What Great British Bake Off Winner Sophie Faldo Is Up To Now

Sophie Faldo, Season 8 winner of "The Great British Bake Off," is a woman of many talents. When she won the competition show in October 2017 with her entremet cake, she was surprised, though the same could not be said for viewers, as judge Prue Leith accidentally announced the winner ahead of the finale's airing.

Faldo was an Army officer before joining "Bake Off," and her participation in the service, she claims, will always be a significant aspect of her life. "I left the regular army in 2012 and I've been a reservist ever since then," she told HuffPost after her win. "So everyone's saying I'm going back and I'm like, 'Well I'm not going back, I never left it.'" She went on to tell The Sun, "I know it sounds really mad but ­actually I don't like not going on tour." After becoming an Army reservist, Faldo held down gigs as a personal fitness trainer and even considered becoming a professional stuntwoman.

After her win, Faldo spoke about wanting to work in the culinary industry while simultaneously pursuing her stuntwoman goals. "I never ever dreamed I would get to the final, let alone winning, so I am not sure where I will go from here," Faldo explained to The Sun. "It would be wonderful to write a patisserie book, but let's see what comes my way. I would like to try traveling the world for inspiration for starters."

After her astonishing win on "The Great British Bake Off," Sophie Faldo hoped to author a cookbook but seemed to abandon the project when a contract with her management firm didn't pan out. In 2018, Faldo became an ambassador for Combat Stress, a non-profit that offers mental health support to veterans with PTSD. She has also worked with a non-profit that funds dementia research, Race Against Dementia. Additionally, she ran the TCS London Marathon for Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity.

Faldo opined in 2019 that she didn't benefit as greatly from her stint on "Bake Off" as she hoped. Faldo told This Is Money, "I did not prepare myself to win. I was a little bit slow to think about how I could make the most of all the attention." Despite this, the baker found ways to move forward, launching Sophie Faldo Couture Cakes, a luxury cakes company specializing in bespoke cakes for weddings and special events, per its page on Bridebook. That said, the company's Instagram hasn't been updated since February 2022.

Overall, Faldo has kept a low profile, telling Netflix that it isn't easy to live "under the watchful and often judgmental eye of the world's media." Consequently, she has pursued a life out of the limelight, taking on, in her words, a "normal" job and focusing on teaching. This doesn't mean she's moved on from her award-winning baking, though — she returned to "Bake Off" for a Christmas special, six years later.

Sophie Faldo returned to the tent for one of "Bake Off's" spin-off shows, "The Great Christmas Bake Off" in December 2023 with fellow alumni. In her Instagram post about the reunion, that aired on Christmas Eve, Faldo wrote, "Really looking forward to seeing how it turned out. It was definitely [a lot] more chilled and fun this time. Thanks for having me back." It's safe to say that "Bake Off" fans were likely happy to have her back, as well.

Faldo proved her skills once again, impressing the judges in all three rounds. The opening challenge was baking mince pies, followed by the technical challenge of creating a snowflake tear-apart loaf. For the final showstopper cake, Faldo made a Christmas candle centerpiece that solidified her win — a candle-shaped Russian honey cake surrounded by a wreath of chocolate hazelnut bread. After the win (which wasn't spoiled by Prue Leith this time), Faldo posted a photo with the judges and her cake plate prize on her Instagram: "Luckily we managed to keep it under wraps this time! So happy to be able to add this one to the mantlepiece." Faldo has maintained a quiet presence on social media after this celebratory post.