Next Great Baker: Someone is MIA and Someone Else is Hurt

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

The main points in this episode include Garrett being MIA due to anxiety, the contestants being exhausted because they pull an all-nighter working, and the cakes being life-size replicas of famous comediennes. This season is also really ripe with the thoughts of the competitors, like Jess thinking that Melissa should have stayed over Paul. About Garrett: Buddy called Garrett's mother, who wasn't surprised to hear the news (which can't be a good sign). He asks her to talk to her son so he can consider letting him continue. Do you think Garrett will return to the competition? He was noticeably absent from the promos, but that could just be for audience suspense... About the all-nighter: I found this to be rather strange. The competitors have notes multiple times in their interviews and Twitters that they have been really strained throughout the season, so I'm beginning to wonder about the quality of life during Next Great Baker. About the cakes: I liked the challenge of the life-size cakes again, but without major problems (Jess's accident aside), they weren't as interesting. Moving on...

Cake Boss: The Next Great Baker "Cake Roast" (S03E04): 
Baker's Challenge: Designed to test their creativity, the bakers must use 100 Oreo cookies (because they've been around 100 years) to create as many quality desserts as possible in ninety minutes. The teams will be one bench versus the other and Frankie and Buddy are the judges.

Chris, Jen, Jess, Letty: Jen mentions that their team is at a disadvantage by having one fewer team member PLUS the other team has three pastry chefs (Ashley, Chad, and apparently Gretel-Ann). [yeah, but I feel that the teams are uneven quite often in the series so I'm not sure how much that changes. the experience point totally counts, though.] They make 13 varieties of dessert, based on several items that they use multiple ways, like truffles and cake. Jen makes the mousse, and her "dirt" is praised by Buddy. [I feel like they've made "dirt" on Cake Boss before, so why was Buddy asking so many questions?] Letty does cupcakes, whoopie pies, and Oreo-white-chocolate bark, which goes over well. Chris's butterscotch item is too artificial, though.  

Ashley, Chad, Gretel-Ann, Paul, Peter: Paul thinks they're going to win based on their team members. Well, they make 37 desserts and win. [I was surprised at what a large difference there was between the teams' outputs!] Chad makes a marshmallow cheesecake, bonbons, and a coconut macaroon with Oreo that Buddy finds creative. Ashley does an Oreo cookie cookie, an Oreo tart, and an Oreo bourbon ball, earning her the MVP prize - Oreos for her kitchen, which she chooses to share with her team. [nice.]

Elimination Challenge: Buddy assigns the teams but then allows Ashley to announce which she'd prefer to join. She goes with the team Paul isn't on, but Buddy says she has to go Paul's team because the "Next Great Baker" would be able to work with anyone. [ha! I would have liked to hear from the teammates about how they felt regarding Ashley's decisions.] The task at hand is to spend ten hours making a life-sized cake of a comedienne and deliver it to the Friar's Club, where the bakers will then be roasted by the ladies. [holy cow! that's rough!] Each baker receives a camera and has five minutes to photograph, interview, and measure the ladies: Carol Leifer (who plans to make it difficult by wearing a printed dress) and Judy Gould (whose height alone - 6'2" - poses a challenge). Ashley chooses Carol for her team because she'd be more challenging. [that's a teacher's pet answer if I ever heard one!] Oh, and an additional challenge? It's 8pm when they start!

http://tlc.howstuffworks.com

Team Carol (Chad, Paul, Letty, Peter, Ashley): None of them have done a life-sized cake of a human before, and Chad falls into the leadership role. [I could see that being pretty natural, but I'm surprised that there wasn't more friction between he and Ashley this episode after what's been happening so far. I mean, there was that moment when Chad moved Ashley's hand when time ran out, but I thought that she made that a bigger deal than was needed.] They need to support the cake up the middle, so Paul and Letty work on the structure, with Letty demanding extra supports and Paul just going with it. [that was really all we saw Letty do this competition... I want to know who worked on the hair!] Peter works on the hands - they take him a really long time, but he does not want to do bad work. [if this cake had lost, I wonder if he would have been sent packing because of that...] Paul carves the body and drapes the fondant dress. [I was really impressed with how that dress turned out!] Ashley does the head, which Letty says that the face is better than that on the other cake). Carol says the hands look like they belong to Thor, and her boobs should have been fluffier. But, she thought the boots were well done, and Buddy thinks the glasses, rings, dress were good though the face wasn't great.

http://tlc.howstuffworks.com

Team Judy (Chris, Jess, Jen, Gretel-Ann): They are sure to measure everything. [neither team having proportion issues was a little strange, but I guess the teams took care not to let that happen.] Jess works on the head but eventually asks Chris to take a look and he winds up changing the eyes and even re-covering the face. While they're working, a pipe from the structure falls and hits Jess in the head. [that looked like it hurt! Gretel-Ann must have thought so, too, if she was afraid that Jess would faint!] Jen takes control and applies pressure while Jess begs to stay. She does have to go to another room, but after she stops bleeding, Jess is allowed to return to the competition. [the little backstory she gave about taking up cake decorating because she wanted to do homemade cakes for her children was sweet but I think it had a little foreshadowing...] Gretel-Ann is proud of the cake when you consider that nobody on their team has done a life-sized cake in the past. Judy doesn't like her ankles or the way she's leaning forward (Buddy doesn't think that's a great idea, either), and the size of her nose and the length of her thighs also throw her, though the overall detail impresses her. [I would have liked to see the bakers making the necklace.] Buddy thought the cake was acceptable but it was the worse of the two.

Jen begins to cry but Jess comforts her. When asked, Jen says Gretel-Ann led the team and that Jess was probably the weakest link. Gretel-Ann thinks Chris should go home because he re-did the face and work was lost. [...that kinda signals both of them are struggling, no?] Chris and Jess defend themselves, but Jess breaks down and is sent home. In the box truck, she says that Garrett would have gone home if he had been there. [and if he had been on her team, etc...]

And, for anyone wondering, I will be doing more rounds of what I think about who should win, but not every week. The voting showed that the readers were pretty split over who should head home, except for Letty, who took almost half of all votes. Another poll will go up each week, so feel free to vote again, and think about leaving a comment below over how you chose your contestant!