Baking Impossible (2021) s01e01 Episode Script

Whatever Floats Your Boat

1
Welcome to the inventive
and delicious world of Baking Impossible.
If you take a dash of baking
and mix it with a sprinkle of engineering,
you get delectable dessert creations
and a brand-new frosted frontier.
The country's best bakers
and smartest engineers
have come together to form nine teams
who will compete for $100,000
and the title of World's Best Bakineers.
They'll bake and build incredible,
engineered mouth-watering marvels
- that will be put to the ultimate test.
- [people cheering]
Boundaries will be broken.
[Joanne] Oh, my gosh.
- [Andrew chuckles] Thought it was the tin!
- Wow.
[Justin] Unimaginable cakes
will be created.
The edible will become incredible.
Science has never tasted so sweet.
[theme music playing]
Oh, my God.
[Hannah chuckles]
- Holy smokes!
- Wow!
[laughs]
- [Edwin] I love it!
- [woman laughs]
Oh, my God.
- [woman] So cool.
- Hi, judges.
- Hello.
- Hey, Justin.
I have scoured the country
to find the best bakers,
the finest, most ingenious engineers,
and I've paired them together
to create some bakineering magic.
- [Steve sighs]
- And they've never met each other before.
[chuckles]
[whispers] Awkward.
[chuckles]
- Hey, how you doing?
- I'm good. I'm Mario.
- Joey. Nice meeting you.
- Nice to meet you.
- I'm from Lima, Peru.
- New York City, born and raised.
- Born and raised in New York.
- Right.
- So, what are those so many and pans for?
- [Joey] Sautéing.
- [Mario] Uh-huh.
- [Joey] I'm very excited to transform
from just a baker into a bakineer.
I love learning new things
because I'm competitive
in anything I put my hands in.
I don't let kids win. I'm sorry.
- Check this out.
- It's so
- I am Sierra. Um, I'm a cake artist.
- Pleased to meet ya.
Look at all this stuff down here.
I kind of like to think of myself
as just a general artist
who happened to choose cake as a medium.
We're gonna make some good stuff here.
My name's Edwin.
I am a self-described
underwater circuits performer.
I am an engineer.
I've built everything
from a functional manned submarine
to a glow-in-the-dark spirograph.
I've been inventing
pretty much my whole life.
At three years old,
I always had itchy toes.
So, I had taken, like, a toy RC car apart.
I pulled the motors and wheels out of it,
put it on the end of a stick and, boom,
I built myself an automatic toe scratcher.
Who is this person?
Where did y'all find him?
[laughs]
[upbeat music playing]
Well, hello. You guys ready for this?
These bakineers have no idea
what's about to hit 'em.
[female announcer] Mission launch
in three, two
- Whoa.
- one. Go.
- All right, let's do it.
- [Jacob] Let's go.
[Edwin] We're ready.
[Taylor] Sailboats?
- We have to build a freakin' boat?
- Sailboat?
[Mario] My God. Must have
at least one sail.
Servo and rudder, that's my thing.
[Brandi] Okay, so cake base,
that's for me.
[Sara] Forty-five seconds
and seven knots. That's
- [Rodolfo] How fast is that?
- [Sara] It's medium on a home fan.
Are you kidding?
Oh, my goodness.
[Justin] Andrew, you're a true mastermind,
an evil genius at the intersection
of baking and engineering,
the nucleus of this operation.
You are a brilliant,
Cambridge-educated aerospace engineer
with an incredible expertise in baking.
Combining those two worlds
of baking and engineering,
- I came up with "bakineering."
- [Justin] Just like that.
Tell us what these teams
have to bake and build today.
Each team will have nine hours
to create their incredible,
edible sailboat
with a built-in servo and rudder system
that they'll use to help steer it.
- What is a servo and a rudder?
- That lets us control the rudder.
That's what we're gonna use to move it.
Probably means it's remote-controlled.
- So they're gonna need it to steer, right?
- [Sierra] Oh, wow! That's amazing.
[Andrew] Their boats have to be
at least two feet in length
and their boats will have to face
the stress test
that we've designed
specifically for this mission.
They'll have to sail their creations
across nearly 20 feet of water
in under 45 seconds.
- Whew!
- [Andrew] The vessels have to stay afloat
if they wanna go the distance.
This is a tough mission.
Food isn't meant to float.
So, we're demanding incredible ingenuity
to make the impossible
just about possible.
From an engineering standpoint,
basically, whatever we build,
we just have to consider
that we need buoyant force
to be greater than gravity.
And the force of the wind has to be
greater than the friction force
of the water against the boat.
And it needs to be waterproof.
- Yeah, that's a critical detail. [laughs]
- So the water doesn't get into the cake.
I would say you could build
the entire boat out of chocolate.
Okay, why do you say that?
It repels water. It's oil-based.
And as long as the water is cold water,
it won't melt.
So, the only thing
that I can think of that would float
- Yeah?
- is Rice Krispie treats with chocolate.
If these boats are gonna survive,
the first thing is recognizing
- that cake is usually not waterproof.
- [chuckles]
A boat must be waterproof.
We've got Dr. O, you're a
Stanford-educated, PhD rocket scientist,
astrophysicist and inventor
with seven patents. Do you sleep?
- Power naps, man. [chuckles]
- [Justin] Okay.
I'm gonna judge it based on engineering.
If it's not well-engineered,
it won't survive.
There's something called dead dough.
In the cake world,
it doesn't have any yeast in it.
It has two types of flour,
but it's so strong.
We've got Chef Joanne Chang,
one of the most accomplished
and celebrated pastry chefs
in the country.
You've won a James Beard Award.
You run nine successful bakeries.
You've written five cookbooks.
You also happen to be Harvard-educated.
I decide
if they pass or fail in the baking.
I'm gonna be judging them on the taste.
I'm so excited to see what they do
with all of those ingredients
that are back in the pastry kitchen.
On top of having to make
a functional boat that's edible,
they also have to incorporate a dessert
into the boat's design
so we have something to taste.
I think what we should focus on is
- what theme we want for our boat to be.
- Okay.
What about
This is one of my favorite cakes
that I've ever done.
a Willy Wonka-inspired candy boat?
- Like the candy man?
- Like the candy man.
Instead of the drunk boat theme,
'cause it's so old-school,
why don't we update it?
- Like a party boat? Yes.
- A party boat, since I'm from Miami?
- What about Medieval Renaissance?
- We could totally do it.
How many sails though?
If it has seven knots of wind,
we could do two.
I'll run to the pantry
and grab some of the things I need.
[Hannah] All right. Let's go, let's go.
Pantry, pantry.
- [Mario hums]
- [Randi muttering]
- How many trays of eggs do you need?
- [Steve] Two.
- You definitely can't get these.
- See, this is why we have you.
- This is why we're together.
- Yeah.
[Randi] Measure out
30 ounces of marshmallows.
[Jacob] All right.
Said one tablespoon of butter?
Take one tablespoon.
Don't want too much fat.
For Rice Krispie treats,
it's not always precise.
[Jacob] This is a horrible job.
[Randi chuckles]
So do you think
that this is going to weigh the boat down?
I do, but given the volume of the boat,
I think this isn't gonna be an issue.
It's how to think of it. If our boat
isn't heavier than water it's displacing
- [Cindy] I like it.
- [Taylor] We're good.
Perfect. Beautiful.
You're officially a baker now.
- Oh, my God.
- Oh, my God.
That's all it took.
Taylor and I are making
a butterfly sailboat
made out of dead dough,
coating chocolate and rice paper.
It's very strong.
It doesn't have any yeast
or anything in it, so it's very stable.
What's that smell like? [sniffs]
- Oh. Like dough.
- [chuckles]
I didn't wanna use Rice Krispie treats.
Rice Krispie treats are really finicky
with water and just moisture in general.
[Taylor] This mold is inspired
by if you were doing a carbon fiber layup,
where the foam mold is foil
and the carbon fiber is dead dough.
As an engineering system,
this has to float across the distance
and has to be a certain size.
- I have to get on the table.
- This is awesome.
So, it needs to be strong,
it needs to be heavy,
and it needs to be pliable and workable
so we can get it into the shape we need,
and dead dough checked all the boxes.
Oh, that was smooth.
[Cindy] Dead dough is
so structurally sound.
Careful, don't burn yourself.
You could hurt somebody really bad
- with a really hard piece of dead dough.
- [chuckles]
- Cindy, Taylor.
- Hello.
- What's up?
- What's up?
- [chuckling] Nice to meet you guys.
- We've got some good energy flowing.
Her cake artistry
and my engineering skills
are multiplicative, not summative.
- It's great.
- Tell us a bit about yourselves.
- I'm a little weirdo.
- [all laugh]
I just like quirky designs.
Look, I'm making a butterfly boat.
Fantastic. What type of cake
are you going to make for us?
I am baking a vanilla chiffon cake,
and it's going to have
lavender-infused cream.
And then some fresh blueberries,
cut the sweetness.
We're kind of playing
on the theme of flowers and whimsical.
Since butterflies,
I'm pretty sure,
- like lavender.
- [Andrew chuckles]
That sounds wonderful.
[Cindy] I've been
doing this for over ten years.
My favorite aspect of it
is connecting with my customers
and also the decorating part of it.
I remember, as a little girl,
watching baking competitions.
I was like, "Okay, this is it.
This is for me. I'm good."
But coming from an Asian culture,
you're taught to either be an engineer,
a doctor, um, a lawyer,
something that makes money.
This competition is really important to me
because I do want to inspire
other little girls
and I just want them to know
that they can I'm getting emotional!
- Oh!
- I just want them to know
that they can shoot for the stars.
Oh, my God, why am I crying?
Can we restart that?
- I don't know why it makes me emotional.
- 'Cause you care about them.
Taylor?
What's your background as an engineer?
I normally work
on electro-mechanical systems,
but usually I do stuff that I describe
as a creative technologist.
Like how do people feel about
the computer they use
and the shape of the mouse,
or the size of the window.
I'm a mechanical engineer.
I'm originally from Los Angeles.
I knew I had an engineer's mind
when I was little
and I'd do mixing projects in the kitchen
where I'd just take random things
and see what happens
when you put them together.
The thing I like most
that I've built recently is Cheeseborg.
It's a grilled cheese-making robot.
You ask it to make you a grilled cheese
and it assembly-line-style
pops out a grilled cheese,
hot and fresh for you to eat.
Can you tell us about how you're creating
and engineering the boat?
- Yeah. This is dead dough.
- And is it heavy? Is it light?
It is pretty heavy,
but calculations have told us
we have a lot of weight
we can play with with this.
Do you think it's gonna hold?
Um, yeah, I'm not hesitating.
I'm pretty confident with this.
- There was a little hesitation there.
- There was. [chuckles]
- [upbeat music playing]
- [timer ticking]
So, this is gonna be our hull form.
There's two of these for each hull.
I'll cut these on the laser cutters
and then bake them in that shape,
help us get the Rice Krispies treats
in the right shape.
- What is it made of?
- It's wood, so we can't get it too hot.
Oh, shoot, I didn't know you could
bake wood. That makes sense.
- You can as long as Yeah.
- [chuckles] Nothing's gonna catch on fire.
We're going with a catamaran design,
which uses two separate hulls.
We'll have to build two boats.
Twice as much work,
but we think it's gonna be more stable.
[Sierra] The cake is going to be
this really moist, delicious, vanilla cake
and it has this pineapple filling
and a coconut rum wash,
'cause mama likes her cocktails.
[laughs]
Just cuttin' with my laser ♪
- I have power to the receiver, Steve.
- [Steve] You do? Okay. That's great.
- [Renee] We got a working rudder.
- All right.
Steve and I are making
a dual hull sailboat
completely made out of chocolate.
It's gonna be sushi-themed.
Both of the hulls will be weighted
so they're identical,
then the sail
will be made out of chocolate.
[Steve] The dessert portion of this boat
is going to have a sushi theme to it,
with Yuzu and passion fruit
on a white chocolate mousseline,
rolled in a genoise sponge.
I'm actually heating up my eggs and sugar,
so it's gonna whip quicker
and give me the ribbon effect
that I need for the sponge, okay?
It's the Renee and Steve show ♪
[upbeat music playing]
I got my white gel coating chocolate.
- [Mario] What are you gonna use that for?
- It works like glue.
- Excellent. That I understand.
- An edible glue.
[Mario] Alrighty, we have wings.
Wing structure.
We're going with a fantasy boat.
We're gonna do a sea creature.
In this case, a dragon.
Wings are gonna open and close,
like, "caw-caw," you know?
Okay, you make
The noise makes me feel better.
What we got here is a wafer paper.
White chocolate in the middle
to give it that natural bat-wing look.
[Mario] The servo motors are gonna allow
the wings to open up 180 degrees.
[Joey] I'll hit you with the dessert.
It's an almond cake.
I'll fill it with apples and put it
on a cookie dough shell
with a little bit of rum glaze,
touch of almonds, touch of apples,
home run.
- I'm gonna Patrick Swayze these, baby.
- Yeah You can do it alone.
We're not doing it like the movie.
- [intense music playing]
- [timer ticking]
I'm gonna keep shaping the boat,
and when I'm making progress,
I'll call you over here to check it.
- Okay?
- Love it.
What I'm gonna do with the dragon head,
I'll make it sculpted
then I'm gonna split it half
because I need to run the tube.
Okay. I don't know what to do
about this back rudder part, though.
- [Menuka] I'll take care of that.
- I gotta start coating with chocolate.
Explain to me the process
of adding the rudder. What has to happen?
[Menuka] Have to cut a channel.
[Brandi] We're gonna make a Viking ship.
The hull will be rice cereal treats,
edible fabric
to make the sail on the boat.
For the delicious dessert,
chocolate Viking hat cake pops
with some bourbon pecans and butter cream.
Man, you can smell that bourbon.
Smells so good.
[upbeat music playing]
[whirring]
- If you need chocolate, it's here.
- Okay.
Gonna use these wine bottles as support,
which I probably should never say
to my therapist.
[both laugh]
[Sara] Okay. I'm gonna start gluing.
Rodolfo and I are making a pirate ship,
and it's going to be made
with some rice rolls and chocolate
and pretzels and pasta masts
to hold it all up.
And our dessert is going to be cannons.
[Rodolfo] We're going more dark
on the chocolate cake
with a little brown chocolate mousse,
and dark ganache with pistachios.
And a little bit of orange zest.
- Yeah.
- So we can fight off scurvy.
[Rodolfo] Ah, very good for an engineer.
[both laugh]
- [intense music playing]
- [timer ticking]
[Jacob] How do I tell if they're done?
- Randi, I need your expertise.
- [Randi] Okay.
- No.
- Nope? All right.
Swiss meringue buttercream is basically
It's a meringue as well,
but then you cook it 165,
and then you add butter.
- [Edwin] That smells really good, Sierra.
- Yay!
This is chocolate,
but we're using it as glue.
Being a bakineer is very hard.
There are edible materials
that I'm not familiar with.
Right there.
You see the fault lines?
Right there. Easy, easy, easy. Good.
- Ooh, that was a critical point there.
- Like that?
They feel clumsy,
they are messy and they
don't mix very well with electronics,
but I'm sure we'll pull this off.
Check this out.
- One eye, two eyes.
- [Joey] No, not wrap.
- [Mario] Like veins.
- Hold on.
These are the eyes and then we coat.
I'll coat first,
and then we can think about cake
and all that stuff.
I am currently making a mold on Saran
with rice cereal.
Yes.
[cans hissing]
All right. So
The question is,
how do we make this thing stable enough
with the bridge deck
so it'll hold together?
So I'm worried that we put this on here
and then we have another piece on here.
- [Sierra] Yeah. It's just gonna fold up.
- The way they float, it's just not gonna
That doesn't give me confidence
that it'll hold together.
Our original idea was catamaran.
But I think we can do it with one hull.
If we're making one boat, we have a boat.
- Do we really?
- Yeah. We put a mast in this thing.
We don't have time
to redesign a lot of stuff.
You don't wanna make it a catamaran
'cause these are too big?
- [Edwin] Yes.
- [Sierra] All right.
So then, my next thought is
how to make it look attractive
and where to put the cake.
Forget the catamaran.
We've gotta go with something new.
It's time to pivot.
So, we got to build a monohull.
We're gonna pivot fast.
I'm a little bit worried.
We only have hours left,
so for Sierra and Edwin
to be doing a redesign at this point
is really concerning.
I think they're gonna be in trouble.
[Sierra] I'm gonna go look
for some candies,
make it so it can just be a candy cake.
We'll call it The Good Ship Lollipop.
- Cool.
- You like it? That's perfect. Okay.
[upbeat music playing]
[steam hissing]
[Cindy] The back is
definitely gonna fall off.
The front is too.
[Cindy] Oh, yeah.
At first glance, it's not doing so hot.
We probably made the dough thinner
than we should have,
but we didn't wanna make
something too heavy.
- Okay, we got a big pop there.
- [Cindy gasps]
- [Cindy] And down there. It's gonna break.
- Okay, then let's leave it down.
Yeah. I say leave it,
and then we'll do the
Maybe we could even just do, like,
a layer of chocolate
and, like, move it to the fridge
and let it set.
- Sure. I think
- Or modeling chocolate.
I think we want something ugly
and strong here and then we'll cover it.
- [Cindy] So what do you think?
- [Taylor] I kind of think isomalt.
Isomalt acts like a thermoplastic.
So, all I have to do
is heat up basically molten sugar
and it became this goopy dough.
Kind of the spirit of bakineering, right?
Something goes wrong,
come up with a new ingredient or process
using the isomalt to seal those cracks.
It's what we wanna see from our teams.
They're being ingenious,
thinking on the fly, learning.
[saw whirring]
I'm just gonna do it.
I've always wanted to do this.
- We are down to four hours.
- [timer ticking]
Four hours.
Oh, my gosh.
In terms of integration, what's left?
Okay, we have to build the middle hull
and put the three all together.
[Renee] Okay.
- Rodolfo? How's it going?
- Yes, sir. Very good.
[Justin] What are you doing?
Uh, so I'm cutting chocolate.
I'm making the cabins of the pirate boat.
- Amazing.
- So, that's how I heated up the knife.
Where are you from, Rodolfo?
I'm from Brazil, but I'm living
in New York for 17 years.
- Why'd you move to New York?
- Seinfeld fan.
- Seinfeld fan?
- Yeah, and I wanna live that dream.
And here I am.
I'm from Brazil.
In 2004, I won the lottery
for the green card.
So, I came to America,
to New York City, my dream city.
I was a web developer,
but when I got to America,
I didn't find any job.
Let's try to go 100% edible, okay?
No structure.
My first job was in a kitchen.
I was so, like, mad.
I study all my life,
now I'm in a kitchen? [chuckles]
But, uh, I felt in love with the
All the process,
how you make everything happen.
I start baking around 2006
and then I started,
little by little, building my business.
Since then, right here,
living the American dream.
- How's it going with Sara?
- [Rodolfo] Very good. Clicked right away.
- [Sara] Hi.
- [Justin] We're talking about you.
- Uh-oh, good things?
- Good balance.
[Justin] About the instant chemistry.
Look,
you're already beating each other up.
- Bakineer spouses.
- He's my work husband right now.
- Absolutely.
- Wok husband, work wife.
- That's right, you're my first husband.
- Ah! Sure.
[both laughing]
- I have a wife.
- [all laughing]
[Sara] Chantelle is my lovely,
amazing, beautiful wife.
We will have been married ten years
this coming New Year's Eve.
I don't think
I'm the easiest person to be with,
but she manages
to keep up and forgives.
Doesn't maybe always forget, but forgives.
She is the light of my life.
- Can't wait to see what you do.
- Thank you.
- I'll get out of your way.
- [Rodolfo] Thank you, man.
[beatboxing]
Manuka, can you beatbox?
No, but I can dance.
- Try it. Try beatbox.
- No, I don't know how to beatbox.
You should beatbox,
you can work while you do that.
[saw whirring]
Look!
- That's gorgeous.
- [chuckles]
[Cindy] Okay, I like it.
Ooh, cool.
- [timer ticking]
- [Justin] Teams!
- Three hours left!
- [groans]
[Mario mutters]
- [Joey] We're taking on a lot of water.
- [Mario] Let go.
[Joey] It's gonna capsize.
We're too heavy in the front
with the head.
- Gotta add weight to the back.
- [Mario] There's a hole.
[Joey] That's bringing it up?
- 'Cause I feel unbalanced.
- It's balanced. She's not unbalanced.
She just has a hole here.
Let me check really quick. Okay.
- Well
- Alrighty.
There. That's why we test.
It just started to absorb little by
Like a sponge on the inside.
Now, it's cased in chocolate.
The chocolate looked great,
but on the inside is where damage is.
Almost like, I guess,
termites eating away from the inside out.
[Mario] We have
a major structural problem.
[Joey] This is where it got wet,
from the skewers.
Yeah. It's collapsing on us here too,
Joey. All of this is bad.
We need to restructure the bottom.
Cover it with, uh, more rice cereal.
Okay. All right. It seems like
But, uh, we need to find
something else for buoyancy.
- 'Cause you're gonna wanna put more.
- I wanna put more.
We're noticing that the boat is heavy
without any
of your beautiful decorations on it,
so we'll need some buoyant force.
Do you think they have things
not for baking but, like, cooking?
- Sausage?
- Sausage case?
Yeah, we could blow them up like bladders.
We found some sausage casings
- which you can blow up
- [Rodolfo chuckles]
and they have some natural buoyancy.
I'm gonna go for it.
Oh, my God. They're like a giant,
tangled, freakin' knot.
[groans]
So I can get some lift,
and really hoping
that the sausage casings on this side
are the same buoyancy as on this side.
Oh, look at this.
[chuckles] That look gross.
I don't know what this is.
It is gross.
You want me to make you one?
I'm gonna make you a balloon animal.
Ooh!
- [upbeat music playing]
- [timer ticking]
[Justin] Bakineers, time is ticking.
- Two hours left.
- Whoa! That was quick.
Renee, come here.
- Cool spray from the front.
- Here?
Where do you think is the best weight-wise
to put this cake?
Middle is good. If you put it
on the sides, put it on both.
Okay.
- [Edwin] How heavy is that cake?
- [Sierra] Uh
Maybe four pounds.
Three pounds. Two pounds. I don't know.
All right. Weight on top cancels
weight on bottom. We gotta go with it.
- I think
- Okay.
There's a decent chance it might tip over,
but we're gonna make it beautiful.
[upbeat music playing]
[Taylor] They may not catch wind,
you know?
[timer ticking]
Teams, only 30 minutes left.
- Wow.
- [Brandi] All right, turn the boat.
- [Renee] Okay.
- [air hissing]
[Sierra] Okay, so now
I'm gonna put the cake back on.
All right, judges, wanna head
to the activation room?
- They seem ready.
- Let's do it.
[dramatic music playing]
Bakineers, our illustrious brain trust
is heading to get things prepared
for the stress test.
Trust me, a storm is a-coming.
Rudder's working. That's perfect.
And how sure are you
that this is gonna float?
After looking at the amount of weight
- that we have on top
- [Sierra] Uh-huh.
I give us fifty-fifty.
[dramatic music playing]
[Shanice sighs]
[Sara] Come on, work with me, intestines.
It actually looks like a sea monster.
Now, when this goes up,
will it hold enough weight?
- Wanna heat up some chocolate quickly?
- [Renee] Yeah.
Three minutes.
[Justin exclaims]
- No!
- Three minutes?
- We gotta finish.
- Batten down the hatches.
Here goes.
We have our sail.
[Renee mumbles]
I Right.
[Renee gasps]
[Steve] It broke. Lost the pagoda.
Where's our temper chocolate?
Grab the temper chocolate.
Now it's crunch time.
Let's get this thing done.
[dramatic music playing]
- [Mario] Last touches.
- No, the other way.
Last touches. There you go.
The clock is ticking
and the isomalt is melting.
Go grab the batteries.
- [timer ticking]
- Ten. Nine.
- Hurry up.
- [Justin] Eight. Seven.
- Six. Five. Four.
- [Sierra groans]
Three. Two. One.
Gears up.
- Ganache down. Your time is up!
- [all applaud]
[Renee whoops]
- [Sierra] Oh, my gosh.
- I wanna just cry.
I think it looks absolutely gorgeous.
[Justin] Okay, teams.
Follow me.
[dramatic music playing]
Bakineers, are you ready to see
the rough waters you'll have to weather?
- [Joey] Yeah!
- [Justin] Behold.
[all gasping, cheering]
[Edwin chuckling] Look at that!
- [Sierra] Whoa!
- [Taylor] Wow.
[Brandi] Oh, my gosh.
[Jacob] That is so cool.
[Renee chuckles]
[Justin] Ship is about to get real, guys.
Bakineers, welcome to your very first
Baking Impossible stress test,
or as I like to call it, the Sea of Doom.
I thought we were calling it
The Motion of the Ocean?
[all laugh]
Propelled only by the wind
and your hopes and fears,
each of your boats must navigate
all 20 feet and 6,000 pounds of this tank,
from the start to the finish line,
in under 45 seconds.
[Justin] You need to beware
of uneven shoreline,
the islands, the shipwrecks,
- Michael Phelps.
- [all laughing]
So, good luck.
Cindy, Taylor, you guys are up.
[cheery music playing]
We wanted our personality
to shine in what we built.
So, we landed on this sort of enchanted,
whimsical fairy-tale, butterfly dreamboat.
It is literally a hundred percent edible,
except for the electrical components
and the steering mechanism.
We used some novel materials,
like dead dough and rice paper,
then more traditional materials,
like fondant and modeling chocolate
and isomalt also.
It is time to see
if your butterfly dreamboat
will bring good or bad dreams.
Put her in the water.
[Cindy] Taylor is steering the boat.
I can't even steer in a Mario Kart game.
- [all chuckle]
- [Justin] All right.
- My heart is beating so fast.
- Launch the fans in three, two, one.
There she blows.
[dramatic music playing]
Ooh!
Goes. Yeah!
[contestants applauding]
- Whoop!
- Oh! Oh!
[all gasp]
We're steerin'.
Oop!
We're still steering.
[Cindy] Come on.
- You made it!
- [all cheering]
[Hakeem] Oh, man.
So, as I look at your boat,
clearly it performed hydrodynamically.
Who actually designed the shape?
- The engineer?
- [Taylor] Yes.
This was actually cast
- out of a positive mold.
- Mm.
[Taylor] We did our best to get it uniform
and horizontally and vertically symmetric.
I think the way that the rudder performed
showed that it was sufficient.
Where you placed the rudder
was absolutely perfect.
Your boat performed very well.
Let's taste it.
- Thank you. [chuckles]
- [Joanne chuckles]
Thank you so much.
- Thank you.
- Of course.
[Cindy] For our tasting,
we have a vanilla chiffon cake,
light and airy, just like butterflies,
with a lavender-infused cream
and fresh blueberries
to give you some texture.
Did you soak the chiffon with anything?
- Um, a little bit of honey syrup.
- Great.
- Justin finished his.
- [all laughing]
[Joanne] Cindy and Taylor.
I really love
how this cake matches the boat.
When we were talking about
what kind of cake goes
with a butterfly, dreamy, ethereal boat,
we were thinking something light and airy,
and you've done that with this cake.
I think the texture
of the sponge is really delicious
and the blueberry has
a nice little crunch to it
and adds a little bit of acid.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
[Andrew] Cindy and Taylor,
what I'm impressed with
is your use of dead dough.
It was really very stable in the water.
To be honest, I was a bit concerned
that those butterfly sails
might have crumpled.
They might have flown away.
[chuckles] But they stayed stable.
It went along the entire course.
So, very well done.
Thank you.
- Up next, Sara and Rodolfo.
- [all applaud, cheer]
[dramatic music playing]
Judges, today, bakineers turn buccaneers.
We went with a pirate theme.
On this journey,
we are being attacked by a sea creature,
and, hopefully,
it won't drag them to the ground.
[chuckles]
For the sails, we used wax paper
with Flexique.
For the mast,
we have pastas covered in chocolate.
Fondant on the sides
and details in fondant.
[Sara] The base of the boat
is made out of Rice Krispies
with rice rolls as structure
and cross braces out of pretzels,
coated in melting chocolate.
It has a Rice Krispie keel as well.
And there are some sausage casings
that were used as a buoyancy device
and also are going to help
balance out on the sides.
Well, Sara, Rodolfo,
let's release the Kraken.
All right.
Sara, Rodolfo, you have 45 seconds.
- Are you ready?
- Yes.
[Justin] Three, two, one.
[Joanne] Oh, boy.
- Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, no!
- [Andrew] Ooh!
[Joanne chuckles]
[contestants gasp]
- [Sara groans]
- [Rodolfo gasps]
- [Brandi] Oh, God!
- Oh!
Oh, no.
- [woman] Good job, guys.
- [all applaud]
I'd like to say,
even though it didn't function,
there was some great engineering.
I loved the shape of your hull.
I loved your sails
and I thought it was really clever
how you added the monster
to add extra buoyancy.
Now, you were aware
that you were top-heavy on your boat.
When you have things
that can lead to catastrophe,
you want to build in a safety margin.
A wider margin
could've been very helpful for you.
But we can still try your cake.
Luckily, we had you save
an extra piece of cake for us,
in case your boat sank.
Thank goodness.
[Rodolfo] For the tasting portion,
we're using a chocolate cake,
a little rum, chocolate mousse,
and a dark ganache with pistachios.
Rodolfo, this is for the chocolate
and the rum lovers out there.
I do love
that you've tied it in with the theme.
You can tell
these are little cannons sat on the deck.
They didn't pop out. They blended in.
- Really well done.
- Thank you.
I was really, really impressed
with all of the level of detail
of the design work. The cake is
everything I want a sponge cake to be.
The chocolate ganache shell
is a little overpowering.
If it had more of the pistachio flavor,
then maybe it would add a nice balance.
But it actually, for me,
it overpowers the overall dessert
because it's so strongly ganache.
- Thank you.
- Steve and Renee.
We came up with the idea
to build an exciting sushi boat
with a very exciting sushi dessert.
This boat is 99.9% chocolate.
Andrew, if you wanna push the edible,
this is about as far as you can go,
minus the lights.
- Okay.
- Now it's time for the fun part.
Let's see what floats this boat.
Bakineers, you have 45 seconds.
Three. Two. One.
Go.
[dramatic music playing]
[Joanne whispers] Go.
- Go.
- [Steve] Yes!
[Renee laughs]
- Stay on the rudder.
- Okay.
[contestants laugh, cheer]
- [Renee] Oh, octopus.
- [Steve] Hit the rudder.
Oh, hit the rudder.
Oh, my God, I'm sorry. I was
- [Joanne] Uh-oh. Oh, no!
- No!
[Renee groans]
Oh, no!
I'm sorry, that was my bad.
I wasn't focusing.
[Joanne] Uh-oh!
[squeals]
All right. We're done.
Steve and Renee, time is up.
I'm curious, how did you guys decide
who was gonna, uh, steer the ship?
- My engineer.
- [laughs]
I gave that up to her. I said,
"You got this, Renee. I'll make it float,
you make it go down the stretch."
She goes, "I got it."
[Andrew chuckles]
- But it didn't sink.
- [contestants] Yeah!
It's time to taste that sushi.
Thank you very much. [chuckles]
[Joanne] Tell us about
what you've made us here.
[Steve] Basically, it's a genoise.
It has a white chocolate mousseline
infused with a passion fruit puree.
Yuzu simple syrup,
passion fruit caviar
garnished with strawberries.
Steve and Renee, I think the cake is
really beautiful and very well-balanced.
Really nice job
tying in the tropical with the boat.
I think, for me, I would like
a little bit more textural contrast.
Um, it starts to feel a little bit mushy.
I feel like there could be
another element in there, texture-wise,
that'd bring this to the next level.
Steve and Renee,
I noticed you used a double hull design.
When I look at your hull,
the placement of your rudder,
the shape of your sail, it suggests to me
that perhaps someone on your team
understands something about sailing.
Correct. We both do, actually.
There's a lot of physics with sailing,
so I see
that you understood the physics well.
When you put it in the water,
it floated perfectly,
but it was operator error.
Yeah. I was very excited.
Steve and Renee,
your sail, lovely and large.
Using chocolate is a sensible choice
in this case. Chocolate is waterproof,
so deciding to make your entire boat
out of that was a good call.
It looked like it could've
happily floated for hours.
Thank you, Steve and Renee.
Joey and Mario.
[dramatic music playing]
In front of you, you have
one of the most terrifying sea creatures.
We decided to not make a very tall ship
because we didn't want to compromise
the center of mass.
Let's put this sea beast in the sea.
Fans are firing up in three, two, one.
[Joey] There she goes. Ah, it's over.
[Mario] No.
- [contestants groan]
- [chuckles]
- It also doubles as a submarine.
- It could be the Loch Ness Monster.
- [Vanessa] No.
- [Hakeem] Oh, my God.
Mario, I think
that what happened with your boat
was the weight distribution.
They conspired
to just make that guy just turn instantly.
Ideally, you would weight
the bottom of the boat
and not have
a uniform distribution of weight
'cause that moves
the center of mass higher.
We can control everything but nature.
That wasn't nature.
[both laugh]
[Joey] The dessert is an almond apple cake
nested in a shortbread
cookie dough tart shell,
with a rum glaze,
garnished with apple and sliced almonds.
I do love
all of the different textural elements
of this cake/tart.
- Thank you.
- [Joanne] I love the almond flavor.
I think there's a bit
of a heavy hand with the cinnamon,
and, from a presentation point of view,
it'd be nice to have something
a little more refined.
Joey, Mario,
from a bakineering point of view,
I love your design.
It was kind of majestic.
A lot of great edible portions on there.
I think when it came to your boat,
your hull shape was
probably a little bit on the round side.
So if you imagine people running on a log,
it has a tendency to spin.
It's very sensitive stability-wise.
So, I think you gave yourselves
a tough challenge.
Joey, Mario, thank you very much.
- Brandi, Menuka, you're up.
- [cheering]
[dramatic music playing]
It's a Viking ship.
We decided to construct
out of Rice Krispie
and cover with chocolate
and also try to use
as much cinnamon as I can.
Let's put this ship in the water.
- [all gasp]
- [Brandi] No!
[Andrew] Oh!
[Justin] Nina and Hannah.
This is a Renaissance boat.
Very fabulous, very lovely.
- [all gasp]
- [groans]
[Justin] Randi, Jacob.
And we're off.
[Jacob] No.
[chuckles]
- Come on, come on!
- [Justin] Three.
- Two, one.
- [contestants] Two, one.
[Justin] Time.
[Shanice] Almost! So close!
It was close.
Bit shy.
I mean, come on,
that was really good. [chuckles]
So, if your cake is incredibly delicious,
you still might survive.
Brandi, the cake is really rich.
I love the textural elements
with the pecans,
but it was hard to eat the chocolate.
Okay.
[Andrew] Nina and Hannah,
it was a little bit on the sweet side.
I think something
maybe a little bit acidic to cut through.
Coming to your boat though,
your hull is stunning.
It does look like a model boat
you'd see in a museum.
Thank you.
Randi, the flavors are delicious.
I feel like the cake could use
a little bit of a soaking syrup.
I'd actually add a little bit more salt
just to really bring out
the mint and the chocolate flavors.
Thank you guys very much.
- Vanessa, Shanice.
- [contestants cheering]
Our sailboat today is actually 99% edible,
so we're pushing the edible with this one.
[Justin] Let's start the party.
[Shanice] Come on.
[all cheering]
[Shanice] Oh, my God.
[Andrew] Yes!
[Shanice] Come on!
- [laughs] Come on!
- [Joanne] Yes!
- Whoo!
- [all cheering]
[Shanice] Come on!
[all cheering]
As far as the hydrodynamics goes
and the engineering, it was flawless.
- Thank you. [laughs]
- Vanessa, we're excited to try the cake.
It's really a lovely cake.
The crumb is so fine.
The filling is a little bit runny.
I actually think taking egg yolk
and making an Anglaise,
instead of using corn syrup,
just gives it a nicer flavor.
From a design perspective,
it looks unfinished.
Overall, in terms of looking realistic,
I think you could
bring it up a notch next time.
Thank you so much.
Up next, Sierra and Edwin.
[upbeat music playing]
Welcome aboard the Good Ship Lollipop.
[Joanne laughs]
[Edwin] It's one of the first songs
Sierra learned from her mother
- And love so much. [chuckles]
- Aww.
Our boat is made out of
Rice Krispies treats, covered with ganache
and white modeling chocolate,
and is propelled by a golden sail
of seaweed and wafer paper.
Let's go sailing.
- All right.
- [Sierra] It's heavy.
- She's a heavy one.
- [Sierra chuckles]
- All right. So you wanna
- Fire up the fans in three, two, one.
- [Sierra] Whoa!
- [groans]
[contestants groaning]
[Sierra] Oh!
It's a hard no.
Yeah.
It's like Titanic with a keel.
You know, Sierra and Edwin, I predicted,
when I saw that cake in my head,
that if that cake makes it a foot
in that tank, I'm gonna be surprised.
It hit the laws of physics.
Because you had a solid Rice Krispie hull
and you put a large mass on top,
any movement to the side
would move your center of mass,
which was very high, from over your base.
I think you realized this
as soon as it went in the water,
it was top-heavy.
So, you perhaps
should've thought a bit more about
those bakineering materials.
It really was up against the elements.
It's a vanilla cake.
It's soaked in a coconut rum simple syrup
and then you have a pineapple filling
- and a salted coconut lime buttercream.
- [Joanne] Mmm.
Sierra, this cake is so moist,
really tender, really buttery.
I like the freshness of the lime.
- I wish there was more pineapple.
- [Sierra] Yeah.
I feel like that would've really helped
counterbalance the sweetness.
Using this kind of buttercream,
the downside of it is
it can be a little cloying.
The one thing is,
I didn't see a lot of variety
in terms of pastry technique
across your boat.
I was hoping to see a little bit more
in terms of different types
of chocolate, maybe,
or different types of sugar work.
Something to really showcase
your pastry skill.
- Sierra, Edwin. Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
That was a blast.
[Renee] Good job, guys.
Now, time for you to do your stress test.
So, you go make a decision.
I'll hang with you guys.
I'm really heartbroken because
I'm worried that I let Steve down.
[Steve] You learn from your mistakes.
That's how most people get better.
But this mistake
could have cost us everything,
but, hopefully, it didn't
and we can move forward
in a positive mind.
You have a decision?
- We have a decision.
- Teams, follow me.
[dramatic music playing]
For every team, we scored you with a pass
and a fail in each of our disciplines,
engineering, baking and bakineering.
But there can only be one winning team.
The winning team today
showed us exquisite detail,
a lot of bakineering skills,
and sailed to success.
And that team will be earning
a big advantage in the next mission.
And, unfortunately,
the team that was least successful
in today's mission will be going home.
Just a reminder
that you're all fighting for a chance
to get to our final mission,
and that only one team can win
the $100,000
and the title of World's Best Bakineers.
[Justin] And the winning team
who earns a colossal advantage
in the next mission is
going to be revealed
by our cutting-edge cake-printing device.
The winning team is
[upbeat music playing]
- [all cheering]
- [Justin]Cindy and Taylor!
Congratulations.
Cindy and Taylor,
your whimsy won the day.
You engineered your boat
to near-perfection.
The hydrodynamics, the sails,
the rudder design,
you did it like it was easy.
Yay!
Congrats.
Thank you.
Which means, unfortunately, we have
some serious business to attend to.
[Andrew] Sadly, one bakineering duo
from the losing course
will be going home today.
[Justin] It's come down to two teams,
and for our judges
this was actually a very tough decision.
[dramatic music playing]
Sierra and Edwin.
And Joey and Mario.
Sorry to say,
but based on our judges' scoring,
both of your teams
failed the mission today.
The team going home today is
Sierra and Edwin.
I'm so sorry. This was your final mission.
You did good. It's okay.
- Yeah.
- Thank you.
[contestants applauding]
It was wonderful
that you were able to pull together
and collaborate to get that final design,
but, sadly, your change of design
meant that your boat was unstable
from the beginning
and you didn't have time to test.
Your boat was just too heavy.
It was doomed to fail
as soon as it hit the water.
- [Sierra] Thank you.
- Thank you so much, guys.
[Sierra] Bye, guys. [chuckles]
It's been an absolute pleasure
and an honor to bakineer with you guys,
and especially with you, Sierra.
Thanks, Eddie.
I'm feeling emotional, but I think
failure is one of our greatest teachers.
[cheering continues]
[Sierra] No one ever wins without failing.
It's just been [chuckles]
It's been a great time.
We had so much fun.
I mean,
such a unique opportunity and experience.
I'm not gonna stop bakineering.
I mean, once I've tasted it,
- I'm hooked.
- [Sierra] Yay!
Cindy and Taylor, congratulations.
You earned an advantage for the
next mission, which I will tell you soon.
Guys, we'll see you for the next mission
where someone's gonna be doing the robot.
Show them the robot.
- That's
- [all laugh]
[Justin] Okay. We're gonna work on it.
And that next mission
is gonna start right now.
[female announcer] Mission launch
in three, two, one.
- Go.
- Go! This is not a trick.
The clock's ticking.
- Oh, my God.
- Where are we going?
[frantic electronic music playing]
[theme music playing]
Next Episode