Baking for the Bach: Daring Dessert

This past week's episode was maybe the most emotionally raw episode I've seen since I've started watching the Bachelor/Bachelorette series. But we couldn't get to the real emotion until the obligatory 10 minutes of the mens' repetitive angry talk about Karl from the last episode. Meanwhile, Greg does what I was wondering why no one had done at the end of last week's episode and goes to check on the crying and distraught bachelorette.

Mike P mans up at the ceremony and tells Katie that the men are all confused and angered by Karl's lie, and after some thought, Katie sends Karl home. Even if he wasn't lying, dude's energy was crazy, so it's probably for the best, and she bounced back from the bombshell night pretty well (or at least hid the shakiness well). The other great thing to come from this ceremony was my finally realizing who Michael A reminds me of... Sean Hayes, anyone?!

I think the funniest part of this episode was when all the men freaked out when the group date card didn't say "Love, Katie", but they really should have been terrified of the date itself. Nick Viall makes a guest appearance to have the guys share intimate things and instead of doing what the guys probably would have in past seasons and sharing some embarrassing but ultimately harmless secrets, they go all in with some information that would likely be seen as red flags literally anywhere else. The conversation is the equivalent of when an interviewer asks "what are your biggest weaknesses", but if you answered completely honestly.

Hunter shares a heartbreaking story of his marriage and how he's devastated that he messed it up, Connor the cat broke our hearts even more with the story of his alcoholism and how that affected a past relationship. They kind of skip over some of the others like Quortney—what was his secret?!—and then comes Thomas. A for honesty in admitting what many others won't, that, shocker, he wasn't only there for Katie, but he does try to bring it back by saying he is there for her now and essentially talking out of his ass for a long time. He also brings up multiple red flags but doesn't name any, even when pushed by Katie later in the night and called out for dodging the question again. All of his talking in circles throughout this episode had me dizzy.

Katie then shares a story of when she was in a compromising position of non-consent and it was altogether unexpected, incredibly brave and a true testament to her strength and courage now.

The show progresses to Michael Allio, the recipient of the one-on-one date for this week, who talks about his former marriage, how they fell in love and how he lost his late wife to cancer, and my tissues just about ran out.

But the lightheartedness returned when Katie drove up in a four-wheeler and flipped it over. Michael says he's been waiting for this date for so long as if they'd been there longer than three weeks, but it is cute how his first reaction to Katie telling him about the car flip was to ask if she was alright. Katie tells Michael that this date is like finally meeting after talking for months and his response is, "like pen pals", which is proof positive the man has never used a dating app. Katie ends by saying he was "true to himself and honest," and he didn't even need Nick Viall to force it out of him.

I feel like I already know more about a ton of these guys than I did any single girl on Matt James' season.

But now that we've talked about them, let's talk next dates. This next episode teases a Truth or Dare date, which pictures indicate involves eating random foods (their promo note shows a fruit bowl and their Insta page has pictures with chocolate cake that may have gotten smashed in someone's face).

Ignoring the mention of something slimy—because that's just not appealing—I decided to go daring and mimic the chocolate cake, but with a "daring" twist.

I worked with this recipe, subbing the chocolate extract (who has that in their house?!) and adding about an 8th of a cup of cocoa powder instead. I also left it in about 10 minutes longer than recommended as it took a bit longer to bake. For the frosting, I also added a kick more spice for that extra bite.

It comes together super quick and the result was a chocolatey, richly sweet mini cake with the perfect amount of kick after a few seconds. The chocolate mellows the heat a bit, making it spicy, but still very easy on those with a low tolerance to heat. I dare you to try it!