"I was really proud:" Holiday Baking Championship's youngest chef, Violet Zoner, on her earlier baking creations

Holiday Baking Championship Season 12 premiered on Monday, November 3, 2025, at 8:00 pm on Food Network. The series is hosted by Jesse Palmer and judged by celebrity chefs Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman, and Kardea Brown.

A group of 12 top bakers from across the country entered the festive competition, divided into two teams: Team Nice and Team Naughty, as a result of a fresh format introduced this season.

Each competitor navigated difficult baking challenges throughout the season with their eyes fixed on the glittering gifts under the tree, which include $25,000, a spot in Food Network Magazine, and the title of Holiday Baking Champion.

Among the professionals taking part in the competition, the youngest baker was 21-year-old pastry chef Violet Zoner from Ithaca, New York, who got eliminated from the competition in the third week on November 17, 2025, becoming the first one from Team Nice to leave the show.

She appeared in the first three episodes of the season, ending her run on the show too soon. However, this is just the beginning of her baking career as she is planning to pursue her baking in Brooklyn in the new year.

Talking about her earlier baking creations, the Holiday Baking Championship star and the New York native told New York Upstate,

I can remember some cakes that I did all the way back then that are not good now. But at the time I was really proud.

Holiday Baking Championship season 12 contestant documents her baking creations on her Instagram page

Violet Zoner’s journey into the world of baking started long before she stepped onto the Food Network set. The Ithaca native competed with Team Nice on the Holiday Baking Championship season 12, making her childhood dream come true.

The production created the perfect festive environment despite being filmed in the summer in Los Angeles. As she put it,

“It was kind of like a whole different little world in there.”

Her passion for baking started during childhood as she began testing her passion in elementary school and baked along with her mother in the kitchen throughout her middle school years. Later was inspired to try out some of her own recipes.

This led her to create her own Instagram baking account, after eighth grade, @violetbakestoomucha, where she documented all her baking creations, which fostered a love that led her to study at the Culinary Institute of America after graduating from Charles O. Dickerson High School in Trumansburg.

Her skills continued to grow even more during the COVID-19 shutdown as she took online food photography courses to better showcase her work on social media during her time at home, to improve both her baking and photography.

“I definitely gained more baking skills and more photography skills during that time,” she said.

She describes her personal style as classic and organic, always leaning toward real ingredients, buttercream textures, and natural decoration. As she explained,

“I don’t like how that [fondant] tastes or how it looks. So I stick to using ingredients or buttercream to decorate, and that’s definitely a part of how I bake in real life.”

The Holiday Baking Championship star continues to look up to the bakers who first inspired her. Among her current favorites are Sarah Fennel from @bromabakery and Audrey Leonard of @redcurrantbakery.

Stay tuned for more updates.