Roku's "The Great American Baking Show: Celebrity Holiday" Is All Sweets, Merriment and Cheer

Among the celebrity contestants are actress and comedian Chloe Fineman (Saturday Night Live); Oscar-winning writer and actor Nat Faxon; former NFL player Marshawn Lynch; actress D'Arcy Carden (A League Of Their Own); actor, writer, and comedian Joel Kim Booster, and YouTuber and comedian Liza Koshy. The six gathered in the iconic Baking Show tent, completely decked out in Christmas decor, with half a dozen cooking stations for the contestants to tackle three holiday-themed challenges.

Per usual, the contestants start off by taking on the Signature Bake where they are given a broad type of dessert to make, featuring their own favorite flavors and combinations of ingredients. This time they are tasked with making eight identical cream puff characters. For some, baking is somewhat of a regular occurrence with family members and loved ones, while for others, like Joel Kim Booster, this challenge marks the first time they have ever baked in their lives, so nobody knows what to expect. Despite this, Booster describes himself as "fiercely competitive" and may just come out on top.

The charm of The Great American Baking Show is largely due to the celebrity contestants and the show’s equally hilarious hosts. When half of the cast of the one-hour special is made up of comedians, the viewer should definitely expect plenty of zingers, one-liners and quippy comebacks. "Oh, are you doing the part where you come and stare?" Koshy asks the judges. "Go ahead, I won’t interrupt. This is my favorite part!" she continues. Paul Hollywood regularly conducts his silent walkthroughs, staring daggers with his steely-blue eyes, but Koshy manages to get a chuckle out of the cheeky judge. 

The rest of the event’s challenges involve the Technical Challenge, where contestants are given a specific type of bake, down to its appearance and decorations, and a single sheet of very vague baking instructions -- so vague, in fact, that they aren’t even told how long to actually bake it for. (Where would these challenges be if the contestants were following exact recipes?) In this case, it’s a rather elaborate challenge: a merengue wreath, decorated with sugared berries, a mascarpone cream topping, and blueberry coulis.

"What?" Carden asks.

"What?!" Faxon follows up.

"A merengue what?" Booster shouts.

"If you don't know what they're talking about, I'm right there with you," host Kemper says. "But I'm not baking!”

Wrapping up the special with a big Christmas bow is the iconic Showstopper Challenge, where the bake must live up to the challenge’s name and truly blow some minds, in this case with a multi-layer sponge cake decked out with three-dimensional decorations, all inspired by the contestants' favorite winter traditions. From ski trips and Christmas tree farms to favorite holiday movie memories and cherished games with grandpa, the celebs truly go for the feels and bring their A-game for the final challenge to take home bragging rights of winning the inaugural edition of The Great American Baking Show.

This adaptation is so true to form that it feels as if the American hosts and celebrity contestants just flew to the U.K. and joined the crew for the day. Bringing Paul and Prue to judge this special was an expert move and I really can’t think of any U.S. celebrity chefs, bakers or personalities who would have brought their level of expertise, charm and levity to the production. Kemper and Cherry easily would have been just as loveable as contestants as they are with their hosting duties.

American culinary competitions can get rather catty as egos, reputations and large cash prizes get in the way of decency and good sportsmanship, but this being a competition purely for bragging rights, all of the contestants are just in it for the fun and even rally around each other when someone needs help. That spirit shows throughout.

The Great American Baking Show is available to stream on The Roku Channel beginning December 2.

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