Previously on All Stars ten of the most sickening queens returned to the werk room for another – another another for Latrice and Manila – shot at the crown. Everyone was playing to win, except for Gia who was here for causing drama and TBH I live for it. In any event, Monique and Trinity took out victory despite Latrice and Gia’s arguably more showy variety show performances, whilst Farrah landed in the bottom with Jasmine who tragically became the first boot after failing to prepare for her standup routine.
The queens ruturned to the week room, heartbroken to be missing their jush and fully aware that the competition is well and truly on. Trinity warned her fellow queens that eliminating each other is harder than she thought, though Monet countered that that is the game and she is ready to play. After reflecting on the iconic nature of her hair in the rafters, Monique admitted that she too would have eliminated Jasmine if she had one the lip sync. Mainly because she felt she was eliminated before her time in season 10 and wanted to extend some grace to Farrah. Gia however felt it was just delaying the inevitable. Obviously.
The next day the queens arrived where Valentina was serving an interesting outfit, though it ended in her flashing her cakes … so yeah. Tragically before anymore nudity could occur Ru arrived to announce this week’s challenge where the queens would be split into two teams to audition for his new supergroup Henny. As last week’s victors Trinity and Monique got to select their teams, with Trinity snatching Valentina, Latrice and Manilla, while Monique picked Monet, Naomi and Farrah, which sent Gia to Trinity’s team by default. Much to her chagrin.
After bequeathing songs to each group – Don’t Funk It Up and Er’rybody Say Love, respectively – Ru dropped the most important and downright iconic information on the queens. You see, their bands would not just be dedicated to Queen Henny Stacy Layne Matthews, but would be joined on stage with Henny herself. With Manilla far more excited than you would expect after the Heathers and Boogers days.
They broke up into their groups with Farrah dazzling her teammates with a twerk and the promise not to cry. Meanwhile over at Team Trinity she and Valentina were hoping to channel Bebe’s Jungle Kitty verse, while Gia was hoping to include an inspirational message in her verse and Manilla wanted to motivate people to power ahead which sounds boring. What isn’t boring however is the fact Gia shared that she and Farrah had a huge fight prior to arriving in All Stars as Farrah tried to repair a relationship between Gia and a friend … super drunk, while Gia was working. While her teammates encouraged her to use their time in the week room to repair their relationship, Gia was happy to see her go out ASAP.
Team Monique recorded their song first, with Monique proudly crowning herself the best singer in their team. Though Monet was concerned as while Monique has grand visions, the executions generally suck. That being said, she seemed to nail it as did Monet who rapped rather than went with opera. While Farrah wasn’t the best singing, we did learn she worked as a female phone sex operator and I live for it. And am kinda wet, which worries me that I’m straight.
Oh and we saw nothing from Naomi.
Gia kicked things off for Team Trinity, not wanting to do warm-ups and calling people hags whilst missing more notes than Monet last week. Valentina has come back with a delicious brand of crazy akin to Charo and slayed her recording, while Manilla seemed like the girl who was bullied into choir by her alpha friend. We saw nothing of Latrice and Trinity and I’m pretty sad about it.
Henny returned to work on choreography with each team, with Naomi fangirling over her as Monique taught everyone their moves. Well tried, Farrah was way too focused on the fact that there was choreography rather than a series of hair flicks which makes her plea to simplify the moves seem petty, rather than valid. Team Trinity didn’t seem to be doing much better with Gia trying to take control, no Valentina … Manilla, which confused and upset Henny, honestly.
Elimination Day rolled around with Gia quickly getting to work stirring the pot, asking Monique how Farrah is going. And while she tried to be diplomatic in her response, Gia needled her into admitted that Farrah triggers her and makes her nervous. Before taking the information directly back to Farrah. Surprisingly Farrah took it in her stride, didn’t cry and told her to focus on getting ready, rather than stirring the pot. This triggered Gia to confront her about the drunken visit to her job. Farrah was not having it and told her to focus on her job rather than trying to push a storyline as Gia continued to pester her, forcing Monique and Monet to step in and stop the drama and undermining their team. Manilla however just thought it was stupid to pick on the weakest link, as prison rules say you target the strongest. And it didn’t work out well for her with Shangie.
Ciara and Kacey Musgraves joined Ru, Michelle and Ru on the judges table as the girl groups took to the Main Stage. Team Trinity got out to strong start with Latrice, Trinity owning the stage until Valentina arrived and murdered them all with her verse. Despite an infectious performance, Team Monique’s choreography seems wobbly. Particularly with Farrah’s white-girl rhythm. That being said, Naomi and Monet’s verses were lit and I love them. On the Eleguence After Dark Runway Gia looked stunning serving pageant barbie realness, while Latrice was iconic as always in a fitted spangled gown, as did Manilla who was gorgeous. Trinity showed skin in a gorgeous red gown, while Valentina served full blossoming bush and I loved it. Naomi served high fashion mirror, Monique pulled off a reveal, Farrah went classic showgirl while Monet finally served a look in an off the shoulder gown.
The judges sent Valentina, Naomi and Monet to the top, while Manilla, Monique and Farrah landed in the bottom. They loved everything about Manilla on the runway but hated her performance and felt she faded into the background. Valentina received universal praise, as did Naomi. Monique’s girl group look was praised, though the judges felt everything else about her performance was messy. The judges loved Farrah’s runway, but hated her Whitbread performance, while Monet’s rap was singled out as the best of the night, and finally got praise for her runway look. With that Monet and Valentina were singled out as the top two, while poor Farrah returned to the bottom – as per Gia’s wishes – with Monique.
Back in the Werk Room the queens congratulated Monet and Valentina on snatching the win, before Monique requested to please her case ASAP as she can not go home. Instead Valentina wanted to share something with the queens, talking about her need for lip sync redemption after mask gate which drove Trinity and Monique insane. Eventually Monique was able to talk to Valentina, saying that the only reason she was in the bottom was the jacket and her previous win should be taken into account. Though she should avoid talking about the outfit, as Valentina found it offensive to Aaliyah’s memory. Gia decided it was the perfect time to clear the air with Farrah … while she was pleading her case to Monet. Much to the shock of literally everyone in the cast. While the apology seemed kinda sincere, nobody was buying it and Trinity wished she was in the bottom instead just so they could get rid of her ASAP. Monique and Farrah swapped places, with both hopeful that their season-mates would pull through for them if they win. Though Valentina seemed to focus on trying to get an ok to eliminate Farrah for the entire discussion, and Farrah appeared to be successful in guilting her way to safety.
Valentina arrived on stage for lip sync without anything mask adjacent in site. Couple that with the fact she knew every lyric and she owned the lip sync from start to finish. Monet brought comedy, sex and the splits however they proved to be no match, handing Valentina the win and giving her a redemption we will no doubt hear about in next week’s deliberation. While Farrah seemed hopeful that she would be continuing in the competition, Valentina confidently yet heartbroken sent her from the competition, earning one more you don’t love me. This time as a joke. Though her ‘you don’t love me’ to Gia was 100% legit.
Farrah was obviously upset to be out of the competition, and was obviously in tears but boy did her sad little face light up when she spotted me in the Werk Room. She ran and fell into my arms, sobbing and laughing and so grateful that I’ve been there to catch her each time she fell on Drag Race. Well, not last week to be fair but two out of three ain’t bad. I held her until she caught her breath and had composed herself, reminded her that she was a beautiful talented queen and she is and forever will be an All Star. To drive the point home, I served it with a big ol’ batch of Farraspberry Macaroans.
Like Farrah, macarons may appear delicate but they do pack a punch amongst all that sweetness. The raspberry and poppy seeds work together beautifully to delight your taste buds, and your soul. I guess?
Enjoy!
Farraspberry Macaroans
Makes: 16-20.
Ingredients
¼ cup Mahersharaspberry Coulis, plus 2 tablespoons for the macaron
2 tbsp double cream
125g white chocolate
75g almond meal
75g icing sugar
1 egg whites
a few drops red food coloring powder
1 egg whites (from about about 2 small eggs)
pinch of salt
75g raw caster sugar
4 tsp water
¼ cup poppy seeds
Method
Combine the coulis, cream and chocolate in a small saucepan over low heat, and cook stirring until melted and well combined. Transfer to a small bowl and place in the fridge to chill.
Preheat the oven to 150C and line two baking sheets and prepare a small, plain tipped piping bag. Sift the icing sugar and almond meal into a large to remove all lumps.
Place one the egg whites in a bowl with a pinch of salt, the remaining coulis and a few drops of red food colouring, and whisk until well combined and starting to thicken. Add the bowl with the almond meal and fold through.
Place the remaining egg white in the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attached, while you combine the raw caster sugar and water in a saucepan. Dissolve the sugar over low heat before cranking to high and bringing to 112C. Start whipping the egg on medium-high speed while you continue to cook the syrup until it reaches 118C. Remove it from the heat immediately and slowly pour into the still whipping white. Continue to whip until the bowl is cool enough to touch and you’ve achieved silky, glossy stiff peaks. Gentle fold the italian meringue through the almond mixture until combined.
Transfer to a piping bag and pipe 3cm circles onto the lined baking sheets, leaving space for their inevitable expansion. Tap the sheets on the kitchen bench to remove air bubbles and sprinkle each with poppy seeds. Transfer to the oven to bake for 20 minutes before removing and allowing to cool completely, transferring to a wire rack a couple of minutes after removing them from the oven.
To assemble, place the ganache in a piping bag and pipe onto the base of half of the biscuits, sandwich with a ‘clean’ biscuit and place in a container to set. You can either eat after half an hour, or allow to chill overnight to really drive the flavours home.
Then devour.
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