Modesto man competes on Food Network ‘Christmas Cookie Challenge.’ When you can watch
Delicious, decorated in holiday splendor — and possibly worth $10,000. Talk about some festive Christmas cookies.
Some of those treats have been whipped up by a self-taught baker and confection decorator from Modesto while competing on one of the Food Network’s seasonal TV shows.
Benjamin Castillo Cantú, 36, appears at 9 p.m. Dec. 23 on the channel’s “Christmas Cookie Challenge.”
“It was an amazing experience,” he said.
On the show, co-hosts Ree Drummond and Eddie Jackson challenge cookie makers to prove their holiday skills, according to a press release from the Food Network.
Airing since Nov. 11, each one-hour episode features five bakers who compete for $10,000.
Contestants are judged by Drummond and Jackson on their holiday decorating skills as well as the taste and texture of their cookies.
There are two time-limited rounds per episode. After the first round, two competitors are eliminated; after the second, a winner is chosen from the final three.
The cookies and decorations are elaborate. On one already aired episode, the three finalists had to make 15-inch cookies shaped and decorated like ugly Christmas sweaters, including at least one 3-D decorative element.
This is the fifth season of the series. Castillo Cantú, who moved to Modesto in 2012 from Utah, will appear on the final episode.
He said the Food Network found him on Facebook Marketplace, where he posted his creations while he was a self-employed baker, and asked him to audition for the show. He now works full time at Smallcakes Cupcakery and Creamery in Ripon.
Competing was “a dream come true,” he said. “I never thought my cookies were good enough to be on the show. I was definitely surprised when they said (I was) chosen for this season.”
While limited on what he can say about what happens on his episode, everything on set “screamed Christmas,” he said, with lights and holiday decorations everywhere.
He’d like to do more competitions
Filming sparked Castillo Cantú’s desire to compete more. “From the moment I stepped onto that set ... all the cameras, it felt like I was home,” he said. It was “my environment, something I want to keep doing the rest of my life.”
He likely will apply to compete on other TV baking or decorating competition shows, he said. He also wants to start his own YouTube channel.
Castillo Cantú said he started baking after losing his left leg when he worked at a Crows Landing cattle hide factory in 2014. A knife went into his leg, he said, and he developed a flesh-eating bacteria, which led to the amputation. He now has a prosthetic.
He started baking at the end of 2016. “It was one of those nights, I was having a very bad anxiety episode,” he said. “It was close to the Day of the Dead celebration ... I decided to make Grandma’s recipe for the Day of the Dead bread.”
Successful, he decided to sell the bread online. A customer asked him if he made cakes and cookies. “I would never say no until I tried,” he said, so he started watching bakers on YouTube. “After that, I fell in love.”
He watched popular bakers on YouTube and learned to follow recipes. Then, little by little, he started creating his own.
“Baking was therapeutic for me,” he said.
He marketed his baked goods online until he began working at Smallcakes in September of 2020.
His coworkers at Smallcakes have been “very supportive, especially my boss,” he said. “She was always ready to help me in whatever I needed.”
Because he doesn’t have cable television, he plans to download an app on his phone and watch it there.
“I’m really excited to be on TV,” he said. “Honestly, it’s freaking me out at the same time.”
