Is It Cake? (2022) s01e04 Episode Script
Imposter in Aisle 5
1
[opening theme music playing]
[woman] Whoo!
[whooping]
[Hemu] Looking good, Mikey!
What's up? Sorry.
I was hungry.
[laughing]
Name another baking show where the host
regularly eats money. I'll wait.
[all laughing]
Is my mouth now filled
with dry wafer paper?
You bet.
Andrew, you're our winner
from last time with your conch shell cake.
And you walked away with $5,000.
[whooping]
-Nice.
-Whoo. Thank you.
Unfortunately, you didn't find the cake
in our Cake or Cash round,
so that money rolled over again,
which means this time
one of you could win up to $20,000.
Wow.
-Ooh!
-[whooping]
There are only two bakers
who haven't competed yet.
Our young Justin,
who skipped his high school graduation
-to be here.
-Yeah.
And Steve, who skipped
whatever Steve does?
[laughing]
I don't know. Sit in a dark room
and watch television static?
[Steve chuckles]
-You're a mystery, Steve.
-Mm-hmm.
It's time to play Find That Cake.
The cake wall is about to spin around,
and you'll see six items you'd find
in a grocery store.
-Hey there!
-Okay.
Oh boy.
Five of those items are real, and one is
Justin?
Cake?
Correct, sir!
No wonder you graduated high school, man.
Cake Wall, spin, please.
[whooping, cheering]
All right, you know the game.
You have 20 seconds
to lock in your answers on your keypads.
Remember, if you're the fastest,
you get to pick first.
Your time starts now!
[tense music playing]
[Mikey] Ten seconds.
[Andrew shivers]
[Mikey] Lock in those answers.
Five, four,
three, two, one.
-Time's up!
-[bell dinging]
Let's see who found the cake.
Andrew!
Yeah?
You picked the steak.
-I did.
-[Nina] Are you hungry?
-[laughing]
-No. I'm a vegetarian.
-He's a vegetarian!
-Yeah!
What's the tell here, Andrew?
What makes you think this is cake?
Well, I specialize in human hearts
wrapped in plastic.
[music warps]
Excuse me?
[laughing]
For Valentine's Day.
For Valentine's Day?!
Yeah. Customized labels and everything.
You are the master of the macabre, huh?
I love it.
Let's find out. I'm forced to say this.
Is it cake? Or is it steak?
[tense music playing]
-That's steak.
-Ugh.
[Mikey] Justin and Steve.
The new kids.
You both picked the eggs.
Tell me why.
Some of the letters and numbers
don't look quite even.
Interesting.
I agree with what he's saying.
The "Large" looks a little weird.
The rest looked real to me,
so I chose One.
Okay. Let's find out
if both of you are right.
Is it cake?
[tense music playing]
-[Mikey] Oh ho ho!
-[cheering]
Nice job.
-[Mikey] That's cake.
-[applause]
Well, much like Harry Potter,
it is the golden chosen child.
-Justin!
-[cheering]
You found the cake the fastest.
And you get first pick.
Bakers, it's time to play Is It Cake?
[applause, whooping]
Okay, bakers, you know how this works.
Each of you is going to choose
one of these grocery items
to make into a cake.
Justin, you found the cake the fastest.
What's it going to be?
I'ma choose the steak.
-[Mikey] Steak.
-[Justin] Yes.
And why?
I feel like, well, steak,
the marbling doesn't have to be exact,
so it doesn't have to be a replica.
And, um, I just think it's interesting.
Like, the plastic It could be fun.
-Awesome. Andrew, are you upset by that?
-Yeah, I'm sorry.
Yeah, totally. Totally. But I can't wait
to see if he does it better than I would.
-Wow.
-And I think he's got a shot.
-Steve, you came in second.
-Yeah.
-What do you choose?
-I'll choose the produce.
-[Andrew] Oh man! That's the other one
-Oh!
-That's so Steve.
-I wanted that one, too.
Now, I see the Steve smile.
You're confident.
I've done things like that before,
and I think I can fool the judges.
And, lastly, Andrew, what'll it be?
I'm gonna go with the challah bread.
I just think out of what's remaining,
it's the most interesting.
I like things
that have a lot of texture, so
I can kind of see, as I'm learning
a little bit about what you guys do,
it's got some shine to it.
Maybe you'll use, um,
-some edible lacquer on there.
-[laughing]
[Mikey] Now, head over to the kitchen
and slip into that apron.
Tick-tock.
You only have eight hours to do this.
Ready? It's time to bake!
[applause]
[upbeat music playing]
-This is your first competition?
-[Justin] My first cake competition.
I'm trying to stay focused, you know?
'Cause I don't wanna distract myself
or make myself more nervous.
That's the thing about you.
You're smart. You're here for a reason.
Justin's like a like a 30-year-old
in an 18-year-old body.
Yeah. I mean, I'm literally like
a six-year-old that's just old as dirt.
I'm 18, and I started my business
Everything Just Baked when I was 16.
I create 15 to 20 custom cakes a week
for my business.
I'm making about five figures out of cake,
and I'm still going to school,
so it's a lot, but
I'm just skilled. What can I say? [laughs]
I used to bake a lot
with my mom and my grandma.
Homemade cookies, breads, pies.
And I just found my love for it.
And here I am now.
I've made a steak cake before,
but I've never made
the cellophane wrapping.
But I I have an idea
of how I wanna do it, for sure.
-Steve, will you make my wedding cake?
-Sure.
Well, I guess I won't!
I didn't think the groom
wanted to make the cake.
[laughs]
Nice save.
Over in the gallery,
it's an episode of Jonny and His Ladies.
[laughing]
Who do you think
has the most difficult item?
-Steve.
-Steve.
[Hemu] He's got
three different items to make.
Yeah. If two items look real,
but one doesn't
-The whole thing is off.
-It's all done.
Are you still glad
you stuck with your strategy
of "I'm gonna give Andrew
something easier"?
Well, ultimately, your easy choice
should have been the toilet paper, but
[laughs]
I picked produce,
one of the hardest items to do.
There's different color schemes,
different sizes.
I wanna make a dense cake
because I want the ultimate shape
that I create for my vegetables
to stay that way.
If I make a spongier cake,
it'll cause it to sag a bit.
And I don't want that.
I'm nervous about Steve's flavors.
What is it, again?
[Steve] Almond cake, with almond paste,
and then a milk chocolate orange ganache.
-You put the almond paste in the batter?
-Yeah.
Yeah, paste in the batter. Old school.
Almost like an almond pound cake.
-You're an old fashioned kinda guy.
-Yeah.
Andrew! What is the flavor of your cake?
[Andrew] I'm doing a donut cake
with a maple pecan buttercream.
Ooh!
-Not spicy this time. Okay.
-[Andrew] No spicy.
I want this to look most like
a loaf of challah bread.
You gotta make sure that you're not
making it too tall or too wide.
The best route to go
to achieve that bubble braid
on top of my challah bread
is to use what I call cake clay.
Cake clay is the same thing as cake pop.
I just like to call it cake clay.
It's cake mixed with ganache
or buttercream.
And it's a great medium,
because it really does work like clay.
[Mikey] Andrew's kind of a loose cannon.
Meanwhile, Steve's quietly assembling
his produce.
The silent assassin.
Who knows what he's thinking?
[woman] Are you a silent assassin?
Am I a silent assassin?
[suspenseful music playing]
If Mikey thinks I'm a silent assassin,
I think I'm going to keep playing it.
I've been doing hyper-realistic cakes
for over 20 years.
I have a lot of skill
and a lot of competitions under my belt,
more so than anybody here.
I'm an Associate Dean
at a community college in West Virginia.
I teach Culinary Arts.
I teach students that are Justin's age.
He's been a pastry chef
twice as long as Justin's been alive.
[giggling]
Hey, Justin!
Is that buttercream you're making?
Yes, I'm making the peanut butter filling.
I just make the buttercream
and add peanut butter.
-Sounds good.
-Peanut Butter Jelly Time.
[Justin] I'll do chocolate cake
with dark chocolate ganache,
and peanut butter filling
and crushed peanuts.
-Chocolate peanut butter?
-Yeah.
-Definitely a classic.
-Yeah.
[Andrew] Anybody who doesn't like
a peanut butter cup is dead to me.
[Justin] So I'm gonna make steak,
plastic wrap, and a Styrofoam tray.
One of the most important things
to focus on is getting the plastic wrap,
'cause the wrap has to be perfect.
I'm just going to mix together
gelatin and water.
Because the gelatin has a yellow hue,
you gotta use the purple violet.
And it makes it clear.
It's difficult 'cause it takes time to dry
so I really won't know until the end.
I think I'll be okay.
Hopefully. Let's pray.
I've never done it before.
So, a little nervous.
Andrew, he's Second time, right?
-Yeah, this is my second.
-Yeah, I'm worried about Andrew.
My gosh. That's the first time you've
ever said you were worried about me.
Without saying,
"I'm worried about Andrew."
I just came off of a win.
I've just won $5,000.
And I think winning twice in a row,
and being the first one to do that,
is a way to solidify my name in this game.
But I've got
some tough competition up against me.
Or, at least I think so.
Let's see what they got.
So this is the challenge.
Youth versus experience.
-[Jonny] Yeah.
-Versus Halloween!
[clanging]
[chuckles]
I should be a hibachi grill person.
[funky music playing]
-Hi, Andrew!
-[Andrew] Ah!
[laughs]
Like my new look?
Yeah, I want them.
Who wore it better?
-[laughing]
-[Hemu] Yeah, right.
All right, bakers. I have some items
that might be of interest to you.
Andrew, challah loaves.
Justin, steaks.
And Steve,
vegetables from the planet from Avatar.
[laughing]
[Jonny] It looks like we're
watching people grocery shop.
[Sam, Mikey] Yeah.
"I'll take this. I'll need some of this."
"Hmm, maybe some of this, too."
[laughing]
[Andrew] I need to think of a way
to up the "wow" factor.
So, I'm putting one of these loaves
in edible cellophane.
I don't anticipate your average judge
to think that someone could
make something edible
that looks like a sheet of plastic.
How's your gelatin look?
[Andrew] I put glycerin in mine.
-So you have flexibility?
-Gives it flexibility.
-It could snap, right, if you bend it?
-Yes.
Edible cellophane is something
that I have become quite skilled at.
It's definitely an art form
that is not easy to pull off.
The good thing is that
if it doesn't work out Unlike Justin's,
if my plastic doesn't work out,
then I can just scrap it.
I don't know. I feel you guys have good
technical things that you can show off.
[Justin] If you pull it off,
it'll be really cool.
Yeah, hopefully.
[Justin] My cellophane's not looking 100%.
Even watching Andrew, it looks so easy.
Like, they have a secret
I don't know about.
When the show's over, I'll give you tips
on how to make good cellophane.
This is Justin's first time
doing edible cellophane.
I almost want to,
like, offer him some of what I have.
But it's a competition, so I'm not gonna.
Or! When this episode's over,
you can give me tips
on how you made the good cellophane.
Bakers! Six hours remaining.
[upbeat music playing]
[Mikey] I hate the side ones.
-[laughing]
-[Mikey exhales]
It's all about structure.
I'm very jealous of both of your choices.
As soon as I saw them I'm like,
"This is the perfect challenge!
I can't wait!"
And then you took them from me.
And that's fine.
Well, it's the name of the game.
I'm gonna try to make my horned melon
as similar to the decoys as possible.
Silicone molds help to give you texture.
And it helps to create that fake exterior
that fools everybody.
I'm hoping I can get some of the nuances
of this melon to come out in this mold.
I wanna see how this works.
If it works, I'll use it.
If not, I'll have to sculpt it by hand.
So, you're not interested
in doing things hand-sculpted?
-Well, I Well, I can.
-[laughing]
I can, but I wanna try to make it
as easy as I can.
I'm making this horned melon,
pouring chocolate into the mold.
I invert it and dump
whatever chocolate comes out of it,
leaving a very thin coat
of chocolate in the mold.
I want it to hold the cake pop
that I'm going to be piping in.
My motto always is,
"Work smarter not harder."
[laughs]
I'm mixing together all my leftover scraps
to make like a cake pop.
And I'm going to insert that filling
into the cavity of the chocolate melon.
The thorns that are on it
are going to be make or break.
[energetic music playing]
[Mikey] All right, bakers.
You've got four hours left.
[groans]
[hesitates] I'm just having a moment, man.
Having some trouble?
-[Andrew] Not going well.
-[Steve] It looks good.
[Andrew chuckles] It looks awful.
I'm so disappointed.
The coloring is not working out
the way that I had planned on.
You would think that brown is brown.
But when it comes to cake,
to give it the aliveness
or the fresh-baked look,
you have to have the right shade of brown.
I don't think it's gonna fool the judges.
So, I am peeling everything off
and starting from scratch on this loaf.
There's not a lot of time left,
and it's risky to go back to this,
but I don't wanna present
something that I'm not happy with.
I'm planning on taking a blow torch
until it forms
a nice hard, brownish shell.
I need some of your cool cucumber vibe.
[Steve chuckles]
-Here you go. You can channel it.
-Thank you. I like that.
All right, bakers. Three hours!
You got about three hours left.
[upbeat music playing]
Steve, I don't really appreciate
how calm you're being.
I'm hand-painting the steak cake,
leaving some of the base color on there,
just so that can represent the fat.
For the sides of the steak cake,
I wanna have some part of it actual meat,
and then some part of it fat.
So, I used some plastic wrap
and crumpled it up,
and I imprint the cake with that.
Just anything to give it more texture.
[April] Is that modeling chocolate
or fondant?
-[Justin] Modeling chocolate.
-Okay.
For my cauliflower cake,
I am rolling out white modeling chocolate
and taking my textured cauliflower mold,
and I'm pressing it
into the top of the cauliflower.
Pressing the stamp
into the modeling chocolate,
it's looking really good,
exactly like cauliflower.
From 15 feet away,
it doesn't look too bad.
I think it looks good here.
[Mikey] Bakers! Just over one hour!
[tense music plays]
Uh-oh.
I'm dreading the sound!
It's wobbling.
-[Jonny] Looks a little wonky, Mikey.
-It looks a little wonky.
-I agree.
-[Jonny] The tiltscape is off.
-[laughing]
-[Mikey] Yeah.
[mock anger] The tiltscape is off, Steve!
[gallery laughing]
[Hemu] If he can put more shine to it,
he can absolutely fool the judges.
-Yeah.
-[Nina] Yeah.
The hardest part
about getting a bread texture
is that it has, like, its own crust to it.
It has flakiness and tears and shine,
and that's not really something
that you can just
easily manipulate sugar to look like.
And I'm starting to worry,
am I gonna be able to pull this off?
Or am I gonna run out of time and not
be happy with the finished product?
[Mikey] Thirty minutes, bakers!
Thirty minutes
-No!
-[screaming]
-[whooping]
-[laughing]
-[Dessiree] Oh my God.
-Getting a good laugh, gallery?
[Hemu] Yes.
-[Sam] Justin looks a little stressed.
-I hope he pulls it together.
[Justin] Check on my cellophane.
Some of it I like, some of it I don't.
As I'm pulling, I'm noticing
it's almost sticking to itself,
so it's creating some wrinkles.
And it's my first time,
and I'm gonna make do with what I have.
Five minutes, bakers! This is it!
Mikey calling me the silent assassin
is probably not far from the truth.
I made cake look exactly like produce.
How many people can say that?
[intense music playing]
Time's up, bakers!
[applause]
[Mikey] Get your decoys ready!
I look forward to seeing
what you guys put together.
Andrew, Justin, Steve.
You've put in hours of work
to make your cakes perfect,
but only one of you
could win up to $20,000.
But first, you must fool our judges.
Comedian, actor, and social media star,
you know her as Average Fashion Blogger,
Courtney Parchman!
[applause, whooping]
Courtney, uh, you have some fanboys here.
-Do I?
-[laughing]
-Yeah, big fan.
-Oh my God.
I only hope to be a fraction
of the TikTok sensation you are.
Same, same.
That is so sweet.
I'm waiting for my part!
Somebody better say something.
[Mikey] All right. Here you go.
Actor, comedian, and author,
Finesse Mitchell.
[applause, whooping]
Oh my gosh. Mother Teresa
could be out here, but no, it's Fin
-I cannot believe that!
-Thank you! Thank you!
-I can't believe it! I'm such a huge fan
-Thank you. You've done enough.
And food writer and Senior Editor
Eater, Farley Elliott.
[applause, whooping]
Farley hive, rise up!
Farley fanboys!
That's right, that's right.
Sir, please.
[squeals]
See? Thank you! Thank you.
Judges, here's how this works.
The cake wall is going to spin around
to reveal five cake stands,
each holding something
that you would see at a grocery store.
But only one of those stands
is holding a cake.
The three of you have 20 seconds
to agree on one answer
and enter it on the keypad
in front of Finesse.
Do you guys think you can do this?
Yes.
Are you familiar with cake?
-I've heard of it.
-I don't think it'll be easy.
All right. Our first baker up is Justin.
Cake Wall, spin around for me, please.
[tense music playing]
Okay, judges, on the other side
of that wall are five steaks,
but one of them is cake.
Good luck.
Your time starts now!
[Finesse] Man! Okay.
I mean, One looks too tall,
like, it looks too sturdy.
I think that's gotta be real.
What do you think?
-[Finesse] Two!
-[Farley] Oh wow.
-I believe that Two is right.
-[Finesse] I'm thinkin' Three.
-[Courtney] That's a rib eye.
-Three seems
-Gosh.
-[Mikey] Ten seconds.
-[Finesse] Three looks perfect.
-[Farley] That's why it's cake?
[Courtney] It's Four.
[Finesse] Courtney can't really see.
She's looking up.
[Mikey] Five, four
-I'm trying to get an angle from above.
-three
-I think it's One.
-[Mikey] two, one.
-[Farley] Two.
-I say Two.
-Lock it in!
[bell dinging]
[Mikey] Let's see if you guys were right.
-You locked in Two?
-[Finesse] We locked in Two.
-[Mikey] How are we feeling?
-The fat strip on it looks great.
Is that the, uh, technical term, Farley?
Fat strip?
Yeah. Yeah, a lot of marbling.
-Yeah.
-A lot of intramuscular fat.
All right.
Let's see if you guys were right.
-Come on, Two.
-Let's see if this is cake.
[Mikey clears throat]
-[tense music playing]
-[gasps]
-[Courtney] Wow! Wait.
-Ew. That's meat.
-[judges groaning]
-Oh wow. That's a tender steak.
Wow.
[applause, cheering]
[Mikey] You guys picked Number Two,
and that is not cake.
Meaning, Justin, you did it, buddy.
You fooled the judges.
You are up for the win today.
You guys also think it could be what?
One and Three.
I'm gonna go ahead and let Courtney
Okay, yeah. I think it might be One.
And at first I didn't think so
'cause it's a crazy color of red.
And I am seeing a red
spot on the Styrofoam.
-[Finesse] Oh!
-Yeah.
Mikey! This is a totally different angle.
-Yes, it is!
-[laughing]
Farley, would you say
that's a specific type of steak?
-Usually when they're dark red
-This guy.
-You asked for the dissertation!
-I'm using my resources.
-All right.
-It might be a Wagyu or something.
-[laughs]
-Is it cake? Or, is it Wagyu? Let's see.
-It's a cake.
-Yeah.
Ooh.
-[Finesse] Oh
-Hold on.
[Courtney] You made Wagyu steak.
Wow.
[Mikey] Great job, Justin!
You're up for the win today.
-[whooping]
-[Courtney] Wow.
That looks like cake.
I never considered
that the whole container
would be cake.
Thank you.
The golden child has succeeded!
It's time for our next baker, Steve.
Very quiet, but very calculating.
Cake Wall, spin for us.
Judges, you're about to see
five cake stands
with a selection of produce items.
On one of those stands,
everything is cake.
You must find that one and bring it to me.
And your time starts now!
[Farley laughs]
[Finesse] I hate vegetables.
I'm not gonna be any help.
[Farley] Oh, wow. What do you think?
-One is tricky.
-[Courtney] One with the color change.
-[Farley] The asparagus in Two is too big.
-[Finesse] I think Three.
I've been to a lot of grocery stores.
The asparagus, that is real.
[Mikey] Ten seconds!
-[Finesse] Four is fake.
-[Farley] Four is fake? No way.
-[Mikey] Five seconds, judges.
-Five is definitely real.
-[Mikey] Four, three
-[Finesse] I'm going with Two.
-[Courtney] Yeah.
-[Farley] Two?
[Mikey] One.
-Time's up!
-[bell dinging]
[whooping]
[Mikey] Whoo! What'd we end up going with?
[Finesse] Going with Two, Mikey.
-Whatever the porcupine bread is, it's
-[Courtney laughs]
That's a horned melon.
A horned melon. Well, I tell you what.
You find that in the Black grocery store,
I'll give you $100,000.
[laughing]
[Mikey] Judges, well,
let's see if you're right.
You guys were all in agreement this time.
-You guys all are confident about Two?
-No.
Let's not go so far as to say confident.
But yes.
Let's see if you're right.
Is this stuff cake?
[tense music playing]
-[Courtney] No.
-[judges groaning]
[Mikey] No. I'm sorry, guys.
-[Farley] Wow.
-Why do you guys keep picking Two?
Not cake!
Great job, Steve.
[Mikey] You fooled the judges.
You're up for the win. Congrats.
This all went according to Steve's plan.
[applause, whooping]
Are there any other choices?
-Yeah.
-Five.
You know, I went to a few grocery stores.
And I've been to
-[mock surprise] You have?
-Yeah
The purple cauliflower.
I'm looking at it,
and it's looking like a cake.
All right.
Let's see if this is indeed cake.
[tense music playing]
Ooh.
It's feeling interesting to me.
[cheering]
[Jonny] Cake!
That looks like cake to me, folks.
Right? Look at that. Gallery?
Let's see what this asparagus
is all about, huh?
I see cake in there.
[crunching]
-[Mikey] Ooh. And that's cake, too.
-[Courtney] Oh wow.
Steve, that means
you are up for the win today.
-Congrats, my man.
-Yay!
All right, judges,
you have been fooled twice.
If you don't count getting it right,
we're doing a great job.
That's right.
Our last baker is Andrew,
the reigning champion!
[applause]
Defending his crown,
he made two loaves of challah bread.
Cake Wall, bring us your loaves.
You're going to see five cake stands
with loaves of challah bread.
One of those stands is holding only cake.
-It is up to you to find it.
-[Courtney groans]
Ooh.
Have fun! And your time starts now!
[Farley] They don't all have cellophane.
That feels like a big differentiator.
I don't think it's One,
'cause they wouldn't hide it in the bag.
-[Courtney] If it's Two, you're crazy.
-[Mikey] Ten seconds.
-[Finesse] I'm thinking Three or One.
-[Farley] Three? Three?
-[Courtney] Three.
-Five seconds.
-[Farley] You don't think it's Four?
-[Courtney] No. I think it might be Five.
-His bread has plastic on it.
-[Mikey] Three
-[Farley] Three. It's too perfect.
-[Mikey] Lock it in!
-[Mikey] Boom! Time's up.
-[bell dinging]
Let's see if you're right.
You guys locked in Three.
[Courtney] Something cool about this,
I'm half Jewish.
So, the far and few times
I've had challah bread,
this is actually all looking like it.
Every single one is looking like
those Jewish holidays that I get to go to.
Let's see if you guys are gonna go
one-for-three, or oh-for-three.
Let's find out.
-It's jiggling.
-It's jiggling?
-You guys and this jiggle.
-[Courtney] Not like cake.
[Mikey] I love it.
Seeds and jiggle. Here we go.
-[Courtney] They cut the same
-Wait a minute. Bread would do that too.
-[chuckles]
-[Mikey] Interesting.
That's bread.
Oh!
-Judges! Oh-for-three.
-[gallery cheering]
Andrew, you're up for the win today.
So, judges, where do you think it is now?
Courtney. Having been to a grocery store,
this is your time to shine.
I think Five.
I'm just looking at a specific part
that's making me think it's a cake.
Can you touch that Saran wrap for me?
-Touch it? Okay! That's the cake!
-[Finesse] Yeah!
Wow!
Let's see if Number Five
Is it cake?
Ooh, that feels
Ooh, nice cake. Look at that.
That feels cakey.
Shabbat Shalom!
-[Finesse] Told you!
-[Mikey] As it's caking in my hand.
So, all hail Andrew.
-[Courtney] Yay!
-The king! He did it again!
You have deceived our judges.
That means you could win back
the money you lost last time
in our Cake Or Cash round, buddy.
Whoo!
[whooping]
Justin, Steve, Andrew,
you guys fooled our judges.
Congratulations.
Three for three!
Bakers three, judges zero.
But there can only be one winner.
So, now it's up to the judges.
They will need to take a closer look
before determining
who could win up to $20,000, guys.
[tense music playing]
They win $20,000? For making a good cake?
-[laughing]
-[giggles]
-I better start cooking.
-Let's go. I'll teach you.
I would love that.
Spin for us, oh mighty wall.
All right, judges.
We have a three-way tie.
It's up to you to break it.
It comes down to taste and the details.
Justin, why don't you
tell the judges about your cake.
It's chocolate cake with peanut butter
filling and salted peanuts.
[Farley] I like this flavor.
It's good cake.
Oh, yeah, the peanut butter. Mm-hmm.
Mm. And it's so good.
It doesn't taste like Wagyu.
-At all.
-[laughing]
When you're up here, you can see
more of, like, the color differentiation
between a real Wagyu and this one.
[chuckles] It still looks unbelievable.
This is so challenging to pull off.
-[Courtney] Can't get over the packaging.
-[Finesse] Impressive.
The difference from outside to inside
is almost the most surprising.
I never would've thought
it'd be chocolate and peanut butter.
[Finesse] I was just gonna say that.
Uh-oh. Veggie shopping.
Steve, tell us about the flavors.
What we have is an almond cake
with a milk chocolate ganache
that has a hint of orange zest in it.
This is just as good as the steak,
as far as just the flavor.
-[Courtney] Mm-hmm.
-I think the ganache is really nice.
I think the orange zest helps to lift it.
What's tripping me out
are the details in the asparagus.
[Courtney] Yeah.
I'm this close, and I still can't
tell that that is a cake.
This looks more like cauliflower
the closer up I am to it
than when I was farther away from it.
The art is top-notch on this one.
[chuckles]
[Mikey] All right, Andrew, tell the judges
what kind of cake you made.
-[Finesse] I'm going in. I'm going in!
-I'm going to eat this big chunk.
[Andrew] So it's a donut cake
with maple pecan frosting.
I'm going in again!
[Farley] The cronut is dead.
This is the new donut cake we're after.
[laughs]
[Courtney] Even this close,
I'd still think it's bread.
I was Okay, Courtney.
-So, I was thinking that earlier.
-I was just thinking this is bread.
And when you're this close
and the details have me fooled,
and then it tastes the way it tastes.
And again, this cellophane.
If you just touch the end of this,
you would think it's regular plastic.
Yeah. That's crazy.
Judges, you've had a closer look.
You've tasted the cakes.
Take a minute. Deliberate.
-And decide our winner.
-[exhales]
Now, they discuss your fate.
One of you will be champion.
The other, tossed out into the gallery.
[laughing]
With Justin's steak, as far as the looks
are concerned, I'm super impressed.
I was really feeling
peanut butter and chocolate.
-You can't go wrong with that.
-Yeah.
But the level of craftsmanship
with the rubber band, again,
and the little asparagus tips
feels like you'd see it
at any grocery store.
-You know what I'm talking about.
-[laughs] I do.
Flavor-wise, I'm gonna
try to, like, be straight up.
The donut cake was amazing to me.
-[Farley] Donut is something different.
-I've made up my mind.
-Yeah, I'm with you. I made up my mind.
-Yeah.
-We agree.
-Okay. Cool.
[quietly] Oh my gosh.
Ahem!
Okay!
Judges? Have you reached a decision?
Mikey, we were really blown away
by the look of each and every cake.
Hats off to you guys, because
-[whooping]
-Good job, guys!
Even though we fell in love
with the look of Steve's cake,
we really think that
[tense music playing]
Andrew hit a home run. We choose Andrew.
-[Mikey] Andrew!
-[gallery cheering]
-[whooping]
-[Andrew] Thank you, guys.
Andrew!
The champion slays another beast.
-Congrats, you just won $5,000.
-Thank you.
That means you have won a total of $10,000
in this competition, my friend.
[Jonny] Nice one, Andrew!
Judges, what brought it over the top
for Andrew here?
[Finesse] Andrew's cake
not only looked the part,
not only did it fool me,
but it tasted amazing,
and I've never had donut cake.
He pulled it off.
The execution on this one
This is just so well done,
from the cellophane down to the flavors,
and it looks the part all the way.
[Mikey] Let's give a round of applause
for our judges.
-Thank you, Farley, Finesse, and Courtney.
-[applause, whooping]
Cake Wall, take our judges home.
-Thank you!
-[game show music playing]
Look at that! Perfect.
Bye!
Miss you.
Justin and Steve.
I'm sorry, but you will
both get a chance to bake again.
So, please join the other bakers
in the gallery.
-Come to us!
-[Mikey] Applause!
Andrew. Hello again.
It is time to play Cake or Cash?
All right, since you didn't win
the $5,000 last time,
that money has rolled over again.
And you're now playing for $15,000.
[whooping]
[Dessiree] You got this!
What are we gonna do? We gonna get it?
We gonna try to get it. [chuckles]
All right.
On the other side of the cake wall
are two cash registers.
One of these cash registers
is filled with cash,
and the other one,
I'm not sure, but I think is cake.
If you guess the cake, you get the cash.
You have 15 seconds
to decide which one is cake.
And your time starts now!
-[tense music playing]
-[timer beeping]
[Mikey] Ooh.
Five seconds, Andrew.
-[rapid beeping]
-Four, three, two
[bell dinging]
You already locked in your answer.
-That's a good sign!
-[applause, whooping]
[Mikey] You said Number Two.
Why do you think that is cake?
I don't know. There's something
about the the sheen on Number One
that makes me feel like it could be real.
But who knows in this game? I don't know.
-I'm nervous.
-I'm nervous, too.
[Mikey groans softly]
Let's just be here together.
-No. Let's just do this, please.
-Okay!
I'll end the agony I'm putting us through.
And let's see if you're right!
Thank you.
The $15,000 march
up to the cash registers.
Okay, Andrew.
If this is cake, you win $15,000.
[groans] I can't, right now.
Now, the fun begins.
Is it cake? Let's find out.
[tense music playing]
[clears throat]
-[Mikey] Oh!
-[upbeat music plays]
-[Andrew squeals]
-[gallery whooping]
[Mikey] Behold! Behold!
[Andrew] Oh my God.
I'm gonna cut you
another slice too, buddy.
-That's 15,000.
-Oh my God.
For a grand total
of $25,000 in this competition!
-[Dessiree] Goodness!
-Oh my God.
And you're moving on to bake again.
But
-Everything is about to change.
-[bakers groaning]
Forget what you guys know about this game,
because something that none of you
are expecting is going to happen.
[laughs maniacally]
I'm not going to tell you now,
-but trust me, it's big and very wonky.
-[Nina chuckles]
[laughs maniacally]
[gears crunching]
[Mikey] Oh God!
I have again fallen into the gears!
[laughing]
I'm fine, but I'm very badly burned.
[closing theme music playing]
[opening theme music playing]
[woman] Whoo!
[whooping]
[Hemu] Looking good, Mikey!
What's up? Sorry.
I was hungry.
[laughing]
Name another baking show where the host
regularly eats money. I'll wait.
[all laughing]
Is my mouth now filled
with dry wafer paper?
You bet.
Andrew, you're our winner
from last time with your conch shell cake.
And you walked away with $5,000.
[whooping]
-Nice.
-Whoo. Thank you.
Unfortunately, you didn't find the cake
in our Cake or Cash round,
so that money rolled over again,
which means this time
one of you could win up to $20,000.
Wow.
-Ooh!
-[whooping]
There are only two bakers
who haven't competed yet.
Our young Justin,
who skipped his high school graduation
-to be here.
-Yeah.
And Steve, who skipped
whatever Steve does?
[laughing]
I don't know. Sit in a dark room
and watch television static?
[Steve chuckles]
-You're a mystery, Steve.
-Mm-hmm.
It's time to play Find That Cake.
The cake wall is about to spin around,
and you'll see six items you'd find
in a grocery store.
-Hey there!
-Okay.
Oh boy.
Five of those items are real, and one is
Justin?
Cake?
Correct, sir!
No wonder you graduated high school, man.
Cake Wall, spin, please.
[whooping, cheering]
All right, you know the game.
You have 20 seconds
to lock in your answers on your keypads.
Remember, if you're the fastest,
you get to pick first.
Your time starts now!
[tense music playing]
[Mikey] Ten seconds.
[Andrew shivers]
[Mikey] Lock in those answers.
Five, four,
three, two, one.
-Time's up!
-[bell dinging]
Let's see who found the cake.
Andrew!
Yeah?
You picked the steak.
-I did.
-[Nina] Are you hungry?
-[laughing]
-No. I'm a vegetarian.
-He's a vegetarian!
-Yeah!
What's the tell here, Andrew?
What makes you think this is cake?
Well, I specialize in human hearts
wrapped in plastic.
[music warps]
Excuse me?
[laughing]
For Valentine's Day.
For Valentine's Day?!
Yeah. Customized labels and everything.
You are the master of the macabre, huh?
I love it.
Let's find out. I'm forced to say this.
Is it cake? Or is it steak?
[tense music playing]
-That's steak.
-Ugh.
[Mikey] Justin and Steve.
The new kids.
You both picked the eggs.
Tell me why.
Some of the letters and numbers
don't look quite even.
Interesting.
I agree with what he's saying.
The "Large" looks a little weird.
The rest looked real to me,
so I chose One.
Okay. Let's find out
if both of you are right.
Is it cake?
[tense music playing]
-[Mikey] Oh ho ho!
-[cheering]
Nice job.
-[Mikey] That's cake.
-[applause]
Well, much like Harry Potter,
it is the golden chosen child.
-Justin!
-[cheering]
You found the cake the fastest.
And you get first pick.
Bakers, it's time to play Is It Cake?
[applause, whooping]
Okay, bakers, you know how this works.
Each of you is going to choose
one of these grocery items
to make into a cake.
Justin, you found the cake the fastest.
What's it going to be?
I'ma choose the steak.
-[Mikey] Steak.
-[Justin] Yes.
And why?
I feel like, well, steak,
the marbling doesn't have to be exact,
so it doesn't have to be a replica.
And, um, I just think it's interesting.
Like, the plastic It could be fun.
-Awesome. Andrew, are you upset by that?
-Yeah, I'm sorry.
Yeah, totally. Totally. But I can't wait
to see if he does it better than I would.
-Wow.
-And I think he's got a shot.
-Steve, you came in second.
-Yeah.
-What do you choose?
-I'll choose the produce.
-[Andrew] Oh man! That's the other one
-Oh!
-That's so Steve.
-I wanted that one, too.
Now, I see the Steve smile.
You're confident.
I've done things like that before,
and I think I can fool the judges.
And, lastly, Andrew, what'll it be?
I'm gonna go with the challah bread.
I just think out of what's remaining,
it's the most interesting.
I like things
that have a lot of texture, so
I can kind of see, as I'm learning
a little bit about what you guys do,
it's got some shine to it.
Maybe you'll use, um,
-some edible lacquer on there.
-[laughing]
[Mikey] Now, head over to the kitchen
and slip into that apron.
Tick-tock.
You only have eight hours to do this.
Ready? It's time to bake!
[applause]
[upbeat music playing]
-This is your first competition?
-[Justin] My first cake competition.
I'm trying to stay focused, you know?
'Cause I don't wanna distract myself
or make myself more nervous.
That's the thing about you.
You're smart. You're here for a reason.
Justin's like a like a 30-year-old
in an 18-year-old body.
Yeah. I mean, I'm literally like
a six-year-old that's just old as dirt.
I'm 18, and I started my business
Everything Just Baked when I was 16.
I create 15 to 20 custom cakes a week
for my business.
I'm making about five figures out of cake,
and I'm still going to school,
so it's a lot, but
I'm just skilled. What can I say? [laughs]
I used to bake a lot
with my mom and my grandma.
Homemade cookies, breads, pies.
And I just found my love for it.
And here I am now.
I've made a steak cake before,
but I've never made
the cellophane wrapping.
But I I have an idea
of how I wanna do it, for sure.
-Steve, will you make my wedding cake?
-Sure.
Well, I guess I won't!
I didn't think the groom
wanted to make the cake.
[laughs]
Nice save.
Over in the gallery,
it's an episode of Jonny and His Ladies.
[laughing]
Who do you think
has the most difficult item?
-Steve.
-Steve.
[Hemu] He's got
three different items to make.
Yeah. If two items look real,
but one doesn't
-The whole thing is off.
-It's all done.
Are you still glad
you stuck with your strategy
of "I'm gonna give Andrew
something easier"?
Well, ultimately, your easy choice
should have been the toilet paper, but
[laughs]
I picked produce,
one of the hardest items to do.
There's different color schemes,
different sizes.
I wanna make a dense cake
because I want the ultimate shape
that I create for my vegetables
to stay that way.
If I make a spongier cake,
it'll cause it to sag a bit.
And I don't want that.
I'm nervous about Steve's flavors.
What is it, again?
[Steve] Almond cake, with almond paste,
and then a milk chocolate orange ganache.
-You put the almond paste in the batter?
-Yeah.
Yeah, paste in the batter. Old school.
Almost like an almond pound cake.
-You're an old fashioned kinda guy.
-Yeah.
Andrew! What is the flavor of your cake?
[Andrew] I'm doing a donut cake
with a maple pecan buttercream.
Ooh!
-Not spicy this time. Okay.
-[Andrew] No spicy.
I want this to look most like
a loaf of challah bread.
You gotta make sure that you're not
making it too tall or too wide.
The best route to go
to achieve that bubble braid
on top of my challah bread
is to use what I call cake clay.
Cake clay is the same thing as cake pop.
I just like to call it cake clay.
It's cake mixed with ganache
or buttercream.
And it's a great medium,
because it really does work like clay.
[Mikey] Andrew's kind of a loose cannon.
Meanwhile, Steve's quietly assembling
his produce.
The silent assassin.
Who knows what he's thinking?
[woman] Are you a silent assassin?
Am I a silent assassin?
[suspenseful music playing]
If Mikey thinks I'm a silent assassin,
I think I'm going to keep playing it.
I've been doing hyper-realistic cakes
for over 20 years.
I have a lot of skill
and a lot of competitions under my belt,
more so than anybody here.
I'm an Associate Dean
at a community college in West Virginia.
I teach Culinary Arts.
I teach students that are Justin's age.
He's been a pastry chef
twice as long as Justin's been alive.
[giggling]
Hey, Justin!
Is that buttercream you're making?
Yes, I'm making the peanut butter filling.
I just make the buttercream
and add peanut butter.
-Sounds good.
-Peanut Butter Jelly Time.
[Justin] I'll do chocolate cake
with dark chocolate ganache,
and peanut butter filling
and crushed peanuts.
-Chocolate peanut butter?
-Yeah.
-Definitely a classic.
-Yeah.
[Andrew] Anybody who doesn't like
a peanut butter cup is dead to me.
[Justin] So I'm gonna make steak,
plastic wrap, and a Styrofoam tray.
One of the most important things
to focus on is getting the plastic wrap,
'cause the wrap has to be perfect.
I'm just going to mix together
gelatin and water.
Because the gelatin has a yellow hue,
you gotta use the purple violet.
And it makes it clear.
It's difficult 'cause it takes time to dry
so I really won't know until the end.
I think I'll be okay.
Hopefully. Let's pray.
I've never done it before.
So, a little nervous.
Andrew, he's Second time, right?
-Yeah, this is my second.
-Yeah, I'm worried about Andrew.
My gosh. That's the first time you've
ever said you were worried about me.
Without saying,
"I'm worried about Andrew."
I just came off of a win.
I've just won $5,000.
And I think winning twice in a row,
and being the first one to do that,
is a way to solidify my name in this game.
But I've got
some tough competition up against me.
Or, at least I think so.
Let's see what they got.
So this is the challenge.
Youth versus experience.
-[Jonny] Yeah.
-Versus Halloween!
[clanging]
[chuckles]
I should be a hibachi grill person.
[funky music playing]
-Hi, Andrew!
-[Andrew] Ah!
[laughs]
Like my new look?
Yeah, I want them.
Who wore it better?
-[laughing]
-[Hemu] Yeah, right.
All right, bakers. I have some items
that might be of interest to you.
Andrew, challah loaves.
Justin, steaks.
And Steve,
vegetables from the planet from Avatar.
[laughing]
[Jonny] It looks like we're
watching people grocery shop.
[Sam, Mikey] Yeah.
"I'll take this. I'll need some of this."
"Hmm, maybe some of this, too."
[laughing]
[Andrew] I need to think of a way
to up the "wow" factor.
So, I'm putting one of these loaves
in edible cellophane.
I don't anticipate your average judge
to think that someone could
make something edible
that looks like a sheet of plastic.
How's your gelatin look?
[Andrew] I put glycerin in mine.
-So you have flexibility?
-Gives it flexibility.
-It could snap, right, if you bend it?
-Yes.
Edible cellophane is something
that I have become quite skilled at.
It's definitely an art form
that is not easy to pull off.
The good thing is that
if it doesn't work out Unlike Justin's,
if my plastic doesn't work out,
then I can just scrap it.
I don't know. I feel you guys have good
technical things that you can show off.
[Justin] If you pull it off,
it'll be really cool.
Yeah, hopefully.
[Justin] My cellophane's not looking 100%.
Even watching Andrew, it looks so easy.
Like, they have a secret
I don't know about.
When the show's over, I'll give you tips
on how to make good cellophane.
This is Justin's first time
doing edible cellophane.
I almost want to,
like, offer him some of what I have.
But it's a competition, so I'm not gonna.
Or! When this episode's over,
you can give me tips
on how you made the good cellophane.
Bakers! Six hours remaining.
[upbeat music playing]
[Mikey] I hate the side ones.
-[laughing]
-[Mikey exhales]
It's all about structure.
I'm very jealous of both of your choices.
As soon as I saw them I'm like,
"This is the perfect challenge!
I can't wait!"
And then you took them from me.
And that's fine.
Well, it's the name of the game.
I'm gonna try to make my horned melon
as similar to the decoys as possible.
Silicone molds help to give you texture.
And it helps to create that fake exterior
that fools everybody.
I'm hoping I can get some of the nuances
of this melon to come out in this mold.
I wanna see how this works.
If it works, I'll use it.
If not, I'll have to sculpt it by hand.
So, you're not interested
in doing things hand-sculpted?
-Well, I Well, I can.
-[laughing]
I can, but I wanna try to make it
as easy as I can.
I'm making this horned melon,
pouring chocolate into the mold.
I invert it and dump
whatever chocolate comes out of it,
leaving a very thin coat
of chocolate in the mold.
I want it to hold the cake pop
that I'm going to be piping in.
My motto always is,
"Work smarter not harder."
[laughs]
I'm mixing together all my leftover scraps
to make like a cake pop.
And I'm going to insert that filling
into the cavity of the chocolate melon.
The thorns that are on it
are going to be make or break.
[energetic music playing]
[Mikey] All right, bakers.
You've got four hours left.
[groans]
[hesitates] I'm just having a moment, man.
Having some trouble?
-[Andrew] Not going well.
-[Steve] It looks good.
[Andrew chuckles] It looks awful.
I'm so disappointed.
The coloring is not working out
the way that I had planned on.
You would think that brown is brown.
But when it comes to cake,
to give it the aliveness
or the fresh-baked look,
you have to have the right shade of brown.
I don't think it's gonna fool the judges.
So, I am peeling everything off
and starting from scratch on this loaf.
There's not a lot of time left,
and it's risky to go back to this,
but I don't wanna present
something that I'm not happy with.
I'm planning on taking a blow torch
until it forms
a nice hard, brownish shell.
I need some of your cool cucumber vibe.
[Steve chuckles]
-Here you go. You can channel it.
-Thank you. I like that.
All right, bakers. Three hours!
You got about three hours left.
[upbeat music playing]
Steve, I don't really appreciate
how calm you're being.
I'm hand-painting the steak cake,
leaving some of the base color on there,
just so that can represent the fat.
For the sides of the steak cake,
I wanna have some part of it actual meat,
and then some part of it fat.
So, I used some plastic wrap
and crumpled it up,
and I imprint the cake with that.
Just anything to give it more texture.
[April] Is that modeling chocolate
or fondant?
-[Justin] Modeling chocolate.
-Okay.
For my cauliflower cake,
I am rolling out white modeling chocolate
and taking my textured cauliflower mold,
and I'm pressing it
into the top of the cauliflower.
Pressing the stamp
into the modeling chocolate,
it's looking really good,
exactly like cauliflower.
From 15 feet away,
it doesn't look too bad.
I think it looks good here.
[Mikey] Bakers! Just over one hour!
[tense music plays]
Uh-oh.
I'm dreading the sound!
It's wobbling.
-[Jonny] Looks a little wonky, Mikey.
-It looks a little wonky.
-I agree.
-[Jonny] The tiltscape is off.
-[laughing]
-[Mikey] Yeah.
[mock anger] The tiltscape is off, Steve!
[gallery laughing]
[Hemu] If he can put more shine to it,
he can absolutely fool the judges.
-Yeah.
-[Nina] Yeah.
The hardest part
about getting a bread texture
is that it has, like, its own crust to it.
It has flakiness and tears and shine,
and that's not really something
that you can just
easily manipulate sugar to look like.
And I'm starting to worry,
am I gonna be able to pull this off?
Or am I gonna run out of time and not
be happy with the finished product?
[Mikey] Thirty minutes, bakers!
Thirty minutes
-No!
-[screaming]
-[whooping]
-[laughing]
-[Dessiree] Oh my God.
-Getting a good laugh, gallery?
[Hemu] Yes.
-[Sam] Justin looks a little stressed.
-I hope he pulls it together.
[Justin] Check on my cellophane.
Some of it I like, some of it I don't.
As I'm pulling, I'm noticing
it's almost sticking to itself,
so it's creating some wrinkles.
And it's my first time,
and I'm gonna make do with what I have.
Five minutes, bakers! This is it!
Mikey calling me the silent assassin
is probably not far from the truth.
I made cake look exactly like produce.
How many people can say that?
[intense music playing]
Time's up, bakers!
[applause]
[Mikey] Get your decoys ready!
I look forward to seeing
what you guys put together.
Andrew, Justin, Steve.
You've put in hours of work
to make your cakes perfect,
but only one of you
could win up to $20,000.
But first, you must fool our judges.
Comedian, actor, and social media star,
you know her as Average Fashion Blogger,
Courtney Parchman!
[applause, whooping]
Courtney, uh, you have some fanboys here.
-Do I?
-[laughing]
-Yeah, big fan.
-Oh my God.
I only hope to be a fraction
of the TikTok sensation you are.
Same, same.
That is so sweet.
I'm waiting for my part!
Somebody better say something.
[Mikey] All right. Here you go.
Actor, comedian, and author,
Finesse Mitchell.
[applause, whooping]
Oh my gosh. Mother Teresa
could be out here, but no, it's Fin
-I cannot believe that!
-Thank you! Thank you!
-I can't believe it! I'm such a huge fan
-Thank you. You've done enough.
And food writer and Senior Editor
Eater, Farley Elliott.
[applause, whooping]
Farley hive, rise up!
Farley fanboys!
That's right, that's right.
Sir, please.
[squeals]
See? Thank you! Thank you.
Judges, here's how this works.
The cake wall is going to spin around
to reveal five cake stands,
each holding something
that you would see at a grocery store.
But only one of those stands
is holding a cake.
The three of you have 20 seconds
to agree on one answer
and enter it on the keypad
in front of Finesse.
Do you guys think you can do this?
Yes.
Are you familiar with cake?
-I've heard of it.
-I don't think it'll be easy.
All right. Our first baker up is Justin.
Cake Wall, spin around for me, please.
[tense music playing]
Okay, judges, on the other side
of that wall are five steaks,
but one of them is cake.
Good luck.
Your time starts now!
[Finesse] Man! Okay.
I mean, One looks too tall,
like, it looks too sturdy.
I think that's gotta be real.
What do you think?
-[Finesse] Two!
-[Farley] Oh wow.
-I believe that Two is right.
-[Finesse] I'm thinkin' Three.
-[Courtney] That's a rib eye.
-Three seems
-Gosh.
-[Mikey] Ten seconds.
-[Finesse] Three looks perfect.
-[Farley] That's why it's cake?
[Courtney] It's Four.
[Finesse] Courtney can't really see.
She's looking up.
[Mikey] Five, four
-I'm trying to get an angle from above.
-three
-I think it's One.
-[Mikey] two, one.
-[Farley] Two.
-I say Two.
-Lock it in!
[bell dinging]
[Mikey] Let's see if you guys were right.
-You locked in Two?
-[Finesse] We locked in Two.
-[Mikey] How are we feeling?
-The fat strip on it looks great.
Is that the, uh, technical term, Farley?
Fat strip?
Yeah. Yeah, a lot of marbling.
-Yeah.
-A lot of intramuscular fat.
All right.
Let's see if you guys were right.
-Come on, Two.
-Let's see if this is cake.
[Mikey clears throat]
-[tense music playing]
-[gasps]
-[Courtney] Wow! Wait.
-Ew. That's meat.
-[judges groaning]
-Oh wow. That's a tender steak.
Wow.
[applause, cheering]
[Mikey] You guys picked Number Two,
and that is not cake.
Meaning, Justin, you did it, buddy.
You fooled the judges.
You are up for the win today.
You guys also think it could be what?
One and Three.
I'm gonna go ahead and let Courtney
Okay, yeah. I think it might be One.
And at first I didn't think so
'cause it's a crazy color of red.
And I am seeing a red
spot on the Styrofoam.
-[Finesse] Oh!
-Yeah.
Mikey! This is a totally different angle.
-Yes, it is!
-[laughing]
Farley, would you say
that's a specific type of steak?
-Usually when they're dark red
-This guy.
-You asked for the dissertation!
-I'm using my resources.
-All right.
-It might be a Wagyu or something.
-[laughs]
-Is it cake? Or, is it Wagyu? Let's see.
-It's a cake.
-Yeah.
Ooh.
-[Finesse] Oh
-Hold on.
[Courtney] You made Wagyu steak.
Wow.
[Mikey] Great job, Justin!
You're up for the win today.
-[whooping]
-[Courtney] Wow.
That looks like cake.
I never considered
that the whole container
would be cake.
Thank you.
The golden child has succeeded!
It's time for our next baker, Steve.
Very quiet, but very calculating.
Cake Wall, spin for us.
Judges, you're about to see
five cake stands
with a selection of produce items.
On one of those stands,
everything is cake.
You must find that one and bring it to me.
And your time starts now!
[Farley laughs]
[Finesse] I hate vegetables.
I'm not gonna be any help.
[Farley] Oh, wow. What do you think?
-One is tricky.
-[Courtney] One with the color change.
-[Farley] The asparagus in Two is too big.
-[Finesse] I think Three.
I've been to a lot of grocery stores.
The asparagus, that is real.
[Mikey] Ten seconds!
-[Finesse] Four is fake.
-[Farley] Four is fake? No way.
-[Mikey] Five seconds, judges.
-Five is definitely real.
-[Mikey] Four, three
-[Finesse] I'm going with Two.
-[Courtney] Yeah.
-[Farley] Two?
[Mikey] One.
-Time's up!
-[bell dinging]
[whooping]
[Mikey] Whoo! What'd we end up going with?
[Finesse] Going with Two, Mikey.
-Whatever the porcupine bread is, it's
-[Courtney laughs]
That's a horned melon.
A horned melon. Well, I tell you what.
You find that in the Black grocery store,
I'll give you $100,000.
[laughing]
[Mikey] Judges, well,
let's see if you're right.
You guys were all in agreement this time.
-You guys all are confident about Two?
-No.
Let's not go so far as to say confident.
But yes.
Let's see if you're right.
Is this stuff cake?
[tense music playing]
-[Courtney] No.
-[judges groaning]
[Mikey] No. I'm sorry, guys.
-[Farley] Wow.
-Why do you guys keep picking Two?
Not cake!
Great job, Steve.
[Mikey] You fooled the judges.
You're up for the win. Congrats.
This all went according to Steve's plan.
[applause, whooping]
Are there any other choices?
-Yeah.
-Five.
You know, I went to a few grocery stores.
And I've been to
-[mock surprise] You have?
-Yeah
The purple cauliflower.
I'm looking at it,
and it's looking like a cake.
All right.
Let's see if this is indeed cake.
[tense music playing]
Ooh.
It's feeling interesting to me.
[cheering]
[Jonny] Cake!
That looks like cake to me, folks.
Right? Look at that. Gallery?
Let's see what this asparagus
is all about, huh?
I see cake in there.
[crunching]
-[Mikey] Ooh. And that's cake, too.
-[Courtney] Oh wow.
Steve, that means
you are up for the win today.
-Congrats, my man.
-Yay!
All right, judges,
you have been fooled twice.
If you don't count getting it right,
we're doing a great job.
That's right.
Our last baker is Andrew,
the reigning champion!
[applause]
Defending his crown,
he made two loaves of challah bread.
Cake Wall, bring us your loaves.
You're going to see five cake stands
with loaves of challah bread.
One of those stands is holding only cake.
-It is up to you to find it.
-[Courtney groans]
Ooh.
Have fun! And your time starts now!
[Farley] They don't all have cellophane.
That feels like a big differentiator.
I don't think it's One,
'cause they wouldn't hide it in the bag.
-[Courtney] If it's Two, you're crazy.
-[Mikey] Ten seconds.
-[Finesse] I'm thinking Three or One.
-[Farley] Three? Three?
-[Courtney] Three.
-Five seconds.
-[Farley] You don't think it's Four?
-[Courtney] No. I think it might be Five.
-His bread has plastic on it.
-[Mikey] Three
-[Farley] Three. It's too perfect.
-[Mikey] Lock it in!
-[Mikey] Boom! Time's up.
-[bell dinging]
Let's see if you're right.
You guys locked in Three.
[Courtney] Something cool about this,
I'm half Jewish.
So, the far and few times
I've had challah bread,
this is actually all looking like it.
Every single one is looking like
those Jewish holidays that I get to go to.
Let's see if you guys are gonna go
one-for-three, or oh-for-three.
Let's find out.
-It's jiggling.
-It's jiggling?
-You guys and this jiggle.
-[Courtney] Not like cake.
[Mikey] I love it.
Seeds and jiggle. Here we go.
-[Courtney] They cut the same
-Wait a minute. Bread would do that too.
-[chuckles]
-[Mikey] Interesting.
That's bread.
Oh!
-Judges! Oh-for-three.
-[gallery cheering]
Andrew, you're up for the win today.
So, judges, where do you think it is now?
Courtney. Having been to a grocery store,
this is your time to shine.
I think Five.
I'm just looking at a specific part
that's making me think it's a cake.
Can you touch that Saran wrap for me?
-Touch it? Okay! That's the cake!
-[Finesse] Yeah!
Wow!
Let's see if Number Five
Is it cake?
Ooh, that feels
Ooh, nice cake. Look at that.
That feels cakey.
Shabbat Shalom!
-[Finesse] Told you!
-[Mikey] As it's caking in my hand.
So, all hail Andrew.
-[Courtney] Yay!
-The king! He did it again!
You have deceived our judges.
That means you could win back
the money you lost last time
in our Cake Or Cash round, buddy.
Whoo!
[whooping]
Justin, Steve, Andrew,
you guys fooled our judges.
Congratulations.
Three for three!
Bakers three, judges zero.
But there can only be one winner.
So, now it's up to the judges.
They will need to take a closer look
before determining
who could win up to $20,000, guys.
[tense music playing]
They win $20,000? For making a good cake?
-[laughing]
-[giggles]
-I better start cooking.
-Let's go. I'll teach you.
I would love that.
Spin for us, oh mighty wall.
All right, judges.
We have a three-way tie.
It's up to you to break it.
It comes down to taste and the details.
Justin, why don't you
tell the judges about your cake.
It's chocolate cake with peanut butter
filling and salted peanuts.
[Farley] I like this flavor.
It's good cake.
Oh, yeah, the peanut butter. Mm-hmm.
Mm. And it's so good.
It doesn't taste like Wagyu.
-At all.
-[laughing]
When you're up here, you can see
more of, like, the color differentiation
between a real Wagyu and this one.
[chuckles] It still looks unbelievable.
This is so challenging to pull off.
-[Courtney] Can't get over the packaging.
-[Finesse] Impressive.
The difference from outside to inside
is almost the most surprising.
I never would've thought
it'd be chocolate and peanut butter.
[Finesse] I was just gonna say that.
Uh-oh. Veggie shopping.
Steve, tell us about the flavors.
What we have is an almond cake
with a milk chocolate ganache
that has a hint of orange zest in it.
This is just as good as the steak,
as far as just the flavor.
-[Courtney] Mm-hmm.
-I think the ganache is really nice.
I think the orange zest helps to lift it.
What's tripping me out
are the details in the asparagus.
[Courtney] Yeah.
I'm this close, and I still can't
tell that that is a cake.
This looks more like cauliflower
the closer up I am to it
than when I was farther away from it.
The art is top-notch on this one.
[chuckles]
[Mikey] All right, Andrew, tell the judges
what kind of cake you made.
-[Finesse] I'm going in. I'm going in!
-I'm going to eat this big chunk.
[Andrew] So it's a donut cake
with maple pecan frosting.
I'm going in again!
[Farley] The cronut is dead.
This is the new donut cake we're after.
[laughs]
[Courtney] Even this close,
I'd still think it's bread.
I was Okay, Courtney.
-So, I was thinking that earlier.
-I was just thinking this is bread.
And when you're this close
and the details have me fooled,
and then it tastes the way it tastes.
And again, this cellophane.
If you just touch the end of this,
you would think it's regular plastic.
Yeah. That's crazy.
Judges, you've had a closer look.
You've tasted the cakes.
Take a minute. Deliberate.
-And decide our winner.
-[exhales]
Now, they discuss your fate.
One of you will be champion.
The other, tossed out into the gallery.
[laughing]
With Justin's steak, as far as the looks
are concerned, I'm super impressed.
I was really feeling
peanut butter and chocolate.
-You can't go wrong with that.
-Yeah.
But the level of craftsmanship
with the rubber band, again,
and the little asparagus tips
feels like you'd see it
at any grocery store.
-You know what I'm talking about.
-[laughs] I do.
Flavor-wise, I'm gonna
try to, like, be straight up.
The donut cake was amazing to me.
-[Farley] Donut is something different.
-I've made up my mind.
-Yeah, I'm with you. I made up my mind.
-Yeah.
-We agree.
-Okay. Cool.
[quietly] Oh my gosh.
Ahem!
Okay!
Judges? Have you reached a decision?
Mikey, we were really blown away
by the look of each and every cake.
Hats off to you guys, because
-[whooping]
-Good job, guys!
Even though we fell in love
with the look of Steve's cake,
we really think that
[tense music playing]
Andrew hit a home run. We choose Andrew.
-[Mikey] Andrew!
-[gallery cheering]
-[whooping]
-[Andrew] Thank you, guys.
Andrew!
The champion slays another beast.
-Congrats, you just won $5,000.
-Thank you.
That means you have won a total of $10,000
in this competition, my friend.
[Jonny] Nice one, Andrew!
Judges, what brought it over the top
for Andrew here?
[Finesse] Andrew's cake
not only looked the part,
not only did it fool me,
but it tasted amazing,
and I've never had donut cake.
He pulled it off.
The execution on this one
This is just so well done,
from the cellophane down to the flavors,
and it looks the part all the way.
[Mikey] Let's give a round of applause
for our judges.
-Thank you, Farley, Finesse, and Courtney.
-[applause, whooping]
Cake Wall, take our judges home.
-Thank you!
-[game show music playing]
Look at that! Perfect.
Bye!
Miss you.
Justin and Steve.
I'm sorry, but you will
both get a chance to bake again.
So, please join the other bakers
in the gallery.
-Come to us!
-[Mikey] Applause!
Andrew. Hello again.
It is time to play Cake or Cash?
All right, since you didn't win
the $5,000 last time,
that money has rolled over again.
And you're now playing for $15,000.
[whooping]
[Dessiree] You got this!
What are we gonna do? We gonna get it?
We gonna try to get it. [chuckles]
All right.
On the other side of the cake wall
are two cash registers.
One of these cash registers
is filled with cash,
and the other one,
I'm not sure, but I think is cake.
If you guess the cake, you get the cash.
You have 15 seconds
to decide which one is cake.
And your time starts now!
-[tense music playing]
-[timer beeping]
[Mikey] Ooh.
Five seconds, Andrew.
-[rapid beeping]
-Four, three, two
[bell dinging]
You already locked in your answer.
-That's a good sign!
-[applause, whooping]
[Mikey] You said Number Two.
Why do you think that is cake?
I don't know. There's something
about the the sheen on Number One
that makes me feel like it could be real.
But who knows in this game? I don't know.
-I'm nervous.
-I'm nervous, too.
[Mikey groans softly]
Let's just be here together.
-No. Let's just do this, please.
-Okay!
I'll end the agony I'm putting us through.
And let's see if you're right!
Thank you.
The $15,000 march
up to the cash registers.
Okay, Andrew.
If this is cake, you win $15,000.
[groans] I can't, right now.
Now, the fun begins.
Is it cake? Let's find out.
[tense music playing]
[clears throat]
-[Mikey] Oh!
-[upbeat music plays]
-[Andrew squeals]
-[gallery whooping]
[Mikey] Behold! Behold!
[Andrew] Oh my God.
I'm gonna cut you
another slice too, buddy.
-That's 15,000.
-Oh my God.
For a grand total
of $25,000 in this competition!
-[Dessiree] Goodness!
-Oh my God.
And you're moving on to bake again.
But
-Everything is about to change.
-[bakers groaning]
Forget what you guys know about this game,
because something that none of you
are expecting is going to happen.
[laughs maniacally]
I'm not going to tell you now,
-but trust me, it's big and very wonky.
-[Nina chuckles]
[laughs maniacally]
[gears crunching]
[Mikey] Oh God!
I have again fallen into the gears!
[laughing]
I'm fine, but I'm very badly burned.
[closing theme music playing]