[upbeat music playing]
[gasps] So many cups.
[bakers] Ooh!
Cinnamon rolls. Delicious.
[bakers conversing excitedly]
-All right. -Wow.
Guys, can we talk about being in the final four? Like, oh my God.
Yes, that's crazy.
I came here to make it to the end.
And to do that, you gotta keep on bringing it.
That means, every single challenge, you gotta be doin' more.
You gotta show something different. I have to stay in the top, okay?
-They making us work for that money. -[bakers] They really are.
"We're not just handing you 100 grand. You gonna work for this money, okay?"
-It's awesome being with you guys. -[Frank and Georgina] Yeah.
[Richard] The more I get to know y'all, it's... it's really nice.
I feel like this group is, like,
honestly the group I really wanted to make it to the final four.
I'm facing really stiff competition,
but everybody's growth really inspires me to try to keep growing myself.
#GrowthMentality.
Hi!
[bakers greeting]
I love your dress, Nicole.
-Thank you. -[Georgina] So cute.
-[Ignoisco] Yay! -Thank you so much.
-[laughs] -How are you guys feeling?
-We feel great. -Good.
We started off with what, ten?
-[Richard] Yes. -[Nicole] And now only four remain?
-Yeah. -It's crazy when you think about it.
And for you to know, it's so difficult to send someone home.
Yeah.
You know, we get attached, you know, to you guys and it's like, oh, killing us.
But you're doing so well.
Did you guys think you'd make it this far?
No.
-Um, I thought I would. -[all laughing]
I'm trying to get that money, okay?
Let's go in the kitchen.
[regal music plays]
[Jacques] Bakers, you've come such a long way.
Today, we dive into artistry with cake that is near and dear to my heart.
Something that has filled my life with joy,
and I hope it does for you too.
Are you ready to see the masterpiece you'll be making?
-[bakers] Yeah. -[Ignoisco] We are.
All right. Put your berets on and grab your paintbrushes.
[suspenseful music plays]
[Richard] Hey!
[laughing, exclaiming]
It's our Fine Art of Chocolate Cake.
-[Georgina] Wow. -That's Jacques. That's really cool.
This cake is an ode to the confection of perfection, chocolate.
With a stained glass portrait of Mr. Chocolate himself,
Mr. Jacques Torres.
[all cheering]
Bakers, to make this cake, you will need to temper chocolate
and use several different techniques to decorate the outside,
including molding, sculpting, and most importantly,
piping the stained glass elements.
You want to talk about intimidating? This is a huge cake.
It's three tiers.
And then you have chocolate straws, a chocolate topper.
Who makes stained glass things for cake?
I love eating chocolate, but I have no clue how to work with it.
Chocolate can be very tricky,
but it's molded my life into what it is today.
After being a pastry chef all over the world,
I opened my first chocolate shop in New York.
Since then, I had my own show about chocolate, written cookbooks,
and even met my wife because of chocolate.
What can I say? Chocolate changed my life in the sweetest of ways,
which is why today we are going to do things a little bit differently.
[Nicole] That's right, bakers.
In Baking 101, you get a chance to learn from the master himself,
-Jacques Torres. -[cheering]
That's exciting.
In pastry school, we studied this man here.
So I am so excited to get a lesson from Mr. Chocolate.
-[cheering] -[Ignoisco chuckles]
-[splats] -[enchanting music plays]
[Jacques] To ensure you succeed in today's Big Cake Bake,
I will show you my special method of tempering and molding chocolate.
Tempering chocolate is perfect for making candies, truffle,
or chocolate cake decoration.
So this is a very important element to add to your baking toolkits.
[Nicole] Your coaches will be following along with you
as you learn to create an adorable chocolate monkey,
and a complimentary banana bonbon.
[chuckles]
[Nicole] Once Jacques is done, you'll have five minutes to finish up.
The baker with the best-looking monkey, well-tempered chocolate,
and the tastiest bonbon will receive an advantage in the Big Cake Bake.
Okay, Jacques, let's do it.
-Ooh, what's it gonna be like to sit here? -Right. I'm excited.
Okay, so you have chocolates in front of you.
First, we're going to temper it. This will make it glossy and smooth.
Perfect for dipping and molding. Nicole, are you excited to do chocolate?
I'm ready to go.
I'm going to melt the chocolate
to about two-third on your microwave and check the chocolates every 30 seconds.
[amusing music playing]
Ignoisco, you ever work with chocolate before?
Chocolate cake. Never done anything like this.
Okay. Stir it a little bit, put it back.
-And I start again. -Oh, he's putting it back in. [chuckles]
He's fast.
We want the chocolate to be two-third melted, one-third unmelted.
Okay, so now the chocolate starts melting.
Stir it a little bit, and we're going to go again.
It will take a little time, but that's the nature of chocolate.
Thirty-second blast, thirty-second blast, thirty-second blast.
He said two-thirds.
Then you got to go back to the microwave. This is just... This is a lot.
Patience, patience, patience. It's like marriage.
Is that why I'm single? Because I'm not patient?
Nicole...
It's looking, you know, chunky, liquidy. Every... Every texture.
-What do you think? Start to look good? -This looks good.
Yes. Can you see the pieces?
[Frank] Uh...
It looks pretty good, looks pretty smooth.
Frank, be careful.
-If it's completely melted, it's too much. -Oh.
-Mine is already melted. -[Jacques] Chocolate is very sensitive.
If you overheat it, it can turn dull and lumpy.
Oh, not completely melt it?
Two-third, you remember? Two-third.
I'm not sure what two-thirds of chocolate looks like.
[Jacques] Add some cold pieces in it.
-How much chocolate are you adding? -I don't know! How much are you adding?
I'm eyeballing it. Going by my gut.
I finally got cake down, and now it's like we're starting over.
It feels like the very first Baking 101 where no one knows what they're doing.
Everyone's kinda struggling. I'm getting some flashbacks.
Now I put it in the cold bowl here,
otherwise my temperature is going to keep shooting up.
We are going to use the immersion blender and mix the chocolate.
You want it to be very smooth.
How is it so far? Are you good?
I don't know. [laughs]
[Jacques] To be able to mold the chocolate,
we need to stabilize the temperature at 90 degrees.
Use a laser thermometer to check the temperature of your chocolate.
It's still too high but you have to melt it all first. Uh-uh.
No, we don't... No, we don't melt it all. We leave 20% unmelted.
How are we doing?
-We're arguing like an old married couple. -[laughs]
[laughs]
Child, none of us are surviving this one.
Not even the coaches, which makes me feel better, actually.
[chuckles]
Look, it's liquid. You see? And it's 90 degrees now.
-That's what you want. -Mine says 89.
-What happens when it gets too cold? -Take the hair dryer and warm it up.
-[Jacques] Put it on hot. -If it's too cold, use the hair dryer.
I've never used a hair dryer. What do I do?
Oh, does it look like I have?
[both laughing]
-[dryer whirring] -[Ignoisco] Oh.
I still have some chunks.
-Just pick them out. -Pick them? Oh, you're so right.
[laughing]
-[Georgina] Let's get rid of that chunk. -Ninety-two.
Ooh, 90.9. No chunks.
Wow, it's so pretty.
I know we had a little spat, but we made it through it.
-You know why we made it through? -Because you listened?
-No. -[both laugh]
Next, we have a template here of a little monkey.
We put that over an acetate paper.
Acetate?
And then your template on top of it.
[Georgina] Oh, acetate on here.
[Jacques] Then spread the chocolate over.
When it's smooth, you remove your template.
[Nicole] Ooh!
[gasps] We were supposed to put the template on first!
-Oh my God! -What?
[Georgina] Make sure you put the template on first.
-Ignoisco, what just happened here? -So you put your template down,
pour some chocolate over it, then you smooth it.
And we're going to do that one more time.
-Oh, we need two monkeys. -[Georgina] We need two monkeys? Wh...
[Jacques] I can see the chocolate setting. That means it's well tempered.
-Oh, man, this guy is fast. -How are we doing?
-Um... -Not so good.
So what are you doing now?
So now I'm making the base to hold the monkey up.
[Nicole] I think people are still on the monkey part.
[amusing, suspenseful music playing]
[Ignoisco] Okay, we should be good.
You wait until you can touch it, and then you just...
-[Nicole] I see. -...press and remove it.
Now, look. I'm going to do a couple triangles to hold the monkey up.
[Georgina] So it needs to be bigger than the circle? Okay.
I feel like mine is too much. I might have poured too much in there.
-Oh, you actually poured it in the circle? -That's what they said to do.
No, you were supposed to just pour it on your tray,
let it get mostly hard, and then you cut the shape out.
[sighs]
Next, I'm just going to add a tiny bit of chocolate
to glue your two monkeys together.
And that's going to make it very strong.
I don't know how he put them together.
[Georgina] Okay, let's just do it.
[grunts softly]
[groans]
[Jacques] Now, melt a little bit of white coating chocolate.
This will be for the features of the monkey.
-Oh, he's making white chocolate. -Okay. Oh God.
-We need a bowl. -They're here.
[Georgina] Oh my God. This feels like week one.
So I'm just going to spread a tiny bit of the white here,
because I want to make the eye of the monkey.
-[Nicole] Oh! -[Jacques] Now we can just let that set.
Then you take a little bit of that chocolate
and you put it into your white coating.
Just a little bit. We gotta make it brown. That's too much.
-Okay. -No, that's not enough.
[Jacques] Lay the chocolate on parchment paper and let that set.
Hey, Richard, are you getting chocolate down?
[Richard chuckles]
This is tough.
[Jacques] Then use a stencil to trace and cut out the features.
-[Frank] How's it going, Georgina? -[Georgina] I cut out all my shapes.
[Frank] Oh, wow.
[tense string music playing]
[Jacques] Bakers, next step, we're going to make the banana.
I'm going to put a little food coloring into my white chocolate coating.
Ah, oui.
[Jacques] So you pour the chocolate into the banana mold,
then reverse the mold,
and put all the excess chocolate back into the bowl.
[Nicole] Oh!
Back in the bowl. Okay.
[Jacques] And then put it in the freezer.
-Have you done your banana yet, Richard? -I'm about to start it right now.
Warm it up, temper it, I don't know.
[laughs]
-[Nicole] It's a lot. -[Richard] I know.
[Nicole] God bless.
We're just dealing with chocolate.
I can just imagine what's gonna happen when cake's involved.
This is tough.
This is very, very tough.
-Ooh! -Oh! Oh.
Probably just 'cause...
That's weird.
I don't know if this is working. [chuckles]
[Nicole] I think I was helpful.
You understand why the chocolate costs the price that it costs now?
That's why it's so expensive. It's a lot of work.
-And put this in the fridge? -Are we supposed to put it in the fridge?
Are we?
[Georgina] I'm asking Frank for advice, but it's the blind leading the blind.
People work lifetimes to master chocolate, I'm doing this in under an hour.
By now, the banana should be in the freezer or out.
[both] It has to be in the freezer!
[Frank groans]
[Georgina] All right, in, in.
-[Ignoisco] Does your banana look yellow? -It looks very yellow now.
I'm really out for some banana redemption.
I mean, my last banana was pale.
I'm getting these colors just right this time.
-Nicole, can you free the chocolates? -Free the chocolates!
I'm going to start gluing those piece on the monkey.
So take a little dark chocolate. And Nicole going to just put an ear on.
Then the other ear.
Now we're going to do the stomach, the face, everything here.
One. Two.
-How do you like my lipstick, Nicole? -I love your lipstick.
Thank you, Nicole.
Oh, and you know what? We have to make red, too.
[Jacques] And I'm going to give him a big, big smile.
How are you doing, bakers?
[laughing] You want to know for real?
[Frank] Okay, this looks like a monkey.
[exhales]
-Got the ears on. Let's get this forehead. -Yeah, just draw a six or something. Yeah.
Oh! I just gave this guy an earring.
So the monkey is finished.
All we need to do now is the little bonbon.
Remember, you can use nuts, you can use dry fruits,
you can use cookies, you can use cereal.
Nicole is creating little clusters of chocolate and corn flakes
to fit inside the banana,
but please do something different.
We want to taste something good.
Something delicious!
Flavor.
Bakers are going to start assembling everything.
I have the base of my monkey here.
I'm going to use a small sheet pan, warm it up.
-Should be enough. -Oh.
And then I'm going to put that here.
So I put chocolate on the back of the stand,
and I'm going to put the monkey here.
[Nicole] Oh!
[Jacques] And then Nicole's going to place the banana with the monkey.
[Nicole] I think that's nice.
[Jacques] Look at that. I love to work with you, Nicole.
Okay, so let's start the five-minute timer
and we're going to taste your chocolate bonbon.
Oh really? Five-minute timer?
I'm wanting to do a Rice Krispie bonbon
just because I think Rice Krispies have some crunch to it.
And then with the chocolate, there's a lot of texture and flavor there.
I mean, it's crazy that in the very first challenge,
I was about to go home
because I used those Rice Krispie Treats, and now I'm using this as a nice filling.
[Nicole] Three minutes remain.
[Ignoisco] Anything?
[Richard] He said you can put anything in there. I'll put apricots.
Okay, let me go grab some candy.
-What did he say? Mix it with chocolate? -[Ignoisco] I don't really know.
What in the world?
Does apricot go with chocolate? It's gonna have to do.
Oh God. I can't get my banana out. Ignoisco, did you get your banana out?
I got it out, but terribly. [chuckles]
[Frank] You have to massage from the back and push it out.
[Georgina gasping]
[dryer whirring]
One minute and 50 seconds left.
I don't know if there's gonna be anything to taste, truth be told. Almonds.
[dramatic music playing]
[gasping]
My thing is not able to support. Is yours able to stand up?
-[Frank] I can't get it to stand. -This is so sad.
-Thirty seconds! -This is not good.
The banana looks bad, but the monkey actually looks pretty good.
Like, he looks like he's ready to go out for a good time with his jacked-up banana.
It ain't gonna look like Jacques', but he's standing up.
Oh my gosh! It's falling! Oh! [laughs]
-[both] Five, four... -[groans] How do you stand this thing up?
-...three, two, one. -[chuckles]
You're done.
[chuckles]
Man.
We gotta put our hands up like we finished in time. [laughing]
-Hi, Frank. -[Frank] Hello, hello.
[Nicole] So the banana hit the monkey in the head. That's why he's laying down?
-Yeah, yeah, exactly. -[Nicole] Okay.
-[Jacques] Let me open the banana. -[Frank laughing] Yeah.
-Oh, they're a little bit melted. -What is this, Frank?
-[chuckles] -[Nicole] I'm gonna taste it.
[Frank] So I did chocolate chip with almonds.
I didn't get the chance to melt my chocolate fully.
It's great to get the melted chocolate.
Usually we don't. But in that instance, that was actually pleasant.
I did get some melted ones with some, like, non-melted ones, so I was happy.
[laughs] Nice.
[chuckling] Chocolate work is a very humbling experience, to say the least.
Come on, Jacques.
I definitely have a newfound respect for chocolatiers.
-Georgina. -[Jacques] Georgina.
[Nicole] He's not standing, but he looks adorable.
Thank you. I decided to make a Rice Krispies chocolate treat
just because I think that, like, crunchy rice and chocolate is really good.
-[Nicole] Mm-hmm. -[Jacques] Ah!
-Oh, I ate the whole thing. I like it. -[Jacques] Mm.
-I love the crunchiness. -[Nicole] Mm-hmm.
[Jacques] You did all the components. You didn't miss anything.
-Not an easy project. -No.
It feels great to hear Mr. Chocolate himself say that it was good.
-[hosts] Thank you, Georgina. -Thank you.
Have I become Miss Chocolate?
[crunches]
-Could I try? Is there... -I already ate it all. Sorry.
I love your monkey!
-He's standing up. -Yes.
It's standing up. Wow, what a little genius.
-Your banana has seen better days. -[chuckling] Yeah.
[Nicole] Okay, so what's your treat inside?
[all laughing]
First of all, I have no clue what a bonbon is.
[stifles laugh]
I think I call them also clusters.
And a cluster is a cluster of chocolates and whatever you want to add to it.
[Ignoisco] I had this bright Idea.
Wouldn't it be funny to, like, open up a banana...
[laughing] ...that has other bananas inside?
Alright, thank you, Ignoisco.
That was so stupid, but at least now I know what a bonbon is.
-This monkey's cute. -Look at the monkey ear.
[Nicole] What happened to his ear?
[Richard] Oh, he was playing in the mud.
Oh, okay, but I think this is a great color banana.
This is a good color, yes. Nice and ripe.
You took the note and you really made that banana pop.
-[Richard] There you go. -[Nicole] Put something inside?
-[Richard] I did. -[Nicole] What is it?
It's a chocolate-covered apricot.
[in low voice] That is not for me.
[chuckles]
I mean, I grabbed the first thing I saw. I should have grabbed something else.
I think you did a good job with your monkey.
I have a new appreciation for what the bakers are going through
in these 101s.
It is hard to keep up,
-especially with a master like Jacques. -[Nicole] Mm-hm.
See? You heard her. And they're our coaches.
[quietly] Yeah, unionize.
[quietly] Unionize!
[both laughing]
Bakers, well done.
[all cheering]
-[Erin] Yes. -Thank you, Jacques.
[Jacques] The winning baker was someone who finished
all of their components and had a very tasty bonbon.
-Ooh, so tasty. -[chuckles]
And the winner is...
[suspenseful music playing]
...Georgina!
[Erin] Yay, Georgina!
[all cheering]
[Nicole] Congratulations, Georgina.
This is the most confusing Baking 101, the hardest one yet.
So to win, like, especially with Rice Krispies, feels pretty good.
You just won yourself an advantage in the Big Cake Bake.
-[splats] -[enchanting music plays]
When you find yourself in trouble,
you could pick up our patented chocolate phone
and get Mr. Chocolate himself, Jacques Torres,
-to help you for a whole five minutes. -Ooh!
Wow.
I don't going to make you cake.
I just give advice and help you, okay?
Okay.
All right, the pressure's on.
Unlike this cake, your creations won't be dedicated to Jacques.
Instead, you'll be creating an edible homage to our guest judge.
Your favorite accountant from The Office,Angela Kinsey.
[bakers cheering and exclaiming happily]
That'll be fun.
[Nicole] We're leaving you some insider information about her life
at your stations,
so she's eager to see how each of you will customize your cakes in her honor.
You'll have six hours to complete your Fine Art of Chocolate Cake.
You'll be judged on taste, appearance, and most importantly, your chocolate work.
And keep in mind, pick a cake flavor that will pair well
with all the other chocolate elements.
Bakers, good luck. Your time starts now!
[Richard] Yay!
Ten inches, okay.
-[Frank] Can I get one? -[Georgina laughing] No! No! That's mine.
[chuckling] I have no space for all of these.
Let's get started.
Ignoisco, what are you gonna make?
[Ignoisco] Today I am going to do a chocolate cake.
Then I'm actually going to do a whipped cookies and cream, like, frosting.
[Richard] Ooh!
Me choosing to do a chocolate cake is kinda gonna give me a little leg up.
This is the chocolate challenge.
I never make this much at once.
There are so many layers in each of these tiers.
It's gonna be a lot of batter being made, and that's just the cake.
I gotta make all these details.
And working with chocolate is very time-consuming.
We all are trying to get our cakes done as fast as possible.
I don't want to have to be making a bunch of different batters.
There's no need to rush.
Yeah, no need. It's not like there's, like, a timer or, like, a time constraint.
I know, right? It's not like it's right behind us too.
[Georgina laughs]
I am making a vanilla cake with, um, dark chocolate ganache in the middle
and some fresh strawberries on top.
Sounds tasty, classic combos.
This is a chocolate challenge with Mr. Chocolate himself.
I need to bake the cakes,
get all that out of the way, so I can focus on chocolate.
Oh my God. Okay.
I'm just sticking with a pretty simple cake.
Because making a vanilla cake batter has become second nature.
I've done it so many times at this point that it's just like clockwork.
These are the strawberries. Okay.
[Erin] I'm worried about that simple flavor combo
that we've seen over and over.
Now is the time.
If you're gonna, you know, push ahead, middle isn't gonna be good enough.
[Georgina] Frank, what kind of cake you making?
I'm making a red velvet with strawberry and cream cheese frosting.
Ooh!
Oh, that makes me nervous.
That's gonna be something weird
that the judges may not have even tried together.
I honestly haven't tried those two flavors together.
Trying a new recipe, I want to make sure I get everything down.
[Robert] Let's go see what his plan is.
Why is there so many more ingredients in this cake recipe
than the vanilla cake recipe?
Not efficient.
-[both] Frank. -[Frank] Hello.
How's it going?
Uh, it's going okay. It's going okay.
[Robert] We heard red velvet and strawberry.
Last time, Jacques gave some comments about
-too many flavors happening and clashing. -[Frank] Yes.
-There is a lot of things going on here. -[chuckles]
I mean, chocolate goes well with strawberries,
red velvet goes well with cream cheese.
I feel like the undertones all work together.
Just as long as you're thinking of those things.
-I think you're doing that. -For sure.
-Thank you. -Good job.
[Ignoisco] What flavors you doing?
I'm going to make another attempt at a raspberry cake.
The last Cake Bake with my carrot cake, the flavor is finally on point.
All right.
I've learned to stay away from the extracts and emulsions.
I asked you if you use extract. You said, "No."
I thought you said... meant an extract in the ganache.
So this time I'd rather use raspberry puree
and fresh raspberries in the middle.
And half a cup of puree.
An hour has passed. Five hours left, everybody.
Oh my God.
[Ignoisco] See how much of these we can fit in here.
-[Richard sighs] -[intriguing hip hop music playing]
[music fades]
-The food group is very simple. -[Nicole] Yes.
On top of the food group, you have white chocolate.
Then when you come down, of course, you have the milk chocolate...
-[Nicole] Oh, okay. -...but you also have the dark chocolate.
Oh.
[Jacques] And then, you cannot forget chocolate truffles.
What about fruits and vegetables?
Uh, maybe on the weekend?
[dramatic music playing]
Cool.
Just gotta make some cream cheese frosting.
Starting on ganache. This is the hardest challenge yet.
So much to manage.
The Baking 101 really tempered our expectations.
[laughs] Glad I thought of a pun finally.
I really need to breeze through my fillings
just so I can work on all the chocolate details
from stained glass panels,
then to make the straws, which is even more chocolate.
And then, finally, you have to do your topper piece.
There's just so much going on.
I've never done this before.
I'm actually going rogue today.
I am making a frosting that I have no recipe for.
I'm just kinda going off the dome.
Need this.
One of the things that I've kind of gotten critiques about
is making sure that my cakes are not too sweet.
I feel like using a whipped cookies and cream frosting
will be better than using... trying to use
a buttercream that's gonna be really sweet.
-[both] Hey, Ignoisco. -Hey.
[Robert] What flavors do we have going on here?
[Ignoisco] I'm doing, um, a cookies and cream cake.
-Ooh! -So I'm doing a chocolate cake,
and I'm gonna do a whipped, um, cookies and cream, like, frosting.
My focus for this is the chocolate.
I struggled during the Baking 101 a little bit.
It just took so much time that I'm, like, this is my second time at it.
So I want to give myself enough time. I'm trying to keep everything simple.
Your time management is getting better and better,
so just keep it up for this difficult challenge.
-Thank you. -[Erin] You're welcome.
[intriguing string music playing]
[Georgina] All right, this should be enough.
[humming softly]
[Erin] I'm upset that Georgina and Frank are just throwing in strawberries
and pre-made jam into their filling
rather than actually simmering something down, cooking it down.
But it looks like Richard is doing just that.
When we remove moisture out of fruit,
all we're left with is that powerful fruit flavor.
And you can do so much with that.
It's actually one of my favorite ways to work with fruit.
Less than four hours left, guys.
[exciting music playing]
Ah, this one's clean. Cool.
[whimpers]
[Richard] This thing is awesome.
[Georgina] This is my middle tier.
My bottom two cakes came out a little shorter than I was hoping.
I should have filled my pans more.
I made all of that cake, and it's still not enough. Ugh.
Uh, Georgina, I think I have a very short cake.
[Georgina] I've got a really tall one.
Uh, oh, well, just gotta make a note of that and keep going.
[Ignoisco] The cookies that I'm using for my frosting
could be a little bit of a risk.
They'll definitely get soft.
But the purpose of using the cookies is for flavor, not really for texture.
And so I don't really need them to have that crunch.
One thing that I've really learned being here
is being confident about the risks that I take.
You have to make a decision and you have to go with it.
Awesome. Now we can start on the tempering.
Do a bottle of wine.
[Frank] Angela seems like a very outdoorsy, fun person.
They have a list of some of her favorite things.
So that they can pick some things to help customize it for her.
Uh...
Her character on The Officeloves cats.
My theme is called "A Day with Angela."
My idea of what her day is like, based on some of the things she likes.
[Richard in sing-song] Tacos.
-Oh, it's beautiful. -Who doesn't like tacos, right?
[Erin] That's true.
So next up is tempering chocolate.
Bakers, a reminder straight from Mr. Chocolate himself,
for proper tempered chocolate,
heat it enough to let the crystals in your cocoa break down,
but not so much that it burns.
That will give it a glossy, firm finish when it cools down.
Ooh... Oh! Good lord.
Oh my God. Oh my God. It's fine.
Tempering my chocolate is something that I struggled with in Baking 101,
but luckily, I get a chocolate phone
where I can give Jacques a call and I get his help in this challenge.
Okay.
[ringing]
-[Jacques] My God. -[Nicole] It's the phone.
-I'll give it to you, Nicole. [groans] -Okay.
Hello?
Hey, so I'm kind of having some trouble tempering chocolate now
and I wanted your help.
Oh! Oh my goodness. How did... How could I have forgot?
I forgot that she gets a phone call on the chocolate phone
-to ask you to go help her. -Huh?
Alright, Jacques said he's on his way. Actually, he didn't say that out loud.
I'm just gonna send him. How about that?
-Okay, awesome. I'll see you soon. Bye. -[Nicole] Okay, bye, Georg...
-Hey, coaches. -[Georgina gasps]
-[Jacques] Georgina, how are you doing? -Hi, Jacques.
Good. I'm in the middle of tempering chocolate.
I just wanted to make sure I had your help doing this.
[Jacques] Stir, stir, stir.
-Okay, you can keep stirring a bit more. -[Georgina] Mm-hmm.
-Okay. Scrape it well. Put everything. -Uh-huh.
-[Jacques] Take your immersion blender. -[Georgina] Okay, yeah.
[Frank] Since I'm working next to Georgina, I'm getting free,
hands-on lesson from Jacques Torres.
[chuckles]
Perfect. Plug it in.
Put it under the surface of the chocolates and then mix... mix everything.
-Okay, you're good. Keep going around. -Uh-huh.
-Yeah, it's 91 now. -[Georgina] Okay, great.
-Okay. Put it back around. -This side.
[Jacques] You see it's tempered.
-[Georgina] Ah, great. -Perfect.
-Thank you so much! -That's it?
Whoo! So easy.
-Good luck. Thank you very much. -[Georgina] Thank you, Jacques.
[Frank] Okay, cool, that's good.
[suspenseful music playing]
Less than two hours now.
-Oh my God. -[Frank] Yeah.
Dealing with this chocolate is tough in general.
This is a custom cake for Angela, so I definitely want to make the panels
things that she enjoys.
I did learn that she does enjoy tennis, planting flowers, and tacos.
You know, I love tacos. She loves tacos. Definitely want to incorporate that also.
-[Robert] Hi, Richard. -[Richard] Hey.
A nice little pointer for when you're piping things like this...
-Uh-huh. -...is to actually use two hands.
Use this hand to guide. That hand squeezes.
[Georgina] Looking good. Reminding me of the sugar cookies we made.
I love chocolate so, so much.
I actually started baking because, as a child,
my parents never bought sweets, they were health nuts.
I think I have some kind of chemical imbalance
in my brain where I just need sugar.
I'll wake up and have, like, a chocolate bar for breakfast.
People told me I'd grow out of it. I didn't. I don't think I will.
Just freeze-spray everything that's here.
[grunts softly]
All right, one is done.
[dramatic music playing]
Oh my God, it's getting everywhere.
Uh-oh.
[gasps] No. On my pants.
[Richard] Oh, there's got to be an easier way to do this.
Ah!
[Georgina] One. Oh God, it's dripping.
[exhaling] Phew.
[Georgina gasping] The hole is too small.
[Frank] It was so much easier with the boba straws, I'm not gonna lie.
[Ignoisco] Doing these straws is the most tedious task...
[chuckling] ...I have ever done in my life.
Yeah, buddy.
Okay, all of our straws are done.
Once it's cooled, they're supposed to be able to just pop out of the straws,
but we'll see.
[exciting dance music playing]
[Richard chuckling] Oh-ho-ho! I love it.
[Georgina] Okay. Hey, it's not too bad, actually.
[Frank] Nothing an offset spatula can't fix.
Oh, wow, you're already putting yours together?
Yeah, but it's, like... ugly.
[music continues]
[gasps] It looks okay.
[Ignoisco] The first part of the story is this.
[Richard] Like caulking a bathroom.
I'm gonna put this here, so if it falls, at least it isn't falling to the ground.
I mean, if the face falls, it's over. Thirty minutes left, everyone.
[Georgina] Thirty minutes?
-What are you gonna do now? -I'm working on my topper.
-[Frank] What's your topper gonna be? -[Georgina] Two cats.
And, um, they're gonna be sitting among the green straws,
like they're sitting in a garden.
My cake topper is gonna be of Angela's two cats, Oreo and Snickers.
[chuckling] So I come from a family of cats.
We're very much a cat family.
We usually have about five to six cats, just like in rotation.
Angela and I are gonna bond over our love of cats.
[Ignoisco] Big bottle. Oh, no.
I just lost it.
The glass didn't pop out the way I wanted it to.
Glue them together and make it work.
Some of these topper pieces are going really great,
but, for some reason, the base of the daggone wine glass
just does not want to stay attached to the stem of the wine glass.
It's not working! What is happening?
I'm like, what's going on with you? I ain't got time for you, wine glass.
You need to cooperate with me because I have other things to do.
Okay, I think what happened is some of them broke,
but, you know, it is possible to warm them up,
melt them back together,
and then use the freeze spray to harden it back up.
Oh well.
I don't have time to keep on trying to put these pieces together.
We're just gonna go with this and make sure that we don't touch it,
so it does not break.
Wow, Ignoisco, that topper is incredible.
Thank you.
[chuckling] Does this look like a plane?
-[Erin] Yeah. -[Robert] It does.
-I thought that's what it was. -Frank, that's great!
[Frank] Okay, cool, 'cause she flew from Jakarta to the US.
So my inspiration for my cake is sunrises.
I'm also adding a plane in front of it flying by
because Angela flew from Jakarta to Los Angeles to move here originally.
[straining] I get, like, no grip on this straw.
Filling the straws was a nightmare. Now, taking them out, it's even worse.
I can't really waste too much time on just one.
My backup plan's going to...
I decided I'm gonna use shards of chocolate instead
to fill in this gap and hopefully give it a nice look.
-Under five minutes left, everybody. -Oh my God.
[Ignoisco] Okay, I definitely don't have enough to go all the way around.
[Richard] They can't say I didn't put straws on.
[Ignoisco chuckling] That'd be something.
Come on. Stick, stick.
-Bakers, you have one minute left. -[Georgina] Ah!
[suspenseful music playing]
[Richard] Oh, my topper broke. Ugh.
This topper for my cake was an A for "Angela."
Some simple patchwork.
But now I need to do a patch job.
It's in the shape of, like, a flame because, you know, she's on fire.
[music continues]
[coaches] Five, four, three, two, one.
You're done.
[bakers] Whoo!
-Oof! Oh my God. -Whoo!
It is what it is.
[Nicole] Everyone say hello to Angela Kinsey.
[all] Hi.
Hello, hello. I'm so excited to be here.
I'm a little bit of a hot mess in the kitchen.
So, Jacques, how do you say that? A hot mess?
Une catastrophe.
-Ooh! -[Angela] Oh, I like that.
Well, Angela, today they were asked to make a Fine Art of Chocolate Cake,
and each of them customized it specifically for, boop, you.
Ah! I'm so excited!
[all laughing]
Well, cue those judging lights.
[both] Ooh!
Richard, Ignoisco, wheel forth your masterpiece.
-Hi, Richard, I remember you. -Hi. Do you?
Yes, I've seen you on Nailed It!before.
-I'm so excited to see you again. -Wow.
-That's so awesome! -[Nicole] I love that!
Let's remember your Fine Art of Chocolate Cake
you were trying to make, and let's see what you made.
-[Richard] Awesome. -[drumroll]
-Nailed it. [chuckles] -Oh my God!
-That's my face! -[Nicole] That is your face.
[Angela] With my side part, Richard.
I look a little grumpy. Angela from The Office.
Exactly. And I know you love tacos.
-[Angela] I love tacos! -So you know...
-You guys, I live that sexy life. -[Richard laughs]
[Nicole] I love the taco. I love the tennis ball.
I think you did a really nice job.
[Jacques] Would you spin it one more time?
We want to see the straws, how many you have.
[Richard] So I started them, and tried to get all the elements.
Maybe we missed a little bit of straw, but you find a way to decorate the top.
Those straws are a nightmare.
[Jacques] It's difficult. Yes.
You know, the chocolate work is a little bit messy,
but I have to say that you did everything that we asked you.
Let's taste Angela.
-What? -[all laughing]
[Angela] I'm a little scared. Oh my gosh!
-[Richard] Oh, there we go. -Oh, wow!
I made a raspberry cake with a white chocolate ganache.
Oh my God. I love it.
It's so good.
And it's, like, the kind of cake I like, which is really spongy.
I can feel the raspberry, but it's... How to say?
-Natural, no funny flavor. -No artificial. All fruit.
[Jacques] It's good.
-[hosts] Thank you, Richard. -Thank you so much.
-[Nicole] Hello, Ignoisco. -Bello and belli.
-[Nicole] Bello and belli. -[Angela] Hi.
All right, Ignoisco.
[drumroll]
-Nailed it! -[Angela squeals]
[gasps] Oh!
[Nicole] This is fun.
-[Angela] I love it. -So, this lovely cake
is called A Day with Angela.
Oh, come on.
In the morning, of course, she has to go to work.
-So she goes to the film studio to shoot. -Yes, I do.
Of course, at the very end of the day, the kids have gone to sleep,
and now we're able to enjoy a nice glass of rosé.
-[both] Oh! -[Jacques chuckles]
Yes! Which also explains my expression
-a little bit. I'm like... -[all laughing]
-[Ignoisco] Feeling good! -[Nicole] Just a little too much wine.
One little thing is, the bottom cake is a little bit smaller,
but you put everything that we asked you to put into this cake.
All right, Ignoisco, cut up Angela!
[laughs]
[Ignoisco] So it's chocolate cake with a whipped cookies and cream.
I tried to put a few extra chunks of Oreo in the... the cream.
I like that the chocolate is really dark. There's no question it's a chocolate cake.
What I would try to add is a little bit of texture.
-You have a very creamy cake. -Mm-hmm.
And a little bit of crunch will add another element to it.
This would be, like, a showstopper at my house.
-My kids would destroy this. -[Ignoisco] Oh!
Good. Let me know.
-[Angela] Okay. -I'll make another one for you.
All right. Thank you, Ignoisco.
-Thank you. -[Angela] Thank you.
Next, we would like Frank and Georgina to wheel forth their masterpieces.
All right, Georgina, let's see what you made.
[drumroll]
Nailed it.
-[squeals] Oh my gosh! The cats on top! -[Nicole] Oh, how fun.
[Georgina] So first, we have a portrait of you, and I added some cat ears.
This was inspired by Angela's Halloween costume from The Office.
-[Angela] Yes. -[Georgina] Next, your day off.
So you're thinking, "Maybe I'm gonna go roller-skating."
Yes, I am.
[Georgina] Right?
When you're on your couch with a glass of wine,
you might want to snuggle up with Oreo and Snickers.
-[Angela] My cats! -[Georgina] Yes.
I do wish that instead of two cat things,
there was, like, something a little different to switch it up a bit.
-Mm-hmm. -But overall, I think it's really nice.
[Jacques] It's interesting, the way you put the straw on top,
by putting them a little bit crooked,
gives the impression that the cake is crooked itself.
-But I think the cake is straight... -Uh-huh.
...but otherwise, you know, the stained glass is... is beautiful.
[Georgina] Great.
So this is a vanilla cake with, um, dark chocolate ganache
and sliced strawberries on top.
The strawberry is my favorite part.
-Mm-hmm. -[Angela] Really good.
I would say that the ganache, to me,
has not enough cream or a bit too much chocolate.
So it comes a little bit hard.
I agree that the ganache in the middle could be creamier, but I don't mind it.
-Let's go visit Frank. -Thank you.
-[Nicole] Hello, Frank. -Hello, hello.
Let's see what you made.
-What'd you do with my face? -[Frank chuckles]
-[drumroll] -Nailed it.
-Hey! -Oh!
[Angela] Is that sunshine coming out of the top?
Yeah, researching a little bit, I learned that you love walking outdoors.
You grew up in Jakarta, so you had to fly from Jakarta to Los Angeles.
That's kinda why I chose the red-yellow gradient up.
It's so bright and so fun.
And I do love the sun coming out of the top.
I think that's so original.
I like the stained glass.
The bottom cake is maybe the smallest of all.
-Yeah. -Uh, those straws are a little bit messy.
The way you put them together, we can see the chocolates under.
Yeah, I agree with Jacques, but I love the color scheme that you used.
I think that's really pretty, and I can't wait to taste Angela.
[all chuckling]
[Frank] This cake, overall, flavor-wise is a red velvet
with a strawberry cream cheese frosting in the middle.
This blast of strawberry. I love it.
It's really sweet, so I feel like a little goes a long way.
But it's such, like, flavor.
[Jacques] It's good. The cake is well baked.
As, uh, Angela mentioned,
-it's a little bit on the sweet side. -[Frank] Mm-hmm.
I agree with everyone. It is a little too sweet for me.
But I know that it's strawberry, and I really like that.
Thank you.
[Nicole] All right, thank you, Frank and Georgina.
We now have a very tough decision ahead of us.
-All right, let's go make it. -[Angela] All right!
The red velvet, I didn't realize was a sweeter cake than chocolate cake.
I'm hoping I'm safe.
[laughs] I'm not sure I won this with a too-sweet cake.
You know, this cake is a little bit close to my heart.
And they all did very well.
So, it's harder and harder now to say, "Oh, this one won, this one didn't."
You know, it's... it's all about little details now.
All right, let's talk about Richard.
[Jacques] Richard, uh, didn't do all his, uh... All the straws.
I thought his cake tasted good, though.
-I liked the raspberry. -Same. That was very yummy.
I agree that the flavor was good.
What was my straw thing I said, Georgina?
Straw-matized.
-I'm straw-matized. -[laughing]
[Richard] Yeah!
Georgina. The flavor of her cake, I thought it was really well done.
[Jacques] So, Georgina had those beautiful cats on top.
-Cats were so cute. -They were very cute.
I think she represents you very well.
I just wish that her stained glass also didn't have a cat
because you're so multifaceted.
-This is so good, Ignoisco. -Yeah. Thank you.
As someone who prides myself on details,
I'm definitely not quite satisfied with the details on this cake.
So I'm glad I got strawberry redemption.
I definitely don't think I'm the winner,
so hopefully I can at least
squeeze through this one and make it to the next round.
[Nicole] But Ignoisco, I think, did a really nice job.
His stained glass looked so good. I thought he had the best stained glass.
[Jacques] His cake was good. Dark chocolate.
It was very yummy. And it was... it was fudgy.
-I loved it. -Yes.
After eating your cake, I was like, "Wow, my cake is so bad."
So, Frank, the bottom cake was a little bit short.
He used the big straw, and his cake was a little bit sweet.
He has a good idea about the... the sunrise.
-I thought that was thoughtful. -It was nice.
-This is, uh... was an interesting cake. -[Ignoisco] Yes, it was.
That chocolate is nothing to, you know, play with.
I'm hoping that the flavor here is what's gonna save me
because I know I didn't have all the straws,
and I know my second tier wasn't exactly the right size.
Chocolate is a very humbling experience. I'm actually glad it's over.
You have made it to the final four here.
-This is so amazing. -[cheers]
[Erin] And we'll be so sorry to see another one of you go,
but we are so, so proud of how far you've come.
You have learned so much, and these cakes really, really show it.
-So we just could not be more proud. -Thank you.
Thank you, guys.
-Let's go. -Let's do it.
[mellow hip-hop beat playing]
Bakers, please come forward.
[ominous music plays]
Richard, we love your white chocolate ganache.
You flavored it very well, and it was very pleasant.
You didn't have all the straw on top,
and those green chocolate pieces was too thick.
Ignoisco, we loved your stained glass, and you came a long way making cakes.
I will say that the cake maybe can have a little more texture.
Georgina, we love the idea that you had to put the cats on top.
The cake represents Angela very well.
The top of your cake was a little bit off-center,
and I have to say that unfortunately the ganache
was a little bit too... too hard, too chunky.
Frank, we love the color that you picked and the theme that you picked.
Sunrise. That was beautiful.
Your bottom cake was a little bit too short and was a little bit too sweet.
One baker in particular really melted our hearts today.
Angela, tell us who's won.
Okay, Nicole, the baker who won today told a really beautiful visual story,
and their cake had a flavor that really rose the chocolate bar.
That baker is...
[suspenseful music playing]
...Ignoisco!
-Whoo! -[laughing] Oh my goodness! Wow.
Ignoisco, you just won $1,000. Congratulations.
-Thank you. -[Nicole and Angela] Wes!
He has balloons. I love it.
-Whoo! -Thank you, Wes. Thank you.
[Nicole] Ignoisco and Richard,
the both of you can go back to your stations. Excellent work.
[chuckling]
Cake.
[sighs] And now, the hardest part of our job.
Saying goodbye to one of you.
[both] Mm.
[Jacques] You learned so much.
Your cakes are good, the fillings are good.
It's so hard for us to judge.
And it became to very little details. It's really splitting hairs.
The baker leaving the Nailed It!kitchen is...
[tense music rising]
...Frank.
I am so sorry. You just didn't nail it today.
And hopefully there will be no bad blood.
[all laughing]
[Frank] It's a bummer I got eliminated,
but also maybe it is my fate as the middle child
to keep right in the middle after all.
[chuckles]
[hosts] Thank you, Frank.
And now it's time for another...
[imitates fanfare] ...pantry raid.
[all cheering]
-[upbeat music playing] -All right, Frank, your time starts now!
-[Jacques] Yeah, Frank! -Go, Frank, go!
Looking back at what cakes I've baked, wow, I can't believe I've done this.
I'm all about disaster.
[laughs]
I went from baking a very leaning cake...
It is leaning a little bit.
[laughing]
...to four-tier cakes.
We have cakes that stand. Your structure is a lot better.
[Frank] An antigravity pasta cake that honestly really looked like it.
[Nicole] It's lovely, Frank.
[Frank] I'm proud of myself for stepping outside of my comfort zone and doing it.
Going for it.
-Oh my God! -Oh my gosh, all the pans!
You know, it's been a wild ride, the wildest of dreams.
And, frankly, I think I really lived up to my reputation,
"being Frank."
[all] Five, four, three, two, one! Whoo!
[Nicole] You're done, Frank!
-[Frank] Thanks. -[Richard] You did it!
You left a blank space in my heart.
-Aw, thank you. -Goodbye.
-Cheerio. -[Georgina laughs]
And then there were three.
[bakers] Whoo.
[Nicole] Get some rest, bakers, because tomorrow,
something from your past is coming back to haunt you.
Ooh.
[dramatic music playing]
I know. Cryptic, right? Bye.
[closing theme music playing]