This is two lower than the team in the 2015 contest (who came in sixth), although marks a significant achievement out of the 22 teams that competed this year.
France came in first place, followed by Japan in second, and Switzerland in third.
The result comes after Team UK banded together over several hundred hours of training, recipe development, team building, and qualifying rounds, including repeated testing and refinement of designs and recipes over months.
The team – including Poirot on sugar, captain Andy Blas on ice, and Chris Zammit on chocolate, plus Martin Chiffers as president, and supported by Benoit Blin as chairman of the UK Pastry Club Coupe du Monde ‒ had "Marvel London" as their theme, melding inspiration from classic comic book characters with influences from the classic colours and motifs of London and the Underground network.
Each of the 22 international teams were tasked with creating three sculptures – one each in chocolate, sugar, and ice – as well as 15 identical desserts, three frozen Ravifruit fruit desserts, and three Valrhona chocolate desserts.
Commenting on the result, Chiffers said: “We ran into a few challenges on the day with electric supply and freezer temperatures, which delayed us slightly, but the team did a great job and should be proud of what they presented. The standard this year was very high and I am thrilled that we’ve achieved eighth place.”
[Close ups of the chocolate sculpture and the ice sculpture during Team UK's practice rounds]
Blas said: “It’s an amazing achievement. We have worked so hard together, and I can’t thank all our families and friends for their patience and support.”
This year, only the top five teams were granted immediate qualification into the 2019 competition (the next event), with all other teams required to compete in their regional heats first.
[The UK cakes: L: Ice cream dessert on display platter and light-up torch; R: chocolate dessert on its display platter]
This means Pastry Team UK will have to enter the European Pastry Cup in 2018, which is set for June 10, 2018 in Turin, Italy.
FULL LIST OF WINNERS
1st France
2nd Japan
3rd Switzerland
4th USA
5th Belgium
6th Malaysia
7th South Korea
8th UK
9th Singapore
10th Denmark
11th Sweden
12th Taiwan
13th Argentina
14th Algeria
15th Mexico
16th India
17th Tunisia
18th Chile
19th Morocco
20th Indonesia
21st Brazil
22nd Egypt