I'm back!
I'm Zak Bagan's and I've taken control of Halloween Wars.
Every step of the way the four remaining teams have shown
why they are truly masters in their field
and tonight they will face another elimination challenge.
This is a complete disaster.
[man] We did do all this hard work just to go home.
Until just one team is just left standing to be crowned
the Halloween Wars champions.
[all] Whoa!
[man] Hey, hey.
[woman] You have to eat the brain.
-It's slimy! -I'm scared.
[theme music plays]
[thunder strikes]
All right, so we got four teams left. How's everybody doing?
-[Reggie] Good, good. -[woman] Awesome.
[thunder strikes]
Here we go.
We're just passed the halfway point
in your paranormal journey, teams.
Too late to turn back.
The only option is to keep going.
[upbeat music playing]
-Hmm. Uh-uh. -Okay.
[woman laughs]
[beat drops]
Portland, Oregon is a beautiful city these days,
but it has a ugly history that remains mostly hidden.
A network of tunnels that were notorious
during the height of prohibition
for smuggling, kidnapping, and murder.
As we explore the maze of tunnels we encountered
floating spirits. We heard rattling doors and footsteps,
and we captured evidence of numerous paranormal anomalies.
Eddie, I think it's time we had our teams
use their skills to lighten the place up a bit.
All right. So, I want you to give the spirits
that still haunt Portland's tunnels something to celebrate.
I'm talking about throwing a Halloween theme party for the undead.
-Whoo. -[Eddie] No cover charge.
-[laughs] -Got it?
All right, so, in honor of the city's prohibition past,
each of you are gonna be assigned a vintage cocktail
to use as inspiration for the flavor in your cake.
So, to figure out which vintage cocktail you'll be using,
I want you to send a team member up here...
and grab a letter.
-[Eddie] You... -[man] Pick a good one. Get a good one.
[Aarti] Good luck.
[gasps]
[Jamie] The Mary Pickford!
-Ooh, I like that. -Ooh.
[Janira] Tangy. Mm.
[Janet] Side Car.
[Aarti] Bees Knees.
All right, teams, happy hours starts in seven hours. Go!
[Aarti laughs]
[Rudolfo] Guys...
[Janira] Whoo, 'kay.
The 20s. Portland...
Underground Halloween party. What are we thinking?
Like classic pipes and bricks?
Different kinds of creatures, monsters...
I mean, like, I'm also thinking classic, like a crocodile
coming out from the pipes, like...
[woman] Croc-eye-dile.
[Tammy] Like he has, like, eyes everywhere.
I can make a monster that's like a mix of a snake with octopus.
-[woman] Oh,... -Holding martini glass.
Holding martini glasses. Oh, that's awesome!
I love that idea, yes.
Last week, we moved up from the bottom to the middle
and I hope that this week we really impress the judges.
Our main creature is a crocodile made out of cake
with his multiple eyes and teeth made out of sugar.
The whole entire wall was going to be of pumpkin
and there are slimes
and you'll see them enjoying it with their little cocktails.
I'm gonna start on the cakes, okay?
[woman] Our cocktail was the bees knees.
It's a little bit of gin, a little bit of honey, and a little bit of lemon.
We're going to make a lemon cake with honey cream cheese filling
gin syrup and lemon, and finish with popping candy.
To give it that pop and that fizzy... drink and also that crunch for a party.
Guys, ready for the oven, okay?
-[thunder strikes] -Okay, guys, we got a great drink,
-the side car. -Okay, what is that?
The side car has brandy, you got lemon
and them it's smoothed out with orange liqueur.
I can work with those flavors.
Okay, so what are we gonna do for our design?
We gotta come up with something unique.
No one ever talks about, uh, who prepares the food for these places.
-[Hannah] Yeah. -Let's, create some type of ghoul chef
and have him have different types of finger food. Maybe we can use fingers.
We'll put the chef...
right back here.
[Reggie] Our creature was a renowned chef.
He was murdered by bootleggers.
He came back and dwelled in the tunnels and fed the dead.
We're gonna have different types of finger food, we're gonna have a pig's head.
[Hannah] So, I'm really thankful that Reggie
knows what a side car is and what the flavor profiles are
'cause I'm not quite old enough to have one yet.
[Reggie] Hannah's making an orange sponge cake
with an orange liqueur simple syrup.
lemon curd, cherry and pistachio granola crunch,
and a brandy Italian meringue buttercream.
So, this is my orange sponge cake.
All right, I'll be back in about 15 minutes.
-Okay... -So...
-Speakeasy's were big so you gotta have a bar. -Yes.
-Definitely. What kind of bar? -All right, yeah.
-[Beverly] So, how about a-- -[Jamie] Uh, on a--
-[Beverly] Barrel? -[Jamie] On a barrel.
-Can we do this floating? -Yes!
Float!
[Jamie] We come up with Sir ghouls-a-lot,
a ghost flying down to his favorite speakeasy pumpkin barrel bar
with a magically pouring drink and a disco ball.
Maraschino cherries.
I need pineapple.
There is maraschino liqueur inside of a Mary Pickford.
I'm going to make a maraschino cake
with layers of caramelized pineapple compote
a vanilla rum mousse,
and we're gonna have some toasted pecans in there.
My plan is to actually use some of the maraschino cherry juice
to add to my batter to make it a little bit pink. Now, it's a party.
See you in 20.
-[thunder strikes] -So...
What are we thinking.
Portland is also known for their rave parties as well.
-What if we did like a-- Yeah. -[Monique] Underground rave party.
[Janira] Unfortunately, Suzanna is not here with us this week,
but Cesar is filling in and he's an amazing sugar artist
and we're just so thankful to have him.
[Monique] I can do a barrel, like, pumpkin,
like you have to go through the barrel.
And when I think undead, I'm thinking zombies
-so maybe we can have like a-- -Yes!
-I love zombies. -...a zombie bouncer.
[Janira] We have a zombie bouncer
holding the key to the underground
prohibition party, to a secret passageway
in a pumpkin barrel.
All right. So, right now, I am carving out the door
that is gonna lead into our party.
-Is that the batter? -Yes, it is.
[Janira] We selected Tom Collins.
It consist of gin, lemon, and a spritzer.
We go with a vanilla cake soaked in a gin simple syrup
topped with a gin lemon curd
and a cherry popping candy buttercream.
I'm excited about the popping candy in the buttercream.
I've actually never tried that, um, technique before.
I wanna make sure I use a little extra cherry popping candy in there
'cause you really want that fizz to make it taste like a Tom Collins.
Heading to the oven.
[Eddie] Today's gonna be a lot of fun.
-Two things I love, cocktails and a good party. -Yep.
-Vintage cocktails. -Right.
If you think about prohibition,
a lot of times, the bartenders were making the alcohol themselves,
so it wasn't top shelf.
They would often try to disguise that flavor which is why
you see cocktails that are super sweet or sweet and sour.
I think of alcohol as, like, a book end for flavors.
It kind of punches you in the face,
and then you get the flavor of the cake
and it kind of trails back up at the end and leaves you with that slight burn.
[Jamie] I have got to get my gelatin face made
so that it can dry long enough to actually hold its shape
on our ghost.
To make my gelatin face I'm going to take a Styrofoam head
smear it down with shortening so it gets sticky...
Ehh, there we go.
...and then I take a gelatin mixture and paint it on with a big, fluffy brush
and let it dry.
Meanwhile, I'm gonna pour the beer mug.
[Beverly] All right, here we go.
[Beverly] Hmm.
So, I've made a can, but what I'm gonna do is cut off the top
and make it a beer mug.
I gotta be careful not to squeeze it too hard.
If I break it, there will be tears.
Note to self. Do not push.
Let the heat do it.
[gasps]
Oh, no.
[Shinmin] Beverly broke a sugar glass mug.
[Beverly] The whole thing... broken.
After tonight there will only be three teams left.
So, at this point these teams are tired.
-[Shinmin] Yeah. -[Aarti] They're feeling the pressure.
[Aarti] And I think we are seeing it now
in these little errors that they'd never have made before.
[Beverly] This is gonna end in tears.
[Beverly sighs]
Come one, he's a ghost. Maybe he drinks out of broken glasses.
[Beverly] Here we go... again.
Okay, I don't want to mess it up.
I refuse!
Okay, good.
I actually like this cart one.
Oh, yeah. I like that a lot.
What I need to do is heat up a knife
to go through all of the thick ice malt.
Yeah, this is so satisfying, to pull this off.
[sighs]
[Willy] Just what we need.
[Jamie] Willy's decided to make this barrel in long strips
instead of using whole chunks of pumpkin.
This is gonna be the wall. See...
like this whole thing, after its carved is gonna go...
around.
Plus it's gonna be sticking to.
Like, this one can give me, like, four pieces.
I could, like, carve it from a single pumpkin.
Singles pieces is a lot of more work,
but we're hoping that it would pay off at the end.
[sighs]
So, basically, a Tom Collins...
is the adult version of a lemon lime soda.
A little club soda, a little sugar is gonna be great,
great simple syrup.
Instead of just using water,
with the club soda, it'll give it a nice little fizz.
If it's gonna be a flavor representing Tom Collins.
You need a little bit of fizz.
Suzanna, is that you?
-Yes it is, Aarti. -You look a little different today.
Thank you.
-Hi, Cesar. -[Cesar] Hi.
-Thanks for jumping in today. -Definitely my pleasure.
[Aarti] So, a Tom Collins is sort of like a grown up lemonade.
-Yes. -It has to be a little bit fizzy.
-It to be a little bit fizzy, a little bit tart... -Okay.
-...a little bit sweet at the same time
-so you gotta try and find the perfect balance. -[Aarti] Okay.
You feeling like this is a little bit of redemption for you here?
-Of course. Of course. -Yeah.
This is a redemption for me, but I'm not doing this for me.
-Okay. -I'm doing it for these ladies right here.
-[Aarti] Yeah, they deserve it. -[Cesar] You know.
-[Aarti] All right, Cesar, it's good to see you. -Pleasure.
Uh, you're such a good teammate to wear that headband.
I know. Thank you.
It's very becoming.
Yeah, look at that. Nice [continues indistinctly]
A little gin.
With the gin, ah, so good. So good.
[Hannah] Cakes are out of the oven.
So, I'm soaking our orange cake with our...
orange liqueur simple syrup.
I'm adding brandy buttercream and then...
I will add a nice layer of lemon curd.
I decided to do a granola 'cause I didn't want to put just a plain...
toasted nut in there.
I wanted to do something a little more exciting and unique.
And I knew that it would maintain a really nice
unique crunch once it's in the cake.
And we just repeat the same layers.
♪ I see some big pumpkins over here ♪
I actually wanna keep the skin on this one.
I wanna give it, like, a nice brick texture.
So, I'm gonna make some brick imprint and see how that kind of works.
I know the judges have talked about having all the different parts of the piece
tell the story. So, if we're going to have a gator,
I want these nice scratches, um,
this is gonna be really old brick and I really wanna show that.
Ooh, my hand hurts.
-Got it? -[Cesar] You need help? You got it? You got it?
I work out just so I can pick up pumpkins, honestly.
I'm gonna scrape out all of this outside rind
and then start grooving in the details of all the barrel.
What I really like using are these tools that kinda have little teeth in them.
So, as you go down it kind of starts to give that wood grain texture.
And afterwards, I will give it kind of an aged appearance
using different color food colorings.
It's going to make it look just like wood.
Gotta have a big pumpkin for a big party, you know what I'm saying?
[Janira] I'm getting ready to build the zombie torso,
so I have a layer of cake soaked in the gin simple syrup...
that Cesar made for us.
The next layer is cherry popping candy buttercream
and this will get topped with the lemon curd.
[man] Hello.
-[Rudolfo] What? What? -[woman] Is this the twist time?
Five hours.
[Tammy] We really want the, like, movement of the croc-eye-dile,
his mouth open showing of his teeth
and trying to get the details of what makes a crocodile a crocodile.
So, this is called hands technique. Freestyle.
Just paint the fondant so I can create some texture.
[Tammy] Rudolfo starts hand painting a very bright green,
but then he's also over layering it with, like, browns and olives
just to give it that real crocodile type of look
and then I saw it halfway done and then I turn around
and it's a crocodile that looks like it's gonna walk of the table,
so it was really awesome how it all came together.
I'm getting ready to start working on the face.
When you wanna make cakes that look realistic you wanna understand muscle structure.
So, we made muscle structure out of modelling chocolate
and placing it just like you're building a real body.
So, the shell's gonna look like he's been dead a while.
He's gonna be ugly!
Let's see.
[Hannah] Yeah, that works. Don't you think?
[Reggie] It works perfect.
[Jamie] ♪ I love chopping pineapple ♪
[vocalizing]
Lollipop Lunatics, what is your old fashion cocktail?
Our old fashion cocktail is the Mary Pickford.
So, into this cake I'm making a brown sugar caramelized pineapple compote.
-Okay. That's smart. -[Jamie] Yeah.
Are we still gonna get the juicy bites of the pineapple flesh?
-[Jamie] Yeah, I should hope so. -[Shinmin] Good.
[Shinmin] Because as it cooks down it's going to shrink--
-[Jamie] Yeah. -And I think what's going to make
this fun is actually getting those bites.
-Definitely. Definitely. -[Shinmin] The texture of the pineapples.
[oven beeps]
Oh, yes!
Hot cakes coming in.
So, I've placed my maraschino cake
and now I'm brushing it so it's nice and moist and delicious
with my grenadine soak.
This is rum buttercream to create a dam to hold in my mousse
so it doesn't all just go blegh.
The compote is going to add a super awesome pineapple brown sugar layer
to the Mary Pickford cake.
And hopefully it all comes together as a bite that tastes just like a cocktail.
[thunder strikes]
[man] Oh...
-[Rudolfo] Ay, ya, yay. Here we go. -What's happening now?
Teams, I know how all of you must be feeling by now.
You've been dealing with shock after shock.
You're exhausted.
Maybe you don't know which way is up or how to get through.
Believe me, I've been there.
I think it's time to encourage everybody
to throw those feelings back into their work.
Don't you think, Eddie?
[Eddie] All right, teams. We want you to dig down deep
and come up with a way to add an extra fun surprise
for us to uncover in your cake.
Thank you, Eddie.
No, thank you.
Extra surprise.
To dig deep.
-You guys, so I have an idea. -Okay, listening.
-We have a zombie bouncer... -[Cesar] Uh-huh.
And when you give him the wrong password he collects your brain.
What if, 'cause this is gonna be open, right?
They have to go through and like grab the brain out.
-Yes. -Yes!
It's gonna be disgusting. It's gonna be awesome.
[Cesar] All right, guys, I'm making the brains right now.
I took gelatin powder, some of the club soda.
Feuilletine, the French style of corn cereal.
Give it that nice little funky feeling of the brain.
Add just a touch of red in here.
It's gonna set.
So, it should be a nice mass when you stick your hand in there
it's gonna feel a little... a little icky.
I think this is a difficult twist.
We're always talking to them about structure.
-Give us a strong structure. -[Shinmin] Right.
And this challenge, essentially, is saying,
"Go ahead and burrow a hole...
-Yes, exactly. -...through that structure that you
so carefully have built for us.
Some of these teams, I think, are set up to build
-a little surprise space for us, right? -Yeah.
I'm concerned, here, about Squad Ghouls.
Do they have a spot where they can build...
you know, a tunnel or a trap door or any of those things.
So, what if we took the pig head and peel back...
-some of his skin and reveal like a... -Ooh.
...candy, gelatin, gummy brain?
That will make them squirm. Ugh!
And then you have to eat the brain.
Oh!
Squad Ghouls, how's the party going?
Just getting started.
So, how are we feeling about this twist?
We feel good. It's very thoughtful. You gotta use your brains.
[laughing]
I gotta use my brains?
[Reggie] Give him a large glove, so he'll have it with him
-when he does his twist. -[Hannah] Oh, yeah. He might need that.
You need a large glove for that.
-Just be careful. -Yeah, just keep it with you.
Now, you're scaring me.
Uh, I think that may be a first...
here on Halloween Wars.
That's all I can ask for. Let's get this party started!
What do you guys think?
-[Jamie] For the twist? -Yeah.
I mean, when I see a big barrel I start to think about, like,
mobsters, like, hiding people.
-[Beverly] Right, they murdered and kidnapped, so... -Bones.
There's gotta be bones. Right.
-There's gotta be bones in there. -[Willy] Bones. All right.
I can make a modelling chocolate skull to go in there.
You know? The head of the victim and...
-Can you-- Yes! -Sugar bones. Sugar bones.
[Jamie] We decided to take all of our skills together
and build a tiny coffin with human remains inside of it.
We're going to hide this little coffin inside of our barrel.
I'm making a tiny little, itty, bitty skull.
It's so cute.
[Willy sighs]
[Jamie] Yes!
I can have the bricks crumbling.
And they can, like,
pull out the bricks that are crumbling.
But what's going to be inside?
Maybe a guestlist with he, uh, judges name on it.
Tammy, you got the list?
Yes. So, I'm writing out the hidden message.
I'm using wafer paper and illuminated edible paint.
So, we're going to have a secret message here,
they'll see in black light for any of the judges,
uh, to be able to pull this out, stick their hand in,
and then get their invitation to the party.
[Hannah] I'm going to make a gelatin brain
for the inside of our pig head.
We're using a blood orange puree with a little bit of sugar in here
and we're gonna set it with gelatin.
I'm gonna pour it into a pan of corn starch to help set it up.
The corn starch is, kind of, giving it a hug.
Making sure it doesn't stick to each other.
All my little squiggles.
[Reggie laughs scarily]
Yeah!
-[Hannah] Guys, we made brains! -[Reggie] Girl got talent!
[Janira] For the zombie face I have the chocolate skull prepared,
so I'm adding on the details with the modelling chocolate.
I attach one of the eyes.
It's a little too big.
But once he's all covered and he's all gory looking
you're not gonna notice it.
And the other one is gonna be falling out, so.
[Monique] You can model it after me in the morning. How about that?
-Pre-coffee. -[laughing]
Guys, should we see if the gelatin face worked?
-Yes. -[Willy] Ooh.
Came of pretty easily.
Can see through it, Willy!
Smells terrible. [laughing]
I'm gonna trim the rough edges of my gelatin face mask.
And I'm going to gently press it in here and blend in the edges
with some modeling chocolate
so you can't see where all those edges of gelatin are.
So, this was totally an experiment
and I am really excited that it worked.
-I need your wire cutters. -[Willy] Okay.
[Jamie] We wanna make sure that our ghost
actually looks like he's floating next to the barrel.
So, Willy had to hide all the armature
in the barrel without anybody noticing.
Willy has attached a wire frame
around Sir Ghouls-A-Lot to his long flowing trench coat
floats a little bit away from his body.
-[thunder rumbling] -[Rudolfo groans]
[man] Oh, my God.
Three hours!
Times a ticking.
What I'm about to do is, uh,
pour the, uh, isomalt for the martini glasses
that we're gonna be doing.
[Julia] Tammy's working on all the sugar art
that's going to be the great details
that pull everything together.
It takes a long time to make.
And now it's just crossing our fingers
hoping that it actually does pay off.
[Tammy] So, to add a little bit of texture and fun,
I'm gonna add just a little bit
of sugar crystals on the edge.
Torch this, torch this.
Now, I'm gonna start working on the snaketopus.
[Julia] To make her octosnake,
Tammy's using a pulled sugar technique
so that she could get the snake body and all of its legs.
But then she's also using the martini glasses
that she had with mold
so that way he's holding everything all together.
-[Tammy] What you guys think? -[Rudolfo] Oh, that's cool.
[Julia] Aw, that's so cute.
[Tammy] I wish I could hold that many martinis in my hand.
[Rudolfo chuckles]
-[objects clattering] -[gasps]
No, you did not.
[Julia] What? Did I do that?
Yeah, when you dropped the pumpkin on there.
I'm sorry, I didn't even realize.
What happened?
I put some pumpkin down and it shook the table
and I didn't realize
[Tammy] Not okay. Not okay.
Sorry, I had no idea.
[thunder rumbling]
[Julia] Sorry, I had no idea.
I feel so terrible.
This beautiful thing is now broken.
Is it fixable, can she put it back together,
does she have to start again,
does she have time to start again?
-[thunder rumbling] -What's going on?
-No, no, no. -Is Zak gonna--
Two hours.
Every time. Every time.
Just a few of the martini glasses salvageable,
but that's about it.
So, what I'm gonna do now is actually make a snake
instead of a snaketopus
and he's gonna be holding a martini glass.
I really liked my snaketopus, um, but it is what it is.
Things happen.
-[thunder rumbling] -[Cesar] You know what we need in this pumpkin?
-What do we need? -I think we need a hand coming from out the ground.
[Monique] How do you wanna do that?
I'm gonna cast sugar over my hand.
-What? -[Janira] Ooh.
[Monique] Isn't that gonna hurt?
We're gonna find out.
-You're crazy. -[Janira] Oh.
-[Cesar] I know. -You're wild, man.
I have never done this before.
This will be a first time.
It's always good to challenge yourself.
Here we go.
Oh, it's hot.
Stepped up my game.
All right, now I gotta just cool my hand off.
My hands are a little warm, I'm not gonna lie to you.
I'm taking one for the team.
I'm pulling my hand out very slowly.
It's going.
And it's done, ladies and gentlemen.
-[Janira gasps] Yes. -I got me a hand.
-[Monique] Yes. -[Janira] Spooky.
[Reggie] I'm gonna get working on building that pig cake.
-Give him a snout. -Yeah.
[Reggie] We're using modeling chocolate
to build out the snout of this pig.
And then our twist,
we're gonna put brains in him and cover.
[Reggie] We're gonna place the brains right on the top.
So, I'm covering our pig head with modeling chocolate.
So, we're gonna cover this, have the judges open it
and then be able to eat the pigs brains.
[Jamie] Bev is making the perfect armature
to make it look like a bear bottle is floating,
pouring into a glass.
I'm putting the beer modeling chocolate inside.
[Jamie] In order to make this effect work,
she needs to take this beer glass
and out a wire inside of it
so that she can build up from there.
[woman] Yes.
[thunder rumbling]
So, I thought about his arm, um,
and just having his arm just, you know,
holding the barrel or just dangling there
just didn't make sense to me.
So, I thought of amputating his arm
and kind of have like a bone sticking out...
One, it gives the zombie more character
and two, it saves us time.
Best of both worlds.
[Monique] Are you amputating his arm?
-[Janira] I totally am. -[Monique] I love it.
If we can do less limbs and more guts,
like, I'm for it.
[thuds]
[Janira] It's looking really good.
Better than I had expected.
[grunts]
All right. Figure out.
Yeah, that's it. It's sitting on there.
[Julia] I wanna create
a rabbit that has multiple ears
'cause rabbits are full ears.
Rudolfo, rabbit is mostly done,
I have to just spray paint it.
[Rudolfo] All right, give me...
I spray paint for you.
[woman] I need to make that bunny white.
[hissing]
[Julia] That white rabbit and the tunnel
somewhat gave me, like,
Alice In Wonderland type of vibe.
That looks really cool.
[Rudolfo] What else?
[Tammy] I'm gonna get another rat on.
All the finishing textures here
are really, really gorgeous.
Look at this croceyedile. [chuckles]
Yeah, look at the rats.
[Shinmin] Julia works with a lot of volume of pumpkin.
And I think because of that she tends to leave
a lot of the pieces unfinished.
But that was exactly what you dinged her on last time.
Yeah, yeah.
[thunder rumbling]
[Monique] All right, so, I'm fitting in the guts.
And then, we're gonna fit our brain and ribs.
These are pumpkin guts.
[Cesar] Okay, here's the brains, all ready to go.
Got some brains.
[in sing-song voice] Brains and ribs.
So, I'm putting pieces of brain
into the stomach here.
That'll be our, um, secret entrance kind of thing.
Easy. Easy.
Ah...
[Janira] Is that gonna hold?
All right, that's in.
-[thunder rumbling] -[Reggie] Hello.
-[Julia] No. -[Rudolfo] Oh, Lord, what, what?
Thirty minutes.
He just needs to go away.
So, this is, uh, we're gonna, we're gonna create a,
a real pumpkin disco light.
[Willy] Two more lights and I'm done.
[sighs]
[exhales]
Oh, my God.
[Jamie] Oh, my God. Is it gonna pull it down?
[Julia] Oh, my God.
That's scary.
-Hold it? -Hold that.
-Hold what, the pole or the pumpkin? -The bar, the bar.
[Jamie] The disco ball is way too heavy
and it's pulling the rod down into our show piece.
-Oh, my gosh. -[Eddie] Whoa.
-[Aarti] Oh, gosh. Oh, my... -[Eddie] Ooh, come on.
[Shinmin] I don't like this at all.
[Beverly] Is it too heavy?
-[Aarti] If that armature snaps... -It's...
...that disco ball falls right on top of that sugar.
Oh, wait, wait, wait.
Adjust that so it doesn't drop.
-Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, yeah. -See how it's kind of stuck a little bit?
-We are leaning. -[squealing]
Ah!
[Jamie] Are we done? Are we done?
[Willy] Okay.
-[thunder rumbling] -Ten minutes, teams.
Come on, let's rush. Let's go, let's go!
Let's go, let's go.
[Tammy] All right, push, push, push.
What do you need me to do?
[Reggie] Where's the knife?
Oh, man, we gotta hand guts.
Oh, that's nasty.
[hisses]
[Jamie] Cover that armature, Willy.
[Cesar] Yo, guys, let's go, finish, finish.
Okay, what else?
Ah!
[Beverly] It's a disgusting cake pole.
Times up!
[Zak] It's time to kick off
your undead underground party.
-[all cheering] -Oh, God!
[sighs]
[exhales]
Even that nasty pole actually looks pretty good.
-[laughs] -[Beverly] Yes.
Um, I forgot to put his freaking eyes in.
-[Hannah] No, I think it looks nice. -[Janet] Yeah.
It makes him look undead.
[Jamie] After a long day of protesting the Prohibition,
our friend, Sir Ghouls-A-Lot,
floats down into his favorite speakeasy
to get a totally illegal brewski
from his favorite bartender, Miss Polly Gaze.
I love Sir Ghouls-A-Lot.
I love that he's kind of levitating.
Gives a whole vibe of a ghost.
I wish you would have went kind of darker.
Darkened that wood to give
that like a real true, like, whiskey barrel
and give Sir Ghouls-A-Lot like a dark jacket.
-You know what I mean? -Mmm, okay.
And that will really have nailed home the Prohibition.
The way that you, Willy,
noticed those sprouting little bits from the pumpkin.
-You kept them kind of wet. -[Willy] Mmm-hmm.
So, even right now I'm watching the drip down.
-[Willy] Yup, yup. -[Aarti] That to me says underground.
Definitely.
Jamie, you did this really cool technique
that I actually have not seen in gelatin before.
Usually, something like that would be created out of sugar.
I really applaud you for trying something so different...
-Thank you. -[Shinmin] ...because you have this
floaty, ghosty, translucency.
And he literally does look like a ghost
'cause I can see through his head.
Let's try to figure out where the secret twist is.
Feel like I see a door knob and it says rum on it.
-[gasps] -[Eddie] Oh!
[Aarti] That's cool.
-What's in there? -[gasps] Oh, my gosh.
[Aarti] What is it?
-Ah! -[all laughing]
-[Aarti] That's awesome you guys. -[Shinmin] Oh, my God.
I love that you were able to put such fine little details in here.
-That's creepy, get that out of my face. -[all laughing]
[Jamie] I was inspired by the Mary Pickford cocktail.
In front of you you have a maraschino cherry cake
soaked with a grenadine syrup,
rum buttercream, vanilla run mousse,
brown sugar caramelized pineapple compote
and candied pecans to remind you
of snacking on some nuts at a bar
while you sip your cocktail.
One of the smartest things you did here
was to caramelize that pineapple.
It gave us this little bit of sweet flavor
that really shines against the rest of the sweetness here.
-Awesome. -[Aarti] And, but you still managed
to keep the integrity of that pineapple
so there's this really nice pop
every time I bite into it.
It's an amazing feat that you did not get the cake
too moist or too damp at all.
It's just absolutely perfect and,
and just holding it's integrity up next
to such rich other elements.
Thank you.
This cake is definitely a party in my mouth.
-[all chuckling] -My only issue is that
there's a lot of sweet elements
and I want more saltiness to kind of come through
to balance it out.
Thank you, Lollipop Lunatics.
-[both] Thank you. -[Jamie] Good job. Good job.
-Good job. -Thank you.
[Hannah] Our Chef Bones was kidnapped by bootleggers.
While everyone was out partying,
they needed something to eat.
So, he prepared his world famous head cheese,
assortment of finger foods and bat wings.
It's so funny 'cause, I mean, we all cook for a living
and we've all felt like this guy every now and then, [chuckling] you know?
But I particularly love, um, his arms.
There's so much detail, so much tension.
Even in the way that he's holding that cleaver,
he's not happy, yo.
No.
Finally, this is what I'm talking about.
Y'all are taking each one of your disciplines
and combing them together.
And they're not separated.
My only issue is that,
now it's all about, like, the fine details.
Those bottles that you have,
create some labels, so, we would know what that is.
Put some hooch on there.
-Mmm-hmm. -Like, something to let us know
that this is, like, Prohibition.
It doesn't necessarily speak to me
-as underground speakeasy. -Okay.
It looks like maybe an underworld kitchen.
-Okay. -So, I'm losing that space and time.
-Okay. -[Shinmin] The apple.
I think you blew that apple
when the temperature wasn't exactly hot enough,
so, it's really cloudy and it's really dense.
It's figure out where you have hidden this twist.
In the pumpkin, uh, in the barrel.
Yeah, I was gonna guess the barrel too.
I'm going straight for that pig's head.
[laughing] Oh, my gosh.
Oh... [laughs]
-Just grab it by the head and pull up. -Oh, God.
-[Reggie] Dig your fingers in and grab. -Ew.
Uh!
Oh, my gosh, what is happening?
[Shinmin] What is it?
-[Shinmin] Oh, my... -[all laughing]
[gags]
It's a blood orange gummy.
-[all laughing] -[Shinmin] Ew!
[Hannah] It's gummy.
Let's taste your cake.
[all laughing]
[Hannah] Our cake is inspired by the sidecar cocktail.
We have a orange sponge cake that has been soaked
with an orange liqueur simple syrup,
a tart lemon curd, a granola crunch
and a brandy Italian meringue buttercream.
[chuckles]
I got a fist bump.
Your cake is always, no fail, super soft,
but it holds up so well even to an orange liqueur,
even to the brandy.
This is about as perfect as it can get
to pairing a cocktail with a cake.
It hits every note of sidecar.
-You had a good taster. -[Shinmin] Amazing.
-[laughing] -Oh, you're doing all the tasting.
[Aarti] Give the taster some credit.
All right?
-Thank you. -[all] Thank you.
Thank you.
[Monique] So, here we have our secret speakeasy.
You have to enter it through the barrel,
but you have to give the right password
to our zombie bouncer.
You guys are grotty to the max.
[all laughing]
That eyeball falling out of his head
is such a smart choice
because there's nothing more undead
than when your eyeball rolls out of your head.
[all laughing]
[Aarti chuckling] So great job there.
Um, Monique,
I love that you darkened the outside of your barrel.
Not only does that make this a really moody atmosphere,
but it also brings out
a lot the etching that you did in there.
So, really smart choice.
Everything about this is screaming speakeasy to me.
From your color palette to your selection of items.
Cesar, I have to hit up on your sugar pieces here.
Because that hand,
the fact that you out your own hand through
-hot, hot, hot sugar... -[gasps]
-...to sculpt that piece there. -[all laughing]
I know, shivers, right?
It gives us this like, come-hither,
-um, alluring vibe. -[Cesar] Thank you.
I love this zombie.
Uh, I feel like this is the focal point.
And I feel like it's absolutely perfect.
All right, guys, let's try to find this hidden surprise.
Zombies like to eat...
-Eat! It's in his chest. -Brains.
[Monique] ...brains.
Stomach cavity.
Oh, my gosh.
-That's why you covered it up! -Oh!
[all laughing]
[Shinmin] Okay, okay.
-I got this, guys. -[Eddie] Yeah.
It's like a game of Operation.
Ew, it's... [gags]
[all laughing]
It's slimy.
[screams] My God! Gross.
Here you go, guys.
That's disgusting. Want some?
Feel it. Does it taste good?
-[gags] -[all laughing]
[Eddie] Uh, I think it's safe to say
that you're very successful in,
uh, [chuckling] in your twist.
It doesn't get much better than that.
[Shinmin] Yes.
-[Aarti] Yeah. -[Eddie] There we go.
-Yay! -[Cesar] So we were inspired
by the Tom Collins cocktail.
So, we did a vanilla cake.
Soaked it in gin syrup.
We made a gin lemon curd
and then, using Ms. Janira's beautiful buttercream
we folded that in with cherry popping candy
to get a nice little after fizz and fuzz.
Mmm, mmm, mmm!
[all chuckling]
I feel like almost every cake
now should be done with popping candies.
It is so much fun.
And I love how soft and moist this cake is.
The only thing is,
I would like a little bit more of this curd
and little bit more of the popping candies.
Because those two are really the stars in this cake.
I love how the lemon is coming through,
'cause, you know, Tom Collin,
the main fruit component is that lemon that's inside of there.
So, I love that it's a very lemon forward cake.
The down side of that is that, you know,
a Tom Collin's is gin
and gin has those kind of like juniper and the lavender,
I want a little bit more of that to come through.
I actually don't get any gin from it.
I think it could use some of that botanical nature.
It's a great cake, I just need some booze in it.
[Julia] Welcome to our mutant monster prohibition party
where just because booze isn't allowed
that will not stop these party animals
from having some slime for them to drink.
This definitely looks like an underground party.
Except we got some thugs in the house.
-[giggles] -[Eddie chuckles] And here we got
the croceyedile, it just stands out.
You did a really good job with the scales, the teeth.
I guess my issue is that it's very hard for me
to go from the way this crocodile
looks just like the mutant kind of vibe
to this fluffy little Easter bunny.
So, I almost wanna either do something with it,
like an action, like, you know, like, he's being eaten
or just totally get rid of it.
The coloring is very pastel, it looks very Easter.
It's so clean.
It looks like it's a different art direction.
So, it didn't even need to be on this board.
Tammy, your sugar work here is so incredible.
The delicate martini glasses, uh, with the salt on the rim,
the teeny-tiny little snake there...
Your work is good enough on its own,
you don't have to give us so much of it.
Okay, my friends, let's see if we can find this surprise.
You might have to go a little around
to see if there's any clues.
-[Aarti] Oh, wait. Oh! -[Shinmin] Party to die for.
[Aarti] Guest list inside.
-Oh, okay. -Right here.
-Go right for it there, Aartii. -[all laughing]
-Sorry. -[gasps]
-Oh, my gosh. -Uh-oh.
That was easy.
[Eddie] Uh, take Aarti off the part of this, please.
[all laughing]
-[Julia] So, are you on the guest list? -Ah...
We're invited to the party.
[Rudolfo] So, the cocktail that inspired our cake
is the Bee's Knees.
We did a lemon cake soaked in gin and lemon syrup.
And I did a honey cream cheese filling.
For the party in your mouth,
you're gonna find some popping candies.
You were not shy with those popping candies.
[all laughing]
I am digging the lemon vide
that this cake is giving me right now.
The thing that I'm missing though,
I'm missing that gin flavor.
And gin is hard.
You know, when you cook it, you lose a lot of that.
So, now you have to be creative
and figure out how you're gonna get that back.
Rudolfo, you bake my favorite type of cake.
-It is just so moist... -[Rudolfo] Mmm-hmm.
[Shinmin] ...and so spongey.
I wish there was a little bit more burn from the gin.
Just that extra little burn down the throat
would be fantastic.
The other part that's missing for me is the honey.
I wonder if you had, like, maybe caramelized that honey.
-[Rudolfo] Hmm. -And intensified that flavor.
Then you could've worked that into the cake here.
Pastry Pirates, thank you.
-[both] Thank you. -Oh, thank you, guys.
You were challenged today
to get a little boozy and a whole lot spooky
in your prohibition theme shindig.
Seriously, you all brought something to this party.
But, one team gave us a cake that absolutely blew us away
in both flavor and design.
I'm not talking about a fraction,
right, we were blown away.
Ghosty Gals.
-Congratulations. -[all gasping]
[Janira] Yes, we did it.
-For, Suzanna. -For, Suzanna.
-Aw. -Ah.
All right, so, Squad Ghouls,
Pastry Pirates and Lollipop Lunatics,
this party is gonna be over for one of you real soon.
Pastry Pirates, you got the party started
with the croceyedile cake and the amazing sugar work.
And your cake was the Bee's Knees.
Literally.
And while your pumpkin work was stellar,
it appeared a little unfinished in some parts
and needed some editing.
Lollipop Lunatics,
the engineering in your cake was absolutely amazing.
From your disco ball, to your floating ghost.
And you definitely got the party started
with your cocktail cake.
But the cake was lacking a little bit
of darkness and some depth.
Squad Ghouls,
you turned it around today
and we all agree that this is your best work yet.
And your side car cake was so soft and so sophisticated.
But, the pumpkin bottles faded into the floor.
And the apple, the bat wing and the finger food
were not as successful.
This was a seriously tough decision for us.
Lollipop Lunatics
and Squad Ghouls,
your safe.
[exhales]
[Eddie] Pastry Pirates, I'm sorry, you're going home.
Halloween Wars was like everything I expected
and so much more.
Learning from other teams, learning their techniques
and learning from the judges
was so humbling and so amazing.
Three teams.
So, that means that we're that much closer
to crowning our champion.
So, you know what that means, bring it.
-Yes. -Got it.
[Eddie] Next time on Halloween Wars...
Have you guys ever put seaweed in a cake?
-Seaweed? -[Eddie] The three remaining teams battle
to see who will make it to the Halloween Wars finale.
What is that?
[Eddie] Inspired by Zak's Haunted Sea Adventures.
[all scream]
I hate you. [groans]