For the pre-heat, the five remaining bakers take a light, sweet and utterly harmless dessert -- the cream puff -- and head to the dark side by creating "scream puffs." Next, it's a main heat filled with frights as the bakers make scary mask desserts to spook the judges. One baker is eliminated at the end of the round.
A group of talented bakers enter the fortune-telling tent at the Circus of Dread in the pre-heat challenge. The competitors are tasked with creating tarot card desserts featuring blood orange, fig or passion fruit. The bakers then enter the Creepy Clown Hall of Fame in the main heat where they create impressive desserts that will land one of them in the finale.
In the pre-heat, the seven remaining bakers must make witches' fingers and toes and create a sauce to dip them in. The witch theme goes a step further in the main heat when the bakers must create desserts that look like witches, complete with edible brooms. One baker is eliminated at the end of the round.
In the Silence of the Yams pre-heat challenge, bakers make yam desserts that evoke classic scary movie cliches from chainsaws and hockey masks to bloody knives and creepy dolls. In the main heat, the bakers turn a pumpkin patch into a "bundtkin patch" by creating a pumpkin patch out of mini bundt cakes.
In the pre-heat, the four remaining bakers attempt to make desserts that taste like their favorite candy bars. For the main heat, the bakers face death by chocolate and must create a dessert that combines chocolate with odd ingredients. One baker is eliminated and the last three move on to the finale.
Host Carla Hall invites the five remaining bakers to a party in the haunted ballroom. For a spot in the finale, the competitors must create impressive costume cakes that will dazzle Carla and the other judges, Stephanie Boswell and Zac Young.
In the devil's den, host Carla Hall challenges the six remaining bakers to conjure up a devilish dessert using unusual ingredients, such as sauerkraut, beets, tamarind paste and canned tomato soup. The competitors must get creative to avoid the fiery pit of elimination and impress Carla and the other judges, Stephanie Boswell and Zac Young.
The seven remaining bakers continue their journey through the haunted house to the creepy nursery. Host Carla Hall challenges the competitors to bake 3-D demon doll cakes with a diabolically assigned flavor to be judged by Carla, Stephanie Boswell and Zac Young.
Host John Henson's "mummy" issues inspire the pre-heat challenge of crepe cakes, and judges Carla Hall, Katie Lee and Zac Young decide on the creepiest. In the main heat, the five remaining bakers use classic fall ingredients to create jack-o'-lantern pies that are half scary and half sweet.
Descending into a spooky cellar is enough to make any baker's blood run cold, and blood is always on the menu for a vampire party. Host Carla Hall asks the eight remaining bakers to team up and create desserts for a vampire buffet to satisfy the bloodsuckers' appetites as well as Carla and the other judges, Stephanie Boswell and Zac Young.