Great American Nightmare

They will be. WILLMAN: In just a few moments, four bakers will lock horns in a battle for cupcake domination. Hot stuff coming through, and I don't mean the cupcakes. WILLMAN: One by one, they will be eliminated as they're judged on taste... I need a chain saw to be able to cut it. We want to give the judges the finger. WILLMAN: ...presentation... This cupcake needs to be buried. ...and in the final round, the last two bakers standing will have to bring it all together into one terrifyingly awesome cupcake display. The winner gets to have their creation as the beating heart of one of the most fiendishly fun events of the year -- opening night of Rob Zombie's new Halloween attraction, the Great American Nightmare. Oh. And they'll walk away with $10,000. I'm going to die. I made this batter 100 times. I don't know what's happening. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. Get ready, 'cause this is "Cupcake Wars." -- Captions by VITAC -- Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC. [ Ding! ] What's up? I'm Justin Willman. And the world's ultimate clash of the cupcakes is about to play out right here. Overseeing today's 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 primed. Let's meet today's competitors. We got this. We're gonna do this. Okay, *** bump. My name is Diana Hicks. I'm the owner of Dee's Cupcakes. I am an online bakery in Chicago, Illinois. Help, partner. I am totally a rocker chick, and everything is retro inspired, even down to the names of my cupcakes. One of my best-selling cupcakes is my Joanie Loves Chachi. Thanks. My assistant today is Melissa Dragevan. She's incredibly talented. We're gonna look so cute together. I know, blond and brunette. I'm still a new business, and not many bakeries from Chicago have been to "Cupcake Wars," so I'm really excited to show people what Dee's Cupcakes can do. All right, let's do this. "Cupcake Wars!" Whoo! Oh, what am I doing over here? We're badasses. My name's Monique Cortes. I'm the owner of Sassy Sweets by Monique in Pittsburg, California. Our chocolate is a winner. Boom! I make jumbo cupcakes. A jumbo cupcake is like 2 1/2 standard cupcakes, so you can share it, or you can be a hog and eat it yourself. [ Laughs ] You are the best. My assistant is Daniel Fuchino. He's my business partner. We are the dynamic duo. I hope we're ready. Born ready. I need to win "Cupcake Wars" because I would buy a mobile food truck and be the first cupcake truck in the Sacramento area. I just want Sassy Sweets everywhere. Do this! We're Hardcore Sweet. We are gonna dominate. NICOLE: I'm Nicole Braddock. I am the owner of Hardcore Sweet cupcake truck in Waterbury, Connecticut. Here you go. Bye! Our cupcakes are awesome because they're sweet, they're savory. We do every different kind of dietary restriction. We're gonna be cupcake rock stars around here. My assistant today is Jeremy Braddock. He's my husband and also co-owner of Hardcore Sweet. You ready to go? I'm ready. This is gonna be so awesome. I need to win "Cupcake Wars" because I gave up everything to do this business. We depleted our savings. We both quit our jobs to start this food truck. Come on, rock star, let's go. Let's go. [ Horn honks ] Vegan treats can be just as good as traditional treats. My name is Jessika Lauren. I own Courtesan Cupcakes, currently an online bakery, in South Pasadena, California. You're the best vegan baker in L.A., so if anyone can do this, you can. We're a vegan-only baking company. I've been a vegan for eight years. I started baking to make treats for myself because I found it hard to find vegan treats. I'm really excited to meet the other bakers that are gonna lose. [ Laughs ] My baking assistant is Brittany Littleton. Brittany bakes as a hobby, and it's really great to have her help. Two badass vegan bakers? We got this. Winning "Cupcake Wars" would change my life. I would be able to open my own storefront and be able to bake full-time, which is my passion. I need to show the world that vegan baked goods can be just as great as traditional. My God, I'm so excited. "Cupcake Wars," here we come! What is up, bakers? Let's begin. Welcome to "Cupcake Wars." Or rather, welcome to the dark side of "Cupcake Wars" because this is about to be the most bone-chilling, blood-curdling episode we have ever done 'cause tonight's winner will be headed to the opening night of Rob Zombie's Great American Nightmare. DIANA: This is amazing. I love Rob Zombie. I love his work. I'm a huge fan. I need to be there. WILLMAN: It is a 15-day Halloween bash full of horrifying mazes, heart-stopping haunted houses, and awesome music. Almost sounds too good to be true, right? Well, don't take it from me. You can ask the man himself. Platinum-selling solo artist and award-winning director of "Halloween" and "House of 1,000 Corpses," people, it's Rob Zombie. Hello, hello, hello. I'm shaking right now. I mean, who doesn't love Rob Zombie? The Great American Nightmare is all about creating the most demented, sick, twisted Halloween event of all time. So, what I'm looking for from you is the most sick, demented cupcake you can come up with. Bakers, as you know, winning "Cupcake Wars" could put you and your bakery on the map. Plus, the winner also walks away with $10,000. Here's how the competition works. There are three rounds. After each one of those rounds, one of you will be axed. Your first challenge -- You need to create a cupcake designed to give people nightmares, literally. Check out the inspiration table. It's packed with ingredients rumored to give bad dreams, like cayenne pepper, green curry, wasabi, garlic, and so much more. And if you want to live to the next round, you have to use at least two of these ingredients to create a tasty cupcake. And one more thing. Rob is a hard-core vegan. So today, you're gonna have to leave the milk and eggs in the pantry. You have 45 minutes. Good luck. Clock starts now! NICOLE: Ghost peppers are something I just would never put in a cupcake. You're supposed to wear gloves to even handle them. That's not a good sign. Okay, so they have a lot of weird stuff over there. So, they they have garlic, wasabi. Thai chili. Ghost pepper. I'm not touching my eyes with that. What about habanero peppers? Oh, my goodness. I've got a little bit of vegan baking experience but really not very much, so I'm super, super worried. The cardamom maybe, like, in a ganache or something? Okay, like a filling. We've decided to go with a dark-chocolate habanero cake filled with a cardamom ganache with a vegan cream cheese frosting and some buttercream flames. You think, like, that much is okay? Yeah, just go for it. It's gonna be awesome. It's nice, dark, and spicy, just like Rob Zombie. It's gonna be crazy, but it's gonna be delicious. You think that's gonna be good for a... MONIQUE: Oh, my gosh. Start with one. I'm making a chocolate habanero cake on top of a cinnamon cardamom graham cracker cookie crust, topped with vegan marshmallow buttercream. The batter cannot be too spicy. I don't want to ruin their taste buds. If I don't put enough habanero, they're not gonna be able to taste it, but I don't want to put too much because it'll burn their palate and they won't be able to taste anything the rest of the day. These are going in the oven. Yeah. I'm so excited because we're vegan. I am gonna make a green curry cupcake, green papaya and carrot in the batter, with a coconut buttercream. We're gonna drizzle over a syrup that has Thai chili peppers and lemongrass with little fondant eyeballs so it looks like a little monster. We got to hurry 'cause I can't even do anything else until we get it. To prepare the green curry, you need to sauté it first and then add coconut milk. And until this curry cools, it can't even go into the batter. We are going to be cutting this down to the wire. So, we'll add a little bit more coconut milk to this. Well, it's black garlic, so we don't even have to roast it. You just put oil in it. We're going to do a black garlic cake with vegan white chocolate, a cardamom frosting. We're going to top it with a fondant heart with a lemon-garlic brittle that we shape like a wooden stake, shoving it right through its heart. It's a lot subtler than the, like, white garlic. Black garlic is a fermented garlic. I don't want to go too much or too little on the... We have to go big. We're Hard core. We wanted to really bring it. All right, I'm gonna add the black garlic right now, babe. Rob's movies -- scary. But not finishing in time? Terrifying. 30 minutes! It's going so fast. BRITTANY: How you doing over there? I'm a little scared. Because I'm working on the syrup and the curry at the same time, we run a little bit behind. I need to put this curry into the batter, but it needs to cool, which means we can't even get our cakes in the oven yet. DIANA: Whoo, here we go! I don't taste the habanero. Wait, now I taste the habanero. Florian's gonna love it. This has to be the bomb. Cupcakes going in the oven. All right, cupcakes are in. All right. It's hot? Don't know how that's gonna work out, but we'll find out. Do we want to stick it in the freezer, or...? No, ain't got time. Time is running out. We need to get the cupcakes in the oven, but at this point, we're just gonna have to add this hot curry mixture right into the batter. Totally trash it right now. Oh, my God. It's like as though we've never baked before. Oh, cupcakes going in the oven. So, we finally get our cakes in the oven. I know that these cakes need at least 22 minutes to bake. Oh, my God. I took on a big risk with the curry and the Thai chilis, and they're not gonna have enough bake time. I really should have simplified. This is not good. They're not gonna have enough time. They'll be raw. We're screwed. This is a debacle. Oh. Cupcakes going in the oven. We're out of time. JESSIKA: I took on a big risk with the green curry cupcake. I know that these cakes need at least 22 minutes to bake, but we don't have that kind of time. This is not good. They're not gonna have enough time. They'll be raw. We're gonna have to crank the oven up higher, which means that the outside will probably get baked, and the inside will be way too soft, but we're just gonna have to hope for the best here. I bumped it up to 400. Let's see what happens. Can you measure me out two cups of powdered sugar? DIANA: I'm making the vegan cream cheese frosting for my dark-chocolate habanero cake. I've never worked with vegan cream cheese, but Rob Zombie is a vegan, so I'm hoping that the consistency is like normal cream cheese because my normal cream cheese frosting is awesome. Melissa, there's something wrong with this frosting. What? It's like soup. It's frosting soup. Oh, my God. What are we gonna do? Vegan cream cheese must be different. Oh, my gosh. This frosting is just not fluffing up. There's too much liquid. I have frosting soup on "Cupcake Wars." This is not happening. I have to throw it away and just go with something I know is gonna work. What can we do fast? Vanilla? I don't know. Vanilla buttercream? We could. Our plan B is to just do a vanilla buttercream with vegan shortening subbed out for my normal ingredients. This has to work 'cause I do not have time to remake this again. They are looking really good. I think they're done. Cupcakes coming out. JEREMY: They're good? Are they done? I'm happy. WILLMAN: 10 minutes left! BRITTANY: Oh, my God, 10 minutes. No, it's just not -- It's not gonna happen. A few more minutes. They're still really soft. My cupcakes are looking really weird. They're not rising. I don't know what the problem is. Oh, my god. We're running out of time. Those cupcakes have to come out of the oven. What about if I add a little bit more cardamom? Just a tiny bit. I know. MELISSA: Is it good? DIANA: Yeah, it's really good. I think you need to add some vanilla. That's good, yeah. Perfect. I'm gonna start just putting food coloring in the coconut for our topping. I think they're ready. I'm gonna put them in the freezer right now. How are we gonna make the flames on the top? MELISSA: With red and orange, yellow. Oh, baby. Raw. Raw as they come. Cupcakes are a little raw, but we got to get these cakes out of there and get some frosting on them and get them on that plate. I pulled these ones out of the pan. They looked the most done. They were towards the back of the oven. WILLMAN: Bakers, 1 minute! This one is not cooked all the way. They're not -- They're not cooked. Just start frosting them. We got to put them on the plate. Cool enough. I could stab them if you want to squirt them. Yeah, do that. It'll be faster. Oh, my God. You ready with the eyeballs? We got to do this. DANIEL: Oh! MONIQUE: Just refrost it. Hurry. WILLMAN: 10, 9, 8... 7, 6, 5... 4, 3, 2, 1. Time's up! We did it. Yay! Oh, god. Brittany, I thought we weren't gonna have anything on the plate, honestly. Bakers, we asked you to invent a nightmare-inducing cupcake. Let's see how you did. Good, how are you? Please tell me you're gonna scare these guys. So, this is our black garlic cake with vegan white chocolate, with a cardamom frosting on top, and we have a fondant heart adorned with a lemon-garlic stake through it. Florian, how was it for you? Well, you know, you choose the theme of vampire here, and I felt like I was invited at a vampire's table, and I like that. I could taste the garlic. I could taste the cardamom, for sure. NELSON: This black garlic cupcake would definitely keep the vampires away. I loved your choice of white chocolate pairing with the cardamom frosting. Given the theme today, I think you did a very nice job. Thank you so much. Rob, was it disturbing enough? I'm thinking of the type of person that's gonna be eating a cupcake at the Great American Nightmare. I think this might appeal to them greatly. What up? Thank you. What did you bake them? I made a chocolate habanero cake on top of a cinnamon, cardamom, cookie crust. Topped it with a marshmallow buttercream. Garnished with some more of the cardamom cinnamon cookie. I got many issues on this cupcake. First of all, I needed a chain saw to be able to cut it. Your cookie was so dense and hard, it was really hard to dig into it. The aftertaste, I got a bit of habanero, but if you go with spices, especially habanero, you have to go for it. I mean, it has to be burning. Okay. NELSON: I agree with Florian. The cookie crust at the bottom was just too thick. The thing I found most unsettling about this cupcake, however, was that it appeared to be unbaked in the middle. I thought there was a filling inside, but as you said, there isn't, so there was something technically wrong here. For me, for the Great American Nightmare cupcake, it was a little bit mellow for my taste. Hello. What did you bake them? It's a green curry coconut cake topped with a coconut buttercream frosting, coconut garnish. This cupcake scared the hell out of me. I think the green curry paste was maybe too powerful. The cake was too moist by itself, and it was quite collapsing, in a way, which could be good in a horror movie, but on this plate, I think it was a bit too much. I was actually very excited to hear you had chosen the green curry and coconut, and I thought, you know, here are a couple of flavors that actually could work well in a cupcake. I think this cupcake was a little bit too scary for me to eat. This cupcake veered off too much into the savory direction, and you could have kept it a little more sweet with those light flavors of Thai cuisine. There's good nightmares, and there's bad nightmares, I guess, and this one might be kind of the bad, bad ones. Unfortunately, after one bite, I really didn't want two. Up next, Diana. How are you? What'd you bake them? What you have before you is a dark-chocolate habanero cake filled with a cardamom ganache, topped with vanilla buttercream and a little bit of cinnamon and some flames. Well, this was generally a tasty chocolate cupcake, but, I mean, this is the Great American Nightmare. We are looking for fierce flavors. You are advertising with a flame on top, and I felt like your flavors felt a little wimpy. I cannot recognize anything. It's a chocolate cupcake. I got little bit of cardamom, and that was it. There was nothing that surprised me. It was a very tasty chocolate cupcake. Thank you, judges. Diana, thank you. Well, bakers, your job was to bake a cupcake that would leave our spines and taste buds tingling. We'll give the judges a moment to chew over their thoughts. Bring you back in a bit. Thanks, guys. JESSIKA: I still really worry. I knew that with those carrots and papaya in there, it really needed full bake time, which we just didn't have. Candace thinks that I have a filling inside, but it's just the raw batter. Executing these cupcakes, this is the hardest thing I've ever done. Bakers, you're supposed to be baking cupcakes for an event designed to shock, chill, and enthrall horror fans of all ages. Yet, the judges called some of your creations boring, wimpy, and confusing. But at least those cupcakes were edible. Jessika, sorry, you're done in the cupcake war. Okay. JESSIKA: I really should have simplified. I tried to go big, and we didn't have enough time to pull it all together. Congratulations, bakers. You have survived round one, but only two of you will go on to the final round, where you'll each construct a 1,000 cupcake display and duke it out to join Rob at the Great American Nightmare. You want to be one of those bakers? You'll have to do a killer job in this round, which means scaring up three cupcakes that not only give our judges the creeps with the flavors but with their decorations, as well. In this round, you'll be judged 50% on your taste and 50% on presentation. You have 75 minutes... starting now. Oh, my God, that was so scary. Oh, my gosh. We made it. We have to wow the judges. Moonshine and apples and bourbon and pecan and all that. I mean, that's American. Our first cupcake is a pecan streusel cake with a moonshine apple compote, cinnamon frosting, topped with a vegan shortbread crust and a severed ladyfinger, drizzled with some cherry moonshine reduction to resemble some blood. Okay. Our second cupcake is a dark chocolate chip cake with a chocolate ganache filling, with a cookie butter frosting, topped with dark-chocolate vegan ganache, cookie crumbles, and a Great American Nightmare logo. So, I think we should do a banana cake in case there's kids. The third cupcake we have is our dark chocolate chip banana cupcake topped with peanut butter frosting, a banana chip dipped in dark-chocolate ganache and popping sugar. And we're going to decorate it with a scary, creepy clown. All right, all right, let's go. You're gonna start on the pie crust 'cause we have to chill it. Okay. I'm really glad that we didn't go home, Melissa, but we really need to step it up. The last round, the judges thought my cupcakes were boring, so I really need to take some risks in this round and pump up my flavors. I hope this is the right amount of almond milk this time. We're gonna do an almond cake topped with chocolate ganache, coconut frosting, a little bit of toasted coconut, and a fondant rat. Look at this nice, fresh ginger. My second cupcake is gonna be a pumpkin ginger cake, a vanilla bean vegan cream cheese frosting, topped with a fondant axe and a blood splatter. Why don't you get started on the apple filling 'cause that needs to cool? Awesome. My third cupcake is going to be a vanilla cake with a fresh apple pie filling, with peanut butter frosting, and I'm gonna top it with a fondant transfer that says "Great American Nightmare." I don't want any issues with anything. I do not want to go home. I was so worried last time. Like, we cut it too close. MONIQUE: I feel like we barely made it to round two. I'm feeling pretty anxious. Two cups of carrots? Good to go. My first cupcake is carrot cake topped with a vegan cream cheese buttercream, garnished with a severed hand holding a balloon. Raspberry. My second cupcake is the raspberry cake topped with a passion fruit buttercream, garnished with a fondant cleaver cutting into the frosting with raspberry puree looking like blood. I'm working on the banana cake right now. My third cupcake is the ghost of Elvis. It's a banana cake filled with ganache, topped with a peanut butter buttercream, rolled in chocolate cookie crumbs, and then I put a gravestone and a fondant zombie hand coming out. Want me to do some decorating magic? Yeah, start on that. I'm gonna knock out the cupcake batter. Bakers! You're down to one hour! Oh, my God, we have an hour. Oh, my God, one hour. We got to make sure that we do this quick. This is the most stressful thing I've ever done in my life. This is crazy. I'm gonna mash these up really good. I'm working on the carrot cake. I make a really great carrot cake. I want the carrot to be present. I want them to see it. I want them to taste it because they didn't taste my habanero the last round. It just seems kind of thick. I had such a bad round last round... I don't even remember if I put the milk in or the oil. ...I'm starting to second-guess myself. I know I put the oil in, for sure. Yeah, I did. I put the milk. Oh, my God, now I'm just freaking out. I have to stop second-guessing myself, get these batters in the oven, and just stop making these little mistakes. Let's just hope and pray that I did it right. Cupcakes are going in. All right, I'm putting the pumpkin cupcakes in the oven. One down, two to go. All right, I'm putting the banana in. Banana cupcakes going in. NICOLE: I'm gonna layer it. All right, they're in. Have to scoop it, babe. Can you put these in? Come on, hustle it, hustle it. Let's do it. Coming through, ladies. Rob, what is the true secret to terror? Like this? 30 minutes! Oh, my God! 30 minutes. Oh, my God. Nailed it! You didn't see that coming, see? MONIQUE: These are beautiful. Hot stuff coming through, and I don't mean the cupcakes. All right, they look done. I'm checking the almond cupcakes. Something's wrong with these. I go to check my almond cupcakes in the oven, and I see that they're not rising. The almond's not rising. I've made this batter 100 times. I don't know what's happening. I cannot believe this is happening to me right now. They just look so small. All right. I decide to make a whole new batch of batter. I can't believe this is happening to us right now. This is crazy. This is an insane risk, but I don't want to serve the judges cupcakes that haven't risen all the way. What's the baking time? Like 12 minutes. It's thicker already. Yeah, this looks better. I'm praying. DANIEL: Okay. I'm stirring the frostings now. JEREMY: I just added the moonshine. I think this is gonna be so delicious. I think I'm gonna start on the decorations. DIANA: Okay, good idea. Those decorations are taking way longer than I expected. DANIEL: They will be. I'm making, like, a crazy, creepy clown looking like thing. NICOLE: Yeah, yeah. Fat little rat bodies. Making some little ears. The decorations are looking great, hon. These look great, Melissa. These are gonna work. Bakers, 10 minutes. Oh, my God, 10 minutes. Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. Yeah, these look better. Oh, they're still not baked, though. They still need one more minute. NICOLE: Get the apple compote and start filling the... These vanilla ones are overbaked on the top, but there's nothing we can do about it. I just want to cry. These peanut butter ones are almost done. DANIEL: Gotcha. NICOLE: Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Start putting these... What, what? Ooh, sorry. I don't know. They kind of still seem not done. My second batch of almond cupcakes turned out great, but they are not done. Look at them, they're -- MELISSA: It's hot cake. I don't know. I don't have enough time to bake them longer. Just ice. Get the ganache on them. I have to just go with my first batch and hope for the best. Okay. Bakers, 1 minute! Bend it a little like it's like... 10... Where's all the dark chocolate chips? I think we used them. ...7, 6, 5... Cleavers, cleavers, cleavers. ...4, 3, 2, 1. Whoo! That's crazy. I am feeling extremely scared. It was a huge risk to redo the almond batter. I don't even know if it's gonna be worth it. This sucks. WILLMAN: Cupcake makers, your round 2 challenge was to create three cupcakes whose tastes and decorations would leave our judges shivering with fear. Let's see how you did. Monique, what'd you bake? MONIQUE: First I have a carrot cake with cream-cheese-flavored buttercream, with a severed fondant hand holding a balloon. The second is a raspberry cake topped with a passion fruit buttercream, with a fondant cleaver. Third is banana cake filled with chocolate ganache, topped with a crunchy peanut butter buttercream, topped with fondant gravestone with a zombie hand coming out. Hi, Monique. You had my skin crawling just looking at these decorations. This bloody cleaver was so flawlessly executed, and the cupcakes were ghoulishly good. My only note would be that when I peeled off the banana wrapper, half of that cupcake stayed in the wrapper. So there was a technical issue with this cake, but the part that I did eat was very good. Thanks. I like the idea of the zombie hand coming out and the tombstone right there... The density of your cake was very gritty and very dense, so this one, no. But otherwise, great job. My favorite was the one that you said only a zombie would like, and I did. Overall, they look pretty cool, and they taste good. Thank you, judges. Diana, you're up. What'd you bake? DIANA: My first cupcake is an almond cake with chocolate ganache and coconut frosting and a little fondant rat. My second cupcake is a pumpkin ginger cake topped with a vanilla bean vegan cream cheese, a vegan fondant axe. And then the last is a vanilla cake with an apple pie filling, peanut butter frosting, topped with the event logo and a little bit of sprinkles. Hi, Diana. I like the branding on the decoration. This one was pretty well done. The other two decoration, I thought... Same with the flavor. Two of them were quite bland. Even though they were tasting good, it could have used a filling or something, but the apple was good, though. I don't think you stretched your wicked imagination enough with these decorations. When you started describing your almond cupcake, I thought, "Well, surely that's a chocolate-covered almond as the body of the rat." And when you said it was just fondant, that was a missed opportunity. In terms of your flavors, I particularly like the peanut butter and apple pie, but I had a problem with your textures. It's not hard to make a fluffy, delicious vegan cupcake, but based on what I've tasted today, it seems like it might be. ZOMBIE: Everything tasted really good. The decorations were all nice, but maybe they could be more proportionally out of control compared to the cupcake. Yeah, real good job. Thank you, judges. Nicole, what did you bake? NICOLE: The first one is a dark-chocolate swirled banana cake, a peanut butter frosting, and a fondant clown on top. The second one is our American pie with a vegan shortbread crust on top, with apples that were reduced in moonshine, cinnamon frosting on top, and pecans swirled in with brown sugar with a severed finger. The last one, it's our dark-chocolate cake with chocolate chips baked in, with a pascale frosting, cookie crumble, and the logo. BELLANGER: Bravo for the decoration. Personally, this is what I was looking for. I mean, that finger coming out of my cookie? Good job on that. Regarding the cupcakes, the banana peanut butter, I like the taste. The texture was pretty good, but your frosting were crumbly, almost like scrambled eggs. Just didn't work for me. Besides that, two cupcakes were very good. I love your decoration. Good job. I just love to see you use your imagination. There is so much here with the theme today, so thank you. In terms of your cupcakes, this chocolate cupcake needs to be buried. The cake, wow, we are running into texture issues. And all of these overly large chunks of chocolate kind of mash together. You couldn't tell where one thing ended and the next began. Now on to the good news. I thought this was a really novel new cupcake here, the moonshine with the shortbread vegan cookie. Well done on that. Decoration-wise, it was great. I mean, this is kind of what I was talking about, doing things that are a little more out of proportion to the cupcake, and yeah. Everything about it was great. Thank you, judges. Okay, bakers. We're gonna let our judges have a chat, and we'll bring you back in a few with their decision. NICOLE: I'm a nervous wreck at this point. I hope our decorations are going to win them over. DIANA: It really couldn't have gone worse for us. Candace and Florian, again, could not find my flavors, but Rob seemed to like them. WILLMAN: Bakers, you aimed to frighten us with your flavors and petrify us with your presentations, but the baker going home will learn there's one thing your cupcakes can never be, and that's boring. Diana, you're done in the cupcake war. Bye. It's so frustrating because I know I'm not a bad baker, and I'm really, really sad. WILLMAN: Well, bakers, you've reached round 3. It is the witching hour, which means one of you is about to join Rob at the world's greatest Halloween bash. Your job is to build Rob a monstrous cupcake display for the Great American Nightmare, and Rob likes to call it... House of 1,000 cupcakes. Now, baking 1,000 cupcakes takes a lot of slicing and dicing. I would know. So, we're giving each of you an extra hand. You each get a master carpenter to held you build -- Justin and Jake -- and four baking assistants to help in the kitchen. At the end of the challenge, our judges will evaluate your cupcakes, rate your decorations, and based on how it all comes together, name one of you the winner of "Cupcake Wars." You have two hours starting now. Oh, my God, I can't believe we made it to the final round. I know. Yes. Oh, my God. We have to fix our cupcakes and get a killer display made if we're going to win the "Cupcake Wars." So, I'm thinking a graveyard scene. I'm thinking that the legs will be, like, coffins, and then this is where we're gonna put the cupcakes. MONIQUE: I want to do a creepy graveyard scene with the coffins belowground, and the graveyard is aboveground. And then I want, like, a creepy tree. And then zombie hands coming out of the ground. One of the zombie hands could be holding the sign of the logo of the Great American Nightmare. And then I want blood, blood, blood. I want it to look so creepy. Thank you! NICOLE: This is my clown face. Everything that goes on in a funhouse -- wavy mirrors, bright colors, Mylar everywhere. NICOLE: Rob said that he wanted a house of 1,000 cupcakes. We're doing a funhouse of 1,000 cupcakes. I want a six-foot clown, like he's serving the cupcake, and you could go right up to the funhouse. We like a vintage feel. We want a clown to be there as the chef du jour. 'Cause I want everyone to hit it from all angles. Monique has been our biggest competitor the whole day, and now it's down to me and her. We have to have a killer display. See what I can make happen. All right. Let me know how it goes. I want two of you ladies to go with Daniel, and then two of you come with me and start the batters. I have faith in you guys. You guys are gonna pull us through. I'm gonna make it really spicy. It's what they asked for. In round 1, my chocolate habanero cake was undercooked, the cookie crust was overdone, and they couldn't taste the habanero. I just can't have the crust crunchy. They hated that. In this round, I'm gonna cook the cookie crust less, and I'm going to add more habanero. They couldn't taste it last time. Perfect. MONIQUE: I really hope the judges like the changes I make. This could really be the difference between winning and losing. Melissa with the banana cake. NICOLE: I'm gonna add a little bit of cornstarch. Hopefully, that'll lighten it up a bit and make it more like a cake flour. The judges loved our garlic cake, but Florian did mention that it had a little bit of a muffin-y texture. So, we're going to add a little bit of cornstarch so it has a really light consistency. It's garlic. I'm gonna start on that chocolate. The biggest challenge that we had all day was that chocolate, dreadful cupcake. I don't know if I forgot an ingredient, but we have to fix it. I really want to have time in case I have to rework it again. Yeah. Okay, we got to really hurry and get these batters in. Where's that moonshine? Did we drink it all? The girls are on the decoration. I'll go check on them in a bit. That looks dark and creepy. Zombie would be proud of this. These are ready to go. After this, I have to start on those chocolate. Okay, these are going in. All right, I'm going to put these in the oven. Carrot cake going in. Fearless vampire is in. Banana cake going in. 10 minutes on these. Only about 500 more to go. Ugh. I'm so tired today. I feel like a zombie. Hey, man. Welcome to my world. 90 minutes! Oh, my God. Ohh! Could you guys do that again and make it funny? You guys are still working on decorations? I'm gonna get one of the girls off frosting to do this. This is really important. Paint the fingernail like that. Don't take too long with that. They have 1,000 to do. We have to get going. There's still decorations being made, and we still have to fix our chocolate cupcake. We really need to work fast. JEREMY: I cannot wait to see that display. I hope he nails it. This might be a little too gory for Nicole. I hope this could hold a cupcake. That ought to make it a little more kid-friendly. Give me a high five. Nice. Now for the best part. Oh, come on. It's scary how good this is. They're good? Ladies, can you help me get the rest of these cupcakes out, please? WILLMAN: One hour left! One hour! Oh, my God. One hour! Chocolate is done. Can I have one of you girls scoop the raspberry real quick and then put it in 'cause I'm gonna put these in the freezer? JEREMY: Make little slivers. Go right through those hearts like you're killing a vampire. That looks awesome, you guys. NICOLE: Nix the chocolate chips, for sure. It's gonna be good. The biggest challenge that we had all day was that chocolate, dreadful cupcake. We're going to take out those dark chocolate chips and just use our basic vegan chocolate cake that we use all the time. Oh, my God. But it still doesn't look right. Look at this. It's a little thick. It's like spackle. If we go home for a cupcake that we do every single day, oh, my God, I am going to die. Look at this. It's a little thick. It's like spackle. We have to redo this batter and start over. This is one of our best cupcakes. Stop talking to me, and let's do it. The biggest challenge that we had all day was that chocolate, dreadful cupcake. We have to fix it. Make sure everything is mixed, and fold everything in. Frost, frost, frost! We got to do this. MONIQUE: The cupcakes are not being frosted fast enough. We need to work faster. Come on, you guys! You can do it! Frost, frost, frost! NICOLE: How are you feeling? I don't -- I'm, like, wicked stressed. Perfect. All right. Come on, guys. Hurry up, please. You guys are doing great! Taste that. It tastes awesome. This is ready to go in the oven. All right, chocolate are in. Ladies and gentlemen, a terrifying message from the master of horror! 45 minutes. Oh, my God. Ooh! Come on, babe. They got, like, all their cupcakes frosted. We don't got nothing going on. NICOLE: Be the manager. Go manage. Oh, my God, Daniel. My frosting is slipping off. Make them as good as you can. Are they done? NICOLE: This is it, the moment of truth. They're done? They're coming out. Finally, the cupcakes come out of the oven, and they look perfect. Come on. Crumble, crumble, crumble. WILLMAN: 30 minutes! Wow. That is sick. NICOLE: Wow, that's exactly what I pictured in my head but 10 times better. I've got your server. Sweet. Thank you! Daniel! Look at their display. Oh, my God. I can't help but wonder what's going on with my display. I'm worried. Oh, my God. Those look awesome. Look at the coffins, Daniel. My display is exactly how I pictured it. I love everything about it. He nailed it. NICOLE: I'm feeling nervous. Maybe my display wasn't the best choice. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Yes! Bakers, 10 minutes! You guys, load whatever you have! MONIQUE: Just start over here. Just start loading them on there, whatever you can. Just hustle. MONIQUE: I need everybody loading cupcakes. DANIEL: Come on, guys, please, get them cupcakes on that. Come on. You can do it. This is it. You guys, here, these are done. Put these on, please. Oh, my God, 5 minutes, you guys! Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, please. NICOLE: Grab two if you can, four if you can. I'm stressed. My stomach's in knots. These have to all get on there. Oh, my God. Like... JEREMY: We're done. It's not gonna happen. 3 1/2 minutes, you guys. You can do it. Hearts. Hearts, hearts, hearts. Please put these on. We can do it. We can do it. WILLMAN: 10, 9, 8... 7, 6, 5... 4, 3, 2, 1. Time's up! [ Applause ] Oh, my God. Oh, my God. This was so hard. Cupcake makers, for round 3, you had to bring to life a 1,000-cupcake display that could hold its own at one of the scariest events on earth. The winner will find herself haunting horror fans at the opening night of Rob Zombie's Great American Nightmare. Monique, tell us what you did. So, my display is a graveyard scene. It has zombie hands coming out of the ground bloody. I have made a crazy tree with hands holding the cupcakes. I made coffins all around, and I wanted the coffins to look like they came out of the ground, like they're dirty and burnt and scary. Okay, any cupcake changes? I added more habanero to make it more spicy, so I fixed that. Nicole, tell us about your display. We did funhouse of 1,000 cupcakes. We have a large clown, chef du jour clown holding our cupcakes with zombie hands, like a menu, showing you what's at the funhouse. When you go around the back, it's like a carousel of cupcakes. It's 360. And we have wavy mirrors for people to take fun pictures like a funhouse. Cupcake changes? For the first round, we did want to lighten it up, so we added a little bit of cornstarch to make it like a cake flour. For the dark chocolate, we nixed that whole recipe, and we did our original recipe, so that one came out a lot lighter and fluffier. All right, bakers, we're gonna give our judges a chance to check out your displays, taste your changes, form an opinion. Bring you back in a few. Thanks. MONIQUE: The changes that I made were really good. Our display is tight. I just don't know what the judges are looking for. I'm feeling really anxious. It can go either way. NICOLE: I'm feeling drained. I'm hoping that they just love our display and they love the revisions. Our cupcakes and our reputations are on the line. WILLMAN: Well, Rob, it's about time. Your influence has inspired these bakers. It sure has. What do you like about what Monique has done? I think she gets it on some level. I like that it works in 360, and she had a concept that she based it on a nightmare, which is good. NELSON: Monique has certainly been inspired by the nightmare part of it. Pint-sized coffins, creepy tombstones. I'm not sure it could get more repulsive, really. In a good way. BELLANGER: I like the fact that the coffins are the centerpiece and also the structure. It really makes a statement, but I'm concerned about the height of those cupcakes down there. They're quite low to the floor. Monique's had some unique decorations all day. NELSON: Monique really wowed us with her decorations. I still remember that great big cleaver with the juicy red raspberry blood. I think the decorations work great. They're very small. They're very detailed, well-executed. What about her taste modification? She did fix that chocolate habanero cupcake. Now it tastes very good and fluffy. The banana, the texture of the cake is very dense and very gritty, and I don't think this recipe has been fixed wisely. So, let's talk about Nicole's display. Yeah, I mean, I really like this display. It looks like you're supposed to pick up a cupcake and throw it through the clown's mouth to win a prize or something. Really looks like coming out of a vintage circus. NELSON: It's really well done. The only thing I'm having a problem with is that clown server. I think she would do better without it. Doesn't work well, I think, with the entire design. Cupcake-wise, how's Nicole been doing? NELSON: We had her make a few changes, and that chocolate cupcake, it is an entirely different cupcake, and it's moist and fluffy and delicious. No more chunks. ...and it's much better this way. Yeah, I mean, taste-wise, everything got better. BELLANGER: Nicole did a flawless job on her decoration during round 1 and round 2, but here, they don't look as perfect as they were on our plate. Well, Rob, Florian, Candace, do we have a winner? Yes, we do. Let's bring them back. Bakers, while the theme of the day has been the weird, the eerie, the unsettling, the battle itself has been a classic cupcake war. Nicole, the judges gushed over your garlic cupcake and loved it when you gave them the finger -- severed, of course. And Monique, your raspberry blood spatter and razor-sharp cleaver had the judges trembling with delight. And though you've both risen to the challenge, only one of you has delivered a nightmare so delicious, the judges never want to wake up. Congratulations... ...Nicole. You're the winner of "Cupcake Wars!" NICOLE: Oh, my God! I just won "Cupcake Wars" for Rob Zombie! [ Applause ] MONIQUE: I will be back to "Cupcake Wars," and I will win it. Oh, my God. I'm, like, shaking. Congratulations, Nicole. Let's pack up those 1,000 cupcakes and trek them over to the Great American Nightmare. What do you say? Let's go! [ Metal music plays ] We just won. Connecticut is on the map. Thank you for coming. So happy to have you here. Thank you. Cheers! NICOLE: I gave up everything to do this business. We both quit our jobs. It's delicious. It feels great to know what we did was right. Yeah. This is really good. We are going to take this and do everything we've always dreamed of. So much fun. I love you. Awesome.