Spoilers ahead! Do not read if you haven’t yet watched Spring Baking season 11 episode 4.

I have a lot of feelings about this one.

Theme and challenges for this episode? 10/10! The faux Easter egg Preheat was perhaps my favorite challenge thus far. It reminded me a lot of Cadbury Creme Eggs, which, as you may know, are one of my favorite guilty pleasures. Also a 10/10 this episode was Kardea’s dress, and in fact her whole look. She’s such an icon. I’m obsessed with that olive green color; my own wardrobe is full of it. It’s not often that I see something on TV and go “I would wear that!”, but, I would definitely wear that.

Going into the preheat, Priya was like: “I’m going to win this one,” and then she did. That was really satisfying! I was happy for her – the texture in her egg filling looked delightful!

But, I really thought Mary-Frances deserved to win it. Hers were the prettiest ones – the décor on that blonde chocolate shell was so immaculate it looked done with a machine (it reminded me of the illustrations in one of my favorite children’s books, “The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes”); and the flavor combination of coconut-banana cake and mango pastry cream sounds dreamy! Wow, Mary-Frances really put herself on the map this episode, didn’t she? I feel kinda bad, because up until now I haven’t even mentioned her on this blog once. She just hadn’t baked anything that stood out to me until now. (The only thing I really remember about her from the first three episodes was that, in episode 3, she asked Kari to sample her lemon dessert, and Kari advised her that it was too tart; and then, at judging, it was still too tart.) But she was, in my opinion, the absolute star of this episode! She should have won both challenges! Her sausage pizza in the Main Heat looked stunning, definitely more realistic than Lisa’s winning chicken dinner – and the flavors sounded more fun too (pastry with strawberry cream and coconut!).

Julian and Corey both kind of crashed and burned in the Preheat! As I was saying last week, I was hoping that Julian would learn his lesson about being overly ambitious – but he did the same darn thing again this week, trying to make a whole unnecessary sugar sculpture tree to hold his eggs, and in the process neglecting his actual eggs! I admittedly laughed (and cringed at the same time) when Duff said “they look like Swedish meatballs with gravy!” Luckily, Julian totally brought it back in the Main Heat with those mind-bendy fish tacos. And Corey? Those should have been the best dessert this episode, chocolate orange flavor with mousse inside. But they were just goopy and messy. He didn’t do too great in the Main Heat, either; that “tuna” just looked like cake (the asparagus looked incredible, though, but, they were just painted modeling chocolate, so basically decoration). I felt so bad for him!

Another devastating moment for me was Jon’Nae’s eggshells not coming out of the molds in the Preheat. “Jesse, why you gotta put my business out in the street like that?!” Lol, poor thing. She had this same issue in one of the first episodes, with something sticking to the mold! I was so disappointed for her! That was another one that should have been one of the best in show: white chocolate cake pops with strawberry and blood orange-ginger center. I so wish it had worked out.

Poor Kareem kind of stumbled through this episode but managed to survive another week! The texture was off in his eggs, and the purple icing was obviously concealing a visible seam on the shell (although I love the bold colors he used both inside and out). And sadly his salmon and green beans were not super realistic looking at all. I still really want to see him make it through to the end! A cynical part of me can’t help but wonder if they’re keeping him because he’s so likeable and such a fun character, and makes for great TV – “can the self-taught baker hold his own against all these professionals?” I wouldn’t be surprised if this were a factor, because, no offense to anyone, but who would have thought he would outlast Jon’Nae and Stacy? As much as I love baking competition shows, I’m not starry-eyed about them; as much as I hate to say it, I am fully aware that some of the judgment calls are calculated based on viewers and ratings, rather than the actual quality of the desserts. All that being said, though, Kareem is still one of my favorites, and I’d love to see him pull through and win the whole thing.

And once again Julian hasn’t used his immunity card! Will he ever, or will he power through without it? Can anyone else be awarded an immunity card while he still has his? That wouldn’t work, would it, because then what if Julian and that other contestant were in the bottom two and they’d both played their immunity card?! I’m so curious to see how this is going to work. So I guess, by holding onto his immunity card without using it, he’s preventing anyone else from getting immunity – strategic move!

Kari said in this episode that she feels like she’s coasting along in the middle and needs to step up her game and start winning. I’d love to see her rise to the top! She’s another of my favorites. I wasn’t too into her sushi dessert, though – it looked too bright green to be convincing, and I kind of agree with Duff that it’s not really deception if you use actual rice. Which, on that note, Paul used actual gnocchi in his gnocchi primavera? Just because they were made with sweet potato doesn’t make them not real gnocchi. I was surprised they didn’t call him out for that! In any case, I’m glad both Kari and Paul made it through.

Although I thought it should have been Mary-Frances, Lisa ended up winning. No surprise there! She’s still my top pick for champion; she pretty much hasn’t made a single bad thing, up to this point, has she?

My high point: Kareem explaining to Raveena what grits are! She didn’t even know!! Being a Southerner myself, I laughed pretty hard. That was adorable. He’s such a sweet guy. My husband was like, “he could have just made some shit up and screwed her over,” hahaha.

My low point: They sent Jon’Nae home!?! NO! I’m crushed! She was my favorite. I was so devastated by the bottom two; it would have sucked either way, whomever they sent home. But, I really strongly believe that Jon’Nae could have won the whole thing. She had some of the best ideas about flavors in every episode; she seems like a true artist. I honestly think she just had some bad luck. Which can seriously happen to anyone, even the best of them. It sucks. Going into the Main Heat, she was like, “I cannot go home.” And, pound cake with champagne buttercream, it could have been so good! But the fried fish was too thick, and the oven screwed up her fries. She seems like such a lovely and talented person. I hope she still gets rich and famous somehow.

The dessert that I would have most liked to eat: Raveena’s brown sugar speculoos eggs with malt ball centers! I freaking love chocolate malt balls, and I can eat cookie butter straight out of the jar with a spoon. What a genius combination.

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