Sugar Rush Christmas

This is Sugar Rush Christmas,

the baking competition where time is the most important ingredient.

Four teams of brilliant bakers compete against each other

and the clock over three rounds of competition.

The faster they work, the better,

because any time saved from round one: cupcakes,

Confections,

will be banked and added to their third and final round: cakes.

I'm your host, Hunter March, and determining which of these teams

is going home with $10,000 of Christmas spirit

is our cheery panel of judges.

She is sure to put anyone in the holiday spirit.

It's Candace Nelson,

creator of the world's first cupcake-only bakery,

Sprinkles Cupcakes.

Next up, the Ghost of Sugar Rush Christmas

past, present, and future, Adriano Zumbo.

He's one of Australia's most celebrated pastry chefs.

And today, our spirited group of bakers are competing in,

you guessed it, three rounds of Christmas spirit-themed challenges.

And finally, our guest judge for the day, YouTube star, actress, TV host,

and everything in between, Liza Koshy.

Candace is inside right now, walking our bakers through round one

of their Christmas spirit-themed challenges.

And that sound means

that round has just begun. Let's go in.

Taylor, Frances, adorable snowmen, very cute.

Good luck, bakers! Have fun!

Hello, my ugly sweater companions!

I love your Christmas sweater, Liza.

That's so sweet of you to say.

My presence is a gift.

Adriano, you have a very ugly sweater from the neck down,

but from the neck up, adorable, per usual.

He does kind of have the face of a mischievous elf.

Candace, this is the equivalent of a girl who wears a normal outfit for Halloween

but puts on cat ears.

That's what I feel like you did.

That's totally what I do for Halloween.

Well, this one's all about Christmas spirit.

I feel like we're already in it.

Candace, why don't you walk us through what round one is for these bakers?

Well, the bakers have to incorporate a lot of holiday spirits.

They have to create a holiday cupcake inspired by a Christmas cocktail.

Are we gonna get hammered tonight?

There is a chance.

My favorite cocktail is a...

probably a spiked apple cider.

We should do a champagne vanilla bean cake,

and we should fill it with, like, a Kir Royale filling.

Um, so, we have a dirty snowman.

For the cupcake, I have a good idea.

This is my awesome pastry chef partner, Sabrina.

This is my amazing cake artist friend, Caitlin.

My family is from Germany,

and they go to this Christmas market every year,

and they serve this hot mulled wine.

For our cupcake challenge, we have to include Christmas spirits.

We can do some really cool flavor combinations with that theme.

Why don't we make a spice cake,

put a cherry mulled wine filling in the cupcake?

For this round, we're making a spiced vanilla cupcake

with orange zest,

filled with a warm mulled wine cherry filling,

and topped with a mascarpone Chantilly cream.

And we're gonna be making a edible cinnamon stick tuille.

- Can you smell it from there? - Yeah, I'm starting to smell it.

Make sure before you take it off that we taste it,

and it still has the wine flavor. I don't wanna cook it down too far.

The goal is to taste as much alcohol, right?

You wanna, like, feel the presence.

Whatever they say that they're baking with,

you want to be able to taste, yeah.

- Whoo! - Nice.

Popping bottles.

We're from San Antonio, Texas.

We collaborate on a lot of things.

There's a lot of pop-ups in San Antonio.

Sometimes my ideas are way over-the-top, and Chris really helps...

Just a little bit?

He helps bring it back down.

This flavor needs to come out beautifully.

If it doesn't, you know, we're-- we're gonna get eliminated,

and I don't plan on going home anytime soon, honey.

My favorite Christmas spirit recently is actually a Kir Royale,

which is champagne and crème de cassis,

which is a liqueur that is made with black currant,

so it's a little fruity.

We should also add some crème de cassis inside of our buttercream,

'cause this is all about spirit, and we got spirit. Yeah, we do.

We are planning to make sure

that the alcohol really speaks loudly in our cupcake.

We've officially used a whole bottle of champagne.

We are going to make a vanilla champagne cupcake,

and we're gonna fill it with a Kir Royale fluid gel

and top it with a crème de cassis Swiss buttercream,

and I'm gonna make white chocolate reindeer garnish

to go right on top, because it's super elegant and French.

We gotta make sure this cupcake is kinda like Candace.

- She's elegant and sassy. - Perfect.

Apple juice is reducing. It's been seasoned.

Syrup is on.

I'm Taylor. I'm from Randleman, North Carolina,

and I own and operate For Goodness Cake.

Frances and I met about seven years ago.

We were both dental assistants.

We started out fixing cavities,

and now we create them with our sweet treats.

It's gonna take them 26 minutes to bake.

We need to get them in in, like, the next 10 minutes.

Our Southern roots are all in the baking.

For round one, we are making a apple rum cake,

a caramel buttercream,

and drizzling a cider caramel sauce on top.

And we are making a Christmas ornament cupcake topper.

It's going to, like, really give it that alcohol kick,

so that they'll be able to actually taste the alcohol.

We want to put the rum in the cupcake, in the glaze,

and also in the buttercream,

so that it's everywhere.

This looks really thin right now. Tell me what you think.

- There's no way. - I start to make the batter,

and I notice that when I'm done,

it's way too watery, and just--

Something just... isn't right.

- I mean, it's like water. - I know.

We scrap this batch. We have the time to start over.

- Did they just throw away their batter? - They did.

That is not a good place to start.

Now they're at least another 30 away.

We just have to get these in the oven, like, ASAP.

How's it going over there?

- It's going great. - Okay.

I'm Darmayne.

And I'm Jill.

And I own Sweet Confections Cakes.

And I work with Darmayne at the bakery.

We met seven years ago when Jill applied for a job.

I sat in my car and cried,

'cause I thought I totally blew the interview.

But she was hired anyhow.

You can never have enough of the alcohol in here, right?

No, never.

Our cupcake is based on a real cocktail called the Dirty Snowman.

It is gonna be a white chocolate liqueur-flavored cake.

We're gonna have an Irish cream filling in there.

Topped with a white chocolate liqueur icing,

and the dirty snowman is gonna be some crushed cookies

topped with a snowman head.

I just think it does scream holidays.

Darmayne, what flavors are you using in your cake today?

I'm doing a boozy, dirty, drunken snowman.

You better make that snowman dirty, Darmayne! Make it dirty!

Doesn't get any better than that.

Cupcakes aren't even in yet. It's been like 25 minutes.

They're going in now, right this second.

Hey, Sabrina, how are you guys doing?

Trying not to look at the clock, if I'm honest.

Well, the great thing is you guys look fabulous.

Now that the cupcakes are in the oven,

I really need to get started on this Chantilly.

And it's made with cream cheese, mascarpone, and whipped cream.

Is that good?

I feel like this isn't the right consistency.

Do I need to remake it?

Yeah, you need sugar in there.

I forgot the sugar.

- My god. - My god.

We just lost at least 15 minutes.

No!

It's not the right consistency. It had to be added before the whip.

My goodness!

It's fine. I can do it quick.

- Sad face. - Sad face.

- Sorry. - It's okay.

Okay, these ones are done now.

This is, like, the quickest hour of my life.

No kidding.

It's way past the time that we thought we were gonna be at,

and buttercream is ready, our filling is finishing up.

- We gotta get more reindeers going. - Yeah, we do.

We might have to switch because they're breaking.

Do you want to press 'em?

They're not gonna stand up like that.

Our original idea for a white chocolate reindeer

is not at all working as we planned.

Once Richard tries to pop the reindeer mold,

the legs are super thin, and they're starting to break.

And we can't serve Candace a broken reindeer.

- That's not gonna happen. - Absolutely not.

Let's do, like, elegant scrollwork.

When in doubt, you scroll it out.

So I start piping out white chocolate scrollwork patterns.

That's what we're gonna have to go with. We need to get these cupcakes done.

- I am piping like the wind. - These are working better.

Very sweet. You need a little salt.

Our buttercream has to be very light and not too sweet,

because it is actually gonna be scooped on like an ice cream,

because it is gonna be the base for our snowman.

Darmayne and Jill with some marshmallows out on the table.