Halloween Baking Championship Season 8

Complete season breakdown

Every episode and bake

Season eight checks twelve bakers into Hotel Henson for eight episodes and sixteen documented challenges. The hotel story covers forensic pies, blood-spatter cakes, croquembouche, death-themed classics, a cat-cake elimination, a team maze, fermented and flambeed desserts, wound cakes, upside-down and twin cakes, cocktail sweets, nightmare entremets, grazing boards, and a black-wedding-cake finale. One original home adaptation answers the pineapple-free upside-down-cake brief.

1. Episode 1 · Forensic faces and blood-spatter cakes

   Welcome to Hotel Henson

   Sep 12, 2022

   The hotel opens as a dessert crime scene, first asking for faces assembled from pie and then for cakes patterned with convincing edible blood spatter.

   • Opening

     Detective face pie

     Create a baked pie and use its crust, filling, and decoration to form a recognizable face for the hotel's detective scene.

   • Main

     Blood-spatter cake

     Bake and decorate a cake with an intentional blood-spatter effect that supports the flavor and crime-scene presentation.

   Episode source

2. Episode 2 · Puss in Boots and three lives on dessert death row

   Croquem-boots

   Sep 19, 2022

   A feline hotel guest inspires a boot-shaped choux tower, a fatal makeover of an old-school dessert, and a last-chance cake sized for a cat.

   • Opening

     Croquem-boots

     Transform a croquembouche into a Puss in Boots-inspired croquem-boots display while preserving a stable choux tower.

   • Main

     Old-school dessert redesigned as a method of death

     Reinvent a familiar old-school dessert so its final form depicts an assigned or chosen method of death.

   • Elimination

     Cat-sized last-wish cake

     The bottom two bakers make small cat-sized cakes representing a judge's last-wish dessert, with one baker eliminated after the extra bake.

   Episode source

3. Episode 3 · A supersized edible hedge maze

   Maze Madness

   Sep 26, 2022

   The season's only single-challenge episode pairs the bakers for an oversized maze cake with an edible reward waiting at its center.

   • Team challenge

     Supersized haunted maze cake

     Working in teams, build a large cake maze with a navigable hedge-maze design and a baked prize at the center; the double elimination is based on this one challenge.

   Episode source

4. Episode 4 · Mold, fermentation, and desserts made to smash

   Spoiled Rotten by Axe-ident

   Oct 3, 2022

   The bakers simulate decay with fermented flavors before creating desserts whose dramatic finish comes from being smashed open.

   • Opening

     Moldy dessert with a fermented ingredient

     Make a dessert that looks convincingly moldy and incorporate a fermented ingredient into the flavor.

   • Main

     Smashable axe-ident dessert

     Construct a finished dessert designed to be broken or smashed as part of its reveal and axe-accident story.

   Episode source

5. Episode 5 · Desserts on fire and anatomical cake wounds

   FlamBakers and Open Wounds

   Oct 10, 2022

   Classic flambe desserts receive Halloween makeovers before realistic open wounds test cake sculpting and finishing.

   • Opening

     Reinvented flambe dessert

     Rework a classic flambe dessert into a Halloween sweet and use controlled flame as part of the preparation or presentation.

   • Main

     Realistic open-wound cake

     Sculpt and decorate a cake as a realistic open wound while delivering a complete cake with intentional flavor and texture.

   Episode source

6. Episode 6 · Upside-down cakes and deceptive twins

   Eyes on the Prize

   Oct 17, 2022

   A pineapple-free upside-down cake opens the episode, followed by team cakes that look identical outside but reveal different flavors within.

   • Opening

     Upside-down cake without pineapple

     Create an upside-down cake using fruit or another topping arrangement other than the traditional pineapple.

   • Main

     Identical-looking twin cakes with different flavors

     In pairs, make two cakes that appear identical from the outside but taste completely different when cut and judged.

   Make our home version →Episode source

7. Episode 7 · Cocktails in a bottle and worst-nightmare entremets

   We've Got Spirit

   Oct 24, 2022

   Classic drinks become composed desserts before the remaining bakers make matched sets of layered entremets based on personal fears.

   • Opening

     Classic cocktail dessert in a bottle

     Translate a classic cocktail into a dessert and present the drink's recognizable flavors through a lighting-in-a-bottle concept.

   • Main

     Set of worst-nightmare entremets

     Produce a matched set of layered entremets that represents the baker's worst nightmare through both finish and flavor.

   Episode source

8. Episode 8 · A funeral grazing board and black wedding cakes

   Cheers to the Newlydeads

   Oct 31, 2022

   The finalists honor a dead couple with both sweet and savory bites, then stage their wedding with three-tiered black cakes.

   • Opening

     Sweet and savory newlydead grazing board

     Assemble a coordinated grazing board containing both sweet and savory baked elements in honor of a dearly departed couple.

   • Final

     Three-tiered black wedding cake

     Bake, stack, and decorate a three-tiered black wedding cake for the deadliest wedding at Hotel Henson.

   Episode source

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 6

Apple Cranberry Upside-Down Cake

A tender spice cake with a glossy top of caramelized apples and tart cranberries in place of pineapple.

Time

1 hr 18 min

Makes

One 23 cm cake, 10 servings

Level

Medium

▶View ingredients and method

Ingredients

• 70 g unsalted butter, divided
• 110 g light brown sugar
• 2 medium firm apples, peeled, cored, and cut into thin wedges
• 90 g fresh or frozen cranberries
• 190 g all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 140 g granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 180 ml buttermilk

Method

1. Heat the oven to 175 C, or 160 C fan. Grease a 23 cm round cake pan and line the base with baking paper.
2. Melt 40 g butter and stir in the brown sugar. Spread the mixture across the lined base, then arrange the apple wedges in overlapping circles and scatter the cranberries into the gaps.
3. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt in a bowl.
4. Beat the remaining 30 g butter with the granulated sugar until well combined. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla.
5. Fold in one-third of the flour mixture, followed by half the buttermilk. Repeat, then fold in the remaining flour just until smooth.
6. Spoon the batter carefully over the fruit and level the top. Bake for 43 to 48 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Cool in the pan for 12 minutes. Run a thin knife around the edge, place a serving plate over the pan, and invert in one confident motion. Remove the paper and serve warm or at room temperature.

This is an original Baking Show Guide home adaptation inspired by the episode brief. It is not a contestant recipe and not an official Food Network recipe.

If using frozen cranberries, add them directly from the freezer so they do not stain the apple layer before baking.

Invert the cake while the caramel is still warm; once cold, the fruit is more likely to remain in the pan.

Open the full recipe →

Episode guide sources

Challenge details verified 2026-07-14. foodnetwork.com.

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 8, listed alphabetically without result spoilers.

Season fact sources

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