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Brooklyn baker Adela Mou will make her debut on Season 3 of The Great American Baking Show, stepping into the spotlight as one of the newest contestants on the popular baking competition on the Roku Channel.
The Great American Baking Show is the spin-off of the beloved Great British Bake Off, where amateur bakers compete for the coveted title of Best Amateur Baker.
For Mou, baking was not always a part of her life. "Baking was never a part of my household growing up. We didn’t even have boxed cake mix; our oven was mostly used for storage," she said with a laugh.
Her interest in baking was sparked at fifteen when she took a job at Cold Stone Creamery, where she learned to make and decorate ice cream cakes.
“That’s where I first learned how to bake, and then I got more into it in college because I had access to a real kitchen,” Mou said. "Anytime it was someone’s birthday, I offered to bake a cake. It started with simple tray cakes, but I grew from there. Seeing people really enjoy my baking brought me so much joy.”
From there, Mou's passion blossomed. Living first in Williamsburg, she refined both her skills and palate, drawing inspiration from the neighborhood’s diverse Hasidic and Puerto Rican restaurants. The variety of nearby bakeries and culinary influences encouraged her to experiment with new techniques and flavors. Now based in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Mou continues to explore new ideas—but ice cream cakes remain a favorite, even as her methods have evolved significantly since those early days.
"I learned the basics from Coldstone and cookbooks, and as I grew into my own baking, I knew where to play—how to swap out a flavor profile for something I was really excited about or how to change the shape of something into the form of something I had envisioned," she explained.
A longtime fan of The Great British Bake Off, Mou, who works full time at a tech company, tried out for The Great American Baking Show in 2019, securing a spot as an alternate. She tried again and was selected for the 2025 season.
In preparation for her appearance, Mou immersed herself in all of the episodes from previous seasons, practicing past challenges while fine-tuning her own craft. “The show really pushes you to learn new skills but still stay true to yourself… and at some point, I did have flashcards,” she said.
For Mou, the experience has been about more than just competition. "The wonderful thing about the Bake Off family is that everyone is there because they love baking. We’re all home bakers, none of us do this professionally," she noted. "Even though you're technically competing, all the other bakers are learning from each other and supporting one another. It’s such a positive environment. This was the only kind of reality TV show I could imagine myself being a part of—a baking show."
When she's not whipping up her own creations, Mou said she likes visiting Saraghina Bakery, Oneg Heimishe Bakery and Dolly's Coffee Shop.
“You can call yourself a baker without being a professional," Mou reflected. "On social media, we see people making elaborate cakes, things most of us don’t have the time to do. But all of us on the show are just home bakers, creating for the people we love. We started out learning with what we had, and that’s what makes our creations so special... As long as you're baking, you're a baker."
Season 3 of the Great American Baking Show on the Roku Channel starts on Friday, April 11.
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