CAUTION: CONTAINS SPOILERS for Ultimate Baking Championship!!

“Yay! Something worked for me today!” – Molly, upon successfully finishing her black sugar “rocks” for her bonfire; which is also something that I say to myself regularly in the course of my life as a scatterbrained SAHM

I have a few thoughts about tonight’s episode. And I think they can be summed up by what Clement said (and I paraphrase): at this point, it’s not about who’s the best baker. It’s about who will make a mistake.

He’s so right. At this level of this show – or most baking shows, really – it’s no longer a measure of who is the best baker. Anyone who has a stroke of random bad luck or a single small lapse of judgment (which would, in any other context, be excusable and insignificant, because it could be corrected in time), is up for elimination.

I have some issues with Christopher getting eliminated. I don’t think it was fair. His sugar sculpture was incredible. It was up there with Juan’s in intricacy and beauty, and his whole concept was so smart; he really captured the image of a dessert dropped into a puddle of water. Compare that to Molly’s bonfire. As Jacques pointed out, it was too simple; big, basic shapes; it needed more fine, delicate, sculputral elements.

And yeah, I know, Christopher’s tart crust was too thick. But Molly’s roulade wasn’t perfect either – it needed salt. Why did she beat him by one point? During sugar week?? Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of both Molly and Christopher (and I know poor Molly was struggling with it, and probably never wants to hear the word “roulade” again in her life, but I thought her roulade sounded delicious!) If you look at their two pieces side by side, it’s painfully obvious which one deserved to be the winner of sugar week.

Whenever there’s a judging call that I don’t agree with, I start to wonder about the extent to which the judging is rigged. I wonder if they wanted to get rid of Chris instead of Molly for the sake of the plot. They’ve been hyping up Molly as a character since episode one: “the chaotic one! The unpredictable one! She’s so wild!, what will she do next?!”, so, she’s fun to watch! Also, she’s the youngest one, which is always sort of a badge of honor for a contestant on these shows. Whereas Chris has been sort of a dark horse, just quietly and casually being consistently awesome. The cynical side of me wonders if Food Network wants Molly in the final for this reason.

Also, now there are two guys and two girls going into the semifinal. Good TV indeed, right?

But, what do I know. I’m just sitting here in front of the TV, not tasting the desserts myself. Maybe Chris’s tart crust really was that bad.

How about Florencia?! I was sure she was going to go home. The sugar piece that was to be the base of her backdrop cracked, and she almost wasn’t able to get it to stand up at all. Luckily, she made it work at the eleventh hour, and her dessert looked nice, although not exactly the most elaborate or fancy of the five. I guess it was her cheesecake that pulled her through. The judges raved about her flavors, and they did sound incredible: cassis, vanilla, berries, and a touch of rosemary. I don’t know, I guess I assumed it wasn’t “complex” enough or something. But then, look at her, coming in second after Juan, beating Clement and everyone else!

Clement: his looked beautiful, but why would you choose to work with matcha?, lol. He probably would’ve scored better if he’d chosen any other flavor. I know, matcha’s an “earthy” flavor, that makes sense; but, he’s such a creative genius that he could have surely come up with some other flavor to go with his theme. It looked flawless though.

Juan: he was 100% correct when he said that he’d been given the hardest theme. But damn, did he make it work! That sculpture he built absolutely deserved the win (this decision, I have no complaints about; carry on, Food Network). I was wondering what I would have thought to do if I had to built a sculpture to depict “air.” Maybe a tornado? That would have been kinda cool in sugar!

Overall, though, I kind of felt about this week the same way I felt about chocolate week. I’m not really that interested in sugar sculpture. It’s just fine art in a medium that happens to be edible – and really, who’s going to eat a giant sculpture made of pure sugar anyway? So the whole “edible” thing is kind of debatable. I guess I should be glad, then, that the judges counted the actual desserts themselves (15 points) more than the sugar sculpture (10 points), and that’s why Chris got sent home; but still. Chris deserved to stay.

But hey, at least we got to see Jacques Torres! I’m a huge fan! He’s so likeable, so gracious, so warm and kind. I miss seeing him on Nailed It! and Sugar Rush; when are those shows ever going to come back?!

Anyway, HERE’S THE RECAP:

Only One Challenge: Sugar Work-Topped Dessert. Themes randomly assigned. Points awarded out of 50.

Molly – Fire: “Bonfire” peanut s’mores roulade with milk chocolate mousse & torched meringue

Juan – Air: “Dandelion” lemon cake w/ whipped nougat & lemon curd

Chris – Water: “Dropped in a puddle” blueberry almond tart w/ blueberry compote & lemon mousse

Clement – Earth: “Earth” matcha cake w/ green tea mousseline & yuzu jelly

Florencia – Space: “Galaxy” no bake-ricotta cheesecake w/ cassis-soaked vanilla cake & berry-rosemary compote

Final Stats: Juan 43; Florencia 40; Clement 39; Molly 38; Christopher 37

Winner: Juan

Sent Home: Christopher

A dessert is called “sexy”: 0 times (running total: 3)

Superlatives from the judges: 0 (running total 1)

Dead family members mentioned: 0 (running total 2)

Duff’s gaping maw spotted: 1 time (running total 14)

(Dang! Other than the maw, this show isn’t doing much for my stats, is it! I guess with UBC being more serious and “high-end” than your average baking championship, the judges are harsher, less generous with the praises, and there isn’t as much time for sentimentality.)

The dessert that I would most have liked to eat: Molly’s peanut s’mores roulade with milk chocolate mousse, actually! I know she was not proud of it, but the flavors sounded amazing!

Wins so far: Juan (2), Clement (1), Molly (1), Christopher (1), Casey (2)