Former “Great British Baking Show” Finalist Ruby Bhogal Is Engaged: “All I’m Thinking About Is the Cake” (original) (raw)

On the beloved British television reality series Great British Baking Show, Ruby Bhogal showed off her expert baking skills as a contestant in 2018, which secured her a top spot as a runner-up. A few years later, Bhogal is getting ready to walk down the aisle. The former finalist announced on January 21, 2024, that she’s engaged to BBC presenter James Stewart.

To share the news, Bhogal uploaded a collection of photos and videos from her trip with Stewart to New York City. Each one shows Stewart holding the ring box in plain sight, such as while they take a stroll in Central Park, while Bhogal sleeps on the plane, while Bhogal brushes her teeth in the hotel room, and while the two of them sit at their gate at the airport—all without Bhogal ever seeing the sparkler. “POV: you’re prancing around New York unaware you’re about to be proposed to 😬⁣,” the caption began.

The final image in the carousel shows a selfie of the newly engaged couple after Stewart popped the question. In the photo, Bhogal is holding up her left hand, flaunting her engagement ring: what appears to be an emerald-cut green gemstone on a gold band, surrounded by smaller round gold accents. “Have deceptively been hiding my hand in the recent the vids because it’s taken me about 3 weeks to tell most of my family whilst it took James a whole 3 minutes 🫠⁣,” she admitted.

Gareth Cattermole / Getty Images

Bhogal also explained the story behind the proposal, which wasn’t exactly what either of them had anticipated. “I wish we had a romantic story to go alongside it but food poisoning managed to kick in right about 5 mins before he was about propose and I was about to have a bridesmaid moment running across the street (iykyk),” she recounted. “So yay for love and yay for uncooked chicken in NYC. I love this life 🖤🥰⁣.”

To conclude her post, the future bride shared her upcoming wedding plans—and hinted at one of the day’s must-have details. “Time to start planning a big FAT Indian wedding but all I’m thinking about is the CAKE am I right?!” she exclaimed. The winner of the 2018 season, on which Bhogal appeared, was also curious about the couple's special dessert. “Congratulations, what an amazing news," he said. "Waiting for this to happen for years. But the big question is 'who is baking the cake?'... you have a lot of options, just saying.”