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| Halloween Baking Championship Season 12: Where Are the Contestants Now? |
Halloween Baking Championship Season 12 has brought together 10 ambitious bakers chasing the $25,000 prize, but the competition is only one chapter of their stories. Away from Food Network’s kitchen, several contestants have continued building careers in pastry, running baking businesses, competing in other culinary programmes and, in some cases, finding time for rather impressive hobbies that make the rest of us question what we actually do with our weekends.
With John Henson hosting and Stephanie Boswell, Aarti Sequeira and Zac Young judging the creations, Season 12 gave viewers plenty to remember. Here is where some of the contestants are now and what they have been getting up to since stepping into the Halloween Baking Championship spotlight.
Baindu Squire, also known as Lady B, has continued turning her baking talent into a proper business. After beginning her professional career as a Line Cook II at Acts Retirement Services Inc. in 2011, she spent several years working across different culinary roles before putting her entrepreneurial ambitions to work.
In March 2020, she launched LadyB’s, her own baking venture where she works as a Cake Artist specialising in custom cakes and desserts. The business has developed beyond simply making cakes for clients, with customers also able to order baked goods and merchandise through its online presence.
Baindu was hardly a newcomer to competitive television when she entered Halloween Baking Championship Season 12. She had previously competed on Holiday Wars Season 2 and The Big Bake: Holiday Season 3, while she also appeared as a panel judge on Buddy vs. Duff Season 3. She has continued to stay involved in the creator community too, working as a guest chef for online creator “greatdaylo”.
These days, her Instagram remains a place where she showcases increasingly elaborate cakes, because apparently ordinary cake was never dramatic enough. Based in New Orleans, Louisiana, Baindu also enjoys spending time with her son and attending football matches, combining family life with her love of sport and baking.
Caleb King has also remained firmly rooted in the pastry world. After studying pastry at the Seattle Culinary Academy at Seattle Central College, he began his professional career with Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts as a Pastry Cook in 2019.
Several years of experience later, he moved towards Treehouse Point, where he took on a Pastry Chef role around 2025 while also becoming involved with its commercial kitchen, Treehouse Kitchen. His experience eventually helped him progress to Head Pastry Chef for Treehouse Point and Treehouse Kitchen, giving him plenty of room to put his skills to work.
Caleb’s culinary work has not stopped him from making time for life outside the kitchen. He is also associated with Aroma Coffee Co and The Rec Room Snoqualmie, while his social media offers glimpses of his pastry work and life around Treehouse Point.
Travel is another major interest, with trips to destinations including Jordan, Scotland and London adding an international flavour to his life away from the kitchen. Family remains important too, particularly his relationship with his sister Danielle Cox. He is also a proud uncle who clearly enjoys being the fun adult in the room, while hiking and spending time with friends round out his downtime.
For Ciarra Roberts, the post-show journey has involved balancing an established pastry career with a surprisingly serious commitment to powerlifting. Originally from Denver, Colorado, Ciarra entered the culinary industry in 2011 as a part-time Pastry Assistant at Tavolo Pronto. She later worked across several establishments before joining the EDGE Restaurant at Four Seasons Hotel Denver in May 2021 as Pastry Cook 1. She has since progressed to the role of Pastry Sous Chef, continuing to develop her career in a professional kitchen.
Then there is the small matter of powerlifting. On June 28, 2025, Ciarra competed in her first powerlifting competition and came away with a medal. Because apparently spending hours creating delicate pastries was not physically demanding enough.
Outside work and training, she remains close to her sister Christiana Valko and makes plenty of time for friends, including restaurant outings. Her partner, Zachary Fowler, is another important part of her life, with Ciarra describing him as her “best friend”. When she gets a break from pastry and fitness, she enjoys playing guitar and taking long hikes.
Elizabeth Suwanski has taken perhaps the most unusual route among the contestants, maintaining a corporate career while continuing to develop her baking skills. She began working at Convergence Technologies as an IPpay Merchant Services Support Specialist in 2010 before moving through a series of increasingly senior positions. Her career eventually led her to IPpay, LLC, where she progressed through support and operations roles before becoming Manager of Gateway Operations, a position she continues to hold.
Baking, meanwhile, has remained an important creative outlet. Elizabeth appeared on Halloween Cookie Challenge Season 2 in 2023, where she won a $10,000 prize. Rather than treating that as the end of her baking adventure, she continued experimenting with different techniques and later began operating her Etsy shop, PumpkinMoonCookies.
She has also built an Instagram following of more than 3,100 people, regularly posting photographs of her latest creations. In July 2026, she attended CookieCon Orlando in Florida, adding another baking-focused experience to an already unusual career path. When she is not dealing with corporate responsibilities or decorating cookies, Elizabeth spends time with friends and family, proving that spreadsheets and buttercream can apparently coexist.
Justin Giordano has continued developing his career as a professional Cake Artist in New York City, creating everything from detailed birthday cakes to wedding desserts. His work combines the technical side of pastry with plenty of visual creativity, which has also translated into his growing Instagram presence. With more than 3,500 followers, Justin uses the platform to share his creations, techniques, recipes and glimpses into the process behind his desserts.
Among the recipes he has showcased are Swiss meringue buttercream and whipped strawberry-basil ganache, giving followers plenty of inspiration if they are brave enough to attempt them at home. Justin has also stepped into a teaching role, taking part in a hands-on workshop at BDC Studios in November 2025, where he shared his knowledge with others.
The following month, he collaborated with the Mellon Foundation to showcase his skills. Outside baking, Justin remains close to his father Gerry and brother Jeremy and has developed a serious love for travelling, with memorable trips to Iceland, Ireland and Uruguay among his adventures.
My informal take is that the most interesting thing about Halloween Baking Championship Season 12 is not necessarily who managed to produce the prettiest haunted dessert under pressure. It is what happens after the cameras stop rolling.
These contestants have careers, businesses, competitions, workshops, travel plans and family lives that make their television appearances feel more like one particularly chaotic chapter than the whole story. Baindu turning her talent into LadyB’s makes sense, while Caleb’s progression into a head pastry role shows how quickly television exposure can sit alongside a serious culinary career.
Ciarra somehow finds time for pastry and powerlifting, which feels frankly excessive when some of us consider carrying two shopping bags at once a strength workout. Elizabeth juggling corporate operations with cookie making is equally impressive, while Justin has turned social media into another extension of his craft. If anything, the contestants seem considerably busier after the show, which raises one important question: when do these people actually sleep?
So, whose journey after Halloween Baking Championship Season 12 caught your attention most? Are you more interested in the contestants who stayed deep in the pastry world, those who built their own baking businesses, or the ones somehow finding time for completely different passions? Share your thoughts and let us know which contestant you would most like to see return for another Food Network challenge.