It’s a ‘Cake Off’
Champions return in holiday battle royale
It’s the ultimate battle of holiday cake bakers and a reminder of the talent we’ve seen in Food Network competitions past. “Holiday Wars Champion Cake Off” lands on Food Network on Sunday, Dec. 26, and the themed competition is a fun, festive way to transition from Christmas to New Year’s Eve.
For the first time in Food Network history, host and celebrity chef Maneet Chauhan welcomes the reigning champions of “Halloween Wars” and “Holiday Wars” and pits them against one another in this one-hour special. These two teams of cake and sugar artists will be tasked with creating their own cakebased team mascot, and they’ll also have to demonstrate how they’ll ring in the new year by whipping up a champagne-inspired cake flavor.
Only one team will win an all-expenses-paid trip for two to New York City, and the task of selecting a winner falls to judges Shinmin Li and Aarti Sequeira.
Li, an accomplished pastry chef and the co-founder of the chefbooking service Kora, has served as a judge on “Halloween Wars” since the competition’s debut in 2011.
And while “Holiday Wars” is one of the “newer” seasonal competition series — it only has three seasons under its belt compared to “Halloween Wars’” 11 — its most recent installment marked the first team-up of Chauhan, Li and Sequeira. The trio’s chemistry has rekindled viewers’ interest in the show.
Season 1 of “Holiday Wars” was highly reviewed and posted some solid ratings, but viewers have been pretty vocal online about their disappointment with the second installment. Most of the complaints seemed to have been directed at the contestants and the show’s more aggressive/less festive tone, but viewers weren’t crazy about Season 2 host Raven-symoné or judge Erin Mcginn Acevedo, either.
Enter “Chopped” judge and former “Iron Chef” competitor Chauhan, who proved to be a hit earlier this year as the host of “Chocolate Meltdown: Hershey After Dark.” Chauhan took over as host for Season 3 of “Holiday Wars,” while Sequeira, a “Next Food Network Star” winner and the host of Cooking Channel’s “Taste in Translation,” replaced Mcginn Acevedo as a judge.
The combination of Chauhan, Li and Sequeira seems to have resonated with fans of “Holiday Wars,” and Food Network is hoping history will repeat itself with “Holiday Wars Champion Cake Off,” airing this Sunday, Dec. 26.