Rob Pryce
Megan portrait, as seen on Holiday Baking Championship, Season 7.
After a week of back-to-back challenge wins during the last episode, Legacy Cakes owner and Keller baker Megan Rountree was back at it last night on Food Network’s “Holiday Baking Championship.” The final five bakers were first tasked with making traditional holiday trifles during the preheat.
Each contestant’s creation had to include three distinct layers: a cream or custard layer, a jam or jelly layer and a cookie or cake layer. Megan randomly selected pistachio as her star ingredient, so she decided to make a pistachio cream and cherry jam trifle with pound cake.
“The tartness of the cherry will play well with the smooth butteriness of the pistachio,” Megan says during the episode.
She made pistachio cream by mixing in a pistachio paste into plain pastry cream, leaving her with a vibrant green layer.
“Yeah, it looks crazy,” Megan says while laughing during the episode.
Her original cream was a little thin, so she folded in whipped cream to make a second lighter cream layer to help fill out the trifle container. The judges complimented Megan on her use of Christmas colors. And her flavors even made judge Nancy Fuller sing.
“I love this combination of pistachio and cherry,” Nancy says during the episode. “And the candied pistachios give you that wonderful, unexpected texture.”
While all of the judges did enjoy the trifle, judge Duff Goldman’s only criticism focused on the trifle’s balance.
“But because [the cream is] very sweet, your cherry jam really gets lost,” Duff says during the episode.
Despite that feedback, Megan finished the first challenge in second place. Next up, the bakers were asked to create Charlotte Royales fit for Santa Clause. This challenge featuring a classic treat, Bavarian cream set in a dome mold and lined with Swiss rolls, had a twist mid-way through: adding a baked decoration element that resembled holly.
Megan’s selected ingredient of chocolate inspired her to create a Charlotte Royale with milk chocolate Swiss rolls filled with strawberry and brandy buttercream and white chocolate Bavarian cream. She elevated her cream by adding chopped up strawberries, toasted almonds and dark chocolate pieces. She also added a dark chocolate ganache to the bottom of the dome to create a trifecta of chocolate flavors.
On top of a chocolate snap holly-shaped cookies, Megan accented her creation with a gingerbread man and Santa’s present sack, both made with modeling chocolate.
With less than five minutes on the clock, Megan took her Charlotte Royale out of the chiller to find that her creation had set correctly.
“It’s a sphere,” Megan says with excitement during the episode.
But Megan did get some critics for her Charlotte Royale’s appearance.
“Your spirals aren’t tight and clean, so we aren’t getting the Swiss rolls, but the shape is there,” Carla Hall says during the episode.
But after cutting into the Charlotte Royale, the guests were more than happy with the results.
“You have white chocolate, milk chocolate and dark chocolate. Together it makes such a wonderful flavor,” Duff Goldman says during the episode.
Those flavors once again landed her on the top of the nice list, which also ensured she would move on and compete in next week’s finale. The final four contestants will face off one final time to see who will walk away with the $25,000 grand prize and the title of Holiday Baking Champion. Tune in next week to Food Network to see if Megan can bring it all home to Keller.