Season 5
9 episodes
44 min. per episode
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Aspiring bakers face fierce competition and personal challenges, blending creativity and resilience in a deliciously high-stakes showdown.
Episodes
The ten contestants for season 5 are walking into the unfamiliar, namely the tent for the first time, but have some aspects that should be familiar to them: the recognizable faces, at least on television, of the returning hosts and judges; that they, while on site, will need to maintain COVID-19 protocols as they do in everyday life; that this, the first week of any season, is cake week; and that they, as their first, challenge, are each asked to make something that is a classic, namely a pound cake, they allowed to put their own person spin on whatever they bake. They may be going back into the unfamiliar in each required to make twenty identical Lammingtons for the technical challenge, it an Australian favorite. Beyond the judges looking for perfectly decorated cubes, the bakers have to contend with the multiple components: the cake sponge, the mostly seedless raspberry jam filling, the chocolate glaze, and the coconut dusting which should not be discolored by the chocolate. And for their first showstopper, they are each to make a fault line cake, an illusion cake that has a "fault line" to reveal something different inside.
It's cookie week, where the bakers will have to put modern spins on classic cookies. For the signature, they are asked to make icebox sandwich cookies. Icebox cookies historically have been refrigerated dough in a log for those sweet treat emergencies to slice off and bake as needed. Beyond the time restriction limiting how long they can chill their dough, the bakers will have the challenge of having a multi-colored dough to exhibit a "picture" in the cookie. They also have to ensure their sandwich filling is firm enough so as not to ooze out when biting into the sandwich. For the technical, each baker is required to make twenty pirouette cookies. Because of how thin the cookies are and that they need to be rolled immediately after being baked, there is a fine line of minutes between the cookies being underbaked and overbaked. The bakers also have to ensure the hazelnut chocolate filling is thin enough to be able to pipe into the cookies, yet thick enough so that it does not drip out the ends of the cookies. And for the showstopper, each will make a mosaic out of cookies. There will be two cookie elements: a base upon which the mosaic tiles will be placed to display a picture. Most of the bakers will color their tiles using tinted royal icing.
The bakers are moving away from a theme centered around a bakery item, to a more general theme as it is the first ever Celebration Week, meaning everything they produce must be in celebration of something. For the signature challenge, they are each to make a dozen éclairs in celebration of an event of their choosing using flavors of their choosing. The celebration is more defined in the technical, where they are each asked to make a Halloween spider web cake. The challenge with the technical is the multi-component nature of the product, which includes a cake sponge, a candy-like base, a mousse, a frosting, a fried tuile, and not only one but two mirror glazes, the second which is to produce the spider web effect. And for the signature, they or someone they know will be getting married in they each making a meringue centerpiece for a wedding. While they can use other edible items, the piece must consist primarily of meringue-based items, such as macarons, pavlovas, dacquoises and meringue kisses.
It's bread week, and for the signature, the bakers are going to have to impress especially Kyla who grew up eating what they are asked to make, namely babka. They can use whatever flavors they want for their babka, but should incorporate the braids and twists revealing the filling, this look for which babka is known. The bakers are figuratively traveling further east in each being asked to make twelve bolo baos - six sandwiched with a homemade butter - for the technical. In being told that the Chinese to English translation is pineapple buns, they may be perplexed if they have never seen or eaten one in that it contains no pineapple, but rather the top of the bun is to evoke the look of the exterior of a pineapple. And for the showstopper, they are each asked literally to make a bread basket - a vessel of some sort made of bread - the vessel which will be filled with at least two other different types of bread.
For the signature in this, pie and tart week, the bakers are each asked to make a sweet pie representing some aspect of one of the Canadian provinces. The judges want to see the provincial representation not only in the flavors, but also the design and even the type of crust. The bakers, for the technical, are moving to the smaller tarts in being asked to make fourteen pastéis de nata, more commonly known in English as Portuguese egg tarts. The challenge as with any custard based tart or pie is that the already finicky crust, which in this case is a laminated dough, prefers a high temperature, whereas the custard itself prefers a lower temperature. Additionally, the judges will be looking for the signature swirled bottom of the pastry, and the charred filling top without the custard being turned to scrambled eggs in being overbaked. And for the showstopper, they are figuratively going to olde England in making classic hand raised pies using hot water crust pastry. They need to make two different pies, each with at least two distinct layers of filling, and baked in the traditional method without any external supports.
A group of amateur Canadian bakers are convened for a baking competition. There is a theme to each week's competition, generally in the vein of the type of goods the competitors are to bake.