Complete season guide
Complete season breakdown
Season nine frames ten episodes around love, moving from formative desserts and passion to breakups, nostalgia, family, and weddings. This guide records every aired bake, including the finale's elimination round, and adds one original home adaptation inspired by the soda-pop cupcake challenge.
Episode 1 · Baking origins and loved ones
The bakers elevate the sweets that began their careers, then build activity-inspired cakes around berries and citrus.
Preliminary
Elevated formative dessert
Rework the dessert that first inspired the baker and decorate it with an assigned flower.
Main
Two-tier loved-one activity cake
Make a two-tier cake depicting a favorite spring activity shared with someone loved, using an assigned berry and adding citrus for the twist.
Episode 2 · Aphrodisiacs and chiles
Aphrodisiac ingredients spice compact bento cakes before passion fruit and chiles test flavor balance.
Preliminary
Aphrodisiac bento-box cake
Create a small bento-box cake using an assigned ingredient traditionally associated with romance.
Main
Passion-fruit and chile dessert
Make a dessert that features passion fruit and an assigned chile while balancing heat, acidity, and sweetness.
Episode 3 · Napoleons and breakups
Flavored napoleons lead into paired breakup cakes whose coordinated exteriors conceal opposing flavors.
Preliminary
Assigned-flavor napoleon
Make a crisp layered napoleon pastry centered on an assigned flavor.
Main
Opposites-attract breakup cakes
Working in pairs, create two breakup cakes that look related but express opposite flavor profiles.
Episode 4 · April Fools' dessert deceptions
A tart wordplay challenge opens April Fools' week before cake is disguised as pie and paired with cheese ice cream.
Preliminary
Fool-themed tart
Bake a playful April Fools' tart designed to surprise the judges.
Main
Cake disguised as pie
Make a cake that convincingly looks like a pie, then serve it with a cheese-flavored ice cream.
Episode 5 · Stars and spring gardens
Celestial mousse cakes evoke nights outdoors before teams construct garden-party croquembouche arbors and floral macarons.
Preliminary
Celestial mousse cake
Create a mousse cake with a celestial design inspired by romantic nights outdoors.
Main
Croquembouche arbor with floral macarons
In pairs, build a romantic croquembouche arbor and make floral macarons for a spring garden party.
Episode 6 · 1950s soda shops and 1960s style
Soda-pop cupcakes recall the 1950s before shag-carpet cakes embrace bold 1960s colors and flavor pairings.
Preliminary
Six soda-pop cupcakes
Bake six cupcakes flavored like an assigned 1950s soda, including cola, grape, ginger ale, cherry, cream soda, root beer, or lemon-lime.
Main
1960s shag-carpet cake
Create a shag-carpet-style cake using an assigned retro flavor combination.
Episode 7 · Comfort bakes and chocolate
Personal muffins celebrate everyday acts of care before assigned chocolate varieties define rich pies.
Preliminary
Love-inspired muffins
Bake muffins inspired by a person, memory, or gesture of love.
Main
Assigned-chocolate pie
Make a pie centered on assigned white, milk, ruby, blond, dark, or almond chocolate.
Episode 8 · Global dessert flavors
Blind-date dessert mashups combine unlikely classics before cheesecakes travel through international flavor traditions.
Preliminary
Blind-date dessert mashup
Elevate and combine two assigned desserts into one coherent global-flavor mashup.
Main
International cheesecake
Create a cheesecake inspired by the flavors and dessert traditions of an assigned country.
Episode 9 · Tulips and rose wine
Edible tulip bouquets begin the Mother's Day semifinal, followed by rose-wine desserts and refreshing granitas.
Preliminary
Edible tulip bouquet
Create a dessert arranged and decorated as a bouquet of spring tulips for Mother's Day.
Main
Rose-wine dessert with granita
Make a dessert infused with rose wine, then add a complementary granita.
Episode 10 · Bridal showers, proposals, and weddings
A bridal-shower doughnut duel determines the final three, who then hide engagement rings in proposal desserts and finish with client-specific wedding cakes.
Elimination
Twelve bridal-shower favor doughnuts
The bottom two bakers make a dozen doughnuts in 60 minutes as bridal-shower favors for either the bride's or groom's guests.
Preliminary
Surprise proposal dessert
Create a proposal dessert with a reveal that presents an engagement ring.
Main
Client-inspired wedding cake
In five hours, make a wedding cake tailored to an engaged couple's requested flavor profile and visual style.
Inspired by the briefs
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
Chocolate cola cupcakes filled with sour-cherry compote and topped with vanilla frosting.
This is an original Baking Show Guide home adaptation inspired by the episode brief, not a contestant recipe or an official Food Network recipe.
Regular cola contributes caramel notes; the cake does not rely on it for lift.
A tart cherry preserve keeps the finished cupcake from becoming overly sweet.
Challenge details verified 2026-07-14. foodnetwork.com, en.wikipedia.org.
The winner stays hidden until you choose to reveal it.
Luke Deardurff
See every Spring Baking Championshipwinner, season by season →
Everyone recorded for Season 9, listed alphabetically without result spoilers.
| Baker | Age | Hometown |
|---|---|---|
| Christian Velez | n/a | n/a |
| Clement Le Deore | n/a | n/a |
| Luke Deardurff | n/a | n/a |