The WORST episodes of Holiday Baking Championship
Every episode of Holiday Baking Championship ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Holiday Baking Championship!
The search to find the greatest holiday baker begins as eight amateur bakers enter the kitchen, where they show off their family traditions and superb baking skills. To survive the challenges from week to week, they must prove their abilities in front of our tough-love judges: Duff Goldman, Nancy Fuller and Lorraine Pascale. Hosted by Bobby Deen, this baking championship is the sweetest way to celebrate this holiday season.
#1 - Christmas Day Delights
Season 6 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/23/2019
Nothing beats waking up to the smell of a holiday brunch, so Jesse Palmer challenges the three remaining bakers to make a Christmas morning brunch using the classic holiday flavors of gingerbread, cinnamon and eggnog. In the final round, the bakers must create cakes that are plaid both on the inside and the outside. Judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Lorraine Pascale crown one baker the Holiday Baking Champion and award the $25,000 prize.
#2 - Traditions with a Twist
Season 6 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/16/2019
Some of the tastiest treats of Hanukkah are gold-covered chocolate coins, and Jesse Palmer challenges the four remaining bakers to give the classic treat a twist by incorporating candied orange, espresso beans, smoked salt or toasted coconut and create a dessert highlighting their chosen flavor. In the second challenge, the competitors bake up delicious cheesecakes with an assigned crust and decorated with an edible shiny ice rink on top. Judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Lorraine Pascale get serious about which three bakers move on to the finale.
#3 - Christmas in July
Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 7/8/2019
Four talented bakers celebrate Christmas twice a year; host Jesse Palmer leads them through hotly contested challenges focused on melted snowman desserts and cool and creamy Christmas ice cream cakes.
#4 - Homecoming Special
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/24/2018
Six previous Holiday Baking Championship winners step back into the kitchen for a new competition judged by Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Lorraine Pascale. Competitors Maeve Rochford, Jason Smith, Jen Barney, Jordan Pilarski, Nacho Aguirre and Michelle Antonishek bring their very best for a shot at a second Holiday Baking Champion title. In the pre-heat, the bakers are teamed up to turn the lightest of all pastries -- pate a choux -- into eclair holiday light strings. For the main heat, the teams take on the metallic trend with stunning monochromatic gold and silver Christmas cakes.
#5 - Runners Up Redemption
Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/25/2017
In the Christmas special of Holiday Baking Championship, hosts and judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Lorraine Pascale welcome back runner-up teams from previous seasons to battle it out for another chance to win. In the pre-heat, baking teams must use real letters to Santa to inspire a holiday dessert. For the main heat, teams bake and decorate cupcakes before assembling them into one giant edible holiday tree. The winning team earns $10,000 in holiday cash!
#6 - Stuffing Is the Best Part
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/15/2015
The eight remaining bakers begin by making their best holiday whoopie pies that evoke a randomly-assigned theme of turkey, pumpkin, Pilgrims or fall foliage. Then, they must create stuffed holiday cakes that reveal a surprise center when sliced open.
#7 - Holiday Craftiness
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/8/2015
It's time to get crafty! The remaining nine bakers attempt to amp up the visual impact of holiday baked goods as they create festive candy cane and holiday wreath desserts.
#8 - Ginger and Spice and Everything Nice
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/29/2015
In this week's challenges, the six remaining bakers revel in the warm, taste bud-tingling flavor of ginger. They must make mini desserts highlighting candied ginger, then create three different types of holiday cookies inspired by family traditions.
#9 - Holiday Rush
Season 9 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/12/2022
With the holidays fast approaching, host Jesse Palmer gets into the Hanukkah spirit by asking the bakers to create ugly sweater cakes using halvah as a featured ingredient. Then, the competitors feel the holiday rush as they quickly transform a basic store-bought cake into a tasty centerpiece for a dessert table. Finally, the bakers face the final crunch with a fast holiday decoration: a snowman croquembouche.
#10 - World Class Classics
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/6/2015
The four remaining bakers are asked to reinvent two Hanukkah classics: rugelach and macaroons. Then, they must create their own unique version of a holiday croquembouche.
#11 - Classic Holiday Flavors
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/16/2014
The seven remaining bakers take classic holiday flavors into tasty new territory. In the first challenge, they create a swirled treat using eggnog and have to play nice with varieties of sugar and spice for their second dessert.
#12 - Gingerbread Worlds
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/14/2014
In the epic finale, the three remaining bakers have just one challenge, but it's a massive one. Each baker taps into a favorite holiday memory and then constructs gingerbread worlds filled with all sorts of treats. The baker who can impress the judges the most will become the Holiday Baking Champion and take home $50,000!
#13 - Signs Of The Season
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/6/2016
For the pre-heat, host Bobby Deen challenges the nine bakers to take seasonal hot beverages like hot chocolate and apple cider a step further by turning them into desserts. Then, in the main heat, these culinary artisans show off their decorating skills by creating a filled Bundt cake wreath.
#14 - The Great Holiday Cake-Over
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/30/2014
The five bakers left in the Holiday Baking Championship take the polarizing fruitcake someplace new and reinvent the biggest holiday cake of all, the yule log.
#15 - Thanksgiving Genius
Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/20/2017
In the pre-heat, seven bakers must create a Thanksgiving dessert using a mystery canned fruit. Then in the main heat, bakers whip up new Turkey Day sensations by combining two traditional desserts.
#16 - Holiday Beauty
Season 10 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/4/2023
The Christmas Museum is filled with beautiful holiday designs, and host Jesse Palmer tasks the bakers with turning them into mini-tart mosaics. Since this week is all about holiday beauty, the bakers must make merry and bright double-barrel wrapping paper cakes that feel like the perfect gift for judges Carla Hall, Duff Goldman and Nancy Fuller.
#17 - Holiday Hoopla
Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/20/2015
The last three bakers must show off their decorating chops in order to finally be crowned Holiday Baking Champion! First, they must bake and beautifully decorate a sugar cookie tree. Then, in the final heat, the bakers need to transform their assigned holiday tradition into an intricately decorated cake.
#18 - Re-Gifting
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/13/2015
Regifting is the theme when the five remaining bakers make a candy-apple dessert; and later, they must figure out how to turn the contents of a traditional gift basket into something deliciously sweet.
#19 - Holiday Cookie Madness
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/9/2014
The eight bakers have to put their best cookie forward in the first two challenges of this competition. First, they'll have to make their best holiday cookie using an assigned baking tool and in the second challenge, they must use holiday ingredients to impress the judges with three different kinds of cookies.
#20 - Reasons for the Season
Season 10 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/11/2023
For the semifinals, host Jesse Palmer explores the reasons behind some great holiday traditions. Kwanzaa is around the corner, and one of the most traditional ingredients to cook with is plantains, so the bakers craft Kwanzaa plantain desserts. Then in a team heat, Carla Hall celebrates a centuries-old tradition by crafting ornaments, inspiring baking teams to make large-scale edible ornaments in Holiday Baking's first ever T’Ornament of Tastiness! Another ageless holiday tradition is putting up a Christmas tree, so for the main heat, the bakers create blitz puff pastry Christmas tree pull-aparts for judges Carla Hall, Duff Goldman and Nancy Fuller to tear into!
#21 - Getting Ready for Thanksgiving
Season 9 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/14/2022
After a grocery delivery gone wrong, host Jesse Palmer tasks the bakers with creating tasty desserts featuring ingredients used to make Thanksgiving dinner, including carrots, cornbread stuffing mix and sausage. Then, the jolly gingerbread man knows that he could be more than just a cookie -- and it's up to the bakers to make it happen! In the end, judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall send one baker heading for the exit.
#22 - Holiday Open House
Season 11 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/4/2024
To kick off, host Jesse Palmer honors the tradition of making tasty treats for family and friends at a holiday open house. In the preheat, Jesse asks the 12 bakers to create holiday cheese ball desserts featuring a type of cheese and either nuts or dried fruit. Then, host gifts are the theme for delicious bites as the bakers create holiday bark inspired desserts that are both inventive and large scale to impress judges Carla Hall, Duff Goldman and Nancy Fuller.
#23 - Attitude of Gratitude
Season 8 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/15/2021
The baking teams are tasked with creating holiday memory snow globe scenes in gingerbread. And because a snow globe is nothing without snow, they must also make a treat using the most common baking ingredient to represent snow -- coconut!
#24 - Happy Holiday Getaways
Season 9 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/19/2022
Ready for a holiday getaway, host Jesse Palmer escapes the cold weather by challenging the bakers to create desert-inspired succulent tarts. The two least successful bakers ski into a cookie cake showdown that will keep one competitor on track for the final bake. In the Main Heat, the remaining bakers use cake to highlight some of the most popular holiday vacation spots before judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall award the best cake maker with $25,000 and the championship title!
#25 - First Snow
Season 9 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/7/2022
Season's greetings! Host Jesse Palmer gets some welcoming inspiration for the first Preheat as he challenges the 12 bakers to create meringue pavlova wreaths in yummy fall flavors. For the Main Heat, Jesse settles a long-standing debate over the best holiday dessert by dividing the kitchen into the pie team and the cake team. The better bake wins immunity for their whole team, and judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall send one baker from the losing team home.