Holiday Baking Championship

S2, Ep1

1 Nov. 2015 We're Nuts for the Holidays

Season 2 kicks off with 10 competing bakers taking on a nutty chocolate dessert in the first challenge and beautifully decorated holiday pies in the main heat. In the end, one person will be eliminated.

The remaining nine bakers get crafty as they attempt to amp up the visual impact of holiday baked goods, while creating festive candy cane and holiday wreath desserts.

The eight remaining bakers begin by making their best holiday whoopie pies, that evoke a randomly assigned theme of turkey, pumpkin, Pilgrims or fall foliage. Then, they must create stuffed holiday cakes, that reveal a surprise center when sliced open.

Seven bakers remain when the challenge is to get creative with Thanksgiving desserts, featuring canned cranberry sauce. Later, harvest ingredients, including sweet potato, pumpkin, apple, pear, pomegranate, carrot and lemon, are showcased in sweet dishes.

Candied ginger is highlighted in mini-desserts created by the six remaining bakers, who also must prepare three different types of holiday cookies, inspired by family traditions.

The five remaining bakers are asked to reinvent two Hanukkah classics: rugelach and macaroons. Then, they must create their own unique versions of a holiday croquembouche.

Re-gifting is the theme, when the four remaining bakers make a candy-apple dessert; and later, they must figure out how to turn the contents of a traditional gift basket into something deliciously sweet.

Season 2 comes to a close with the final three bakers showing off their decorating skills, when making sugar cookie trees and cakes that represent an assigned holiday tradition.