HOLLYWOOD, California, USA, October 19, 2026 — Three magicians who spend their time fooling audiences at the Magic Castle found some treats and fell for some tricks on Monday’s episode of Food Network’s Sweet Deceit.
Jonathan Molo, Julia Dryas, and Jack Murdock competed in Sweet Deceit episode five, “Trick or Treat: The Magic Castle,” walking away with $5,500 of a possible $12,000. On the baking game show, hosted by actor Josh Peck, teams search a location for six hyper-realistic sweets hidden among real objects in a familiar environment and must bite their guesses to prove them. Every choice that paid off for the magicians was Dryas’s. Molo and Murdock were fooled by Canadian cake artist April Julian.
The episode opened in the Castle’s lobby, where Peck welcomed the team to the place “where the world’s best magicians come to prestidigitate.” The magicians high-fived him for pronouncing it right, then explained what it meant.
The team arrived confident. “As magicians, Halloween literally is a national holiday of magic,” Murdock said on the show. Molo, in his signature upbeat and confident style, added that the Castle was their second home and predicted they would do really well.
Peck noted the club is rumored to be haunted, especially around Halloween, and asked whether they had ever seen a ghost there. “Yes! There is actually one named Irma who plays the piano,” Molo responded.
Peck then introduced their adversary, the Toronto cake artist and runner-up on season one of Netflix’s Is It Cake?, who had hidden her hyper-realistic cake creations throughout the Castle.
Peck explained the rules: three rounds of rising difficulty and prize money, with one hint from the baker available along the way, followed by a final round in which one player chooses three objects. Every round came with 90 seconds to lock in a decision.
The trio opened the bookcase door with the traditional “Open Sesame,” and the game of trick or treat was on.
Irma’s Room
The first stop was Irma’s Room, home of Invisible Irma, the Castle’s resident ghost pianist, known for playing guests’ requests. This time Irma stayed silent, offering no hints.
Among a carved bird, an owl, a skull-covered chest, a golden hand, and a pair of bellows, Dryas, a junior member of the Academy of Magical Arts known for her butterfly-themed magic, quickly locked in on a skull with a snake looping through its eye sockets. It was chocolate orange cake, worth $500.
Asked how he felt, Molo answered in one word: “Confident.”
Pick a Cake, Any Cake
At the Castle’s main bar, a row of beer steins confronted the team in the $1,000 round. Molo, known as “The Man in the Purple Suit” and the 2025 Magic Castle Strolling Showdown champion, took the shot. His confidence and high energy were no match for Julian’s edible misdirection. He dismissed the correct stein as too intricate and shiny, and instead found himself biting into metal and ceramic.
Molo raved at every tasting, and the stein was no exception. Allowed to try the real cake afterward, he called it “the best cake I have ever tasted.”
Magic Can Be Puzzling
In the Castle’s newly remodeled museum, worth $1,500, the team spent its one baker’s hint of the early rounds. Julian offered that “magic can be puzzling.” Murdock, a San Clemente close-up magician and Castle member since 2009, narrowed his choice to a Rubik’s Cube and a wooden puzzle. He bit the cube. It was real.
Smoke and Mirrors
The final round, the Big Bite, took place in the hallway near the Palace Bar. One player had 90 seconds to choose three objects, with prizes climbing from $2,000 to $3,000 to $4,000. Molo and Murdock turned to Dryas.
Among a vase of roses, a stack of books, a brass rabbit, a roll of tickets, a wand, and a bow tie, she chose a top hat, a lighter, and a compact mirror. Molo bit the top hat: cake, for $2,000. Murdock bit the lighter: real. “As I got close, I felt like I was walking into a trap,” he said. Dryas bit the mirror: cake, for $3,000.
Peck then revealed the one that got away by biting into a pipe, the $4,000 sweet.
Murdock’s two real bites gave new meaning to the report he offered before the episode aired. “I can say I didn’t chip my tooth biting into any props,” he told Conjurly.
The team member who carried the day said she wasn’t playing for the prize. “I wasn’t really in it for the money. I wanted to do it to have a good time with my friends and try something new,” Dryas told Conjurly. “But the money was a plus!”
Murdock summed up the night on the show. “April, you really did deceive the deceivers.”
Sweet Deceit airs Mondays at 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific (9 p.m. Central) on Food Network, with episodes streaming the next day on HBO Max. Read Conjurly’s preview of the episode for more from the magicians.
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