"I made it to the fourth week": Spring Baking Championship's Jon'nae opens up about how she needs to "keep pushing"

Spring Baking Championship's fourth episode was released on March 31, 2025. The Food Network show featured bakers competing in two challenges viz. a pre-heat challenge followed by the main heat.

For the main heat, one of the bakers, Jon'nae "Jaye" Smith from Atlanta, Georgia, confessed about how she made it to the fourth week of the competition. However, later on she was eliminated by the end of the episode.

The female baker confessed to the cameras:

"I made it to the fourth week, and I'm like girl you got to keep pushing cuz you cannot go home."

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Spring Baking Championship Episode 4: Jon'nae opens up about making it to the fourth week and how she needed to "keep pushing" forward

Spring Baking Championship Season 11 Episode 4 featured host Jesse Palmer approaching Jon'nae and asking her about the pre-heat, which was "tough" for her.

"Oh! It was more than tough. Yeah. I do want redemption from the pre-heats," she responded.

She confessed that she made it to the fourth week of the competition and that she had to move forward and not go home. During their conversation, when Jesse asked her about her dinner deception dish, she said:

"I got some fish and chips. Pretty happy with what I got. I'm going to make my fish component out of a pound cake that I'll carve into a fish piece. Even though it's flat right now, I can stack them up. I'm going to do a champagne buttercream as well too.....For the fries, they're going to be sugar cookie cut fries."

As viewers might already know, Jon'nae is a bakery owner, so she has plenty of experience creating unique cakes and pastries in her work. Referring to that, Jesse asked her if she had ever made any such "deceptive" desserts and tricked people.

"I haven't, but back in pastry school, in cakes I would be in the corner like molding things. Maybe like tea sets, teacups, little plate saucers, and I'm like, Oh man, this is like really bringing me back to that place. So, I'm excited," said Jon'nae.

The bakery owner from Atlanta, Georgia, was unfortunately eliminated from the Spring Baking Championship. After the main heat challenge results were revealed, the female baker was sent home.

Jon'nae's Food Network bio describes her as:

"Also known as Chef Jaye, the Miami-born pastry aficionado specializes in 'creating cakes, cupcakes and dessert tables for life-defining moments' in her home base of Atlanta. She gravitates toward incorporating the tropical flavors of her South Florida upbringing into her recipes and is ready to bring her A game to the championship."

After her elimination, the remaining bakers included: Priya Winsor, Kareem Youngblood, Julian Perrigo-Jimenez, Corey Jamison, Raveena Oberoi, Kari Cota, Lisa Clark, Paul Feybesse, and Mary-Frances Bahun.

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Food Network releases the latest Spring Baking Championship Season 11 episodes on Mondays.