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 - Gifts That Keep on Giving
Season 8 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/29/2021
In honor of the Hanukkah oil that kept burning, host Jesse Palmer asks the seven remaining bakers to create festive Hanukkah olive oil cakes. In the main heat, it's all about gift exchange desserts as the competitors randomly choose a dreaded holiday dessert and attempt to spin it into holiday happiness to please judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall.
#2 - 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!
#3 - 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.
#4 - The World of Holidays
Season 9 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/5/2022
Kwanzaa is right around the corner, so host Jesse Palmer tasks the bakers with crafting desserts that feature fresh corn for a traditional Kwanzaa display. For the Main Heat, the competitors get their passports ready and put their personal stamp on international holiday desserts, like Filipino leche flan, Japanese Christmas cake and Puerto Rican guava rolls. In the end, judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall will send one baker flying home.
#5 - Holiday Movie Magic
Season 9 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/5/2022
With the popularity of English period dramas at an all-time high, host Jesse Palmer dons a Regency-era waistcoat and challenges the bakers to create a splendid holiday high tea. In the Main Heat, it's all about the rom-com as bakers use an ingredient inspired by a holiday movie trope to create a dessert that's dripping with festive decorations. After all the desserts are tasted by judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall, one baker will be sent out the door as the credits roll.
#6 - Dining Out for the Holidays
Season 9 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/28/2022
The holidays are a season for indulgence, so some families splurge on their festive celebrations at a steakhouse. In the Preheat, host Jesse Palmer asks the bakers to transform classic steakhouse desserts into holiday treats. For the Main Heat, the competitors turn one of the most-iconic steakhouse desserts into a baked Alaska Christmas tree. In the end, judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall will send one baker home.
#7 - Feeling Sweet and Thankful
Season 9 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/21/2022
These days, holiday turkeys can be smoked, fried, brined, roasted and bacon-wrapped, so host Jesse Palmer uses the five-way turkey as inspiration for the bakers' Preheat challenge. Then, the competitors divide into teams to create a flight of pies that takes judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall on a flavor progression journey, just like a flight of bourbon. Bottom crusts up, everyone! In the end, one baker goes home.
#8 - 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.
#9 - 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.
Watch Now:Apple TV
#10 - Ultimate Holiday Party
Season 8 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/20/2021
Host Jesse Palmer kicks things off with a swanky Christmas open house for judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall and asks the bakers to create dessert charcuterie boards. Then, the bottom two bakers face off in a sudden elimination challenge of dueling holiday pinata desserts. In the final main heat, the competitors take on holiday party theme cakes and incorporate lights into their designs. The most successful cake maker becomes the Holiday Baking Champion and walks away with $25,000!
Watch Now:Apple TV
#11 - Holidays in All the Ways
Season 8 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/13/2021
Host Jesse Palmer asks the bakers to create sweet potato and spice desserts in honor of Kwanzaa. In the main heat, the competitors make Christmas card cakes that depict a perfect family snapshot for a holiday card to capture the smiles of judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall. In the end, one baker heads for the exit.
#12 - Make New Friends, but Keep the Old
Season 8 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/6/2021
For the exclusive holiday desserts preheat, the six remaining bakers try to impress judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall by making tasty treats for guests with a dietary restriction. In the main heat, host Jesse Palmer challenges the competitors to update an assigned vintage holiday dessert to create a new Christmas delight.
#13 - Season's Best
Season 10 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/6/2023
Mmm … can you smell it? The sweet aroma of cinnamon rolls baking in the oven, or is it the pumpkin-spiced latte you're sipping? For the preheat, host Jesse Palmer asks the bakers to combine two of the fall season's best treats and make seasonal coffee drink cinnamon rolls. Then, the bakers roll right into the main heat with a fall-themed yule log that Jesse calls Thanksgiving Swiss Rolls. In the end, judges Carla Hall, Duff Goldman and Nancy Fuller decide which baker is rolling home.
#14 - Best Thanksgiving Ever
Season 8 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/22/2021
The Abominable Snowman comes out of hiding to startle the gingerbread teams and inspire their challenge theme -- A Monster Christmas. Monsters love an oozy dessert, so the teams must make an oozing caramel dessert to go with their display.
#15 - 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!
#16 - Yule Be Merry
Season 8 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/8/2021
The bakers team up to take on boozy desserts and are challenged with five different styles of yule log cakes in 10 different flavor combinations.
#17 - Falling Into Winter
Season 8 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/1/2021
The twelve bakers embrace the seasonal transition by making fall and winter doughnuts; the competitors combine holiday cheese board staples in creative apple and cheese desserts.
#18 - Christmas Windows in Time
Season 7 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/21/2020
Dressed as a Christmas tree, host Jesse Palmer kicks things off by asking the final four competitors to honor the holiday tree in the form of a beautifully decorated macaron tower. In the Christmas past, present and future main heat, the bakers must feature an assigned icing style in a stunning cake that evokes their assigned time period -- marzipan from the past, buttercream from the present or mirror glaze from the future. In the end, judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall will decide the one baker who will be crowned Holiday Baking Champion and walk away $25,000 richer!
#19 - A Classic Christmas
Season 7 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/14/2020
Host Jesse Palmer asks the five bakers to pull out all the stops and create the most-delicious, over-the-top version of a holiday trifle. Then, the classics continue in the main heat when the competitors make the ultimate Charlotte royale for judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall, as well as the king of Christmas -- Santa Claus!
Watch Now:Apple TV
#20 - Topsy-Turvy Holidays
Season 7 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/7/2020
Host Jesse Palmer is turning things on their heads as he challenges the six competitors to work in teams to create jelly doughnut-inspired desserts, a twist on traditional Hanukkah jelly doughnuts. Then, the bakers get creative with the yummiest, gooiest holiday decorated upside-down cakes to satisfy judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall.
#21 - It's the Inside That Counts
Season 7 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/30/2020
Host Jesse Palmer gives the seven bakers advent calendars filled with different types of chocolate to inspire them to make desserts with a surprise inside. Then, for the main heat, the competitors must bake one delicious cheesecake with three different flavors for judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall.
#22 - Holiday Style
Season 7 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/2/2020
The competition kicks off for 12 bakers with holiday decorated quick bread wreaths. In the main heat, the competitors must make a winter hat cake to charm the judges.
#23 - Hosting the Holidays
Season 7 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/23/2020
Host Jesse Palmer challenges the eight remaining bakers to turn breakfast items, like French toast, into amazing Thanksgiving breakfast desserts. Then, the competitors take common Friendsgiving potluck dishes, such as glazed carrots, and use them in a dessert to impress judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall. Plus, since Friendsgiving is all about community, they're doing it in teams.
#24 - Take Holiday Pies by Surprise
Season 7 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/16/2020
Host Jesse Palmer loves both cookies and pies, so he asks the nine bakers to make holiday cookie-topped mini pies. Then, Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall judge the pie pandemonium as the competitors celebrate fall with flavor combos such as pumpkin-cider and chestnut-chocolate in double crust, cream pies, slab pies, lattice pies and custard pies.
#25 - Cookie Exchange Party
Season 11 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/25/2024
Host Jesse Palmer throws a holiday cookie exchange party, and the bakers must create flavor-forward seasonal cookies -- but no decorated sugar cookies or gingerbread allowed! Judges Carla Hall, Duff Goldman and Nancy Fuller decide the winner of the preheat in a blind tasting, and the bakers get to vote for their favorite cookie as well! Then, the bakers must rise to the occasion by making holiday cookie cakes that feature two different types of cookies, a minimum of four layers and a flavor twist to help wash it all down.