Baking for the Bach: Spread your Wings

Week one of dates is in the books and Michelle's episode was really jammed with them. 2 group dates and a one-on-one pushed the episode, and those sitting through it, to its limits.

The first date is basically a more lame version of Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader, but those kids were BRUTAL! Michelle mentions that they chose the date because "nothing is more appealing than being in a classroom," with an end of the date game of musical chairs because "you can tell a lot about a person by how they play musical chairs"...I have no words.

During the cocktail party, Brandon and Michelle seem to have somehow gotten very close without actually saying much of anything to each other (thank you editing) and Michelle navigates conversations over a yelling match between Peter and Will, but I was more distracted by Rick and his Mad Libs. The boy gets an A for creativity from entrance to dates.

The next date is her one-on-one with Jamie where they literally risk their lives to free climb a huge mountain. Imagine having to follow them with a camera strapped to you, or are they filming with GoPros? I can't be the only one concerned here. Michelle mentions she usually has to lead other people, but with Jamie she was glad he didn't ask her to and took the lead instead.

Michelle - "Being a teacher is so rewarding!"

Also, Michelle - "It's so nice to not have to teach someone and have them lead me."

The night ends with both of them expressing many "I feel"s as if they just got out of couples therapy and Jamie telling a moving and heartbreaking story about his mother's suicide which Michelle responds to in the most compassionate way possible.

The next date brings more lighthearted fun. As it turns out you can also learn a lot about people by how they are on a basketball court, or so our bachelorette says, so Michelle throws the guys into training and a game. And instead of watching the game, all I was wondering was where is Wells, or even Kaitlyn and Tayshia since Chris used to do these sports casting jobs in previous seasons? Who is this random "sportscaster"?

The guys keep calling Joe the silent assassin and even though he's scoring baskets, it also feels like an unknown dig at his having been a "ghost". Either way, he walks away from the date with MVP of the game and the rose, so good on him.

The episode ends with an embarrassing display of an apple tasting that somehow leaves us to wonder if the guy doing the tasting has never eaten pizza before, but perhaps more exciting, Jamie causing a stir by obsessing over Michelle's possible former relationship with Joe and then telling her it is the other guys who are questioning her. This leads Michelle to go full on teacher mode and call everyone out, which brings about one of two reactions, those concerned for her and those concerned that they now won't get to stay because she's too upset to finish the night. And with no one checking to see if she is ok, the episode ends and brings us to a new week.

This week's dates involves the help of two of the stars in the upcoming Top Gun revival for some G-force action. Originally trying to come up with an idea for this was a little challenging, but after every adult at my niece's birthday finished harmonizing to a song from the original that I've never heard before, one of my brothers jumped in with a great suggestion. So in the spirit of wingmen, I made some dessertified wings.

These wings come in the form of a funky looking cake pop courtesy of a slightly tweaked Food Network recipe and Sally's Baking Addiction cake recipe. It starts with the cake recipe made as is. You may need to make two of these smaller cakes to work with the recipe. Let the cake cool and then the fun starts... aka you get to make a mess!

Crumble the cooled cake in a bowl using your hands. Make (I like this recipe from Sugar Spun Run) and add your cream cheese frosting to the crumbled cake mix and mush together with your hands until combined. Then follow the instructions in the recipe to shape your chocolate cake "wings". I didn't have pretzels so I used Red Vines instead for the "bone" that I added to the bottom of the shaped cake, then let them cool while I melted some butterscotch in the microwave and mixed in my cornflakes. After that I just took the shaped cake pops and poured the batter over them, making sure they covered the cakes completely.

These look seriously impressive and you may even confuse people into thinking they're eating an actual wing. But even if that doesn't work, your friends are definitely going to go back for second (and by friends, I mean you)... and you may still need a wet nap "wings style" to clean up after yourself when you're done.