In an ode to the Midwest, Carla Hall challenges the bakers to feature cherries as they turn Michigan's bumpy cake into a bumpy entremets. Then they make mini versions of Missouri's beloved gooey butter cake for judges Gesine Prado and Jason Smith. The competition moves to the Northeast as Carla challenges the bakers to reinvent Boston cream pie using Massachusetts' beloved coffee syrup. They also have to create plated desserts based on whoopie pies, which originated in Maine.
In the semifinal, host Carla Hall challenges the bakers to get creative with Nevada's famous Basque cake using Southwest chile peppers as the featured flavor. Then they must turn flan and biscochitos, the official state cookie of New Mexico, into one highly original and decadent dessert. In the final, the bakers have to turn California's chiffon cake into a tsunami cake with lemons and avocado, and judges Gesine Prado and Jason Smith join Carla to choose the competition's winner after seeing -- and tasting -- the bakers' 2-foot-tall Hawaiian dessert showpieces.