Halloween Baking Championship Season 5

Complete season breakdown

Every episode and bake

Season five presents six complete pairs of challenges, progressing from skeletons and spirits through Addams Family cakes, mummy crepes, graveyard bakes, and a bleeding zombie-cake finale. This guide records each brief and includes one original home adaptation of the marbled tomb-cake challenge.

1. Episode 1 · Skeletons and monsters

   Halloween Invasion

   Sep 23, 2019

   Skeleton desserts must reveal a dark secret before the bakers imagine the monsters hiding beneath a bed as larger sculpted creations.

   • Preliminary heat

     Skeleton secret dessert

     Make a skeleton-inspired sweet whose edible design communicates the skeleton's dark secret.

   • Main heat

     Monster-under-the-bed dessert

     Create a dessert shaped as an imagined monster under the bed and incorporate homemade marshmallow cream into the bake.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

2. Episode 2 · Spirits and Day of the Dead

   Smells Like Halloween Spirit

   Sep 30, 2019

   Bottled spirits and their illustrated guides inspire the first desserts, while the main round revives old-fashioned bakes with fresh flavors and Day of the Dead decoration.

   • Preliminary heat

     Spirit-guided dessert

     Create a dessert using an assigned spirit, such as bourbon, rum, or orange liqueur, and reflect the character pictured as its spirit guide.

   • Main heat

     Revived classic dessert

     Modernize an assigned old-fashioned dessert with fresh flavor and Day of the Dead styling, including three-dimensional edible flowers.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

3. Episode 3 · The Addams Family

   All Things Weird and Wonderful

   Oct 7, 2019

   The bakers first collaborate on jackfruit desserts with a deceptive exterior, then work individually on character cakes built around variations of red velvet.

   • Preliminary heat

     Scary-outside, sweet-inside team dessert

     Working in pairs, create one cohesive Addams Family-inspired dessert that uses jackfruit and looks frightening outside while revealing a sweet interior.

   • Main heat

     Addams Family dead velvet cake

     Make a colored dead velvet cake depicting an assigned Addams Family character and incorporate an edible snake, eyeball, or spider snack.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

4. Episode 4 · Mummies and jack-o'-lanterns

   Creepy and Crusty Creations

   Oct 14, 2019

   Layered crepe cakes are wrapped as mummies, then pumpkin pies receive split faces showing both a frightening and a friendly side.

   • Preliminary heat

     Mummy crepe cake

     Build a layered crepe cake with a mummy design and flavor it with an assigned preserving ingredient.

   • Main heat

     Two-faced jack-o'-lantern pumpkin pie

     Bake a pumpkin pie using an assigned fall ingredient and decorate its jack-o'-lantern face so one half is scary and the other half is sweet.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

5. Episode 5 · Grave robbers and tombs

   Gravely Delicious Desserts

   Oct 21, 2019

   Underground produce flavors a grave-robber dessert before the semifinalists sculpt tomb cakes marbled in both crumb and decoration.

   • Preliminary heat

     Grave-robber dessert

     Use an assigned underground ingredient, such as sweet potato, carrot, beet, or fennel, in a dessert themed around grave robbing.

   • Main heat

     Marbled tomb cake

     Make a tomb-shaped cake marbled inside and out, use an assigned spice or maple flavor, and customize the grave for a fictional obituary.

   Make our home version →Episode source 1Episode source 2

6. Episode 6 · Ghosts and zombies

   A Haunting We Will Go

   Oct 28, 2019

   The finale begins with ghostly croquembouche towers and ends with zombie cakes engineered to release edible blood during judging.

   • Preliminary heat

     Ghostembouche

     Construct a ghostly interpretation of a croquembouche tower from filled choux pastry.

   • Main heat

     Bleeding zombie cake

     Create a zombie cake with a working edible-blood effect from an assigned body part: heart, brain, or eyes.

   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 5

Marbled Tomb Loaf Cake

A vanilla-and-cocoa marble loaf trimmed into a simple tombstone, coated with gray chocolate glaze, and set over an easy cookie-crumb graveyard.

Time

1 hr 40 min

Makes

One loaf cake, serving 10

Level

Moderate

▶View ingredients and method

Ingredients

• 200 g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for the pan
• 200 g caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 200 g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 60 ml whole milk
• 25 g unsweetened cocoa powder
• 150 g white chocolate, finely chopped
• 75 ml double cream
• Black gel food coloring
• 100 g chocolate sandwich cookies, finely crushed

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180 C, or 160 C fan. Grease a 900 g loaf pan and line it with baking paper, leaving an overhang on the long sides.
2. Beat the butter and sugar for 3 to 4 minutes until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then mix in the vanilla.
3. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Fold the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, followed by 45 ml of the milk.
4. Transfer half the batter to another bowl. Stir the cocoa and remaining milk into one half. Alternate spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate batter in the pan, then draw a skewer through them twice to marble lightly.
5. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes in the pan, then lift the loaf onto a rack and cool completely.
6. Stand the loaf on one short end and trim the opposite end into a rounded tombstone top. Lay it flat again while preparing the glaze.
7. Heat the cream until steaming and pour it over the white chocolate. Leave for 2 minutes, then stir smooth and tint gray with a tiny amount of black coloring. Cool until thick but pourable.
8. Set the cake upright on a serving board and coat it with the gray glaze. Once set, use a little reserved, darker glaze to pipe a short inscription. Scatter the cookie crumbs around the base as soil.

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

Add black coloring with a toothpick; too much can turn the glaze nearly black instead of stone gray.

For easier shaping and glazing, chill the cooled loaf for 30 minutes before trimming it.

Open the full recipe →

Episode guide sources

Challenge details verified 2026-07-14. foodnetwork.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Season result

The winner stays hidden until you choose to reveal it.

See every Halloween Baking Championshipwinner, season by season →

Full cast

Everyone recorded for Season 5, listed alphabetically without result spoilers.

Season fact sources

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