Stefanie Embree, a home baker from Oklahoma City, has been named the winner of FOX’s first season of Next Level Baker. After a tense two-hour finale on December 18, 2025, the mentors—Gordon Ramsay, Carla Hall, and Candace Nelson—chose Embree as the champion. She takes home a $25,000 grand prize and a HexClad cookware package.
The unique baking competition concluded with a historic all-female final five after the only remaining man, Jeff, was eliminated in the first challenge. The winner secured her victory by impressing the judges with a beautiful and flavorful three-tier cake, baked across the show’s signature three-level kitchen.
How The Finale Unfolded: From Six Bakers to One Winner
The finale began with the six remaining bakers: home bakers Stefanie Embree, Deirdra Lambright, and Jeff Chudakoff, alongside social media bakers Zoha Malik, Chloe Sexton, and Nikki Jackson. Their first task was to create a savory holiday showstopper in just 60 minutes.
The bakers were split across the kitchen’s three levels with different mentors. Stefanie and Jeff cooked with Gordon Ramsay in the Top Kitchen, Zoha and Chloe were with Carla Hall in the Middle Kitchen, and Deirdra and Nikki worked under Candace Nelson in the Basement Kitchen. The challenge was filled with dramatic moments, from Zoha cleverly shaping a pizza into a snowflake to Deirdra accidentally pouring an entire bottle of seasoning into her sauce, forcing her to restart with only minutes left.
After tasting the dishes, the mentors eliminated Jeff. Gordon Ramsay told him, “Jeff, what you cooked here as a dish was exceptional, but the big discrepancy for all three of us is it wasn’t a holiday bake.”. Jeff left the competition, creating a memorable all-women final round for the show’s first season.
The Ultimate Challenge: Baking a Three-Tier Cake Across Three Floors
The final five bakers then faced the season’s toughest test: a four-hour challenge to bake a single, cohesive three-tier cake. The complex rules required each tier to be baked on a different kitchen level—Top, Middle, and Basement—and each had to feature a distinct flavor profile.
The challenge highlighted the core difficulty of Next Level Baker, forcing contestants to constantly move between floors while managing different ovens, ingredients, and time constraints. Chaos ensued early on. Nikki nearly burned her cakes in the basement, while Chloe’s oven door didn’t shut properly, leaving her cakes undercooked and forcing her to restart. Chloe later faced another potential disaster, possibly confusing baking soda for baking powder.
Throughout the four hours, the bakers ran up and down the kitchen tower, juggling multiple tasks. Stefanie, unable to find peppermint extract, improvised by using candy canes. Zoha struggled with cakes sticking to their pans. In the final minutes, all decorators rushed to finish, with Stefanie even worrying she lacked the strength to lift her completed top tier to the upper platform.
The Judges’ Final Tasting and Decision
With the cakes presented, mentors Gordon Ramsay, Carla Hall, and Candace Nelson began their final tasting. Each baker received specific feedback on their creation:
- Zoha: Her cake was called “stunning and so festive,” with complex, well-balanced flavors that took the judges “on a cultural journey”.
- Chloe: Her cake was noted as “simple, but elegant” and packed with holiday spice, though one tier was considered too dense.
- Nikki: Her design was praised as beautiful and “kid-friendly,” but the fondant was sometimes too thick.
- Deirdra: While her cake was visibly tilted, the judges declared the flavor “divine,” with the carrot cake tier singled out as exceptional.
- Stefanie: Her cake was described as elegant and joyful. The mentors said it “feels like a party” and that they discovered “something with every bite in every layer”.
After deliberation, the three mentors crowned Stefanie Embree the winner. Her ability to execute a nearly flawless cake under extreme pressure, showing both technical skill and creative flavor, secured her the title.
Winner Stefanie Embree’s Reaction and Background
Upon winning, an emotional Stefanie Embree shared her feelings about the intense journey.
“I have such a wonderful feeling that supported me through all of this. This has been the best privilege of my life… I’ve worked really, really hard for so many years. Coming here and winning this, all that hard work and sleepless nights, the tears, it’s all been worth it,” she said.
She highlighted that as a home baker without formal training, her win proves that “anything could be done”. Embree is the owner of OKC Sweets bakery in Oklahoma City. Her victory marks a win for home bakers everywhere, triumphing in a field that also included talented social media bakers.
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Finale Details and How to Watch
The season finale, titled “A Not So Silent Night,” aired on Thursday, December 18, 2025, at 8:00 PM ET/PT on FOX. The episode was a special two-hour event. For those who missed the live broadcast, the finale is available to stream on platforms like Hulu.
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