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 Jesse Palmer gives the seven bakers advent calendars filled with different types of chocolate to inspire them to make desserts with a surprise inside. Then, for the main heat, the competitors must bake one delicious cheesecake with three different flavors for judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall.
John Henson hosts as the remaining four bakers go digging to create terrifyingly tasty grave-robber desserts. Then for the main heat, it's a night at the cemetery as the competitors sculpt marbled tomb cakes to impress judges Carla Hall, Katie Lee and Zac Young to land a spot in the finale.
Apple cider doughnuts are a sure sign of fall, so in the first round, Jesse Palmer asks the eight bakers to create a dozen kicked-up apple cider doughnuts decorated with seasonal themes. Then the bakers must transform a classic holiday yule log into a festive Thanksgiving roll cake, and judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Lorraine Pascale decide which competitor's cake falls short.
Some of the tastiest treats of Hanukkah are gold-covered chocolate coins, and Jesse Palmer challenges the four remaining bakers to give the classic treat a twist by incorporating candied orange, espresso beans, smoked salt or toasted coconut and create a dessert highlighting their chosen flavor. In the second challenge, the competitors bake up delicious cheesecakes with an assigned crust and decorated with an edible shiny ice rink on top. Judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Lorraine Pascale get serious about which three bakers move on to the finale.
To kick things off, nine bakers must create eye-catching and tantalizing new holiday treats for seasonal parties. In the pre-heat, bakers create a dessert with an unusual candy cane flavor and then, for the main heat, they use a holiday cocktail as sweet inspiration. One unlucky baker goes home.
John Henson catches a spirit doing some imaging in the X-ray room! The films the spirits have been taking of themselves are monstrous, and John wants the bakers to use these X-rays as templates for build-a-spirit desserts. Then, the bakers enter the lab basement where the portal to the underworld is kept locked behind a secure heavy door, but lately ghouls have been letting all sorts of otherworldly creatures out! The bakers make a portal entremet that reveals an otherworldly creature to judges Carla Hall, Zac Young and Stephanie Boswell.
In honor of the Hanukkah oil that kept burning, host Jesse Palmer asks the seven remaining bakers to create festive Hanukkah olive oil cakes. In the main heat, it's all about gift exchange desserts as the competitors randomly choose a dreaded holiday dessert and attempt to spin it into holiday happiness to please judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall.
Jesse Palmer teaches the six bakers a lesson in repurposing holiday gifts in the first round, when they must turn panettone, the classic holiday Italian sweet bread, into an entirely new dessert. Then they're challenged to create a beautifully decorated cupcake mosaic inspired by a pair of holiday pajamas. Judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Lorraine Pascale send one baker packing.
The popularity of holiday spiced nuts inspires Jesse Palmer's challenge to the nine bakers: Use the crowd-pleasing holiday gift to create holiday spiced nut desserts. In the main heat, each baker must make three pies using an assigned harvest ingredient and decorate each pie crust differently. Judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Lorraine Pascale send one baker packing.