Holiday Baking Championship: Gingerbread Showdown season 2 episode 1

Halloween is over and that means the holiday season is in full swing. On Food Network, that means Holiday Baking Championship: Gingerbread Showdown is back for season 2. For the first episode, the bakers had to look to the future.

The episode started with host and judge Carla Hall coming out of a time machine and instructing the bakers to make a futuristic North Pole. It had to be mostly edible and made almost entirely out of gingerbread. The three bakers in this episode included executive pastry chef Lerome Campbell, home baker Mollie Smith, and home baker Regina Heimbach.

The bakers and their assistants had 10 hours to create and put together their futuristic gingerbread creations and to say it was stressful would be an understatement. Pieces fell apart, words that were printed on the gingerbread walls were difficult to cover, and some of the moving components of the edible North Poles didn’t all work.

I had several panic attacks while watching this show and I wasn’t the only one. The two other judges on the show, Stephanie Boswell and Kalen Allen, were also visibly shocked when some of the gingerbread walls started crumbling. After all that work, it’s heartbreaking to see some of the pieces come apart.

Holiday Baking Championship: Gingerbread Showdown is back with season 2

There was also a twist! The bakers also had to make a separate dessert using freeze-dried raspberries. It had to be delicious (of course) and worked into their gingerbread display. Like the bakers didn’t have enough to do!

Once the 10 hours were up, all the bakers created something truly extraordinary. It was really interesting to see how they viewed the North Pole of the future. There were machines making toys, skyscrapers, mountains, and spinning tiers. And the desserts looked delicious!

But who came out on top? That was Mollie and Melissa! They showed Santa and the elves taking a break because machines were taking over the toy-making process. The whole display looked really fun and while there were some mistakes, it definitely went with the theme of the challenge.

Was this my favorite one? No. I liked Lerome’s more, but I understand why the judges picked the one they did.

Lerome and his assistant Desiree did win for the best frozen raspberry dessert which meant Desiree got a bunch of new baking equipment.

Next week, three more bakers will be baking their gingerbread hearts out and making displays that show the elves getting into all kinds of shenanigans at the workshop.

What did you think of this week’s episode of Holiday Baking Championship: Gingerbread Showdown? Let us know in the comments below!