Emeril Lagasse stops by to make a holiday Rack of Lamb with Apple Mint Puree, then take holiday parties up a notch with Katie Lee's Christmas Tree Cheese Ball and Marcela Valladolid's Snowman Cheese Ball. Plus, two ways to serve ham for the holidays, the quickest tricks to create a classic Yule Log Cake, and new tips on how to decorate a store-bought gingerbread house. Geoffrey Zakarian warms everyone up with Peppermint Hot Chocolate while carolers amp up the holiday spirit!
Mentioned in this episode:
Holiday Cheese Balls
Gingerbread House
Yule Log Hacks
The week starts with Duff giving cake-decorating lessons to a local troop of Brownies. Duff has been asked to make a crab-themed 50th birthday cake for Baltimore's most famous seafood restaurant, Phillips Harborplace. The gang decides to make a bushel (wooden barrel) of crabs with ears of corn around the base. Each crab has to be sculpted out of modeling chocolate and the barrel must be painted so it looks like wood. When Duff delivers the cake, he meets the Phillips family—and Mrs. Phillips bites into one of the ears of corn and is shocked to find it's not real but made of sugar. Duff has also been asked to appear on the Tonight Show, to make a birthday cake for Jay Leno. In Baltimore, Duff packs up, decides to take Geof, and figures out which tools he’ll need. Once they get to L.A., Duff and Geof must make the cake in their hotel room, with the help of Food Network Challenge's Mike McCary. Despite some setbacks along the way, the cake (and Duff) are a big success on the show. While Duff is in Los Angeles, he uses his power-tool skills on a Habitat for Humanity build and realizes a childhood dream when he goes to the Guitar Center on Sunset Boulevard and gets to play a bass that once belonged to Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.