bars and chocolate

   The Candyman Cometh

   Oct 23, 2017

   Recognizable candy-bar flavor profiles lead into death-by-chocolate desserts that must make unusual savory or spicy pairings work.

   • Preliminary heat

     Candy-bar-inspired dessert

     Create a dessert that captures the defining flavor and texture profile of an assigned chocolate candy bar.

   • Main heat

     Odd-pairing death-by-chocolate dessert

     Pair chocolate with an unusual assigned ingredient, such as cheese, jalapeno, beer, or fresh turmeric, and finish the dessert with an edible tombstone.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2Episode source 3

6. Episode 6 · Glowing Halloween finale

   Extreme Halloween

   Oct 30, 2017

   The final begins with a full dessert-bar assortment and glowing centerpiece, then culminates in sculpted jack-o'-lantern cakes that light up.

   • Preliminary heat

     Halloween dessert bar with glowing centerpiece

     Produce three different creepy Halloween treats and arrange them around an edible centerpiece with a glowing effect.

   • Main heat

     Light-up jack-o'-lantern cake

     Create a championship-scale jack-o'-lantern cake with a working light-up presentation.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2Episode source 3

Inspired by the briefs

Bake it at home

These are original Baking Show Guide adaptations for a home kitchen. They are inspired by the challenge briefs, not the contestants' recipes or an official recipe from the show.

Inspired by Episode 1

Slime-Center Chocolate Cupcakes

Dark cocoa cupcakes filled with loose lime curd and capped with vanilla frosting so a bright green center spills out when the cake is cut.

Time

55 min

Makes

12 cupcakes

Level

Moderate

▶View ingredients and method

Ingredients

• 150 g plain flour
• 45 g unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 150 g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 120 ml neutral oil
• 120 ml buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 120 g lime curd
• 1 to 2 drops green gel food coloring
• 100 g unsalted butter, softened
• 200 g icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon whole milk
• 12 small gummy worms

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180 C, or 160 C fan, and line a 12-hole muffin pan with paper cases.
2. Whisk the flour, cocoa, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, and caster sugar in a large bowl.
3. In a second bowl, whisk the eggs, oil, buttermilk, and vanilla. Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and stir just until smooth.
4. Divide the batter among the cases and bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until the tops spring back. Cool completely on a rack.
5. Stir enough green coloring into the lime curd to make it vivid. Cut a 2 cm-wide core from each cupcake, stopping before the base, and spoon in the curd. Trim the removed cake plugs and replace them over the filling.
6. Beat the butter until creamy, then gradually beat in the icing sugar and milk until fluffy. Pipe or spoon a ring of frosting around each filled center and add a gummy worm so it appears to emerge from the cake.

This is an original Baking Show Guide home adaptation, not an official show recipe or a contestant recipe.

Do not overfill the cores; the curd should flow when cut without leaking through the paper cases.

Fill the cupcakes on the day they will be served for the cleanest crumb.

Open the full recipe →

Episode guide sources

Challenge details verified 2026-07-14. multivu.com, foodnetwork.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Season result

The winner stays hidden until you choose to reveal it.

Full cast

Everyone recorded for Season 3, listed alphabetically without result spoilers.

Season fact sources

en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org.

Complete season breakdown

Every episode and bake

Season four delivers six episodes of paired briefs, including webbed desserts, yam bakes, oversized pastries, Halloween wedding cakes, circus flavors, and nightmare cakes. The guide captures both heats in every episode and adds one original mini bundt adaptation inspired by the season's pumpkin-patch challenge.

1. Episode 1 · Hidden creatures and reveals

   Hidden Halloween Horrors

   Sep 24, 2018

   Both rounds hide something unsettling: creatures are trapped in edible webs, then a melting shell must expose a Halloween object beneath it.

   • Preliminary heat

     Spider-web dessert with trapped creature

     Create a dessert covered by an edible spider web and show an assigned creature trapped within the design.

   • Main heat

     Melting-shell reveal dessert

     Enclose a creepy edible Halloween item beneath a shell that melts away to reveal the object inside.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

2. Episode 2 · Fall produce and scary movies

   Fall Forward Desserts

   Oct 1, 2018

   Yams become visual horror-movie cliches before miniature bundt cakes are transformed into a coordinated edible pumpkin patch.

   • Preliminary heat

     Scary-movie yam dessert

     Make a yam-based dessert, other than pie, that evokes an assigned scary-movie cliche.

   • Main heat

     Mini bundt pumpkin patch

     Use flavored miniature bundt cakes to build an edible pumpkin patch and add an edible scarecrow to the scene.

   Make our home version →Episode source 1Episode source 2

3. Episode 3 · Monster-sized pastry

   Monster Mania

   Oct 8, 2018

   A collaborative pate a choux monster tests coordination, while the individual round enlarges familiar pastries into monster-scale themed desserts.

   • Preliminary heat

     Pate a choux monster

     Work as a group to make separate pate a choux body parts that assemble into one large three-dimensional edible monster.

   • Main heat

     Monster-sized themed dessert

     Scale up an assigned dessert type, such as a cupcake, pie, cream puff, or doughnut, and combine it with a separate monster theme.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

4. Episode 4 · Halloween wedding

   Hallowedding

   Oct 15, 2018

   Monster bridal-shower petit fours precede full wedding cakes designed for unusual supernatural couples.

   • Preliminary heat

     Petit horrors

     Make 12 petit fours for a Halloween bridal shower and style them around an assigned monster-bride theme.

   • Main heat

     Monster-couple wedding cake

     Create a wedding cake for an assigned pair of Halloween characters and flavor it with a required floral ingredient.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

5. Episode 5 · Tarot and creepy clowns

   Circus of Dread

   Oct 22, 2018

   Tarot cards determine both a visual theme and a fruit or spice flavor, then named circus clowns inspire more elaborate character desserts.

   • Preliminary heat

     Tarot-card dessert

     Create a dessert joining an assigned tarot-card subject with a required flavor such as blood orange, fig, passion fruit, or clove.

   • Main heat

     Creepy clown dessert

     Build a dessert around an assigned circus clown and the character's signature act or mishap.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

6. Episode 6 · Skulls and nightmares

   Cranium Epicurean

   Oct 29, 2018

   The finale moves from sculpted skull desserts to large cakes that dramatize familiar nightmares with an atmospheric smoke effect.

   • Preliminary heat

     Skull dessert

     Bring a skull to life as a fully edible dessert.

   • Main heat

     Nightmare cake

     Make a championship cake based on an assigned nightmare, such as falling, being chased, or a visit from the dead, and include a smoke effect.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

Inspired by the briefs

Bake it at home

These are original Baking Show Guide adaptations for a home kitchen. They are inspired by the challenge briefs, not the contestants' recipes or an official recipe from the show.

Inspired by Episode 2

Mini Pumpkin-Patch Bundts

Pairs of moist spice mini bundts are joined into round pumpkins, glazed orange, and finished with pretzel stems for an edible autumn patch.

Time

58 min

Makes

6 assembled mini pumpkins

Level

Moderate

▶View ingredients and method

Ingredients

• 180 g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 150 g light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 180 g pumpkin puree
• 100 ml neutral oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 220 g icing sugar
• 3 tablespoons orange juice
• Orange gel food coloring
• 6 short pretzel sticks
• Green fondant or green chewy sweets, for leaves

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180 C, or 160 C fan. Grease a 12-hole mini bundt pan thoroughly, dust it with flour, and tap out the excess.
2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt in a bowl.
3. In a second bowl, whisk the brown sugar, eggs, pumpkin, oil, and vanilla until smooth. Fold in the dry mixture just until combined.
4. Divide the batter among the 12 cavities and bake for 16 to 18 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool completely.
5. Trim the flat side of each cake level. Pair the cakes and join each pair at the flat sides with a little icing sugar mixed with a few drops of water.
6. Mix the remaining icing sugar with the orange juice and enough coloring to make a thick orange glaze. Spoon it over each assembled pumpkin and let it follow the bundt ridges.
7. Insert a pretzel stem into each center and shape small leaves from green fondant or chewy sweets. Leave the glaze to set before arranging the pumpkins together.

This is an original Baking Show Guide home adaptation, not an official show recipe or a contestant recipe.

If one mini bundt pan must be reused, wash, grease, and flour it again before baking the second batch.

Chill the cakes for 15 minutes before glazing if the joined halves feel unstable.

Open the full recipe →

Episode guide sources

Challenge details verified 2026-07-14. foodnetwork.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Season result

The winner stays hidden until you choose to reveal it.

Full cast

Everyone recorded for Season 4, listed alphabetically without result spoilers.

Season fact sources

en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org.

Complete season breakdown

Every episode and bake

Season five presents six complete pairs of challenges, progressing from skeletons and spirits through Addams Family cakes, mummy crepes, graveyard bakes, and a bleeding zombie-cake finale. This guide records each brief and includes one original home adaptation of the marbled tomb-cake challenge.

1. Episode 1 · Skeletons and monsters

   Halloween Invasion

   Sep 23, 2019

   Skeleton desserts must reveal a dark secret before the bakers imagine the monsters hiding beneath a bed as larger sculpted creations.

   • Preliminary heat

     Skeleton secret dessert

     Make a skeleton-inspired sweet whose edible design communicates the skeleton's dark secret.

   • Main heat

     Monster-under-the-bed dessert

     Create a dessert shaped as an imagined monster under the bed and incorporate homemade marshmallow cream into the bake.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

2. Episode 2 · Spirits and Day of the Dead

   Smells Like Halloween Spirit

   Sep 30, 2019

   Bottled spirits and their illustrated guides inspire the first desserts, while the main round revives old-fashioned bakes with fresh flavors and Day of the Dead decoration.

   • Preliminary heat

     Spirit-guided dessert

     Create a dessert using an assigned spirit, such as bourbon, rum, or orange liqueur, and reflect the character pictured as its spirit guide.

   • Main heat

     Revived classic dessert

     Modernize an assigned old-fashioned dessert with fresh flavor and Day of the Dead styling, including three-dimensional edible flowers.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

3. Episode 3 · The Addams Family

   All Things Weird and Wonderful

   Oct 7, 2019

   The bakers first collaborate on jackfruit desserts with a deceptive exterior, then work individually on character cakes built around variations of red velvet.

   • Preliminary heat

     Scary-outside, sweet-inside team dessert

     Working in pairs, create one cohesive Addams Family-inspired dessert that uses jackfruit and looks frightening outside while revealing a sweet interior.

   • Main heat

     Addams Family dead velvet cake

     Make a colored dead velvet cake depicting an assigned Addams Family character and incorporate an edible snake, eyeball, or spider snack.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

4. Episode 4 · Mummies and jack-o'-lanterns

   Creepy and Crusty Creations

   Oct 14, 2019

   Layered crepe cakes are wrapped as mummies, then pumpkin pies receive split faces showing both a frightening and a friendly side.

   • Preliminary heat

     Mummy crepe cake

     Build a layered crepe cake with a mummy design and flavor it with an assigned preserving ingredient.

   • Main heat

     Two-faced jack-o'-lantern pumpkin pie

     Bake a pumpkin pie using an assigned fall ingredient and decorate its jack-o'-lantern face so one half is scary and the other half is sweet.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

5. Episode 5 · Grave robbers and tombs

   Gravely Delicious Desserts

   Oct 21, 2019

   Underground produce flavors a grave-robber dessert before the semifinalists sculpt tomb cakes marbled in both crumb and decoration.

   • Preliminary heat

     Grave-robber dessert

     Use an assigned underground ingredient, such as sweet potato, carrot, beet, or fennel, in a dessert themed around grave robbing.

   • Main heat

     Marbled tomb cake

     Make a tomb-shaped cake marbled inside and out, use an assigned spice or maple flavor, and customize the grave for a fictional obituary.

   Make our home version →Episode source 1Episode source 2

6. Episode 6 · Ghosts and zombies

   A Haunting We Will Go

   Oct 28, 2019

   The finale begins with ghostly croquembouche towers and ends with zombie cakes engineered to release edible blood during judging.

   • Preliminary heat

     Ghostembouche

     Construct a ghostly interpretation of a croquembouche tower from filled choux pastry.

   • Main heat

     Bleeding zombie cake

     Create a zombie cake with a working edible-blood effect from an assigned body part: heart, brain, or eyes.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

Inspired by the briefs

Bake it at home

These are original Baking Show Guide adaptations for a home kitchen. They are inspired by the challenge briefs, not the contestants' recipes or an official recipe from the show.

Inspired by Episode 5

Marbled Tomb Loaf Cake

A vanilla-and-cocoa marble loaf trimmed into a simple tombstone, coated with gray chocolate glaze, and set over an easy cookie-crumb graveyard.

Time

1 hr 40 min

Makes

One loaf cake, serving 10

Level

Moderate

▶View ingredients and method

Ingredients

• 200 g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for the pan
• 200 g caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 200 g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 60 ml whole milk
• 25 g unsweetened cocoa powder
• 150 g white chocolate, finely chopped
• 75 ml double cream
• Black gel food coloring
• 100 g chocolate sandwich cookies, finely crushed

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180 C, or 160 C fan. Grease a 900 g loaf pan and line it with baking paper, leaving an overhang on the long sides.
2. Beat the butter and sugar for 3 to 4 minutes until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then mix in the vanilla.
3. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Fold the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, followed by 45 ml of the milk.
4. Transfer half the batter to another bowl. Stir the cocoa and remaining milk into one half. Alternate spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate batter in the pan, then draw a skewer through them twice to marble lightly.
5. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes in the pan, then lift the loaf onto a rack and cool completely.
6. Stand the loaf on one short end and trim the opposite end into a rounded tombstone top. Lay it flat again while preparing the glaze.
7. Heat the cream until steaming and pour it over the white chocolate. Leave for 2 minutes, then stir smooth and tint gray with a tiny amount of black coloring. Cool until thick but pourable.
8. Set the cake upright on a serving board and coat it with the gray glaze. Once set, use a little reserved, darker glaze to pipe a short inscription. Scatter the cookie crumbs around the base as soil.

This is an original Baking Show Guide home adaptation, not an official show recipe or a contestant recipe.

Add black coloring with a toothpick; too much can turn the glaze nearly black instead of stone gray.

For easier shaping and glazing, chill the cooled loaf for 30 minutes before trimming it.

Open the full recipe →

Episode guide sources

Challenge details verified 2026-07-14. foodnetwork.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Season result

The winner stays hidden until you choose to reveal it.

Full cast

Everyone recorded for Season 5, listed alphabetically without result spoilers.

Season fact sources

en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org.

Complete season breakdown

Every episode and bake

Season six sends the bakers through a haunted house, with one large themed challenge in each of the first six episodes and two cakes in the finale. The eight documented briefs move from haunted houses and candy croquembouche to a vampire buffet, demon dolls, unusual ingredients, costumes, severed limbs, and floating cakes. One original home adaptation turns the season's beet challenge into chocolate cupcakes.

1. Episode 1 · Deepest fears in a haunted house

   Haunted Housewarming

   Sep 14, 2020

   The haunted-house journey begins in the foyer, where each baker translates a personal fear into a cake before a non-baking dagger game determines a competition reward.

   • Challenge

     Haunted house cake based on a personal fear

     Bake and decorate a haunted house cake that reveals the baker's deepest fear and tells that frightening story through the structure and details.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

2. Episode 2 · Halloween candy and edible illusions

   Trick or Treat Terror

   Sep 21, 2020

   The front porch supplies a trick-or-treat setting for tall choux towers flavored with Halloween candy and finished with a visual illusion.

   • Challenge

     Halloween candy croquembouche with an illusion

     Build a croquembouche around a Halloween candy flavor and incorporate an edible illusion into the finished tower.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

3. Episode 3 · A coordinated vampire feast

   Bloody Good Smorgasbord

   Sep 28, 2020

   In the cellar, pairs trade individual showpieces for a shared buffet of dark, bloody, and coffin-themed sweets fit for a vampire gathering.

   • Challenge

     Team vampire dessert buffet

     Work with a partner to produce a coordinated assortment of small desserts for a vampire buffet, balancing a cohesive display with distinct baked elements.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

4. Episode 4 · Demon dolls in the nursery

   Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down

   Oct 5, 2020

   The creepy nursery demands sculptural cake work as the bakers turn assigned flavors into freestanding evil dolls.

   • Challenge

     Three-dimensional demon doll cake

     Create a three-dimensional cake shaped and decorated as a demon doll while building the assigned flavor into the cake.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

5. Episode 5 · Devilish desserts from unlikely ingredients

   The Devil Made Me Do It

   Oct 12, 2020

   The devil's den tests flavor judgment by assigning ingredients more familiar in savory cooking, including sauerkraut, beets, tamarind paste, and canned tomato soup.

   • Challenge

     Devilish dessert with an unusual ingredient

     Make a devil-themed dessert that uses an assigned unusual ingredient such as sauerkraut, beets, tamarind paste, or canned tomato soup as a deliberate part of the flavor.

   Make our home version →Episode source 1Episode source 2

6. Episode 6 · Wearable looks translated into cake

   The Costume Ball

   Oct 19, 2020

   A ballroom costume party becomes the semifinal assignment, with the remaining bakers creating cake versions of dramatic Halloween disguises.

   • Challenge

     Costume-inspired cake

     Design a cake that convincingly represents a Halloween costume, using cake structure and edible decoration to capture the outfit's recognizable features.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

7. Episode 7 · Surgical horror and cakes that appear to float

   The Doctor Will See You Now

   Oct 26, 2020

   The finale opens in a mad doctor's surgical room with severed anatomy, then asks the last bakers to engineer elevated cakes for the title.

   • Opening

     Severed limb cake

     Bake and sculpt a realistic severed-limb cake suited to the mad doctor's surgical room.

   • Final

     Floating cake

     Create a final cake with a supported design that makes the decorated cake appear to float above its base.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

Inspired by the briefs

Bake it at home

These are original Baking Show Guide adaptations for a home kitchen. They are inspired by the challenge briefs, not the contestants' recipes or an official recipe from the show.

Inspired by Episode 5

Beet Chocolate Devil Cupcakes

Dark cocoa cupcakes made tender with beet puree, filled with raspberry sauce, and topped with chocolate frosting.

Time

57 min

Makes

12 cupcakes

Level

Medium

▶View ingredients and method

Ingredients

• 180 g cooked beetroot, drained and roughly chopped
• 120 ml neutral oil
• 150 g granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 140 g all-purpose flour
• 45 g unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 120 g seedless raspberry jam
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 170 g dark chocolate, chopped
• 150 ml heavy cream
• 30 g unsalted butter
• 12 small red candy decorations, optional

Method

1. Heat the oven to 175 C, or 160 C fan. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper cases.
2. Blend the beetroot and oil until completely smooth. Whisk in the sugar, eggs, and vanilla.
3. In a second bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Fold the dry ingredients into the beet mixture just until no dry streaks remain.
4. Divide the batter among the cases and bake for 19 to 22 minutes, until the tops spring back and a tester inserted away from the center comes out clean. Cool completely.
5. Warm the raspberry jam with the lemon juice until smooth, then cool. Cut a small core from each cupcake, spoon in about 2 teaspoons of jam, and replace a thin cap of cake.
6. Place the chopped chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until steaming, pour it over the chocolate, and leave for 2 minutes before stirring smooth.
7. Cool the ganache until thick enough to spread, then frost the cupcakes and add a red decoration if using.

This is an original Baking Show Guide home adaptation inspired by the episode brief. It is not a contestant recipe and not an official Food Network recipe.

Use plain cooked beetroot rather than beetroot packed in vinegar.

Blend the beetroot thoroughly so it supplies moisture without leaving pieces in the crumb.

Open the full recipe →

Episode guide sources

Challenge details verified 2026-07-14. foodnetwork.com, foodnetwork.com.

Season result

The winner stays hidden until you choose to reveal it.

Full cast

Everyone recorded for Season 6, listed alphabetically without result spoilers.

Season fact sources

en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org.

Complete season breakdown

Every episode and bake

Season seven stages a slasher story at Camp Devil's Food Lake. Across seven episodes and fifteen bakes, the competitors make cereal pies, camp cakes, paired cookies, portrait cakes, body-part cupcakes, Battenbergs, terror-misu, blood-drip cakes, doughnuts, tsunami cakes, patterned rolls, fault-line cakes, and a three-round finale. One original home adaptation draws on the documented terror-misu brief.

1. Episode 1 · Cereal killers and the dangerous camp lake

   Welcome to Camp Devil's Food Lake

   Sep 13, 2021

   The camp opens with pies built around breakfast cereal before oversized cakes depict the monstrous waters of Devil's Food Lake.

   • Opening

     Cereal killer pie

     Create a pie inspired by a breakfast cereal and present it with a sinister cereal-killer design.

   • Main

     Devil's Food Lake mega cake

     Build a large cake that portrays the frightening waters and lurking danger of Camp Devil's Food Lake.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

2. Episode 2 · Creepy home cookies and a blind team portrait

   Back from the Dead

   Sep 20, 2021

   Returning bakers join the campers for a paired cookie assignment, followed by a blind collaboration in which two cake halves reveal opposite sides of the camp mother.

   • Opening

     Paired creepy cookies from home

     Work in pairs to create creepy cookies that draw on the bakers' home styles while reading as a coordinated set.

   • Main

     Blind good-and-evil mother portrait cake

     In teams, make separate cake halves without seeing the partner's work, then join them into one portrait showing the good and evil sides of the mother character.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

3. Episode 3 · Creepy anatomy and bat-patterned British cake

   Bat in Black

   Sep 27, 2021

   Pull-apart cupcakes form gruesome body parts before the bakers give the precise checkerboard of a Battenberg cake a bat-inspired makeover.

   • Opening

     Body-part pull-apart cupcakes

     Arrange and decorate cupcakes as a recognizable creepy body part, with the individual cakes forming one pull-apart design.

   • Main

     Bat-themed Battenberg cake

     Bake a Battenberg cake with a clean internal pattern and decorate the British classic around a bat theme.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

4. Episode 4 · Terror-misu and bloody drip cakes

   Don't B-Negative

   Oct 4, 2021

   A classic Italian dessert becomes terror-misu, then the blood theme carries into a contemporary drip-cake assignment.

   • Opening

     Terror-misu

     Reimagine tiramisu as a frightening plated or layered terror-misu while retaining the identity of the classic dessert.

   • Main

     Blood-drip cake

     Create a polished drip cake whose glaze and decoration make the finished cake look chillingly blood-soaked.

   Make our home version →Episode source 1Episode source 2

5. Episode 5 · Prom-night doughnuts and tsunami cakes

   Dance Your Life Away

   Oct 11, 2021

   The camp prom starts with spooky doughnuts, then unstable-looking tsunami cakes release a dramatic flood of icing around gruesome designs.

   • Opening

     Killer prom doughnuts

     Make decorated doughnuts suited to a deadly camp prom, combining a clear horror concept with a finished fried or baked doughnut.

   • Main

     Terrifying tsunami cake

     Construct a tsunami cake whose removable collar releases a flowing glaze and reveals a frightening central design.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

6. Episode 6 · Patterns hidden inside and faults exposed outside

   Peek-a-BOO

   Oct 18, 2021

   The semifinalists first reveal Halloween imagery in sliced roll cakes, then expose a decorated inner band through the split surface of fault-line cakes.

   • Opening

     Patterned peek-a-boo roll cake

     Bake a rolled cake with a deliberate Halloween pattern that remains clear on the finished sponge.

   • Main

     Frightening fault-line cake

     Make a fault-line cake with a visible decorated band breaking through the outer finish and use the effect for a frightening design.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

7. Episode 7 · Feared ingredients, sudden death, and the killer's mind

   Finale: The Killer Is ...

   Oct 25, 2021

   Four finalists confront ingredients they dislike, the bottom pair face a cream-puff sudden death, and the final three build tall cakes depicting the serial killer's mind.

   • Opening

     Fear dessert using a hated ingredient

     Turn a personally hated ingredient into a composed dessert that makes the difficult flavor feel intentional.

   • Sudden death

     Gooey-filled cream puff

     The bottom two bakers create cream puffs with a gooey filling, and only the stronger bake advances to the title round.

   • Final

     Tall cake depicting the mind of the killer

     Build a tall tiered or carved finale cake that visualizes what is inside the camp killer's mind.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

Inspired by the briefs

Bake it at home

These are original Baking Show Guide adaptations for a home kitchen. They are inspired by the challenge briefs, not the contestants' recipes or an official recipe from the show.

Inspired by Episode 4

Blood Orange Terror-misu Cups

Individual espresso-soaked ladyfinger desserts layered with orange mascarpone cream and a sharp blood orange sauce.

Time

43 min

Makes

6 cups

Level

Easy

▶View ingredients and method

Ingredients

• 240 ml strong brewed espresso, cooled
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 18 crisp ladyfingers
• 250 g mascarpone, cold
• 240 ml heavy cream, cold
• 55 g confectioners' sugar
• Finely grated zest of 1 orange
• 180 ml blood orange juice
• 35 g granulated sugar, for the sauce
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon cold water
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• Unsweetened cocoa powder, for finishing

Method

1. Stir the espresso with 2 tablespoons sugar and the vanilla until the sugar dissolves, then leave it to cool completely.
2. Combine the blood orange juice and 35 g sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer and cook for 3 minutes.
3. Stir the cornstarch and cold water together, whisk the slurry into the juice, and simmer for 1 minute until glossy. Stir in the lemon juice and cool completely.
4. Beat the mascarpone, cream, confectioners' sugar, and orange zest on low speed until combined, then on medium speed until the mixture holds soft peaks. Do not overbeat.
5. Break the ladyfingers to fit six 240 ml serving glasses. Dip each piece quickly in the espresso and place a layer in each glass.
6. Add a layer of mascarpone cream and a spoonful of blood orange sauce. Repeat the ladyfinger, cream, and sauce layers, leaving streaks of red sauce visible at the sides.
7. Cover and chill for at least 4 hours. Dust lightly with cocoa just before serving.

This is an original Baking Show Guide home adaptation inspired by the episode brief. It is not a contestant recipe and not an official Food Network recipe.

This egg-free mascarpone filling avoids the raw eggs used in some traditional tiramisu recipes.

Dip the ladyfingers briefly so the layers soften without becoming watery.

Open the full recipe →

Episode guide sources

Challenge details verified 2026-07-14. foodnetwork.com, foodnetwork.com.

Season result

The winner stays hidden until you choose to reveal it.

Full cast

Everyone recorded for Season 7, listed alphabetically without result spoilers.

Season fact sources

en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org.

Complete season breakdown

Every episode and bake

Season eight checks twelve bakers into Hotel Henson for eight episodes and sixteen documented challenges. The hotel story covers forensic pies, blood-spatter cakes, croquembouche, death-themed classics, a cat-cake elimination, a team maze, fermented and flambeed desserts, wound cakes, upside-down and twin cakes, cocktail sweets, nightmare entremets, grazing boards, and a black-wedding-cake finale. One original home adaptation answers the pineapple-free upside-down-cake brief.

1. Episode 1 · Forensic faces and blood-spatter cakes

   Welcome to Hotel Henson

   Sep 12, 2022

   The hotel opens as a dessert crime scene, first asking for faces assembled from pie and then for cakes patterned with convincing edible blood spatter.

   • Opening

     Detective face pie

     Create a baked pie and use its crust, filling, and decoration to form a recognizable face for the hotel's detective scene.

   • Main

     Blood-spatter cake

     Bake and decorate a cake with an intentional blood-spatter effect that supports the flavor and crime-scene presentation.

   Episode source

2. Episode 2 · Puss in Boots and three lives on dessert death row

   Croquem-boots

   Sep 19, 2022

   A feline hotel guest inspires a boot-shaped choux tower, a fatal makeover of an old-school dessert, and a last-chance cake sized for a cat.

   • Opening

     Croquem-boots

     Transform a croquembouche into a Puss in Boots-inspired croquem-boots display while preserving a stable choux tower.

   • Main

     Old-school dessert redesigned as a method of death

     Reinvent a familiar old-school dessert so its final form depicts an assigned or chosen method of death.

   • Elimination

     Cat-sized last-wish cake

     The bottom two bakers make small cat-sized cakes representing a judge's last-wish dessert, with one baker eliminated after the extra bake.

   Episode source

3. Episode 3 · A supersized edible hedge maze

   Maze Madness

   Sep 26, 2022

   The season's only single-challenge episode pairs the bakers for an oversized maze cake with an edible reward waiting at its center.

   • Team challenge

     Supersized haunted maze cake

     Working in teams, build a large cake maze with a navigable hedge-maze design and a baked prize at the center; the double elimination is based on this one challenge.

   Episode source

4. Episode 4 · Mold, fermentation, and desserts made to smash

   Spoiled Rotten by Axe-ident

   Oct 3, 2022

   The bakers simulate decay with fermented flavors before creating desserts whose dramatic finish comes from being smashed open.

   • Opening

     Moldy dessert with a fermented ingredient

     Make a dessert that looks convincingly moldy and incorporate a fermented ingredient into the flavor.

   • Main

     Smashable axe-ident dessert

     Construct a finished dessert designed to be broken or smashed as part of its reveal and axe-accident story.

   Episode source

5. Episode 5 · Desserts on fire and anatomical cake wounds

   FlamBakers and Open Wounds

   Oct 10, 2022

   Classic flambe desserts receive Halloween makeovers before realistic open wounds test cake sculpting and finishing.

   • Opening

     Reinvented flambe dessert

     Rework a classic flambe dessert into a Halloween sweet and use controlled flame as part of the preparation or presentation.

   • Main

     Realistic open-wound cake

     Sculpt and decorate a cake as a realistic open wound while delivering a complete cake with intentional flavor and texture.

   Episode source

6. Episode 6 · Upside-down cakes and deceptive twins

   Eyes on the Prize

   Oct 17, 2022

   A pineapple-free upside-down cake opens the episode, followed by team cakes that look identical outside but reveal different flavors within.

   • Opening

     Upside-down cake without pineapple

     Create an upside-down cake using fruit or another topping arrangement other than the traditional pineapple.

   • Main

     Identical-looking twin cakes with different flavors

     In pairs, make two cakes that appear identical from the outside but taste completely different when cut and judged.

   Make our home version →Episode source

7. Episode 7 · Cocktails in a bottle and worst-nightmare entremets

   We've Got Spirit

   Oct 24, 2022

   Classic drinks become composed desserts before the remaining bakers make matched sets of layered entremets based on personal fears.

   • Opening

     Classic cocktail dessert in a bottle

     Translate a classic cocktail into a dessert and present the drink's recognizable flavors through a lighting-in-a-bottle concept.

   • Main

     Set of worst-nightmare entremets

     Produce a matched set of layered entremets that represents the baker's worst nightmare through both finish and flavor.

   Episode source

8. Episode 8 · A funeral grazing board and black wedding cakes

   Cheers to the Newlydeads

   Oct 31, 2022

   The finalists honor a dead couple with both sweet and savory bites, then stage their wedding with three-tiered black cakes.

   • Opening

     Sweet and savory newlydead grazing board

     Assemble a coordinated grazing board containing both sweet and savory baked elements in honor of a dearly departed couple.

   • Final

     Three-tiered black wedding cake

     Bake, stack, and decorate a three-tiered black wedding cake for the deadliest wedding at Hotel Henson.

   Episode source

Inspired by the briefs

Bake it at home

These are original Baking Show Guide adaptations for a home kitchen. They are inspired by the challenge briefs, not the contestants' recipes or an official recipe from the show.

Inspired by Episode 6

Apple Cranberry Upside-Down Cake

A tender spice cake with a glossy top of caramelized apples and tart cranberries in place of pineapple.

Time

1 hr 18 min

Makes

One 23 cm cake, 10 servings

Level

Medium

▶View ingredients and method

Ingredients

• 70 g unsalted butter, divided
• 110 g light brown sugar
• 2 medium firm apples, peeled, cored, and cut into thin wedges
• 90 g fresh or frozen cranberries
• 190 g all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 140 g granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 180 ml buttermilk

Method

1. Heat the oven to 175 C, or 160 C fan. Grease a 23 cm round cake pan and line the base with baking paper.
2. Melt 40 g butter and stir in the brown sugar. Spread the mixture across the lined base, then arrange the apple wedges in overlapping circles and scatter the cranberries into the gaps.
3. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt in a bowl.
4. Beat the remaining 30 g butter with the granulated sugar until well combined. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla.
5. Fold in one-third of the flour mixture, followed by half the buttermilk. Repeat, then fold in the remaining flour just until smooth.
6. Spoon the batter carefully over the fruit and level the top. Bake for 43 to 48 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Cool in the pan for 12 minutes. Run a thin knife around the edge, place a serving plate over the pan, and invert in one confident motion. Remove the paper and serve warm or at room temperature.

This is an original Baking Show Guide home adaptation inspired by the episode brief. It is not a contestant recipe and not an official Food Network recipe.

If using frozen cranberries, add them directly from the freezer so they do not stain the apple layer before baking.

Invert the cake while the caramel is still warm; once cold, the fruit is more likely to remain in the pan.

Open the full recipe →

Episode guide sources

Challenge details verified 2026-07-14. foodnetwork.com.

Season result

The winner stays hidden until you choose to reveal it.

Full cast

Everyone recorded for Season 8, listed alphabetically without result spoilers.

Season fact sources

en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org.

Complete season breakdown

Every episode and bake

Season nine unfolds across eight episodes and sixteen bakes at the ruined Henson and Sons Carnival. Its documented briefs include tarot-misu, clown and carousel cakes, bloody doughnuts, flambeed pavlovas, alien Charlotte royales, Bloody Mary bar desserts, body-part Franken-cakes, buried-alive trifles, shrunken-head pies, melting and swallowed desserts, torta della nonna, smashable sweets, flourless desserts, and final cakescapes. One original home adaptation is based on the fire-eater pavlova challenge.

1. Episode 1 · Tarot layers and a new clown mascot

   Welcome to Henson & Sons Carnival

   Sep 11, 2023

   The carnival's fatal history appears in layered tarot-misu desserts before each baker proposes a creepy clown cake as the attraction's new mascot.

   • Opening

     Tarot-misu depicting the carnival's demise

     Layer a tiramisu-inspired tarot-misu and decorate it to predict or depict the untimely demise of Henson and Sons Carnival.

   • Main

     Creepy clown mascot cake

     Design and bake a clown cake that could serve as the carnival's new mascot, combining a readable character with unsettling details.

   Episode source

2. Episode 2 · Bloody doughnuts and a two-faced carousel

   Do-nut Ride This Carousel

   Sep 18, 2023

   Filled doughnuts commemorate a carnival accident before spinning cakes contrast the joy and doom of a creepy carousel.

   • Opening

     Bloody filled doughnuts

     Make filled doughnuts that release or display a blood-like filling in remembrance of an unfortunate carnival accident.

   • Main

     Creepy carousel cake

     Build a carousel cake that takes the judges from a joyful side of the ride to a doomed or frightening side.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

3. Episode 3 · Fire-eater meringues and oozing alien heads

   Fire-Breathing Pavlovas and Alien Oddities

   Sep 25, 2023

   Char and controlled flame transform pavlovas before Charlotte royale cakes become alien heads with deliberately oozing interiors.

   • Opening

     Charred and flambeed pavlova

     Create a pavlova inspired by the carnival's Australian fire eater and use charring or a controlled flambe effect in the finished dessert.

   • Main

     Oozing alien-head Charlotte royale

     Construct a Charlotte royale cake as an alien head and include an oozing element that is revealed in the presentation or slice.

   Make our home version →Episode source

4. Episode 4 · Bloody Mary reflections and fused anatomy

   The Fantastic Fondante and Funhouse Hall of Mirrors

   Oct 2, 2023

   The funhouse ghost inspires bar-style desserts based on Bloody Mary, then teams join realistic body parts into deliberately unnatural Franken-cakes.

   • Opening

     Bloody Mary bar dessert

     Create a bar dessert inspired by Bloody Mary and the carnival's hall-of-mirrors ghost.

   • Main

     Team body-part Franken-cake

     Working in teams, fuse two different realistic body parts into one cake with a seamless but monstrous transition.

   Episode source

5. Episode 5 · Buried trifles and shrunken-head pies

   Heads Will Roll

   Oct 9, 2023

   The escape artist's early grave becomes a layered trifle scene, while the carnival's gruesome wind chimes inspire sculpted head-shaped pies.

   • Opening

     Buried-alive trifle

     Layer a trifle that depicts the carnival escape artist buried alive, using the vessel and visible layers as part of the scene.

   • Main

     Shrunken-head pie

     Bake a pie and shape or decorate its crust as a shrunken human head inspired by the carnival's wind chimes.

   Episode source

6. Episode 6 · Desserts that melt and desserts that swallow

   Sword Swallow Your Pride

   Oct 16, 2023

   The Human Ice Pop prompts a deliberately melting sweet, then the sword swallower's fate becomes a nested dessert hidden inside another dessert.

   • Opening

     Dessert designed to melt

     Make a dessert inspired by the Human Ice Pop that visibly melts as an intentional part of its presentation.

   • Main

     Dessert that swallowed another dessert

     Create one complete dessert with a second, distinct dessert concealed inside it, echoing the carnival sword swallower.

   Episode source

7. Episode 7 · The carnival matriarch and the fallen strong man

   A Smashing Good Time

   Oct 23, 2023

   Torta della nonna honors the Tattooed Woman before the Strong Man's destruction inspires desserts made to be broken open at judging.

   • Opening

     Torta della nonna honoring the Tattooed Woman

     Bake a torta della nonna and decorate or flavor it as a tribute to the carnival family's tattooed matriarch.

   • Main

     Smashable Strong Man dessert

     Construct a dessert that can be smashed open in front of the judges, using the break and interior reveal to tell the Strong Man's fate.

   Episode source

8. Episode 8 · Flowers for the dead and a reopened carnival

   Step Fright Up

   Oct 30, 2023

   The finalists commemorate lost carnival souls with flourless desserts, then imagine the attraction's future in large cakescapes built around new rides.

   • Opening

     Flourless memorial dessert

     Create a flourless dessert to accompany the carnival's memorial for its lost souls.

   • Final

     New carnival attraction cakescape

     Build a large cakescape depicting a new carnival attraction for the grand reopening of Henson and Sons Carnival.

   Episode source

Inspired by the briefs

Bake it at home

These are original Baking Show Guide adaptations for a home kitchen. They are inspired by the challenge briefs, not the contestants' recipes or an official recipe from the show.

Inspired by Episode 3

Charred Plum Mini Pavlovas

Crisp-chewy cocoa meringues topped with vanilla cream, broiled plums, and a glossy red plum sauce.

Time

2 hrs 10 min

Makes

6 pavlovas

Level

Medium

▶View ingredients and method

Ingredients

• 3 large egg whites, at room temperature
• 165 g superfine sugar
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 4 ripe but firm red plums
• 35 g light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice, for the plums
• 240 ml heavy cream
• 20 g confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, for the cream

Method

1. Heat the oven to 120 C, or 105 C fan. Line a baking sheet with baking paper and mark six 9 cm circles.
2. Whip the egg whites to soft peaks. Add the superfine sugar one spoonful at a time, beating until the meringue is thick, glossy, and no longer gritty.
3. Fold in the cornstarch, lemon juice, and 1 teaspoon vanilla, then lightly fold in the cocoa so a few dark streaks remain.
4. Spoon the meringue into the marked circles and make a shallow well in each center. Bake for 75 minutes, turn off the oven, and leave the pavlovas inside for 20 minutes with the door closed. Cool completely.
5. Halve and pit the plums. Cut three plums into wedges and toss with 20 g brown sugar. Arrange on a foil-lined tray and broil for 3 to 5 minutes, watching constantly, until the edges char.
6. Dice the remaining plum and simmer it with the remaining 15 g brown sugar, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons water for 8 minutes. Mash and strain for a smooth red sauce, then cool.
7. Whip the cream with the confectioners' sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla to soft peaks. Fill each pavlova with cream, add charred plum wedges, and spoon over the plum sauce.

This is an original Baking Show Guide home adaptation inspired by the episode brief. It is not a contestant recipe and not an official Food Network recipe.

This home version uses a broiler rather than an alcohol flambe; keep the tray close to the heat and watch it continuously.

Assemble shortly before serving so the meringue shells retain their crisp edges.

Open the full recipe →

Episode guide sources

Challenge details verified 2026-07-14. foodnetwork.com.

Season result

The winner stays hidden until you choose to reveal it.

Full cast

Everyone recorded for Season 9, listed alphabetically without result spoilers.

Season fact sources

en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org.

Complete season breakdown

Every episode and bake

Season ten turns Henson Labs into a seven-episode experiment with fourteen documented challenges. Sugar glass, bubbling desserts, black-and-white sweets, shrinker illusions, candy-corn specimens, mutated toy cakes, umami mummies, skeletal candy-bar desserts, tornadoes, melted witches, X-ray spirits, portal entremets, gummy-heart dissections, and time-travel cakes all enter the lab. One original home adaptation uses miso in a mummy-themed dessert bar.

1. Episode 1 · Broken glass and a toxic chemical spill

   Laboratory Story

   Sep 16, 2024

   The Chemistry Laboratory opens with shattered sugar work, then the bakers turn an imagined toxic spill into desserts that appear to bubble.

   • Opening

     Broken-glass dessert featuring sugar glass

     Create a dessert inspired by the lab's smashed equipment and feature edible sugar glass as a clear part of the design.

   • Main

     Sinister bubbling toxic-spill dessert

     Make a dessert that appears to bubble or react as though it came from a toxic chemical spill.

   Episode source

2. Episode 2 · Black-and-white flavors and distorted scale

   Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

   Sep 23, 2024

   A Beetlejuice-inspired palette limits the opening desserts before a shrinker experiment stacks a miniature dessert above an oversized version.

   • Opening

     Black-and-white dessert with matching ingredients

     Make a black-and-white dessert using ingredients that reinforce the two-color Beetlejuice-inspired palette.

   • Main

     Shrinker dessert with tiny and large scales

     Construct a scale-illusion dessert with a tiny dessert on top and a large version on the bottom.

   Episode source

3. Episode 3 · Candy-corn specimens and mutated toys

   Mad Mutations and Transformations

   Sep 30, 2024

   Research teams use unusual candy-corn flavors in filled specimen desserts, then individual bakers transform cute stuffed animals into edible monsters.

   • Opening

     Team lab-specimen stuffed dessert

     In research teams, use an exotic candy-corn flavor in a filled dessert decorated as a lab specimen with a tongue, eyeball, nose, or toe.

   • Main

     Cute-to-creepy mutated stuffed-animal dessert

     Turn an adorable stuffed-animal subject into a dessert showing its transformation into a mutated monster.

   Episode source

4. Episode 4 · Umami mummies and candy-bar skeletons

   Rotten and Forgotten Desserts

   Oct 7, 2024

   The Fermentation Lab supplies savory umami ingredients for sweet mummies, while the lab skeleton inspires desserts built around miniature Halloween chocolate bars.

   • Opening

     Sweet umami mummy dessert

     Create a mummy-themed sweet using an umami ingredient such as red miso, aged Parmesan, gochujang, or soy sauce.

   • Main

     Skeletal dessert using mini chocolate bars

     Use Halloween-size chocolate bars in a dessert whose decoration or structure depicts the lab skeleton's forgotten remains.

   Make our home version →Episode source

5. Episode 5 · Wizard of Oz tornadoes and melted witches

   Wizard of Labs

   Oct 14, 2024

   The atmospheric chamber turns Dorothy's trip to Oz into a spinning-storm dessert before the acid pit demands sweets based on the Wicked Witch's melting end.

   • Opening

     Wizard of Oz tornado dessert

     Create a tornado-themed dessert that honors Dorothy's turbulent journey to Oz.

   • Main

     Melted-witch dessert

     Make a dessert depicting a witch melting into the lab's acid pit, with the melted effect central to the presentation.

   Episode source

6. Episode 6 · Spirit X-rays and a portal to the underworld

   Otherworldly Treats

   Oct 21, 2024

   Monstrous X-ray images become templates for assembled spirits, then layered entremets open to reveal creatures escaping through an underworld portal.

   • Opening

     Build-a-spirit dessert from an X-ray template

     Use a monstrous spirit X-ray as the template for an assembled dessert that reproduces the figure's defining anatomy.

   • Main

     Portal entremet revealing an otherworldly creature

     Construct a layered entremet as a portal to the underworld and reveal a creature emerging from or hidden within it.

   Episode source

7. Episode 7 · Dissected hearts and monsters from the ancient past

   The Past Comes Back to Haunt You

   Oct 28, 2024

   The finale begins with edible hearts made for dissection, then a time machine supplies historical monster subjects for the championship cakes.

   • Opening

     Dissection dessert with a gummy heart

     Create an anatomy-themed dessert containing a gummy heart that the judges can cut open and dissect.

   • Final

     Ancient-monster time-travel cake

     Bake a finale cake based on a monster from the ancient past, with inspirations including medieval vampires and early aliens.

   Episode source

Inspired by the briefs

Bake it at home

These are original Baking Show Guide adaptations for a home kitchen. They are inspired by the challenge briefs, not the contestants' recipes or an official recipe from the show.

Inspired by Episode 4

Miso Caramel Mummy Bars

Chewy brown-sugar bars layered with white-miso caramel and finished with white-chocolate mummy bandages.

Time

1 hr 5 min

Makes

16 bars

Level

Medium

▶View ingredients and method

Ingredients

• 170 g unsalted butter, melted and divided
• 220 g light brown sugar
• 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 210 g all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 100 g granulated sugar
• 120 ml heavy cream, warmed
• 2 tablespoons white miso
• 140 g white chocolate, chopped
• 32 small candy eyes

Method

1. Heat the oven to 175 C, or 160 C fan. Line a 20 cm square pan with baking paper, leaving an overhang.
2. Whisk 120 g melted butter with the brown sugar, egg, yolk, and vanilla until glossy.
3. Fold in the flour, baking powder, and salt just until combined. Spread the batter evenly in the pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the edges are set and the center has no wet batter. Cool completely.
4. For the caramel, heat the granulated sugar in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat until it melts and turns amber. Remove from the heat and carefully whisk in the warm cream; the mixture will bubble strongly.
5. Whisk the remaining 50 g butter into the caramel, followed by the miso. Return to low heat for 1 minute if needed to dissolve any firm caramel, then cool until thick but spreadable.
6. Spread a thin layer of miso caramel over the cooled slab and chill for 20 minutes. Cut into 16 bars.
7. Melt the white chocolate gently. Drizzle it back and forth over each bar to resemble mummy bandages, then attach two candy eyes before the chocolate sets.

This is an original Baking Show Guide home adaptation inspired by the episode brief. It is not a contestant recipe and not an official Food Network recipe.

Caramel and steam can cause severe burns; use a deep saucepan and add the warm cream slowly with your hands clear of the rising steam.

White miso is mild enough to deepen the caramel without making the bars taste overtly savory.

Open the full recipe →

Episode guide sources

Challenge details verified 2026-07-14. foodnetwork.com.

Season result

The winner stays hidden until you choose to reveal it.

Full cast

Everyone recorded for Season 10, listed alphabetically without result spoilers.

Season fact sources

en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org.

Complete season breakdown

Every episode and bake

Season eleven places ten bakers in a haunted mansion and changes the elimination format: the bottom three usually bake again, while episodes four and five use one bake for both the cash win and elimination. The seven normalized episodes contain twelve documented challenges involving edible blood, witch symbols, organ donation, possessed appliances, ghosts, cryptic messages, spliced souls, childhood monsters, deranged clowns, haunted grounds, and feared-demise cakes. One original home adaptation creates a raspberry-filled answer to the edible-blood brief.

1. Episode 1 · Pumping blood and protective witch symbols

   For Doom the Bell Tolls

   Sep 15, 2025

   The mansion opens with each baker's greatest Halloween fright rendered as a bloody moving dessert, then the bottom three use occult symbols to ward off the house's evil.

   • Opening

     Halloween-fright dessert that pumps edible blood

     Depict the baker's number one Halloween fright as a dessert and engineer it to pump or visibly move edible blood.

   • Elimination

     Protective witch-symbol dessert

     The bottom three bakers create desserts based on witch symbols intended to ward evil spirits away from the mansion.

   Make our home version →Episode source

2. Episode 2 · Organ donation and household objects that attack

   This Bold House

   Sep 22, 2025

   A body in the refrigerator supplies an anatomical organ-donation brief, after which the lowest-ranked bakers turn ordinary appliances into possessed attackers.

   • Opening

     Organ-donation dessert

     Create an anatomical dessert honoring the mansion's deceased organ donor, with an edible organ central to the design.

   • Elimination

     When-household-items-attack dessert

     The bottom three bakers make a dessert shaped as a possessed toaster, haunted handheld vacuum, or demented old television.

   Episode source

3. Episode 3 · Ghostly transformations and family history

   Engrossed with Ghosts

   Sep 29, 2025

   A supernatural encounter prompts transformation desserts before the bottom three research their own family stories for personal ancestor ghosts.

   • Opening

     Ghostly transformation dessert

     Create a supernatural dessert that shows or reveals a transformation into a ghostly form.

   • Elimination

     Ghost dessert based on an actual ancestor

     The bottom three bakers use a real ancestor from their family history as the subject of a personal ghost dessert.

   Episode source

4. Episode 4 · A hidden dispatch from the other side

   Messages From Beyond

   Oct 6, 2025

   For the first single-bake episode of the season, every baker must reveal an eerie message in dessert; the same result determines both the cash winner and the elimination.

   • Challenge

     Cryptic-message reveal dessert

     Create a dessert that conceals and then reveals a readable eerie message from the other side, with all bakers at risk of elimination.

   Episode source

5. Episode 5 · Two beings fused into one body

   Flawed Anatomy

   Oct 13, 2025

   A second single-bake elimination asks the remaining bakers to make the anatomical horror of two souls spliced into one edible being.

   • Challenge

     Spliced-souls fusion dessert

     Fuse two distinct beings into one monstrous dessert, making both original subjects and their disturbing anatomical transformation legible.

   Episode source

6. Episode 6 · Childhood monsters and deranged clowns

   It All Begins with Us

   Oct 20, 2025

   Pennywise frames a semifinal about childhood fears, then the bottom three must survive a clown-themed elimination to reach the finale.

   • Opening

     Childhood-monster fear dessert

     Create a dessert inspired by the monster that most frightened the baker as a child.

   • Elimination

     Deranged-clown dessert

     The bottom three bakers make deranged clown desserts, with only two of them earning places in the finale.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

7. Episode 7 · The mansion grounds and each finalist's feared death

   Happy Haunting Grounds

   Oct 27, 2025

   The final four landscape their opening desserts around haunted places to earn an advantage, then confront their darkest fears in cakes depicting how they dread dying.

   • Opening

     Haunted-grounds dessert

     Create a dessert inspired by eerie haunted grounds, with the challenge winner earning an advantage for the final bake.

   • Final

     Most-feared-demise cake

     Bake a finale cake depicting the way the baker most fears dying, using the cake to tell that personal horror story.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

Inspired by the briefs

Bake it at home

These are original Baking Show Guide adaptations for a home kitchen. They are inspired by the challenge briefs, not the contestants' recipes or an official recipe from the show.

Inspired by Episode 1

Raspberry-Blood Chocolate Cakes

Small dark chocolate cakes filled after baking with a vivid raspberry sauce that spills out when cut.

Time

1 hr 2 min

Makes

8 small cakes

Level

Medium

▶View ingredients and method

Ingredients

• 140 g all-purpose flour
• 45 g unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 160 g granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 120 ml neutral oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 140 ml buttermilk
• 100 ml hot coffee
• 220 g frozen raspberries
• 65 g granulated sugar, for the filling
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon cold water
• 120 g dark chocolate, chopped
• 120 ml heavy cream

Method

1. Heat the oven to 175 C, or 160 C fan. Grease eight wells of a large muffin pan and line the bases with small rounds of baking paper.
2. Whisk the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and 160 g sugar in a large bowl.
3. Whisk the eggs, oil, vanilla, and buttermilk in a second bowl. Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients, then whisk in the hot coffee to make a thin batter.
4. Divide the batter among the prepared wells and bake for 19 to 22 minutes, until the cakes spring back when lightly pressed. Cool for 10 minutes, turn out, and cool completely.
5. Simmer the raspberries, 65 g sugar, and lemon juice for 6 minutes. Mash the fruit, then stir together the cornstarch and cold water and add it to the pan. Simmer for 1 minute until glossy and thickened. Strain out the seeds and cool.
6. Cut a cavity from the bottom of each cake without piercing the top. Pipe or spoon in raspberry filling, then seal each opening with a trimmed piece of cake.
7. Put the chopped chocolate in a bowl. Heat the cream until steaming, pour it over the chocolate, and stir smooth after 2 minutes. Coat the tops of the cakes with ganache.
8. Serve each cake upright. The raspberry filling will spill like edible blood when the cake is cut.

This is an original Baking Show Guide home adaptation inspired by the episode brief. It is not a contestant recipe and not an official Food Network recipe.

This simplified home version releases edible blood when cut rather than using a pump mechanism.

Keep the filled cakes refrigerated and bring them to cool room temperature for 20 minutes before serving.

Open the full recipe →

Episode guide sources

Challenge details verified 2026-07-14. foodnetwork.com, foodnetwork.com.

Season result

The winner stays hidden until you choose to reveal it.

Full cast

Everyone recorded for Season 11, listed alphabetically without result spoilers.

Season fact sources

en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org.