Halloween Baking Championship

Spellbinding Sweets Fill The New Season Of Halloween Baking ...

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Halloween Baking Championship is an American cooking competition show that premiered on Food Network on October 5, 2015. Like its sister show, Holiday Baking Championship, it's a seasonal program that runs for a few weeks (in this case, the month of October) and aims to crown the best baker of spooky, creepy desserts.

Each season so far has had a different host and different judges (barring chef Carla Hall).

Video Halloween Baking Championship

Rounds

Each episode has two rounds. The first round is the "Preliminary Heat" where the bakers are told of their themes for the first time and get varying times (anywhere from 30 minutes up to 2 hours) to create a small pastry (usual cookies or small cake). The person who wins the first round gets an advantage going into the next round, and aren't told until after the second round theme is announced (and sometimes they're not told until the middle of cooking in the second round). The advantage varies by episode (ex: exclusive use of a certain mold or ingredient or first choice of a theme).

The second round is called the "Main Heat" and the contestants get a considerably longer time to bake than the "pre-heat" (in the final round of the final episode they're given several hours to make a large confection). This larger dessert must fit a new theme presented (usually in the same vein as the pre-heat theme). One baker is eliminated every episode except for the last one. In the finale it's down to the final three or four contestants and the winner is chosen from the "Main Heat" final round, Effectively eliminating the remaining bakers in one episode. The winner gets $25,000.

Maps Halloween Baking Championship

Host & Judges

Unlike its sister show, Holiday Baking Championship, each season the panel of judges change (except for Carla Hall). Also, in each episode, the judges come out dressed in costume for the second round, to keep with the spirit of Halloween.

The first season was hosted by Richard Blais with chefs Carla Hall, Ron Ben-Israel and Sherry Yard serving as judges. The second season saw Carla Hall as the only returning chef. She was joined by Food Network personality Sandra Lee and Damiano Carrara to serve as judges and Comedian Jeff Dunham was the host. The third season is hosted by John Henson, and the two judges joining Carla Hall were Lorraine Pascale and Zac Young.