Keller Baker Ends ‘Holiday Baking Championship’ Journey

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Legacy Cakes owner Megan Rountree left it all on the line last night during Food Network’s “Holiday Baking Championship” finale. After the final four discussed making it to the end, they prepared to take on the pre-heat. But this week’s first challenge had a twist, it would result in an elimination prior to the main heat. 

“I cannot describe the amount of adrenaline rushing through my body and also terror about messing up,” Megan Rountree says during the episode. “To say that the small mistakes matter is an understatement. I have to make it a really strong showing.” 

The Pre-Heat

The bakers were tasked with creating graduated tiers of macarons to resemble a holiday tree. Megan created an almond macaron tree with fig mascarpone filling, hazelnut liqueur filling and orange curd. 

“Fig is just very homey, holiday, all of those things to me,” Megan says during the episode. “I wanted to get citrus in there so it’s not overly sweet.”

While other contestants only created one layer, Megan wanted to step it up for this challenge by combining several different components. 

“I’m a mom, so I’m always multitasking,” Megan says during the episode. “I’m trying to pull out all the tricks. I want to make it into that main heat finale so bad. I worked so hard for this.”

Megan finished her green creation with buttercream using a star tip to add texture to the smooth macarons. And she also decorated her stack with smaller macaron ornaments accented with luster-dust and hand piping to resemble ornaments.

“I want to make sure that I’ve got plenty of decoration on the tree because that’s part of the fun of a Christmas tree is getting to decorate it,” Megan says during the episode.

Judge Carla Hall was quick to compliment the stack’s realistic aesthetic. 

“It doesn't even look like they’re macarons,” Carla says during the judging. “I think that is what’s so special about them. But your star on the top is a little wonky.”

But judge Duff Goldman commented that not all three of Megan’s flavor accents came through equally.

“Great macarons — really crunchy on the outside,” Duff says during the episode. “And then a really big orange flavor, then a really nice sort of come-down with the hazelnut. The fig is lost somewhere in there, and I don’t care.”

Despite that feedback, Megan finished in the second spot on the nice list, earning her a spot in the main heat. After competitor Eva fell to the face-off challenge, Julianna, Megan and Lorenzo took on the last test of the series: creating a dessert inspired by a different Christmas time period.  

The Main Heat

Julianna, the winner of the preheat challenge, selected which time period she would feature, and she assigned out the other two time periods. She selected Christmas present, gave Megan Christmas future and left Lorenzo with Christmas past. 

Each of the bakers were also asked to make a different icing technique from their time period, so Megan had to incorporate mirror glaze into her dessert. Mirror glaze normally tops either icing or mousse and, thanks to its gelatin, gives desserts a nice sheen, like a mirror. 

“This is a very hard challenge because I am not the mirror glaze queen. I do not have a lot of experience with this,” Megan says during the episode. “It’s just completely out of my wheelhouse. But in the end, I am here to show my daughter, especially because she’s kind of getting to that nervous age, that it’s OK to be nervous. It is OK to do things that are challenging and out of your comfort zone and try to do things that you might be a little afraid of.”    

Megan’s futuristic dessert embraced clean line minimalism. She baked a three-layer Dutch cocoa devil’s food cake with salted dark chocolate ganache and candied almonds and almond liqueur buttercream and coffee liqueur cream cheese filling. 

“It’s a rich, moist cake that will play with my other flavors,” Megan says during the episode. 

To decorate, Megan created a metallic Christmas tree cake with red mirror glaze on top. To complete the cake, she added white chocolate spheres on the bottom to resemble ornaments. 

“Not my traditional style of wanting to have all the cute decorations on there,” Megan says during the episode.  

While Megan’s creation focused on the future, Megan credited her past to helping her get to where she is today. 

“I’ve learned a lot over the past, oh 20 years of doing this,” Megan says during the episode after talking about baking growing up with her family. 

And she mentioned the potential $25,000 grand prize would help her family as it prepares for its newest member, as Megan is seven-months pregnant during the finale’s taping.  

“Baby girl is going to be expensive like all my other children,” Megan says during the episode. 

She also mentioned that she would use the prize to help expand her Grapevine shop and give back to the community. But after pouring her mirror glaze on the first layer of her cake, that path to victory looked a little dimmer. 

“I’m really disappointed. This does not look like a mirror glaze,” Megan says during the episode. 

The judges were quick to comment on that component. 

“Your cake is very clean — straight up and down. Your corners are really sharp. Fundamentally, you have a really nice cake,” Duff says during the episode. “But the mirror glaze...you had too much liquid, not enough chocolate.” 

“Your ornaments just needed to be more finished,” judge Nancy Fuller says during her critique. “I see a hole in one. I see one falling over. We know it’s not a looker, but it could taste really good.”

Thankfully, her flavors shined, even if her mirror glaze and gold ornaments did not. 

“It’s such a good, rich chocolatey bite,” Duff says after tasting the cake. “I think the coffee liqueur in the buttercream was perfect. Your crumb is moist, tight. It’s clean. I love it.”

Nancy, however, was left wanting for more coffee liqueur flavor. 

“I, too, love the cake,” Nancy says during judging. “And I absolutely loved that little layer of chocolate with the crunch. And your cream is really nice. But I did not get coffee liqueur. And I, of course, want it.” 

Carla’s final judgment continued the praise. 

“What I love with the ganache and the big almonds, it feels like a candy bar,” Carla says during judging. “And then your almond liqueur frosting on the top is wonderful.” 

Each of the bakers shined in one component, so the judges said it was a tough call to crown a winner. But Julianna, a home baker, took home the prize with her Christmas present cake. While Megan did not win the title of Holiday Baking Champion, she still made her team and her community proud.