Cupcake Wars: The Final Frontier

Show: Cupcake Wars
banana toffee cupcakes

Cupcake Wars judge Candace Nelson is the founder and pastry chef of Sprinkles Cupcakes , the world’s first cupcake bakery. She joins us on the FN Dish each week to recap all the sweet details of the competition from her seat at the judges’ table. Here’s what she had to say about this week’s episode.

One of my favorite things about Cupcake Wars is meeting the most interesting guest judges and this episode was about as good as it gets -- a real live NASA astronaut, Tracy Caldwell Dyson. Justin, Florian and I had time to ask Tracy every question imaginable about living in space, including the possibility of cupcakes in space.  Tracy enlightened us that anything that produces crumbs isn’t ideal -- due to the lack of gravity, cupcake crumbs would fly around and get into everything.

We saw some familiar faces this time: Both Leyna and Kasia competed last season and were back for redemption. Leyna, who left in round one previously, was there to wow us with her science-worthy techniques, such as freezing lychees with liquid nitrogen -- not something we usually see on Cupcake Wars. Kasia impressed us with her creative glow-in-the-dark decorations, but had serious issues with her cake texture.  Casey had issues with time and his decorations didn’t make it onto the plate, however his cupcakes were outstanding and saved him.

In the final round, Casey created a clean display that spoke perfectly to the 50th Anniversary of the first American in space and our “space geek” blasted off with the win.

Get the winning recipe: Banana Toffee Cupcakes

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