01x06 - Baking to New Heights

[bunniefuu]

[upbeat music playing]

Come on! Come on!

Okay.

So, we've got four teams left on this.

We've made it this far.

Amazing. Let's go.

Mission Six.

Skyscraper, okay.

I like skyscrapers.

- [Taylor] One edible city block.

- [Steve] Five-foot gingerbread.

- [Sara] Two cake structures.

- [Cindy] Seismic?

- [Menuka] It's a shake table.

- [Brandi] For earthquake simulation.

Oh, my gosh, five feet?

That's as tall as me.

Hey, friends.

So, these bakineers are about to find out

that hard hats will be required

in this cake construction zone,

because, today, the bakineers are

baking and building edible skyscrapers.

Which I guess makes them skybakers.

Makes me a piescraper. I don't know.

The point is, they're gigantic, edible,

and we might just shake 'em to the ground,

'cause this is Baking Impossible.

We do crazy stuff with cake!

I love any kind of artistic thing.

Yeah. Let's do art.

Let's get centralized on art.

Cities that

Barcelona is an amazing city of art.

Let's make it a futuristic city

that appreciates art, right?

Uh-huh.

This is a challenge.

Buildings don't withstand earthquakes.

This is a tough one.

This is the biggest mission

we've had the bakineers undertake to date.

These bakineers have

a load of work ahead of them.

Since we don't want

our bakineers collapsing,

this'll be our very first

two-day challenge,

broken up into two seven-hour days.

In terms of the spec for this mission,

we're requiring that they make

a five-foot tall skyscraper,

but it's gotta be on a city block,

so we expect

two other structural elements

to make up that city block.

I spent three months in Japan.

We can add mountain in the back.

Maybe Mount Fuji.

Do you wanna say Pittsburgh in fall?

- Beautiful autumn Midwest cityscape?

- Yes.

If we do Venice, we could

- That sounds good. Absolutely.

- That's like a water city. Right? Okay.

Their buildings are going to be facing

the ultimate structural stress test,

a little something

I like to call The Bake Quake.

We're gonna take their whole cityscape

and then put it on a seismic shake table

engineered specifically to mimic

three distinct levels of seismic activity.

In timed increments,

we'll slowly increase the shaking until

Until it all comes tumbling down.

[laughing evilly] Yes!

The goal is to reduce

the effect of the vibration

as it travels up the building.

It's kind of like cakes

when we put straws or dowels

and put another cake circle.

That's how you stack

a wedding or a two-tiered cake.

- Absolutely that concept.

- That's cool. That's cool.

We need something to be flexible

but not too rigid.

But we also need rigid.

But again, not too flexible.

When I build wedding cakes,

I use a tiered effect

so it goes from a larger to smaller.

If you could give me

the mathematical equations

on how wide the base needs to be

to go up five feet,

and I think we could start from there.

The physics of earthquakes is amazing.

What these buildings have to survive.

They're gonna have to think

about a lot of their structural choices.

What materials they use,

what is the weight distribution

of those materials,

what is the shape of the building?

What is the best shape for a?

Triangles. I'm thinking triangles.

We'll do a big tower of triangles.

Like, central column,

that's the most strong one

and then these will be supporting it.

Thick at the bottom, thinner as we go up.

So, normally,

we let them choose their edible materials.

But when it comes to skyscrapers,

we're requiring them to use gingerbread.

So, they can do things

in addition to gingerbread.

- But gingerbread is the steel.

- Yes. That's the structure.

- If you're building a house it's the wood.

- It's the skeleton of the building.

Structure-wise,

we can have a reinforcement

with the gingerbread.

Also, we have our cool, edible,

secret glue too. I think this is

That's true. That'd be good

to absorb the vibration.

- That's Exactly.

- [Steve] Gelatin.

- Gelatin?

- Yeah.

- For the center? Yeah.

- To actually smash it?

I'm thinking of a center core

running up through the building

with gelatin,

because you've got the wobble

in the gelatin,

but it would also hold the building?

So, the whole tube

has a slight wobble to it.

The bakineers also have to build us

an entirely edible city block.

And the flavor profile of the cake?

It has to match the city theme.

I hope you like the smell of gingerbread.

- I love gingerbread. Let's do it.

- That's what I'll start doing.

[clock ticking]

[upbeat music playing]

So, I'm thinking, Rodolfo,

it really is gonna come down to the joints

and how we hold things together.

- So, this glue could be the golden ticket.

- That's the secret?

Our edible skyscraper

is primarily gingerbread.

That's what the big

structural panels will be,

but inside, I'm gonna use pretzel rods

as sort of columns encased

in our candy epoxy

so we can wedge the corners

and make sure they're gonna stay

exactly where they need to.

- How many bears will you k*ll?

- There's so many.

- [Rodolfo] How many gummy bears?

- [Sara] Gummy bear graveyard.

We decided that we're gonna

go with this candy epoxy,

because we know

that it's gonna be really, really strong.

And hopefully, the combination of caramel

with a little bit of the gummy bear

and marshmallow is

also gonna give a little elasticity

so when it comes time

for that shaking to occur,

it's not gonna be brittle and snap apart,

it'll hold its shape and take that load.

Okay.

So, I'm a lighting designer now,

but my background

is in architectural engineering.

So, I took a few structural courses

way back when

and I work with structural engineers

every day, so it's a part of my life now,

so I'm pretty excited that this mission

actually dips into that part.

- Hello, Sara.

- Hello, guys.

- Hi, Rodolfo.

- Get your game face on.

So, Sara, Rodolfo,

talk to us about your edible cityscape.

We are starting

with the idea of Barcelona,

as it's already a city

that embraces and loves art.

So, our futuristic Barcelona

centers around a giant skyscraper.

Surrounding the skyscraper is

a park that's made mostly out of cake.

We've got two buildings as well

in the park.

We have our Tree of Ténéré,

which is this modeling chocolate,

and we've also got this gingerbread house

which is gonna house our tasting element.

For the tasting portion,

I'm baking a carrot cake

with a cream cheese frosting.

So, tell me

why you used a triangular shape.

I've used a triangular shape

because triangles are very strong.

- And if you see, the base is very steady.

- [Sara] Hey, feel free to give it a shake.

Maybe we will.

I'm sure

you're gonna give it quite a shake.

- [Joanne] Best of luck.

- Thank you.

[Dr. O] Good luck.

[clock ticking]

- Those colors are gorgeous.

- Thanks.

- [Taylor] Is that for leaves?

- [Cindy] Yes.

I lived in Pittsburgh for quite a while,

which is where I went to school

at Carnegie Mellon.

I love California and Los Angeles,

but Pittsburgh is the city

where I became an adult,

is what made me me.

- Oh, wow.

- It's like fall.

That's so cool.

- And this is wafer paper?

- Yeah.

We're gonna build

a Pittsburgh-inspired cityscape

where the Allegheny river hits

the Monongahela

and you see this gorgeous,

triangular downtown area.

We have an isomalt suspension bridge

we're gonna build in bright yellow,

two edible buildings made of cake,

and we've got all these details

that make it feel like a city.

We'll have our skyscraper,

which is gonna be five feet tall,

steel-inspired with exposed structure.

The framing is exposed on the outside

and is made up of individual bricks

with crossbars to add stability.

Cindy and Taylor.

- [Cindy] Hi!

- Hello there.

- How are you?

- Good. How are you?

That's a pretty interesting module

in your hand there.

Given that it has to be gingerbread

and that gingerbread is flat,

I was thinking what shapes I can make

that are 3D out of a 2D shape.

So, I settled

for this almost truss-like shape,

where it's just a rectangle

with a crossbar.

And then I alternate on each story

which side the crossbar's on.

So, overall,

almost all the force should be going

through these

really structurally-sound corners.

- You made gingerbread bricks, looks like.

- Yes! Like gingerbread bricks.

Have you made some sort of epoxy

or are you using

any sort of mechanical joints?

Yeah, so these are

gonna be extremely rigid,

but then we'll use gelatin between layers

and that'll provide

the stability for the actual shake.

Cindy, what are you making

for a cake for us to try?

So, I'm gonna go out my realm.

I'm going with a dark chocolate cake

and a peanut butter,

Swiss meringue buttercream.

Buttercream, not whip.

I'm gonna add a pretzel crunch,

so it's gonna be a nice contrast.

A little salty, a little sweet.

That sounds amazing.

And how does that tie in to Pittsburgh?

[Cindy] Um, black and gold.

Every sports team Pittsburgh has

is black and gold.

It's kind of cool.

- We will let you get back to work.

- Thanks, guys.

Brandi, what's your theme?

Our theme is a Japanese pagoda.

Ooh!

I wanted to do Kentucky,

but Menuka is over it.

[both laughing]

No, I didn't say that.

We're going to build the pagoda

entirely out of gingerbread.

And we're going to build it

like a pyramid shape

with the five different levels.

[Brandi] The landscape portion

will have Mount Fuji in the back

created out of cake,

a sake fountain in the front,

also created out of cake,

some cherry blossom trees

using modeling chocolate

and marshmallows rolled in tinted coconut.

The dessert will be

an almond and fig cake.

I had the idea of cutting the figs open

and baking them face up

so it'll look like a cobblestone effect

to surround the base of the sake fountain.

Get those pieces laid out

and ready to go.

That way whenever the glue is ready

we can just slap 'em together.

[clock ticking]

[Renee] Is the gelatin ready?

[Steve] This can go underneath the base.

- That looks awesome.

- Yeah, so it's strong.

[exclaims] It looks

like an octopus or something.

Yeah. Hopefully, that'll take

the bouncing up and down pressure

a little bit out of it.

I'm excited for this mission

just on the structural aspects alone

of creating a building

that's gonna withstand an earthquake.

Try and move that.

[Renee] Okay.

So, that's gonna put the stability

between the shaker and your base

so that does the shaking,

but this is the cushion.

Mmm, mmm. I like it. Okay.

We can cut pieces, like,

four and stack them up like this

and put 'em in each corner.

- Okay. Sweet.

- And then that's your rubberized base.

- Steve, Renee.

- Hello there.

How are you guys doin'?

We're doing great, thank you.

I'm curious, why Venice?

We thought Venice because gondolas,

the ocean,

more elements to throw in there

So, Steve and I are

building Futuristic Venice.

We wanna stand out from the other teams,

so we're going with

a all-green energy building

powered by solar panels and wind energy.

Our side buildings are

going to be an edible dessert

that the judges are just going to love.

It's gonna be a cannoli cake

laced with rum and chocolate chips.

Is this going to sit on your platform?

So, is this the upper layer?

So, this is gonna be the bottom layer.

There's an identical piece

that's gonna sit on top of this.

And there's gonna be oil in between.

I see.

That's the premises behind it.

If it'll work or not, I don't know.

But oil creates less friction,

which will give me

a sliding element going on.

- Neat. You want it to slide.

- I want it to slide, correct, yes.

So, hopefully, my building will do this

and the core will do that.

- You're making a shimmying skyscraper.

- Exactly.

[clock ticking]

Teams, three hours

'til the end of day one.

- Sorry.

- Yeah.

- How many of these do we have to build?

- We have to build 34 boxes.

There's nothing

our magic glue won't stick to.

We can hit it with a freeze spray,

it sets up really quickly.

Royal icing's what you'd normally attach

gingerbread with, but it has a dry time.

We also contemplated using chocolate,

however, chocolate cracks.

And Menuka's very adamant

he wants it to have a shiftability.

We can just take white chocolate

and pipe in strips like that down it.

- Okay. Okay.

- That'll add reinforcement.

[Steve] So, I'm putting the gelatin core

inside right now

on a smaller version

of what would be the larger version.

Let me let this set for a moment

and then I'm gonna go stand on it

and see if we can take

200 pounds on top of this.

As much as I have

from an engineering perspective, like,

it sounds like you're really knowledgeable

in the structural building.

It's almost like building a wedding cake.

It's the same principles

that you have to have structural support.

The pieces have to be machined

to a 90-degree angle on the corner

so they come together properly.

The supports inside have to be

exactly machined

so you can build the next cube,

and the next cube.

That is really my world right there.

So, 200-pound stress test, okay?

One, two, three.

So, there's 200 pounds

on top of a two-inch by two-inch cube.

That's awesome, Steve.

[clock ticking]

[upbeat music playing]

[Taylor] So, what's your vision

for this tree during the stress test?

I really hope that some fall off.

- So that it's, like, legit fall, yeah.

- Fall? Yeah.

Put a couple of loose ones in there,

in case they don't.

[Taylor] It's so beautiful.

Thank you. You're beautiful.

- You're beautiful.

- You're beautiful.

Hey, Brandi and Menuka!

So, you guys won

the last mission. Congrats again.

By doing that, you've won

an enormous advantage in this mission.

I'm curious if you wanna hear what it is.

- Yes!

- Yes!

Yeah? Okay.

So, let's just say

that all of your buildings are gonna face

some seriously devastating shaking.

However, Brandi and Menuka,

you guys get to have your building shake

for half as long as your competitors.

That's an advantage, for sure.

It's gonna save us. This is gonna save us,

because we really need this one.

Everyone else, stop shaking in your boots,

get back to work. Good luck.

[clock ticking]

Check this out.

Oh my God, so cool. Love.

I am not happy with this.

This is not working.

We're gonna switch it up. I don't know

if we wanna keep going with the gelatin.

I wonder if it's just too humid here

with, you know, these structures.

The building is actually

held together with a gelatin mix.

But some of the panels were sticking

with the gelatin

and holding together very well

as a structure. I mean, they were sound.

And then others were falling apart.

And I'm realizing something's gone wrong

with the gingerbread

and it's starting to

draw humidity from the gelatin.

I don't think we have much time left

today. Let me clean these panels off.

This one's not going together properly.

It's warped.

Three minutes, teams. Three minutes.

[tense music playing]

[Steve] It's gonna take

every single second we have

to pull this off.

Ten. Nine. Eight.

[Justin and judges] Seven. Six. Five.

Four. Three. Two. One.

All right, bakineers,

that's the end of day one!

You get to go get some sleep.

So, wrap up your work

and we'll see you tomorrow

for a rich, full day

of baking and building. Well done.

[Steve] So, it's the end of the day

on the first build

and we're not in a good place.

We're not feeling good about this,

we're running out of time,

we don't have a structure.

So, it's very worrying at this point.

We gotta figure this out.

[tense music playing]

[Justin] Good morning, bakineers.

You've got seven hours left.

[Brandi] We got

most of the boxes built yesterday.

Once we get those finished, you can

start constructing the gingerbread house

while I work on our two cake pieces.

Sounds like a plan.

Ten minutes already passed.

Goes fast.

If it works, I'll feel pretty smart.

If it doesn't work,

I'll still feel pretty smart, honestly.

[Cindy laughing]

For this skyscraper, we're gonna

be using primarily gingerbread,

but, as an adhesive agent,

we'll be using isomalt.

And as a shock absorber in the base,

we'll be using gelatin.

From an engineering perspective,

the biggest principle I'm highlighting

is base isolation.

And I think that using a thick layer

of really, really rubbery gelatin

will prevent the shock

from going like this

all the way up the structure

and really keep it low in that base layer.

You can do it.

If anyone can do it, you can do it.

Aww

We can leave these together.

We're gonna use chocolate on the corners

Okay. Do you want me

to come over and help you?

- Just get the chocolate hot.

- Okay.

- Get rid of this gelatin.

- Okay.

So, we're not using the gelatin anymore.

The gelatin's not working at this point.

So, we're switching it up

and we're going to use baker's chocolate

as the structural glue.

[clock ticking]

That's really cute.

It's my small cake.

My hands are gettin' a little figgy.

That's so pretty.

Carrot cake. It's my favorite dessert.

- It's your favorite dessert?

- Yeah.

Do you smell that?

Victory.

[chuckles]

So, the pagoda, the way they work is

each level is separated from each other.

So, when they moving,

they call it "dancing floors."

So, I'm actually going

through the same process.

So, I want to have each level

is not really attached permanently

and have a flex, so they each can move

in a separate direction.

I know this is gonna take more

gingerbread and more time to prep,

but, in my head, this is a safe approach.

Because, as you know,

in the ancient world,

the only thing that survives

is a pyramid-shaped building,

so I want to make a nice pyramid shape

and disguised as a pagoda.

Five hours left!

- [Menuka] Oh, my God.

- Five hours.

[dramatic music playing]

Gettin' tall.

When we get this mission,

I realize we have an opportunity

to use the rest of the city

as a dampening force for the tower itself,

and the main goal is

to keep the tower upright.

But what I'd like to do is to try

to get the park encasing the tower

at least on two of the three corners

so that extra cake

will absorb some of the shock

and save a little bit more

of the base of the tower.

All right, can I hand this back?

Okay. Thanks. Good.

[electropop music playing]

[clock ticking]

[Steve] You see the white chocolate?

- White chocolate?

- I saw it right here.

Bakineers,

the quake is coming in one hour.

[Steve] Coming over with the cake.

You think we could make

a couple more gondolas?

I'm gonna work on something

for the piazza.

Judges, why don't you guys head off

and get ready?

- Let's do it.

- Make sure to have a broom handy, I think.

[Andrew chuckles]

Bakineers, the judges are off

to construct a truly seismic stress test.

Jesus.

- [Rodolfo] Go easy.

- Okay.

[Steve] I'll hold that.

- That's in?

- [Renee] Press down.

[Justin] You have five minutes left!

[tense music playing]

[Steve] Move on. Move on. How many?

[Renee] I need one battery.

You're doing great. You're doing great.

[Justin] Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six.

Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

[klaxon wailing]

Bolts and buttercream down.

Your time is up!

- [applause]

- Oh, my gosh.

- [sighing] Oh, my God.

- Oh!

Bakineers, come with me.

You know,

since it's our sixth stress test,

we thought,

"Let's shake it up a little bit."

[contestants exclaim]

- Whoa!

- Oh, my God!

What?

- Wait, is that smoke or What was that?

- [Taylor] That smoke is wonderful.

- [Justin] It's getting warmed up.

- [Taylor] Yes.

Well, bakineers, what you're

about to face will be earth-shattering.

[laughing evilly]

The one key engineering requirement

of all buildings is they cannot fall.

In this stress test, we'll be challenging

the structural integrity

of your edible constructions.

[Justin] That is

an earthquake simulation table.

We call it The Bake Quake.

Trademark pending.

Now, each of your buildings

will have to withstand shaking

in three incremental levels,

for 10 seconds, 30 seconds, and

one minute without falling off the table,

which I control

with this detonation system right here.

Are the buttons isomalt

so you can push the edible?

[all exclaim, laugh]

- Oh, Brandi, that's a good point.

- Brandi, Brandi, Brandi.

We'll start with a gentle shimmy

and go all the way up to the big one.

Can you show us

what a gentle shimmy looks like, Andrew?

[all laughing]

We did have you put aside some cake,

so, just in case

your buildings come tumbling down,

we will have something to taste.

I'll look at the integrity

of your structures.

I mean,

this is Structural Engineering 101.

So, I'm gonna be looking to see

how well your buildings survive

our bake and shake test.

[Justin] All right.

Who's ready to shake and bake?

Let's do it.

First up, Cindy and Taylor.

- Yeah!

- Give it up.

Pittsburgh is a place with four seasons.

We wanted to highlight that

in this build. In the far corner,

you'll see the entrance to the city.

You go across our isomalt bridge.

We have these awesome

modeling chocolate trees.

[Cindy] The leaves

are made out of wafer paper.

There's hundreds on there.

The cake on the right is

The tasting portion's on the top layer,

but that's a chocolate cake

and also the building on the back

is chocolate as well.

For our skyscraper,

it is just about 100% gingerbread,

with the primary exception

of gelatin on the bottom,

hopefully dampening

a lot of the vibrations.

All right! It is about time

to launch some destruction.

Andrew, fire up level one

in three, two, one.

- Yep. Yeah.

- [Brandi] Yeah!

[contestants applauding]

[Joanne] Wow.

- [Bake Quake powers down]

- [Justin] That's level one!

You made it through all of ten seconds

of level one. Are you ready for level two?

- Yeah.

- Yes.

[Taylor] Oh, God.

Oh!

[contestants exclaim]

Oh, my.

[murmurs]

[Taylor] Cake's gonna waddle off the back.

- [Joanne] Oh, boy.

- Oh!

[all] Oh!

[contestants laughing]

[Joanne] But the building didn't fall!

Have you ever seen a cake walk like that?

Wow.

Not a beautiful day in this neighborhood.

[Cindy] It's not.

It's no longer beautiful.

All right, well, Cindy, Taylor,

let's do level three, shall we?

Which is the big one. Andrew?

[Renee] Oh! The cake's walking.

- Oh, no. There it goes.

- The cake!

Oh, no!

[all] Oh!

[Brandi] Suicide.

It's comin' out.

Oh, God.

Oh, oh, oh, oh.

Okay. Okay.

Go!

[all exclaiming]

[applause]

Cindy and Taylor,

you ultimately did fail the stress test,

but you made it 23 seconds

into level three.

- Well done!

- [Renee] Good job.

[Joanne] That's impressive.

Let's taste your creations.

[Cindy] I made

a dark chocolate cake

with a peanut butter

Swiss meringue buttercream

and a pretzel crunch.

It is fantastic.

- Thank you.

- The cake is rich, moist,

light, but still very flavorful.

The peanut butter Swiss meringue

I think is really well-balanced.

But the fact that it's covered

in modeling chocolate,

I'm definitely gonna leave

the modeling chocolate to the side.

You did a great job

on the design today, visually.

I love the isomalt bridge.

I would say

the level of finish at ground level,

then as you go up

was slightly stark in contrast,

I think it'd be fair to say.

But overall, it's very striking.

Your building lasted a bit longer

than I predicted,

but, ultimately,

I think there was some really ingenious

engineering elements that you included.

I always thought the gel

at the bottom was a very good idea.

- I'm really proud of you.

- Thank you.

Cindy, Taylor,

thank you for the trip to Pittsburgh.

- Thank you.

- Well done.

Up next, Rodolfo and Sara.

- Please carefully

- [Brandi] Good luck!

Rodolfo and I

were thinking futuristic cities,

what do we want to be seeing?

Immediately Barcelona came to my mind.

Gaudí's crazy architecture everywhere.

[Rodolfo] For the park,

we have a vanilla cake base

and for the tree,

modeling chocolate and sugar leaves.

We did two cakes

with gingerbread around.

Coconut for the grass

and a little pasta on the top

just to get a little higher. [laughs]

- Rodolfo, Sara, you ready?

- Ready.

Andrew? It's time for level one.

[tense music playing]

[cheering]

- You think your skyscraper will survive?

- I hope so.

- I think so.

- Let's activate level two.

Oh, my gosh!

[gasps] Oh!

The house is falling apart.

Oh, gosh!

[Justin] It stayed up!

[Brandi] Yeah!

[Justin] We saw a little damage there.

- Are you ready for level three?

- Let's do it.

Solid.

- Solid.

- [Joanne] It isn't going anywhere.

Solid as a rock.

Oh!

Whoa!

[cheering]

- [Joanne] Oh, my God!

- Wow!

- [Brandi] Good job, guys!

- Good job!

Sara, Rodolfo, you have survived

everything we could throw at it.

- Well done!

- Yeah!

Now Andrew's just gonna

come kick it over.

Congratulations.

Brilliant engineering, Sara.

You had this internal reinforcement,

you engineered your own epoxy,

wonderful job all around.

Well, Rodolfo, Sara,

it is time to taste

the cake construction that survived,

so let's cut it up.

[Rodolfo] We did a cake inspired by Gaudí.

He used a lot of vegetable and fruits,

so I did a carrot cake with pecans

and a traditional cream cheese.

The carrot cake is really well-prepared.

It is light, it's not overly-spiced.

I might add

either a little bit more carrot,

something to give it

kind of that juiciness

I expect when I eat a carrot cake,

something that's

just a little bit more moist.

But again,

that's a very minor, minor point.

Thank you.

Rodolfo and Sara, I think this is iconic.

It's colorful, it's bright.

It grabbed my attention

when I saw it in its completed form.

It really did take my breath away.

Your your candypoxy

clearly worked really well today.

I think it's also

a testament to your design as well.

Just putting two pieces end to end

with a good epoxy

isn't gonna make a strong joint,

but you've thought about that

and you built the internal structure.

It's very impressive.

- Well done.

- [Sara] Thank you.

[Taylor] Guys!

[Justin] Up next, Brandi and Menuka!

- Nice!

- Yeah!

- Please carefully bring us that pagoda.

- Go, Brandi!

[Menuka] So,

when we received this mission,

my mind straight went

to the Japanese pagoda.

[Brandi] In the front of the pagoda,

you have little shrubbery

that's made out of the giant marshmallows,

and then you have the sake fountain,

which is cake.

I took pearl sugar and colored it.

Then we also have

the cherry blossom trees, which I love.

I made those with melted marshmallows

using shredded coconut.

And then off in the landscape behind,

you can see Mount Fuji.

And that is cake

with buttercream and snow sugar on top.

The structure

entirely made of gingerbread.

Now, let's remember,

because of the advantage you earned,

you'll only be shaking,

rattling and rolling for half the time.

Andrew, we'll begin

with five seconds at level one.

[Joanne] Oh!

Lost a few shrubs,

but structure's holdin' firm.

Andrew, cue level two.

- It's starting to weaken.

- [Brandi] Jeez.

[Joanne]

It's going to separate.

- [Brandi] Oh, my goodness!

- [Joanne] Wow!

- Solid.

- Well done. Prepare level three.

You have to withstand 30 seconds,

which is half the amount of time

as your competitor. You ready?

Yes, we're ready.

Go easy, Andrew. Go easy.

[Justin] Oh!

[Brandi] Aww!

Oh! Oh!

[Andrew] Oh, oh, oh! [groans]

- [Justin] Yeah!

- [all cheering]

You have successfully survived 30

seconds. Congrats, how do you feel?

Like I wanna puke, maybe. Excited

Time to give the judges

a taste of Japan.

So, I decided to bake

an almond and honey cake

with upside-down figs.

- Is it glazed with honey as well?

- No, it's

- There's just some sugar sprinkled on top.

- Got it.

The cake is well-flavored.

There's little bits of almond,

which I like.

I wish that this had been

a little bit more adventurous.

Maybe putting it in a tart shell

and then putting a little bit of cake,

and then some of the fig might have

just elevated the dessert

so it just showed off a little bit more

of all of the talents I know you have.

I think you picked the most

ambitious design, architecturally.

Most impressive to me is

how you bakineered this.

So, you used your patented epoxy,

Menuka, which has worked a treat here.

It's got elasticity so it's able

to absorb some of that vibration.

That thick layer at the bottom

clearly did its job really well.

If I was to give

some constructive feedback,

if I put my hand there,

from the first three layers,

I'm in Japan.

Oh, it's clearly gingerbread.

Well done for completing

what you did in time.

Perfect. A little bit unfinished.

So, Menuka, I think

it was a brilliant technique.

Your step pyramid design,

it gave you sort of like

a dampening of energy as you go up

and I saw that every single level

was as solid as a rock,

but they were moving separately.

So, I love what you did

from an engineering perspective.

Congratulations. Great job.

- Appreciate it. Thank you.

- Thank you.

Thank you guys very much. Well done.

Up next, Steve, Renee.

- [Taylor] Yay!

- [Rodolfo] Go get it, guys!

[Renee] Welcome

to Futuristic Venice, Italy.

In order to combat

the impacts of climate change,

Venice has to go 100%

no carbon emissions energy.

Such as the solar panels

that are powering the inside

of the skyscraper itself

and the windmills.

Tower is gingerbread

with a support system inside,

which is a crisscross system

between the layers.

The two buildings are cake on the inside,

buttercream on the outside.

The surrounding area

to the building itself is

Rice Krispie cereals

covered with coconut flakes.

The trees are made from chocolate,

and the gondolas are

modeling chocolate made by Renee.

- Steve, Renee, ready for level one?

- I'm ready.

- [Renee] Ready.

- [Justin] Andrew?

[Dr. O, Joanne] Wow.

Let's take it to level two.

- [Joanne] Got some movement.

- Here we go.

Oh, oh, oh, oh!

[applause]

It's not gonna make it.

A slight redesign has happened,

but you survived. How you feeling?

A lot of that's held together

with gelatin.

I had to switch up a little bit,

because the gingerbread

was getting too soft.

So, I switched up to some chocolate base.

And I knew there was gonna be

a weak spot right there, and I was right.

Maybe it'll take it right back

where it's supposed to be.

- [Steve] It may do that.

- You ready for level three?

Yep.

Oh, gosh.

Oh!

[softly] Stay. Stay.

[Renee] I just wanna catch it.

[all] Oh!

- [Steve] That one place.

- Wow.

Oh, man.

Steve, Renee,

your building withstood 38 seconds.

You failed the stress test,

but we're excited to taste your cakes.

[Steve] So, I made today,

to tie in with the theme of Italy,

a cannoli rum cake

with a European buttercream

on the outside.

And what is the filling?

It's a combination

of ricotta and mascarpone.

A hint of rum and vanilla.

- What's crunchy inside? Chocolate chips.

- Sorry, the chocolate chips. I forget.

So, Steve,

I wanna start off by thanking you

for covering it in something

other than modeling chocolate or fondant.

Because if I'm gonna eat a slice of cake,

I want to be able to eat the whole thing.

And in this case, I can and I want to.

The sponge cake is really light,

I mean, it's almost like flying away.

The ricotta and mascarpone

are really rich and creamy.

I love the addition

of the chocolate chips,

which gives it a little texture,

a little crunch as you're eating it.

But, unfortunately,

the rest of the cake is a little bit dry.

- Okay.

- It's so light, and, as a sponge cake,

it really is meant

to soak up whatever liquid,

so I think

if you were to make this cake again,

just making a simple syrup with some rum

would really not only

highlight the rum flavor,

but also give the cake more moisture.

Steve, this is like being in Italy.

I love that ricotta filling,

the chocolate chips give

a beautiful crunch. I'm an Irishman,

so I could've taken more rum,

to be honest.

- Okay.

- [Joanne laughs]

Steve, I know there was some issues

with the material choice.

You've said it yourself,

where it split was where you had to make

that switch to chocolate.

I think with a slightly

different ballistic gel composition

it might've been

a little more humidity-resistant.

Maybe a bit of glycerin.

But all in all,

I think you've got a really nice design.

You can tell

those units were well-designed.

Even that one on the floor there,

it's still holding together.

It was just those interfaces

which started to give way.

Hey, that's what brings buildings down.

One flaw.

[Dr. O] Steve and Renee,

your building did not survive

our stress test,

but I was immediately reminded

of how buildings in California are made,

where you have a subterranean

rollers that allow the building

to slide back and forth,

and I looked at it

at the very lowest levels

of our earthquake settings

and I could see the base sliding around,

so I thought, "Yeah, that's really good."

So, great job.

You didn't make it all the way through,

but part of your building

is still standing, so, way to go.

Steve, Renee, well done.

Thank you.

Thank you for Venice.

Congrats. Awesome job.

Our judges have

a very tough decision to make.

Want me to take care

of your controller while you're gone?

- I'll keep ahold of it, thank you.

- Okay. Why don't you guys go discuss?

We'll sit tight.

[tense music playing]

[softly] At this point,

it's our sixth mission,

and, like the skyscrapers,

our expectations are sky high.

This one's really, really hard.

They're obviously

both such talented bakineers.

It's a really difficult decision.

- I don't know what we're gonna do.

- Shall we flip a coin?

Dr. O!

I know we're in the bottom two.

So, it Just

How are they gonna judge this now?

That's our main concern.

How is this gonna go?

Judges.

Are you ready for us?

- Yes, we are.

- We are.

Bakineers, follow me.

Right.

Bakineers. We like to call this process

"creative destruction,"

and, from where I stand, at least,

you all were up to the challenge.

A spot in the semi-finals

is on the line, everyone.

And we're so sad to see

one of your amazing teams leave

right before we get there.

Four teams are left,

but only three teams will be moving on

and one step closer

to winning the $100,000.

Sara and Rodolfo, Brandi and Menuka.

Congratulations.

You will both be moving

into the semi-finals,

but only one of you will be earning

a colossal boost in the next mission.

To find out who that is,

we're gonna shake things up

just a little bit more.

[Bake Quake powering up]

[contestants] Yay!

[Sara] Seeing our name in lights

feels awesome.

And it took a minute

for me to recognize my own name.

I'm reading and going,

"Yes, that's actually us!"

I honestly can't believe

we're in this mission at this point.

And then we're in the semifinals! Ah!

[Justin] Congratulations,

Rodolfo and Sara.

You will now earn an incredible advantage

in the next mission.

And that mission is pivotal,

as it will decide

who makes it into the finale.

Rodolfo and Sara,

I loved your use of edible materials.

You had your own edible epoxy,

you cleverly designed

a building with good joints

and you used the cake at

the bottom to act as a bit of dampening.

It worked flawlessly.

[Justin] All right.

We have two teams guaranteed

spots in our next mission.

So, Brandi, Menuka, Rodolfo and Sara,

why don't you guys go take a seat?

Now, the question is who will be

joining them in the semifinals.

Cindy and Taylor or Steve and Renee?

[tense music playing]

It was so hard

for the judges to come to a conclusion

that they did not come to a conclusion.

Neither of you are going home quite yet.

The judges came up with another solution.

You both have to face one more mission

in order to earn

that coveted spot in our semifinal.

Using everything you've learned

from the skyscraper mission,

you have just two hours to build a house

using your leftover gingerbread

from your skyscraper

that is at least two feet tall.

Then, we're gonna shake them side by side

at the same time on The Bake Quake.

The team whose house survives the longest

will earn a place in our top three.

And, in the event of a tie,

we will be determining who moves on

based on your home design.

[Rodolfo] Gee.

Your final shakedown starts right now.

[woman] Mission launch.

In three, two, one, go.

Ooh! Watch out for that.

Honestly, I can't believe

we're going up against Steve and Renee

on a shakeoff.

[Renee] My thin compartment?

Steve is fast, and that's my biggest

concern going up against them.

I mean, he can pull things out of nowhere

faster than we can even think of them.

I wanna line these up

and make sure they all tie in properly.

Okay. Yeah, I can cut these

on the band saw, no problem.

We just finished a 15-hour build.

We're tired, exhausted, and we don't know

what it's gonna be at this point.

Stand back. Hot, hot, hot.

But I know we can get it up

in two hours with the isomalt,

and I'm pretty sure

the isomalt's gonna hold together

and withstand the stress test

on the shaker.

[Renee] We can always reinforce

on the outside,

especially the bottom pieces.

The bottoms should be reinforced first

and then the outside second,

and then we should be good

from a structural standpoint.

[Cindy] I'm making all the decor

out of modeling chocolate.

- [Taylor] That's perfect in my mind.

- Okay.

[Taylor] We're going for a simple shape

and we're theming it

as King Neptune's vacation home.

Do you think if I make seaweed

out of this we can attach it?

- Onto?

- Yes.

I feel confident

that both buildings are gonna last

for the whole Bake Quake,

so it's important to make it gorgeous

in addition to strong.

Fifty-eight minutes.

There's no time for base isolation systems

and stuff like that.

I just have to secure this thing

to the board the best way I can

with the amount of isomalt

I've got left in the pot.

That should hold it to the board.

I'm pouring it down inside the building

so it would run into the corners

and hold the building in place.

[Brandi] Yeah, Steve.

- Yeah!

- [Brandi] Put that roof on there!

It's a rocket ship.

- It looks like it.

- Yes.

Oh! 'Cause you're an aerospace engineer!

[Steve] When I hold it up,

push it on.

[Renee] Okay.

- And I'll border around it.

- Steve, Renee, how you feelin'?

- Looking good.

- Oh, never better!

- I think they're lying.

- That was sarcasm.

[clock ticking]

That looks right. My grandma's recipe.

On the fly, I need a way

to attach our structure to the base.

In order to succeed in this Bake Quake

against Steve and Renee,

I need to make sure our building

is attached to the base strong,

and isomalt is gonna be way too brittle,

so, I'm making a edible epoxy situation

that's based on marshmallows.

Marshmallows are very, very springy,

so hopefully they can

absorb vibration just like gelatin.

Then I'm adding in some gummy bears

and coating chocolate

to really adhere to the gingerbread.

I'm gonna tilt this towards you.

- Can you support it?

- [Cindy] Yep.

This is on-the-fly engineering.

I'm pretty sure this is gonna work,

but I'm basically taking sticky things

and just putting them in the microwave.

Thirty seconds!

- Come on!

- Last touches.

[Sara] Killin' it, Cindy!

- Come on, guys!

- Come on!

Five, four, three, two, one!

[Justin] Time is up!

Chocolate and chisels down!

[Renee] Wow.

[Taylor] This is

the most emotionally, physically,

and mentally exhausted we've been

this whole competition.

I mean, we put in 100%

and then a couple hours later,

we put in 100% again.

And I'm just hoping that we are able

to stay to create for another day.

So, bakineers, you already know

what it is you're about to face.

It is sitting right here in front of you.

The house that stands up the longest

earns a spot in the top three.

If it comes down to a tie or the same

number of pieces are lost,

we'll be judging you on design.

A spot in the top three

is literally on the table.

Cindy and Taylor,

Steve and Renee, are you ready?

Let's do it.

This is for a spot in the semifinals.

- Andrew, you ready?

- Yes, I am.

In three, two, one.

[Justin] We started with nine teams.

Only one can walk away with $100,000.

I'm sorry to say,

this was your final mission.

Phew!

We have to build a car.

The champions of Baking Impossible are

[theme music playing]