Spring Baking Championship season 9 episode 5: Love is in the stars

Food Network’s Spring Baking Championship returned for episode 5 of season 9 and this week, it was all about the outdoors. With everything from the night sky to garden flowers, the bakers had to make spectacular creations that both looked amazing and tasted delicious.

The Pre-Heat challenge had the remaining bakers making mousse cakes. But while that may sound easy, they had to incorporate the night sky and cover the cake in the dreaded mirror glaze. If you’ve watched any baking shows, you know the mirror glaze is not for the weak. It’s very difficult!

While a few bakers had issues with their mirror glaze, most of the final results looked gorgeous. The colors were very celestial, swirly, and mesmerizing. Josh was the one who had the biggest issues. He overcooked the sugar in his mirror glaze and it was quite gummy. And when Jessica headed to judging, they said her mirror glaze tasted off.

But who was the winner of the Pre-Heat? It was Christian! His mousse cake looked like something in the solar system. It was creative, artistic, and according to the judges, tasted amazing!

Spring Baking Championship was all about the outdoors this week

On to the Main Heat! For this challenge, the bakers had to team up and create garden arbor croquembouches and macarons. The teams consisted of Christian and Molly, Clement and April, Luke ad Josh, and Jessica and Jai. Clement is pretty much an expert in croquembouches so he was ecstatic about this challenge.

Christian and Molly made an underwater spring arbor with a ginger vanilla pastry cream inside the croquembouche. The macarons were elderflower and white chocolate ganache and honeysuckle and white chocolate. Ariel from The Little Mermaid would have loved this underwater creation.

Clement and April made a beautiful garden arbor with a raspberry cremeux inside the croquembouche. Their macarons were cherry blossom and pistachio and rose. It looked like it could be at a wedding.

Luke and Josh made a strawberry and lime cream-filled croquembouche with cherry hibiscus lemongrass and caramelized orange and banana macarons.

Finally, Jessica and Jai made a croquembouche with strawberry whipped cream and lychee cream filling. Their macarons were raspberry and peach and strawberry, violet, and matcha macarons.

While there weren’t too many problems in this challenge, there was a split filling and two very crunchy macarons.

Beyond that, these were truly spectacular! But what team came out on top? To no one’s surprise, it was Clement and April! His experience and her attention to detail really worked well together. And April won as an individual baker as well.

Unfortunately, someone had to go home and this week, it was Jessica. Her mousse cake had a weird flavor and her macaron was crunchy and the filling was split.

Next week, the remaining bakers have to make soda shop cupcakes and shaggy cakes to celebrate the 50s and 60s.

What did you think of this week’s episode of Spring Baking Championship? What was your favorite dessert the bakers made? Let us know in the comments below!