Halloween Baking Championship season 9 episode 5: Trifles and shrunken heads

Halloween Baking Championship season 9 was back for episode 5 and it was wild. It was creepy and spooky as usual, but also a little bit frustrating. It’s always shocking watching one of these shows and then hearing that one of the bakers has never worked with ginger. But let’s get to the first challenge!

For the Thriller Challenge, the bakers had to make a trifle with an ingredient that’s grown underground and had to make it look like someone had been buried alive. The ingredients they had to choose from included ginger, turmeric, beets, carrots, sweet potatoes,  and fennel. Most of these looked pretty good and the judges didn’t have too many bad things to say about them. Hollie and Stacey were the top two, and Hollie took the top spot.

On to the Killer Challenge! This time, the bakers had to make pies with shrunken heads on top. And they had to include dried fruits as ingredients. They got to choose from golden raisins, dried peaches, dried apricots, dried figs, dried dates, and currants.

As the winner of the first challenge, Hollie got to choose her fruit first and she picked golden raisins. Ryan got currants, Mandi chose dates, Stacey picked figs, James got apricots, and Krista chose peaches.

Halloween Baking Championship was buried alive this week

Again, most of the bakers did well, but this was really not Mandi’s day. She didn’t do well with the ginger in the first challenge, and in this challenge, she didn’t put parchment paper underneath her weights for blind baking, and they completely stuck to the pie dough. It was honestly tough to watch. That said, the judges loved how she designed her shrunken heads.

The two people who really shined in this challenge were Ryan and Stacey, and it was great to see Stacey get some recognition. As soon as she said she was putting rosemary and thyme in her pie crust, I knew she was going to be on top. It sounds so good! But did she win the challenge? Nope. Ryan took the top spot again.

But who went home? The bottom two were Krista and Mandi, and Mandi was the one to go home. Her pie filling did not look the most appetizing and her pie crust was overbaked.

Next week, the remaining bakers will have to make desserts that are designed to melt, and then they will be tasked with creating a dessert that has swallowed another dessert.

What did you think of this week’s episode of Halloween Baking Championship? For all the latest food TV news, make sure to stay tuned to Guilty Eats.