San Diego Zoo

WILLMAN: In just a few moments, four bakers will face off in a fight for cupcake domination. Mom, this butter is not browning. Good. And one by one, they'll be eliminated as they're judged on taste... Seriously overbaked. It's like charcoal on the top. ...presentation... They're wild, really elegant. Talking about branding. And in the final round, the last two bakers standing will each have to bring it all together into one incredible fantasy cupcake display. The winner gets to have their creation as the centerpiece of an exclusive, members-only VIP party... Cheers. ...at the world-famous San Diego Zoo and walks away with $10,000. This is our chance. It's alive! Don't give up. We are not going down without a fight. Get ready, 'cause this is "Cupcake Wars." -- Captions by VITAC -- Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC. What's up? I'm Justin Willman, and today's "Cupcake War" may be our fiercest battle yet. 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 Macaroons and former executive pastry chef at the world-renowned Fauchon. The kitchens are stocked. Our judges are ready. Let's meet the bakers heading into battle. This is a girl's best friend. That is a Lifetime movie in a cupcake. I'm Michael Pettenato from Cloud 9 cupcakes in Atlanta, Georgia. For us, it's all about taste. You will leave remembering the flavor of our cupcakes. They're beautiful, but they taste even better. I go for classic flavors done right. Very little frills, very straightforward, bold, strong flavors. Yes. Like, there's no reason to worry about it. My assistant today is Taylor Sparkman. She really has my back. She can do a lot of great things. You ready to go to California? All right! I have a lot on the line today. $10,000 would allow us to buy a van so that we could deliver cupcakes all over the city. And I intend to bring my "A" game. We want to take the prize. Whoo! Sizzle, sizzle. My name is Mary Sarain. I'm the owner of PURE Cupcakes located in San Diego, California. PURE Cupcakes. This is Mary. We specialize in gourmet cupcakes. Very well-balanced flavors. I pair food very well. They look so beautiful. LORI: I don't know, but I might start licking this in a minute. [ Laughing ] My assistant today is Lori Schneider. She's an old friend of mine. Let's go, baby! She brings me tons of energy, and she keeps me on track. Mary, they've never tasted cupcakes like these. I came to "Cupcake Wars" to win. I want to create a name for myself in San Diego. I have no intentions of leaving without that first prize. All right, Lori, let's rock this. Whoo! We're bringing the Jersey shore to "Cupcake Wars." I'm Jess Bartlett. My bakery is Cake That! in Manahawkin, New Jersey, at the Jersey shore. We've been open for over a year, and we specialize in gourmet cupcakes. My style as a baker is unconventional. We're not afraid to take risks. Right? So, my assistant is Ali, and she is amazing. She's my secret weapon. What would it mean to you if we won "Cupcake Wars"? It would be huge, wouldn't it? If I win today, this is really gonna put us on the map. And being tight on funds, this $10,000 is gonna mean the world to us. Oh, yeah. Whoo! Mom, if we won that $10,000, gosh, I mean, it would -- I've never won anything. [ Laughs ] I'm Kara Ohngren. I'm the co-owner of Rockin' Cupcakes in Rochester Hills, Michigan. We specialize in gourmet, rock-inspired cupcakes made from scratch every single day. So all of our cupcakes have rock-inspired names, like the Yellow Submarine, and the Rolling Stone, which is a chocolate cupcake with Madagascar vanilla bean dipped in chocolate ganache. It's amazing. My assistant today is my mom. We've been in the kitchen together since I was a little girl. Perfect. I really think we have what it takes to win "Cupcake Wars" because we have the best cupcakes. Here we go! Whoo! [ Horn beeps ] Hey, bakers. Join me. Welcome. I hope you are ready to tap into your wild side because tonight, the winner will be showcasing their cupcake creations at an exclusive party celebrating the rare and majestic beasts of the San Diego Zoo. MARY: The San Diego Zoo is in my backyard. I have to win this thing. Plus, you will walk away with $10,000. All right, let's do this. Today, there'll be three rounds of competition. After each round, as you know, one of you will be eliminated. Let's dig in, shall we? First up, the taste challenge. Now, since the animals, of course, are the stars of the show, they will serve as your inspiration for this round. Before you are some of the ingredients that the zookeepers use to keep their animals fed -- ingredients like beef... ...yellow squash... ...or crickets. Crickets? Oh, my God. WILLMAN: Yeah, you'll use two of these ingredients to create one delicious cupcake that will soothe the savage beasts. We're giving you 45 minutes. Good luck. The clock starts now. KARA: Smelt is so disgusting. I would never make a cupcake with smelt. And crickets -- it's pretty gross, too. Okay, Taylor. All right, the table had some crazy things. It had crickets. Oh. Okay, we're not doing that. Is there anything, like, cupcake -- Okay, you know what? There were yams. Yams. Yes. I'm gonna make a cayenne-spiced yam cake with a rum-banana cream cheese, topped with some candied walnuts. We got your ***. We got your cayenne. This is a winning cupcake. Get those yams cooked immediately. Go. Okay. I don't want to play it safe, though, so there was crickets up there. What do you think about crickets? It's really important for me to wow the judges. I think crickets, when they're roasted, they kind of taste nutty, I've heard. I don't know. I haven't eaten them. Okay. So instead of peanuts, I think crickets. This is the point where this competition really becomes real. First of all, we need to get that Bananas Foster done. So, what we're gonna do right now is make a Bananas Foster cupcake. It's banana cake with a little Bananas Foster folded into it, caramel buttercream on top, and a cricket brittle. We're gonna mix comfort and crazy. Comfort for me is bananas. Crazy is crickets. I'm gonna get this batter going so we can get it in the oven. We could do, like, a braciola, like an Italian cured beef, right? Yeah. I'm gonna make a fresh corn and braciola cupcake topped with a brown-butter frosting and garnished with crispy braciola crumbles. Okay. Braciola is an Italian cured beef. When you fry it up, it's a lot like bacon. I'm taking a big risk by going with the corn and the braciola. It's definitely outside the box, but we're here to win, and we're not gonna play it safe. So, I'm gonna get the butter browning right away. So I'll take care of all the vegetables. You get the dry ingredients put together, okay? Okay, perfect. We both agree the carrots and the bananas are the way to go, and I love the crickets. [ Crickets chirping ] I love the opportunity to do something different that I've never done. I'm gonna make a carrot, banana, and pineapple cupcake with toasted coconut, pecans, topped with a vanilla-bean cream-cheese frosting with a little marigold and a candied cricket. I got to make these challenge ingredients stand out, so I really got to make sure that I have a perfect balance of bananas and carrots. Let's get this all tied in quick. Yeah. Want to stay ahead of the pack? [ Lion roars ] Better hustle. 30 minutes! Okay, hurry, hurry, hurry. 30 minutes -- Oh, my gosh, where did that -- Where did the time go? Mom, this butter is not browning! Turn it up! It's taking forever. KARA: I really have to focus on getting my brown butter done. It takes a long time to cook it up. It's browning a little. My mom's still concerned that it's not gonna cool. It has to set in the freezer, and it's a risk I'm willing to take, even though it does take a long time. Here we go. We're gonna try this. It needs to succeed. Otherwise, we are screwed. It's 1/4 teaspoon cayenne, and a teaspoon of cinnamon, okay? Okay, awesome. Do you want to come try it? It's good. Go. Good, okay. So, Ali, at first, I had this thought that we would, like, make a Bananas Foster filling. I'm just worried about it being a little too wet. What I would really love to do is to put that Bananas Foster into the cupcake as a filling. What do you think? Do you think it's gonna be too runny inside? Yeah, it might be. I'm just concerned that it's gonna make my cupcake soggy and mushy. So instead, I'm just gonna fold it into the batter and bake it off. All right. We're in the oven, Kara. Mom, the butter is not, like, setting. It's, like, liquid. And I'm really worried about this brown-butter frosting. Mom, it's not gonna be done in time. I don't know how to fix this. Mom, the butter is not, like, setting. It's, like, liquid. This brown butter is not cooling the way we need it to. We have to come up with another option. We need to act fast. We're running out of time. Mom, look what I found. This might sound crazy, but it's a popsicle maker. I found this awesome popsicle maker in the bin. What if I pour the hot brown butter into this -- Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, that'll work. I think so. I can pour this hot brown butter into this popsicle maker, and it should set right away. Then I can just spoon it out, and I'll be ready to make my frosting. I'll put this back in the freezer. I really need this to work. 15 minutes! BOTH: 15 minutes? Go ahead and pull them. Hot pan, hot pan! I'm gonna take them out. JESS: I'm really, really worried about these cupcakes not baking in time. I think maybe those bananas on top is delaying Okay. The only thing I could do at this point is to crank up the heat a little bit on the oven. I need this cupcake to bake. I'm running out of time. As soon as the timer goes off, we got to get them in the freezer. I think I picked the smallest crickets in town. I'm making the cream-cheese frosting right now, but I've got to be real careful not to make it too sweet, okay? I don't like it too sweet. Ew, crickets. We substitute the peanuts for crickets. ALI: I'm spreading out the brittle right now, and then I'll be rolling right into the freezer. KARA: Mom, I think this is actually gonna work. MOM: Okay. KARA: It was my last-ditch effort, and thankfully, this popsicle maker is actually working. Ohh, it's good. I can't believe it actually worked. It's so good. Five minutes! ALI: All right. JESS: I still need to get them in the freezer so they're nice and cool and ready to frost. All right, they're going in the freezer. Looks like it's set. Mom, we got to hurry. We're running out of time. TAYLOR: We got to start frosting. WILLMAN: 10...9... 8...7... 6...5... 4...3... 2...1. Time is up! Ohh. Hello again, bakers. So, you were asked to create one ferociously delicious cupcake in the spirit of the beautiful animals of the San Diego Zoo. Let's see how you did. First, you already know our judges Candace and Florian. Let's meet our guest judge, zookeeper and ambassador for the San Diego Zoo, Rick Schwartz. I want to make sure you guys understand. I'm looking for a cupcake that is going to be rare, wild, and exciting and is world famous as the world-famous San Diego Zoo. MARY: Hi. Thank you. So, what we made was a spiced carrot cake, and we had bananas, toasted coconut, and pineapple. We topped it with a vanilla-bean cream cheese, a little bit of marigold, and a tiny, cute cricket, candied. Hope you enjoy it. So, Candace, how was Mary's cricket cupcake? So, you really put so many flavors into this little cupcake. I mean, it packed a punch. I could taste every last one of them. I have to say, I could have clawed my way through this whole thing minus the cricket. Anyway, delicious cupcake. I think you did a great job. The carrot cake was really moist, and I really could taste the carrot. It was one of the best carrot cake I ever had on the show, and I could taste the banana, the pineapple, the vanilla in the frosting and everything. Good job. I liked it. Thank you. It was delicious, and it's something that I could see some of our animals, maybe, enjoying this, too. Absolutely. Hi. How's it going? What'd you bake? Well, we were inspired by the beef and the fresh corn. So you have a corn and Italian cured beef, or braciola, cupcake topped with a brown-butter buttercream and crispy, fried braciola crumbles. I hope you like it. The combination of those three flavor, I think, didn't work. You taste the beef. You taste the corn. But the brown butter mixed all together with all that, it didn't appeal to me. But not only that. The texture of your frosting was very grainy. I didn't like this cupcake. Brown butter is one of my most favorite flavors. Although, I have to agree with my friend Florian. All the components together didn't blend as masterfully as they should have. Rick, how do you feel? Kind of a curveball for me, but I thought it was very interesting. JESS: Hi. So, today, we were inspired by the bananas and the cricket. We made for you a Banana Foster cupcake. We topped it off with a fresh caramel buttercream. And for your enjoyment, cricket brittle. Enjoy. I think your banana cupcake was delightful, but today, we're celebrating the wild animals of the San Diego Zoo, and I think, all in all, this cupcake just felt a little tame to me. I can't believe I'm saying that, given that there was a cricket brittle on top. But I was looking for a little bit more sort of inside the cupcake. I'm pretty much on the same page with Candace here. You chose two ingredients, and one of them is on your garnish. That doesn't work, really. But not only that. When you call something caramel, it has at least to have the caramel look of it. So this cupcake, I didn't like it that much. I appreciate the cricket on top. A lot of people don't know this, but monkeys like to eat bugs, so this would have been great for the monkey house -- that's for sure. Hey, Justin. What did you do? I tried to bring you some flavors today which are exotic, bold, but that also have a bite. What you're looking at is a cayenne-spiced yam cake with a rum-banana cream-cheese frosting, topped with some homemade honey-candied walnuts. Please enjoy. Florian, how'd Michael do? The cake was good. I really could taste the yam and everything. I was a bit disappointed by the banana frosting. I think you should have pureed the banana. I was finding chunks of banana, and not that many, and I was missing that butternut taste. It's a good effort, but I think some technical issue on this cupcake. I really loved your yam and cayenne cake. I thought that was a great idea. Thank you. I have to agree with Florian. The chunks of banana, I don't think, were very successful. When people are biting into frosting, they're not expecting it to be chunky, necessarily. All in all, if we could lighten up that frosting, I would be pleased. Thank you. All right, bakers, we're gonna give our judges a moment to chat. We'll bring you back in a few with the decision. Thanks. JESS: So, it was pretty clear that the judges didn't really care for my cupcake, and I'm in danger of going home. KARA: I'm so disappointed the judges didn't like our flavor combination. The last thing I want is to get eliminated in the first round. Our cupcakes are too good for that. Bakers, you were asked to create a cupcake that could soothe the savage appetites of both animals and judges alike. In this challenge, the judges felt one of you was clearly the king of the jungle, but unfortunately, another is about to become their prey. Jess, we were looking for you to go wild, but despite your cricket brittle, your cupcake came off as too tame. And, Kara, while the judges enjoyed your braciola and corn cupcake, forcing brown butter into the mix just didn't work. Kara, I'm sorry. You're done in the cupcake war. I'm honestly dumbfounded right now. I know we had a great cupcake. Nothing went wrong, and overall, the judges didn't have anything terrible to say about it. I just can't believe that I've been eliminated. Well, you've made it to the second round. Congrats. Happy dance. Okay, enough happy dance. As you know, two of you will be moving on to make your 1,000-cupcake display that will be featured at a party at the acclaimed San Diego Zoo and compete for a chance at $10,000. But first, you got to prove yourself in this round. Each of you are gonna create three distinct cupcakes that celebrate the zoo's most magnificent inhabitants in both flavors and decorations. Remember, in this challenge, half of the judges' decision is based on taste and half is all about presentation. You got 75 minutes. The clock starts... ...now. Taylor, we did it! I'm so excited. Okay, for this round, we have to go fast. I want three things. I want to do light, heavy, and something kind of in between and different. He liked the exotic factor of our cake, so let's focus on that. The judges seemed to really like my cupcakes. My plan for round two is to get way outside my comfort zone, but that are really gonna impress the judges. Okay, it's a zoo. We're gonna do a turtle cake. My first cupcake is gonna be a turtle cupcake. It's a chocolate cake filled with a pecan, salted-caramel filling, topped with salted-caramel buttercream and a homemade turtle. We're gonna start off with a honey cake Perfect. Our second cupcake is a sourwood-honey cake topped with a saffron whipped cream. And then for our third cake, we're gonna do a casatta siciliana. It's a special sponge cake. Our third cupcake is a sponge cake soaked in amaretto, filled with an orange-ricotta filling, topped with a vanilla glaze and a marzipan panda. This time, it's 50/50 on presentation and taste. Right. We have to be detailed this time, okay? Go ahead, go, yes. Okay, now we've got to really focus. Being able to move on to round 2 is huge. I'm gonna be able to make three more cupcakes for those judges. Let's go with the toasted coconut. I really love the toasted coconut, and let's do passion fruit. My first cupcake is a toasted-coconut cupcake with a passion-fruit buttercream with toasted coconut on top and a beautiful, little butterfly. Okay! So we'll do an espresso-chocolate cake with chopped chocolate in it. My second cupcake is a chocolate and espresso cake with a mascarpone and espresso frosting and a tiger-striped chocolate shard. Okay, and then the very last one. Let's do a vanilla-bean cake. My third cupcake is a vanilla-bean cupcake with a salted-caramel buttercream, roasted cashews, and a little, tiny elephant. I'm so excited. I can't wait to see what happens in round two. Okay. Okay. Let's go! Going big. We have to go big. We went too safe the first time. So, in round 1, it was pretty clear that the judges didn't think our challenge ingredients had enough presence, so this time, we're really gonna bring it. I'm gonna start on the brownie batter for the -- So to do that black-and-white cupcake, yeah, let's try a brownie on top. I think that'd be really cool. So, my first cupcake is a black-and-white panda-bear cupcake. Chocolate-vanilla batter, milk-chocolate buttercream, topped with fondant bamboo shoots. All right, I'm working on this elephant-cupcake batter first. My second cupcake is a chocolate cupcake with peanut-butter-chocolate ganache, peanut-butter frosting, a little chocolate drizzle, and a fondant elephant trunk. And champagne-mango? Come on, who doesn't like a little *** in their cupcakes? Our third cupcake is a champagne-mango cupcake with champagne buttercream and a fondant ticket to the zoo on top. 75 minutes, 3 cupcakes feels so overwhelming. We really just need to redeem ourselves with these judges, and it's feeling a little impossible. Keep your game faces on, guys. The judges can smell fear. One hour. Oh, my God! Okay, hurry. Let's go. Holy crap. LORI: I'm gonna do a full batch of vanilla base. All right. And then split it out, Okay. In order to make my vanilla bean and my coconut cake, I can use the same base batter. And so, we decided to make one batch and go ahead and split it. But what I ended up doing was adding twice the amount of butter. Scoop out the chocolates right now. We're gonna make this into a light, fluffy cake. There's no leavening agent in a sponge cake. I know I'm gonna need a lot of time for my sponge cake. Sponge cake is tricky because there's no leavening agent. So you have to put the volume in by hand, which means whipping egg whites till they're very, very light and fluffy. A lot of things can go wrong. Butter's gonna go into the sponge-cake batter, so hold it for one second. Put some passion fruit, fresh, in the middle. Okay. Surprise when they break it in. It'll be beautiful. Hello. Can you say, "45 minutes"? Good. My job is safe. 45 minutes! 45 minutes. Oh, my gosh, we got to move. Oh, 45 minutes. 45 minutes. I'm starting on the vanilla batter, All right. For the panda cupcake. JESS: We're gonna do a black-and-white cupcake, chocolate and vanilla. When you open it up and you bite into it, it's gonna look like a panda bear. Do you think I should just scoop that chocolate right on top? Yeah, I think that'd be good. Yeah. All right. So I want to get that chocolate flavor for my panda-bear cupcake by actually making a brownie and dropping that brownie on top of my vanilla batter. Brownie is really freaking me out. I'm just a little worried that it's not gonna bake properly. Cupcakes in. Shut, go. Right behind you, babe. Should I add more water? Got it? All right, let's go. MICHAEL: We're gonna get these in the oven. That's what I'm focusing on, and then we're gonna worry about the chocolate cake. There you go. It's like a zoo in here. Am I right, guys? [ Crickets chirping ] All right. 30 minutes! 30 minutes, Lori. Taylor, we're the only ones still making batter right now. We have to hurry. 75 minutes is not a lot of time, and I'm not used to operating under the clock. We've got 30 minutes left. I've got to get these chocolate cupcakes in the oven so I can work on fillings and frostings. It's a little liquidy, which is what it's supposed to be, so this looks good. But I have no idea if they're gonna cool in time. 15 minutes! ALI: Whoo, all right. 15 minutes. 15 minutes. All right, chocolates are done. Beautiful. Music to my ears. So, for the chocolate-peanut-butter cupcake, I'm gonna decorate it with a fondant elephant trunk. For round 2, it's 50% taste, 50% appearance, and we really excel on decorations. We're gonna really make you want to eat those cupcakes by just looking at them. Look at the butterfly cutout I got. Gorgeous. What are you gonna do with it? TAYLOR: It's gonna be amazing. MICHAEL: Five minutes. Wow, five minutes, five minutes. Oh, my God. Okay. Five minutes. Wait, wait, wait. Frost at the same time, maybe? Are they all cool? That mocha's the worst one. I think we just bit off more than we could chew. We had so many complex cakes with complex elements -- Homemade salted caramel, homemade toasted pecans, ricotta filling, glaze -- so many other things to worry about. We really didn't think that the time would be an issue. One minute! We got a minute. One minute. Oh, my God. WILLMAN: 10...9...8... 7...6... 5...4... 3...2...1! Time's up. Whew. All right. Time's up. I'm very sad about the whole thing. This is not what I want to present to the judges. I don't want to serve these cupcakes. I still have 50% of the round going to taste. I could still pull it through if somebody else has a major problem. Bakers, we asked for three cupcakes that captured that striking spirit of the animals at the San Diego Zoo. Let's see how you did. Mary, tell us about your trio. MARY: The first one you have is a toasted-coconut cupcake -- Passion fruit, buttercream, toasted coconut, and butterfly fondant. Next, you have a chocolate-and-espresso cake with a mascarpone-and-espresso frosting with chocolate chips, and then you have a tiger-striped chocolate shard. And last, you have a Madagascar-vanilla-bean cake, caramel buttercream, caramel drizzle, and some chopped cashews with little elephants on it. So, your cupcakes definitely speak to the spirit of the event here. They're wild. They're elegant. They're beautiful. The flavors were very good, but I think there was something technically wrong going on with your cake recipes. With each one, the edge was crusty and sort of hard and sticking to that wrapper. I mean, I had to battle with those cupcakes to take them out. Oh, yes. And I imagine, in an event, it'd be impossible to eat those cupcakes. The coconut was tasting very good. I liked the passion-fruit cream that you had. It had some tang to it, but the other two, they were overly sweet. When it comes to the flavor and the decoration, it was wonderful. But gonna be very challenging to eat in that environment. WILLMAN: Thank you, Mary. What's up, Jess? What do we got? Our first cupcake is our chocolate cupcake. Chocolate-peanut-butter ganache, peanut-butter buttercream, and coming up out of the center is our elephant trunk, and he's grasping a peanut. In the center, this is our champagne-mango cupcake. Champagne buttercream and your San Diego Zoo ticket. And finally, we have for you our panda-bear cupcake. A black and white cupcake, chocolate buttercream, and the panda's favorite food, fondant bamboo. I totally love your decoration. I think you did a great job. I think you really captured the essence of the event. But I'm having a real problem with your cupcakes. The mango champagne -- no mango whatsoever. While this one, even though I get the peanut, I get the chocolate, it's really overbaked on top, but like, seriously overbaked. It's like charcoal on the top. NELSON: Well, you definitely had some fun with fondant on this plate. This bamboo panda cupcake was fabulous. However, I think that as clever and cute as this elephant trunk with the peanut was, the connotation of the elephant with the peanut is a little bit more circus. In terms of your cupcakes, I have to agree with Florian. I think the chocolate- and-peanut-butter flavor was delicious, but there were textural issues there. When the plates first came out, it made me smile. Bamboo for panda trek was brilliant. I mean, that's one of our key elements there at the San Diego Zoo is our pandas. WILLMAN: Thank you, Jess. Excellent. Tell us about your trio here. It starts out with a turtle cupcake. It's chocolate cake. In the center, we have a homemade salted caramel. We put some toasted pecans in there, and then we have a salted-caramel buttercream, finally topped off with a homemade turtle. In the center of your plate, you're gonna see the amaretto-soaked sponge cake. We fill it with an orange-ricotta cream, and we top it with a light vanilla glaze. And what you find on top is marzi-panda. The last cupcake on your plate is a little bit different. We start with a rare sourwood-honey cupcake, and we top it with a very light saffron whipped cream. NELSON: Well, as I mentioned, of course, I always love your presentation, and I feel like these cupcakes are so well thought through, but I wish you'd spent a little bit more time developing the recipes. And from a decoration standpoint, I mean, my marzi-panda is absolutely adorable, but that is all I have to go on here. Loved where you were going with this, but I just don't think it quite got there. Michael, those cupcakes are highly disappointing. Now, this one, you talk about saffron and the honey, and it was not even there. You cannot sell this to a VIP event. That's for sure. To any event, I should say. WILLMAN: Thank you, Michael. All right, bakers, you know the drill. We're gonna give our judges a chance to chat, and we'll bring you back in a bit with their decision. Thanks. Once again, I'm really feeling like I could be going home. In my mind, I pretty much have my bags packed. MICHAEL: I felt like I was being fed to the lions. The judges didn't like Jess or Mary's cupcakes, either, so even though I had all these problems, I still have a chance in this. Bakers, you were tasked with making three cupcakes that embodied the spirit of the world-famous San Diego Zoo, both in taste and presentation. Michael, despite some high marks for your marzi-panda, it wound up being a case of the sinking cupcake. And, Jess, you squeaked by in round 1, and the judges were hoping you'd bring your "A" game here in round 2, but that didn't happen. Luckily, though, you'll be getting one more chance. Michael, I'm sorry. You're done in the cupcake war. MICHAEL: I hear my name called, and I can't believe that I'm eliminated. I put a lot of my heart and soul into this, and it's not the result that I had wanted, and it's tough. Mary and Jess, congratulations. You made it to round 3. In just a few short hours, the pre-eminent animal sanctuary in the country is holding a members-only VIP party, and each of you are gonna create a 1,000-cupcake display that will serve as the centerpiece to this exclusive event. Of course, as you know, only one of you will actually go to the party and win $10,000. Sound like a plan? It's a lot to take in. We know you can't handle it all by yourself, so we're giving each of you a master carpenter to help you build. You also get four baking assistants each to help in any way you may need. What's up, ladies? This time, all the cupcake flavors you've made, all the designs you've designed, must be incorporated into one stellar, stunning, animal-loving display. When your time is up, our judges will evaluate you based on your flavors and, more importantly, based on how you put it all together into one awesome presentation. You have two hours. The clock starts now. Oh, my God, that was so close. We've been skating by. JESS: I know I've had some trouble today, but I'm a fighter, and I got some more left in me. Hi. Nice to meet you. So what I was thinking, I'd like a tree display -- something that has multiple levels, accessible from all sides. Gotcha. Besides their world-renowned animals, the San Diego Zoo is known for their botanicals. So my vision for this display is a real tree. You have platters, and then at the very top -- San Diego Zoo has a brand-new sign. It's beautiful. And if you want to throw a monkey up here, Of course. I hope Justin can really bring it. All right, thank you. All right, bye. I'd really like to re-create the entire zoo. I want this display to be a 360 interactive display. You could walk through it. I want this to be a doorway right here. And then you can actually walk through our display, and you're in a panda habitat. A window that's gonna hold some cupcakes and some bamboo. This display is wicked ambitious. I just don't know how he's gonna get all this done in two hours. We're representing Jersey. We're going big or going home, so make it happen. Thanks, man. Let's make sure the measurements are precise. All right. To fix the cupcakes, what I'm gonna have to do is make sure that our measurements are precise. I'm putting less ground espresso beans into the frosting. My mascarpone -- I think I'm gonna have to reduce the espresso so it's not so liquidy. We've got this. It's for us to lose, all right? All right, girl. Don't give up. We are not going down without a fight. I have a lot of changes to make to my cupcakes. I have to add more mango to the mango cake. It's really important -- We got to give them that mango flavor they were looking for. I have to fix these frostings so that there's no way they can say that they're separate. The elephant trunks, they said was a little circusy, so let's keep the trunk, ditch the peanut. I think we'll be good. The chocolate-peanut-butter cupcake, I have to snag that peanut out of the trunk. Oh, my gosh. I felt like an underdog all day long, but if Mary thinks I'm just gonna roll over like a dead dog, she's got another think coming. I didn't come all the way out here to lose. 90 minutes, bakers! Oh, my God, 90 minutes? ALI: Adding the crickets. Batters are going in, Lori. We're all good. Ta-da! Oh, yeah. Let's talk about the elephant in the room here. You're a long ways away from being done. You should probably quit monkeying around. [ Monkey chatters ] Straight-up panda-monium. [ Bell dings ] One hour! Hour, Lori. All right, this is the caramel buttercream. ALI: Let's try it. Ohh. Tasting this frosting, once again, it's way too grainy. I just can't serve this to the judges. It's just not right. We can't afford to make any more mistakes in round 2. This isn't good. This isn't good enough. It's not there. Tasting this frosting, it's way too grainy. I just can't serve this to the judges. We're barely hanging on. We got to dump it. I just can't catch a break, and I don't have time to make another batch, but I have no choice. JESS: This is 10 grand, man. We need to redeem. Good. We're gonna add a little bit less, so it's not gritty this time. That was just a little bit of brown caramel color. Mm-hmm. These frostings have to be spot-on, and the flavor really needs to come out. 45 minutes till feeding time! All right, 45 minutes. Okay. MARY: In order to win round 3, I have to make sure everything is perfect. I've made 1,000 cupcakes before but definitely never in two hours. This is insane. You got to get all the decorations, okay? So you need the chocolate shards. Dust this with coconut, okay, as quickly as you can. Oh, my gosh. You girls, what do we need? These frostings are taking forever. I really set us behind the clock here, and if we have any hope of being in this, we have to kick it up. What do you think? It's definitely gonna win this time. In round 2, our cupcakes were so ambitious, and now here in round 3, I have to make 1,000? i just don't know how I'm gonna do it. All right, keep pushing. We're almost there, girls. Work a little bit quicker. Don't give up. We are not going down without a fight. All right, let's start taking those cupcakes up. Oh, my God, look it! It's so good. MARY: I see the display come out, and it's exactly what I wanted to see. Justin did a fabulous job. Thanks. Did you see their display? This is fabulous. I love it. JESS: Oh, my God, Ali, look. [ Gasps ] Oh, my gosh. This display could be my saving grace. The one break I get all day. It's awesome. Thank you, man. A panda? Cute. Ours is gonna be better, right? Yeah. Absolutely. I like Jess' display, but I know mine is right on the money. [ Indistinct conversation ] 10 minutes! All right, 10 minutes, girls. We got to get this stuff loaded real fast. Load them. Go. All right, everybody, when you can, start loading right away. All right, you guys. These are ready whenever you are. Quicker, quicker, quicker, please. I need more bodies out here, ladies. Come on, we got to go. Five minutes! Five minutes! We still got one more tray to do. Pick it up a little quicker! All right, that's what I want to hear. We are not going down like this. We got it. Come on, everybody. Let's go. One minute! One minute, one minute! Please, squeeze. We got it. We can do it. Come on, push, everybody. Push, push, push, push. 10...9... 8...7... 6...5... 4...3... 2...1! Time is up! [ Applause ] Bakers, in this final round, you were asked to create a 1,000-cupcake display celebrating the grace and beauty of the remarkable animals at the San Diego Zoo. Let's see what you did. Mary, kick us off. As a San Diego native, I grew up going to the zoo. I love all the animals. But besides that, I really love the botanicals. And what I wanted to offer you today was a tree that represented all the beautiful vegetation that it has to offer. My cupcakes -- I really perfected the cake. I got the balance right. It's no longer crusty. As for the mascarpone frosting, I've got a good balance of espresso and mascarpone. Thank you, Mary. Jess, take it away. When you walk into the display -- actually walking into the San Diego Zoo -- once you get in there, you see the panda exhibit, but it's not just the animals that are on display. It's our cupcakes. So, it's accessible from every single angle, which we think is a really awesome element. We tweaked our recipes for you. The panda cupcake, we separated the batters so there's more contrast in color, pumped up our cocoa taste that you were missing. We love our elephant trunks. We wanted to keep that. But we took the circusy peanut out of there for you. And, Florian, just for you, I added a little bit of mango into the champagne-mango cupcake. Thank you, Jess. Ladies, we're gonna let the judges stroll around your displays, taste your work, and we'll bring you back when we have a decision. Thanks. JESS: I feel a little nervous about my cupcakes, but confident about my display. It just all came together into one complete thought. MARY: My display is the epitome of the San Diego Zoo. It represents everything it is. There is no comparison between our displays. Well, judges, two very different displays before us. Your work is cut out for you. Let's chat about Mary's first. Mary has really impressed us since that round-1 cupcake. So delicious. Even with that cricket, a very beautiful cupcake. In round 2, she stumbled a little bit. BELLANGER: Much better, but the texture is not the way it should be. Although I thought her decorations were just really elegant. Talking about branding. I look at that sign. It's pretty impressive. I don't think that plush monkey on top of her display really match with the elegance in the VIP event. SCHWARTZ: When it comes to conservation, it's about the plants, too, not just the animals. And this is very organic and natural feel to it. I really think, the overall display, it's beautiful. How did Jess pull it out in round 3? She kind of slipped through in round 1 and round 2, and I was hoping for her to make some serious strides in round 3, and she did make some improvement. It was nice to see that she took our notes on the panda cupcake and really making it more of a distinct black and white versus a marbled cupcake. BELLANGER: Mm-hmm. And she bumped up the chocolate. She did improve her caramel cupcake from the old one. She added more caramel to it. The only thing is she still have that grainy texture, so I think she didn't make it exactly right. You know, we always look for contestants to think outside of the box in terms of their display, and Jess has done just that here. SCHWARTZ: Yeah, I mean, she's got tickets. She's got pandas. Its own unique little exhibit for the zoo right there. She really had a whole concept all day, and it's nice to see it finally realized. For once, we have two exquisitely branded displays, and here, you'll be able to know where you are the instant you walk into the event. All right, judges, do we have a winner? I think so. Okay, I'll bring them back. Bakers, you were asked to deliver two displays that matched the beauty and wildness of the San Diego Zoo and its animal residents. We all know it wasn't easy getting to this point, so the judges want to commend both of you. Mary, in round 1, Florian here fell in love with your carrot cupcake, and in round 2, you wowed the judges again with your elegant decorations. Combined with your imaginative display, you've captured the natural wonder of this world-famous zoo. And, Jess, the judges raved about your decorations adorning your cupcakes with hints of elephants and pandas, but it wasn't all smooth sailing, as you struggled with your flavors and textures throughout the day. However, the judges were impressed by your original and interactive display. In the end, only one of you combined cupcakes and presentation in a way that perfectly captured the grace that inhabits the San Diego Zoo. Congratulations... ...Mary. You're the winner of "Cupcake Wars"! [ Applause ] JESS: I feel deflated and disappointed right now. We came as close as we possibly could, and we didn't win. We were way too ambitious. I could have just simplified it. We would have won. MARY: I just won "Cupcake Wars." [ Giggling ] I don't know what else to say. I'm so excited. I think it's clear we need to pack up our trunks and head down to San Diego for a really wild party. To hear that I won "Cupcake Wars" is absolutely surreal. And maybe we'll add crickets to the menu. I am finally, finally going to be recognized for what I do, and that is make a great cupcake. We decided to make a special "Cupcake Wars" cupcake just for our Galapagos tortoises. I love what I do, and I feel like I can take on anything. Cheers, we did it. I'm so excited.