Netflix Sugar Rush Christmas Champions!
Owner & Executive Pastry Chef of The Sculpted Slice, Caitlin Taylor, and Owner of New River Cafe & Bakery, Sabrina Courtemanche, competed on Netflix’s Original Series Sugar Rush Christmas which aired in November of 2019. The pair battled it out through three rounds of competition where they had to make a Christmas “spirits” inspired cupcake, a confection that needed red and green elements that didn’t solely rely on food coloring, and a cake that was ugly sweater themed, not just on the outside, but patterned on the inside as well!
Caitlin Taylor (left), Sabrina Courtemanche (right)
For their cupcake, they created a spiced vanilla cake, using cinnamon, nutmeg, and orange zest, with a warm mulled wine cherry filling. The cupcake had a mascarpone chantilly frosting which also had cinnamon, nutmeg, and orange zest. Topped with a cinnamon tuille cookie that looked like a cinnamon stick, more cherry filling, and some gold leaf for accents, they crushed the round by making a perfect representation of Christmas Spirits! A cupcake that judge Adrianno Zumbo said “took [him] back to his childhood with a European Christmas”. Judge Candice Nelson said the frosting was “dreamy” and Judge Liza Koshy was overcome with involuntary dancing!
After winning the cupcake challenge, Caitlin and Sabrina moved onto their red and green tart, which was a pistachio short crust, filled with white chocolate mousse, raspberry gelee, and topped with pistachio pastry cream, raspberry gel, white chocolate decoration, and some shaved white chocolate snow. On the plate as garnish were some red currants to pull the festive feel together. Judge Zumbo was especially impressed with how well balanced the flavors and textures were, which ultimately gained the team a second win for the confection challenge.
Moving on to the third and final round, the pair came up with a cake inspired by their story of the little elf who snuck away from Santa’s workshop, rummaged through the craft closet, and made his own ugly sweater for the Ugly Sweater party. For the inside of the cake, utilizing cake pop dough, they made an ugly sweater repeating pattern of snowmen, and Christmas trees, in a red and green velvet cake, with Coquito Cream Cheese icing. Armed with the correct textures, delicious flavors, and overall execution, Sabrina & Caitlin swept the competition with a 3rd win!
Looking back on the cake round, Chef Caitlin wanted to let the world know that 3 hours, although they won, is NOT enough time to create a 4-tier creation at the caliber she and her clients expect from The Sculpted Slice. She recreated the cake as a dummy for the premiere of the show with the following post to the business’ Instagram page:
“Although we are so happy with what we created in 3 hours on Sugar Rush Christmas, that was ONLY 3 hours. To mix, bake, cool, fill, frost, fondant cover, AND decorate, a 4 tier cake with a custom elf figure. HOLY CRAP, that was difficult. And… UGLY lol! So we wanted to show you how it should have looked, had we had a normal time frame of 8 hours (to decorate)… 8 hours?! YES GIRL! Fondant and Gumpaste decorations need to dry before assembling, details need time and focus to be precise and accurate. AND… that’s JUST for decoration! Don’t forget the other 3 hours to properly bake, cool, fill, frost, fondant cover, stack, and dowel (correctly and accurately). “
from @thesculptedslice on Instagram