Zak Bagans of Ghost Adventures here.
This season of Halloween Wars,
I'm leading teams of world class cake,
sugar and pumpkin artists on a tour
to some of the most haunted locations in the world,
inspiring them with my own personal experiences with the paranormal.
Ahhh!
And we've gotten through the qualifying rounds,
which means the remaining six teams are about to go head-to-head
in five single elimination challenges...
This is a complete disaster.
[man] We didn't do all this hard work just to go home.
...until one team is left standing to win the trip of a lifetime
to a city famous for its pastries and its hauntings.
Let's have some fun.
-[imitates club music beat] -[contestants laughing]
Now is when Halloween Wars gets really scary.
Way to step up. I have chills.
[eerie music playing]
[thunder rumbling]
Congratulations, teams, you made it here.
I want you to look around.
I need you to know that the competition is gonna be scary.
[all laughing]
Hey, Eddie, looks like we've got our six, huh?
We've got our six for now.
All right. Well, they've handled some spooky challenges to get here.
Now let's see how they do with something really terrifying.
[witch cackling]
[Zak] Salem, Massachusetts.
The witch trials.
Every corner in this town is a reminder
of the raging paranoia that swept through the population in the 17th century,
leading to 20 people being executed for the crime of witchcraft,
starting with Bridget Bishop.
While we were on the grounds of the fruit orchard that Bridget owned,
we recorded evidence of what I believe was her actual spirit
calling out for us to tell her story.
You know, her life and so many others were cut tragically short.
And it's worth thinking about what they could have become.
Or even if they were somehow able to return to our world today,
with the power to re-write their dark history.
Inspired by Zak's Ghost Adventure,
your challenge today is to show us your vision
of what would happen if the strong women of the Salem witch trials,
like Bridget Bishop,
had the power to come back to today's world.
Now in honor of Bridget's homeland,
want you to include some orchard fruits in your cake.
So I want you to think: apples, cherries, plums, pears, oranges and lime.
You have seven hours, teams.
-Let's get to it! -[Caesar] Let's go.
[Pirate 1] This is giving me chills.
I'm excited for this, guys.
-I've been to Salem before. -Oh, you've been there?
[Tammy] How about a weather person?
Like, forecasting the weather.
-That's amazing! -That's so good!
-Oh, yeah! -And she has the power to control the weather, too.
-Right. Hurricane. Tornado. -Tornado.
Our witch is in control of the weather.
Through a tornado starting from the cemetery,
she's able to exact her revenge on the descendants
from the ancestors that wronged her.
I got some cherries, lemons and a lot of chocolate,
so it's gonna be like very sweet and sour.
[Tammy] Oh, that sounds amazing!
We're making a chocolate cake with cherry jam and lemon sugar,
chocolate truffle filling, and layered with cherry buttercream.
[Pirate 2] Oh! This smells so good from here already.
What would a witch be up to today?
Maybe she wants to fix her reputation.
Maybe a nurse.
-Or a doctor. -[Elizabeth] Oh!
-A doctor. -A doctor.
Like a witch doctor,
but a real doctor.
Our witch in present time,
she's actually gonna be a doctor.
We want to give her a kettle that's actually on fire
and brewing a witch's brew.
Ah, this is the one.
Looks like a kettle to me.
I look around the room, the competition is stacked.
They're a bunch of great artists,
and I think we definitely came with our game face on today.
I'm not gonna square it off or block it off.
I'm gonna do this, and it's gonna keep it nice and smooth.
That looks good.
[Wicked man] Elizabeth's gonna make an orange olive oil cake with an orange soaking syrup,
a peach mousse, cinnamon candied almonds,
and orange Italian meringue buttercream.
[Elizabeth] I'm going to get my cakes in the oven,
and at the same time, I'm gonna be toasting my almonds
for our candied cinnamon almond filling.
First thing that I think all of us think of what a witch is broomstick.
-Right. -Yeah.
Flying through the forest.
So I wanna see things like that, that kinda have that action.
Yeah. I think there needs to be a really strong
story-telling aspect to these cakes.
[Eddie] When it comes to the flavors,
you think about orchard fruit, stone fruit--
I think, maybe some sweet and a little bit or bitter.
-Yeah. -You know when I think of witches,
-also there's that history of bitterness. -Yeah, bitterness.
They should be a little bitter.
I'd be bitter!
[all laughing]
[Willy] Here we go...
[Jamie] Nice pumpkin, Willy.
[Willy] This is gonna be for my TV screen.
[Jamie] Our witch has come back as a TV network CEO.
So she has all the power over television.
I'm gonna make hypnotic almond cake.
-[Willy] Mmm. -[Jamie] Right?
I'm making a lemon almond butter cake with lemon mousse,
lemon curd, lemon buttercream and a vanilla almond crunch.
I was gonna go with some orange,
some green and some blue.
And they are all marbled together.
[Willy] Ooh, look at them colors.
-[Willy] Yes, yes, yes. -[Jamie] Woo-woo!
[Jamie] It's guaranteed to hypnotize.
To the ovens.
Ghosty Gals, what's going on?
-How you doing? -I do not like witches.
-[Monique] No? -No, witches and clowns.
Well, welcome to our coven.
[all laughing]
No, thank you.
So we're gonna do "The world's best coroner."
So, this 21st century witch
decided that she was gonna harvest the organs from all of the victims
to put into her potions to cast spells.
Okay, y'all not three witches though, right?
-You know, you never know. -[Ghosty Gal] You never know.
-[chuckling nervously] -[Suzanna] No.
-Good luck. -There's all three.
[Monique] How are you gonna make the lemon flavor?
Are you gonna like zest the lemons or just use the...
[Ghosty Gal] Yes, zest the lemons definitely.
Our cake will consist of lemon cake, lemon buttercream, cherry compote filling,
and a white chocolate crumble.
Very lemony.
[Suzanna] Oh, smells delicious.
[Monique] It smells really good.
[Ghosty Gal] Going to the oven.
Trying to go for the view where when you walk up to this witch,
she has her finger pointed at you.
That'll be nice and creepy.
[Reggie] Our witch is gonna be a modern day judge.
This witch has a mask that she wears during the day,
and when she begins to judge people, she removes the mask,
and the people really see who she is.
[Hannah] She's already coming alive.
[Reggie] Janet's gonna create a tombstone podium out of pumpkin.
I'm mixing green and yellow to get a lime-green color.
[Reggie] They're gonna love it.
Our cake is gonna be alternating layers
of cherry and lime sponge cake
with cherry jam, lime curd and vanilla bean buttercream.
[Hannah] I wanna put some lime zest into this green one,
and then some actual cherries and cherry juice into my cherry sponge.
Cake batters are done.
[Aarti] Right, Eerie Eats.
[both] Hello!
What is your modern day witch doing?
Well, witch wouldn't be quite a witch if she wasn't brewing some sort of cauldron,
so we decided to have her be a barista.
She's gonna have her own little ghastly coffee shop.
The story of our witch is that
she just hasn't quite gotten the hang of her magical brewing powers.
And so, as she's trying to prepare a few cups of joe,
she's spilling it right on top of the head of her fellow worker.
-[Aarti] Caesar? -[Caesar] Yes, Ms. Aarti?
Tell me about how you are incorporating
these orchard fruits into your cake today?
[Caesar] I incorporated as much fruit as I can.
So, I'm doing cranberries, cherries, candied ginger, orange, the whole nine.
And then, I'm going to tie it all together with an orange citrus ganache.
-Fruit cake often can be very, very sweet. -Yes.
-So, do you have some contrast in there? -I do.
[Caesar] What's gonna make this spice cake
is this beautiful molasses right here with little spice.
So, I have black pepper, cardamom, mace, Saigon cinnamon.
-So trust me, this is the one I'm gonna win you on. -All right.
-I swear to you! -[laughing]
Oh, gosh. Don't make swears.
All right, guys, good luck.
Thank you.
Fruit cake is usually really dense, and a little bit dry.
So, he's gonna have to change my whole mind about fruit cake.
[Caesar] This is the one fruit cake that you don't give back.
Trust me on this.
All right. Rolling to the oven.
Be good to me now, baby.
I'm melting the chocolate to put in this skull-form head.
-[Pirate 2] Cool. -It's already got the eyes,
and the mouth, and the nose placement already,
so it's gonna make my life a little bit easier when sculpting this witch.
This guy right here is going in the freezer.
-[Suzanna] Oh, no. -Oh, no.
Six hours.
-Jeez. -[Reggie] We just got started!
So, its 2022, the witch is back.
She still rides a broom,
but she's got the new electric model.
This is actually gonna look like a jetpack, and we are put it on here.
And we're gonna suspend it.
I'm carving the edge of a broom which is going to be a turbo cylinder.
We're gonna do it out of a single pumpkin.
We're gonna do some cut-throughs,
and I'm taking my melon baller,
flipping it around the outside.
So it looks as if she's sitting on the broom, ready to take off.
You see how I gotta cut open on the side to slide it over here.
[exhales sharply]
So, this, it's gotta go.
Getting my turbine on to the board...
Oh, my gosh!
...it's a little weak,
and it's not holding the position that I thought it would.
It's like working with wet plastic.
I mean, it's crazy.
It's just not...
Whoa! Phew!
[whispers] I almost lost him, guys.
-[Elizabeth] No, you didn't. -[Judy] Oh, God.
[Wicked man] I spent too much each time carving this, to have this thing go wrong.
Look at this.
I just carved him and he's already...
Oh, man.
[Wicked man] The struggle is real.
Whoa! Phew! I almost lost him, guys.
-[Elizabeth] No, you didn't. -[Judy] My God.
[Wicked man] The struggle is real.
I had to cut the pumpkin open to get the pipe in through it,
but it's just not holding its shape.
So we're going to pivot rice cereal around the pipe like this.
We'll wrap that.
See, that's nice and secure now.
We don't have time for things not to work today.
If I do just the cherries, it's not going to be enough sour.
So I'm going to add a little zest and lemon juice.
I think the fudge chocolate that I'm doing
is going to break the acidity on the cherry.
So it's going to be, like very sour cherry with sweet fudge.
All right, this is ready.
I'm sculpting out the witch, her little facial features.
I'm using a mix of brown fondant and black fondant.
And you're going to do the hair like...
Yeah, like it's blowing in the wind.
-[Pirate 1] That's cool. -[Tammy] 'Cause it's very windy.
[Pirate 2] How are you liking the base, guys?
I'm going to start building up.
[Tammy] Is it sturdy?
Yeah. Look at this.
I have to do an over-two-foot tall 360 tornado in under seven hours.
It's going to be a huge piece, so I hope it will impress the judges.
[Tammy] This tornado is looking amazing, girl.
-You've got some wicked talent. -Thank you!
Five hours.
-Oh! -[Wicked man] Come on, guys, let's push.
-I am working on a lemon curd right now. -[Beverly] Ooh.
[Jamie] This lemon curd is going to add, like, a super sour punch to everything,
while the lemon mousse is going to be like smooth and creamy,
and like, a whole different texture.
Let's check this out.
This is going to be the top of the TV.
My plan is to cut panels in each side.
That's why I have a really nice pumpkin.
And then we'll cover everything entirely first,
and then I'll start carving.
Jamie, what's your idea on this TV show?
[Jamie] What's your idea, Willy?
What if we do "Going out with the gourds"?
-Sounds good? -I like that one.
So the show is "Going out with the gourds."
We'll have a light behind it.
So basically, this is like a jack-o'-lantern style.
And we're done.
[Beverly] The colors are beautiful, Jamie.
[Jamie] Why, thank you.
[Beverly] We're going retro?
[Jamie] Yeah.
Can you hand me the lemon curd and the almond crunch.
Blub, blub, blub.
And crunchy stuff.
Crunchy, crunchy, crunchy.
[Hannah] Perfect.
Cherry lemonade.
This is a tart cherry jam.
And then, I'm going to make a lime curd.
I'm starting out with my lime sponge.
I think the biggest thing I'm excited for on this cake
is for the judges to cut in and to see my alternating red and green layers.
[Caesar] All right, guys, I'm about to finish my chocolate orange ganache.
So what I've done is infused a little heavy cream
with some orange juice, fresh orange, orange zest.
Pour this all, right into some chocolate.
Every witch needs a feline friend,
and so, a butternut squash has the perfect body shape for a cat.
Hey.
-Beautiful. I love it. -[chuckles]
[Eerie woman] The tail is perfection.
All right, coming hot, guys.
Look at this beautiful, beautiful spice fruit cake.
-[Eerie man] Oh-ho-ho! -[Caesar] I'm going to start building.
[Eerie woman] I like that you've picked a stiffer crumb.
-[Caesar] Yes, ma'am. -[Eerie woman] That ganache really helps.
-Can you hold the torso while I thread this cake on? -Yeah.
[Eerie man] Last time, our structure almost fell.
We hadn't applied any supports within the structure.
-[gasps] -[chuckles nervously]
Save the drama for your mama.
[Eerie man] This time, we built the witch's body the way that we did,
so that, one, the structure would be solid,
and secondly, we could simply lift it up, put the cakes on,
and then put it right back on...
Cake's on the board.
...so that the cake still stays intact.
[Eerie woman] She's going full exorcist.
Our witch, we want her to have somewhat of a pointy nose,
so I'm just kind of finessing it into place.
What do you think?
[Wicked man] Oh, that is awesome. I love it.
[Judy] Her cute little mole, her little button nose.
[Wicked man] I love her.
[Judy] Just getting her eyelashes on.
I'll be able to get her up on the structure,
and then we can start working on building her body out of the cake.
I am going to start stacking our cake.
We have our orange cake,
orange olive oil cake with an orange liqueur syrup,
our orange buttercream,
fill it with our peach mousse, candied cinnamon almonds for crunch.
We're worried about her shoulders being too broad in conjunction with her head.
[Wicked man] Well, with her shoulders being broad like that,
-her body's-- -Her head's too small.
Maybe just a little bit.
But I think it's... I think her having a jacket--
[Judy] I mean, once we add the hair on,
I can bulk the hair out a little bit more.
Once we have a jacket and everything,
she's longer, she's flowy.
I think it's going to be perfect.
I just need to fix her neck.
[loud crash]
[all exclaiming]
-Uh-oh! -[Hannah] Oh, my.
[Monique] What is happening?
[all] Whoa!
[chuckles]
It's gonna melt my cake!
[Zak] Earth, air, water, fire.
The four elements have long been a source of magical power,
especially the energy of fire.
Now, this power was stolen from people like Bridget Bishop.
It's time for your modern witches to reclaim their flames, don't you think?
Like Zak says,
give your returned witches the power of flame
by creating a smoking witch's brew that will quench the judges' thirst
and leave them spell bound.
Got it?
-[Eerie man] Got it. -A fiery brew.
So we got to make them a fiery beverage.
I am building, I am sculpting, I am decorating.
I don't have time to wrap my brain around making a cocktail right now.
That's a hell of a twist.
Okay, guys, obviously, it's got to be some kind of coffee drink.
How about we do this?
If you're from Rhode Island, Boston area,
there's a thing called coffee milk.
[Eerie man] Caesar comes up with this idea of creating coffee milk.
She's a barista, she's got to be making some coffee.
It's just a bit of coffee, a little bit of rum, and some cream.
I add a little bit of sugar
'cause, you know, you gotta have your coffee a little sweet.
So, for our twisted cocktail,
I'm going to reduce brandy with cherry,
and then we're going to add on top prosecco,
[Tammy] Ah! Ooh! That's a party!
[Pirate 1] And maybe we're going to use dry ice to create the smoke.
-Oh, thank you. -It's called...
Cheers.
"The blood of a witch."
Ooh, cheers.
I really think that tying in with the cherries,
like you said, is going to be a good idea.
So we're putting cherry popping candy
around the rim to add a little extra magic.
[Ghosty Gal] Since we had cherry compote in our cake,
we decided to go with a cherry limeade with vodka,
and as an extra element, Suzanna takes a cherry, dips it in chocolate,
and makes it look like an eyeball.
I would like the idea of tying the brew with the flavors of the cake.
So, either they mimic them or they complement them.
[Shinmin] I would like it to have some sort of smokiness.
Definitely something to wow us, visually.
-[Aarti] Yeah. -[Shinmin] But, like anything else,
-if it's all looks and nothing inside, what's the point? -Yeah.
I feel like that's what you're looking for, like, on your profile.
-Someone with a little fire on the inside. -[all chuckling]
Judy suggested, like, a coffee, 'cause she's a doctor.
Maybe we can do, like, an espresso martini.
[Judy] That is an awesome idea.
[Wicked man] Elizabeth is going to make a wicked spiced martini.
We have vodka, coffee liqueur, espresso, cinnamon, and a peach simple syrup.
-Oh, my goodness. -[Judy] It smells delicious.
Ooh.
-I'll have three more, please. -[Elizabeth chuckles]
Hello, lunatics.
-[Jamie] Well, hello. -Beverly.
What have you guys decided to do about this twist?
We have lemon and almond together,
so we thought the amaretto sour would complement it very nicely.
-I haven't had an amaretto sour in a minute. Yeah. -Right?
-But we're going for a vintage feel to the whole piece. -Okay.
So we thought a vintage drink would complement that story.
Yeah, that's smart.
[Jamie] In my fiery amaretto sour,
I have almond liqueur, fresh lemon juice, simple syrup,
and a heavy pinch of cayenne pepper.
Ooh, that's sour.
-Reggie, how do I start this drink? -[Reggie] Huh?
[Reggie] I would add orange juice and a splash of cherry.
Grab some brandy.
How many seconds?
-[Reggie] Three. -[Hannah] Three? One, two, three.
[laughing]
Ooh! I could light that thing on fire.
[Janet] Not enough?
Not enough.
[Janet chuckles]
-[Hannah] Like that? -[Reggie] Yeah. There you go.
That's a grown man's drink.
I'm attaching the modeling chocolate to the face.
Once she has a rough facial base,
then I'll build up her head to make it proportionate to our body.
Proportions are definitely important,
so I definitely want to make sure to nail that.
Ah, that is so scary.
[Ghosty Gal] She's out for revenge,
so I wanted to give her that boss, confident look.
What I'm about to do right now is give this witch some eyes.
The eyes are made of chocolate, and we're getting eyelids.
We're going to start to build out on this witch.
A team that's creating something that feels so eerily similar
to their very first round is Squad Ghouls.
The face is even similar to his previous mummy.
And the body language, the sizing is similar.
The hands are outstretched in a similar way,
and then, it's like a box of pumpkin work around the character.
Yeah, that's right.
So again, I feel like we gave Janet the same note last time,
which is, don't be afraid to interact with the character.
And I think she's still scared.
She's creating a box that's not touching the character at all.
-[Aarti] Right. -Hopefully they have more impressive stuff to show.
I hope they're not a one-chick pony. [chuckles]
-"One-chick pony"? -I hope they're not a one-witch pony.
[both laughing]
We have to get her up here and get her up there.
[Pirate 2] Tammy made our skull out of modeling chocolate,
and it's looking fantastic.
[Pirate 1] So let's see.
Do you know what? No, no, no.
What?
Look, they head is too small.
-Come here. -[Tammy sighs]
[Tammy] Oh, crap.
[Pirate 2] As soon as she puts it up against the body to compare,
we realized that it was way too small,
and she's going to need to start over.
[Tammy] So in order to fix it,
we're just going to basically cover it, and basically start all over again.
[Pirate 2] Once we realized that all of that beautiful work, in a way,
was such a time waste,
we started to panic for time,
'cause not only does she waste a lot of time in the first head,
she's going to need to spend more for the second one.
[Tammy] I am just going to power through it.
Ooh!
Our lady is getting a beautiful purple dress,
which is what all proper witches wear.
All purple, all the time.
-Okay. -I am shaping my flames
that will fit nicely all around our cauldron.
I'm going to pour them and kinda shape them.
Then I'm going to add some orange to this.
Now that they're kind of starting to set up,
I'm going to bend them a little bit,
so that way, it gives them some life, some shape.
And, yeah.
I am boiling some water right now and I'm coloring it.
I want it to be gray because I'm going to dip rice noodles in here,
and it's going to become our witch's old nasty hair.
They're kind of purplish.
It's pretty gross looking.
[Reggie] Right now, I'm just building up the base of this cake.
My job is to build up the body of the witch,
and we're stacking, and we're stacking,
but we don't have much time, so I missed a step.
I didn't build structure to give it the stability it needs to stay together.
[bleep]
Freaking rookie mistake.
I'm starting to see a slump in the back of the cake, which is a concern to me.
The cake is too heavy.
There is no stability.
Sheesh!
We got a big problem.
I have to remove this whole cake and redo the support.
-[Hannah] All of it? -[Reggie] Yeah.
[Hannah] Whatever you think you need to do.
We can't have that falling down.
[Reggie] Huge problem.
I am feeling like I let my team down as I rip this cake.
I make the decision.
I'm just going to rip this cake apart and do it right,
like I should have done the first time.
Hey, I would rather you do that now than for me have to catch it.
We don't have a lot of time,
so I'm just going to rebuild it and put dials inside.
Every three pieces of cake, I am going to support it with cake board,
and we're going to still come out on top.
[Ghosty Gal] This is the last layer.
God, look at it. It's so creamy and beautiful.
Okay, ladies. She's about to get implant surgery.
Yay.
I'm just coating them in buttercream so that it'll stick.
As soon as I finish her clothes,
I'm going to finish up her head.
[Monique] Yeah.
[Ghosty Gal] Oh, she's looking this way, like...
[Monique] This is like a good body size, yeah?
[Suzanna] Yeah.
[Ghosty Gal] Monique is making the deceased corpse
that will be a pumpkin head and pumpkin ribcage.
[Monique retches]
Lay his body bag over them.
[Ghosty Gal] For the body bag, we use modeling chocolate,
and we decide we wanted to have that open body bag look to reveal the body.
I'm making it up as I go along,
because I've never found a witch shoe on the Internet.
[Jamie] Bev is working on the sugar shoes,
and she's never made anything like this before,
so we're all really curious how this is going to turn out.
The first step is to create a pattern like a cobbler.
[Jamie] She's pouring a sole of the shoe.
[Beverly] I'm sculpting the shoe on the cake while it's warm.
[Jamie] And then taking that warm sole
and actually fitting it to the foot that we've already made.
[Beverly] Ouch, ouch, ouch. Hot, hot, hot.
And then I'm gonna put a top on it like a Mary Jane.
[Jamie] And then she's going to pour another piece and wrap it around the foot
and do all of the modeling, while the sugar is still warm, directly onto the foot.
And we all have our fingers crossed that this is going to work.
[Beverly] We want a little bit of heel,
not too sexy, not too haggy.
[Jamie] Finally, Bev gets the shoes on,
and they are shiny and beautiful,
and they have the perfect witchy curl on the toe,
and we're all super happy and relieved that this worked.
[Beverly] Last buckle going on.
One hour left.
-[groaning] -Oh, my gosh!
-[Monique] Okay. -[Caesar] All right, guys.
Come on, guys, push, push, push.
[Tammy] Just about got the front of her head done.
I am not happy with having to basically redo it,
but it is coming together pretty quickly,
I guess, just because I'm just repeating the same steps.
Pastry Pirates is recovering from realizing
that their head was too small for their body.
It's that classic issue, right?
When one person is building the body,
another person is building the head.
Going down, down, down.
[Wicked man] That way better?
Yeah. All right.
[Reggie] I'm feeling great now that the body is built and the structure is stable.
Now we can move forward.
[Janet] Watch the finger.
[Reggie] Let's keep going.
We're in great shape, guys.
[Hannah] Come on, guys.
This is our modern day mask for the witch.
We're going to cover this face in modeling chocolate,
and then put makeup, lipstick on her, eyebrows, the whole nine.
-[Hannah] Yes! -[Reggie] She's gonna be gorgeous.
[Reggie] And we're going to give the illusion that she had just taken it off.
[Eerie woman] You can start pooling the coffee,
and we can melt some chocolate like this
and just let it spread and run down.
[Eerie man] For the sugar work, Caesar had to create this gravity-defying,
coffee spilling on top of the goblin's head.
It's melting. It's melting the chocolate.
Give me the fan.
Get it on there. Get the cold spray.
If we have to...
-[Caesar] Okay, hold it, hold it. -[bleep]
-That's okay, just... -Broke the drip.
[Eerie man] We are running out of time,
so we're just going to have to see what happens.
[Wicked man] Let's get it, guys.
-[Elizabeth] Cake? Are you ready? -[Judy] Yes.
[Wicked man] I'll admit, it's a little wobbly.
So, I am using buttercream to add a furry texture to our cat.
[Pirate 1] We're going to give it the element that it looks like it has real fur on it,
so we thought we could achieve that better than using modeling chocolate.
[Elizabeth] It doesn't even look like a cat.
It looks like a blob of bleh.
[Pirate 1] We're finally getting the final elements on our piece.
The sheer size of it is beautiful,
but I feel like we just missed the mark on the proportions.
Her torso was extremely long,
but it's too late in the game to change.
[Judy] We're going home today.
Oh, my God. She's falling.
[Elizabeth] What are we... It's not okay.
Okay, I got it.
-[Wicked man] It's gotta go up. -[Elizabeth] I got her.
[Wicked man] We've got the broom almost four or five feet into the air,
so it's going to have to have something to stabilize it.
She's hanging a little off the board,
so after we've added the weight to her, she just got...
She's good.
That shouldn't fall.
[Elizabeth] Oh, my God. [sighs]
-It's just too much weight on that. -[Elizabeth] Yeah.
-So I had to put a piece here, -[Elizabeth] Okay.
and we'll have to cover that up.
-[Elizabeth] Yeah. -[Wicked man] Guys, we got this.
Ten minutes, teams.
Oh, my gosh.
Where does the time go?
[Hannah] We're almost there.
-Okay, okay. -[Caesar] Right there.
[Monique] I'm gonna color his face, all right?
[Ghosty Gal] Oh, my God. That looks so creepy.
[Hannah] The gavel's on. Gavel's on.
[Janet] Okay.
One minute.
-[Jamie] Yes. -[Pirate 2] Rocks. Tammy, rocks.
[Tammy] Lightning speed.
Okay, guys, I'm good.
Time up!
[groaning]
-Good job. -Yeah!
[Zak] That's time on your modern day witches.
[witch cackling]
A TV network CEO Bridget Bishop,
controls the masses through casting a spell in her Charmavision.
[chuckling]
The part that bewitches me is the television.
Willy, it's so good.
You've given us depth.
There's this glow, like, that old school TV set glow.
I actually think her face looked a little bit better
before you added that dark green to it.
It looks a little messy at this point.
I love that, Beverly, you molded the sugar around the feet,
and so, they fit perfectly.
[Jamie] We have hypnotic almond cake soaked with amaretto,
with layers of lemon mousse, lemon curd, vanilla almond crunch,
and an Italian meringue lemon buttercream.
-Groovy, man. Right? -[all chuckling]
I love how this cake goes with kind of this old school vibe
that you have going in your overall design.
The kicker, though, is that lemon curd,
because it just cuts through everything and kind of acts as a refresher
to make you want to keep going back for more.
A girl's got to do what we got to do to keep it perky.
-And this is a perky cake, and it's a perky bite. -[laughing]
[Shinmin] Tell us about your witch's brew.
[Jamie] You have a fiery amaretto sour
with a creepy eyeball in the bottom.
-[gasping] -Oh, that is an eyeball.
I love the combination of the amaretto with the sour.
It does feel so old school to me.
For me, I need more of the sour.
It's drinking a little sweet.
But you're saving grace is the heat.
I can get the cayenne pepper.
I knew exactly what it was as soon as I took it.
-Oh, that's cayenne pepper. -[Jamie chuckles]
[Eddie] So the heat definitely comes through.
Just amp up the sour to kind of cut through that sweetness a little bit.
Justice has been served according to our judge.
But she's not who we think she is.
She is planning her revenge on all the people that judged her.
This is what perfection looks like.
-[Hannah gasps] -[Eddie] You nailed the face.
[Eddie] You have that quintessential witch look with the nose,
with the sunken in eyes.
The noodles that you use for her hair,
it's spindly and dry and creepy, and it's great.
Janet, I think that this podium
that she's standing behind is really well done.
-Thank you. -[Shinmin] But I know you have more.
[Shinmin] I know you have more in you.
Do not be shy with your work.
Here's the issue that I have.
I feel like the entire design itself looks like it did last week.
You gave us a mummy that was coming out of a basket.
I don't want you to be a one-trick pony.
Okay.
[Hannah] So we have today, a cherry lime cake,
and I have alternating layers of cherry and lime sponge.
There's tart cherry jam, a lime curd, and vanilla bean meringue buttercream.
This feels very signature Hannah.
You have a very light touch, and it's really refined.
I do want more of that cherry to come through,
because right now, all I'm getting is the lime.
But other than that, this is so good.
-Thank you. Thank you. -[Eddie] Good job, Hannah.
[Reggie] Our judgment juice is orange juice,
cherry juice, brandy, and orange liqueur.
[Eddie] "Judgment juice"?
Makes you tell the truth.
There's a lot of boozy heat to this.
There's, like, fire running down here right now.
-This is more like a shot. -Basically.
Tap that table.
[all laughing]
Here we have "The coroner's harvest."
So, our 21st century witch likes to harvest the organs of her victims
to put into the spells to get back at her enemies.
She's making sure everybody is an organ donor, huh?
Yes. [chuckles]
The thing that I love the most is that from the pumpkin work to the sugar work,
it's so neat and clean and precise.
The fine details is right on point.
-That whole scene is absolutely disgusting... -Thank you.
...in the best possible way.
I also love that you know what a proud lady looks like,
and she's got that look down.
You kept it kind of stock.
There's just these two characters and a few things on the board, and that's it.
That was a risk.
It paid off today.
Next time? Maybe not.
Okay?
[Ghosty Gal] We have a lemon cake with a cherry compote filling,
a lemon zest meringue buttercream with a white chocolate crunch.
The cake is a little dense.
I think it needs more buttercream.
I think the cherry jam is so big and happy and pronounced
that it needs some of that buttercream just to sort of mellow it out a little bit.
-Okay. -[Shinmin] I agree with Aarti.
I think the reason why this cake feels a little bit soaked
is because the liquids from this cherry is going on to the cake.
If you added more of that buttercream,
it would act as a fat barrier
and prevent the cake from getting soggy in some areas.
[Monique] We have our "Salem love spell" for you.
So, it's a refreshing cherry lime cocktail
with a little bit of vodka and a secret little pop at the top.
-Ooh, a little pop in my mouth. -[chuckles]
This is like one of those punches you get at college
to where you can't taste the alcohol in here.
-You just keep drinking it and drinking it. -[all chuckling]
Sometimes they serve it out of the bathtub.
Oh, my goodness.
I almost want to add a pinch of salt to this,
'cause I think that then I would maybe taste the cherry and the limeade.
Right now, I'm tasting sugar and vodka.
-Well, I'm feeling the vodka. -[all chuckling]
So, yeah, this is not as successful as your cake.
[Pirate 2] This is Barbara Bishop,
the reincarnation of Bridget Bishop.
She's in control of the weather.
She is in her tornado,
taking revenge on the descendants
from the ancestors that wronged her.
Cool.
I love the movement in this piece.
The way you constructed the pumpkin, the way you carved it.
It literally gives me the feel like a tornado would.
What isn't working for me quite as successfully is her face.
It feels unfinished to me, like it needed maybe another half hour of work.
You know?
When you are working on different parts of a body,
just come together and say, "How does the head look on this torso?
Is it too small? Is it too big?"
Because I know you had to do this twice, but it's still too small.
[Pirate 1] I did a chocolate cake, cherry lemon Italian buttercream,
and a fudge chocolate in the middle.
The sponge of this chocolate cake is about as perfect as you can get it.
I find the tartness from cherries are coming through
to kind of give a little bit of relief from chocolate,
which can be a little bit overpowering.
I love the tanginess that we get from the cherries,
and then in the center, when we get to that ganache,
it just adds sophistication and chew.
This cake's redonkadonk.
[all laughing]
[Pirate 1] I reduce cherries with brandy,
and then I top with prosecco.
With this drink, it's a drink that you want to have with that cake,
because the prosecco adds a little bit of that bitterness,
and there's, like, a tiny hint of sour,
which was the only thing missing from that cake.
[Eerie man] Welcome to "Toil and Trouble Cauldron Coffee."
Our barista will gladly take your order,
but you'll have to be patient with her
as she hasn't quite gotten her brewing potion just quite right yet,
as it's spilling onto her poor coworker, Chubs.
[all chuckling]
Her coworker's name is Chubs?
I love your concept.
The idea that this witch would come back
as this sort of countercultural, slightly hipster woman.
What doesn't work for me is I don't think that she looks modern enough.
If you'd have put her into maybe some modern clothes,
I think it would make more sense.
[Eddie] Does that tattoo say "Eddie" on the back?
No.
I mean, you are a hunk of burning love, so.
[all laughing hysterically]
[Eddie] Look at him trying to bribe me!
I absolutely love the face.
It has that old school witch vibe from the nose down to the warts.
The thing for me that I'm missing is,
you have this beautifully carved cauldron in the back,
and there's nothing there.
There's nothing in it.
You don't have any type of interactive element.
The work is done nice, and my eyes are drawn to it,
but then I'm left empty, much like the cauldron is empty.
Now, Caesar, I have seen you do better sugar work.
You know you're capable of better.
This pouring effect of the coffee looks pretty messy.
Eerie Eats, tell us about your cake.
[Caesar] I went deep into the orchard for this one.
I did a spice fruit cake with an orange citrus ganache with candied pecans.
The fruit inside is cranberries, cherries, oranges,
and a little bit of ginger.
So this is a very interesting cake.
You have, like, four different fruits in there,
and I feel like they're competing just a little bit,
'cause you have this fudge that's very rich.
I want that orange to come through to kind of give me a break from all of that.
This cake is forcing me to leap about a couple of months into the holidays.
-Very holiday like, but I dig it. -Thank you.
I think the molasses is a little heavy here,
and so I'm losing the sweetness of the fruit.
[Caesar] To pay homage to the witches of Salem in the Boston area,
I made coffee milk.
This is just a little bit heavy cream, milk,
a little vanilla sugar infused with coffee,
and just a little touch of rum.
Ooh.
-Mmm. -That's dangerous, yo.
[Aarti] You put just the right amount of rum in there.
It's great, and it would go great with the cake.
Thank you.
[Elizabeth] When our witch returned to the 21st century,
she decided to use her powers for good.
She is now a doctor,
creating cures for common diseases by using her cauldron.
And she kind of got an update on her broom.
One bright spot for me are those sugar flames.
I think there's so much movement in there.
Flames are so hard to capture.
They sort of look like they're moving.
The thing that's throwing me off is the cat.
Does the cat have an illness that they're trying to cure?
-[all laughing] -[Eddie] 'Cause right now, the cat looks a little sickly.
This is definitely the prettiest witch we have here this whole evening.
However, I feel like you've really struggled with proportion.
The head is definitely too small for the body,
and the torso is too long for the legs.
I'm sure you see it.
[Aarti] Let's cut your cake.
[Elizabeth] We have an orange olive oil sponge
with an orange liqueur soaking syrup, peach mousse, cinnamon
candied almonds, and orange Italian meringue buttercream.
Elizabeth, you made really smart choices with your cake.
One was making it an olive oil cake.
It is so light and airy and spongy,
and so, the flavors really come through,
because I'm getting that gorgeous roasty-toasty flavor from the almonds.
The one thing I'm searching for is that peach mousse.
I need more of that peach in there.
The challenge from Zak was the orchard fruit,
and I'm searching for that in your cake.
[Eddie] I think you did nail the challenge,
because I get the orange,
-and the orange is also in the same family, right? -[Elizabeth] Yeah.
[Eddie] So where the peach didn't come through,
I get the orange.
And I feel like that's your saving grace.
Thank you.
Wow.
-Wow! -That's cool.
[Elizabeth] We have a wicked spiced espresso martini.
It has vodka, coffee liqueur and the espresso.
And then I made a cinnamon simple syrup.
-Hello. -[chuckles]
Because your cake is so delicate, this pairs very well,
and you have something that's very strong in flavor,
and it goes really nice with the cake that is very light in flavor.
Thank you.
Today, your challenge was all about
letting the accused witches of Salem rewrite their own story.
And your creepy cakes had us all saying, "Witch, please."
[all laughing]
But only one of you delivered a cake
that put a spell on us in flavor and in design.
And that team is...
Lollipop Lunatics.
[gasping] Oh, my God.
[Eddie] Congratulations.
All right, Pastry Pirates, Ghosty Gals, and Squad Ghouls,
you're all safe.
-Good job. -[exhales in relief]
[Eddie] That means Wicked Delicious and Eerie Eats,
one of you is going home.
Wicked Delicious, your witch was the prettiest girl at the party,
and we loved the heat of your smoking witch's brew.
But you went big,
and so, that means your details and your proportions were off.
And we were missing the peach in your light and airy cake.
Eerie Eats, you created a classic witch and a fun story.
And once again, the pumpkin work was the star.
But the details on the rest of your cake were not as refined as we expect.
The first team to be eliminated from the main competition is...
Wicked Delicious.
Unfortunately, it came down to the enormous proportions.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
[Wicked man] This was one of the best experiences of my life.
I learned a lot.
I'm back to the drawing board.
My team and I will be ready again.
-A little bit of relief there, huh? -[sighing]
-[Beverly] Good job. Good job. -[Tammy] Yay!
[Eddie] All right, get some rest.
We'll see you next week.
-Thank you. -[Eddie] Good job.
-[Aarti] Good job, guys. -[Shinmin] Good job, everyone.
[Eddie] Next time on Halloween Wars...
[Tammy] I'm going to break out the big guns.
We all have that one thing that frightens us to our core.
Vampires.
Gargoyle-type, nope.
For me, it's dolls.
[all exclaiming and screaming]
Oh, my God!
[Beverly] Willy's going at it like a madman.
There's nothing you can't love about a churro.
It's deep fried and rolled in cinnamon and sugar.
[Beverly] Oh, my God. That looks so cool.
Take the tasting cake and make it a pinata cake.
[gasping]
[Shinmin] Ta-da!
What the...