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Contestant Blayre Wright, as seen on Halloween Baking Championship, Season 8.
Contestant Blayre Wright portrait, as seen on Halloween Baking Championship, Season 8.
Blayre Wright, owner of Manheim-based wedding cake studio Flouretta Sweet, will appear on season 8 of the Food Network’s competition show “Halloween Baking Championship,” which premieres Monday, Sept. 12.
Contestant Blayre Wright, as seen on Halloween Baking Championship, Season 8.
Contestant Blayre Wright portrait, as seen on Halloween Baking Championship, Season 8.
Blayre Wright, owner of Manheim-based wedding cake studio Flouretta Sweet, will appear on season 8 of the Food Network’s competition show “Halloween Baking Championship,” which premieres Monday, Sept. 12.
Blayre Wright, the Manheim-based baker and owner of the private wedding cake studio Flouretta Sweet, kept her eyes on the prize during the sixth episode of the Food Network’s eighth season of “Halloween Baking Championship.”
Wright impressed the judges during the episode and once again extended her stay at the show’s haunted “Hotel Henson.”
The episode that aired Monday night, Oct. 17, featured host John Henson challenging the remaining six bakers to create upside-down cakes using any ingredient except pineapple. For the episode’s “killer” challenge segment, Henson had the bakers team up in pairs to create cakes that looked identical but tasted totally different.
Wright demonstrated that her pun game is as strong as her baking skills as she quipped that she wished she had a little more “thyme” to bake her upside-down cake, which featured a citrus olive oil and thyme cake with poppy seed streusel and a raspberry creme anglaise.
Wright took a moment to explain some of the techniques that go into creating an upside-down cake.
“The key is to make sure it flips properly,” Wright said.
Wright amped up the fear factor to her upside-down cake by decorating the fruit on the bottom to look like bloodshot eyeballs.
“I never thought I’d be making an upside-down cake out of an eyeball,” she said.
Wright explained that she substituted white sugar for the traditional brown sugar because she thought brown sugar would overpower her flavors. She also noted that she thought her citrus flavors would complement her cake base.
“I’m definitely taking a risk by making my eyeball completely out of fruit. You have to get everything ready, you can’t really do anything after it’s baked,” Wright said. “Details matter.”
Wright showed her ability to bounce back when things don’t turn out perfectly. When she pulled her cake out of the oven, she noticed her fruit didn’t come out quite as she’d hoped but she thought the fruit was still “giving eyeball” vibes and touched it up a bit.
“These fruits are super delicate and thin so when they cook they gel and almost form their own sugar syrup, but I don’t have time to remake these at this point. I have to get them fixed, so I have to pivot and figure something out,” Wright said as she looked over her cake. “I’m just going to make a little raspberry piping gel to kind of outline where my raspberries were and make some veins. I know that they’re going to taste good, so that’s my saving grace in this challenge I hope.”
Wright was, well, right. Judges Carla Hall, Stephanie Boswell and Zac Young were impressed with her work. The judges preferred two of the upside-down cakes over the rest. Blayre’s cake and Alexey’s cake were the top two according to the judges. But Alexey got the slight nod and was awarded an advantage during the “killer” segment.
Henson introduced the final challenge of the episode by telling a story of a pair of identical twins that resembled a set of twins from another famously haunted hotel — the Overlook Hotel from the film “The Shining.”
For the challenge, the bakers would be paired off and then have 2 1/2 hours to create cakes that looked identical but tasted totally different. Alexey’s advantage was that he could pick his partner as well as select the other bakers’ partners. Alexey may have done Wright a favor when he selected her partner: Kristi, a California-based pastry chef and culinary instructor.
Wright and her partner complemented and complimented each other.
“I knew that she would be an incredible partner,” Wright said. “We’re both really quick, we’re both really detail-oriented and I think we both really want this.”
The team (“Team Glasses,” Wright said) executed their scary twin cakes to perfection. They decided to design their cakes with gruesome artwork made by the twins with a bloody paintbrush on the top. The cakes looked identical, but each had its own unique flavor profile.
Wright made an orange cake soaked with orange liqueur, simple syrup and raspberry coulis — a fruit puree — mascarpone Swiss meringue buttercream and a pistachio crunch. Her partner, Kristi, decided on an almond cake with cherry coulis with creme fraiche buttercream and an almond butter crunch.
Around the halfway point of the challenge, Henson threw in the customary twist and told the bakers they now had to include one of a pair of classic “paired” ingredients such as peanut butter and jelly. A member of each team was selected to race to the table to grab their ingredients. Wright rushed up and seemingly wasn’t quick enough to get the ingredients she’d hoped for and instead came away with kiwi and strawberry.
Wright once again demonstrated her flexibility and deftly added the kiwi to her raspberry coulis to create a jam-like texture. Kristi wasn’t as lucky and decided to scrap her cherry coulis and start over with a strawberry coulis.
Once again the judges were impressed with Wright’s work. She and her partner turned out nearly identical cakes.
“This is freaking me out,” said Boswell. “Did you mind meld? Because this a feat I’ve never seen before.”
Henson stepped up to announce the judges’ decision and said the best cake of the day was actually a tie between Blayre between Kristi and remarked on their impressive ability to up the degree of difficulty and turn out identical-looking but unique-tasting cakes. The team immediately moved on to the next round, while the remaining bakers awaited their fate. In the end, Alexey, who won the advantage in the first round was eliminated, leaving only five bakers heading into the seventh episode of the season.
That episode of “Halloween Baking Championship” will air at 9 p.m. Monday, Oct. 24, on the Food Network, and is available to stream on Discovery+.
Manheim baker Blayre Wright, owner of private wedding cake studio Flouretta Sweet, will adva…
Blayre Wright shines in all her gory glory in the Food Network’s haunted confectionary competition.
Wright created some disturbingly delicious desserts during the fourth episode of the haunted hotel-themed baking competition.
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