Even if you can’t taste the zing of ginger, smell the wafting vanilla — or feel the agony of a burnt cake left in the oven too long — watching baking shows can lift your mood like a proudly rising soufflé. Maybe they can’t pass along an actual sugar rush, but they provide a recipe for hours of entertainment, whether you want competitors who help each other in a pinch or battle it out for prize-winning glory.

Here are 10 baking shows, where bakers fly or flail, to delight you — and maybe inspire some sugar, butter, and flour-fueled experimenting of your own. (If your interests also skew toward the savory, we have a list of cooking shows to devour as a next course.)

Bake Squad

In this competition, four top-of-their-field bakers create four different extravagant desserts for someone’s special occasion, like a birthday party or wedding. The challenges change, but the four baking competitors stay the same through all eight episodes — as does host Christina Tosi, author and founder of the wildly popular dessert and bakery chain Milk Bar. Since there is no prize other than one baker’s creation being selected for that episode’s dedicated event, and no one is eliminated, the bakers use the show as more of a showcase than a cutthroat challenge. They also push each other to new heights in what they can create, as the pros vie for sweet-treat glory.

Bake Squad

2 Seasons   TV-PG   2021

My List

Watch

Blue Ribbon Baking Championship

Ah, the state fair. An American staple famous for fried foods, carnival games, rides, and — of course — sweet treats. Blue Ribbon Baking Championship brings together award-winning bakers from state fairs across the country to find out who’s really best in show. Hosts Sandra Lee and Jason Biggs (American Pie) preside over the competition, while Lee, former White House pastry chef Bill Yosses, and award-winning artisan baker Bryan Ford serve as judges of the delectable treats. The winner walks away with a $100,000 prize, which can buy you a lot more sugar. 

Blue Ribbon Baking Championship

8 Episodes   TV-PG   2024

My List

Watch

Explore

Baking Impossible

Baking may sometimes seem like magic, but there’s a science behind getting the right mix of ingredients and (sometimes) heat to interact and produce the right flavors, textures, and shapes. Baking Impossible takes the scientific angle a step further by pairing skilled bakers with engineers to create “bakineers.” Two-person teams are tasked with making wild creations like boats, cars, and complex costumes that both taste good and are fully functional. The bakers and engineers have never met before their first challenge, which makes the show about both baking the impossible as well as two strangers learning to work in sync. Hosted by comedian and magician Justin Williams, with judges from the baking and engineering worlds (including an actual rocket scientist!), Baking Impossible’s challenges seem, of course, impossible. Until they’re possible — to the tune of a $100,000 grand prize.

Baking Impossible

8 Episodes   TV-PG   2021

My List

Watch

The Great British Baking Show

The ultimate warm hug of a baking competition, each episode of The Great British Baking Show brings amateur bakers together for three baking challenges tied to a different delicious theme. One competitor is named Star Baker and another is sent home each week. The contestants compete not for money, or even global fame, but a cake stand. (Though many former contestants have gone on to write books, become social media stars, or even host their own TV shows.) You won’t find any contestant infighting here — they often step in to help each other avoid sugary disaster. It’s as heartwarming as a slice of cake and a cup of tea.

The Great British Baking Show

9 Collections   TV-14   2010

My List

Watch

Explore

Great British Baking Show: Juniors

The cooperative nature of The Great British Baking Show makes it ideal to translate into kids’ fare, which is exactly what The Great British Baking Show: Juniors does. It’s much like its grown-up counterpart: 16 competitors aged 9 to 12 take on a range of baking challenges like cakes, chocolates, and biscuits in the famed baking tent — though they only go through two bakes (technical challenge and showstopper) per episode instead of three. Host Harry Hill provides a guiding hand to the baking whiz kids, though there’s no need to worry about the blue steel glare of Paul Hollywood looming over the bakers’ shoulders here. Their junior creations are judged by former Great British Baking Show contestant Liam Charles and author/pastry chef Ravneet Gill. They might be young, but they’re more talented than most of us watching, and it’s a joy to watch them flex their baking muscles.

Great British Baking Show: Juniors

2 Seasons   TV-G   2021

My List

Watch

Is It Cake?

Here, bakers pick up on one of social media’s more enduring trends: cakes that look like something else. Is it a plate of nachos, a bucket hat, a leather purse... or is it cake? The bakers, who’ve already proven their skills at trickery before coming onto the show, are tasked with fooling a trio of celebrity judges for the chance to win up to $10,000 each episode. Host Mikey Day (Saturday Night Live) adds flourish and flair that might at first may seem a bit over the top. But by the end of the first episode, you’ll match his vibe and might find yourself with your nose pressed against the screen trying to tell if that is, indeed, cake or the real thing.

Is It Cake?

3 Seasons   TV-PG   2022

My List

Watch

Nadiya Bakes

Nadia Hussain stole our hearts when she won her season of The Great British Baking Show (and that of Queen Elizabeth II — Hussain made a cake for her 90th birthday). In this at-home baking series, Hussain shows us how to make her favorite, most indulgent desserts, without the rush and pressure of “The Tent.” You may not be able to re-create everything with the same level of expertise as she does (she’s the professional baker, after all), but you can certainly snuggle up on the couch and watch along for a soothing, sweet experience.  

Nadiya Bakes

TV-G   2021

Remind Me

Nailed It!

While most baking shows bring skilled artisans together, Nailed It! goes in the other direction, seeking out charismatic but terrible bakers — and throwing ridiculous challenges at them. It’s not mean-spirited because everyone’s in on the joke, and Emmy-nominated host Nicole Byer carries the series. She’s complemented by French pastry chef and chocolatier Jacques Torres (with occasional appearances by stage manager Weston Bahr, often in episode-themed costumes) and a rotation of famous guest judges. But sometimes the celebs, like Paul Scheer, Joey and Hunter King, and Jack McBrayer, enjoy the show so much that they become contestants. Don’t miss the holiday specials either, because who doesn’t want to see a disaster of green eggs and ham in cake form? (There’s a Halloween edition too, for even more treats and tricks.)

Nailed It!

7 Seasons   TV-PG   2018

My List

Watch

School of Chocolate

Is it school? Or a competition show? It’s both on School of Chocolate, where best-of-their-field executive chefs, chocolatiers, and culinary teachers come to Amaury Guichon, who runs the famed Pastry Academy in Las Vegas, to refine their skills. Eight competitors (sometimes in teams) learn at Guichon’s elbow on how to use chocolate to make elaborate creations, like chocolate designs that look like something else, structures that hang from the ceiling, and museum-worthy sculptures. In this show, no one is sent home, but if Guichon doesn’t feel like they’ve conquered a skill, he sits them out of a challenge and they get guidance instead on how to master that specific task. It’s still a challenge of a reality show, but with more guidance from the top than you might expect. 

School of Chocolate

8 Episodes   TV-PG   2021

My List

Watch

Sugar Rush

This show’s name doesn’t just describe what you’ll feel if you eat one of their sweet treats. It’s also a reference to its twist: Each team of contestants has three hours of baking time for their entire run on the episode, with the clock stopping when they present their work. If they want to use more time for their first challenge? That’s on them — but they may be rushed if they advance to the next rounds. The results are still elaborate and over the top, maybe even more so thanks to the time-related pressure added to the competitors’ work.  

Sugar Rush

3 Seasons   TV-PG   2018

My List

Watch

Mouth-Watering Food and Cooking Shows To StreamFrom street food to cooking competitions, these shows are a treat.