A close race right up until the very end, the third season of Buddy vs. Duff kept viewers in suspense with a completely tied score heading into the finale. Despite filming on both coasts with judges scattered across the country due to the pandemic, the rivalry was just as fierce in this East Coast/West Coast mashup. Both bakers also came into the competition changed by life circumstances: Buddy Valastro’s bowling accident that injured his dominant hand (a crucial tool for a baker) and the birth of Duff Goldman’s first child Josephine, with his wife Johnna.
Although Buddy took home the ultimate win with a 247-245 final score, the eight-episode season was filled with memorable moments from the Charm City Cakes and Carlo’s Bakery teams. Let’s take a look at a few of Season 3’s best moments.
Related: Meet the Cast of Buddy vs. Duff
A Return To The Classics: Episode 3, “Sweet Rides”
Calling back to an early challenge in Season 1, Duff suggested a rematch to redeem his team’s previously faulty hydraulics on a lowrider 64 Impala that he built with lead cake decorator Geof Manthorne. “It was a cool cake, but not our best work,” admitted Duff. This time, Duff and Geof had a team supporting them and went bigger and better with an eight-foot-long version showing off an LA bounce and working headlights and taillights. Ultimately, the car ended up losing narrowly by two points to Buddy’s fire engine red ’57 Chevy convertible, which impressed the judges with its detailed interior and stunning isomalt work.
An Ace In The Hole: Episode 8, “Monster Matchup”
Secret weapon Laurent Branlard was a real ringer on the Carlo’s Bakery team, spinning out sugar work that wowed the judges time and time again. His glowing blown sugar spikes with a colour-changing light reflecting through them was a stunning game-changer on the team’s 20-foot long dinosaur. Not only did Laurent, an executive pastry chef, create 70 of these spikes (“I’m not going to lie —it’s pretty overwhelming,” he said), but he also found time to decorate them with disturbingly realistic lesions on the cake. “Who doesn’t dream about eating a pimple?”, he joked.
Mishaps: All Season
From dropped trees on Duff’s hanging gardens to a tire blow-up on Buddy’s classic car, both teams had to deal with mishaps all through the season. During the Episode 4: First We Feast episode, both teams faced challenges in construction. As the Carlo’s Bakery crew moved their massive cake slice into the final area, Buddy got to do some last-minute repair when the sprinkles on the back started falling off, leading head sculptor Ralph Attanasia to dub Buddy the “Sprinkle Boss” and reducing the team to giggles. “We actually had a little disaster of it falling down and we had to redo it. I gotta be honest with you — the second time around, I think we did it better,” Buddy told the judges.
See More: The Best Moments From Season 2 of Buddy vs. Duff
On the Charm City Cakes side, homemade jelly jars made of isomalt filled with corn syrup were a great concept that had some issues with execution (trust Geof to hack a solution when the liquid springs a leak in the isomalt).
…And Machinery: All Season
Finally, who could forget the madcap machinations that occurred on both sides this season? Buddy’s love of his forklift (even executing a complicated cake flip that previously led to disaster in previous seasons) led pastry chef and cake artist Becky Blaso to comment, “Buddy always says go big or go home” when watching the mayhem. On the Charm City Cakes team, from Geof’s pivoting table belt that lifted the arms of nine-foot monster Marty to the lighting effect that animated the final cake, the team went all out to try new things. “Having the extra day gives us extra time to be extra dumb and dangerous,” observed Duff of Geof’s mad scientist lightning tube wiring.
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