Gordon: Previously on "MasterChef: Generations"...
You'll have to cook for the LAFC.
Anna, you've got the immunity pin.
You will decide which generations will be teaming up together.
So Millennials are going to team up with our Baby Boomer friends.
- ( cheering ) - Players are arriving!
- Rebecka, how much time left? - Lord, have mercy.
- Rebecka! - I'm moving to steak. I'll sear, you finish.
Blue team, it's not even remotely near!
- ( sighs ) - Help him out!
- The winning team is red team! - ( cheering )
And I feel like I just scored a goal.
The person going home tonight is Chris.
Tonight on "MasterChef: Generations,"
it's a baking challenge for the ages.
- Nice haircut! - Aarón: Oh, yeah!
Looks like a nice, innocent boy, huh?
- Devil baby. - Now your challenge
is to bake the most amazing birthday cake.
- ( groaning ) - That's a big challenge.
- I don't know if I'll be able to do it. - Let's go!
How many ounces are in one pound?
This tends to be the Achilles' heel for most of home cooks.
Oh, my God. This is gonna be hell.
- My wrist! - This is not for the faint of heart.
- This is a mayonnaise cake. - Mayonnaise cake?
- This is in trouble. - It's a disaster.
- ( bleep ) - That is not gonna stack.
- It's inedible. - Joe: It's a mess.
Gordon: What were you thinking?
( music playing )
( cheering, chattering )
- Let's go! - Oh, my God!
- This is so cute! - Whoa!
I feel like I'm walking into my own birthday party. We're celebrating me.
I could literally fit in there!
Birthday and cake are synonymous,
so we're gonna need some cake, and I'm pretty sure
we're gonna be the ones making it.
Oh, my heavens!
- Oh, my goodness! - Oh, my gosh!
- Those are Gen X pictures, man. - Yes.
- Yeah! - ( laughing )
- That's so cute. - Here they come.
All: Oh!
( cheering )
( muted chatter )
- Aarón: Oh, yeah! - Yeah, no, that wasn't a haircut.
That was the glass bowl from my mother's kitchen
that just went on top of my head. And look Aarón.
Man, you were-- I mean, honestly...
- Looked like a nice, innocent boy, huh? - Look at that smile.
Gordon: Joe, did you forget your homework?
- Did you have to tell your mum? - The devil baby.
- You nailed it. - Now, these photos are huge clue
- ahead of tonight's challenge. - Ooh.
Because we're gonna celebrate everyone's favorite day
no matter what generation you come from.
It's your birthdays, yes? Come on!
So tonight as part of our big birthday celebration,
your challenge is to bake yourselves the most amazing,
- beautiful birthday cake. - Yes!
'Cause here's the good news. You can make whatever you want.
- Okay. - From an elevated version
of a favorite cake growing up as a child,
or maybe the cake that you wished you had on your birthday.
No matter what direction you take,
we'd like to see a cake with at least two layers
that looks and tastes outstanding.
- All: Yes, Chef. - Okay, Anna.
- Hello. - You were the winning captain
of the red team in the last challenge.
And you won the challenge before that, Anna.
- You are on quite the winning streak. - I hope doesn't end.
- I hope it does! Sorry. - No way.
Well, tonight you do not have the immunity pin.
But thanks to that win last time,
you have earned yourself an amazing advantage, which we'll get to in a moment.
Okay, all of you, please head to your stations.
I'm not a very good baker,
so having an advantage,
let's see if I can somehow use it
to protect myself from elimination.
Now, as you can see, you've got all the essentials
to make an amazing birthday cake.
Flours, sugars, stand mixers-- you name it, you've got it.
Anna, for being the winning team captain,
you get a great advantage tonight.
You get to choose one generation
that will not get to use their stand mixers tonight.
- ( gasps ) - No way.
- Aww! - Are you kidding?
Whew! That's a big challenge.
- There's no way. - Aarón: That's right.
One generation will have to do all their mixing by hand.
( Gordon groans )
You'll be doing it old-school.
Right, Anna, if you're ready,
please make your way up here. Thank you.
So, Anna, which generation will be using a whisk tonight?
- The last time round... - The Boomers.
...the Boomers helped so much,
and I just cannot do that to them.
- Gordon: Wow. - You're safe.
- I've decided to pick Gen Z. - ( groaning )
- Gordon: Gen Z. - I knew it.
Very good bakers. They do rely on technology.
- Yes. - And there's five of them.
Thank you. Anna, rejoin your Millennials.
- Good choice. Head back to your station. - Good job.
- Thank you, Anna! - Thank you, Anna.
Everybody is coming after Gen Z. I don't blame 'em.
I would, too. With a team this good, you gotta take them down somehow.
But I'm freaking out. I can barely bake a cake with a stand mixer,
and baking it without one with just the whisk and my muscles,
- I don't know if I'll be able to do it. - Joe: Okay, now listen up.
You've got 90 minutes to bake
a delicious, beautiful birthday cake.
Now, the immunity pin is up for grabs again tonight.
- Ooh, yeah. - Along with another big advantage
in the next challenge.
- Wow. - But I promise you,
if your cake falls short of the "MasterChef" standard,
then you could be eliminated tonight.
- Right, is everybody ready? - All: Yes, Chef.
- Your 90 minutes starts now! - Let's go, guys. Come on.
- Go, go, go, go, go! - Good luck.
- Careful. - Powdered sugar.
- I need strawberries. - Let's not drop this.
- Ugh, I don't need that. - How many ounces are in one pound?
16.
Come on, baby.
Oh, my God, this is gonna be hell.
This birthday cake challenge tonight
is by far the toughest challenge we've had so far.
Baking is chemistry, and it's very, very precise,
and there's no room for error from the first step.
Yeah, and this tends to be the Achilles' heel for most of the amateur home cooks.
Jeez!
And Anna with the big advantage, she took out the Gen Zs.
Gents, what did you think about that?
When you have a stand mixer, you have the luxury
of taking your ingredients and pouring them in slowly...
- Gordon: Yeah. - ...and you have complete control.
When you're whisking by hand, you lose all that control.
Exactly. The biggest issue is if Gen Z
will also lose a lot of time without the stand mixers.
And the great irony is she gave it to the generation
- that's accustomed to shortcutting everything. - Mm-hmm.
Like, I mean, they don't show you
how to hand whisk on TikTok.
Okay.
I am making a lemon cake with whipped cream frosting and a raspberry jam.
The only sweets I like are lemon sweets,
that's why I'm doing a lemon cake,
and I've always had that since I was little-bitty.
But I'm definitely very anxious
because I'm doing everything by hand
the old caveman type of way.
So I am in my own personal little H-E-double hockey stick at the moment.
Um, look at Murt. It looks like Murt's starting a fire.
What's he doing with that whisk? What's he doing?
- Yeah. - I've never seen that technique before.
- What the hell is he doing? - I've never seen anyone whisk like that.
- Murt! Blow on it, it may catch fire. - What are you doing?
- What's this? - One of the Boomers told me about this,
- so I'm trying their technique. - Really? Okay.
- Yeah, I'm not sure. - What the hell is that?
It's working! It's working!
15 minutes gone.
We're down to 75 minutes to go.
- Come on, Gen X, whip it! - We got this.
- Here we go. - Yeah, baby!
- Hi, Kimberly. - Hi!
- Anna has ice running through her veins. - I know!
How happy are you not to have gotten that cruel fate of not having a stand mixer?
I'm so excited that she gave us a little pity party and let us have a break.
All right, so, Kimberly, you're a baker, huh?
- No, I'm not a baker. No! - You're not a baker?
- I've baked one cake in my life. - So what are you making?
Well, I was thinking back to my childhood when I was ten years old,
my threw me a big Strawberry Shortcake party.
And so I am going to make a vanilla classic cake
with a strawberry frosting and strawberry jam for the filling in the middle.
Having my own garden, I do a lot of preserving,
and so I'm kind of trying to give it a new garden fresh twist.
- So you make a lot of jams and do preserving. - Yeah.
You know that in a cake, a jam is really pivotal
- to manage the amount of moisture... - Correct.
...to make sure it's syrupy and dense enough that doesn't tear the cake apart.
- So you have to cook these strawberries. - Correct.
- And you also have to let them cool down. - I got a lot to do.
- Good luck. - Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
( sighs )
Hot in here. And it's not just 'cause of my looks.
Gordon: 65 minutes remaining.
Your cake batter should be in the oven.
- Everyone's cakes in? - Almost.
All right. Hustle, hustle.
All right, let's keep going.
Gordon: Okay, the Millennials got their cakes in.
- That is fast. - Perfect.
- All right. - Gordon: And now the Boomers got theirs in, too.
( whisking )
( sighs )
( bleep )
( muttering )
I don't like how this thing is whisking.
Absolutely dying right now. Dying.
I think some of the Gen Zs
are getting critically behind at this point.
They look far from putting their cakes in the oven.
You're really seeing the penalty of the hand whisk at this point.
- That's right. - Anna, you're ruining my life.
My arms hurt so bad.
( bleep )
- Ooh! - Gordon: Guys, you gotta get those cakes in
in the next couple of minutes as soon as you can.
You gotta get it in the oven. Let's go. Move!
Come on, Hallie. It's gotta go in.
- Come on. - ( sighs )
We're down to 55 minutes remaining.
Your cake batter should be in the oven.
See? Look. We're getting there. We're getting there.
Come on, honeys. Have fun.
Ooh! There you go.
- There you go, Hallie. Let's go! - Let's get this.
Gordon: Right, you should be getting that frosting together now.
So, frosting, honestly you gotta start that early
in order to make sure that that frosting is silk,
it's glossy, it's beautiful, there's no lumps.
Now when you've got a stand mixer, it's so easy,
because you got the velocity of the mixer.
But where they're frosting by hand,
that's gonna be very difficult for the Gen Zs.
- My wrist! - My arm!
Rebecka: Boomers, you're quiet. Everybody good?
- Warren: We're still booming. - Okay, Boomy.
I've had many birthdays. I just had my 70th birthday.
I did everything, but said no candles.
Can you imagine 70 candles on a cake?
It would be like the burning of Atlanta.
No, ain't gonna be none of that.
All right, I am good.
- Becca. What's the cake? What are you doing? - Yes, Chef? Yes?
So I am doing a chocolate cake with a peanut butter buttercream
and a peanut brittle toffee with a chocolate ganache.
This is a mix of deserts that I've had,
- and a mix of my ideal birthday cake. - Gotcha.
And then are you pivoting with no stand mix?
How are you gonna get that frosting perfectly smooth?
This is half peanut butter, half butter,
so because the butter's already creamy, it's already smooth,
- I didn't have to take as much time to get it creamy. - Love that idea.
Just be careful that temperature doesn't rise,
otherwise that fat's gonna come out.
- Absolutely. Three. - How many layers are you doing?
- Let's go, Becca! - Whoo!
- We asked for just two. - Yeah. I've got confidence in my baking skill
- and that I know what I'm doing. - Tough week last week.
Tonight we're hoping not just redemption,
- but bounce back beyond belief. - Absolutely.
Love it, keep it up, girl. Keep it up.
- Thank you. Thank you, Chef. - Good.
- Hot walking! - Hi, Chefs.
- Hello, Rebecka, how are you? - How are you, Joe? How you doing?
- What is the cake? - This is a chocolate mayonnaise cake,
- and so it's a-- Mayonnaise cake. - Mayonnaise cake?
Back in the '40s, you know, they didn't have eggs, or maybe they had one or two.
They would extend them and make mayonnaise.
And this is my mom's and great grandma's recipe.
And it's something that I've made many times before.
Only thing I haven't done is made this a three layer cake, so I'm taking a little risk.
Joe: Look, I think that you've already conveyed
your experience to the rest of the competitors.
You're one to watch. Do you think you can win this?
- I do. Thank you. - Good luck.
- A few more minutes. - Murt: All right, here we go.
I'm making a tres leches cake.
My forearms are going, veins are popping.
I'm just hoping I get this whipped cream whipped in time and not mess up.
- Oh, boy. - Ah! Okay.
- Fatima. - Hi!
- Tell me about the cake. - So I'm making a white cake.
It's gonna have a caramel filling with coconut
- 'cause we had a lot of coconut candies growing up. - Smart.
And the frosting is gonna be an Italian meringue.
- Italian meringue? - Yes, it is.
- Whipped by hand? - Yes.
And this is the first time I'm gonna be trying this.
Man, you're not taking this easy, are you?
I am trying to prove a point here. We're strong.
- We're Gen Z, and we get things done-- - Admirable.
But I'm nervous about the Italian meringue
because it's one of the most difficult frostings on the planet
because you have to mix that sugar and those egg whites to get it airy,
but you don't have a stand mixer to help,
- so good luck. - Thank you.
I got this. I got this. Come on.
- Arthur. - Hi, guys.
What do you have going on here, sir?
So I'm making a fresh strawberry whipped cream birthday cake.
It's a cake that I've had not just once,
but pretty much every birthday.
I loved the freshness of it and the berries--
A fresh, simple cake can be delicious,
but what's gonna distinguish yours?
Adding a lemon and lemon zest to it
- and using fresh berries. - Aarón: Oh, cool.
So are you gonna macerate this with something?
- Maybe just lemon and sugar? - Yes, with sugar.
- Yes. - I'm gonna let you in on a little secret.
There are some insanely ambitious,
complicated cakes out there. You're playing a high risk game
because the more simple it is, the more perfect it has to be.
- Arthur: Correct. - Good luck to you.
Gordon: 40 minutes to go.
Guys, you gotta get those cakes out of the oven now
so they can cool completely before you frost.
- Let's go! - We got cake today. Halle-lu-lah.
- Beautiful. - Boom.
- Oh, I love you! Okay. - Come on.
- Kamay! How you doing? - How you doing, Chef?
This is in trouble. I think I'm gonna redo the frosting.
- I can just see the lumps in that. - Yes, yes.
And you have a stand mixer. You have no excuse.
- So what happened? - I don't know why it broke.
- I'm gonna redo it right now. - Yeah, make sure that cream
is nice and ice cold. Tell me about the cake.
- What are you doing? - So I'm doing a confetti cake.
When I was a kid, this is the cake I loved the most,
and this type of cake was actually invented on birthday year, 1989,
- so it was very popular in the '90s. - Wow.
But I've elevated this cake a bit because I add lemon
- and lemon zest and lemon extract throughout. - Yeah, I love that.
- Restart that frosting, please. - Yes. Yes, Chef.
- Good luck. - Thank you.
All right. Come on. Come on.
There she is. Anna!
You had a big advantage earlier
to literally throw an entire generation
- into a chaotic mess. - Yes.
- Who are you targeting there? - Becca and Adam are great bakers,
- so it was my only choice. - Tell me about your cake. What are you doing?
So growing up in Ukraine, you know what we had?
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
So I'm using dolce de leche,
which is pretty much boiled condensed milk,
and I'm making caramel frosting
for brown butter coffee cake.
Wow. Are the sponges out of the oven yet?
- Where are they? - In the oven.
- Oh, they're still in the oven? - Yes.
- Oh, my God. - I know.
- How long have they got to go? - I think maybe two minutes.
- And those sponges need to get cooled down, right? - Yes, I know.
Yeah, I think you're running out of time a little bit, don't you?
- I am. - Man.
- Good luck. - Thank you.
- Dear, oh, dear. - That's a little warm still.
- This one's good. - 30 minutes remaining.
We should start to assemble our cakes.
Come on, guys. Let's go.
- Come on. - Come on, Kamay.
Gordon: Kamay from the Millennials, she is a little bit behind.
The first frosting she broke. The cream was over-whipped,
and so the whole thing almost looked like scrambled eggs.
- Uh-oh. - So she has to start that again.
- Guys, Anna running so far behind. - I know.
Gordon: Her cake just came out of the oven.
Hopefully it'll cool down in time.
- Man. - Wow.
This just takes a lot of energy. Oh, my God.
Here's my biggest worry tonight.
Fatima from Gen Z,
she's doing a white cake,
and she's covering this thing with an Italian meringue.
An Italian meringue without a stand mixer?
- That is a very complicated technique... - Oh, my God.
- ...that only experienced bakers can do. - Absolutely.
Gordon: And you're not fast enough on the whisk,
then the sugar hits the bottom and solidifies.
So she could be in trouble with that.
Ay-yi-yi. This is hard. This is hard.
- I think Fatima's in a bit in a tailspin. - Yeah.
She's in a bad space, and I think she bit off
more than she can chew with this Italian meringue.
Yeah, it looks like Anna may have delivered
a deadly blow to the Gen Z tonight.
We are down to our final 20 minutes.
We should now all be assembling and decorating our cakes.
- Speed up. - Come on. Come on. Come on.
- Stress! - Looking good!
- Oh, that's so much better. - Oh, my God, finally!
- You got it, buddy. - It came together.
- Fatima, how are ya? - Doing okay. It just needs a lot of energy.
That's a hard one to do. You're doing great.
Fatima's still on that Italian meringue.
- I can do this. - Aarón: Almost there. Come on, you got it, Fatima.
- Christopher: Come on, Boomers. Let's go! - Warren: Boomers in the house!
- Hi, Christopher. What cake are you making? - This is the forbidden cake,
which is a black forest cake with whipped cream,
and maraschino cherries on it.
- All right. - This is when you went to a birthday party
when you were a kid, and you saw that white cake with the strawberries on it,
and that's what they let you have.
And the adults were having that beautiful cake with all the--
- Unctuous, chocolatey, rich. - Exactly! "Can I have some of that?"
And then, "No, no. There's alcohol in it."
- There's rum or there's something like that. - Ah.
- So I'm making that for-- - So you're gonna load this up
- with booze, chocolate... - Exactly.
I love that. So the alcohol, you have kirsch?
- Yes, I do. - What is kirsch?
- Cherry brandy. - Yes.
And you doing a ganache or an icing?
- I'm just doing whipped cream. - Just whipped cream?
It's gonna look old-school, Baby Boomer-ish.
Look, old-school is fine. It needs to be delicious though.
- Absolutely. - Good luck, Christopher.
All right. Let's make this happen.
Geags: Let's make it go.
- Geags, so what is this? - Yo!
Like, a compromise?
They didn't take away your stand mixer,
but you're using the handheld mixer.
That's a little old-school. I like it.
It's kind of-- I'm more in control.
All right, what's the cake, Geags?
It's a vanilla cake with a blueberry frosting.
I'm making that because growing up it was all in a box.
So as I get older, if I decide to make a cake, you know what?
- I throw a lot of fruit in it. - What is that?
This is blueberry cream cheese frosting.
- I'm making it as healthy as I can. - Yeah, but this
is "MasterChef," and someone's going home tonight.
- Joe: Make sure it tastes good. - I get it. I get it, you know?
- Good luck to you. - Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Good. Proud of you, Mr. Cake.
Go, Gen Z.
- Murt, it looks beautiful! - Isn't it funny?
The ones that were dealt the big blow tonight
seem to be handling it very well.
The Gen Zs look like they've caught up.
Yep. Hallie's demeanor has definitely changed.
- Yeah. - You can see that she turned a corner there.
- But I'm worried about Fatima. - Yeah.
Gordon: Her cake is wobbling in the middle.
And she's messing with it a lot.
Joe: Fatima thinks she's gonna be able to save that cake
with a blowtorch, but it's not gonna happen.
No, that actually might be causing more damage.
- Gordon: No. - It's gonna soften up the meringue
that's holding it together.
Oh, my goodness. Look at Arthur.
He cut the fruit too big. That is not gonna stack.
He's gonna struggle to keep those layers upright.
And the inside's a mess.
Gordon: Last five minutes. Five minutes to go, guys!
- Come on, keep it going. - Make it pretty, everyone.
- Aah! It's sliding. - Joe: All right, guys, look,
Anna's having some real problems
with the construction of her cake. It's tilting.
She's really forcing it to kind of keep it straight.
The aesthetic is gonna definitely be not to her standard.
Work with me.
- Gordon: Last two minutes. This is it. - Joe: Let's go!
- Come on, guys. - Gordon: Two minutes, guys.
- Ooh. - Oh, no. You didn't put your name on it.
Geags: I did it. Yeah.
( laughs )
Gordon: 60 seconds to go.
Last minute. Come on.
What a freaking mess. I don't know what else to do!
So, Rebecka, look at the size of that cake, the lean.
- It's almost like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. - God.
She's making a lot of technical errors.
Gordon: Oh, man. Look at Anna's.
- It's a disaster, and it keeps on falling down. - Oh, my God.
Kamay: You got it, Anna. You got it.
Anna, nice and easy.
Let's go, guys, push. Let's go.
This is not for the faint of heart!
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six,
five, four, three, two, one.
- Gordon: And stop! Hands in the air! - Joe: That's it!
- Oh, my God. - Whoo!
- Oof, that was crazy. - That was crazy.
- My arms hurt. - Yes!
- Good job. - Anna, you didn't quit.
- The piping's beautiful. Come on, girl. - We did it!
You're not going anywhere. Don't worry, don't worry.
- You're not going anywhere. - ( bleep )
Right now, my cake is falling.
There is nothing I can do. I cannot fix it.
I cannot touch it, I cannot freeze it.
I can't believe it's happening.
I can't believe I might be going home.
I'm just disappointed.
All of you, well done completing that cake challenge,
but only one home cook will win that elusive immunity pin,
and they'll take their entire generation
to the safety of the balcony with them tonight.
But whoever baked the worst cake
from the remaining generations is in danger.
- Gents, shall we? - Yes.
Hello, Becca. So you have three layers.
- Yes. - Very bold to go three levels.
But the question, was it needed?
Murt, you confident with the filling?
So I didn't wanna oversoak it.
Fatima: I feel really nervous.
I think judges are even more critical
because all eyes are on Gen Z.
Were you happy with the Italian meringue at the end?
Um, given that I didn't have a standing mixer,
I think I did a pretty good job.
But if you taste that,
Italian meringue is smooth and fluffy.
- You see how grainy it is? - Yeah.
Jeet, you happy with the glazing, its evenness?
With my skill and caliber of it,
- I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. - Thank you.
- Joe: Kamay, are you happy? - I am happy that the frosting finally came out.
Okay, Anna, did you put this together when the sponges were warm?
Anna: I think the frosting was too soft.
- It's a shame. - It's a shame.
Aarón: Damn.
Kimberly, what is this right here?
I made the filling kind of like a quick jam.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
So I'm a little worried that everyone in my generation made a strawberry cake.
Gordon: What are you doing with the strawberries?
I covered them in raw sugar.
But I'm hoping that mine stands out.
It's a bit a rustic, it's a bit simple,
and even though I'm not a professional baker,
- I'm proud of how I made this cake look. - All right.
On the inside you have a layer of cake...
- Yes. - ...then a layer of fruit?
An ungodly amount of strawberries.
Is that a good idea you think?
Arthur: Yeah.
Geags. Your name is Geags though, right?
- You couldn't put a little "S" here, no? - I ran out of room.
- Are you happy with the consistency of this? - I am, yes.
Joe: What's inside? Because this tastes a little pasty.
Added a little bit flour, yeah,
and then more powdered sugar-- tighten it up.
- Raw flour in an icing? - Yes, just a little bit.
- Rebecka, tough night, right? - Yeah.
Got a little wonky.
Christopher, are you happy with the way it came out?
- I feel like it could be better. - Yeah.
Look, it was tough, man. This is hard.
- A lot of good cakes out there. - Some really good cakes.
Both of those cakes look like
they could've been in any bakery.
Yeah. All right, so the question is
who made the worst cakes of the night?
Oh, man.
- Okay? - Yeah.
Tonight we'll be tasting the best cake from each generation.
The first cake, from Gen Z, is positively eye-catching,
especially without a stand mixer.
Please step forward, Becca.
What?
Anna's goal was to target us,
to take me down, to take Gen Z down.
It didn't work, and today we proved that
technology just helps us live or lives,
but if you take it away,
we can whisk with the best of them.
Right, Becca, tell us what you made, please.
Becca: I made a three layer moist chocolate cake
covered in peanut butter buttercream
with chocolate ganache and peanut brittle toffee.
- Right, Becca, this thing looks beautiful. - Thank you.
Gordon: Like it's just come out of a top French patisserie.
Why three layers on a night like tonight
when we only asked you for two?
Because I could.
I knew I had the ability to do it.
Yeah, in order for that to work,
there has to be the right ratio of filling inside.
Are you confident?
- Yes. - Mm-hmm. Shall we?
Joe: Let's do it.
- Aarón: Wow. - Gordon: Happy with that, Becca?
Yes.
Joe: Fantastic. Sponge cake is slight,
contrasts to the rich creaminess.
It's got that peanut butter chocolate crunch,
and I love that you pushed the salt right to the limit.
- Good job. - Thank you.
Yeah, it has that nougaty situation happening,
which I really enjoy. Smart choices.
- Thank you. - Cake tastes delicious.
The sponge is cooked beautifully, and it's got the right ratio.
I think that's the really pleasing aspect.
- Well done, great job. - Thank you, thank you.
- Good job, Becca! - Atta girl!
So the cake that we loved the most in the Millennials
has some very complex flavors that came together in the end.
Please come forward, Kamay.
- Whoo, whoo! Whoo, Kamay! - Go, Kamay!
Given the obstacle that I just went through with my frosting,
I am shocked.
So what you have in front of you
is a lemon confetti cake
with vanilla and lemon in the sponge,
vanilla buttercream frosting, and rainbow sprinkles.
I don't think there's a better example
of a Millennial cake than this.
It's well-constructed. Good job.
- Thank you, Joe. - Gordon: Shall we?
Is that what you wanted in the center?
Close, Chef.
Love it. It's very vanilla.
I can taste the lemon.
The icing is not too rich,
- and it's actually quite delicious. - Thank you, Joe.
I love just the attention to detail, how it relates to flavor.
The icing is just so smartly put. You see that?
It's just a little layer. You could've easily gone overboard with the icing on top.
- Delicious. - Thank you, Chef.
Kamay, the lightness of this cake is delicious.
- The aeration of the sponge is incredible. - Thank you.
If I was you, I would've gone that extra yard
and put a lemon curd in the center,
but you're a joy to watch because you never give up.
- Congratulations. - Thank you. Thank you so much.
- Thank you. - Nice.
Yay, Kamay!
Okay, the best cake from Gen X,
obviously it has some strawberries on it.
Please come forward, Kimberly.
Oh!
Good job, Kimberly!
Kimberly: I made a vanilla cake with a strawberry jam filling
and a strawberry buttercream frosting.
Looks delicious. It's symmetrical.
You've put things together with care
- and it's eye-catching. - Thank you.
Shall we?
Joe: Very nice. Very pink.
- Ooh. - Wow. Okay, Kim.
Aarón: Kimberly, the magic here for me personally
is that there's a tartness that's very present here,
and I think this kind of cake needs it.
- Mm-hmm. - Good job.
Sponge is delicious.
- Kimberly, it's elegant. - Thank you.
I love the frosting, but this center needs more
- of that beautiful jam. - All right, heard.
I like the restraint of this cake.
- Thank you. - It feels like you could eat it for breakfast.
- Oh, thank you. - Good job.
- Thank you. - Good job, Kimberly.
- Good job! - ( muted chatter )
- Good job, girl. - It reminds me of a Victoria sponge back home.
It's done beautifully. Right, Baby Boomers,
our favorite cake from your generation,
this cake was very well-constructed,
and artfully decorated as well.
Please make your way forward...
Right, Baby Boomers, our favorite cake from your generation,
please make your way forward,
Christopher.
Rebecka: Good job, Chris!
This is my first time in the top,
and it's with a cake.
I'm not the cake guy,
but I'm thinking,
"Cake actually looks pretty good!"
I made a black forest cake. It's got three layers,
whipped cream, and maraschino cherries on it.
I think cake of all the cakes this evening
- has the most professional aesthetic. - Wow.
- Good job. - Thank you.
Shall we? Talk to me about the construction of the layers.
I soaked the sponge in sour cherry syrup
- and cherry liquor. - Smart.
Not bad.
Talk about a showstopper.
The sponge cake is airy and fluffy,
and I can really taste the kirsch.
- Good job. - Thank you.
One of the best sponges I tasted tonight
as far as moistness, consistency.
And the lightness of the cream? Top notch.
- Thank you. - Christopher, the cake's delicious.
I think it's your best performance in this competition so far.
So, yeah, this cake deserves a smile.
- ( Gordon laughs ) - Good job, Chris!
- Way to represent! - Ay!
- Good job, buddy. - Get that pin, Chris!
Right, you have given us something to chat about.
Tough one, this one.
- Um, so, Becca's? - Joe: I thought it was really good.
- Kamay's? Kimberly's? - Aarón: Man, what a fun cake.
Aarón: That was fun. It needed more jam though.
- How about Christopher's? - Gordon: That's his best performance.
- Are we happy? Yeah? - Joe: Yes.
- Whew. - Tonight's best cake,
congratulations goes to...
- Becca. - Whoo!
You win the immunity pin.
And to think that you did it all without a stand mixer.
- Thank you. - The rest of you, head back to your generations.
- Well done. - Good job!
Becca, come on up here.
- Congratulations, girl. - Go, Becca!
- Becca! - Gordon: Becca, well done.
You and all of Gen Z are safe from elimination.
- Whoo! Come on! - Get yourself and your team up to the safety of the balcony.
- Off you go. - Hi, friend!
- Ooh! - The fact that last challenge I was at rock bottom,
and I felt like a failure,
to come into this challenge
and to make something that the judges loved
and to win this immunity pin, it feels amazing!
I love it. It's my new best friend.
Gordon: Gen Zs, well done.
Fatima, honestly, that Italian meringue is grainy.
You would've been in the bottom for sure.
Now, unfortunately, there was one cake
from the remaining three generations
that did not meet the standard we were looking for tonight.
Now, the first cake comes from the Millennials,
and this individual knows who they are.
It's all right, Anna.
I feel like I'm melting. I feel like things are surreal.
I can't breathe.
I made a brown butter coffee flavored cake
with salted caramel frosting, chocolate whipped cream, and chocolate ganache.
I think you really wanted to do something really elaborate,
but ambition got the better of you here.
- The cake is lopsided and literally falling apart. - Gordon: Shall we?
So what is in between the layers, please?
It's salted caramel frosting, and the layers are drizzled
- with vanilla syrup. - It's incredibly dense.
So much frosting.
Anna, the sponge cake is wrong. It's coarse.
The filling is off balance, too dense,
the frosting is inedibly sweet.
Every component is flawed.
Yeah, I mean, you have a third of an inch of frosting twice.
It is just a pit a sweetness that is taking over my palate, sadly, Anna.
- I'm sorry. - ( sniffling )
Gordon: Yeah, instantly within that first mouthful,
it is incredibly sweet.
I love the salted caramel, but it's almost sickly sweet
in a way that I cannot take a second bite.
Thank you, Anna.
Dang.
Okay, the cake from Gen X
looks like it has some structural issues as well.
Please come forward, Arthur.
Arthur: I'm not ready to go home.
Go get 'em, Arthur.
I certainly don't wanna go home
for a cake that I'm proud of.
I made a fresh strawberry and whipped cream birthday cake
with a lemon sponge, and then in the middle
it's packed with a ton of fresh strawberries
and toasted almonds on the side.
To the naked eye, it doesn't look that bad,
but I know that the amount of strawberries inside,
it's gonna be a bit of a tough one
because they're quite
sort of big and bulky.
Joe: Let's have a look.
This is a mess.
( whispering ) Too clunky.
This is effectively like strawberries and cream
with two pieces of pound cake over it.
It's just too simple for me.
Yeah, I think this cake is clunky,
and what's in front of me is a cake
that has slightly dried pound cake to it,
and the strawberries, you're asking to marinate them--
when you have them that big in an abbreviated time limit,
you're not gonna get that maceration that you want for those strawberries.
But I think the lemon is the saving grace here.
- Thank you. - It is overloaded with cream.
A beautiful strawberry jam would've been a nice alternative.
- Yeah. - But it's a tough one, this one, Arthur.
It's not good. Thank you.
All right, so the cake from the Baby Boomers that disappointed us,
please come forward, Geags.
My cake, maybe it could've been a little better in certain areas,
but Anna's didn't look too good.
At least mine is not leaning,
and so maybe I might squeeze on by.
I made a vanilla cake
with blueberries and cream cheese frosting.
Yeah, listen, I know it's a cake competition, but all jokes apart,
a man of your age should not be putting your name on your cake.
And then it's not even spelled correctly.
So it's a cake to get inspired by childhood memories,
not a cake made by a five-year-old.
I got my nervous when I heard the flour
going inside that frosting.
I've never heard that in my life.
Why would you put flour?
Just to thicken it up a little bit.
I can't taste it. I tasted the--
Oh, you're a judge now?
- Geags, help me out. - Help me out. I-- I--
Yeah, no, but I'm-- I'm just-- I'm concerned.
That's crazy. What were you thinking?
Geags, you don't put raw flour in a frosting, period.
Raw flour is raw. People are not meant to eat raw flour.
It needs to be cooked.
Hopefully it'll taste good.
Geags, tell me the layers.
It's a layer of blueberries
with some whipped cream in the middle.
Listen, the sponge is light. Let's get that absolutely clear.
But unfortunately, that's where it ends.
I'm really struggling with that flour in the frosting.
It's inedible.
It's youthful, but it's tough to find a beacon of light here.
- Geags, this tastes like blueberry pancakes to me. - Okay.
- It doesn't taste like cake. - Yeah.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
Anna, Arthur, Geags, we need a very serious moment. Please excuse us.
- Okay. Boy, I'm in shock. - Major failures out there.
( sniffling )
Shh. Just breathe.
- The only of the three cakes you could eat is Arthur's. - Yeah. Yeah, I agree.
- Joe: Anna's was inedible. - Inedible.
Aarón: Apart from the construction of the cake,
I'm talking about how imbalanced it was
- with the amount of frosting. - Yeah.
The problem with Geags' is that it was just
- the raw flour in the frosting was... - Terrible.
...a massive mistake. Maybe the most egregious mistake of the evening.
But, I mean, based on the mistake of both those cakes,
- how do you choose? - Here's the deal.
We can't the precedent of having two cakes that bad.
- We can't accept that. - Mm.
- This is really hard. - Man.
( sighs )
Tough, tough, tough, tough.
Anna, Arthur, Geags,
we've talked at length,
and we've come to a very difficult conclusion.
Leaving tonight is...
Geags.
And...
- Anna. - ( all gasping )
- ( groans ) - Oh!
- Huh? - ( gasps )
It's simply not fair just to send one of you home tonight.
Both of your cakes had egregious mistakes.
Arthur, please say goodbye and head back to your station.
- I'm so sorry. - It's okay.
- Thanks. - Man.
Anna, you came into this competition like a storm,
an incredibly exciting,
young, dynamic Ukrainian chef
that has food in her blood,
and watching you rise
over those last couple of challenges
has been so exciting to see.
But tonight you had that advantage
by trying to take out Gen Z, and unfortunately it backfired.
You ended up taking out yourself.
Geags, our muscle-bound Baby Boomer,
and you'll go down history in this competition
as someone that's fun-loving and constantly energized.
Tonight, unfortunately, that flour in your frosting
was something that we've never witnessed before.
We're gonna miss you both.
Come and say goodbye, Geags. Come on, man.
- Anna, come and say goodbye. - ( muted chatter )
- All right. - Thank you, thank you.
- Thank you so much, guys. I really appreciate it. - Thanks, buddy.
- It's not the end, okay? - The Geags that came into the MasterChef kitchen
was kind of naive I guess,
so I felt like I grew from this.
It's like life.
You've gotta experience it whether it's good or bad,
and then you just take from what you learn and move on.
( music playing )
- I'm really sorry. - I know.
I'm proud of myself and what I was able to do
in the MasterChef kitchen,
but I wanted to take it to the next level.
Bye, Anna.
- Love you. - Love you, Anna.
Gordon: Two phenomenal chefs.
- Bye, Anna! - Bye-bye.
Gordon: Geags!
Next time on "MasterChef: Generations,"
we're taking a trip down memory lane.
Under that box are iconic ingredients from your childhood.
- Cheese Whiz! - Smeat.
- Becca! - Hi, Chef.
You'll choose which generation has to cook
with each box of ingredients.
- Ooh! - Oh, my God.
- Let's go. Let's go. - He could be in trouble tonight.
- Just a little bit. - I'm not scared.
- We'll see. - Becca threw you under the bus!
- Yeah. - I love it!
- What kind of sick world do you live in? - ( bleep )
Unfortunately, we can't eat that.
Oh, my gosh.
Oh, dear.
You absolutely ( bleep ) it.
( bleep )