Spring Baking Championship Season 5

Complete season breakdown

Every episode and bake

Season five builds eight episodes around spring animals, a county fair, team mashups, Southern baking, Easter, Earth Day, the Kentucky Oaks, and Mother's Day. This guide records all sixteen aired challenge briefs, including assigned flavors and every documented mid-round addition, and includes one original home-kitchen adaptation inspired by the walnut-and-honey challenge.

1. Episode 1 · Spring animals and watercolor

   Spring Has Sprung

   Mar 18, 2019

   A dozen doughnuts take the shape of native spring animals before watercolor cakes feature seasonal produce and a three-dimensional edible model.

   • Preliminary

     Spring animal doughnuts

     In 90 minutes, make twelve doughnuts based on an assigned spring animal such as a swan, fox, chipmunk, otter, beaver, or black bear.

   • Main

     Spring produce watercolor cake

     In two hours, create a watercolor-decorated cake featuring assigned spring fruit or vegetables, then sculpt a three-dimensional version of that produce from an assigned edible medium such as gum paste, fondant, marzipan, isomalt, or modeling chocolate.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

2. Episode 2 · Blue ribbons and fair food

   Spring at the County Fair

   Mar 25, 2019

   Every baker receives rhubarb for a decorative blue-ribbon pie before familiar midway foods are rebuilt as oversized desserts with a bacon twist.

   • Preliminary

     Decorative rhubarb pie

     In 90 minutes, bake a blue-ribbon-worthy rhubarb pie with a decorative crust.

   • Main

     Oversized fair-food dessert

     In two hours, make a larger-than-life dessert inspired by an assigned fair food such as churros, funnel cake, caramel apple, fried cookie dough, or cheesecake on a stick, then incorporate chocolate-covered bacon.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

3. Episode 3 · Dessert mashups and spelling

   Spring Dream Teams

   Apr 1, 2019

   Pairs combine two familiar bakes into one treat, then spell spring words with letter-shaped cream tart cakes in multiple flavors.

   • Preliminary

     Team dessert mashup

     Working in pairs for 90 minutes, make two dozen treats that combine an assigned pair such as Bundt cake and blondie, whoopie pie and upside-down cake, brownie and cupcake, or sandwich cookie and muffin.

   • Main

     Spring-word cream tart cakes

     As a team in two hours, make four letter-shaped cream tart cakes in two flavors so the letters spell a spring word, then incorporate assigned coconut, Brazil nut, green tea, or ginger.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

4. Episode 4 · Southern desserts and pantry flavors

   Southern Spring Bakeover

   Apr 8, 2019

   Canned biscuit dough and Southern drinks lead into classic regional cakes remade for spring with pantry ingredients ranging from pepper jelly to cola.

   • Preliminary

     Southern drink biscuit-dough dessert

     In one hour, turn canned biscuit dough into one large dessert or twelve small desserts flavored with assigned sweet tea, lemonade, or bourbon.

   • Main

     Spring-remodeled Southern cake

     In two hours, give an assigned red velvet, poke, Lane, coconut layer, hummingbird, Texas sheet, or tunnel-of-fudge cake a spring makeover, then include an assigned Southern pantry ingredient such as sesame, pickled peach, sorghum molasses, pepper jelly, boiled peanut, cola, or apple butter.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

5. Episode 5 · Marshmallows and Easter bonnets

   Easter Delights

   Apr 15, 2019

   Brightly colored marshmallow desserts begin the Easter celebration before tropical flavors and malted milk fill wearable-looking bonnet desserts.

   • Preliminary

     Colorful marshmallow dessert

     In one hour, make an ooey-gooey marshmallow dessert using an assigned pink, yellow, green, orange, blue, or purple Easter color.

   • Main

     Tropical Easter-bonnet dessert

     In two hours, create a dessert that looks like an Easter bonnet and features assigned lychee, pineapple, mango, key lime, kiwi, or passion fruit, then add chocolate malt balls, malted milk eggs, or malted milk powder.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

6. Episode 6 · Honey, walnuts, and wild berries

   Marvelous Mother Nature

   Apr 22, 2019

   Earth Day starts with walnut desserts carrying distinct flower honeys and bee decorations, then wild berries flavor enchanted woodland cakes with edible moss.

   • Preliminary

     Walnut and flower-honey desserts

     In 90 minutes, make six individual walnut desserts featuring assigned orange blossom, acacia, clover, wildflower, or heather honey and decorate them with bees.

   • Main

     Wild-berry enchanted forest cake

     In two hours, make an enchanted spring forest cake flavored with assigned huckleberry, gooseberry, marionberry, boysenberry, or lingonberry, then add edible moss.

   Make our home version →Episode source 1Episode source 2

7. Episode 7 · Rose wine and the Kentucky Oaks

   Pretty in Pink

   Apr 29, 2019

   Rose wine meets a range of cheeses in individual sweets before all-pink Kentucky Oaks desserts combine naturally pink produce with a floral rose element.

   • Preliminary

     Rose-and-cheese mini desserts

     In 90 minutes, make six individual desserts featuring rose wine and assigned Manchego, blue cheese, chevre, or triple-cream Brie.

   • Main

     All-pink Kentucky Oaks dessert

     In two hours, create an all-pink party dessert using assigned pink pluot, pink lemon, pink grapefruit, or pink dragon fruit, then add a rose-flavored or rose-decorated element.

   Episode source 1Episode source 2

8. Episode 8 · Cocktails, coffee, and gifts

   Mother's Day Party

   May 6, 2019

   The finalists turn one cocktail into two kinds of baked party treats, then pair a coffeehouse flavor with a personalized Mother's Day gift cake.

   • Preliminary

     Two cocktail-inspired baked treats

     In two hours, make two dozen baked items consisting of two different treats inspired by an assigned mimosa, mojito, or mai tai.

   • Final

     Coffee-drink Mother's Day gift cake

     In five hours, make a cake flavored as assigned dirty chai latte, salted-caramel macchiato, or cafe mocha and decorate it with a personalized gift the chosen mother would enjoy.

   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 6

Walnut Orange Blossom Tea Cakes

Small browned-butter walnut cakes brushed with orange blossom honey and finished with crisp walnuts.

Time

43 min

Makes

12 small cakes

Level

Easy

▶View ingredients and method

Ingredients

• 115 g unsalted butter, plus extra for the pan
• 100 g walnuts
• 90 g all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 3 large egg whites
• 110 g light brown sugar
• 70 g orange blossom honey, divided
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Finely grated zest of 1 orange
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts, for finishing

Method

1. Heat the oven to 175 C, or 160 C fan. Butter a 12-hole muffin pan.
2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan and cook until the milk solids turn amber and smell nutty. Pour into a bowl and cool for ten minutes.
3. Pulse the 100 g walnuts in a food processor until finely ground. Whisk them with the flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Whisk the egg whites, brown sugar, 45 g honey, vanilla, and orange zest until foamy but not whipped. Whisk in the browned butter.
5. Fold in the dry ingredients. Divide the batter among the muffin holes and bake for 16 to 19 minutes, until the centers spring back.
6. Cool in the pan for five minutes, then turn the cakes onto a rack. Warm the remaining 25 g honey and brush it over the warm cakes.
7. Scatter the finely chopped walnuts over the glazed tops and cool before serving.

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

Orange blossom honey should taste floral but not perfumed; substitute a mild local honey if needed.

Grinding the walnuts with short pulses prevents them from turning into walnut butter.

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 Spring 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, wwmt.com.