SPOILERS AHEAD for Spring Baking Championship season eleven!

I’m sad that it was a shorter episode — I wish they could all be a whole hour and twenty-five! it feels so rushed — but, overall, this one was far superior to Episode 2. The challenges were much better: no stupid Minecraft, no “team” awkwardness. As someone who always died a bit inside when the teacher said “okay, now find a partner” or “now break up into teams of four,” I always get a slight PTSDish cringe on everyone’s behalf when they’re told they have to work in teams.

I do take some issue with the first challenge, though. I’m not a big tea fan, myself. Coffee for me, 100%; I don’t get excited about tea flavors. But, that’s not my issue with the challenge. My issue with the challenge was that it was rigged! Matcha is an objectively shitty flavor, in a dessert. Whoever gets assigned matcha is screwed. You may as well give them a card that says “dog shit,” and be like, “good luck trying to make this taste good.” Similarly, hibiscus is an objectively more delicious flavor, for a dessert than just about any of these others. I’m not saying that Julian didn’t deserve to win this challenge. He absolutely did! That monochromatic hibiscus madeleine tower was a breathtaking, a work of modern art. But, I do feel like my favorites, Jon’Nae and Paul, got the really short end of the stick, here, and their talents weren’t given room to shine. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a successful matcha dessert on any of these shows. Stop assigning this flavor. No one likes it. It’s stupid.

Also, Duff was wrong about Paul in this challenge. That natural, olivey, 1970s green color base of the madeleine tower, with those pops of bright/neon color in the flowers, was a really cool contrast and an interesting color scheme! There was absolutely nothing wrong with it! That was just a dumb and vapid comment, nothing true about it.

The second challenge was cool, though! I love the rainbow theme; the ombre cheesecakes were a delight. And the whole saga of “will Julian use his immunity or not? will it send him home if he doesn’t?!” was very suspenseful; that was great TV. He was way too bold, trying to do a baked cheesecake! I appreciate the ambition, and I think that that, plus his sugar rainbow, were what saved him; but hopefully, he learned his lesson, and from here on out will rein in that ambition just a smidge! I was so afraid he was going to go home with that unused immunity card. (I love that they added in that stipulation, “you have to use the immunity in one of the next five main heats, and you must decide to use it before judging” — I was wondering how they were going to avoid making the immune contestant totally pointless in the Main Heat, just sitting there twiddling their thumbs. That was smart.)

My husband, who watches these shows with me, observed that “it’s really not fair to Lisa, to make a whole challenge based on rainbows. She’s too short to have ever seen a rainbow.” LOL. All in good fun, of course, as Lisa herself is always talking about how short she is. I still think she’s the winner. Her madeleine tower was stunning, the most beautiful one; and it’s not often that a baker does well with kiwi flavor.

And once again, two of my favorite contestants had great success: Corey, who is just the coolest, won the main heat for the second time in a row. And Kareem did an awesome job in both challenges! He’s really proving that he deserves to be here, without sacrificing his crazy sense of style. His white rainbow on that blueberry cheesecake was so creative. Blue spirulina in this challenge was brilliant! A basic, uncreative baker would have just used food coloring. I’m so rooting for Kareem.

However, I feel like Paul was once again treated unfairly in the second challenge! You all know I’m a huge fan of Kardea, and will always defend her against the haters, but, I disagree with her that Paul’s cake was “not a cheesecake.” It was absolutely a cheesecake, and a super creative one! The extra work that went into crafting a spiral and achieving those vertical layers! I’m glad the other two judges disagreed with her. Everyone, stop picking on Paul. I feel like these super-talented French gentlemen always get judged unfairly harshly on this show precisely because they are so talented.

High point: Duff praising Kareem for his delicious purple peach madeleines! “Wear the same socks! Eat the same breakfast tomorrow!” I cheered.

Low point: Stacy’s blackberry cheesecake with almonds and ginger not working out. That was, for me, the prettiest and most delicious-sounding cake in the Main Heat. I was so disappointed that it got bad feedback: it apparently only tasted of dried ginger powder, not enough blackberry, and contained too much gelatin, making it rubbery and dense. Such a disappointment. I hate to see her go home. She seems like a really cool baker, and I loved her friendship with Jon’Nae. Plus, my husband pointed out during the premiere that she looks a little like me in the face, and since then I cannot unsee it, and have subconsciously identified with her a bit.

The dessert I would most have liked to eat: Got to be Kareem’s blueberry cheesecake. Blueberry cheesecake is a flavor combo that I’m particularly fond of (and have this stupid inside joke about that dates back to like seventh grade and still never fails to make me laugh), and he really took it and ran with it. Gingersnap crust, too — awesome choice! I can’t wait to see what he creates next.

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