Three teams made up of an expert pumpkin carver, a cake artist and a sugar master compete in the first of three qualifying rounds. Zak Bagans introduces them to the famously haunted city of New Orleans and asks them to cast a sweet spell with the voodoo queen, Marie Laveau. Host Eddie Jackson and fellow judges Shinmin Li and Aarti Sequeira decide which team gets sent home.
Inspired by a haunted mirror that Zak Bagans acquired from an actor famous for playing Count Dracula, the three remaining teams are challenged to depict in cake form what hobbies a night-stalking vampire might have picked up after hundreds of years of immortality. Judges Eddie Jackson, Shinmin Li and Aarti Sequeira decide which two teams make it to the finale.
Host Jonathan Bennett asks the remaining teams to reveal what it looks like when a vampire goes on a date, along with everything that could go wrong. The teams must highlight their cake artist's skill by incorporating a tasting element into the main character before judges Shinmin Li and Aarti Sequeira decide who won't be getting a second date.
The five remaining teams face their hardest flavor challenge yet as host Jonathan Bennett asks them to make over a classic Hollywood monster. Judges Shinmin Li and Aarti Sequeira evaluate their devious designs before sending one team home screaming.
Four of America's best pumpkin carvers come together for a Halloween pumpkin carving competition that defies expectations. In three rounds of challenges, the spectacularly talented artists use carving and sculpting tools ranging from toothpicks to saws to execute their amazingly intricate Halloween designs. The carver who impresses the expert panel of judges the most takes home a $10,000 prize.
Duff Goldman welcomes talented bakers from across America for an unconventional baking and design competition where flavor is only the tip of the icing. In the first challenge, the four bakers must create Halloween-themed cakes that incorporate a surprise selection of candies and treats. Judges Waylynn Lucas and Pichet Ong send one baker home, and then the three remaining competitors have five days in their own home bakeries to design, bake and construct an elaborate Halloween-themed showpiece cake that transforms from good to evil through moving, shattering or even melting in front of the judges' eyes. The bakers return to the studio to assemble and present their cakes, and the judges consider flavor and execution before crowning the winner of the Halloween Cake-Off.