JOEL: Last time on Crime Scene Kitchen,
cronut creator Dominique Ansel swung by to be...
- My expectations are high. - No pressure.
JOEL: Classically French.
Ronan and Katelyn won safety...
Yes! Yes!
JOEL: With palpable glee.
They must be terrible poker players.
Let's go!
JOEL: The other four teams picked up
their beaters and spatulas
and threw down over a comic cake.
My hands are shaking like they never did before.
JOEL: Lenore and Jessica's cake
came out of the scuffle with high praise...
I think it's the best decorated cake
ever seen on Crime Scene Kitchen.
We did it!
Yeah!
JOEL: While Becky and Daniel's cake
clearly took some hard blows.
- Oh! - You can see
that the red layer is being squashed.
We didn't impress Yolanda at all.
We could be in big trouble.
JOEL: But when the cake dust settled,
Jesse and Justin were the ones
limping out of the Crime Scene Kitchen for good.
Tonight, four teams of flour-flinging,
fondant-frosting friends and families
find further frustration and also...
Something that looks like...
JOEL: Apparently butt prints...
It does look like a butt print.
JOEL: While I stand on my mark
and say the quiet part loud.
Bake!
Yeah. It's hard work all around.
Is everything alright?
One team will flame out just before the finale...
♪ Bum bum bum ♪
...while the remaining three will battle it out
next week for the $100,000 grand prize.
Here we go.
Oh, my.
JOEL: "Oh, my" is right.
It's Crime Scene Kitchen.
♪
WOMAN: All four teams on set.
It's the semifinals.
Semifinalist!
JANUSZ: Top four. Only the best bakers are left.
The most skilled bakers,
the best detectives.
In the past, we've missed crucial clues.
This is the last chance we have,
and we need to hit it hard.
DANIEL: Last time, we almost went home.
We survived to slay another day.
BECKY: The Rosales family,
we have this wonderful opportunity
to make a 180 and go right back up to the top.
KATELYN: Coming into the semifinals,
we really want to continue our upward trajectory.
We won a safety.
We're just happy to be here.
No, we're here to win!
(Laughing)
Welcome to Crime Scene Kitchen.
You two teams of families and two teams of friends remain.
Bakers, congratulations.
You are just two bakes away from our finale,
which features a massive $100,000 grand prize.
(Cheering)
Yeah, yeah.
- Yeah! - Yeah.
And now, tonight's baking dungeon masters, our judges.
Because it's the semifinals,
Curtis and Yolanda will get judge-ier than ever
and have concocted two diabolical bakes.
Behind me is the crime scene kitchen.
A delicious dessert was created in there,
but it's gone missing.
You'll piece together the clues
and try to recreate the mystery dessert
- in tonight's safety bake. - (Exhaling)
And it's our most important one yet,
because if you win it,
you are straight through to the season finale.
We haven't won a single safety,
so if there's ever a time to win the safety--
- It's now or never. - It's now.
Like, we came here to win this money.
My husband said that if we win,
- I get a cat, so-- - (Gasping)
Let's go.
Bakers, you now have 90 seconds to search
- the crime scene kitchen. - What?
- Ninety seconds?
JOEL: That's the shortest time we've ever given you.
No.
KEIRON: We struggle with two minutes.
Don't take any time away from us, please.
Becky and Daniel,
start your search!
(Beeping)
Alright.
Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
LENORE: Hello, crime scene kitchen. It's been a while.
Cake pans, square cake pans.
Two sheet.
There's a Bundt pan over here.
Based off of all of the different cake baking pans
that we find, we need to make some kind of cake
in some kind of shape.
But I don't know what yet,
and we don't have a lot of time to figure this out.
Piping bags, three round piping tips.
- BECKY: Some type of parchment. - Mixing bowl, a serrated knife.
In the drying rack, I see three piping bags,
three piping tips, and some mixing bowls.
We know there's three of something,
whether it's colors, flavors, batters.
Definitely three.
- Vanilla extract, cocoa powder. - Two round ones.
- What's that? - What's that?
It's a sifter, and it has something red on it.
KEIRON: Perhaps freeze-dried strawberries
or raspberries.
Mm.
There are three different types of buttercream here--
pink, looks like chocolate, and vanilla.
- Maybe, like, Neapolitan. - JANUSZ: Listen and look there.
I see three palette knives, three different colors.
I'm assuming three different flavors.
My mind immediately thinks Neapolitan,
strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla.
Neapolitan makes perfect sense.
That's what I was just saying.
I feel cream cheese has been used.
There's loads of foil wrappers,
which I assume is cream cheese.
Could be some kind of filling.
Exactly.
LENORE: As I'm pulling things out of the garbage can,
I find all of these butter wrappers.
In the last one is a rolled-up ball of parchment
with cake baked onto it.
I'm like, "Aha. I found a clue."
Oil.
There are only a few styles of cake
that use oil as the fat instead of butter.
Must be a chiffon or maybe some sort of sponge cake.
Ooh, got a whisk
with some crystallized sugar on it.
A lot of egg shells.
Okay. We've got a beautiful cloche here with pink remnants.
RONAN: Whisk.
KATELYN: On the island, I see a gorgeous cloche,
and I see one or two rings of pink cake crumbs.
I need to keep looking.
A Bundt cake tin.
Oh, okay.
There's a palette hidden here. Color scheme, maybe.
Behind the fruit bowl, I see a sheet of parchment,
and it looks to be a piped scallop design.
This parchment is a major clue
for the decor element of our cake.
I hope people missed it.
- Sneaky. - Powder.
(Beeping, alarm buzzing)
- BOTH: Ten seconds! - RONAN: Ten seconds!
Okay. There's a meringue.
Egg shells in the compost.
Okay, but something that looks like--
It looks like a butt print, to be honest.
It does look like a butt print.
JOEL: And that is time!
Oh, my gosh.
JOEL: The crime scene kitchen is now closed.
Bakers, you'll now have three hours
to recreate the mystery dessert.
A spot in the finale is on the line.
Ready! Guess! Bake!
(Beeping)
- That was hard. - Oh, gosh.
That was definitely the hardest one.
- Strawberries, vanilla. - Mm-hmm.
- Chocolate? - Chocolate.
It was definitely frosting.
- Frosting. Okay. - Yeah.
(Janusz speaking)
I saw cream cheese wrappers in the bin.
I'm assuming they were cream cheese wrappers.
JANUSZ: What did they look like?
KEIRON: They were just plain foil.
JANUSZ: Definitely meringue was cooked,
because I've seen a whisk.
Maybe it was filled with cream cheese inside,
and then it's iced with Swiss meringue buttercream
- on the outside. - That's good.
- Yeah? - Sounds really good.
So, because we saw cream cheese foil wrappers
and evidence of meringue being made,
we're making a Neapolitan cake
with chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla cream cheese filling
coated in a Swiss meringue buttercream
with meringue kisses on top.
Have you ever put cream cheese into a batter?
- JANUSZ: No. - You never have?
- Never. - Me neither.
Okay. Let's talk about the bell jar.
From what I saw, it just looked like round--
- A butt print? - A butt print.
It's just, you know,
a good, tight butt.
(Laughing)
But do you think that it's something rolled?
How else do you get buttercream to end up on the plate?
Yeah. A vertical Swiss roll.
That piece of parchment,
that's the paper that you would peel off the cake.
LENORE: That's right. That's right. There were sheet trays.
In order to achieve the roll in this cake,
you have to do it with sheet cake.
- Lenore and Jessica. - Oh, boy.
- Guys, hi. - JESSICA AND LENORE: Hi.
JOEL: What are you guys making?
Yeah. We are making a vertical chiffon roll
with Neapolitan Italian meringue buttercream.
JESSICA: It's going to be a vanilla sponge
that's going to kind of look like a spiral.
I don't know if you heard,
but we only had 90 seconds today,
which I feel like was your doing.
(Laughing)
JOEL: Guys, the last elimination bake,
you literally nailed every component.
That was such an amazing feeling. Yeah.
JOEL: I mean, Yolanda Gampp said it was
the greatest decorated cake we have ever had on the show.
- Yeah. That was nice. - I was like,
"Is this what it feels like to win safety?"
A thing you guys still have never won.
(Laughing) Get out of here.
I am holding a knife, Joel.
I am holding a knife.
- Whites. - Whites.
- RONAN: Yolks. In between. - KATELYN: In between.
- Go team. - Go team.
Katelyn and Ronan.
- Joel, how you doing? - Hello!
- You feeling good? - Feeling good, excited
to be here and excited to make it to the finale.
We're just one step away from $100,000.
- KATELYN: Yes. - It sounds like you guys
are not that nervous.
It sounds more like, "We want it."
Oh, well, there's definitely nervousness.
- KATELYN: Yeah. - JOEL: Oh, there is?
- Yeah. - Alright.
What are you guys making?
Because we saw the round cake tins,
evidence of meringue,
and the scallop design,
we are choosing to make a two-layer chiffon cake
with scalloped Neapolitan Swiss meringue buttercream.
JOEL: Katelyn, as a baker,
other than Ronan getting in your way--
- It happens a lot. - JOEL: What's been
most challenging for you?
KATELYN: Growing up, I had pretty severe dyslexia.
Hey! So do I.
Yay! As a kid, it was hard.
You feel like you're left behind,
and creating a business where I have to write recipes
and write things online for hundreds of people to read
was definitely intimidating.
JOEL: Yeah. Without autocorrect, it would look
like I had just learned to write the language.
Me too!
It's really nice to talk with someone
who gets it and understands it.
- Yay! - Have you seen me
read teleprompter? There are producers right now
going like, "Yeah. He's..."
(Laughing)
How's the buttercream looking?
It just feels a little cold.
Let me just warm up the bowl a little bit.
Wah!
- JOEL: Oh, hey, guys. - BECKY: Hey.
- Hello. - Do you have enough butane?
- We're good. - Eh, alright.
- (Becky laughing) - What are you guys making?
We are making Neapolitan torte bites
with layers of joconde sponge
and Neapolitan Swiss meringue buttercream.
We saw a piece of parchment paper.
It looked like a cake was baked on top of it.
Could have been on a sheet,
and there was a serrated knife.
We're going to cut them into little squares
and then stack them up like a pyramid.
Is there any chance that this pyramid is going to lean?
No.
Last week, we had a disaster leaning tower
of a rainbow cake. Don't want that to happen again.
Was that the scariest moment for you guys on this show?
Oh, absolutely.
Definitely our lowest point.
We just tripped really hard last time.
I love Yolanda, and I really need to prove to her
that I am better at cakes than what I've shown her.
♪
KEIRON: $100,000, babe.
JANUSZ: I know.
Oh!
Thank you, sweetheart.
Oh, this is so split.
- Can't have that. - Okay.
KATELYN: This chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream,
it's just not the texture I want it to be,
and you can actually see
the butter particles separated from the water molecules.
RONAN: Mm-hmm.
I don't even know what is going on.
It's so split.
This is the semifinals.
We cannot serve a split buttercream.
It's going to be really grainy,
and we're not going to win safety.
RONAN: We are so close to the finale.
It just feels like everything's riding on it,
and that's a lot of pressure.
(Katelyn sniffling)
I don't even know!
Our chocolate buttercream has split.
I'm adding some cold cream to it,
and I'm trying to whip it up so it comes back together.
The split buttercream puts us way behind.
(Beeping)
JOEL: Ten minutes!
Guys, you can feel it in the air.
It's the semifinal,
and I have a new cologne.
So, what's happening?
The stakes have never been higher.
Whoever wins tonight's safety bake
are guaranteed a spot in the finale.
All four of our teams are making
some form of a Neapolitan cake.
CURTIS: We have one team doing a vertical roll cake.
We have one team doing torte bites.
Two teams are doing layered cakes
with Swiss meringue buttercream,
but one is going with cream cheese frosting for a filling.
- It's all about the details. - Mm-hmm.
I do have these separated if you want to use them.
- I think this is going to work. - Okay. Great.
Ronan and Katelyn are making a two-layer Neapolitan cake.
They were having some trouble with their buttercream.
YOLANDA: Yes.
That already looks much better.
Yeah. I feel good about it now.
Look at this. She's dancing.
She feels like she's got it figured out.
I don't know what's happening, but it is very exciting.
(Exhaling)
(Laughing)
CURTIS: Lenore and Jessica are making
a vertical chiffon roll
with Neapolitan Italian meringue buttercream.
They said that the pattern of the cake stand buttercream
looked like a butt.
- CURTIS: A butt? - YOLANDA: Yeah.
That's a bizarre description.
YOLANDA: A vertical roll cake is a lot of fun.
You ice strips,
and you roll it over itself like a spiral.
And then you turn it up just like a circular cake.
JESSICA: I want to make sure we get lots of layers in there.
LENORE: Mm-hmm.
YOLANDA: Lenore and Jessica also found
the same parchment paper with buttercream clue
that Katelyn and Ronan found,
and both teams have interpreted this in the exact same way.
It goes, "Bloop!"
And then I swipe it, and it goes, "Ugh."
Need a serrated knife?
- Oh, the big one. - Big one.
Wow. Oh.
Becky and Daniel are the only team
that are making Neapolitan torte bites,
which is basically just a mini version of a cake.
Daniel and Becky are under a lot of pressure.
They just made it into this round of the competition.
(Becky laughing)
KEIRON: This is a rush to finish, babes.
YOLANDA: Keiron and Janusz are the only team
to be using cream cheese frosting.
If they've got that right, that's a massive detail.
That could get them safety, or it could mean
they're a long way from the mark.
I'm working like a pig.
- (Beeping) - One minute!
Whew!
- You should work faster. - Oh, my Lord.
DANIEL: Let's go as fast as we can.
Be careful, because meringues are very soft.
I've seen this pattern so much, I can't focus.
I know, but we do not have time.
This could put us right into the finale.
JOEL: Ten seconds!
Ten seconds left.
ALL: Seven, six, five,
four, three, two, one!
JOEL: That is time!
The safety bake is over.
Scary.
Becky and Daniel, would you please bring us
what you thought was made in the crime scene kitchen?
CONTESTANTS: Oh!
- KATELYN: Very nice. - RONAN: Yeah.
Thank you.
KEIRON: What is that?
My God.
They don't have a cake.
They have Neapolitan torte slices.
Have we gone really wrong on this one?
DANIEL: We have prepared
Neapolitan torte bites.
Based off of the strip of parchment paper we found
and the serrated knife in the drying rack,
I thought thin-spread cake cut into strips to layer as a torte.
CURTIS: A Neapolitan cake is meant to be a bit of fun,
and this is certainly that. The beautiful dusting
gives you a really nice presentation.
But I wish I could taste a little more strawberry,
because chocolate just tends to win.
If Neapolitan tortes
are what pop out of this Confectionator
and you're the only team to have made them,
then you should be safe and straight through to the finale.
Thank you.
JOEL: Janusz and Keiron!
BOTH: Ooh!
Round?
What have you brought us?
Neapolitan cake with cream cheese frosting,
and it's decorated with Swiss meringue buttercream.
- And meringues on top. - I know!
Have you ever seen a cake with all these different elements?
I've never seen a cake that pairs cream cheese filling
with a Swiss meringue filling.
We found random wrappers of cream cheese in the bin.
- KEIRON: Well-- - The cream cheese.
♪
Guys, this is really good. Holy (Bleep).
(Janusz laughing)
I think the cake tastes good,
but it is a very light cake.
- KEIRON: Mm-hmm. - YOLANDA: And it's having
a hard time standing up to the cream cheese frosting.
Your Swiss buttercream is delicious.
The flavor of it's really good.
- Whew! - The big question is,
"Was there something made in the crime scene kitchen
that was a layer cake with cream cheese frosting?"
Then that might be enough to win you safety.
- Let's hope. - Well, cream cheese,
- here we come. - (Keiron chuckling)
JOEL: Ronan and Katelyn!
CONTESTANTS: Oh!
Oh, snap!
- That is gorgeous. - That is good.
Here we have a two-layer Neapolitan cake
with scalloped Neapolitan Swiss meringue finish.
So, they ended up doing a layered cake.
We found a parchment sheet
that was hidden behind the fruit bowl
that showed us what looked to be the pattern
of a scallop design on the outside of the cake.
Wow. Hidden behind.
How can we miss these clues?
The imprint on the stand was more circular,
so that's where I got the round cake layers.
It wasn't round.
CURTIS: It's cutting really nicely,
as you would expect if you've chilled this cake.
♪
YOLANDA: Your chocolate buttercream,
it feels a little bit thick.
CURTIS: Sadly, that chocolate buttercream problem that you had
- really shows up in the taste. - RONAN: Mm.
CURTIS: It's really separated.
However, the strawberry and the vanilla is really nice.
- Oh, thank you. - Thank you.
Lenore and Jessica!
- KEIRON: Oh. - JANUSZ: Ooh!
Okay.
- Looks very similar. - RONAN: Mm-hmm.
- Two and two. - Oh.
YOLANDA: What do we have here?
LENORE: This is our vertical chiffon roll
filled with Neapolitan Italian meringue buttercream.
Vertical chiffon roll?
It's very possible that we missed a major clue.
How confident are you that it's a vertical cake?
I knew it had to be some kind of roll cake.
- CURTIS: Uh-huh. - JESSICA: And then the bell jar
with the remnants of what looked like a butt print to us.
Looked like a what? A butt print?
- (Laughing) - Oh. Okay.
I don't know anything else that would leave an imprint
of buttercream like this and like this.
It looked like somebody dipped their butt
in pink buttercream and then sat on it. (Laughing)
Let's cut it.
Yay.
Wow! That looks great!
- Thanks. - Thank you.
Ooh.
So, we're all used to seeing a cake horizontally,
and this is just the opposite of that.
The trickiest thing about the roll is,
you're rolling several strips together
and building it up to get to a cake of this size.
- I'm very impressed. - Yay!
Thank you.
You've clearly nailed the execution.
It's lovely to eat.
I think the cake is delicious.
So are all three buttercreams.
BOTH: Thank you.
What could stop us from getting safety
is the fact that we did it--
- LENORE: Vertically. - JESSICA: --vertically.
We did a Swiss roll, which nobody else did.
Now for the reveal.
This is for a place in the $100,000 finale.
Confectionator 3000,
reveal the mystery dessert!
- After the break! - What?
- Got you! - CONTESTANTS: Oh!
DANIEL: Yeah!
(Exhaling)
Welcome back to the Crime Scene Kitchen semifinals.
The winner of this safety bake skips tonight's elimination bake
and goes straight to the $100,000 finale.
Here we go, guys.
Confectionator 3000,
reveal the mystery dessert!
CONTESTANTS: Oh.
Oh, my gosh.
We are so close to the finale.
- We want to be there so bad. - So bad.
Here we go.
Come on.
Show us the cream cheese!
Oh, my God. I really want a chiffon roll.
BOTH: Roll, baby, roll!
Roll, baby, roll?
JOEL: The mystery dessert is...
a Neapolitan vertical roll cake.
- Oh, my God. - KEIRON: Oh, you are kidding.
- Yes! - (Contestants cheering)
JOEL: Chocolate and vanilla chiffon sponge
stacked with strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream
and decorated with alternating scalloped icing
in the Neapolitan color palette.
Yolanda, how were our contestants
supposed to figure this one out?
YOLANDA: The use of oil
along with both brown and white crumbs on the cake stand
indicated chocolate and vanilla chiffon cakes were made.
- Brown and white. - Mm.
YOLANDA: The straight piece of parchment
with baked-on crumbs in the trash
suggested the sheet pans were used,
not the round cake tins.
The faint spiral pattern on the cake stand
told you the cake was layered with pink buttercream,
rolled, then placed upright.
The butt helped us.
YOLANDA: The alternating pink, white, and brown
pulled Swiss meringue icing on the parchment
suggested the design for the outside of the cake.
Evidence of strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate flavor
and the spiral pattern should have led you
to the multi-flavored treat Neapolitan vertical roll cake.
They're not overrated. They're cute and--
- I mean, yeah. - (Chuckling)
The team that has won the safety bake
and a place in the finale is...
Lenore and Jessica.
(Cheering)
Nice job.
Number one!
- We won safety! - (Laughing)
LENORE: This is the best one to win.
JESSICA: A safety into the finale.
I am-- I can't even--
- I'm elated. (Groaning) - It's the same.
CURTIS: Well, guys, you get to sit this one out,
but I am so excited to see what you bring to the finale.
Please, off you go to your celebratory stools.
- Thank you. - CURTIS: Well done!
- Congratulations! - Thank you!
Good job, guys. Good job.
- Ah, shucks. - Just missed it.
- Yes. - Yeah.
KATELYN: Our stake in this competition is on the line.
We have to come fighting hard to not be eliminated.
KEIRON: This is it. This is the last time
someone's going home before the winner is crowned.
So, we don't want to be that couple that goes home.
BECKY: It is really special to share this time together
as brother and sister.
Tonight's elimination bake
is when Becky and Daniel get our groove back.
It's time for the semifinal elimination bake,
where one team will be sent home.
(Exhaling)
(Katelyn exhaling)
JOEL: You will again have 90 seconds
to investigate the crime scene kitchen.
- 90 seconds? - Again?
Investigate as if $100,000 were riding on it,
because it is.
- Geez. - Okay. No pressure.
Ronan and Kaitlyn,
start your search!
(Beeping)
- Last chance. Let's go. - Last chance.
Alright. Let's do this.
Okay. There's a torn piece of parchment here with some crumbs.
RONAN: An eggshell in here in a bowl.
More parchment with, like, the corner.
RONAN: Okay. We have a whisk attachment, a drying rack.
In the trash, I see a ripped piece of parchment
that has a very defined chocolate corner.
I think we're making some type
of rectangle or square dessert.
Two sheet pans.
Okay. We have a whisk attachment,
a drying rack, serrated knife.
I know whatever we're making,
it's in these baking sheets,
and a serrated knife could mean
that something we're making was cut or layered.
A stand mixer bowl. Okay.
Coffee beans with a press.
I see a bag of coffee next to a French press.
I've never made coffee before.
I hope we don't have to make something
with coffee in it.
Coffee. Why there is a coffee?
What's in the fridge?
Eggs, cream, two sticks of butter.
And there's chocolate.
There's a palette knife down here.
It has a ganache.
Cream's being used.
We know chocolate's present.
So I instantly think chocolate ganache.
Look. There's plenty of egg yolks.
There's caramel being made.
Hazelnuts have been used.
Hazelnut flour.
Perhaps maybe a dacquoise.
The hazelnuts suggest that a dacquoise was made.
A dacquoise is a nut-based sponge,
in this instance, probably hazelnut,
and you fold it through a meringue.
So, I'm thinking dacquoise.
It could be filled with a chocolate ganache.
It makes sense.
BECKY: Hazelnut flour.
Alright. This is, like, maybe a dacquoise of some sort.
Some eggshells.
I look in the compost.
I find eggshells, but--
What is this?
--just as I'm about to move on--
Candied hazelnut.
I find a little piece of caramelized hazelnut.
This looks like it's just half of a hazelnut,
so there's quite a few different ways
that we could use this right now.
Egg yolks.
- (Alarm buzzing) - BECKY: Ten seconds.
Is this, like, a sugar syrup?
Chocolate on the spatula on the floor.
Okay. Chocolate, hazelnut.
- And-- - Caramel.
Look! There's a hazelnut.
They were roasted.
JOEL: Okay! Time is up!
The crime scene kitchen is closed!
Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
This elimination bake,
it is the finale on the line and $100,000 on the line.
KEIRON: We don't perform well, we are gone.
♪ Bum bum bum ♪
JOEL: Bakers, you will now have three hours
to recreate the mystery dessert for a spot in the finale.
- Bake! - (Beeping)
KEIRON: I feel like I know what it is.
- I feel like I know what it is. - You tell me what it is!
- Okay! - You tell me what it is!
I'm wondering if there was coffee grounds in the compost.
Compost. Ooh.
I'll tell you right now, I think I know what we're making.
Great. Let's confirm what we saw.
There was the offset spatula
with the dried batter on it.
That was a dacquoise.
Does it have chocolate? Because I saw chocolate.
Chocolate, yes. I'm glad you saw chocolate, because I didn't.
In the compost was that little caramelized hazelnut.
The only thing that comes to mind
with hazelnuts coated in caramel, broken up into pieces,
would be a hazelnut praline.
So, I think we're making what's called a marjolaine cake.
Ooh.
All of these components together,
there's only one thing in my brain that it equals to,
a classic French marjolaine cake
composed of hazelnut dacquoise
and hazelnut praline French buttercream
glazed in chocolate ganache
and decorated with caramel-dipped hazelnuts.
Just one more chance for redemption.
The only thing that's, like, tripping me up is,
you know, that corner that was ripped off.
I am stumped with this parchment.
Was it used to make a rectangle shape?
But the corner was ripped off for something.
So, are we cutting just one piece?
That's the only thing that doesn't add up at the moment.
I'm just going to do this small little prayer
that that parchment paper doesn't come back and bite us.
There was an imprint of chocolate ganache.
It's got a corner.
There's a definite corner
of chocolate on the parchment paper,
so whatever was made,
it was either square or rectangular.
The parchment paper gives me an indication
- it's probably slices. - Mm-hmm.
I knew it's a sheet cake,
and the serrated knife, individual slices.
- End of story, hon bun. - Yeah.
We're making crème pat first, yeah?
Yes, hon bun.
Oh, really?
Oh, my God, and there he comes again!
Guys, how's it going?
- Good. - Great, babes!
We feel like we know what we're doing.
You guys know what you're doing.
Hold on. I'm going to go tell the producers.
You're not going to believe this.
- (Laughing) - Okay. So, what changed?
We figured out, I think, all the clues.
So, because we saw hazelnut flour was used,
caramel on a skewer,
and a palette knife with chocolate ganache,
we're making a hazelnut dacquoise
with chocolate ganache, hazelnut mousseline,
and topped with a caramelized hazelnut.
Is it weird that this could be
your last bake of the whole show?
It is not our last bake of the show. Come on.
- You meanie. - I said it could be!
I didn't say it was!
It's not going to be, so we're not even thinking that.
♪
- (Grunting, exhaling) - KEIRON: Mm.
Is everything alright?
Yeah. I'm done.
(Laughing)
I'm working on the meringue for the joconde sponge--
- Okay. - Using the coffee,
because I feel like that's, like, a dessert you would make.
RONAN: Yeah.
Because we saw the dacquoise batter
on the offset spatula,
some type of hazelnuts, and coffee,
we are making a joconde layer cake
with hazelnut dacquoise, coffee whipped cream,
covered in chocolate with a caramel hazelnut on top.
Did we just burn it, adding it to hot water?
No idea.
KATELYN: We are members of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
and we choose not to partake in coffee.
And that's why we haven't had coffee before.
Okay. Will it burn if we try to reduce it?
This could be a $100,000 cup of coffee.
Wow.
- What do you think? - I have no idea.
How is your dacquoise?
- Dacquoise? - JANUSZ: Yeah.
That looks good.
CURTISS: Right now, the pressure couldn't be higher.
What our teams have to do is really stay concentrated
and make sure that they're not panicking,
they're not overthinking things,
because one mistake and they could miss out
at their shot at that $100,000 prize.
BECKY: Ah, I made a mess.
I'm just a little worried that the mousseline is a little soft.
JANUSZ: Okay, but they're in the freezer now.
They're not going to slice very evenly.
I know, but when it's stacked,
I'm just a bit worried.
- (Beeping) - JOEL: Thirty minutes
remaining! Don't give up on yourselves,
like your parents did when you chose baking!
(Laughing)
I'm going for it.
We don't really have enough time to chill the mousseline.
We need to get this cake assembled.
And time is ticking.
This is the one bake that I felt confident with,
and it's really not coming together how I wanted it to.
JANUSZ: Oh, we burned the caramel very badly
for the hazelnut.
Everything is going wrong.
This is not the time for this to happen.
JANUSZ: It's only 30 minutes left.
I do not want to go home because of the caramel.
What is going on here?
So, I'm just remaking some caramel,
because this one--
- Burnt it. - Burnt it.
I'm going to be on TV burning caramel
like a crazy person. Great.
- (Beeping) - JOEL: Fifteen minutes.
It's always down to the wire, isn't it?
Here we are at the triangle table.
Curtis, this is for a spot in the finale.
What are you seeing in these kitchens?
We've got three teams that are making
different variations on a very similar cake.
Everybody's making a dacquoise
layered with different types of fillings.
Some are using mousseline,
some are using French buttercream,
and there's even a coffee cream being made.
I really want to make it to the finale. I'm not ready
to go home yet, especially after making it this far.
Becky and Daniel are making a marjolaine,
layers of dacquoise, ganache, French buttercream.
It's usually garnished with hazelnuts
that have been dipped in caramel.
This is a difficult assembly that they're trying to pull off.
- Okay. I don't like that one. - RONAN: Okay.
YOLANDA: Katelyn and Ronan are making a cake
that consists of a hazelnut joconde,
hazelnut dacquoise, coffee whipped cream.
Okay.
YOLANDA: And now, they're coating each slice in chocolate.
They're the only team
that has included coffee in their bake,
so this could be crucial if they're right.
If they're right, then they're through to the finale.
- (Beeping) - Eight minutes!
- (Exhaling) - It's fine. It's fine.
- It's fine. - They need to chill.
We need to cut them, and that's it.
- We're okay. - Keiron and Janusz
are making hazelnut dacquoise,
hazelnut mousseline, chocolate ganache,
and then they're caramelizing hazelnuts as the garnish.
YOLANDA: He needs to clean up that mousseline
on the sides. It's just going to mix together.
- CURTIS: Right. - YOLANDA: They're not going
to get a smooth finish on the outside.
Oh, they're sliding, babes.
JANUSZ: Nothing you can do now.
- (Beeping) - JOEL: One minute left!
Oh. I don't know if that's going to set.
KATELYN: Oh, my gosh.
KEIRON: We've got literally no time.
JANUSZ: Come on.
- DANIEL: Ah! - Here we go.
RONAN: It's fine. Just breathe.
(Beeping)
ALL: Three, two, one!
And that is time!
- You did great. - Thank you.
God. Are you kidding me?
Janusz and Keiron, would you please bring us
what you thought was made in the crime scene kitchen?
BOTH: Ooh.
Hey.
So, we have a hazelnut dacquoise with chocolate ganache,
hazelnut mousseline,
topped with caramelized hazelnuts.
We saw egg yolks in the sink, sugar syrup on the stove,
so then I thought an Italian meringue has probably been made,
and then that would lead to a mousseline.
Were there any clues that led you to believe
it shouldn't have been a whole cake?
So, we saw parchment paper with a right angle of chocolate.
The size of it indicated individual slices.
Individuals. Interesting.
♪
YOLANDA: The dacquoise is very nutty in the best way,
but there were obvious structural issues.
- KEIRON: Yeah. - YOLANDA: My cake was,
you know, leaning to the side.
Ooh.
Sadly, your mousseline gets really lost.
It had been absorbed slightly by the dacquoise.
You really don't get much of it.
Looking back, I wish I'd just remade the mousseline
when I saw there was an issue with it.
Nothing we can do now!
JOEL: Katelyn and Ronan!
- Ooh! - Oh.
Beautiful.
DANIEL: Okay. They did four. Interesting.
Two teams cut their cakes into individual slices.
Was that what the parchment paper was for?
I hope we got this right.
What do we have here?
Here we have a joconde sponge made with hazelnut
with coffee whipped cream--
Oh.
Coffee?
--hazelnut dacquoise covered in chocolate
and garnished with a caramel hazelnut.
We found a bag of coffee next to a French press.
But we haven't brewed a cup of coffee a day in our lives.
- Okay. Let's taste it. - Okay.
(Exhaling)
There's a lovely hazelnut flavor.
I like the chocolate, but I do wish
that all your layers were the same height.
CURTIS: Wow. I love hazelnuts with chocolate.
It's such a classic combination,
but your coffee's a little overpowered by the hazelnut.
- BOTH: Okay. - It could come down
to the coffee, if it was used or not.
Becky and Daniel!
- LENORE: Wow! - Wow. That looks gorgeous.
JANUSZ: That is...
KATELYN: Oh, my gosh.
- That's beautiful! - That's gorgeous.
- One serving, huh? - (All laughing)
BECKY: All for you.
So, after piecing together the hazelnut
with the dried dacquoise batter and chocolate,
the thing that came to my head was a marjolaine cake.
I've never heard of a marjolaine cake.
YOLANDA: The piece of parchment in the trash,
another team interpreted that clue
as an indication that the cake needed to be cut.
Did you consider slicing this?
I'm more familiar with seeing a whole marjolaine cake.
Okay. Let's taste it.
We all know that Joel's the greedy one,
so he gets the end piece.
You can really see those gorgeous layers
of the French pastry cream
and of course the ganache right on through the center.
I'm going for this whole bite, guys.
Go for it.
Oh, he was serious.
This cake is beautiful inside and out.
Everything about this is really velvety and luscious.
It's the smoothest piece of cake I've ever eaten.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
I actually feel proud of what I'm presenting today.
BECKY: We are just feeling over the moon right now.
We received better feedback than we ever imagined.
- That's so amazing. - Thank you.
Good job!
But if a marjolaine cake
does not come out of the Confectionator,
our cake means absolutely nothing.
Welcome back to the Crime Scene Kitchen semifinals.
- Here we go, guys. - (Katelyn sighing)
To decide who's going to the finale,
Confectionator 3000,
reveal the mystery dessert!
Come on, Confectionator.
We're the only ones with coffee,
and if there's any coffee in there,
we could sail into the finale.
- I need a marjolaine. - Marjolaine, marjolaine.
It's coming. (Gasping)
It always feels like we've got a dose of luck on our hands.
I don't want luck. I want the right dessert.
- (Both gasping) - What is that?
JOEL: The mystery dessert is...
a marjolaine.
Layers of dacquoise, chocolate ganache,
and French buttercream topped with caramelized hazelnuts.
Curtis, walk us through the clues here.
CURTIS: The use of hazelnut flour
and remnants of nutty meringue on the offset spatula
told you a hazelnut dacquoise was made.
- BOTH: Yes. - We got that part right.
CURTIS: The sugar syrup, butter wrappers, and egg yolk
along with the candied hazelnut in the compost indicated
a hazelnut praline French meringue buttercream.
Why did we make a mousseline?
CURTIS: The chocolate ganache on the offset spatula
suggested ganache was spread on the dessert,
and while coffee beans were present,
the French press was unused
and a sign that the coffee was not part of the bake.
Once you put the pieces of parchment together,
the right angle of ganache
suggested a rectangular-shaped dessert was made.
The hazelnut skins and wood dowel with caramel
indicated caramel-covered hazelnuts atop the dessert,
all adding up to the classic French dessert the marjolaine.
- Wow! - (Daniel exhaling)
CURTIS: Daniel and Becky, you should be really proud
of the marjolaine you delivered.
Not only was it absolutely the right dessert.
It was also presented beautifully
and tasted exquisite.
What a way to make it into the finale. Well done.
- DANIEL, BECKY: Thank you. - Thank you, thank you.
BECKY: Seeing Daniel make something
that he is 1,000 percent proud of
is an amazing feeling as an older sister.
- So proud of you. - We killed it today.
- Big emphasis on "we." - (Becky chuckling)
The other two desserts
both missed some key elements of the marjolaine,
but we felt one was significantly further away
than the other.
We're sad to say the team leaving us tonight,
just before the finale, is...
KATELYN: It's a little frustrating
that under the pressure,
things haven't come together as we wanted them to,
and I don't want to go home.
I'm convinced we're going home.
(Katelyn exhaling)
...Ronan and Katelyn.
- Yeah. - Oh, no.
CURTIS: We're sorry, guys.
Using coffee made you the furthest away
from the flavors in the mystery dessert.
It has been so fun having you in this kitchen,
and you're clearly wonderful bakers.
And you should stand up with your heads held very high.
We're brimming with gratitude for this incredible opportunity.
It was such a puzzle and a joy every time we got to bake,
so thank you.
RONAN: This truly has been the experience of a lifetime.
JOEL: You are two of the most positive people
I've ever met.
You guys are my cup of coffee, actually.
Aw.
Oh.
JOEL: Ronan and Katelyn, everybody.
- (Contestants applauding) - Thank you.
- Yes.
Yeah, it's disappointing, but we've made it to the semifinals.
- RONAN: Mm-hmm. - KATELYN: My goodness.
We've made such incredible memories,
and we're so excited to share this with our kids someday.
I feel so lucky, because I get to see Kate work in her element.
I truly am spoiled, getting to see a master at her craft.
Gosh! I love you! Thank you!
Oh, goodness. I was doing so good.
- Happy tears. - RONAN: For sure!
I always hate how they cry in the goodbye interviews,
- and here I am. - (Both laughing)
Congratulations. You three teams advance to our season finale.
- Nicely done. - (Contestants applauding)
JESSICA: We are two bakes away--
- LENORE: Yeah. - --from $100,000.
That is insane. What's that?
My cat's going to be so happy.
(Jessica laughing)
Yes!
DANIEL: Total redemption for Becky and Daniel tonight.
Finale, here we come!
JANUSZ: Going to the final,
I think our detective work needs improvement.
We need to step it up.
It's an epic battle between Canada, USA, and UK.
Who's going to win?
Obviously us.
Join us next time for the Crime Scene Kitchen finale.
What you see will change you
and everything you've ever believed
about baking competitions forever.
- (Both laughing) - I'm Joel McHale. Goodnight.
- Well done! - Whoo!
(Chattering)
- Somebody's going to get hurt. - Well done.