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WILLMAN: In just a few minutes, four bakers will duke it out
for cupcake superiority.
We got to move it!
Everything has to be flawless.
WILLMAN: And one by one,
they'll be eliminated as they're judged on taste...
Your cupcakes just sucked
all the moisture out of my tongue.
It was hard to swallow.
...presentation.
Please throw that cupcake in the garbage.
[ Groans ]
WILLMAN: And in the final round, the last two bakers standing
will have to bring it all together
into one incredible fantasy cupcake display.
The winner gets to have their cupcakes as the centerpiece
for the star-studded book release party
of the award-winning, one-of-a-kind artist,
Weird Al Yankovic
and walk away with $10,000.
It's not supposed to look like this.
LY: That spatula just melted into my caramel.
The entire batch is shot.
This filling is frozen!
We have a baklava Popsicle.
Get ready for battle, because this is "Cupcake Wars."
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
[ Ding! ]
What's up, guys?
I'm Justin Willman,
and the battle for who reigns cupcake supreme
is about to begin.
Overseeing this war are our judges --
Candace Nelson,
founder of the world's first cupcake bakery,
Sprinkles Cupcakes.
And Florian Bellanger, owner of Mad Mac Macarons
and former executive pastry chef at the world-renowned Fauchon.
The kitchens are stocked. Our judges are ready.
Let's meet our bakers.
Okay, I know what I want to do with the money if I win.
NATALIE: What?
I'm gonna buy some new shoes.
[ Laughs ]
My name is Najmia Manjoo.
I own Wildflour Cupcakes
in Orange County, California.
We just need to use good stuff
so that the judges are impressed.
We have so many flavors.
Chocolate sandwich cookie truffle,
almond, cherry, honey, chocolate-chip cookie dough.
We have 20 flavors every day,
and we just make incredible cupcakes.
We're the best bakery in Fullerton.
I know. And everyone loves our cupcakes.
My assistant today is Natalie Horbach.
She is our pastry chef at the store.
Natalie is really efficient,
she's really quick, she's good at what she does.
I know that when it comes to a time crunch,
she can get everything done.
Winning "Cupcake Wars"
is gonna mean a lot to the business and to me.
I'm a really competitive person.
I don't want to lose. I don't like to lose.
And I'm gonna be so proud of myself if I win.
It's time to go win this thing.
All right.
I'm really scared about Florian.
I bet he is a big, giant teddy bear.
My name's Christina Gesford.
I'm co-owner of Chantilly Lace Bake Shop,
and we're located in Westminster, Colorado.
We have the highest quality ingredients --
cage-free eggs, organic milk.
Our customers seem to really like
that we pay attention to those things.
My assistant today is Chantel Ironwing.
She is the co-owner of Chantilly Lace Bake Shop.
Chantel's amazing.
She has this eye for design and style.
We win, it's gonna be crazy.
If we win, it would mean that I'm doing the right thing,
I'm in the right business.
It's the moment we've been waiting for!
It is! Let's do it!
Here we go to "Cupcake Wars"!
Whoo!
Billions of people are gonna see us!
That's awesome.
My name Ly Hang Lo,
and I am the owner of Cupcake Caramel
in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
We specialize in cupcakes
for birthdays, weddings, and showers.
You know, I love our salted caramel.
It goes awesome in everything.
Our name is Cupcake Caramel
because we make the best caramel in the world.
My assistant is Emily Marx,
and she is my head baker at Cupcake Caramel.
Emily is the perfect person
to have with me in the kitchen today
because she has everything under control
100% of the time.
Oh, my goodness.
I can't believe we're going to "Cupcake Wars"!
I know! It's so exciting!
Bye, Thea.
I know I'm going to win because I have Emily on my team
and awesome cupcakes.
Welcome to Sugar Mama's.
I'm Olivia O'Neal,
and I am the owner of Sugar Mama's Bake Shop
in Austin, Texas.
We are Austin's premier dessert shop.
OLIVIA: You are the garnish queen.
My assistant today is Andrea ***.
Andrea is our manager and head decorator.
She is calm and cool under pressure,
and we work great as a team.
The two of us are unstoppable.
Winning "Cupcake Wars"
would change the face of Sugar Mama's Bake Shop.
We would have status of winning "Cupcake Wars"
and, of course, the $10,000
could really catapult our small business
to the next level.
Here we go!
Cupcake makers, let's do this, shall we?
What's up, bakers? Welcome to "Cupcake Wars."
I have to warn you.
Today, things are gonna get weird,
as you'll compete to have your cupcakes featured
at the VIP book party for a man
who is a legendary Grammy Award-winning musician
and iconic pop culture comedian.
He is none other than Weird Al Yankovic.
Hi, Al.
How are you?
Weird Al. He is an icon.
And just knowing that I get the opportunity
to put my cupcakes in front of him,
this is a dream come true.
YANKOVIC: Hello, bakers.
I'm looking for a cupcake that's gonna change my life.
No pressure.
Well, guys, if having your cupcakes at the party
celebrating the release of Weird Al's memoir isn't enough,
what else can we offer you?
Should we offer them money, Al?
Money.
The winner wins $10,000.
Sound like a plan? Let us begin.
Today, there are three rounds of competition.
After each round, one of you will be eliminated.
Up first is the taste challenge.
Now, Weird Al can turn any pop hit
into a hilarious parody.
So now you must do the same with a cupcake.
On our inspiration table,
you will find offbeat foods such as squid,
Buddha fingers, and dragon fruit.
You'll each need to pick two of these ingredients
to create a cupcake that is irreverent, yet delicious.
You have 45 minutes. Good luck.
Time starts now.
I can't imagine anybody putting
squid or herring into a cupcake.
I don't know. Those ingredients are just off the wall.
The ingredients, they are weird.
Herring.
I don't want to use that.
We've got morel mushrooms.
We've got dragon fruit, lychee.
I think we need to do something with the lychee.
Okay.
Today, we're going to try to use
the lychee and the kumquat.
I would love to throw a third ingredient in there
to really blow the judges away, so I'm thinking quinoa.
How about coconut cake?
Coconut and lychee, that will be a great combination.
I am creating a coconut butter cake
with a lychee curd filling
with a kumquat Swiss meringue buttercream
and a crispy rice, toasted quinoa book.
We've got this. We can do this.
All right. Go.
Let's do it. Okay.
Why don't we do something like a sushi theme?
Like, um, we can put the nori in.
We could use quinoa, 'cause it's like the rice
that's on the outside of the sushi.
We're thinking if we play it easy,
we're gonna be gone in that first round.
So, I'm going to make a lemon nori quinoa cake
that's topped with a ginger cream cheese frosting
that's rimmed in a dyed-green quinoa
and topped with delicious fried squid.
Hopefully, the judges like it.
How could they not?
It's ridiculously weird.
It's risky, but with risk comes reward.
I hope the quinoa's not too weird.
Well, I don't think it'll be too weird for Al.
[ Laughs ]
Oh, man. I hope this works.
I don't know what it tastes like.
I've never had it before.
I'm gonna make a lemon and dragon fruit cupcake
with a lychee Swiss meringue buttercream
garnished with some fresh dragon fruit.
I think we should definitely mash it up
and, like, fold it into our cupcake.
This is the taste round, and I'm gonna make sure
that the judges can really taste the dragon fruit and the lychee.
And I think that we're gonna impress the judges.
Let's hope it works.
I think the lychee is really gonna bring out
the dragon fruit.
I'm going to make a lychee cake
with lychee and dragon fruit filling
and a dragon fruit buttercream.
Calm and collected.
Otherwise, I'm gonna make big mistakes.
Lychee is a really new baking ingredient for me.
I've eaten it raw, and it's delicious,
but I've never baked with it before.
I'm going to put the lychee into the food processor,
and then we're gonna run it through a sieve
and cook it down with some agar.
Hopefully, this will help bring out the very fragrant flavor.
Is the syrup almost ready?
Almost!
Make it weird, bakers! 30 minutes!
Hurry!
Bake faster!
30 minutes.
30 minutes? I hope we have enough time.
We need to make sure that it's perfect.
No mistakes, okay?
I think that's good.
Oh, my gosh. This looks so funny.
We've never used nori or quinoa ever in any of our cupcakes.
So this is a first time for us.
Chantel, we have this.
Okay. Good job.
Okay, cupcakes are in the oven.
In our coconut cake, we're going to make
a traditional vanilla butter cake.
I'm scooping my cupcakes into the pan
and I realize something is really wrong.
I'm gonna try it.
Oh, my God. I forgot the butter.
No joke.
I realized that I forgot the butter in my butter cake.
Where's my butter? Where's my butter?
I am in shock.
I feel like I just lost the competition.
Olivia, come on.
I can't believe I forgot the butter in the batter.
If we don't make it past this round,
this is going to be all my fault.
This is the worst thing
that could have happened on "Cupcake Wars."
I know. I know.
Oh, my God. I forgot the butter.
I forgot the butter in my butter cake.
I am in shock.
I feel like I just lost the competition.
Oh, my God. I can't believe I forgot the butter.
Olivia, can you fix it?
I can fix it. I can fix it.
There's not enough time to start the batter over.
I have to try to fix this batter.
I knew something was wrong. Oh, my God.
This is the worst thing that could have happened on "Cupcake Wars."
I know. I know.
I'm going as fast as I possibly can.
It's not fast enough. We are almost out of time.
I just don't know if I can fix this situation that I put us in.
We got to get those cupcakes in the oven!
They're in! They're in!
Okay.
Bakers, 15 minutes.
We got to hurry!
Oh, my God! 15 minutes!
Test it. It's done.
All right. I'm gonna go pop 'em in the freezer.
Good.
Got it. Okay.
We get started on the dragon fruit
for the filling and the frosting.
Dragon fruit has a very subtle taste,
so it's gonna be a little bit more difficult to work with.
Taste it. See what you think.
It's pretty light.
We just can't taste the dragon fruit.
What are we gonna do? I can barely taste it.
At this point, we have a very limited time,
and we just can't start over.
I saw a prickly pear in the pantry.
We need another ingredient to bring out that flavor,
so we decide to add prickly pear.
Prickly pear and dragon fruit are very similar in taste,
so I hope that the prickly pear
will bring out the flavor of the dragon fruit.
It's a beautiful color.
This has got to make it taste awesome.
Yeah. Let's go for it!
Yes! Awesome!
Now it actually tastes like dragon fruit.
Yay!
I am so relieved.
NATALIE: I think color's gonna just make it pop.
NAJMIA: I think it's gonna be good.
I know it'll look good with the dragon fruit on top.
Okay.
Hot pan coming through.
I'm gonna taste a bit.
Good.
Really good.
NAJMIA: I'm gonna cut the dragon fruit.
I don't think it's a risk to put it on top.
I think it's gonna add to the flavor.
Do you like them?
Oh, they're looking great.
Bakers, 5 minutes.
Oh, my God! We have 5 minutes!
The cupcakes aren't even out of the oven!
5 minutes? Oh, my God.
If these cupcakes aren't done, I don't even care.
I'm taking them out anyway.
That oven's open. They look done!
They're done.
The clock is ticking.
We don't have much time.
They're pretty warm.
Oh, my God.
We are a little bit worried about the frosting melting.
We have to get these cupcakes on the plates for the judges.
This is it, guys. One minute!
Oh, my God. One minute.
Is that gonna be too much?
This looks so weird!
Perfect.
WILLMAN: 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
Your time is up.
Whoo!
Bakers, in honor of music legend Weird Al Yankovic,
you were asked to make a unique cupcake using,
we'll call them, "nontraditional" ingredients.
Let's find out what the judges think.
Christina, tell us what you baked.
Today we baked a lemon, nori, quinoa cupcake.
We topped that with a ginger, cream cheese frosting.
We fried up some squid and garnished it on top
and rimmed our cupcake with some dyed-green quinoa.
I hope you enjoy.
This cupcake definitely had a lot of visual impact.
I'm not sure that the flavors had as much punch, though,
as I would have liked.
The nori and the ginger, I felt, was really missing.
And when you introduce your cupcake as having something,
we want to taste it.
BELLANGER: I'm on the same page with Candace.
I was missing a little bit of nori.
I think the nori should have been processed
in a food processor to get, really, the flavor.
Considering the ingredient and everything,
I could taste pretty much everything,
and I was happily surprised
by the good tasting of those fried squid.
Thank you.
Uh, well, I'm at a little bit of a disadvantage here
because I'm a vegetarian,
and I had the non-squid version of the cupcake.
And after trying it,
my one comment was it just wasn't quite squid-y enough.
But I did really enjoy
the ginger, cream cheese frosting.
That was delicious.
Hi.
Great, thank you.
What'd you bake?
Today we have a lychee cake
filled with lychee, dragon fruit,
and prickly pear filling and then topped with
a dragon fruit and prickly pear buttercream
garnished to look like a dragon fruit.
I'm not sure if choosing the dragon fruit here
was a good idea.
The flavor is so subtle,
and it quite disappears inside baking.
And that's your problem, I think, here.
I would have loved to have seen a little more filling
and a little less frosting.
The cupcake was so top-heavy, it was kind of crazy.
In terms of the flavor, I could definitely taste the lychee.
The dragon fruit is a little trickier.
I have to say, this cupcake made me want to throw up...
...just so I can taste it again.
It was so good.
But overall, excellent work.
Thank you.
Hi, Justin.
Welcome. What'd you do here?
I made a coconut butter cake with a lychee curd filling,
a kumquat Swiss meringue buttercream,
and I topped it with a crispy rice and toasted quinoa book
that says "Eat it."
I hope you enjoy.
Well, this cupcake wasn't weird at all,
and that's actually a really good thing.
You chose those flavors so wisely.
The kumquat just was bursting with flavor,
and that buttercream was silky texture.
The lychee filling was just so fresh and delicious, as well.
I'm a kumquat fan.
I love kumquat, and I think you worked with it beautifully.
I think the coconut should be chopped
before putting in the butter,
and I think it'd be better
than having those long pieces of shredded coconut,
but it's a good cupcake.
Thank you.
It's not often that you have a cupcake
that comes with directions, and that's very helpful.
[ Laughter ]
If I had one word to describe this cupcake,
it would be scrumdiddlyumptious.
Thank you.
And last but not least, Najmia, how are you?
What'd you bake?
We have a lemon and dragon fruit cupcake,
and it's topped with a Swiss meringue buttercream
that we folded lychee into.
And then we have a little bit of the fresh dragon fruit on top
to bring out the flavor of the cake.
I'm having the same issue with the dragon fruit here.
The problem is the taste.
This fruit has almost no taste,
and seriously, take it easy on food coloring.
I mean, looking at your buttercream,
I feel like eating lipstick.
So, I didn't like it.
Even some of the most potent, strong flavors out there
have trouble translating into cake form when you're baking.
So to try to do that with dragon fruit,
such a subtle flavor, and to pair it with lemon...
Again, lemon's a really strong flavor,
so I was sort of scratching my head
when you introduced us
to your flavor combination.
Thank you, judges. Thank you, Najmia.
Bakers, we're gonna give our judges
a chance to compare notes.
Well bring you back in a few. Thank you.
I'm thinking I've made a mistake with the dragon fruit.
It's just not strong enough.
Ly and I both have a lychee and dragon fruit cupcake,
and they didn't really love hers.
It's gonna be tight.
Bakers, for this round, we wanted you
to show no fear with your cupcakes
and prove that off-the-wall flavors can still be delicious.
So, our judges are scratching their heads
as to why your cupcakes were so quiet and, frankly, dull.
It was a tough call as to who goes home.
Najmia, I'm sorry.
You're done in the cupcake war.
We are so sad to go home. It's horrible.
This is not how I wanted to leave "Cupcake Wars."
Well, congrats, ladies.
You're a step closer to taking your creations
to Weird Al's VIP bash.
But first, to get there,
you've got to prove yourself in this round.
Now, Weird Al's success, of course,
is mainly due to his brilliant musical parodies.
But it also has something to do with his iconic image.
His Hawaiian shirts,
his hair are known around the world,
and that look has branded him.
So, naturally, your cupcakes must now do the same.
In this round, it's not just
the creative combination of flavors we want.
We also want cupcakes that celebrate Weird Al visually
because our judges will be grading you 50% on taste
and 50% on presentation.
You have 75 brief minutes.
Good luck. Starting now.
Oh, my God! We made it to round 2!
We made it to round 2!
Weird Al's wild and crazy and fun,
and I know that we can interpret that with our cupcakes today.
He just came up with that album, "Alpocalypse."
The cover is crazy. He's riding a horse. There's fire.
I think we need to do a fiery cupcake.
My first cupcake
is a dark chocolate cake with a chipotle truffle filling,
a chocolate buttercream on top,
and two little devil horns.
He plays the accordion.
Yeah, polka.
He's eastern European.
Let's do something eastern European inspired --
a baklava cupcake.
My second cupcake is our deconstructed baklava cake.
It is a honey buttermilk cake with a baklava filling,
a light cinnamon buttercream, shredded phyllo dough,
and a tiny green fondant accordion.
Waffles! "The Waffle King."
He did a song called "Waffle King," so, it's perfect.
For our third and final cupcake,
we decide to go with a vanilla cupcake
with a razzleberry compote filling,
topped with maple cream cheese frosting, a tiny waffle,
a purple golden crown,
and drizzled with real maple syrup.
We got to get to work now. Okay. Let's go.
So, because we're from Minnesota and we love Minnesota,
let's do the biggest ball of twine.
Yeah!
The first cupcake is inspired by Weird Al's song,
"The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota."
It is a cornmeal almond cake filled with caramel,
topped with a caramel buttercream,
and decorated with a Minnesota heart.
And then let's do the "White & Nerdy" cupcake.
So, it'll be all white on the inside.
Delicious.
My second cupcake is his song, "White & Nerdy."
It is a white coconut cake with white coconut buttercream,
rolled in coconut, and then topped with
a fondant pair of underwear.
I was thinking we could do "Grapefruit Diet."
My third cupcake is inspired by his song, "The Grapefruit Diet."
It is a grapefruit cake with a grapefruit buttercream
and then topped with the Weird Al logo.
So, why don't you start on the cakes,
and I'll start on the extras.
Awesome.
Okay, I'm gonna start on the batters for the chocolate.
CHRISTINA: I'm such a big fan of Weird Al,
so our cupcakes are representative of
him and his music videos.
My first cupcake is the "Fat" cupcake,
which is a chocolate sour cream cake
filled with caramel cream,
topped with peanut butter frosting,
rolled in pretzels and peanuts,
and topped with a blue fondant accordion
and two orange music notes.
Okay, I'm gonna start on the honey lavender.
My second cupcake is "Perform this Way."
Our honey lavender cake filled with a pear and honey compote,
topped with a lavender-scented buttercream
and adorned with a yellow Weird Al bumblebee.
I'm gonna peel us some delicious fruit.
Good. That would be awesome. Get the fruit going.
My last cupcake is "Amish Paradise."
It's an apple spice cake
topped with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting,
decorated with a black Amish beard.
We know that these cupcakes are gonna be amazing.
If we win this, we would get to go to his book premiere.
Hang out with him.
Yeah, that would be pretty wicked.
Aww, my husband would be [Singsong voice] jealous!
One hour!
We only have an hour!
One hour. We got to move it.
Oh, this baklava filling is gonna be so good.
We need to make sure that this baklava cake
is light and fluffy and interesting.
The most important component of this cupcake is the filling.
That is what is going to make this a baklava cupcake.
I'm gonna put it in a shallow pan.
Andrea puts the baklava filling into the freezer,
and we move on to the next task.
Honey buttermilk cake going in the oven.
I got to get started on the grapefruit cupcake.
For the grapefruit cupcake, we have to use the grapefruit zest
to really bring out the grapefruit flavor
and then add some grapefruit juice to that.
It needs more zest.
We get in trouble for not having enough flavor,
so we have to put a lot of flavor into these cupcakes.
Yeah.
Adding the lavender.
Good. Good.
CHANTEL: How's it going over there?
I'm moving and grooving.
We got to get these in the oven.
So close to being done with this one.
Bakers, 30 minutes!
Oh, my gosh!
I've got to try to start this caramel over. It crystallized.
Chantel comes back from the stove and she tells me
the caramel for the "Fat" cupcake is crystallized
and she's got to start over.
So she's gonna have to get back to the stove
and start it again.
Christina, I'm really worried about this caramel.
Can you come look at it?
I think we might need to go another route.
So, Chantel's back at the stove.
She's trying to make the second batch of caramel,
and it's crystallizing again.
It's just cooking way too hot.
All right. Let's scratch it. What do we want to do?
Let's fill it with our peanut butter filling.
I suggest that we just go with the peanut butter filling.
I'm just really, really hoping that the judges like it.
We cannot afford another mistake.
Oh, my God. They smell glorious.
All the cakes are out of the oven, Ly.
LY: Okay, awesome.
Bakers, 15 minutes.
15 minutes.
OLIVIA: Andrea is taking
the baklava filling from the freezer.
ANDREA: Olivia, it's frozen!
Unbelievable. We have a baklava Popsicle.
I know.
This is ridiculous. We don't have time to remake it!
There's no way we can put this inside of a cupcake.
Put it on a sheet pan in the oven.
All right. I'll put it right here.
We cross our fingers and wait.
This could really be it for us.
Here we go, bakers. 10 minutes!
Oh, my gosh! 10 minutes!
10 minutes!
I saw a baby t-shirt cutter,
and I'm gonna use just the bottom half of it
for the underwear.
LY: For the decoration on top of the "White & Nerdy" cupcake,
we are going to make a pair of underwear.
The underwear is going to represent when,
in the video, he gets a wedgie.
I think the judges are gonna love it.
Yes! Underwear done!
I'm using modeling chocolate to make these little horns.
Cupcake bakers!
5 minutes!
Oh, good Lord!
Oh, my gosh! 5 minutes!
Olivia, try this.
I think it's loosened up enough.
Andrea pulls the baklava filling out of the oven.
It's starting to look like baklava again.
I put the white sugar in.
Is this for the filling?
And it's crunchy.
I put white sugar in it.
I told her to use granulated sugar for the filling.
We taste it, and it's just grainy and terrible.
We can't use this.
There's no way we can give this to the judges.
We don't have time to do it again.
All right. Let's just not fill it.
We'll just leave it like it is.
We don't have any other choice right now.
LY: This truffle thing better come together!
I don't want to put too much frosting.
Oh, my gosh, Andrea!
This is it, guys. One minute!
Oh, my God, Chantel. One minute!
Second garnish, 'cause we're crazy.
CHRISTINA: Oh, my gosh.
WILLMAN: 10, nine, eight, seven, six,
five, four, three, two, one.
Time is up.
Whoo!
CHRISTINA: So, time's up, and I'm worried about
the way they're gonna taste.
I'm worried that we didn't get the fillings in.
I'm just scared.
For this round, we asked you for three cupcakes
that tickled our funny bone in both taste and decoration.
We'll see what the judges have to say.
First, Christina, tell us what you baked.
CHRISTINA: The first cupcake you have is a rich chocolate sour cream cake
with peanut butter frosting, rolled in pretzels and peanuts
and topped with a blue accordion and two orange music notes.
Your second cupcake, it's our honey lavender cake,
pear and honey compote, a lavender-scented buttercream,
and topped with a Weird Al-inspired bumblebee.
The third cupcake you have, it's an apple spice cake,
topped with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting
and decorated with an Amish-inspired beard.
Your decoration was pretty nice and cute,
but the Amish beard,
I really had to scratch my head to find out what he was.
Now, regarding your cupcake, I don't have so much good news.
I liked very much the taste of the apple spice,
but my cake was literally collapsing.
The lavender honey, the honey was right there and it was good,
but I could not really find the lavender,
and I was quite surprised about it.
This one...
Please throw that cupcake in the garbage.
Your peanut butter frosting is so pasty and so airy,
and the cake is falling apart like sand.
You did not convince me with your plate.
NELSON: I agree with Florian.
The hit on my plate was this apple spice cake,
but that peanut butter
just sucked all the moisture out of my tongue.
It was hard to swallow.
YANKOVIC: A wonderful presentation.
I think these would be right in place at my book event.
WILLMAN: Thank you, Christina.
Thank you.
Hi.
Tell us about this trio of cupcakes.
LY: The first cupcake is the grapefruit cake
with grapefruit buttercream.
I decorated it with sprinkles and the Weird Al logo.
Our second cupcake is a cornmeal almond cake
filled with salted caramel
and topped with salted caramel buttercream
and a Minnesota love decoration.
And then the last one
is our coconut cake with coconut buttercream
and topped with underwear from his video.
Well, your cupcakes are certainly very pretty.
They're very sweet.
I think you could have gone wackier,
particularly with your colors.
In terms of your cupcakes, however,
I am a very happy camper.
The coconut and the grapefruit
are like delicate little creatures,
and the salty caramel buttercream was just divine.
What a delicious plate.
This, I don't know what it is, and I wear underwear.
[ Laughter ]
I'm really not convinced about your decoration,
but I'm in love with your cupcake.
Your cakes are all delicious,
and your buttercream is one of the best buttercream recipes
I have ever seen on the show.
Well, I enjoyed the presentation,
although it was a little uppity eating my own underwear.
I have to tell you.
Thank you, Ly. And finally, Olivia.
What do we have?
OLIVIA: Our first cupcake is a vanilla cupcake,
raspberry-blackberry compote filling,
maple cream cheese frosting,
a fresh-made golden waffle drizzled with real maple syrup,
and a chocolate crown.
The second cupcake, it is a honey buttermilk cake
with a baklava filling, a phyllo nest on the top,
and a green accordion and a polka-dot wrapper.
The last cupcake is a dark chocolate cupcake,
a chipotle-truffle center with a rich chocolate frosting,
two little horns out of modeling chocolate,
and we have a little bit of fiery glitter on there.
And the decoration is pretty cool here.
I like, especially, the devil's horns.
I think they were very cute.
My favorite was definitely that deconstructed baklava,
especially the filling.
It reminded me so much of a real baklava.
The chocolate chipotle,
I was missing a kick from the chipotle.
I should have my mouth on fire right now.
But this plate is delicious.
Well, I think your decorations were a lot of fun.
In particular,
the polka-inspired cupcake was just so clever.
These devil's horns could stand for devilishly delicious.
I wasn't in love with your waffle cupcake.
I thought that the cream cheese frosting was a little goop-y.
We're gonna give our esteemed jury a moment to chat.
We'll bring you back in a few.
Thanks, guys.
It could be Christina, or it could possibly be me.
Either one of us could go home.
At this point, the only thing that's going to save us
is our buttercream and our cake flavors.
So, bakers, in this round,
we needed cupcakes that stood out in looks
as well as in taste.
Now, Christina, you impressed the judges
with a spot-on homage to Weird Al.
The bad news is,
they liked Ly and Olivia's decorations and flavors,
which means, Christina, I'm sorry.
You're done in the cupcake war.
I'm completely frustrated with myself.
I know I can just do so much better
than what I did in that round.
Ly? Olivia? Congratulations.
You've made it to the final round.
One of you is gonna have your cupcakes
as a centerpiece for Weird Al's celebrity-packed book party,
as well as walk away with $10,000.
And one of you is not.
You must now each create a 1,000-cupcake display
that is as fun, eccentric,
and as irreverent as our guest, Weird Al.
To do this, of course, will not be easy.
So, we're giving each of you a master carpenter
to help you build.
Aloha, Justin and Jake.
[ Laughter ]
You also get four baking assistants each
to help in any way you may need.
What's up, ladies?
When the clock hits zero,
the judges will rate your cupcakes' tastes,
evaluate your presentation,
and based on how you bring it all together,
name one of you the winner of "Cupcake Wars."
You have two hours. Good luck.
Starting now.
Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God!
We need to do a dance! We need to do a dance!
Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay!
Hey. Congratulations.
Have you thought about the display at all?
So, my idea is to do a food truck
in the colors of his book.
You know, let's do word play.
We can do, like, "All Weird Cupcakes,"
because that's kind of his name and it's all weird.
and then we could do a menu here with the cupcakes on it.
Let's put a giant cupcake.
And then, in the front of the truck,
let's do, like, a big, giant mouth.
How big is this thing gonna be?
5x5 maybe?
Okay. All right. You got a lot of work to do in here.
I'll be outside.
Thank you so much.
I want to go along with the music theme,
and it's a book release.
So, I want to try to combine the two.
Some sort of accordion bookshelf.
I decide to do a giant accordion that has multiple levels
where we can put the cupcakes.
The accordion pieces here with keys.
I want people to be able to get in and out of it.
You know, I don't want it on the ground.
We want to do a Hawaiian skirt on the table
inspired by the crazy shirts that Weird Al wears.
I think we need to, again, tie in the book.
If there's any way to get the image, maybe from his book,
put it on the accordion, almost playing the accordion.
And then, of course,
we need to have his name across the top.
What are you thinking for the shelves?
Like, I want the cupcakes
to almost look like they're floating on this shelf.
I really want to win this.
I hope, hope, hope that he can execute something
even close to my vision.
Give me a couple hours. We'll get it going.
Thank you so much.
Go ahead and grab the dragon fruit out of the cooler.
We have to make some changes for the third round.
So, I want some pureed and then left to the side,
because we're gonna just squirt it into the center.
So, when we cut into it, it, like, pbht.
For the round 1 cupcake,
we are gonna add more dragon fruit puree
to make it taste more like dragon fruit.
Also, we are going to add a lot more filling
and use a lot less frosting.
This is the part that was missing
from their decoration was the underwear.
On top of that, we have to make sure
that we put the lines in on the underwear
to make it look like underwear.
This is for $10,000.
Everything has to be flawless.
I am not going to forget the butter this time.
In round 3, I need to change my truffle center
for our dark chocolate cupcake.
So, I'm adding more chipotle powder
to give that an extra kick.
Keep the momentum going, ladies! You're doing great over there!
Hey, Al. They've got 90 minutes left.
Do you want to tell them in a peaceful manner?
Sure.
90 minutes, everybody!
Bake like the wind!
Bake!
Oh, my God. Weird Al is gonna kill us!
Well done.
Oh, my God! 90 minutes!
Coconut's going in the oven.
I wonder how Justin's doing with our giant accordion display.
[ Saws buzzing ]
I before E, except after C. I'm pretty sure.
This is an exception.
Nice. "Word Al."
It is weird.
This accordion is ready to play.
Hey, Ly, your food truck's ready!
So, Al, I got to say, I'm loving your book,
especially the chapter about
how you're against shameless plugs and product placement.
It's so tacky.
One hour!
[ Ding! ]
We have 60 minutes! Go! Go! Go! Go!
One hour, Ly! One hour!
We got to get those cupcakes out and frosted.
All right.
LY: I run over to the caramel as it's starting to brown,
and I stir it once.
And I realize the spatula is melted into the caramel.
The entire batch is shot.
It's totally ruined. I have to start over.
I have to remake the caramel for all 250 cupcakes.
I cannot afford for this to be happening right now!
It's getting really late, and we just don't have
any time for these mistakes.
This could get us sent home.
Oh, my God! That spatula just melted into my caramel.
So, I grab a spatula off the table, and I stir it once.
The spatula is melted into the caramel.
I cannot afford for this to be happening right now!
It's hard enough to make 1,000 cupcakes,
and now I have to remake the caramel from scratch.
All right.
Caramel's starting over.
Bakers, 30 minutes to the Alpocalypse.
We have 30 minutes to frost 500 cupcakes.
Oh, my God!
Oh, can you stir that, 'cause it's gonna burn.
We need to pipe fast!
We have frostings, fillings, cakes, toppings.
Scoop like you've never scooped before, Ly.
We need to see those arms pumping.
We need to be garnishing like animals.
Caramel's done, finally!
Dissolve the sugar, bring this to a boil,
and then bring it right back.
It's not enough time. There's just not enough time.
OLIVIA: Oh, my God!
[ Sighs ]
Oh, my God!
Wow. I have chills.
He took my vision and took it to the next level.
That looks amazing.
I have to give you a hug!
Oh, my God! It's even better than I could have dreamed!
EMILY: We might be in trouble.
Oh, my gosh. No, don't worry.
Oh, my God!
That's so cool!
LY: Oh, my God!
I am so excited to see it.
It looks just like a food truck.
It was exactly how I'd imagined it.
You did amazing.
Oh, thank you so much.
WILLMAN: 10 minutes!
We have 10 minutes!
We've got to make it look amazing.
All right, ladies! Load!
This is the final moment!
Take as many as you can!
Take, like, four or five at a time if you can.
You need to go, go, go as quick as you possibly can.
This is for $10,000.
We've still got so many cupcakes to get on there.
We've got to go. We have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of cupcakes.
Bakers, one minute!
[ Breathlessly ] Oh, my -- One minute.
Okay, hurry!
[ Screams ]
Okay. Come on, girls! Keep going! Keep going!
Keep moving!
We have so many more cupcakes! Come on! Go! Go! Go!
10, nine, eight, seven, six,
five, four, three, two, one.
Your time is up!
[ Applause ]
Thank you!
Oh, my God!
We made it. We made it.
Well, bakers, for this final round,
you were both asked to create a stunning 1,000-cupcake display
that was slightly off the beaten path
in honor of our guest, Weird Al.
Ly, tell us what you did.
The very first thought that came to my mind
when making your stand was
what do you give a man who has everything?
His own cupcake truck.
It's just like a real cupcake truck
that you would find in the streets.
I wanted to reflect the book in the colors
and then also put a menu on there
defining which cupcake goes with which wrapper
so that the people will know.
So, the changes that I made to my cupcakes
was that we added more dragon fruit to the buttercream,
and then we also filled with more puree.
And that really brought out the flavor of the dragon fruit.
Hello.
Tell us about your display.
When I think of Weird Al,
I think of him with his accordion.
We decided to do a giant accordion bookcase.
We blew up Weird Al's image from his book.
He's actually holding up the accordion and the cupcakes.
For round 2, we kicked the chipotle filling up a notch.
I would have your glasses of water ready when you eat that,
because we made it nice and spicy.
All right, bakers.
We're gonna let our judges get a close look at your displays.
And when we bring you back,
we'll name one of you the winner of "Cupcake Wars."
Thanks.
LY: Knowing how hard we worked
making 1,000 cupcakes in a crazy kitchen,
it would just be so huge for our business
to be a winner on "Cupcake Wars."
OLIVIA: Today has been the most difficult day in my career.
I have left my family and business behind,
and I need to win.
So, Al, have we been weird enough for you today?
I think you've been exactly weird enough.
And we've got two very weird displays.
Candace, let's chat about Ly's first.
What do you think?
I think the burning question for me on Ly's display
is why a cupcake truck?
I think she sort of missed the point.
This doesn't scream "Weird Al!" to me.
I mean, it's weird, it's unexpected, it's fun.
I think it's pretty cool.
What I like about this is the clear and simple signage.
I mean, you're gonna be at
this hot, happening book release party,
and people are gonna be going,
"I wonder where the cupcakes are.
Oh, wait! I bet it's under the giant cupcake over there!"
It's practical.
WILLMAN: She has four final cupcakes on the display.
How are they?
Her round 2 cupcakes were very delicious.
In terms of baking, they were just perfect.
But she had some issue with that dragon fruit lychee cupcake.
When I taste it, I just taste lychee.
And I just can't find the dragon fruit.
Well, let's shift our gaze, shall we,
to Olivia's giant accordion.
I like the idea of the accordion.
I mean, it's really well done and it screams "Al!" definitely.
NELSON: Absolutely.
Olivia's concept here is really simple,
but I think it's really strong.
I wish she'd have been a little bit more inventive,
not just hiding a table with the tablecloth like this.
I love that thing. It's a wonderful display.
I feel that she really gets me.
Florian, you told her that when the wrapper has flames on it,
you want your mouth to be on fire.
We were missing some hint of chipotle.
After she revised it, much better.
Do we have a winner?
Mm-hmm.
Yes! Okay. I'm gonna bring 'em back.
Bakers, our platinum-selling, Grammy Award-winning guest
leaves an indelible impression.
Today, we wanted cupcakes from you
that were memorable, as well.
Ly, the judges have loved your cupcakes all day,
but you said you revised your dragon fruit flavor.
The judges still couldn't find much of it in your cupcake.
What they did like was an imaginative presentation
that looked like it was ready
to drive right into Al's book launch party
and get it started.
Olivia, the judges were also happy
that you listened to their notes
and made great improvements by amping up your chipotle flavor.
In the end,
one of you really grabbed the judges with delicious flavors
and a display practically screaming "Weird Al!"
The winner...
of today's "Cupcake Wars" is...
Olivia.
Oh!
WILLMAN: Congratulations.
Oh, my God.
LY: I'm sad that I lost.
It would be so huge for our business to be a winner.
That is really disappointing.
[ Crying ] Oh, my God!
OLIVIA: I can't even describe
the feeling that I feel right now.
Everything that I sacrificed and gave up to be here today,
it all served a purpose.
Hey, everybody! Let's go to the book party right now!
OLIVIA: Let's do it!
OLIVIA: Winning "Cupcake Wars," this is the pinnacle.
I can do anything now.
Good to see you.
That's so good.
Even better than it was earlier in the show.
I've proven to myself that I am a great baker,
and now the rest of the world will know, too.
I love it.
OLIVIA: I know that my life is going to change.
Everything has come together, and everything is perfect.