Where Are The Halloween Baking Championship Winners Now?

When the days get shorter and the air turns cooler, we know that spooky season is right around the corner — and so is the "Halloween Baking Championship." Currently hosted by John Henson and judged by Stephanie Boswell, Carla Hall, and Zac Young, the reality baking competition has been a firm fixture on the Food Network's fall lineup since 2015. Every year, contestants go head to head in a series of creepy yet creative challenges, whipping up everything from spider web desserts to blood spatter cakes in an effort to be named that season's most spooktacular baker (and take home a cool $25,000).

We have yet to see a season of the "Halloween Baking Championship" that isn't overflowing with talent, as proven by the nine bakers who've stepped away with the crown during the show's first nine seasons. But what did they do next? While we hardly expected every contestant to carry on churning out nightmarish sweet treats for the rest of their careers, some winners have surprised us with their post-show endeavors, from musical theater to showstopping wedding cakes. Here's how life has played out for each "Halloween Baking Championship" winner to date.

Rudy Martinez may still be known online for his custom cake business, "Man Bakes Cake," but sweet treats are no longer his main priority. In the words of the inaugural "Halloween Baking Championship" winner from 2015, he's all about "celebrating all the SWEET things in life," which includes both performing and pastry arts (via Instagram). In 2023 alone, Martinez starred in stage productions of "Into the Woods," "Sweeney Todd," and "In the Heights." 

But don't mistake Martinez's theatrical leanings as a total abandonment of all things sweet. Odds are, if Martinez isn't documenting his latest performances on Instagram, he's sharing pictures of his latest bakes. Between his pumpkin spiced pumpkin cookies and puff pastry pumpkin hand pies, it's clear his proclivity for fall-themed treats isn't totally dead and buried. So, while he may not be regularly showcasing elaborate haunted house cakes à la the showstopper he pulled out in the final episode of his season of "Halloween Baking Championship," rest assured baking is very much still in his blood. Most recently, he starred in the baking-inspired musical "Waitress" in Arvada, Colorado, and even baked a series of creative pies, such as the Deep Dish Blueberry Bacon Pie and the Mermaid Marshmallow Pie, to celebrate the occasion.

The winner of the show's second season in 2016 was Michelle Kortis — a pastry chef from Cotulla, Texas, who was known as Michelle Antonishek during her stint on "Halloween Baking Championship" before she got married in 2021. She dazzled judges in the show's finale, "Ginger Dead House," with an impressively terrifying gingerbread house that came decked out with edible ghosts, faux flames, and even a splatter of what we have to hope was fake blood.

Fast forward eight years, however, and Kortis has somewhat slipped off the radar publicly. As per LinkedIn, she still works in the same position she's held since 2013: executive pastry chef and lodge manager at Los Cuernos Ranch, which is located in South Texas. While she previously taught as an adjunct pastry instructor at The Art Institutes in San Antonio, she seems to have left the role back in 2019. Wherever Kortis is today, we're sure she's still crafting creative bakes on par with the clown cake pops, mummy dessert, and candy-stuffed cake that defined her time on the "Halloween Baking Championship."

Innovation is par for the course on "Halloween Baking Championship," and it's safe to say that the winner of its third season still has it in spades. Since winning over the judges with a magnificent light-up pumpkin cake in the season finale back in 2017, Jasmin Bell has gone on to thrive as a pastry artist based in Seattle, Washington. There, she takes commissions for colorful cookies, cakes, and macarons inspired by everything from the reality show "Survivor" to Led Zeppelin.

All of this is done through Bell's own business, the aptly named Bells Pastries. The business also provides both private and open group classes for those hoping to replicate even a fraction of her pastry prowess. Beyond the kitchen, Bell got married in 2018 (which now makes her Jasmin Bell Smith) and welcomed a new member to the family, a daughter named Saej Jordin, in February 2022.

Back when Lyndsy Velasquez baked her way to victory in the fourth season of "Halloween Baking Championship," she was known as Lyndsy McDonald. Today, she's a married woman, having tied the knot with her partner Ed back in 2021. Baking isn't as much of a part of her life as it was back when she was creating creepy clowns, scary wedding cakes, and skull desserts in 2018. Velasquez stepped down as an executive pastry chef for The Ritz-Carlton in 2019 and today works as a project manager.

However, Velasquez is still an expert at creative cakes. If you check in on her Instagram, you'll see that Velasquez remains capable of whipping up everything from a Paw Patrol confection for her son's birthday to a dachshunds-decorated wedding cake. Now that's what we call range. In 2021, she returned to competitive baking with a stint on the Food Network's "Chocolate Meltdown: Hershey's After Dark," where bakers are locked inside Hersheypark amusement park at night and must navigate a variety of clues and rides to unlock Hershey's candy to make their own sugar-filled creations. An eccentric concept, yes, but wildly entertaining. Judge Maneet Chauhan explained that the secret to winning "Chocolate Meltdown" comes down to the soul of the dessert. Just like "Halloween Baking Championship," Velasquez reigned supreme — and earned a year's supply of Hershey's chocolate in the process. With three kids, it's safe to assume that the haul didn't go unappreciated.

We knew Karl Fong was something special from the moment we saw him craft an ancient goddess dark chocolate brandy tart and build a strangely delicious bleeding zombie cake in the finale for season 5. (Coincidentally, we ranked this as one of our favorite "Halloween Baking Championship" episodes of all time). Several years later, Fong is still all about ambitious yet decadent desserts, selling bespoke creations through his bakery, Cakes by Karl, in Vallejo, California. Forget your standard chocolate chip cookies or baked tarts — his specialty still lies in over-the-top projects such as bao-themed wedding cakes, bourbon pecan pies, and sweet treats inspired by the likes of "Little Shop of Horrors."

While it may look like things are going from strength to strength for Fong (who's also known as The Pastry Ninja, having practiced martial arts for decades), he's admitted that times are tough for small businesses like his. "Nowadays with COVID and inflation, everything is so expensive," he told Times-Herald in 2023, adding, "I'm fortunate to still be open and have support from the community." It doesn't hurt that Fong has continued to drum up support from a wider audience, too. Since triumphing in "Halloween Baking Championship," he's gone on to win another high-profile Food Network competition – "The Big Bake: Under the Sea" — in 2021.

The sixth season of "Halloween Baking Championship" saw Indiana-based pastry chef Sinai Vespie tackle 3D demon doll cakes, Halloween candy croquembouche (a towering French dessert created by Marie-Antoine Carême), and desserts that look like severed limbs — and do so with enough creative flair that she was named champion. Baking is as much a part of her DNA today as it was in 2020, with Vespie retaining the same revered position as she has since 2017: executive pastry chef at the University of Notre Dame.

Her days are primarily filled with creating elaborate wedding cakes, with the odd decadent dessert now and then. These may not be quite as outlandish as the treats she presented on the Food Network, but they still ooze the same artful precision that set Vespie's creepy creations apart from her competitors. When she's not overseeing the baking for the University of Notre Dame's catering functions, Morris Inn Hotel, or Legends of Notre Dame Restaurant, Vespie also leads sessions for young bakers. Most impressively, she competed as a part of 2024's ACF Culinary Team USA in February 2024's IKA/Culinary Olympics in Stuttgart, Germany. Sadly, the team failed to take home any medals.

In 2021, 12 bakers were whittled down to one champion after being tasked with making creepy cupcakes, cookies, and other spooky sweet treats. That champion was Renee Loranger, a self-taught baker and cake designer from Canada. 

She'd applied to "Cake Wars" and "Halloween Wars" several times before making it onto "Halloween Baking Championship" for its sixth season, where she was a fan favorite. She lost to Sinai Vespie in the finals but was given a second shot at success with an invitation to return for the show's seventh season, which she joined in the second episode.

Needless to say, it was worth it. Shortly after the seventh season of "Halloween Baking Championship" finished airing on the Food Network, Loranger competed in another of its baking contests — "The Big Bake" — and made the most of her newfound rep as a scarily talented baker to launch her own business, Sugar Pop Baking Co. Located in Waveland, Mississippi, this shop is packed with treats both sweet and savory, some of which are definitely unique enough to rival her baked goods on the show. For proof, all you need to see is her design for a freshly stabbed, "bleeding" birthday cake. Feel brave enough to attempt something similar? Check out our tips for making a cake "bleed."

Blayre Wright triumphed on "Halloween Baking Championship" in 2022 and remains extremely positive about her time on the show. "Being a part of this experience shaped me in so many ways," she wrote on Instagram ahead of the 2023 finale. "I gained a new family, proved to myself that I am resilient in the most stressful situations, and allowed me to share my passion for all things baking with America."

If you drop by Wright's Instagram for yourself, you'll see she's still sharing that passion. The cake artist (who sells delectable treats under the name "Flouretta Sweet") has continued to carve out a niche for her lavish wedding cakes. One of her most exciting designs came in August 2023, when she used a cake to announce her first pregnancy. Having struggled with infertility and undergone two rounds of intrauterine insemination (IUI) and in-vitro fertilization (IVF) apiece, she celebrated the birth of her son, Parker James, in December (just as Wright was trying to deliver her last cake of the year).

There's another major development on the horizon for Wright in 2025. She's relocating with her husband and son from Pennsylvania to New Hampshire, where she'll live closer to family — and surely dazzle New England's brides and grooms with her cakes. If you don't live in that area, you can still benefit from Wright's baking mastery by checking out her podcast, Whisk Management, which aims to help aspiring "cakers, bakers, and sweet entrepreneurs" start their own businesses.

With or without "Halloween Baking Championship," Hollie Fraser is the master of spooky baking in our eyes. Both before and after winning the show in 2023, she's specialized in delightfully disturbing cake designs through her company, Punk Rock Pastries. Think chocolate crunch cakes shaped like cockroaches, chocolate hearts (the anatomical kind, not the cutesy kind), and desserts that look like Pennywise the Clown.

Based in British Columbia, Canada, Fraser has continued to make these for clients big and small. Some of her bigger clients include Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, Netflix, or any company or production in desperate need of horror cakes (try making your own scary Halloween cupcakes). Unsurprisingly, business soared after her big win. Fraser had to hire more people to help keep up with the demand, and the entire bakery even had to close one day in November 2023 because it ran out of products to sell. What makes these feats all the more significant is the fact that in the summer preceding her appearance, she was worried the business would have to shutter completely.

Despite all the post-win craziness, Fraser has still found time to coach the next generation of cake artists (who, she admits, are perhaps even more talented than herself) and launch a new coffee trailer to take Punk Rock Pastries on the road. She's even picked up some new, non-kitchen related hobbies, such as tattooing — although, at least for now, she's sticking to faux skins rather than the real thing.