'Top Chef: Just Desserts' Recap: 'Sweet Symphony'

The contestants woke up and, after last week's challenge, Rebecca fractured her wrist. After going to the doctor, they allowed her to compete but Rebecca was left concerned about how she would perform with only one arm.

For the Quickfire Challenge, Gail introduced Margaret Braun as the guest judge this week for both the Quickfire and Elimination challenges. This week's challenge was Lemon-based. Contestants would have to create an original lemon dessert. The winner would be given immunity. With 45 minutes, everyone ran for everything in the cupboards, checking their various recipes for the perfect proportions. Matthew wanted to do Lemon and Hazelnut combination. Nelson had a bit too many elements in his dish, but hoped everything was perfect. Orlando was allergic to lemons but didn't care if his hands broke out in rashes. Gloves would probably have been really helpful. Rebecca was in pain squeezing lemons. Katzie wanted to make a whimsy crepe. With time running out, Nelson's candies didn't set so he had to ditch them and never got all his pieces together.

The contestants presented their dishes to Gail and Margaret. Nelson's pavlova ended up badly because of time issues. Katzie's lemon crepe ribbons looked like spaghetti and looked like fun. Matthew did a lemon cream and the judges loved the simplicity. Carlos's citrus soup was breakfast-like. Rebecca's lemon meringue pie was good for a one-handed contestant. After all the tastings, Margaret pointed out that the bottom three contestants were Nelson, Orlando, and Amanda. The favorites were Matthew, Katzie, and Carlos. The winner was Matthew and he was given immunity.

For the elimination challenge, the contestants would be split into four teams. The four team leaders were randomly selected and were Orlando, Carlos, Matthew, and Amanda.

Team Red - Matthew, Chris, Megan, and Melissa
Team Green - Carlos, Sally, Rebecca
Team Black - Orlando, Nelson, Craig
Team Blue - Amanda, Katzie, Van

For the elimination challenge, the teams would have to create parts celebrating the Walt Disney Orchestra opening night. There had to be a multi-tiered cake. The contestants would each be in charge of creating a layer on which they would be individually critiqued. On Team Red, Chris suggested a clean and simple cake, hoping that the flavors and style would be a winning factor. Team Blue's Katzie wanted to do architecture, but Van suggested musical instruments. They decided to split the difference. On Team Black, Orlando's strength was cake decoration so he was hoping that his team would win. Carlos decided that the Green team would have something that he described with random words. It left his two partners confused. The contestants started to mix their batters while stressing out about everything else.

Van tried to make instruments with modeling chocolate, something he's never done before. Unfortunately, to the untrained eye, his instruments looked childish and like pipe cleaners. Melissa needed to have redemption from last week and she decided to put cardamom in her cake layer; it was a 50/50 decision that could have eliminated her. Nelson wanted to make a cube cake because he almost became an architect.

Judge Johnny arrived for evaluations. Sally and Rebecca decided to do chocolate cakes, and it showed that they didn't coordinate their flavors. The three layers of Blue team was a mix of three good flavors, but their instruments were too small. Red team's critique was that the design was a bit stereotypical for Johnny, but the team didn't want to second guess their ideas.

The contestants finalized their flavors, but Amanda was worried about decorations. With an hour left, the teams were worried about structural integrity, sizing and finishing. Time was up and the contestants ended for the day. The next day, the contestants had a few minutes to relax before the challenge. Craig and Sally were smiling and joking around about their teacher/student relationship. Craig noted that he wanted redemption from being a fat kid.

The second day, the contestants had four hours to finish and pack. Carlos pressured his partners causing a lot of stress on the ladies. Nelson had to place four dowels into his cube in hopes the structural integrity wouldn't be compromised. Craig wanted to finish his cake with the smallest brush in the world. With 10 minutes left, everyone had to wrap their cakes and decorations in hopes that nothing would get crushed during transit. After transferring, the teams had to run up and down stairs to set up their cakes; a side challenge that you knew the producers wished a slip and fall would happen. All of the contestants were intimidated by the summer sun and placed umbrellas over their cakes. Each cake started to crack and buckle under the sun, but none fully collapsed in the heat. Van attacked his cake with chocolate and glitter. When Carlos tried to spray gray on his cake, it turned out pink. Orlando's cake started to crack as a chunk fell off. Other teams had to finish the top of their cake with hot glue. Hopefully no one accidentally ate glue.

The guests arrived with love and appreciation, though I would have hated Blue team's cake. Along with Gail were Johnny, Hubert Keller and Margaret. The judges liked the details of the Red Team. The contestants generally got positive reviews, even with Melissa's spicy layer. Blue team's "whimsical" approach looked really sloppy. They should have scaled back. Katzie's top was too moist because she soaked it too strongly. Van's cake ended up a bit dry. For the Black team, all three layers were different and the judges noticed immediately that parts were broken. Orlando and Nelson got positive reviews for taste and texture. Craig's chocolate cake was moist, but a bit too sweet. The Green team explained their cake was influenced on the architecture and the ideas they had to imagine to create the building. While Hubert liked the unity, Johnny hated the color. Carlos's cake was a bit dense. Sally and Rebecca both had chocolate cakes. Sally's had positive reviews.

After the challenge, the contestants waited in the stewing room. Soon Gail asked to see the Green and Red teams first at the Judges' Table. The two teams were revealed as the top two teams. Rebecca was emotional because she was in so much pain during the challenge. Green team had a cohesion that the judges appreciated. The Red team's complicated-simplicity worked really well and matched the challenge needs. Margaret liked the cardamom. The Red team had the best cake of the week, but no one was singled out for having the best layer of cake.

The Black and Blue teams had to go in front of the judges, depressed that they were the least liked cakes. The Black team's cake fell short in unity. The cake looked disjointed. There were a lot of sloppy details of the cake. Orlando's cake didn't need to be that thick. Hubert liked Nelson's cake the best. For the Blue team, while there was cohesiveness, there was no editing. Van's musical instruments looked horrible. Some of the seams of the cakes looked amateur. Flavor-wise, Katzie's cake had strange textures, Amanda's was positive, and Van's cake was over-cooked and had no bold flavors.

After deliberation, Van was eliminated. He didn't have enough flavors, plus his designs were amateur.

Next Week: What do $25,000, Real Housewives, and tarts have in common? Find out next week.