What To Know
Tamera Mowry-Housley hosts Hallmark’s Baked with Love: Holiday, a reality baking competition featuring 10 teams of home cooks competing for $50,000.
Mowry-Housley draws on her own journey into baking and her love for family, Christmas, and talk-show-style camaraderie.
Judges Anna Haugh and Vaughn Vreeland join Mowry-Housley in evaluating contestants, with the finale promising heightened stakes.
It’s season-ings greetings for fan favorite Tamera Mowry-Housley, who has added a new ingredient to her Hallmark resumé as host of Baked with Love: Holiday, a reality competition that’s as warm as oven-fresh cookies. And as close to her heart as it is to the hearth.
“So, fun story,” she explains. “I was single for a very long time. My sister [Tia] was dating someone, and in full transparency, I was feeling really lonely. So, I was like, ‘Hmm, I need to pick up a hobby.’ There aren’t really bakers in our family; however, I found out I’m related to Julia Child, even though, did she bake? No, she was more cooking, but I digress. [Anyway,] I thought maybe I can start baking. And I started with just already made cupcake mixes and then eventually cakes, and I remember baking it and giving it to my mom for Valentine’s Day because I didn’t have a Valentine. And she loved it. I loved how I felt baking and how it made her feel when I gave it to her. And then that’s how I started.”
Hallmark Media
So, it wasn’t triggered by her role in last season’s culinarily themed Countdown to Christmas flick, Scouting for Love? “I know, my leading man was a baker,” laughs Mowry-Housley. “But I started baking, I want to say, in my mid-2os.”
As for what hooked her to this unscripted effort, she admits that the recipe was perfect. “Hallmark, I don’t know when they had this idea, but they literally came to me I want to say a month before filming, and I couldn’t say no because it had all the elements that I absolutely love. It’s Christmas, it’s about family, and it’s about baking.”
Currently heading into its finale, Baked gathered 10 teams of home cooks vying for $50,000. Each themed episode showcases not just the contestants’ abilities but also their bond with baking. “They all came so excited and ready to take on their new challenge,” the effervescent actress and cookbook author raved ahead of premiere. “Their energy kind of inspired me, and I couldn’t wait to hear their personal family stories that connect them to the recipe that they were baking that week.”
Helping Mowry-Housley whittle down the batch throughout the season are Irish chef Anna Haugh and New York Times cooking producer Vaughn Vreeland, who teases the heat is on as the remaining hopefuls get closer to the crown. “The final episode is so exciting,” he previews. “[There’s] a little bit more pressure, there’s more at stake…and they really turn it up.”
Still, getting to the finale was no piece of cake. “When you become invested in a contestant, it just makes it that much harder,” Mowry-Housley offers. “But also, you know what I love about this show? The element of the talk show. So, before we eliminate, we all get together and we just talk about the challenges. We talk about the bakers who struggled, who are on top of their game, and that reminded me of the talk show that I used to do, The Real. So, that was a lot of fun.”
As for her own holiday fun, the star of this season’s wonderfully charity-themed romance Tidings for the Season is fired up to play host of a different kind.
“We host Christmas dinner every year. My husband and I do it, and I absolutely love it,” she says. “I love all of it, even though it could be stressful, but we love family and we love food and we love cooking for them.” And even though the guest list can be longer than Santa’s beard (“We’ve had over 20 people”), Mowry-Housley is ready to serve an eat-drink-and-be-merry menu slay. “Oh, collard greens, yams…you got to have a good protein, whether that’s ham or roast beef, my garlic mashed potatoes, and a signature drink!”
Baked With Love: Holiday, Mondays, 9/8c
Dining and Cooking