Duff Goldman's favorite ingredient is revealed in the season's kick-off challenge -- bacon cupcakes.

The young bakers are challenged to create mini cheesecakes with colorful animal prints, from tiger and zebra stripes, to leopard and giraffe spots.

The 10 young bakers are split into teams for the brownies vs. blondies challenge.

Macarons are a wildly popular dessert, and macarons decorated with faces are a definite trend; Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman challenge the nine young bakers to create macarons decorated with happy faces and sad faces.

Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman put the eight young bakers in teams and challenge them to each make half a cake that combines with their teammate's half-cake to make a whole cake representing an opposites theme.

Duff Goldman and Valerie Bertinelli are cooking something unusual in the science lab... it's the freaky flavor tarts challenge.

Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman know that sometimes one can make something extraordinary out of ingredients found at home; they challenge the six young bakers to turn packaged biscuit dough into dramatic and delicious monkey bread volcanoes.

Dessert impostors come in all shapes and sizes, so Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman challenge the five young bakers to make sweet dessert tacos that look like the real thing.

It's always a puzzle to determine which three bakers will make it to the finale; this time, Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman make it a sugar cookie puzzle.