"Texture's off" — Spring Baking Championship judge Nancy Fuller critiques Julian's Faux Egg dessert

Spring Baking Championship season 11 returned with a new episode on March 31, 2025. Titled April Fools': Spring Fake Out, it saw the bakers get tasked with making half a dozen faux eggs, a chocolate dessert that resembled real eggs, filled with a "sweet surprise" that looked like a yolk. Julian, who presented the judges with a facade of eggs in a bird's nest, failed to perfect the eggs' texture.

While tasting the baker's faux eggs, judge Nancy Fuller said:

"I love your marshmallow, the yolk, and this chocolate coating, but the texture's off. Just a little too soft."

The other Spring Baking Championship judges, Kardea Brown and Duff Goldman, echoed Nancy's criticism, expressing concerns about Julian's dish. Although they were impressed by the overall presentation, including the tree and the nest, Duff stated that the decoration on the faux eggs' exterior looked more like meatballs than eggs.

Julian is a pastry chef who owns a bakery in two locations in the Sacramento, California, region. His primary reason for participation was to prove to himself that he was "one of the top pastry chefs."

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Spring Baking Championship star Julian makes marshmallow eggs with blood-orange yolks

While explaining the pre-heat challenge to the contestants, Spring Baking Championship host Jesse Palmer stated that the judges expected half a dozen eggs made of chocolate and filled with "delicious baked goods." Duff added that they wanted their eggs to "look like the real thing," and "be beautifully decorated for spring."

"And to add to the realism, go ahead and fill the center with a sweet surprise that resembles a yolk," he added.

The contestants were allotted two and a half hours to prepare a dish of faux eggs while aiming to win the pre-heat round and gain an advantage for the main round. Julian recalled the previous week, when he put himself at risk of going home despite winning the gift of immunity since he chose not to use it.

Consequently, he was left with four more opportunities to use the gift during one of the main challenges. While reflecting on that, he said:

"With the gift of immunity, it's really intimidating right now because I don't know when is the right time to use it."

When Jesse asked the Spring Baking Championship star to share his thoughts on his immunity gift, he confessed he was "glad" he had not used his immunity already, because he anticipated the main round to be even more "intense."

While describing his faux eggs dish, Julian said:

"The layers of mine are gonna be a marshmallow base. What I wanna do here is I'm gonna make a blood-orange gummy center for the yolk, my vanilla bean marshmallow for the egg white as you will, and this is gonna be enclosed by chocolate with finely ground, toasted almond streusel that's gonna go into a couverture chocolate."

The Spring Baking Championship star explained that he wanted to make the almond streusel as his "baked element" to add texture to his dish, which the judges complained about regarding his cheesecake in the previous episode.

Additionally, he planned on making a pulled sugar tree with rice cereal and chocolate branches, and a sugar nest to ensure he highlighted "spring magic" as the center of his display.

When he took his dish to the judges for reviewing, Duff immediately pointed out that although the tree looked "amazing," the eggs resembled Swedish meatballs with gravy on them.

"If you took that time and made your eggs beautiful, that would be cool," he added.

While they were impressed with the inside of the egg since it looked like a yolk, the texture disappointed them. When the Spring Baking Championship contestant revealed that the almond streusel was the only baked element in his dish, Duff said he expected to see more baking. Kardea agreed, saying Julian's dish would not have qualified if it needed to meet a certain percentage of baking.

After tasting all the dishes, the judges crowned Priya the winner of the pre-heat round, giving her the advantage of trading ingredients.

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Spring Baking Championship season 11 can be streamed on Discovery+.