Host Jesse Palmer challenges the nine remaining bakers to make seasonal holiday pies with no repeated flavors among their own team. In a surprise bit of strategy, each team must select only their best two pies for tasting by judges Duff Goldman, Nancy Fuller, and Kardea Brown. To make the decision, the bakers taste their team's pies on their own. Feathers might get a little ruffled, but it's for the team! In the end, a baker from the losing team is eliminated.
In the semifinals, the six remaining bakers are surprised to learn from host Jesse Palmer that there are no more teams, and they will be competing individually as they face a gauntlet of three challenges. First, the bakers must create retro Christmas desserts and add holiday flair to the decorating. Then, in a second heat, the competitors are tasked with making desserts with old-school gelatin mold flavors like lime cream cheese, peach buttermilk, or orange marshmallow. In the main heat, bakers must turn things like canned apple pie filling, canned pineapple, or instant chocolate pudding into retro ingredient desserts that are impressive enough to land them in the finale. Guest judge Stephanie Boswell joins Nancy Fuller and Kardea Brown to decide which bakers move on and which baker is eliminated.
Ready for a holiday getaway, host Jesse Palmer escapes the cold weather by challenging the bakers to create desert-inspired succulent tarts. The two least successful bakers ski into a cookie cake showdown that will keep one competitor on track for the final bake. In the Main Heat, the remaining bakers use cake to highlight some of the most popular holiday vacation spots before judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall award the best cake maker with $25,000 and the championship title!
For the pre-heat, mummy's the word as the six remaining bakers are asked to make a Halloween mummy dessert using pre-made pie dough. Next, the bakers must create a candy-stuffed, wicked cake based on a Halloween icon.
In the final pre-heat, the three remaining bakers must fill a haunted tree with decorated Halloween cookies. For the grand finale, the bakers have just six hours to construct a spooky "ginger dead" house. Special guest Duff Goldman stops by to put a fright into the bakers, then the most impressive house wins one baker the title of Halloween Baking Champion and $25,000!
Nothing says Halloween more than scary monsters, and in the pre-heat, the seven bakers must create creepy bite-sized monster treats. For the main heat, zombies attack as the bakers are faced with whipping up a zombie dessert that makes the judges hungry for a bite.
Things are only getting spookier with just five bakers left in the competition, who must head to the haunted circus for the pre-heat and create a dozen scary clown cake pops. Then, the main heat moves to the freak show, as the bakers make frighteningly strange mashup desserts.
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.
Down to six bakers and it's time for a big, bad, monster mash. The bakers spook the judges with their sculpted scary treats and then mash up flavors and themes to create devilishly delicious desserts! But one baker's creepy concoction doesn't cut it and gets the axe.