Round 2 – Christmas Party Cupcake
"Okay let's keep this snowball rolling," Holly says, "You know what I love about the holidays? Someone's always throwing a party! The best part? Free food! Everything's always so festive too, especially when it comes to dessert. But it's a party and no one has time to sit and eat anything, so for Round 2 I want to see your best Christmas Party cupcake."
Holly doesn't miss the way Brittany lights up, "This should be right up your chimney, Chef Brittany. You're kind of the Cupcake Queen."
"I might know a thing or two," Brittany smirks.
Santana just fakes a scowl.
Brittany might have the advantage here, but Santana has been spending a lot of time at Batter Up Cupcakes so she has picked up on quite a few things – never mind that she has literally tasted thousands of cupcakes over the span of working on Cupcake Battles. They may not be her specialty but she's no amateur either.
Although Kurt mostly works with pastries, he's been known to dabble with a cupcake every so often. He can't let Brittany get away sabotage-free this time around though, that might be his undoing if it happens.
"Okay for this round I will give you 45 minutes again," Holly offers, "That's loads of time. In fact, that's so much time that I want you to make me two different kinds of cupcakes."
Brittany's already coming up with a game plan so the addition of a second flavor isn't too hard to work in. Santana and Kurt don't see too phased either, but who know what'll happen once the sabotages are introduced.
"And your 60 second shopping times starts…NOW!"
\\
Once again it's a mad dash for the essential ingredients. Santana's never had to shop so fast in her entire life, but she moves around the pantry swiftly just hoping she's getting everything that she needs to pull off two flavors of cupcakes.
"You won't be able to combine two in one this time, Britt!" Santana teases as she reaches into the fridge for some eggs.
"Won't need to," Brittany fires back, "I've got the perfect thing for this."
Kurt zips in between the two and swipes the last of the fresh vanilla beans, "I can't wait to see what crazy combination you come up with. Doubt you'll be able to flirt your way through this one."
"Hey!" Santana bumps him with her hip, "She won fair and square and everyone knows it."
Brittany smiles appreciatively Santana's way. After the public got word of their relationship, there was slight concern that Brittany might've been given special treatment but she was able to assure everyone that the only special treatment Santana was giving her happened well after the show ended.
"I won't need to flirt with anyone, Kurt, my cupcakes will be way more festive than any of your boring old recipes," Brittany quips, "Sorry, I mean classic. Isn't that what you like to call it to cover up your lack of creativity?"
Santana just laughs as she jets out of the pantry first.
Kurt scowls, "You have been spending way too much time with Santana."
"5…4…," Holly starts to count down but Kurt and Brittany rush out of there well seconds to spare, "3-2-1. You guys were quick this time! Let's see how you feel about my sabotages for this round."
Holly heads over to the chimney again and gives it a knock. Down comes the first sabotage and the Chefs watch anxiously to see what is revealed.
"A bucket?" Brittany questions.
"Ah, it's not just any bucket," Holly comments as she upturns the bucket. The Chefs are amazed at what falls out.
"Is that snow?" Kurt stammers
"It is," Brittany replies.
Santana blinks, "But how?"
"I've been dreaming of a white Christmas for so long, but this is L.A. so that'll never happen," Holly sighs, "Lucky for us, the elves have been busy at work making this!"
On cue, a team of elves push a 7ft wall made of snow into the kitchen. On the wall are three shelves – also made of snow – and on each of the shelves are pictures of a variety of baking ingredients. There's the basics like: flour, eggs, sugar, butter as well as other specialty ingredients like different spices and flavorings.
Brittany looks up at the wall and frowns; she thinks she might now where this is going.
A couple other elves trot out carrying red buckets just like Holly revealed which are over flowing with snow. They set them down in front of the snow-wall of ingredients before hurrying out of the way.
"You've probably seen a game similar to this at the carnival," Holly explains, "I have – of course – made my own tweaks. Win this auction and you'll force an opponent to give up their entire basket of ingredients and make them win it all back by knocking down pictures on the shelves with snowballs which they'll also have to make."
Kurt looks nervous; he has terrible aim.
"Okay Chefs, you snow the drill," Holly grins, "Who wants to give me $2,000?"
"$2,000," Kurt offers up first.
Brittany continues to think. Would she be able to work with this sabotage? She wants to leave this competition with a least some kind of cash, but at what cost? She hasn't played softball since high school, but she doubts her aim is as bad as Kurt's. She might be able to work with this if she gets it.
That doesn't mean she wants it though.
"$3,000," Brittany offers then looks to Santana.
"$3,500," Kurt calls out instead.
It doesn't look like Santana is going to bid yet again. Brittany can't tell if she's crazy or smart as hell.
"$4,000," Brittany bids.
"$5,000!" Kurt replies quickly.
Brittany backs off; this sabotage kind of looks fun and she really doesn't want to spend $5,000 on snow. She already spent way too much on making everyone sing Christmas carols last round.
"Sold to Chef Kurt," Holly announces, "Bring me my money."
"Happily," Kurt grins and practically prances over to cash in.
"Now whose basket will you be confiscating?" Holly questions.
Kurt eyes Santana and Brittany; going back and forth, back and forth until he finally saunters over to Santana.
"Don't you dare," Santana threatens.
"You scared?" Kurt jokes.
"Hell no," Santana replies, "But if you put me over there don't be mad if I aim for your head instead."
"I'll take my chances," Kurt smirks as he goes to pick up her basket.
Santana grumbles, "Son of a – "
But at the last minute he changes direction and picks up Brittany's instead. Santana looks wide-eyed at the switch.
"Up to snow good, I see," Brittany comments, "I thought we were supposed to look out for each other since we're the last of the Nice Chefs?"
Kurt shakes his head as he hands Brittany's basket to Holly, "You can't be trusted. I know where your true allegiance lies."
Brittany drops the innocent act and smirks, "Big mistake. Santa's watching, you know!"
"On to the next sabotage!" Holly announces, "Let's see what good tidings will make an appearance next. What's this? A box of old winter clothes perfect for dressing up…Frosty?"
Brittany tilts her head to the side trying to figure it all out but then more elves are pushing another platform into the kitchen piled with snow. It's probably the most L.A. has ever seen in one day!
"Win this auction and force your opponent to stop what they're doing to help me build a snowman!" Holly says, "The twist here is that the winner of this auction gets to decide when they want their opponent to help me at any time during the round. Do I hear $1,000?"
"$1,000!" Brittany bids; she's going to need all the time she can get if she's going to have to win back her ingredients now.
"$1,200," Kurt offers next. With Santana determined to not spend a dime, Kurt doesn't have to worry too much about her but he knows Brittany is still very loyal to Santana despite the competition.
Neither of them can be trusted.
"$1,500," Brittany bids again.
"$1,700," Kurt tries.
"$2,000," Brittany says.
To everyone's surprise, Santana bids next, "$2,200."
"I thought you weren't spending anything?" Brittany questions.
"I was just saying that," Santana smirks, "Scared money don't make money, babe."
"Going once, going twice?" Holly calls out, but Brittany and Kurt are so stunned by Santana's last minute bidding that they don't say anything, "Sold! Chef Santana, pay up."
Santana blows Brittany a kiss as she heads to Holly to pay.
"Who's going to be dashing through the snow with me to help build Frosty here?" Holly asks.
Santana looks between the two but settles on her girlfriend instead.
Brittany's jaw drops, "I'm shocked…again!"
"You love playing in the snow," Santana teases as she returns to her pedestal, "It's hardly a sabotage."
Kurt just looks to the two and smiles widely, "This is outstanding."
"Live it up, Kurt," Santana threatens, "You're next."
"What? Why me?"
"Tis the season, isn't it?" Santana jokes, "Can't leave you out of the gift giving."
"feel free to," Kurt tells her.
Holly watches the exchange and smirks, "I've just come up with a great idea. I've got all this extra snow and I just can't let it go to waste, so how about this? Win this auction and force 2 opponents to have a snowball fight for 5 whole minutes at the beginning of the round! Let's start the bidding at $500."
"$600," Santana bids again.
"Oh now she's going to try and buy up everything," Kurt quips, "$800!"
"$1,000," Brittany offers. Last round she had zero sabotages and this round she has two! No way she'd survive being hit with another.
"$1,200," Santana bids.
"$1,500," Kurt offers.
Brittany cuts to the chase, "$3,000!"
Santana shakes her head as she backs out.
"Going once," Holly announces.
"She can have it," Kurt grumbles.
"Alright, sold to Chef Brittany," Holly says, "Come bring me my money."
Brittany does as she's told while Kurt and Santana glare at her the whole way.
"Okay now that the auction is out of the way," Holly says as she puts away the cash, "Your 45 minutes of cook time starts NOW! Chef Brittany, to the snow wall. Chef Santana and Chef Kurt, right this way for a good ole fashioned snow ball fight."
\\
Brittany hurries off to the snow wall and quickly starts forming snow balls. An elf hands her a pair thick winter gloves and she gets to work making as many snowballs as she can. She thinks she'll get a good pile first before she starts firing away at the wall.
She doesn't want to waste too much time here since she needs to give her cupcakes enough time to bake and cool before she can start decorating, so she thinks about which ingredients are an absolute must have.
\\
Meanwhile, Santana and Kurt man their battle stations on the opposite side of the Cupcake Battle kitchen arena. Each have an elf aiding them in building snowballs before they're being thrown at each other.
The kitchen soon fills with war cries as Santana and Kurt take aim and fire.
Holly stands back and laughs; for the first time in Cutthroat Cook-Off history, the round has started off without a single person being allowed to prep. She really thinks she outdid herself this time.
\\
Back by the snow wall, Brittany has started to try and knock down her necessary ingredients. Surprisingly, she's doing quite well! So far, she has about half of her list but the most important ones she needs are also the hardest to knock down because they're so small. Still, Brittany concentrates hard and continues to fire at the snow wall in hope of knocking down everything she needs.
"Okay you two," Holly interrupts Kurt and Santana, "Your 5 minutes is up, you can begin cooking now."
"I can't believe you aimed for the crotch," Kurt chastises as he and Santana rush to their stations.
"You got me in the tit, what did you expect?" Santana retorts, "Eye for an eye."
Kurt takes a look down and groans, "Great. Now it looks like I've peed myself."
"You probably did," Santana smirks, "You aren't fooling anyone."
\\
"Finally!" Brittany cheers as she knocks down the last ingredients she needs.
"You sure you want to stop now?" Holly questions, "You've got a lot left here."
Brittany shakes her head and goes for the ingredients she has won, "This is enough."
Holly looks to the camera and shakes her head.
"Okay, okay," Brittany chants as she sets off to make her batter.
She is way behind Kurt and Santana, but she can't let that get to her head. There's enough ingredients to make her snickerdoodle cupcakes, but she's going to have to forgo her original plan of doing a peppermint, hot chocolate cupcake. She doesn't have time to create a completely different second batter so instead she'll just reserved some she'll use for the snickerdoodle before she adds the cinnamon.
Maybe she can try to play it off as a peppermint white chocolate cupcake instead? Actually, that's not a bad idea! She can still use the marshmallow whip frosting for both and just use candy cane dust for the white chocolate to add a bit of color.
Feeling hopeful once again, Brittany sets off to get back to work. She totally has this!
\\
"How you doing over there?" Santana asks as she whips up a buttercream frosting. She's only had to really sacrifice five minutes of her cook time so she works at an almost leisurely pace.
Does she feel a tiny bit bad for sabotaging Brittany? Maybe just a little, but she knows from experience that Brittany's super resilient. Plus, she has to win. She's not very good at being a loser.
"All is merry and bright," Brittany rambles. She's so in the zone that she's really just thinking out loud, "Almost done with my second batter. Gotta get these into the oven asap then work on my frostings."
"Sounds like you're pressed for time," Santana says and Brittany can just hear the smirk, "You could use a break."
Then she remembers what Santana bought earlier.
"Don't," Brittany warns but it's too late. Santana's already calling Holly over to use her sabotage.
"Do you wanna build a snowman?" Holly sings as she pulls Brittany from her station, "Come on, let's go and play!"
"No, no I do not want to build a snowman," Brittany grumbles but elves appear and hand them winter gloves so that they can get to building.
Santana just smiles apologetically at the pout Brittany gives her, "Sorry baby!"
\\
"Harsh," Kurt notes as he sees Brittany and Holly hum the rest of the lyrics to the Frozen classic, "To your own girlfriend too? Stone cold, Santana."
"She'll forgive me," Santana chuckles as she looks up to see the blondes' work, "Looking good, Britt!"
Brittany just tries to glare her way, "I'm mad at you."
"So much for forgiveness," Kurt teases.
Santana only laughs at the way Brittany's trying so hard to be angry at her. She's failing miserably, but at least she looks cute playing in the snow.
"You look like you're having fun," Santana teases, "Remind me to buy you something nice when I win all this money!"
"You're not winning a single cent, Lopez!" Brittany warns as she rushes to finish building the snowman.
She grabs a carrot and practically punches it into Frosty's face before chucking a top hat on his head and scarf around his neck. It's not her best work but it'll have to do this time. Hopefully Frosty forgives her for rushing.
"Okay," Brittany looks to Holly, "We good here?"
Holly admires their work – albeit sloppy – and nods, "We're good. Back to your station, Chef Brittany."
Brittany's a little nervous as she takes off to throw her cupcakes into the blast freezer. She would've liked a little more time to decorate but the sabotages have ruined that plan so now she's in fight or flight mode.
She dodges nearly colliding into Kurt as she hurries back to her station to finish up her two frostings.
"Perfect," She compliments as she tastes her frosting, "Okay, we can work with this."
"You worried over there?" Kurt asks as he carefully begins piping, "Lots of mumbling going on."
"You're the ones that should be worried," Brittany smirks.
"You sure?" Santana asks, "I'm not seeing two different cupcakes."
"Don't worry about it," Brittany tells her before she grabs a rolling pin and starts crushing candy canes.
"Sweet baby Jesus," Kurt curses, "What is going on over there?"
"She's picturing your head," Santana jokes.
"Hey, you're just as guilty as I am," Kurt replies, "It's even worse for you because that's your girlfriend."
"Yeah, but she loves me," Santana smirks, "Isn't that right, Britt?"
"Nope, still mad at you," Brittany says shortly before rushing off to grab her cooled cupcakes.
Santana only gasps while Kurt laughs his ass off.
\\
Once Brittany retrieves the cupcakes, she's quick to begin frosting. She eyes the time and moves with a steady hand. It gets eerily quiet in the kitchen as everyone is concentrating hard on decorating while the minutes tick away.
She can hear Holly start to countdown the seconds, but Brittany's still doing the final touches up until the very last moment. Out of the corner of her eye, Brittany sees Kurt flailing but she can't pay him any mind right now.
All of her focus has to be on finishing.
"Aaaand that's a wrap!" Holly calls out, "Round 2 is over, back away from your dishes."
Brittany's actually sweating but she managed to finish right on time. She looks to her side and sees Kurt has gone so over the top with his decorating; however, the other looks completely bare aside from being frosted.
"What happened there?" Santana points out.
Kurt looks so disappointed, "I wasn't able to do the dulce de leche drizzle. I can't believe it."
Will comes out a moment later before anyone else can comment on Kurt's unfinished dessert.
Fortunately for Santana and Brittany, he's the first to be judged.
\\
"So as far as taste is concerned, you've nailed this," Will compliments Kurt, "But you and I both know that one of your cupcakes is significantly lacking compared to the other. It looks like the time really got away from you this round."
Kurt sighs, "That's what happens when you're a perfectionist."
"Thanks Chef Kurt," Will bows his head before going on to Brittany. He looks down at her offering and looks pleased yet again, "These look really great, Chef, let's see if they taste just as good."
Brittany's got her fingers and toes crossed as she awaits the verdict. They're not what she planned on doing but she prides herself on her quick thinking and hopes that she can still make it to the next round.
Even if Kurt didn't finish decorating one of this cupcakes, Will loved the taste so it could be enough to over look the incomplete cupcake. Let's hope not though. Brittany's never wanted to make it to the final round of a competition so bad before. Really, she just wants to see the look on Santana's face when she beats her.
God, that's going to be so satisfying!
"Presentation could use a little more work," Will notes, "But flavor is there. This marshmallow frosting is amazing!"
"Thank you," Brittany replies and gives a quick glance to Santana, "I've been told you can eat that frosting off of just about anything."
Santana presses her lips tight together to stifle a laugh while Brittany's expression remains even.
"I believe it too," Will nods, "I especially like the snickerdoodle one, reminds me of making cookies with the family when I was younger. That's what I like about your dishes so far, you pull a memory out. Great work, thanks."
"Thank you," Brittany smiles. She's not sure where she stands but hopefully her ability to tap into a memory is enough. She keeps quiet as she listens to Will critique Santana next.
To no one's surprise, Santana's cupcakes are practically perfect. There's no doubt that she'll be moving on to the next round, so it's between Brittany and Kurt to see who will be moving on. Brittany hates how nervous she is this time as Will and Holly stand before the final three chefs.
"So this was a hard decision," Will says, "One Chef clearly ran out of time and let their presentation take a hit. The other's presentation wasn't as extravagant but at least they provided two complete cupcakes. It's going to have to come down to taste, I think."
Brittany takes a steadying breath as she can see Santana glance at her from the corner of her eye. She probably regrets those sabotages now, doesn't she? Actually, Brittany knows how competitive Santana gets so maybe not.
"Which would I want another bite of?" Will wonders to himself, "I think I'm going to have to go with Chef Brittany."
"Bah Humbug," Kurt sighs but accepts the judge's decision, "Thank you, Chef."
"It was a close one," Will smiles apologetically as Kurt comes over to shake his hand, "Great work."
Kurt nods and turns to the final two, "Good luck, ladies! Merry Christmas."
The remaining totals for each Chef is displayed on screen:
Brittany: $17,000
Santana: $22,800
Brittany's still standing there stunned as ever, "Wow. Did I really beat out Kurt?"
"Don't get cocky, anyone can beat Kurt," Santana smirks.
"So crazy!" Brittany gasps, "I beat a Cupcake Battle judge in the Cupcake Battle kitchen arena…and now I'm about to beat another."
Santana's brows rise, "Okay. Slow your roll, B. You just barely skirted by that round. You're playing in the big leagues."
"Yeah, but new round new me," Brittany answers, "This is all or nothing now and you know how I feel about that. I'm sorry, baby, but you're out of here."
Santana just shakes her head, "We'll see."