'Cake Boss: Next Great Baker' recap 'Cakes Al Dente'

Tonight's episode finds Buddy Valastro, the "Cake Boss" looking for the next great baker on his competition show titled, "Cake Boss: Next Great Baker." This TLC episode is titled, "Cakes Al Dente." The bakers are vying for a job at Buddy's bakery, known to most of his fans as Carlo's Bakery across the street from Hoboken City Hall and the $100,000 grand prize.

This episode with seven bakers left and a job, a magazine spread and the money on the line. The bakers are out for blood. Today's challenge is kicking it old school. The bakers will be challenged on their piping skills. The seven are going to use their piping skills in the large walk-in freezer. Each of the bakers is presented with a three-tier cake. It is cold in there; they are cold, and the icing in the piping bag is starting to freeze. Chad is nearly finished, and the rest are barely started. They have fifteen minutes before Buddy returns to see their skills in action. The winner will receive immunity in the next challenge. The winner is Gretel-Ann and Chad is visibly disappointed.

For the elimination challenge, they are going on a field trip. Into Buddy's van, they go and stop at Carabba's to meet Damian Mendola, the founder of Carabba's. Their challenge this week is to give them a challenge. They must create something that will represent an Italian family dinner. But first; they get to eat a delicious meal. The winner of today's challenge will win a trip for two to Italy.

Their challenge is to make a cake that is a minimum of three feet tall. Two teams, one of four and one of three designs the cake. Gretel-Ann is not exactly hoping her team wins because she wants to see Jen, who has put her trust in Gretel-Ann, to go home. Chris notices that Gretel-Ann is not putting her best foot forward in the decorating of their cake.

The other team seems to be ganging up on Letty. When time is called, Buddy and Damian come in order to do the judging. Buddy measures the cake from the team of Chad, Ashley, Paul and Letty, and it is 2 inches short. The team of Gretel-Ann, Jen and Chris won because their cake met the height requirement; even though the judges liked the other team's cake better. Jen won the trip to Italy, and the rest of the team won a year's food at Carabba's.

The losing team was brought in to face the music. Buddy and Damian and Buddy's brother-in-law, Mauro were the jury. They mentioned that they liked the cake, and some of the parts were their favorites. Ashley and Paul were excused because they did the best work. Letty and Chad were left to fight their case. Letty admitted that she did the least amount of work on the cake, but Chad was the leader and as the leader, he should have made sure the height requirement was met. He fought for himself and said things about Letty to make himself look better. Because Letty said that she did not do as much as she could for the cake, Buddy sent her home. Chad tried to say nice things about Letty, but she rebuffed his compliments. When Chad came back into the room, the war was on. Ashley was livid and knew that Chad threw Letty under the bus. Now there are six and one will be the "Cake Boss: Next Great Baker."