The second episode of the fifth season of Cupcake Wars was all about the cowboy spirit. The reward was to present at the Professional Bull Riders Award Ceremony in Las Vegas. The judges for this episode were Candace Nelson of the world’s first cupcake bakery Sprinkles Cupcakes, Florian Bellanger of MadMac Macarons, and Luke Snyder – one of the top ten bull riders in the world and past winner of the Professional Bull Riders Award.
The four competing bakeries were Kinnie Haskins for Cakes Come True Bakery in Chino, California; Shae Morgan Malachowski for Iced Cupcakery in Cedar City, Utah; Diana Colletti for Incr-Edible Cupcakes in Menifee, California; and finally Johnny Sue Messler for Something Sweet Cake Studio in Port St. John, Florida.
The taste test challenge was all about cowboy flavors. Contestants had to incorporate two of the following ingredients in a cupcake: bacon, jalapenos, cheddar, onion, licorice, beans, corn, or mutton. Shae was sent home for what the judges called a disgrace. She forgot to put baking powder in the original batter and scrambled to fix her mistake. Unfortunately she could not “get back up on her horse” and was sent packing.
The decoration challenge was to make three cupcakes with cowboy symbols. Half of the judging points would be given to the appearance and half toward the flavors. Diana Colletti was sent home for apologetically small decorations.
The final round had Kinnie Haskins and Johnny Sue Messler going head to head in a 1,000-cupcake battle. Each had the help of a carpenter to create a tower that would represent the cowboy theme. Kinnie created a stadium stand for her cupcakes while Johnny Sue built a rustic tower topped with a bull rider. The winner of this episode was Johnny Sue for her artistic and professional interpretation of the challenge.
