Sugar Rush Christmas (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Christmas Spirit - full transcript
This is Sugar Rush Christmas,
the baking competition where time
is the most important ingredient.
Four teams of brilliant bakers
compete against each other
and the clock
over three rounds of competition.
The faster they work, the better,
because any time saved
from round one: cupcakes,
Confections,
will be banked and added
to their third and final round: cakes.
I'm your host, Hunter March,
and determining which of these teams
is going home with $10,000
of Christmas spirit
is our cheery panel of judges.
She is sure to put anyone
in the holiday spirit.
It's Candace Nelson,
creator of the world's first
cupcake-only bakery,
Sprinkles Cupcakes.
Next up,
the Ghost of Sugar Rush Christmas
past, present, and future,
Adriano Zumbo.
He's one of Australia's
most celebrated pastry chefs.
And today, our spirited group
of bakers are competing in,
you guessed it, three rounds
of Christmas spirit-themed challenges.
And finally, our guest judge for the day,
YouTube star, actress, TV host,
and everything in between, Liza Koshy.
Candace is inside right now,
walking our bakers through round one
of their Christmas spirit-themed
challenges.
And that sound means
that round has just begun.
Let's go in.
Taylor, Frances, adorable snowmen,
very cute.
Good luck, bakers! Have fun!
Hello, my ugly sweater companions!
I love your Christmas sweater, Liza.
That's so sweet of you to say.
My presence is a gift.
Adriano, you have a very ugly sweater
from the neck down,
but from the neck up, adorable,
per usual.
He does kind of have the face
of a mischievous elf.
Candace, this is the equivalent of a girl
who wears a normal outfit for Halloween
but puts on cat ears.
That's what I feel like you did.
That's totally what I do for Halloween.
Well, this one's
all about Christmas spirit.
I feel like we're already in it.
Candace, why don't you walk us through
what round one is for these bakers?
Well, the bakers have to incorporate
a lot of holiday spirits.
They have to create a holiday cupcake
inspired by a Christmas cocktail.
Are we gonna
get hammered tonight?
There is a chance.
My favorite cocktail is a...
probably a spiked apple cider.
We should do
a champagne vanilla bean cake,
and we should fill it with, like,
a Kir Royale filling.
Um, so, we have a dirty snowman.
For the cupcake, I have a good idea.
This is my awesome pastry chef partner,
Sabrina.
This is my amazing cake artist friend,
Caitlin.
My family is from Germany,
and they go to this Christmas market
every year,
and they serve this hot mulled wine.
For our cupcake challenge,
we have to include Christmas spirits.
We can do some really cool flavor
combinations with that theme.
Why don't we make a spice cake,
put a cherry mulled wine filling
in the cupcake?
For this round,
we're making a spiced vanilla cupcake
with orange zest,
filled with a warm mulled wine
cherry filling,
and topped
with a mascarpone Chantilly cream.
And we're gonna be making
a edible cinnamon stick tuille.
- Can you smell it from there?
- Yeah, I'm starting to smell it.
Make sure before you take it off
that we taste it,
and it still has the wine flavor.
I don't wanna cook it down too far.
The goal is to taste
as much alcohol, right?
You wanna, like, feel the presence.
Whatever they say
that they're baking with,
you want to be able to taste, yeah.
- Whoo!
- Nice.
Popping bottles.
We're from San Antonio, Texas.
We collaborate on a lot of things.
There's a lot of pop-ups in San Antonio.
Sometimes my ideas are way over-the-top,
and Chris really helps...
Just a little bit?
He helps bring it back down.
This flavor needs
to come out beautifully.
If it doesn't, you know, we're--
we're gonna get eliminated,
and I don't plan on going home
anytime soon, honey.
My favorite Christmas spirit recently
is actually a Kir Royale,
which is champagne and crème de cassis,
which is a liqueur
that is made with black currant,
so it's a little fruity.
We should also add some crème de cassis
inside of our buttercream,
'cause this is all about spirit,
and we got spirit. Yeah, we do.
We are planning to make sure
that the alcohol really speaks loudly
in our cupcake.
We've officially used
a whole bottle of champagne.
We are going to make
a vanilla champagne cupcake,
and we're gonna fill it
with a Kir Royale fluid gel
and top it with a crème de cassis
Swiss buttercream,
and I'm gonna make
white chocolate reindeer garnish
to go right on top,
because it's super elegant and French.
We gotta make sure this cupcake
is kinda like Candace.
- She's elegant and sassy.
- Perfect.
Apple juice is reducing.
It's been seasoned.
Syrup is on.
I'm Taylor.
I'm from Randleman, North Carolina,
and I own and operate For Goodness Cake.
Frances and I met about seven years ago.
We were both dental assistants.
We started out fixing cavities,
and now we create them
with our sweet treats.
It's gonna take them 26 minutes to bake.
We need to get them in
in, like, the next 10 minutes.
Our Southern roots
are all in the baking.
For round one,
we are making a apple rum cake,
a caramel buttercream,
and drizzling
a cider caramel sauce on top.
And we are making
a Christmas ornament cupcake topper.
It's going to, like, really give it
that alcohol kick,
so that they'll be able
to actually taste the alcohol.
We want to put the rum in the cupcake,
in the glaze,
and also in the buttercream,
so that it's everywhere.
This looks really thin
right now. Tell me what you think.
- There's no way.
- I start to make the batter,
and I notice that when I'm done,
it's way too watery, and just--
Something just... isn't right.
- I mean, it's like water.
- I know.
We scrap this batch.
We have the time to start over.
- Did they just throw away their batter?
- They did.
That is not a good place to start.
Now they're at least another 30 away.
We just have to get these in the oven,
like, ASAP.
How's it going over there?
- It's going great.
- Okay.
I'm Darmayne.
And I'm Jill.
And I own Sweet Confections Cakes.
And I work with Darmayne
at the bakery.
We met seven years ago
when Jill applied for a job.
I sat in my car and cried,
'cause I thought
I totally blew the interview.
But she was hired anyhow.
You can never have enough
of the alcohol in here, right?
No, never.
Our cupcake is based on a real cocktail
called the Dirty Snowman.
It is gonna be
a white chocolate liqueur-flavored cake.
We're gonna have
an Irish cream filling in there.
Topped with
a white chocolate liqueur icing,
and the dirty snowman is gonna be
some crushed cookies
topped with a snowman head.
I just think it does scream holidays.
Darmayne, what flavors are you using
in your cake today?
I'm doing a boozy, dirty, drunken snowman.
You better make that snowman dirty,
Darmayne! Make it dirty!
Doesn't get any better than that.
Cupcakes aren't even in yet.
It's been like 25 minutes.
They're going in now, right this second.
Hey, Sabrina, how are you guys doing?
Trying not to look at the clock,
if I'm honest.
Well, the great thing is
you guys look fabulous.
Now that the cupcakes are in the oven,
I really need to get started
on this Chantilly.
And it's made with cream cheese,
mascarpone, and whipped cream.
Is that good?
I feel like this isn't
the right consistency.
Do I need to remake it?
Yeah, you need sugar in there.
I forgot the sugar.
- My god.
- My god.
We just lost at least 15 minutes.
No!
It's not the right consistency.
It had to be added before the whip.
My goodness!
It's fine. I can do it quick.
- Sad face.
- Sad face.
- Sorry.
- It's okay.
Okay,
these ones are done now.
This is, like,
the quickest hour of my life.
No kidding.
It's way past the time
that we thought we were gonna be at,
and buttercream is ready,
our filling is finishing up.
- We gotta get more reindeers going.
- Yeah, we do.
We might have to switch
because they're breaking.
Do you want to press 'em?
They're not gonna stand up like that.
Our original idea
for a white chocolate reindeer
is not at all working as we planned.
Once Richard tries to pop
the reindeer mold,
the legs are super thin,
and they're starting to break.
And we can't serve Candace
a broken reindeer.
- That's not gonna happen.
- Absolutely not.
Let's do, like, elegant scrollwork.
When in doubt, you scroll it out.
So I start piping out
white chocolate scrollwork patterns.
That's what we're gonna have to go with.
We need to get these cupcakes done.
- I am piping like the wind.
- These are working better.
Very sweet. You need a little salt.
Our buttercream has to be very light
and not too sweet,
because it is actually
gonna be scooped on like an ice cream,
because it is gonna be
the base for our snowman.
Darmayne and Jill
with some marshmallows out on the table.
I imagine they are building
a dirty snowman over there.
Some of 'em have a unibrow.
It's still kinda thin,
but we'll see.
So we're tag-teaming
the second batch of cupcakes,
and we notice it's still a little runny.
Where's the flour?
My god.
And I realize that...
powdered sugar was used instead of flour.
Okay, we need more apples.
And we're on our third batch of batter.
She's dumping something.
It looks a lot like flour,
so don't make that mistake.
Frances and Taylor...
have just messed up
their batter yet again.
That's wild.
You know, third time's a charm.
Cupcakes are going in.
That looks like a big wallop of frosting.
Adriano's getting a toothache
just looking at it.
- Looking at it, I was like...
- Really?
That's so cute.
This is gonna be close.
Jill, you almost ready to plate?
My god, go.
No!
Judges, let's head on down.
- I'm proud of us.
- God, this is beautiful.
- Caitlin and Sabrina, the first ones done!
- Hi!
- Are you ready?
- Yep, let's go. Hit the button.
Come on, Jill. Go! Go!
We got another buzzer.
- I almost fell!
- We did it!
Are we ready?
- Go.
- Yeah.
We have a third buzzer right now.
We are literally the last ones done.
It's okay.
Pass out your cupcakes
and tell us what you made.
So, our cupcake is inspired
by the German market at Christmas.
My family's from Germany,
and they go every year,
and basically, what they give you is
a mug of warm mulled wine.
So, the flavors in the cupcakes
are gonna be
a spiced cupcake
with cinnamon, nutmeg, and orange zest,
and it's filled with a warm,
cherry-spiced mulled wine filling.
And then the topping is
a Chantilly cream cheese frosting,
made with mascarpone cheese,
and then we made a tuille cinnamon cookie
on top that is edible.
- I got the best bite right here.
- That's how you eat it.
This is how you eat it, right?
That was good.
That was on the money.
Really took me back to European Christmas.
You really nailed that mulled wine flavor,
the spices, delicious cake.
You had that really juicy punch
of cherry in the middle,
and you lightened up
the overall experience
with your creamy,
dreamy mascarpone frosting.
- Well done.
- Thank you.
You got some involuntary dancing
going on over here.
You can tell how I feel
through my body language a little bit.
This is bomb. This is really good.
You caught her in her first sugar rush
of the day,
- and she's very happy with it.
- I'm very happy, ladies.
Adriano, what do we wanna see
in that confection round?
We want a confection
that captures the holiday spirit
by using red and green.
You can't rely
on red and green food coloring.
We wanna see
red and green ingredients.
- We'll impress you again. Don't worry.
- No problem.
Good luck, bakers.
We have two more cupcakes to try.
White chocolate,
pistachio, and raspberry
- go really well together.
- Yeah.
And that will cover
the green and the red element.
Yeah, perfect.
Darmayne and Jill,
the dirty snowman comes to life!
Look how cute he is!
We made a dirty snowman.
He's a white chocolate liqueur cake,
and then it has a...
Irish cream filling.
...Irish cream filling in there.
The icing itself has also
a white chocolate liqueur in there,
and then everything on there is edible.
Well, it did melt in my mouth.
The glitter on top was a nice touch.
It was beautiful.
And the center, with the liqueur...
Yeah, girl, I feel that a little bit.
I saw that much icing, and I thought,
"I think it's gonna be really sweet,"
but it's actually quite well-balanced.
It was a great cupcake,
- and a beautiful presentation.
- Thank you.
White chocolate can be a little one-note,
so as delicious as it was,
I was looking for something
to offset that flavor a little bit more.
All right, bakers, you have
an hour 43 left for your second round.
Good luck creating
your red and green confections.
- See you in a bit.
- Thank you.
Judges, we are going over
to Chris and Richard.
How about a shortbread cookie?
We need something more.
We can't just do a regular sugar cookie.
We could add cranberry... Lime, orange...
Bonjour.
- Bonjour.
- What do we have here?
We have Le Kir Royale cupcake.
We did a champagne cupcake.
We soaked it
with a champagne simple syrup,
and then we filled that
with a fluid gel of Kir Royale,
so champagne and crème de cassis.
Topped it with Swiss meringue buttercream
that's got some reduced crème de cassis.
Wow.
I love the buttercream frosting.
It's nice, light, and silky.
The cupcake was... was nice, itself,
but that center fill, for me,
was just a bit too punchy.
I felt like it just... It needed
some more fruitiness to it, you know?
Well, this is such an elegant,
beautiful, feminine presentation,
and I absolutely love the black currant
in your buttercream frosting.
It was silky. It was really well-balanced,
but I was wholly unprepared
for the filling inside.
It was really intense.
I feel like I'm breathing fire right now!
Decor was amazing.
I love these balls. I dunno what they are,
- but they're crunchy and delicious.
- White chocolate.
Okay, good luck, bakers.
You have an hour and 30 remaining.
Get going on your red and green
Christmas confections.
Thank you. We're gonna get it going.
Let's make a classic Christmas bauble.
- What do you think?
- Okay, I like that.
And we can do cocoa butter
with red and green,
and we can marble it,
and put that intricate scrollwork.
Like a dome,
just fill it with something?
We have an hour and 30 minutes.
Like, we need to get it going.
We're actually really surprised
at the way our cupcakes turned out,
despite all of our setbacks,
because they look beautiful.
So we're just waiting
on the cupcakes to cool.
We'll frost 'em, drizzle 'em,
put the ornament, and we're done.
It looks like Frances and Taylor
might actually buzz in.
Hit the buzzer! Hit it!
- My gosh!
- There we go! The last ones done.
I think they've just done their cupcakes.
That's crazy.
It took an hour and a half,
but they're here.
- Hi, ladies.
- Hi.
Hello.
Third time's a charm.
As we pass these out,
tell us what you made.
So, our cocktail that inspired us
was a spiced apple cider
mixed with a buttered rum.
So, these cupcakes have
a spiced apple rum cake,
topped with a caramel
marshmallow buttercream,
and then they're topped with a...
white chocolate Christmas ornament.
Did you drink some, girl?
Just a little bit?
I really didn't today.
It's quite delicious.
My gosh.
It's warm still, which I can tell
was the third time's a charm batter.
I can taste the alcohol,
but it's a light taste.
I love the cake.
I think it was moist, warm,
had a good flavor to it.
That nice apple taste through it.
I think you could've bumped up
the rum flavor a little bit more
in your apple cider.
That was the challenge.
And I find myself searching for that note
a little bit too much.
But a very yummy cupcake, ladies.
Well done.
Thank you.
You only have
an hour and 20 minutes left.
Good luck creating
your red and green confections.
We're not gonna take up
any more of your time,
because you don't have it.
- Good luck.
- Thank you so much.
I'm thinking, like, a chewy blondie bar,
with, um, some cranberry
for the red. It's tart.
Okay.
Judges, that took a little while,
but all four cupcakes
have officially lifted our spirits.
- Right.
- Reminder,
only three teams can continue
in the competition.
But unfortunately,
we have to send one team home.
Who had your top two favorite cupcakes?
For me, my favorite two cupcakes were
by Caitlin and Sabrina,
and Darmayne and Jill.
Caitlin and Sabrina,
the whole cupcake
was just so well-balanced,
and that mulled wine,
which I think is a challenging
holiday spirit to choose
and deliver well, and they nailed it.
It really took me back
to European Christmas,
which gave me those spicy notes
in that wine.
It was delicious. It was light. I had
a good time with Caitlin and Sabrina,
but I do have to toot the horn
to Darmayne and Jill,
because that was beautiful.
I love that snowman.
I felt the same.
I thought it was very clever.
It was funny as well. All the textures
and everything were on point.
Such a fun and cute cupcake.
I'm curious. Why are the other two
for each of you not your favorites?
Taylor and Frances...
Poor things. Today in that kitchen,
they were having so many issues,
but they ultimately delivered
a really yummy cupcake.
The problem is,
I really couldn't taste the rum
in that apple cider cupcake.
I could taste the apple cider.
I didn't realize it had rum in it as well.
The presentation was a bit lackluster.
I really didn't feel the Christmas spirit
in that cupcake.
I agree with y'all,
but Chris and Richard
definitely took me to France,
but it didn't take me
home for the holidays.
That's what I wanted.
That frosting was delicious, beautiful.
- They misstepped with that filling.
- It just needed some fruit.
You know, it needed something fresh
to balance it out,
to really cut through
all those other textures and flavors.
I'm still feeling a little...
a little drunk from that.
Judges, seems like
you have made a decision.
Now I have to go crush someone's spirit.
I'm so sorry.
I feel so bad.
All right, bakers,
can I have your attention please?
Our judges have come
to their first decision,
and the team whose cupcakes
raised our judges' spirits the most is...
- Caitlin and Sabrina.
- Yes!
Your mulled wine cupcake
had all the flavors
our judges were looking for.
You are safe from elimination.
You may continue working
on your confection. Well done.
Unfortunately, though, the judges'
least favorite cupcake belongs to...
Taylor and Frances.
My god.
We're so sorry.
Unfortunately, your time
in the Sugar Rush kitchen has run out.
This experience has been
absolutely incredible.
We were up against
some fierce competition,
and we struggled with the cupcakes.
Yeah, absolutely.
If it could go wrong, it did.
We were still able to present
something to the judges,
but it just didn't have
enough Christmas spirit.
Everyone else,
Chris, Richard, Darmayne, Jill,
you are safe from elimination.
Continue working on your confection.
Good luck.
We're definitely trying to make up
some time in this round,
because we went about 15 to 18 minutes
over the first round.
We are so far behind what we want to be,
but plated desserts is right up my alley.
I think that's gonna really help us.
I'm just crumbling this in by hand,
so it doesn't get the dough too tough.
We have to make a confection
that uses red and green,
not relying on food coloring.
So we decide to do
a pistachio and raspberry tart,
a raspberry gelée on the inside,
white chocolate ganache
and pistachio pastry cream.
Just a party in your mouth.
Okay,
I'm just gonna do two more.
We want to make it
to the cake round so bad,
because cakes are my jam.
We are not going into the next round
with an hour.
We know that we took a long time
doing our cupcake round.
We have to make sure
we do everything properly
and consistently.
I'm gonna make sure we get
a lot of that chipotle flavor in our cake.
We decide to take flavors from Italy
and mash them with some San Antonio flair.
So Chris and I decide
that we're going to make
a dark chocolate ornament
that is filled
with a chipotle red velvet cake,
a pistachio mascarpone mousse,
with a cherry compote
and candied pistachios.
To represent the green and the red
in our confection,
that cherry and pistachio will be
the ingredients that we have to use,
but we need to get
the color on the outside as well.
I am painting these molds
with cocoa butter,
because it's gotta be red and green.
It's Christmas, baby.
My strength is chocolate,
so I decide to take on
the tempering of the chocolate.
All right, chocolate gods,
be with me now.
You can temper chocolate in the microwave.
That way you get a beautiful shine
in snaps.
We are in perfect temper.
- We're at 90 degrees exactly.
- Perfect.
They're tempering the chocolate.
Hopefully, they make a thin shell,
so when we crack into it, it just breaks.
All right, as soon as I get these done,
I'm gonna throw them
inside of the blast chiller.
It's time for a game on this show
we like to call
"What would Adriano do?"
Adriano, if you were doing
a red and green confection round
using not only colors
but flavors that are red and green,
what would you do?
I don't know, actually.
And that concludes the segment.
We're gonna go in the chiller
- once we get it done, right?
- Yep, we need to chill it.
For round two, we're making
a cranberry orange lime shortbread cookie
with a lime zest glaze.
The hardest part
of this challenge for us?
It is a shortbread cookie dough,
and it normally needs to rest
before we can actually cut out
those cookies.
So we're gonna use that blast chiller,
let it chill for about two minutes,
and then we'll be able to cut out
the cookie shapes.
You're making your glaze, right?
Yep. Okay.
The lime glaze is really important
for our color
and an extra layer of flavor
for them also.
- It looks like poop.
- You need it--
That's okay.
It'll look pretty on that red cookie.
I don't want to overdo
the pistachio, but...
- it needs more pistachio.
- Yeah.
And I'm gonna pull these out.
Something just came
out of the cooling chamber.
- Cooling chamber, I like that.
- Thank you.
So, I'm concerned
about our chocolate right now.
- What's wrong?
- It's not coming out.
At all?
My heart sinks like the Titanic.
I cannot pull them out
without breaking them.
I'm gonna do them
in that silicone mold,
- then throw them in the blast chiller.
- Okay.
Using the plastic spheres
for this would have been perfect,
because the chocolate releases from it.
You get a beautiful shine
from the top.
And usually, when I use silicone,
they're not as shiny as I want them.
I know Zumbo is going to say
something about it,
but we need to hit this buzzer
as soon as possible.
I'm, like, the redo queen right now.
I'm starting to panic. We may not have
any time to bank for our last round.
We're gonna have to wait.
What do you want me to work on next?
- If you can do...
- The ganache?
I have to move to the ganache,
which is going to be surrounding
the gelée in the tart.
Second most important element.
No pressure.
I thought our gelatin's
measurements would work, but...
It looks thin.
Because it's so soupy,
if we pour it in,
the gelée is gonna melt into it.
It's not a drink. It's a dessert.
I'm tempering it down
to however cold it can get,
and then I'm gonna just fold in
a little whipped cream,
um, that I already have made.
We don't have time to start over,
so we're just gonna make mousse.
White chocolate mousse is better
than ganache, anyway.
They don't look like they're even close
to ready. So we're good.
Jill, we got a problem. My cookie.
These cookies
clearly did not chill properly.
So they're baking uneven.
They're a lot larger,
so they didn't hold their shape.
I can taste the orange and the cranberry.
We'll have to roll with it.
It's what we got.
We have to use
that batch of cookies.
We have no time.
Can we recut them with the cutter?
The cookie still has great flavor.
So we decide we're just gonna cut a circle
and pray they don't crack.
Jill's face is filled with concern.
- She's pressing something down.
- Pressing down on something there.
What's she doing?
I think I cracked it.
Let's see.
No, you're good.
- All right, Chris, they're coming out.
- All right.
We are saved.
As I get them done,
- do you wanna put them in boxes?
- Yeah.
We gotta get a move on.
Sorry. I don't want to give you frostbite.
Okay, so, you want the tree?
Richard, grab that Christmas tree
up on top.
Hey, guys, come on!
Why are you taking all our decorations?
These guys are really taking inspiration
from one another.
We gotta be fabulous.
You know how it goes.
We're done. We're ready.
Hit the buzzer.
Let's do it.
Chris and Richard,
first confection to buzz in.
Okay, we're not
the first ones done this time.
That's fine.
Why don't you go ahead,
pass out your confections,
and tell us what you made?
- It's a present!
- You all get a present.
What's inside?
My god.
- Was I not--
- The dessert was in there.
- Are you serious?
- Yes.
You put the dess--
No, it looks good.
You know, you could have
worked on the presentation a little bit.
You could've...
Didn't your mom tell you
not to shake presents?
I was trying to figure out
what I got for Christmas!
My bad.
Here, Liza, you're the guest.
You take the good one.
- And we're supposed to crack it open?
- Just crack it open.
What's in this box?
The same thing.
The same thing.
Can you open it for me? I'm scared.
We got inspired by a traditional cannoli.
So you've got pistachio, cherry,
a little bit of orange.
We threw in a little San Antonio flavor.
So we did a chipotle red velvet cake
in the bottom to give it spice.
Just kinda change up
those traditional flavors.
There's a frozen cherry reduction we did
with a little bit of cherry liqueur,
and then we added a little bit
of candied pistachios in the top.
The crunch of the pistachio,
the creaminess of the mousse,
that springiness of the cake,
and that hit of heat
from the chipotle red velvet was so nice.
I can still kind of feel it
at the back of my tongue right now.
Pistachio, for me...
You used paste, yeah?
I would've really loved
to use real pistachios.
Obviously, that chocolate is quite thick.
You didn't get that nice shine.
- It happens.
- Yo.
She had a tough shell,
but she has a great personality.
She's show ready. Could be better,
but she was show ready.
She was good!
No pressure.
Okay, we're almost done.
Go!
Another team buzzed in.
We'll go right over there in a second.
Snap! Hold on, girls.
Bakers, you finished with 15 minutes left.
We're gonna go ahead
and add three hours to that.
Sweet Liza,
what are we gonna see?
Guys, we want to see
an ugly sweater-themed cake.
Ugly on the outside,
but kind of crazy-looking
on the inside too.
We want to see some patterns.
- We got you.
- You got me?
- Hit it, Dar.
- Let's go. Hit it!
All right, you got it!
Darmayne and Jill buzzed in.
We'll go over there in a second.
Good luck.
Thank you.
- We could do, like, a photo opportunity.
- Yes.
Maybe let's do a spot
where they can put their head.
So it's two-sided. They can choose
maybe, like, naughty/nice.
Hi there, Sabrina and Caitlin.
- Welcome back.
- Thank you!
Second ones done.
Go ahead and tell us what you made.
We made a white chocolate, pistachio,
and raspberry tart.
It is a pistachio sweet dough,
almost like a pâte sablée,
and it has a layer of raspberry gelée
on the inside
and white chocolate mousse.
What's the green tint?
The green is a pistachio pastry cream.
Liza's dancing again.
No!
It just keeps happening.
This is such an exquisite presentation.
I mean, it looks like
a wild, winter garden.
This was a rockin' crust.
There's some great textures in there,
but the thing that gets me the most is
it's really well balanced.
You know, I think you get that raspberry,
then white chocolate through the middle,
and then at the end, you get
a little bit of pistachio, which is nice.
There are so many flavors in here.
My mouth is... confused but also happy.
I'm not sure how to feel.
This is why I'm not in a relationship
right now.
You saved eight minutes.
We're gonna go ahead
and add three hours to that right now.
You have a total of three hours
and eight minutes
for an ugly sweater cake.
Keep going.
We're gonna be eliminating one team
once we taste this last confection.
Good luck.
- Thank you, bakers.
- Thank you.
Okay, so they said
it has to be ugly on the outside,
and it has to have some sort of a pattern
on the inside.
Let's draw it. Four tiers, three squares.
And then we have a little elf dude on top.
Let's do the outside,
like, sweater pattern.
Okay.
- Hi.
- Hi, bakers.
Hi there.
What do you have for us?
We have a cranberry orange zest
shortbread cookie,
- and it's dipped in a lime glaze.
- Wow.
I think it's got a nice lime taste to it.
I think I expected a bit more
in the round.
For me, it's just a cookie
dipped in glaze.
- Okay.
- No complaints on this yummy cookie.
Very tasty. It's got nice crunch.
However, I felt like this coloring
really kind of took the...
the sophistication of your cookie down
a couple notches.
But it was delicious.
It was a soft cookie,
but it was subtle.
I mean, I like sweet,
and I thought it was great incorporation
of the red with the cranberries.
You had red. You had green.
You got me. We're good. Yeah.
All right, well,
you guys banked one minute.
We're gonna add three hours to that.
You have three hours and one minute
for your final cake round.
Good luck, bakers.
- Thank you.
- Have fun.
We gotta do something
that's gonna be really awesome.
- Yeti?
- A yeti?
- With a big sweater on it.
- All right, let's go for it.
We have now tried the confections,
very late into these rounds.
But remember, only two teams
can continue through to the cake round.
So let's make a fast decision.
Who had your favorite confection?
The highlight for me
was Caitlin and Sabrina's tart.
It was so organic-looking, and wild,
yet so elegant.
They picked three great flavors
that paired together:
raspberry, white chocolate, pistachio.
I really also liked the tartness
to their tart.
It was delicious.
Unfortunately, we also have to pick
the confection that is going home.
Darmayne and Jill were outshined
by the other two competitors.
It was too simple.
It was just a cookie on a plate.
The ball was dropped
with Darmayne and Jill.
Although, it was dropped over there too.
You know,
Chris and Richard had some great flavors,
but ultimately,
their chocolate work left me
trying to crack through that shell
a few too many times.
And I didn't like
that they used pistachio compound,
rather than using real pistachios.
Well, it sounds like
a decision has been made.
I will go ahead and let our bakers know.
All right, bakers,
can I have your attention, please?
Our judges have come
to their second decision.
And the confection that is red, and green,
and winning all over belongs to...
- Caitlin and Sabrina, yet again.
- Yes!
Very well done.
And the bakers with the judges'
least favorite confection this round...
Darmayne and Jill.
- I'm so sorry.
- Thank you very much.
Your cookie was fantastic,
but the round was very tough.
Your time
in the Sugar Rush kitchen has run out.
We didn't put our best foot forward,
and it was very disappointing
and heartbreaking.
I think we were both a little stressed,
a little out of our element.
- Well done.
- Thank you.
We could definitely use
a Dirty Snowman right now
or maybe just the alcohol part of it.
- For sure.
- I agree.
You don't have much time.
Two hours, 52 minutes remaining.
Good luck.
You girls are just slaying all day,
aren't you?
- We're trying.
- Yeah.
That's two for two.
It's about to be three for three.
I'm gonna bring
the shade you threw, girl.
- We won again?
- Two times.
There is negative five minutes
to celebrate.
We are so far behind what we want to be
that we just need to keep going.
What are you making?
The chocolate chip cookies.
I'll just keep working on all the cakes,
get them in the oven.
I have an idea for this cake
that's a little outside the box.
We're gonna have an elf
on the top of this cake
wearing the ugly sweater
with different colored fabrics
on the outside of the cake
that will allude to ugly sweaters.
And we're gonna bake
actual chocolate chip cookies
that the judges can eat
as well as the cake.
I'm gonna split this recipe in half
and color one half red and one half green.
We're making a red velvet,
green velvet, and vanilla cake
with a coquito cream cheese frosting.
- Wow, that looks awesome.
- Yeah.
For the inside,
we're gonna build cake pop shapes
into the cake that's already baked.
So when you're cutting into it,
our cake is hopefully
going to look like an ugly sweater inside.
Green is going in.
- This is a really tough round three.
- Yeah.
Like, you have to make it as intricate
on the inside
- as it is on the outside.
- It is a hard round.
Cake, cake, and more cake.
We gotta make sure
the cake's tall enough
that when they stand behind it,
they can put their head inside,
so we need to build up a lot of layers.
We have to do something
that's going to impress the judges.
The plan for our cake is to create
a design that's two-sided.
We decided to go
with a naughty and nice theme
and create a 3-D ugly sweater cake
that someone could stand behind,
and put their face at the top
as if they're wearing the sweater.
It's a party cake.
Have you ever been
to an ugly sweater Christmas party?
Honey, we're in San Antonio.
People wear ugly sweaters all the time.
We decide to go with something
that we're familiar with from San Antonio
and do a cake based on
a San Antonio hot chocolate...
- Yeah.
- ...which is a spiced-infused chocolate.
- Give it a whiff.
- That smells amazing.
- That smells like Christmas.
- Right?
We are making a spiced cake
and a chocolate cake
that's sealed together
with a spiced ganache,
and then on the outside, we're going to do
a Swiss vanilla bean buttercream.
We're gonna dye my cake
two different shades of red?
Yes, so we want something
a little bit darker,
something a little lighter.
We took inspiration
from our plaid outfits,
and what we're going to do is make
the inside of our cake look plaid.
Because if we do
a difficult pattern on the inside,
it might give us
a leg up with our competitors.
Now, this round,
I'm having no mistakes,
because chocolate has betrayed me today.
I'm right behind you.
I'm a mess.
I forgot the baking powder.
This is the third time
we've had another disaster,
and I'm really hoping
that we can recover yet again.
Good thing we caught that
before it was too late.
Adriano, put this on.
He's gonna look great.
I don't have a choice, Adriano.
You look like a Teletubby!
- Mwah!
- Aw!
So sweet!
Red velvet's beautiful.
Green velvet's just as beautiful.
Pretty.
I'll do the cream cheese icing right away.
Red velvet and cream cheese,
it's a classic pairing,
but I do want to add
a Christmas element to it.
Coquito is basically
a Puerto Rican eggnog.
It's gonna take it to the next level.
And I'm gonna start assembling.
Wow. That's awesome.
I'm really interested to see
how Caitlin and Sabrina are incorporating
chocolate chip cookies
into their ugly sweater cake.
They impressed us the first two rounds,
so I'm sure they've got a plan for those.
I think this is the quickest
I've ever scooped cookie dough.
If we save enough time to decorate,
that's where it'll really come in.
We know our flavors are there.
We just have to get it done.
Once my cakes are in the oven,
I move on to the ganache.
Chocolate hasn't been very good to me,
but this time,
I got my girl, heavy whipping cream,
and we're gonna make an amazing ganache.
This needs to hurry up!
Okay, calm down.
Ten thousand dollars
would definitely help in a business.
It would be, like,
a life-changing amount of money.
My family lives on a farm,
but we don't have a lot of money.
We definitely feel like the underdogs.
It's time for us to shine
like the diamonds that we are.
So now chocolate decides to act right.
I'm gonna be making the elf topper
for our cake.
I think as far as division of labor goes,
I take a little bit more lead
on the decoration side.
So his head will be about that far,
then his neck will be like that,
and the rest will be the sweater.
I know that the elf,
with all the details in his face,
is gonna take me the longest time.
I'm just trying to get him
so that he looks more realistic.
I'm a little behind on this, to be honest.
We got buttercream going.
We got ganache going.
What should I start on next?
I really think we should get
the rice crispy arms done.
Arms, okay.
A key component to this design is
to create a couple of arms
to make our design
look like an actual sweater.
So I basically take some armature wire,
wrap some cereal treats around that,
so that everything has
something to stick to,
because the last thing we want
is to put these arms up,
and then they start peeling away.
I think that's perfect.
- Liza, I'm gonna ask you a question.
- What?
Christmas for you, do you have
any Christmas memories?
Decorate the staircase,
and we wrap presents.
On Christmas Eve, at midnight,
we wrap presents.
And then we open them up nine hours later.
Yeah.
- What is the point?
- What's the point?
What do we have left to do?
Keep working on the cake.
Get it stacked.
I'm gonna continue to work
on our fondant decorations,
then all we have to do is cover
and decorate.
So in order to keep a nice square pattern
in our plaid,
I have to cut really thin strips
of this cake,
which is gonna take
a little bit more time than I wanted,
but that's the look that we need
in order to complete this challenge.
- We need to get going.
- Yeah.
Hurry up, hurry up.
I have to get right onto that pattern
for the inside of the cake.
So I'm going to press the cake pop mix.
I'm gonna do the white one first.
Press it into the pan.
This cake pop dough,
which is just mixing baked cake
with some buttercream,
has to be flattened
for me to cut out these shapes.
I'm gonna put three rows
of the snowmen in the bottom.
So the plan is to have
the white snowman
inside the green velvet cake,
and then the vanilla cake
is going to have
the green Christmas tree.
So each square tier has their own pattern,
just to give that visual separation
for an ugly sweater.
Okay, that one's done.
All right.
Guess what's finally ready to whip.
All right, bakers,
you have one hour remaining.
I think you mispronounced two hours.
I don't like this at all.
One hour,
and there is not a stitch of icing
on the outside of our cake.
I'm in full panic mode at this point.
All right, fingers crossed.
So the cake's doing
a little one of these?
So the original intention
with our cake was to carve out
a little bit of a roundness to the body
and take away that blocky feature.
However, at this point,
we have no time for any of that.
The main thing is to get
a design that's completed.
This cake will not take us down.
Okay, Liza, I double dare ya.
What?
To do the 30 minute call in a minute.
Give me one minute to warm up.
Thirty. Thirty. Thirty.
Flirty. Oops.
As long as we have something
to present to the judges,
I think we're gonna be fine.
All right, bakers,
we have 30 minutes left.
Thirty minutes left.
There was so much going on
just in this area.
Yes. Yes.
My god,
that looks so cool!
For the sweater pattern on the cake,
we're using a embossed mold,
which has two different type
of cable knit patterns in them.
We're doing good.
One tier's almost done.
I'm so scared right now.
It's taking a lot longer
than we expected the paneling to go.
This is where I get really nervous.
I want to win so bad.
I just-- We just need to stack.
We won both challenges.
We are right at the end,
and I'm just worried
that we're not gonna have
a stacked, presentable cake.
So this is a poor man's sweater,
because it's patchwork.
It'll be stacked, but that's it.
We look across to see
what the other team is working on,
and I see stacked blocks
and just simple colors.
So I feel like we may have a chance,
because the challenge is ugly sweater,
and we actually have an ugly sweater,
whereas theirs, I don't see a sweater.
- I don't know if that's doing anything.
- All right.
Where are the wooden dowels?
I have noticed that the cake went
from being in a superhero pose
to nine months pregnant,
and we need to fix this
as fast as possible.
So we need some sort of structure
in the center,
so it doesn't completely fall over.
They're not even
long enough though, right?
Well, some sort of structure
holding down into this
- will stop it from leaning, will it not?
- Yeah.
All right, bakers,
you have five minutes left.
Ugly-up those sweaters!
My god.
I better make sure I know
how to spell naughty.
Lift and slide, lift and slide.
One, two, three, lift.
Thirty seconds left, bakers!
That is so fun to say.
- My god!
- Fingers, fingers.
I found the disco dust.
Perfect. I'm putting reindeer
on the sleeve.
Come on!
- We can't do anything else.
- Four, three, two...
one!
Don't touch the cakes!
- We made it.
- We made it.
Judges, we have some ugly sweaters,
but I think we need two more.
- Let's head on down.
- Yeah!
It's my best cake, guys.
Chris and Richard, this is so ugly!
Thank you.
- I'm gonna try it on.
- Do it.
How's that? Look good?
Naughty's a good color?
I thought so.
God!
My god.
'Sup?
Okay.
This is more like
after the Christmas party,
and the sweater comes off.
This is the crumpled-up version
you would find on your bedroom floor.
A little crusty.
You only had three hours.
You had to give us an ugly sweater
on the outside
and pattern on the inside,
and that's no easy feat.
I think it's kind of cute,
but then again,
I have some low standards.
It's actually pretty hideous,
but it is making me feel
more confident in myself.
I feel good-looking.
You know, I can't wait
to taste what's inside it.
Why don't you let us see
those hideous layers inside as well?
Cut us four slices.
We'll see you at the judges' table.
- Okay.
- Thank you, bakers.
- Congrats, guys.
- Thank you.
Judges, Caitlin and Sabrina's
wonderful cake.
This little Christmas elf was not invited
to the ugly sweater party,
so he snuck out, and he made the sweater
that he's wearing on top,
and he also stole
some of Santa's cookies.
So he is definitely on the naughty list.
So we've got his iron,
the spool, and the needles.
He's got his scissors for the top.
I'm in love. I love the story.
I want to buy it
and sell it as a children's book
if you don't mind.
I love the colors,
love the creativity.
I think it's really well-executed.
You gave us a really imaginative take
on the challenge,
and I cannot wait to look inside.
Well, on that note, why don't you cut us
four slices of your ugly sweater cake?
We'll see you at the judges' table.
- Thank you.
- Thank you, bakers.
- Perfect!
- Yes!
We are gonna go ahead
and start with Caitlin and Sabrina.
Ladies, will you walk us through
the flavors of your cake?
Our cake is red and green velvet.
I have a vanilla cake in the center
and a coquito cream cheese frosting
on the inside.
For the pattern,
we actually did a white snowman,
and then the green Christmas tree.
We got a Liza dance going on right now.
I'm trying to control it right now.
But the head keeps moving.
Poker face.
I know. I got no poker face.
Caitlin and Sabrina,
I love the inside of this cake.
I mean, you gave us red, green, and gold,
Christmas trees,
and snowman cake pops inside the cake,
but I was looking for
that ugly Christmas sweater on your cake.
This cake was delicious.
It was incredibly moist.
It was really gorgeous,
and it was really fun to dip into the cake
while I have a different taste in my mouth
I love that coquito frosting.
It had a really good coconut taste,
a little tanginess
from the cream cheese.
I loved the pattern
of the inside of your sweater.
- Well done.
- Thank you.
Okay.
Adriano's switching cakes, always.
Chris, Richard, why don't you walk us
through the flavors
of your remarkably ugly...
Christmas sweater?
We did a take on a Mexican hot chocolate.
So we did two different types of cake:
chocolate cake,
two different colors of a spiced cake,
and then we kind of married it together
with a spiced dark chocolate ganache,
and then finished off
the outside of that cake
with a traditional vanilla
Swiss meringue buttercream.
My head's moving again.
Looks like a tie thus far. Hold on.
What spices are in it again? Sorry.
Cinnamon, cardamom, allspice,
nutmeg and ginger.
It sets a little fire in your soul.
- ¡Órale!
- I like the taste of your cake.
A lot of good flavors there
that really popped out.
Nice chocolate taste.
I would've loved
a little bit more ganache,
just a little bit thicker in the...
in the joints.
I love the colors, the pattern,
so well done.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
I couldn't stop eating this cake.
It was so springy and light.
It was all very well-balanced,
and, you know, ugly sweater to me
is all about the plaids.
So you guys brought the plaid,
and you guys nailed an ugly sweater.
Thank you so much.
Y'all had an amazing taste to your cake.
The cardamom and the cinnamon,
that was an incredible touch.
It tasted very ethnic, like me,
so I appreciate that.
Delicious. Thank you.
Excellent.
Okay, bakers, you definitely brought
the Christmas spirit
to the Sugar Rush kitchen today.
The last thing left to do...
Judges, who had your favorite cake?
Liza, we'll start with you.
Caitlin and Sabrina,
you had the creativity.
Both inside and outside of the cake
were amazing.
Now, Chris and Richard,
y'all's cake was ugly.
But also, different than any cake
that I've ever had before.
Overall,
my favorite cake of the day goes to...
Chris and Richard.
Chris and Richard,
that is one vote for you,
meaning if you get one more vote,
you will have won $10,000
in the Sugar Rush kitchen.
Adriano.
Chris and Richard,
I love your chocolate-y cake
with all the spices,
and that spiced ganache.
I thought it was really delicious.
Sabrina and Caitlin, I love
the story you told about the little elf.
Flavors were good.
Love that coquito frosting.
My favorite cake today is...
Caitlin and Sabrina's.
Caitlin and Sabrina,
that's one vote for you.
The tie-breaking vote belongs to...
I got bad news, Candace.
I'm the nice one!
Not anymore.
All right.
Chris and Richard,
you gave us an ugly Christmas sweater.
I mean, that is a funny cake!
You gave us plaid,
and you gave us spice.
You brought the spice.
Caitlin and Sabrina,
you gave us tender, moist layers of cake.
Those cake pop silhouettes inside
were ingenious,
and a perfectly finished cake.
Ultimately, my favorite
cake of the day was...
Caitlin and Sabrina's.
My god!
Caitlin and Sabrina, congratulations!
You have just won $10,000
in the Sugar Rush kitchen.
I have worked my butt off
the last nine years to get where I am.
Being a part of a competition
like this is so validating,
and I got to do it with an amazing friend.
I can't...
Don't cry. You're gonna make me cry.
- All right.
- Okay.
My god.
- We did it!
- We did it!
Winning $10,000 is an amazing way
to put us into the Christmas spirit,
I think.
We stuck with it,
we knew what the end plan was,
and we got there.
- Quite literally with flying colors.
- Yeah.
Thank you so much for watching
this episode of Sugar Rush Christmas.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays.
the baking competition where time
is the most important ingredient.
Four teams of brilliant bakers
compete against each other
and the clock
over three rounds of competition.
The faster they work, the better,
because any time saved
from round one: cupcakes,
Confections,
will be banked and added
to their third and final round: cakes.
I'm your host, Hunter March,
and determining which of these teams
is going home with $10,000
of Christmas spirit
is our cheery panel of judges.
She is sure to put anyone
in the holiday spirit.
It's Candace Nelson,
creator of the world's first
cupcake-only bakery,
Sprinkles Cupcakes.
Next up,
the Ghost of Sugar Rush Christmas
past, present, and future,
Adriano Zumbo.
He's one of Australia's
most celebrated pastry chefs.
And today, our spirited group
of bakers are competing in,
you guessed it, three rounds
of Christmas spirit-themed challenges.
And finally, our guest judge for the day,
YouTube star, actress, TV host,
and everything in between, Liza Koshy.
Candace is inside right now,
walking our bakers through round one
of their Christmas spirit-themed
challenges.
And that sound means
that round has just begun.
Let's go in.
Taylor, Frances, adorable snowmen,
very cute.
Good luck, bakers! Have fun!
Hello, my ugly sweater companions!
I love your Christmas sweater, Liza.
That's so sweet of you to say.
My presence is a gift.
Adriano, you have a very ugly sweater
from the neck down,
but from the neck up, adorable,
per usual.
He does kind of have the face
of a mischievous elf.
Candace, this is the equivalent of a girl
who wears a normal outfit for Halloween
but puts on cat ears.
That's what I feel like you did.
That's totally what I do for Halloween.
Well, this one's
all about Christmas spirit.
I feel like we're already in it.
Candace, why don't you walk us through
what round one is for these bakers?
Well, the bakers have to incorporate
a lot of holiday spirits.
They have to create a holiday cupcake
inspired by a Christmas cocktail.
Are we gonna
get hammered tonight?
There is a chance.
My favorite cocktail is a...
probably a spiked apple cider.
We should do
a champagne vanilla bean cake,
and we should fill it with, like,
a Kir Royale filling.
Um, so, we have a dirty snowman.
For the cupcake, I have a good idea.
This is my awesome pastry chef partner,
Sabrina.
This is my amazing cake artist friend,
Caitlin.
My family is from Germany,
and they go to this Christmas market
every year,
and they serve this hot mulled wine.
For our cupcake challenge,
we have to include Christmas spirits.
We can do some really cool flavor
combinations with that theme.
Why don't we make a spice cake,
put a cherry mulled wine filling
in the cupcake?
For this round,
we're making a spiced vanilla cupcake
with orange zest,
filled with a warm mulled wine
cherry filling,
and topped
with a mascarpone Chantilly cream.
And we're gonna be making
a edible cinnamon stick tuille.
- Can you smell it from there?
- Yeah, I'm starting to smell it.
Make sure before you take it off
that we taste it,
and it still has the wine flavor.
I don't wanna cook it down too far.
The goal is to taste
as much alcohol, right?
You wanna, like, feel the presence.
Whatever they say
that they're baking with,
you want to be able to taste, yeah.
- Whoo!
- Nice.
Popping bottles.
We're from San Antonio, Texas.
We collaborate on a lot of things.
There's a lot of pop-ups in San Antonio.
Sometimes my ideas are way over-the-top,
and Chris really helps...
Just a little bit?
He helps bring it back down.
This flavor needs
to come out beautifully.
If it doesn't, you know, we're--
we're gonna get eliminated,
and I don't plan on going home
anytime soon, honey.
My favorite Christmas spirit recently
is actually a Kir Royale,
which is champagne and crème de cassis,
which is a liqueur
that is made with black currant,
so it's a little fruity.
We should also add some crème de cassis
inside of our buttercream,
'cause this is all about spirit,
and we got spirit. Yeah, we do.
We are planning to make sure
that the alcohol really speaks loudly
in our cupcake.
We've officially used
a whole bottle of champagne.
We are going to make
a vanilla champagne cupcake,
and we're gonna fill it
with a Kir Royale fluid gel
and top it with a crème de cassis
Swiss buttercream,
and I'm gonna make
white chocolate reindeer garnish
to go right on top,
because it's super elegant and French.
We gotta make sure this cupcake
is kinda like Candace.
- She's elegant and sassy.
- Perfect.
Apple juice is reducing.
It's been seasoned.
Syrup is on.
I'm Taylor.
I'm from Randleman, North Carolina,
and I own and operate For Goodness Cake.
Frances and I met about seven years ago.
We were both dental assistants.
We started out fixing cavities,
and now we create them
with our sweet treats.
It's gonna take them 26 minutes to bake.
We need to get them in
in, like, the next 10 minutes.
Our Southern roots
are all in the baking.
For round one,
we are making a apple rum cake,
a caramel buttercream,
and drizzling
a cider caramel sauce on top.
And we are making
a Christmas ornament cupcake topper.
It's going to, like, really give it
that alcohol kick,
so that they'll be able
to actually taste the alcohol.
We want to put the rum in the cupcake,
in the glaze,
and also in the buttercream,
so that it's everywhere.
This looks really thin
right now. Tell me what you think.
- There's no way.
- I start to make the batter,
and I notice that when I'm done,
it's way too watery, and just--
Something just... isn't right.
- I mean, it's like water.
- I know.
We scrap this batch.
We have the time to start over.
- Did they just throw away their batter?
- They did.
That is not a good place to start.
Now they're at least another 30 away.
We just have to get these in the oven,
like, ASAP.
How's it going over there?
- It's going great.
- Okay.
I'm Darmayne.
And I'm Jill.
And I own Sweet Confections Cakes.
And I work with Darmayne
at the bakery.
We met seven years ago
when Jill applied for a job.
I sat in my car and cried,
'cause I thought
I totally blew the interview.
But she was hired anyhow.
You can never have enough
of the alcohol in here, right?
No, never.
Our cupcake is based on a real cocktail
called the Dirty Snowman.
It is gonna be
a white chocolate liqueur-flavored cake.
We're gonna have
an Irish cream filling in there.
Topped with
a white chocolate liqueur icing,
and the dirty snowman is gonna be
some crushed cookies
topped with a snowman head.
I just think it does scream holidays.
Darmayne, what flavors are you using
in your cake today?
I'm doing a boozy, dirty, drunken snowman.
You better make that snowman dirty,
Darmayne! Make it dirty!
Doesn't get any better than that.
Cupcakes aren't even in yet.
It's been like 25 minutes.
They're going in now, right this second.
Hey, Sabrina, how are you guys doing?
Trying not to look at the clock,
if I'm honest.
Well, the great thing is
you guys look fabulous.
Now that the cupcakes are in the oven,
I really need to get started
on this Chantilly.
And it's made with cream cheese,
mascarpone, and whipped cream.
Is that good?
I feel like this isn't
the right consistency.
Do I need to remake it?
Yeah, you need sugar in there.
I forgot the sugar.
- My god.
- My god.
We just lost at least 15 minutes.
No!
It's not the right consistency.
It had to be added before the whip.
My goodness!
It's fine. I can do it quick.
- Sad face.
- Sad face.
- Sorry.
- It's okay.
Okay,
these ones are done now.
This is, like,
the quickest hour of my life.
No kidding.
It's way past the time
that we thought we were gonna be at,
and buttercream is ready,
our filling is finishing up.
- We gotta get more reindeers going.
- Yeah, we do.
We might have to switch
because they're breaking.
Do you want to press 'em?
They're not gonna stand up like that.
Our original idea
for a white chocolate reindeer
is not at all working as we planned.
Once Richard tries to pop
the reindeer mold,
the legs are super thin,
and they're starting to break.
And we can't serve Candace
a broken reindeer.
- That's not gonna happen.
- Absolutely not.
Let's do, like, elegant scrollwork.
When in doubt, you scroll it out.
So I start piping out
white chocolate scrollwork patterns.
That's what we're gonna have to go with.
We need to get these cupcakes done.
- I am piping like the wind.
- These are working better.
Very sweet. You need a little salt.
Our buttercream has to be very light
and not too sweet,
because it is actually
gonna be scooped on like an ice cream,
because it is gonna be
the base for our snowman.
Darmayne and Jill
with some marshmallows out on the table.
I imagine they are building
a dirty snowman over there.
Some of 'em have a unibrow.
It's still kinda thin,
but we'll see.
So we're tag-teaming
the second batch of cupcakes,
and we notice it's still a little runny.
Where's the flour?
My god.
And I realize that...
powdered sugar was used instead of flour.
Okay, we need more apples.
And we're on our third batch of batter.
She's dumping something.
It looks a lot like flour,
so don't make that mistake.
Frances and Taylor...
have just messed up
their batter yet again.
That's wild.
You know, third time's a charm.
Cupcakes are going in.
That looks like a big wallop of frosting.
Adriano's getting a toothache
just looking at it.
- Looking at it, I was like...
- Really?
That's so cute.
This is gonna be close.
Jill, you almost ready to plate?
My god, go.
No!
Judges, let's head on down.
- I'm proud of us.
- God, this is beautiful.
- Caitlin and Sabrina, the first ones done!
- Hi!
- Are you ready?
- Yep, let's go. Hit the button.
Come on, Jill. Go! Go!
We got another buzzer.
- I almost fell!
- We did it!
Are we ready?
- Go.
- Yeah.
We have a third buzzer right now.
We are literally the last ones done.
It's okay.
Pass out your cupcakes
and tell us what you made.
So, our cupcake is inspired
by the German market at Christmas.
My family's from Germany,
and they go every year,
and basically, what they give you is
a mug of warm mulled wine.
So, the flavors in the cupcakes
are gonna be
a spiced cupcake
with cinnamon, nutmeg, and orange zest,
and it's filled with a warm,
cherry-spiced mulled wine filling.
And then the topping is
a Chantilly cream cheese frosting,
made with mascarpone cheese,
and then we made a tuille cinnamon cookie
on top that is edible.
- I got the best bite right here.
- That's how you eat it.
This is how you eat it, right?
That was good.
That was on the money.
Really took me back to European Christmas.
You really nailed that mulled wine flavor,
the spices, delicious cake.
You had that really juicy punch
of cherry in the middle,
and you lightened up
the overall experience
with your creamy,
dreamy mascarpone frosting.
- Well done.
- Thank you.
You got some involuntary dancing
going on over here.
You can tell how I feel
through my body language a little bit.
This is bomb. This is really good.
You caught her in her first sugar rush
of the day,
- and she's very happy with it.
- I'm very happy, ladies.
Adriano, what do we wanna see
in that confection round?
We want a confection
that captures the holiday spirit
by using red and green.
You can't rely
on red and green food coloring.
We wanna see
red and green ingredients.
- We'll impress you again. Don't worry.
- No problem.
Good luck, bakers.
We have two more cupcakes to try.
White chocolate,
pistachio, and raspberry
- go really well together.
- Yeah.
And that will cover
the green and the red element.
Yeah, perfect.
Darmayne and Jill,
the dirty snowman comes to life!
Look how cute he is!
We made a dirty snowman.
He's a white chocolate liqueur cake,
and then it has a...
Irish cream filling.
...Irish cream filling in there.
The icing itself has also
a white chocolate liqueur in there,
and then everything on there is edible.
Well, it did melt in my mouth.
The glitter on top was a nice touch.
It was beautiful.
And the center, with the liqueur...
Yeah, girl, I feel that a little bit.
I saw that much icing, and I thought,
"I think it's gonna be really sweet,"
but it's actually quite well-balanced.
It was a great cupcake,
- and a beautiful presentation.
- Thank you.
White chocolate can be a little one-note,
so as delicious as it was,
I was looking for something
to offset that flavor a little bit more.
All right, bakers, you have
an hour 43 left for your second round.
Good luck creating
your red and green confections.
- See you in a bit.
- Thank you.
Judges, we are going over
to Chris and Richard.
How about a shortbread cookie?
We need something more.
We can't just do a regular sugar cookie.
We could add cranberry... Lime, orange...
Bonjour.
- Bonjour.
- What do we have here?
We have Le Kir Royale cupcake.
We did a champagne cupcake.
We soaked it
with a champagne simple syrup,
and then we filled that
with a fluid gel of Kir Royale,
so champagne and crème de cassis.
Topped it with Swiss meringue buttercream
that's got some reduced crème de cassis.
Wow.
I love the buttercream frosting.
It's nice, light, and silky.
The cupcake was... was nice, itself,
but that center fill, for me,
was just a bit too punchy.
I felt like it just... It needed
some more fruitiness to it, you know?
Well, this is such an elegant,
beautiful, feminine presentation,
and I absolutely love the black currant
in your buttercream frosting.
It was silky. It was really well-balanced,
but I was wholly unprepared
for the filling inside.
It was really intense.
I feel like I'm breathing fire right now!
Decor was amazing.
I love these balls. I dunno what they are,
- but they're crunchy and delicious.
- White chocolate.
Okay, good luck, bakers.
You have an hour and 30 remaining.
Get going on your red and green
Christmas confections.
Thank you. We're gonna get it going.
Let's make a classic Christmas bauble.
- What do you think?
- Okay, I like that.
And we can do cocoa butter
with red and green,
and we can marble it,
and put that intricate scrollwork.
Like a dome,
just fill it with something?
We have an hour and 30 minutes.
Like, we need to get it going.
We're actually really surprised
at the way our cupcakes turned out,
despite all of our setbacks,
because they look beautiful.
So we're just waiting
on the cupcakes to cool.
We'll frost 'em, drizzle 'em,
put the ornament, and we're done.
It looks like Frances and Taylor
might actually buzz in.
Hit the buzzer! Hit it!
- My gosh!
- There we go! The last ones done.
I think they've just done their cupcakes.
That's crazy.
It took an hour and a half,
but they're here.
- Hi, ladies.
- Hi.
Hello.
Third time's a charm.
As we pass these out,
tell us what you made.
So, our cocktail that inspired us
was a spiced apple cider
mixed with a buttered rum.
So, these cupcakes have
a spiced apple rum cake,
topped with a caramel
marshmallow buttercream,
and then they're topped with a...
white chocolate Christmas ornament.
Did you drink some, girl?
Just a little bit?
I really didn't today.
It's quite delicious.
My gosh.
It's warm still, which I can tell
was the third time's a charm batter.
I can taste the alcohol,
but it's a light taste.
I love the cake.
I think it was moist, warm,
had a good flavor to it.
That nice apple taste through it.
I think you could've bumped up
the rum flavor a little bit more
in your apple cider.
That was the challenge.
And I find myself searching for that note
a little bit too much.
But a very yummy cupcake, ladies.
Well done.
Thank you.
You only have
an hour and 20 minutes left.
Good luck creating
your red and green confections.
We're not gonna take up
any more of your time,
because you don't have it.
- Good luck.
- Thank you so much.
I'm thinking, like, a chewy blondie bar,
with, um, some cranberry
for the red. It's tart.
Okay.
Judges, that took a little while,
but all four cupcakes
have officially lifted our spirits.
- Right.
- Reminder,
only three teams can continue
in the competition.
But unfortunately,
we have to send one team home.
Who had your top two favorite cupcakes?
For me, my favorite two cupcakes were
by Caitlin and Sabrina,
and Darmayne and Jill.
Caitlin and Sabrina,
the whole cupcake
was just so well-balanced,
and that mulled wine,
which I think is a challenging
holiday spirit to choose
and deliver well, and they nailed it.
It really took me back
to European Christmas,
which gave me those spicy notes
in that wine.
It was delicious. It was light. I had
a good time with Caitlin and Sabrina,
but I do have to toot the horn
to Darmayne and Jill,
because that was beautiful.
I love that snowman.
I felt the same.
I thought it was very clever.
It was funny as well. All the textures
and everything were on point.
Such a fun and cute cupcake.
I'm curious. Why are the other two
for each of you not your favorites?
Taylor and Frances...
Poor things. Today in that kitchen,
they were having so many issues,
but they ultimately delivered
a really yummy cupcake.
The problem is,
I really couldn't taste the rum
in that apple cider cupcake.
I could taste the apple cider.
I didn't realize it had rum in it as well.
The presentation was a bit lackluster.
I really didn't feel the Christmas spirit
in that cupcake.
I agree with y'all,
but Chris and Richard
definitely took me to France,
but it didn't take me
home for the holidays.
That's what I wanted.
That frosting was delicious, beautiful.
- They misstepped with that filling.
- It just needed some fruit.
You know, it needed something fresh
to balance it out,
to really cut through
all those other textures and flavors.
I'm still feeling a little...
a little drunk from that.
Judges, seems like
you have made a decision.
Now I have to go crush someone's spirit.
I'm so sorry.
I feel so bad.
All right, bakers,
can I have your attention please?
Our judges have come
to their first decision,
and the team whose cupcakes
raised our judges' spirits the most is...
- Caitlin and Sabrina.
- Yes!
Your mulled wine cupcake
had all the flavors
our judges were looking for.
You are safe from elimination.
You may continue working
on your confection. Well done.
Unfortunately, though, the judges'
least favorite cupcake belongs to...
Taylor and Frances.
My god.
We're so sorry.
Unfortunately, your time
in the Sugar Rush kitchen has run out.
This experience has been
absolutely incredible.
We were up against
some fierce competition,
and we struggled with the cupcakes.
Yeah, absolutely.
If it could go wrong, it did.
We were still able to present
something to the judges,
but it just didn't have
enough Christmas spirit.
Everyone else,
Chris, Richard, Darmayne, Jill,
you are safe from elimination.
Continue working on your confection.
Good luck.
We're definitely trying to make up
some time in this round,
because we went about 15 to 18 minutes
over the first round.
We are so far behind what we want to be,
but plated desserts is right up my alley.
I think that's gonna really help us.
I'm just crumbling this in by hand,
so it doesn't get the dough too tough.
We have to make a confection
that uses red and green,
not relying on food coloring.
So we decide to do
a pistachio and raspberry tart,
a raspberry gelée on the inside,
white chocolate ganache
and pistachio pastry cream.
Just a party in your mouth.
Okay,
I'm just gonna do two more.
We want to make it
to the cake round so bad,
because cakes are my jam.
We are not going into the next round
with an hour.
We know that we took a long time
doing our cupcake round.
We have to make sure
we do everything properly
and consistently.
I'm gonna make sure we get
a lot of that chipotle flavor in our cake.
We decide to take flavors from Italy
and mash them with some San Antonio flair.
So Chris and I decide
that we're going to make
a dark chocolate ornament
that is filled
with a chipotle red velvet cake,
a pistachio mascarpone mousse,
with a cherry compote
and candied pistachios.
To represent the green and the red
in our confection,
that cherry and pistachio will be
the ingredients that we have to use,
but we need to get
the color on the outside as well.
I am painting these molds
with cocoa butter,
because it's gotta be red and green.
It's Christmas, baby.
My strength is chocolate,
so I decide to take on
the tempering of the chocolate.
All right, chocolate gods,
be with me now.
You can temper chocolate in the microwave.
That way you get a beautiful shine
in snaps.
We are in perfect temper.
- We're at 90 degrees exactly.
- Perfect.
They're tempering the chocolate.
Hopefully, they make a thin shell,
so when we crack into it, it just breaks.
All right, as soon as I get these done,
I'm gonna throw them
inside of the blast chiller.
It's time for a game on this show
we like to call
"What would Adriano do?"
Adriano, if you were doing
a red and green confection round
using not only colors
but flavors that are red and green,
what would you do?
I don't know, actually.
And that concludes the segment.
We're gonna go in the chiller
- once we get it done, right?
- Yep, we need to chill it.
For round two, we're making
a cranberry orange lime shortbread cookie
with a lime zest glaze.
The hardest part
of this challenge for us?
It is a shortbread cookie dough,
and it normally needs to rest
before we can actually cut out
those cookies.
So we're gonna use that blast chiller,
let it chill for about two minutes,
and then we'll be able to cut out
the cookie shapes.
You're making your glaze, right?
Yep. Okay.
The lime glaze is really important
for our color
and an extra layer of flavor
for them also.
- It looks like poop.
- You need it--
That's okay.
It'll look pretty on that red cookie.
I don't want to overdo
the pistachio, but...
- it needs more pistachio.
- Yeah.
And I'm gonna pull these out.
Something just came
out of the cooling chamber.
- Cooling chamber, I like that.
- Thank you.
So, I'm concerned
about our chocolate right now.
- What's wrong?
- It's not coming out.
At all?
My heart sinks like the Titanic.
I cannot pull them out
without breaking them.
I'm gonna do them
in that silicone mold,
- then throw them in the blast chiller.
- Okay.
Using the plastic spheres
for this would have been perfect,
because the chocolate releases from it.
You get a beautiful shine
from the top.
And usually, when I use silicone,
they're not as shiny as I want them.
I know Zumbo is going to say
something about it,
but we need to hit this buzzer
as soon as possible.
I'm, like, the redo queen right now.
I'm starting to panic. We may not have
any time to bank for our last round.
We're gonna have to wait.
What do you want me to work on next?
- If you can do...
- The ganache?
I have to move to the ganache,
which is going to be surrounding
the gelée in the tart.
Second most important element.
No pressure.
I thought our gelatin's
measurements would work, but...
It looks thin.
Because it's so soupy,
if we pour it in,
the gelée is gonna melt into it.
It's not a drink. It's a dessert.
I'm tempering it down
to however cold it can get,
and then I'm gonna just fold in
a little whipped cream,
um, that I already have made.
We don't have time to start over,
so we're just gonna make mousse.
White chocolate mousse is better
than ganache, anyway.
They don't look like they're even close
to ready. So we're good.
Jill, we got a problem. My cookie.
These cookies
clearly did not chill properly.
So they're baking uneven.
They're a lot larger,
so they didn't hold their shape.
I can taste the orange and the cranberry.
We'll have to roll with it.
It's what we got.
We have to use
that batch of cookies.
We have no time.
Can we recut them with the cutter?
The cookie still has great flavor.
So we decide we're just gonna cut a circle
and pray they don't crack.
Jill's face is filled with concern.
- She's pressing something down.
- Pressing down on something there.
What's she doing?
I think I cracked it.
Let's see.
No, you're good.
- All right, Chris, they're coming out.
- All right.
We are saved.
As I get them done,
- do you wanna put them in boxes?
- Yeah.
We gotta get a move on.
Sorry. I don't want to give you frostbite.
Okay, so, you want the tree?
Richard, grab that Christmas tree
up on top.
Hey, guys, come on!
Why are you taking all our decorations?
These guys are really taking inspiration
from one another.
We gotta be fabulous.
You know how it goes.
We're done. We're ready.
Hit the buzzer.
Let's do it.
Chris and Richard,
first confection to buzz in.
Okay, we're not
the first ones done this time.
That's fine.
Why don't you go ahead,
pass out your confections,
and tell us what you made?
- It's a present!
- You all get a present.
What's inside?
My god.
- Was I not--
- The dessert was in there.
- Are you serious?
- Yes.
You put the dess--
No, it looks good.
You know, you could have
worked on the presentation a little bit.
You could've...
Didn't your mom tell you
not to shake presents?
I was trying to figure out
what I got for Christmas!
My bad.
Here, Liza, you're the guest.
You take the good one.
- And we're supposed to crack it open?
- Just crack it open.
What's in this box?
The same thing.
The same thing.
Can you open it for me? I'm scared.
We got inspired by a traditional cannoli.
So you've got pistachio, cherry,
a little bit of orange.
We threw in a little San Antonio flavor.
So we did a chipotle red velvet cake
in the bottom to give it spice.
Just kinda change up
those traditional flavors.
There's a frozen cherry reduction we did
with a little bit of cherry liqueur,
and then we added a little bit
of candied pistachios in the top.
The crunch of the pistachio,
the creaminess of the mousse,
that springiness of the cake,
and that hit of heat
from the chipotle red velvet was so nice.
I can still kind of feel it
at the back of my tongue right now.
Pistachio, for me...
You used paste, yeah?
I would've really loved
to use real pistachios.
Obviously, that chocolate is quite thick.
You didn't get that nice shine.
- It happens.
- Yo.
She had a tough shell,
but she has a great personality.
She's show ready. Could be better,
but she was show ready.
She was good!
No pressure.
Okay, we're almost done.
Go!
Another team buzzed in.
We'll go right over there in a second.
Snap! Hold on, girls.
Bakers, you finished with 15 minutes left.
We're gonna go ahead
and add three hours to that.
Sweet Liza,
what are we gonna see?
Guys, we want to see
an ugly sweater-themed cake.
Ugly on the outside,
but kind of crazy-looking
on the inside too.
We want to see some patterns.
- We got you.
- You got me?
- Hit it, Dar.
- Let's go. Hit it!
All right, you got it!
Darmayne and Jill buzzed in.
We'll go over there in a second.
Good luck.
Thank you.
- We could do, like, a photo opportunity.
- Yes.
Maybe let's do a spot
where they can put their head.
So it's two-sided. They can choose
maybe, like, naughty/nice.
Hi there, Sabrina and Caitlin.
- Welcome back.
- Thank you!
Second ones done.
Go ahead and tell us what you made.
We made a white chocolate, pistachio,
and raspberry tart.
It is a pistachio sweet dough,
almost like a pâte sablée,
and it has a layer of raspberry gelée
on the inside
and white chocolate mousse.
What's the green tint?
The green is a pistachio pastry cream.
Liza's dancing again.
No!
It just keeps happening.
This is such an exquisite presentation.
I mean, it looks like
a wild, winter garden.
This was a rockin' crust.
There's some great textures in there,
but the thing that gets me the most is
it's really well balanced.
You know, I think you get that raspberry,
then white chocolate through the middle,
and then at the end, you get
a little bit of pistachio, which is nice.
There are so many flavors in here.
My mouth is... confused but also happy.
I'm not sure how to feel.
This is why I'm not in a relationship
right now.
You saved eight minutes.
We're gonna go ahead
and add three hours to that right now.
You have a total of three hours
and eight minutes
for an ugly sweater cake.
Keep going.
We're gonna be eliminating one team
once we taste this last confection.
Good luck.
- Thank you, bakers.
- Thank you.
Okay, so they said
it has to be ugly on the outside,
and it has to have some sort of a pattern
on the inside.
Let's draw it. Four tiers, three squares.
And then we have a little elf dude on top.
Let's do the outside,
like, sweater pattern.
Okay.
- Hi.
- Hi, bakers.
Hi there.
What do you have for us?
We have a cranberry orange zest
shortbread cookie,
- and it's dipped in a lime glaze.
- Wow.
I think it's got a nice lime taste to it.
I think I expected a bit more
in the round.
For me, it's just a cookie
dipped in glaze.
- Okay.
- No complaints on this yummy cookie.
Very tasty. It's got nice crunch.
However, I felt like this coloring
really kind of took the...
the sophistication of your cookie down
a couple notches.
But it was delicious.
It was a soft cookie,
but it was subtle.
I mean, I like sweet,
and I thought it was great incorporation
of the red with the cranberries.
You had red. You had green.
You got me. We're good. Yeah.
All right, well,
you guys banked one minute.
We're gonna add three hours to that.
You have three hours and one minute
for your final cake round.
Good luck, bakers.
- Thank you.
- Have fun.
We gotta do something
that's gonna be really awesome.
- Yeti?
- A yeti?
- With a big sweater on it.
- All right, let's go for it.
We have now tried the confections,
very late into these rounds.
But remember, only two teams
can continue through to the cake round.
So let's make a fast decision.
Who had your favorite confection?
The highlight for me
was Caitlin and Sabrina's tart.
It was so organic-looking, and wild,
yet so elegant.
They picked three great flavors
that paired together:
raspberry, white chocolate, pistachio.
I really also liked the tartness
to their tart.
It was delicious.
Unfortunately, we also have to pick
the confection that is going home.
Darmayne and Jill were outshined
by the other two competitors.
It was too simple.
It was just a cookie on a plate.
The ball was dropped
with Darmayne and Jill.
Although, it was dropped over there too.
You know,
Chris and Richard had some great flavors,
but ultimately,
their chocolate work left me
trying to crack through that shell
a few too many times.
And I didn't like
that they used pistachio compound,
rather than using real pistachios.
Well, it sounds like
a decision has been made.
I will go ahead and let our bakers know.
All right, bakers,
can I have your attention, please?
Our judges have come
to their second decision.
And the confection that is red, and green,
and winning all over belongs to...
- Caitlin and Sabrina, yet again.
- Yes!
Very well done.
And the bakers with the judges'
least favorite confection this round...
Darmayne and Jill.
- I'm so sorry.
- Thank you very much.
Your cookie was fantastic,
but the round was very tough.
Your time
in the Sugar Rush kitchen has run out.
We didn't put our best foot forward,
and it was very disappointing
and heartbreaking.
I think we were both a little stressed,
a little out of our element.
- Well done.
- Thank you.
We could definitely use
a Dirty Snowman right now
or maybe just the alcohol part of it.
- For sure.
- I agree.
You don't have much time.
Two hours, 52 minutes remaining.
Good luck.
You girls are just slaying all day,
aren't you?
- We're trying.
- Yeah.
That's two for two.
It's about to be three for three.
I'm gonna bring
the shade you threw, girl.
- We won again?
- Two times.
There is negative five minutes
to celebrate.
We are so far behind what we want to be
that we just need to keep going.
What are you making?
The chocolate chip cookies.
I'll just keep working on all the cakes,
get them in the oven.
I have an idea for this cake
that's a little outside the box.
We're gonna have an elf
on the top of this cake
wearing the ugly sweater
with different colored fabrics
on the outside of the cake
that will allude to ugly sweaters.
And we're gonna bake
actual chocolate chip cookies
that the judges can eat
as well as the cake.
I'm gonna split this recipe in half
and color one half red and one half green.
We're making a red velvet,
green velvet, and vanilla cake
with a coquito cream cheese frosting.
- Wow, that looks awesome.
- Yeah.
For the inside,
we're gonna build cake pop shapes
into the cake that's already baked.
So when you're cutting into it,
our cake is hopefully
going to look like an ugly sweater inside.
Green is going in.
- This is a really tough round three.
- Yeah.
Like, you have to make it as intricate
on the inside
- as it is on the outside.
- It is a hard round.
Cake, cake, and more cake.
We gotta make sure
the cake's tall enough
that when they stand behind it,
they can put their head inside,
so we need to build up a lot of layers.
We have to do something
that's going to impress the judges.
The plan for our cake is to create
a design that's two-sided.
We decided to go
with a naughty and nice theme
and create a 3-D ugly sweater cake
that someone could stand behind,
and put their face at the top
as if they're wearing the sweater.
It's a party cake.
Have you ever been
to an ugly sweater Christmas party?
Honey, we're in San Antonio.
People wear ugly sweaters all the time.
We decide to go with something
that we're familiar with from San Antonio
and do a cake based on
a San Antonio hot chocolate...
- Yeah.
- ...which is a spiced-infused chocolate.
- Give it a whiff.
- That smells amazing.
- That smells like Christmas.
- Right?
We are making a spiced cake
and a chocolate cake
that's sealed together
with a spiced ganache,
and then on the outside, we're going to do
a Swiss vanilla bean buttercream.
We're gonna dye my cake
two different shades of red?
Yes, so we want something
a little bit darker,
something a little lighter.
We took inspiration
from our plaid outfits,
and what we're going to do is make
the inside of our cake look plaid.
Because if we do
a difficult pattern on the inside,
it might give us
a leg up with our competitors.
Now, this round,
I'm having no mistakes,
because chocolate has betrayed me today.
I'm right behind you.
I'm a mess.
I forgot the baking powder.
This is the third time
we've had another disaster,
and I'm really hoping
that we can recover yet again.
Good thing we caught that
before it was too late.
Adriano, put this on.
He's gonna look great.
I don't have a choice, Adriano.
You look like a Teletubby!
- Mwah!
- Aw!
So sweet!
Red velvet's beautiful.
Green velvet's just as beautiful.
Pretty.
I'll do the cream cheese icing right away.
Red velvet and cream cheese,
it's a classic pairing,
but I do want to add
a Christmas element to it.
Coquito is basically
a Puerto Rican eggnog.
It's gonna take it to the next level.
And I'm gonna start assembling.
Wow. That's awesome.
I'm really interested to see
how Caitlin and Sabrina are incorporating
chocolate chip cookies
into their ugly sweater cake.
They impressed us the first two rounds,
so I'm sure they've got a plan for those.
I think this is the quickest
I've ever scooped cookie dough.
If we save enough time to decorate,
that's where it'll really come in.
We know our flavors are there.
We just have to get it done.
Once my cakes are in the oven,
I move on to the ganache.
Chocolate hasn't been very good to me,
but this time,
I got my girl, heavy whipping cream,
and we're gonna make an amazing ganache.
This needs to hurry up!
Okay, calm down.
Ten thousand dollars
would definitely help in a business.
It would be, like,
a life-changing amount of money.
My family lives on a farm,
but we don't have a lot of money.
We definitely feel like the underdogs.
It's time for us to shine
like the diamonds that we are.
So now chocolate decides to act right.
I'm gonna be making the elf topper
for our cake.
I think as far as division of labor goes,
I take a little bit more lead
on the decoration side.
So his head will be about that far,
then his neck will be like that,
and the rest will be the sweater.
I know that the elf,
with all the details in his face,
is gonna take me the longest time.
I'm just trying to get him
so that he looks more realistic.
I'm a little behind on this, to be honest.
We got buttercream going.
We got ganache going.
What should I start on next?
I really think we should get
the rice crispy arms done.
Arms, okay.
A key component to this design is
to create a couple of arms
to make our design
look like an actual sweater.
So I basically take some armature wire,
wrap some cereal treats around that,
so that everything has
something to stick to,
because the last thing we want
is to put these arms up,
and then they start peeling away.
I think that's perfect.
- Liza, I'm gonna ask you a question.
- What?
Christmas for you, do you have
any Christmas memories?
Decorate the staircase,
and we wrap presents.
On Christmas Eve, at midnight,
we wrap presents.
And then we open them up nine hours later.
Yeah.
- What is the point?
- What's the point?
What do we have left to do?
Keep working on the cake.
Get it stacked.
I'm gonna continue to work
on our fondant decorations,
then all we have to do is cover
and decorate.
So in order to keep a nice square pattern
in our plaid,
I have to cut really thin strips
of this cake,
which is gonna take
a little bit more time than I wanted,
but that's the look that we need
in order to complete this challenge.
- We need to get going.
- Yeah.
Hurry up, hurry up.
I have to get right onto that pattern
for the inside of the cake.
So I'm going to press the cake pop mix.
I'm gonna do the white one first.
Press it into the pan.
This cake pop dough,
which is just mixing baked cake
with some buttercream,
has to be flattened
for me to cut out these shapes.
I'm gonna put three rows
of the snowmen in the bottom.
So the plan is to have
the white snowman
inside the green velvet cake,
and then the vanilla cake
is going to have
the green Christmas tree.
So each square tier has their own pattern,
just to give that visual separation
for an ugly sweater.
Okay, that one's done.
All right.
Guess what's finally ready to whip.
All right, bakers,
you have one hour remaining.
I think you mispronounced two hours.
I don't like this at all.
One hour,
and there is not a stitch of icing
on the outside of our cake.
I'm in full panic mode at this point.
All right, fingers crossed.
So the cake's doing
a little one of these?
So the original intention
with our cake was to carve out
a little bit of a roundness to the body
and take away that blocky feature.
However, at this point,
we have no time for any of that.
The main thing is to get
a design that's completed.
This cake will not take us down.
Okay, Liza, I double dare ya.
What?
To do the 30 minute call in a minute.
Give me one minute to warm up.
Thirty. Thirty. Thirty.
Flirty. Oops.
As long as we have something
to present to the judges,
I think we're gonna be fine.
All right, bakers,
we have 30 minutes left.
Thirty minutes left.
There was so much going on
just in this area.
Yes. Yes.
My god,
that looks so cool!
For the sweater pattern on the cake,
we're using a embossed mold,
which has two different type
of cable knit patterns in them.
We're doing good.
One tier's almost done.
I'm so scared right now.
It's taking a lot longer
than we expected the paneling to go.
This is where I get really nervous.
I want to win so bad.
I just-- We just need to stack.
We won both challenges.
We are right at the end,
and I'm just worried
that we're not gonna have
a stacked, presentable cake.
So this is a poor man's sweater,
because it's patchwork.
It'll be stacked, but that's it.
We look across to see
what the other team is working on,
and I see stacked blocks
and just simple colors.
So I feel like we may have a chance,
because the challenge is ugly sweater,
and we actually have an ugly sweater,
whereas theirs, I don't see a sweater.
- I don't know if that's doing anything.
- All right.
Where are the wooden dowels?
I have noticed that the cake went
from being in a superhero pose
to nine months pregnant,
and we need to fix this
as fast as possible.
So we need some sort of structure
in the center,
so it doesn't completely fall over.
They're not even
long enough though, right?
Well, some sort of structure
holding down into this
- will stop it from leaning, will it not?
- Yeah.
All right, bakers,
you have five minutes left.
Ugly-up those sweaters!
My god.
I better make sure I know
how to spell naughty.
Lift and slide, lift and slide.
One, two, three, lift.
Thirty seconds left, bakers!
That is so fun to say.
- My god!
- Fingers, fingers.
I found the disco dust.
Perfect. I'm putting reindeer
on the sleeve.
Come on!
- We can't do anything else.
- Four, three, two...
one!
Don't touch the cakes!
- We made it.
- We made it.
Judges, we have some ugly sweaters,
but I think we need two more.
- Let's head on down.
- Yeah!
It's my best cake, guys.
Chris and Richard, this is so ugly!
Thank you.
- I'm gonna try it on.
- Do it.
How's that? Look good?
Naughty's a good color?
I thought so.
God!
My god.
'Sup?
Okay.
This is more like
after the Christmas party,
and the sweater comes off.
This is the crumpled-up version
you would find on your bedroom floor.
A little crusty.
You only had three hours.
You had to give us an ugly sweater
on the outside
and pattern on the inside,
and that's no easy feat.
I think it's kind of cute,
but then again,
I have some low standards.
It's actually pretty hideous,
but it is making me feel
more confident in myself.
I feel good-looking.
You know, I can't wait
to taste what's inside it.
Why don't you let us see
those hideous layers inside as well?
Cut us four slices.
We'll see you at the judges' table.
- Okay.
- Thank you, bakers.
- Congrats, guys.
- Thank you.
Judges, Caitlin and Sabrina's
wonderful cake.
This little Christmas elf was not invited
to the ugly sweater party,
so he snuck out, and he made the sweater
that he's wearing on top,
and he also stole
some of Santa's cookies.
So he is definitely on the naughty list.
So we've got his iron,
the spool, and the needles.
He's got his scissors for the top.
I'm in love. I love the story.
I want to buy it
and sell it as a children's book
if you don't mind.
I love the colors,
love the creativity.
I think it's really well-executed.
You gave us a really imaginative take
on the challenge,
and I cannot wait to look inside.
Well, on that note, why don't you cut us
four slices of your ugly sweater cake?
We'll see you at the judges' table.
- Thank you.
- Thank you, bakers.
- Perfect!
- Yes!
We are gonna go ahead
and start with Caitlin and Sabrina.
Ladies, will you walk us through
the flavors of your cake?
Our cake is red and green velvet.
I have a vanilla cake in the center
and a coquito cream cheese frosting
on the inside.
For the pattern,
we actually did a white snowman,
and then the green Christmas tree.
We got a Liza dance going on right now.
I'm trying to control it right now.
But the head keeps moving.
Poker face.
I know. I got no poker face.
Caitlin and Sabrina,
I love the inside of this cake.
I mean, you gave us red, green, and gold,
Christmas trees,
and snowman cake pops inside the cake,
but I was looking for
that ugly Christmas sweater on your cake.
This cake was delicious.
It was incredibly moist.
It was really gorgeous,
and it was really fun to dip into the cake
while I have a different taste in my mouth
I love that coquito frosting.
It had a really good coconut taste,
a little tanginess
from the cream cheese.
I loved the pattern
of the inside of your sweater.
- Well done.
- Thank you.
Okay.
Adriano's switching cakes, always.
Chris, Richard, why don't you walk us
through the flavors
of your remarkably ugly...
Christmas sweater?
We did a take on a Mexican hot chocolate.
So we did two different types of cake:
chocolate cake,
two different colors of a spiced cake,
and then we kind of married it together
with a spiced dark chocolate ganache,
and then finished off
the outside of that cake
with a traditional vanilla
Swiss meringue buttercream.
My head's moving again.
Looks like a tie thus far. Hold on.
What spices are in it again? Sorry.
Cinnamon, cardamom, allspice,
nutmeg and ginger.
It sets a little fire in your soul.
- ¡Órale!
- I like the taste of your cake.
A lot of good flavors there
that really popped out.
Nice chocolate taste.
I would've loved
a little bit more ganache,
just a little bit thicker in the...
in the joints.
I love the colors, the pattern,
so well done.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
I couldn't stop eating this cake.
It was so springy and light.
It was all very well-balanced,
and, you know, ugly sweater to me
is all about the plaids.
So you guys brought the plaid,
and you guys nailed an ugly sweater.
Thank you so much.
Y'all had an amazing taste to your cake.
The cardamom and the cinnamon,
that was an incredible touch.
It tasted very ethnic, like me,
so I appreciate that.
Delicious. Thank you.
Excellent.
Okay, bakers, you definitely brought
the Christmas spirit
to the Sugar Rush kitchen today.
The last thing left to do...
Judges, who had your favorite cake?
Liza, we'll start with you.
Caitlin and Sabrina,
you had the creativity.
Both inside and outside of the cake
were amazing.
Now, Chris and Richard,
y'all's cake was ugly.
But also, different than any cake
that I've ever had before.
Overall,
my favorite cake of the day goes to...
Chris and Richard.
Chris and Richard,
that is one vote for you,
meaning if you get one more vote,
you will have won $10,000
in the Sugar Rush kitchen.
Adriano.
Chris and Richard,
I love your chocolate-y cake
with all the spices,
and that spiced ganache.
I thought it was really delicious.
Sabrina and Caitlin, I love
the story you told about the little elf.
Flavors were good.
Love that coquito frosting.
My favorite cake today is...
Caitlin and Sabrina's.
Caitlin and Sabrina,
that's one vote for you.
The tie-breaking vote belongs to...
I got bad news, Candace.
I'm the nice one!
Not anymore.
All right.
Chris and Richard,
you gave us an ugly Christmas sweater.
I mean, that is a funny cake!
You gave us plaid,
and you gave us spice.
You brought the spice.
Caitlin and Sabrina,
you gave us tender, moist layers of cake.
Those cake pop silhouettes inside
were ingenious,
and a perfectly finished cake.
Ultimately, my favorite
cake of the day was...
Caitlin and Sabrina's.
My god!
Caitlin and Sabrina, congratulations!
You have just won $10,000
in the Sugar Rush kitchen.
I have worked my butt off
the last nine years to get where I am.
Being a part of a competition
like this is so validating,
and I got to do it with an amazing friend.
I can't...
Don't cry. You're gonna make me cry.
- All right.
- Okay.
My god.
- We did it!
- We did it!
Winning $10,000 is an amazing way
to put us into the Christmas spirit,
I think.
We stuck with it,
we knew what the end plan was,
and we got there.
- Quite literally with flying colors.
- Yeah.
Thank you so much for watching
this episode of Sugar Rush Christmas.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays.