The Most Deceiving Cakes From 'Sweet Deceit: Trick or Treat'

Season 1 of Sweet Deceit: Trick or Treat, hosted by actor Josh Peck, quite literally brought both tricks and treats to the table. Some of the world’s most talented bakers came together to create baked goods disguised as non-edible everyday items. It was up to teams of Halloween connoisseurs to spot the edible creation out of the bunch. Easier said than done: Appearances are often deceiving. Ahead, check out some of the most surprising moments from Sweet Deceit: Trick or Treat.

During the last episode of Sweet Deceit: Trick or Treat, three Halloween-loving scientists were tasked with figuring out which wicked lab props were secretly cakes in disguise. They narrowed it down to two items: a model of a human brain and a jar of eyeballs, noting the brain looked artificial and more uneven than the anatomical models they'd seen. After lively debate, the scientists guessed the brain was secretly sweet.

Uneven? Maybe. Sweet? Nope. In a shocking twist, one of the scientists bit into the brain only to discover it was very much plastic. The jar of eyeballs was indeed a gelatin-based cake filled with eyes made of painted gumballs. Master baker Liz Marek carefully placed the "eyeballs" into a cooled gelatin mix to make it look like they were floating. And the old-looking lid? Pure chocolate (and pure genius).

In another corner of the lab, a table of creepy critters awaited the scientists’ dissection. They discussed each creature at length. Was the snake's nose a little too pointy? Why was the scorpion matte? The gigantic prehistoric cockroach would make for an iconic cake … if it weren’t for those too-perfect-looking antennae. The scientists decided the spider had to be the cake (it was far too realistic).

Their spidey senses were right on: The too-realistic tarantula was a chocolate cake with nougat, caramel and peanut filling. Liz expertly molded the delicate spider parts — thorax, legs, abdomen and all — using a chocolate clay. The finishing touch was an edible glaze painted all over the spider, giving it a shiny look (which, at first, had the scientists fooled into thinking it looked a little too plastic). In the end, the scientists came out on top this round, scoring a cool $1,000.

Over at the thermal station, a sweet in disguise sat amongst six lab items: a fire blanket, a piece of wood, a fire extinguisher, a gas tank, a propane tank, gloves and a blow torch. The scientists noted the fire blanket box appeared to be made of actual tin. The gas tank looked metallic. Perhaps the wood was actually a cake? No, it was the fire extinguisher that looked the most out of place to them; the instructions on the side of it didn’t seem quite right.

As it turns out, the scientists were right about those instructions. On a real fire extinguisher, they would be much more extensive. This was, in fact, a cookie cake with chocolate ganache. Liz created the "giant cookie" using a mold, pouring red compound chocolate into it to make a shell and inserting a cookie cake filling.

The Big Bite grand finale was upon us, and it was up to scientist Cyrus to correctly identify three sweets from a lab cart of items. The skull looked a bit off, he mused. But it was the bunsen burner he was most doubtful of: It was missing circles at the bottom that would allow airflow. Hey, if anyone knows about how bunsen burners are supposed to look, it’s probably an actual scientist, right? … Right?

This scientist knows his tools: That bunsen burner was actually made of white chocolate. And the skull? With chocolate cake and toasted marshmallow filling, it's probably one of tastiest to ever exist. A cool $2,000 in the scientists pockets.

In a somewhat unconfident leap of faith, Cyrus chose the rat as his last guess because, as he put it, the tail looked chocolatey. Before making his choice, he got really in the weeds with analyzing the remaining items. The books? No. They looked too much like the ones in his lab. And that battery? It had to be made of real plastic and paper. In the end, the chocolatey-looking tail won out.

In another surprising twist, one of the scientists bit into a very plastic, non-edible rat. Liz really outdid herself here. The real edible item had completely fooled the entire group of scientists. It was the extremely real-looking battery. In fact, no one wanted to bite into the battery because of how authentic it appeared. When they eventually did, they were met with a delectable confetti cake and a hazelnut filling.

It was time to visit the abandoned haunted library where three best friends (and Halloween fanatics) went up against hyperrealistic cake artist Andrew Fuller and his array of secret sweets, hidden in plain sight. The experts approached the haunted library’s checkout desk, which was decorated with an assortment of curiosities, one of which was one of Andrew’s creations. Everything looked real, but the three were quick to dismiss the paperweight statue of a haunted looking woman, as it looked just like something they’d seen in stores. Eventually, they chose the lamp, noting they didn’t see a button on it.

It was, in fact, an actual lamp, not a sweet. One the guessers opted to bite into a few more items she suspected might be cake, starting with the letter press. It was also not sweet, but third time’s a charm, because her next choice was the paperweight they’d written off as store-bought. It turns out, Andrew counted on this assumption, knowing the recognizable figure would fool fans. The haunted-looking paperweight statue was made of a chocolate malt cake with toasted marshmallow ganache filling.

Six old books sat atop a table in the haunted library. Some of them appeared to have dust on them, others were bound with leather that could be cake, but truly no one knew. Absolutely none of them looked sweet. Andrew really nailed this round, it seemed. The experts thought a soft-looking book with paper seemed a little too thick. Was this the hidden cake?

Andrew reigned supreme yet again. The soft, leather book was, in fact, real … as was the team’s second guess (a gigantic black book with gold detailing). One by one, they continued to taste bites of ... real books. Finally, only one was left on the table; the one with a gold cover. This was the hidden sweet, an ube cake with a pumpkin ganache.

Over in the biology section of the library, animal oddities from all over the word lined a table. There were seven of them: a seashell, a raven, a frog, a snake, an egg on a stand, an antler and a beetle. The egg’s stand had a broken leg, so the team figured it wasn’t sweet. They chose the statue of the beetle, which was sitting atop a moss-covered log. The moss looked like it could be edible, and this team desperately needed a win. There was only one thing left to do: Bite that beetle.