Virginia Beach woman in ‘Greatest Baker’ competition from ‘Cake Boss’

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Virginia Beach’s Mary Bell has been baking all sorts of treats for her family for years now, whipping up everything from cookies and brownies to her grandmother’s blueberry streusel muffins.

“I’ve been making stuff for my family, my husband’s family, we just love to bake and feed people,” said Bell, who moved 11 years ago to Hampton Roads from the Raleigh area, where she learned to bake under her late grandmother, Mavis Montague.

“… they love cobblers, my chocolate cake is their favorite, this past Thanksgiving I tried a new cake called a banana pudding cake and that’s like everybody’s favorite right now.”

Bell’s cakes and cupcakes in particular have become more and more elaborate over the past few years. That’s thanks in part to her five kids, who love to throw creative design requests her way after watching YouTube videos.

Her designs range from pandas and shoes, to movie characters like “Moana” and “The Corpse Bride.”

So a couple months ago, Bell’s family convinced her to show off those talents and enter a local cupcake baking competition in Norfolk.

“I like a challenge, so I was like yeah let me try this,” Bell said.

And she ended up beating out a dozen other contestants to take home first place. Her winning creations were cupcakes in the shape of Sprite and Coca-Cola bottles, and maple bacon drizzle cupcakes — a fan favorite.

Now she’s hoping to showcase those talents on an even bigger stage. She’s entered a competition called “The Greatest Baker” presented by the “Cake Boss” himself, TV’s Buddy Valastro. The winner will get $10,000, meet Valastro and have their work shared in “Bake from Scratch” magazine.

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“I’ve been watching Buddy Valastro for years, and once I found out about the competition and he was the one hosting it I was like ‘oh my god let me go binge watch some Cake Bosses … and it actually gave me some ideas for some of the cakes I’ve been doing.”

She submitted some of her most creative work, including the “Corpse Bride” and the soda bottle cupcakes, some of which can take several days to make sure they hold up and stay sturdy.

“Some of my designs I’ve chosen are things I don’t see people doing, like sculpting stuff,” Bell said. “Like for the ‘Corpse Bride’ cake I had to sculpt some of that stuff.”

And most importantly the cakes don’t just look good, they taste good. Bell credits that to her passion for baking.

“You could taste love, like if somebody’s just doing it to hurry up to make it, or you could tell if they really took their time and put their love into the food, and that’s what got me doing it.”

The competition, which helps raise money for the Andrew McDonough Be Positive Foundation, runs through fan votes on the competition’s website. Bell finished in first place in her first round of the competition and is currently in second place in the next round of the competition, which ends overall in January.

If she wins, Bell wants to put the money toward opening her own bakery in Virginia Beach. Until then, she says she’s got a big support system cheering her on and, most importantly, voting for her to be named “The Greatest Baker.”

“My family and friends have been hyping me up, like ‘you can do this girl!’ Your cakes are something, so I’m putting myself out there, putting my baking out there!”

You can vote for Mary Bell now at this link. Voting in the current round of the competition ends at 7 p.m. Thursday.

And if you’d like to reach out to her about cakes and other orders, her email is mrs.bellcatering@gmail.com.

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