The Great Canadian Baking Show Season 8

Complete season breakdown

Every episode and bake

Season 8 contains eight complete weeks and several first-time themes, including Savoury, Coffee and Tea, Arts and Crafts, and Nature. The season closes with celebration bakes and a finale whose last challenge is an all-bread showstopper.

1. Episode 1 · Cake

   Cake Week

   Oct 6, 2024

   The opening episode pairs an aromatic nut-flour cake with a Winnipeg specialty before asking for a cake decorated inside and out.

   • Signature

     Love cake

     Bake a love cake in two hours using nut flour and a fragrant combination of spices and aromatics.

   • Technical

     Schmoo cake

     Make the Winnipeg cake in two hours with pecan angel-food layers, whipped cream, candied pecans, and caramel sauce.

   • Showstopper

     Split cake

     Create a cake in four hours that is split open and elaborately decorated on both its interior and exterior surfaces.

   Make our home version →Episode source 1Episode source 2

2. Episode 2 · Cookies

   Cookie Week

   Oct 13, 2024

   Cookie Week moves from filled cookies to crisp homemade wafers and finishes with large maps assembled from two contrasting cookie styles.

   • Signature

     10 stuffed cookies

     Make ten matching cookies in two hours, enclosing a filling of the baker's choice.

   • Technical

     12 raspberry wafer cookies

     Produce twelve layered wafers in one hour and 45 minutes with raspberry-white-chocolate buttercream, tempered white chocolate, and dried raspberry.

   • Showstopper

     Cookie map

     Create an interpretable map in four hours using two kinds of cookie with different flavor profiles.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

3. Episode 3 · Savoury

   Savoury Week

   Oct 20, 2024

   The show's first fully savory week covers fried hand pies, enriched street-food buns, and a layered Wellington enclosed in puff pastry.

   • Signature

     12 samosas with condiment

     Make twelve samosas in two hours with any savory filling and a complementary homemade condiment.

   • Technical

     8 Korean garlic cream cheese buns

     Bake eight enriched buns in two and a half hours, making the garlic-and-onion cream cheese filling from scratch.

   • Showstopper

     Wellington

     Create a Wellington in three and a half hours with handmade puff pastry, clear internal layers, and freely chosen flavors.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

4. Episode 4 · Coffee and tea

   Coffee and Tea Week

   Oct 27, 2024

   Coffee drives the layered signature, rooibos transforms a South African technical, and the final display recreates the Swedish custom of fika.

   • Signature

     Tiramisu

     Make a tiramisu in two hours with clear layers, ladyfingers, and a pronounced coffee flavor.

   • Technical

     Rooibos melktert

     Bake a South African milk tart in two hours with separate vanilla and rooibos custards, cinnamon, and macadamia-rooibos brittle.

   • Showstopper

     Fika display

     Prepare a Swedish-style fika spread in three hours and 45 minutes containing a cake, buns, and cookies.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

5. Episode 5 · Arts and crafts

   Arts and Crafts Week

   Nov 3, 2024

   Bread becomes a painted canvas, folded paper controls the shape of a precise entremet, and black outlines turn a layer cake into a cartoon.

   • Signature

     Focaccia painting

     Bake a focaccia in two hours and 15 minutes, arranging toppings as a colorful image without weighing down the bread.

   • Technical

     2 origami entremets

     Make two entremets in two and a half hours with vanilla sponge, cherry gelee, white-chocolate cherry-blossom mousse, buttercream molds, and tuile decoration.

   • Showstopper

     Cartoon cake

     Create a layered cake in four hours with strong black outlines and decoration that makes the finished cake appear two-dimensional.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

6. Episode 6 · Nature

   Nature Week

   Nov 10, 2024

   Animal-shaped macarons and a coiled Moroccan pastry lead to a deep edible scene built inside a shadow-box format.

   • Signature

     10 critter macarons

     Make ten matching macarons in two hours and 15 minutes, shaping and decorating them to resemble a chosen animal.

   • Technical

     M'hancha

     Bake the coiled Moroccan pastry in two hours, wrapping orange-blossom almond paste in warqa-style pastry and finishing it with honey syrup and almonds.

   • Showstopper

     Edible nature shadow box

     Construct a shadow box in four hours and 15 minutes using cake and cookies to depict a three-dimensional nature scene.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

7. Episode 7 · Celebration

   Celebration Week

   Nov 17, 2024

   The semifinal celebrates South Asian sweets, a Peruvian festival confection, and the intricate patterned layers of a Sarawak cake.

   • Signature

     Diwali sweets box

     Prepare a box of twelve South Asian sweets in two hours and 15 minutes, presenting three varieties that may be baked, fried, or cooked.

   • Technical

     Turron de Dona Pepa

     Make the Peruvian celebration dessert in two and a half hours from anise cookie logs, fruit caramel, and homemade colored sprinkles.

   • Showstopper

     Kek lapis Sarawak

     Build the brightly colored, precisely patterned Malaysian layer cake in four hours and 15 minutes using repeated broiled layers.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

8. Episode 8 · Final

   Finale

   Nov 24, 2024

   The final moves from elegant individual tarts to a composed choux cake and closes with a decorated Eastern European bread centerpiece.

   • Signature

     6 two-flavor tartlets

     Make six identical elegant tartlets in two hours and 15 minutes, balancing two distinct flavors in each.

   • Technical

     Choux cake

     Assemble a choux cake in two and a half hours with filled buns, lemon curd, creme chiboust, and three large lemon sugar-cookie rings.

   • Showstopper

     Korovai

     Create a decorated korovai in four and a half hours from three different enriched breads, including at least one filled bread.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

Inspired by the briefs

Bake it at home

These are original Baking Show Guide adaptations for a home kitchen. They are inspired by the challenge briefs, not the contestants' recipes or an official recipe from the show.

Inspired by Episode 1

Spiced Almond Love Cake

A moist almond cake scented with cardamom, cinnamon, orange, rose water, and honey.

Time

1 hr 7 min

Makes

One 20 cm cake, serving 10

Level

Easy

▶View ingredients and method

Ingredients

• 160 g unsalted butter, softened
• 160 g caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 160 g ground almonds
• 80 g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
• Finely grated zest of 1 orange
• 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
• 1 teaspoon rose water
• 40 g runny honey
• 30 g sliced almonds

Method

1. Heat the oven to 175 C, or 155 C fan. Grease a 20 cm round cake pan and line the base with baking paper.
2. Beat the butter and sugar for 3 minutes until pale. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
3. Whisk the ground almonds, flour, baking powder, cardamom, cinnamon, and salt, then fold them into the butter mixture.
4. Fold in the orange zest, juice, and rose water. Spread the batter in the pan and scatter the sliced almonds over the top.
5. Bake for 40 to 42 minutes until golden and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
6. Warm the honey until fluid, brush it over the warm cake, then transfer the cake to a rack to cool.

This is a Baking Show Guide adaptation, not a contestant recipe or an official show recipe.

Rose water varies in strength; use a measured teaspoon so it supports rather than dominates the spices.

The cake keeps well in an airtight container for three days.

Open the full recipe →

Episode guide sources

Challenge details verified 2026-07-14. tv.apple.com, foxtel.com.au, en.wikipedia.org.

Season result

The winner stays hidden until you choose to reveal it.

See every Great Canadian Baking Showwinner, season by season →

Full cast

Everyone recorded for Season 8, listed alphabetically without result spoilers.

Season fact sources

en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org.