Cake Boss: The Next Great Baker

We’ve followed Buddy and his family around for a while now as they work to make crazy cakes for special occasions. We’ve seen fireworks and dragons, the leaning tower of piza and a fire station, the millenium falcon and pizza pies, and just about any other kind of cake you can imagine. This season, we got something new: a competition to find “the Next Great Baker.” Which really means that like in the Apprentice, this is a glorified search for someone to work at his bakery. The competition follows 10 bakers competing to prove who makes the best cake and design and the winner not only gets to work for Carlos but also wins $50,000 and a new car.

I’ll be honest. Having watched the show until now, the contestants don’t seem all that talented. Maybe they just aren’t being given enough time to do much, maybe they have specific strengths (which certainly does not seem to be decoration) that they aren’t getting much chance to showcase. Whatever it is, they mostly come off looking more inept than anything else. There might also be a nervousness factor here, not just because this is a competition but because Buddy can be kinda intimidating.

Despite their lack of talent, the show is still entertaining. With the misfires (special effects that didn’t go off) and cake demolition, we’ve been given surprises. The contestants themselves have the quirkiness of Christian Siriano and Jay of Project Runway and a mean streak worthy of the Jersey Shore.

Judges include members of the bakery and the clients they make cakes for. Somehow the contestants are always scared of the contestants as though Buddy’s sister who runs the orders is the authority on cakes. Yes, she works in a cake shop, but so do all the contestants. And she doesn’t even bake!

As the season draws to a close, and the frontrunners emerge, the show has been renewed for a second season. How many people can the bakery employ?

Cake Boss: Battleship, Ballet, and Burning!

Buddy shows up at US Air Force. They’re having a formal dinner on the Battleship New Jersey and wants him to make a cake for the event. (Side note, the soldiers look so old.) This particular base is made up of men and women who have to take over hostile airstrips and make it functional in within 24 hours. Buddy also gets to take a ride in a humvee and partake in a training exercise. Wasting bullets in the US army. Joey, a veteran, particularly enjoyed being there. Buddy plans a runway with all that’s needed to turn it into an airport with a plane taking off. There will be tents, humvees, a forklift.

Buddy meets with Deborah to make a cake for the fifteenth anniversary of Dance Now, where choreographers and dancers premiere their work. They wear all manner of costume. Buddy wants a dancer on top and to use fabric. Buddy does a disturbing ballet imitation.

They are working on the cake when an alarm goes off. Buddy runs downstairs to find smoking. The pound cake is burning because Joey got called away. Buddy is pissed but finally he says just make another batch. Not so exciting as the title makes it sound.

At the top of the cake will be a dancer with a billowing skirt and the cake will be covered with flowy fabric. The dancer will be made of modeling chocolate.

Meanwhile, they start the cake out of a frame a cereal treats. The shape is the hardest place. He checks on the other pieces of the cake, including figurines which are too big for the cake…They argue over who said to do it. Buddy tells them to stop arguing and bickering and gives them a pep talk. Throw down hard! Dig down deep! We will prevail!

They cover the plane and then add windows and other little details. In walks Buddy’s relative, Grace (Joey’s wife) wearing Joey’s Desert Storm jacket. They begin putting the cake together downstairs. It’s 4×8 feet.

Meanwhile, they take pictures of the dancers to add to the cake. Plus they make it turn. Cue the dance theater. The performances look kind of weird but it might look different on a real stage in real costumes. Everyone applauds, as usual. The dance inspired the cake, the cake inspired random dancing! (iCarly anyone?).

Buddy is worried about finishing the airplane cake. The more they add, the better it looks. It’s pretty cool. Though the people are necklace which is funny looking. But otherwise, it’s huge. Now the real challenge, moving it and delivering it. The cake was so big they have barely enough room to get it out the back door. They manage to get it into the truck and drive over to the USS New Jersey. 3 football fields long. Using a cart they take the cake up and everyone’s cheering. The warmest reception they’ve ever gotten. Buddy makes sure to give his team credit.

Joey gets a special shout out and he makes a little speech saying the entire air force is a family effort too. He says he will always feel a part of the air force. They get Buddy an army shirt with his name and a rank (three star general at leave?).

Cake Boss: Candy, Crash, and Crisis

Buddy has a surprise. He is pulling out candy. They have to do a cake for Dylan’s Candy Bar (daughter of Ralph Lauren). The Candy Bar is celebrating their anniversary with Candy Land. They have characters that they want included. Candy Land road will cover the board along with characters and candy. They crush up peanut butter cups for filling. The girls are artists, creating the characters with modeling chocolate in intricate detail.They even make homemade gummy bears.

Downstairs things are crazy. Buddy has a ton of calls but he doesn’t pick up. He’s too busy looking at  cake he made. The women are annoyed and want to talk to him “calmly.” They think it’s time for him to hire an assistant. He doesn’t think he needs one. He’s hesitant. They yell at him until he agrees. They’re thrilled.

He’s also hired for a wedding cake.

They get 50+ special order cakes a week and they do them assembly line style. In comes the women with Tom, the new assistant. Buddy does not look thrilled though they look proud of themselves. They think Tom is cute and innocent. He wanted a counter position really. They tell him to give him a chance so he agrees to give it a shot.

There’s lots of work to do when in comes Buddy’s nephew. He wants to eat the candy but is told no. He doesn’t understand why he can’t have any. He sneaks some anyway when no one is looking.

Buddy gets Tom to get him lunch. Buddy thinks maybe he’s right. The sisters bully him into doing other things and he doesn’t know how to say no so he never gets a chance to get the food.

They roll gumballs. Downstairs Tom keeps trying to go but they keep not letting him. Buddy begins to wonder where Tom is. Buddy yells and the sisters say they needed help. Buddy said too bad, he’s his personal assistant. They fight in front of the customers. His sisters don’t really care.

Half the time I expect Anthony to drop the cakes the way he carries them. But then Anthony gets into an accident and the car is totaled. Buddy is surprisingly calm. Meanwhile, the cake is untouched.

Time to deliver the candy cake. The road is so crazy that the cake begins falling apart. They have to rush back to the bakery to fix it up. The figurines were okay but the top two tiers were destroyed. They have an hour to remake the whole thing. I’m impressed by how quickly they manage to put it back together again. Dylan loves it.

Cake Boss: Plants, Pranks, and Proposals

Team meeting: botanical gardens wicked plants tour inspired by the book of the same name. They want to make the cake for the author who will lead the tour. The plan is a huge venus fly trap surrounded by poisonous flowers. They use a pipe for the curvature and stability of the venus fly trap.It takes 3-4 hours to make a bunch of flowers.

Meanwhile, Buddy meets a customer to make a proposal cake for a guy who always comes in with his girlfriend. He wants to propose to him there: an oversized bling ring in a ring box. Don’t forget the real ring. He entrusts Buddy with the ring. Diamond out of sugar with a mold.

In comes Mary who doesn’t believe the flowers are poisonous and eats one. She says it tastes good. In comes his mother to yell at him for making Mary eating the flower. Mary says she’s tough and nothing will happen to her. Their mom discoveres the truth though.

While Buddy works on the engagement cake, someone sneaks over and takes the real ring.

In walks someone to order a cake. Buddy wants to punish Anthony for dropping a cake last season. They had a girl pretend to come in for a cake and have him flirt with Anthony meanwhile. Anthony is kind of awkward.

Buddy finished the diamond, makes a band, paints the box to look like the ring box (which he doesn’t realize is missing still).

Time to finish the prank with Anthony. They send him out and then have her plant him against the wall to get spilled all over. He asks her out and she goes toget her phone, leaving him in the perfect place to get dumped on. Anthony says they’ve got it coming. His mother comes out to yell at him. She tells them to apologize. It is unacceptable, she’s the real boss.

The venus fly trap reminds me of Little Shop of Horrors. FEED ME! Buddy opens the box with the ring and it’s empty. He asks who has it and he’s “not kidding around now.” He’s pissed. They tear everything apart but in walks his sister. She has the ring. She just took it to clean it. She just wanted it to look nice.

Transporting the botanical garden cake proves stressful as it has to be taken from New Jersey to Brooklyn. It gets there safely and the plant people are impressed by how realistic the flowers are.

Then there’s the engagement. Everyone watches anxiously. It’s sooo cute. Such an awesome proposal. Of course seh said yes!

Cake Boss 8

Couple comes because they’re having a Zombie walk–they walk through town with make up. They want a cake for the after party-Zombie Prom. They want it gross and rotting and bloody. They decide on a tombstone with a Zombie coming out of the dirt with a brain in hand and body parts sprawled all over.

As they get to work in comes a bride for a bachelorette cake. Buddy’s mom has a rule, no erotic cakes. Buddy is willing to do it for friends but they have to keep it secret. They want a very graphic cake where size matters. But can they keep it a secret?

He has the women and Tone Tone (Buddy’s gay assistant who is sister is getting married) make the male strippers while they take care of the stage itself. The strippers will be tricky because they couldn’t add clothes to cover imperfections. They’re all worried about the mother coming in and sure enough she sees what they’re doing and tells them it’s unacceptable. She says she’s the boss and she’ll break them herself if need be. No way no how! They agree to cover them (temporarily so they can remove it).

They start working on the zombie cake and up comes his mother to check on a wedding cake. She finds Tone Tone’s uncovered stripper. She flips out. They cover the strippers and the mom approves. He brings the cake to the bachelorette party where the girls flip out. (As Buddy says, “you would have thought I brought them real strippers.”)

The Zombie cake is still unfinished. They work on the skin, tearing and ripping the fondant and adding the teeth and blood. They splatter blood and airbrush it to add features. then they add a rat. It’s pretty gross so successful.

A bunch of them go to deliver the cake because they’re curious to see what a zombie fest is. People are all dressed up and limping around. The “zombies” tear the cake apart. They think it’s incredible.

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Cake Boss 7

Buddy gets a call by the Garruchi family, they do fireworks for everything big (olympics, inaugurations, etc.) they need a cake for the founder’s birthday. They want to incorporate landmarks and fireworks into the cake itself. He gets a surprise mini show.It’s not so impressive to see on tv, you just don’t get the effect and noise.

The idea is to do three landmasses and the statue of liberty, 4-5 foot skyscrapers, the brooklyn bridge, fireworks on top. The dad would be sitting at the base of the statue, poised to light a fireworks.

While working Buddy gets a call about how he has to go to his son’s school for “bring your dad to school day” so he wants to make mini cakes for each kid to design with their parents. His kids are so cute. They come to work and get a chance to play with the coloring.

Buddy wants to test the fireworks to see what happens. This doesn’t seem set up correctly…Buddy lights it and runs out of the way but nothing happens. They think it’s a dud, until the entire cake explodes. Ooops. Clearly not the right type of fireworks. There’s fireworks everywhere!

They get some snaps to have some fun. Meanwhile they set up the buildings and add the windows and bricks. They use poppy seeds for roofs. Sprinkles are people in a stadium. It’s pretty awesome, includes some generic and some important buildings (9 in total) plus a bridge, a stadium, a factory, and of course the bakery.

With the snaps they sneak down and scare the women in the kitchen. He’s thrilled with himself for scaring his sister so she goes and tells on him. She sends him back to work.

They run wires through the cakes to attach the fireworks. They run into a problem–the only big enough room to work is the oven room. Which is hot. So the fondant begins to melt and bend. Luckily with some quick thinking they use fans to dry the cakes.

So far so amazing looking. But now it’s time to transport the cake only to discover that the truck is too small.

(Sidenote, commercial for a new series Masters of Reception. I’m kind of curious, it’s like Cake Boss for party designers.)

Oh, they just have to lift it. Or they can remove the shelf that’s in the way. They’re nervous that they won’t have time to get it to the party in time. Finally they arrive and the cake is a hit. The fireworks are supercool once installed.

Then off to his son’s school. The mini cakes are a hit.

Buddy talks about his dad who inspires him.

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Cake Boss 6

May-June is a busy season. Buddy is working on a cake that had been planned a while ago. He meets with a bride who is difficult (she wants everything her mother doesn’t want). They can’t agree on anything but the daughter doesn’t do anything. The mother wants a white cake, the daughter wants black. He combines their two ideas and they agree on a four tier cake. Buddy drapes fondant on the cake, as the mother wants. Buddy is thrilled with how it comes out. He puts on cowlilies, which the bride wanted. They’re sure the bride will like it. 

Joey says someone contacted him asking if they could do something for a children’s hospital. Buddy says of course, anything for the kids. The cake is supposed to be a 3-D replica of their logo and feed 500 people. Not quite what he thought it was. This is going to be a lot harder than expected. It’s going to be a huge cake. While studying the logo Buddy get an idea. Cake is clouds and then they’ll add the bi-plane and a banner. 

The bride wants to come in and check on her cake. This isn’t typical but it happens on occasion. She’s very stoic. She sees it and says “oh my god this is so ugly.” She doesn’t like that it looks so traditional. The cake is very important to her. She wants there to be color in the cake. While they’re out discussing what to do, she grabs piping bags and starts squirting coloring all over the cake. He’s shocked. She says she was giving him an art lesson. He tells her to go. He pretty pissed and nearly decides not to make the cake. Buddy surveys the cake and calls her mother and tells on her. He doesn’t think he can make them a cake. Her mother starts crying so he says he’ll do it for her. Such a softie at heart. 

Buddy rallies his helpers. No one wants to make another cake, they say he should just deliver the one she ruined. Buddy says they’re making a cake regardless of what they like. 

He goes to check on the biplane cake and they’re not doing what he wanted. They’ve messed up so he has to do some quick fixing.

Meanwhile they’re having difficulty filling a cupcake order. Buddy is frustrated and starts yelling at everyone. Stretch the delivery boy and Frankie are up to something. It seems they’re planning a prank. Stretch goes to get Buddy. (This is a prank war, Buddy has apparently pranked Buddy.) Buddy falls for the bait and comes downstairs with Stretch to check on the delivery truck. But when Stretch opens the truck it’s empty and food coloring and water are poured onto the delivery boy. Buddy cracks up. Frankie went to Buddy as soon as Stretch came to him.

They had the cake and banner made but they still had to do the cake, which they made out of cake. The rest was made out of modeling chocolate with icing to stick everything together. They proud of the cake even though everyone is exhausted.

Now it’s Bridezilla’s wedding day and it’s not finished yet. After they add the flowers, they add silver pearls to a quilted exterior and with teamwork they manage to finish it. Buddy decides to deliver it personally so he can see her reaction. Her mother sees it and gasps in pleasure. She loves it. She apologizes about her daughter and he says he just wants to make her happy. Buddy says he’s confident the bride will love the cake. Let’s see…

They call the bride in. She doesn’t seem to want to come. She says “oh it’s beautiful” in a very sarcastic tone, refusing to come into the room, much less actually look at it. It wasn’t what Buddy was hoping for but everyone else loved it. 

Time to deliver the other cake. They get there and everyone applauds the cake. People are thrilled and say it tasted great. 

Buddy gets home and his kids run to him. He feels like he hasn’t seen them in a while and he misses them. They sit down for dinner. Buddy says family is what life is all about.

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Cake Boss 5

Team meeting to discuss a wedding cake that should look like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It has to lean! The plan is eight tiers plus a couple on a vespa looking like the couple. The boards will smooth out the cream and help with the support. So far the lean looks good, though slightly shaky. It’s over 4 feet tall.

A man named Michael comes in to meet Buddy. He’s the best man at a wedding and he’s throwing an engagement party for the first time. He wants something cool (basically he has no idea). The couple has been dating for ten years. It’s a clambaked themed party. He suggest a lobster bride and groom on top of a pot “ready to take the plunge.” Michael loves the idea. 

They begin putting bricks around the cake and then add the column. They go all out with the detail when Michael shows up with an emergency. The party that he thought was on Friday is actually…tonight! He’s freaking out. Buddy hasn’t even started anything with the cake. But Buddy says he will see what he can do.

They tell Buddy he’s on his own.  Buddy works quickly, creating boiling water with isomalt. While this dries, he goes back to the Tower cake, which is looking great. Using a mold and fondant he makes clams and sends someone out to get him 3D lobsters for the top. 

Their intercom system doesn’t work well. So they are all getting upset with each other. Daniella is responsible for the vespa and figures. He looks at the tower but thinks it isn’t rustic enough so they add more to it. In comes cousin Anthony with live lobsters. Buddy used them to make his own. 

In bangs the women demanding info. He just pretended to agree with them so that they’ll live. (Their voices take on a helium sound.) 

Buddy has the lobsters holding claws. Finally he finished the cake. 3-4 hours for this cake. Meanwhile the real lobsters are just sitting on the table. Buddy runs to bring the cake to the event. Everyone cheers as he walks in. (How do you cut a cake like that?)

One of buddy’s sisters has smashed a flower and wants someone to fix it but when she asks Tom he says he doesn’t know how. With a “happy birthday” she smashes the cake in his face. (That’s the birthday tradition of the bakery. He didn’t expect it not to be done by Buddy so he wasn’t ready despite knowing that it was the tradition. 

Time to make the cake lean. With great apprehension they screw it in and then add the bride and groom. They decide that it’s the best cake yet. It’s raining when they have to deliver the cake so they have to cover it with a “body bag.” They are thrilled beyong their wildest dreams. 

Afterwords they go and cook the lobsters for a big group meal. Buddy toasts to their great group.

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Cake Boss 4

It’s wedding season, they have 40-45 cakes for the weekend alone. Everyone has to be involved and organized. In addition he has a specialty cake for a guy who was nominated for man of the year. He has to make a roulette table sized cake. It should look real. (The wheel will even spin.)

Pound cake and a wheel will be used for the roulette wheel.

Someone comes in to pick up a cake for a mother’s birthday cake. Apparently there was no slip for it. Which means it wasn’t made. The slip is law. They have a specific system for the order, date, and delivery. It’s an old school system. They pull the cake out quickly despite the mess up.

The water is coming out brown so they can’t use it to make mixtures. But people do it anyway. And Buddy has to go downstairs to bust some heads. Buddy is PISSED and they get into a yelling match with everyone blaming someone else for disobeying.

All hands on deck for the roulette cake. Fondant for the numbers and chips. Paint the wheel to look like wood. (It actually looks like wood which is cool.) Downstairs the guys throw water at each other for getting each other in trouble. The brown water isn’t a problem anymore, they just had to change a valve.

Buddy has to work on tons of different cakes at once. He then goes to make a cake for a gay couple getting married. It’s inspired by an old theater–meaning red and gold.

Buddy holds a stack of slips and decides to start with a five tier cherry blossom cake. There’s a branch climbing its way up the cake and then they hand make edible flowers.

Back to the roulette cake. They lower the wheel into the base but it isn’t spinning. What should he do now?!?! They try to readjust things a bit to center the wheel and now it works. Almost done now. They just have to do the chips and number markers. Buddy personally delivers this cake. It’s a balancing act to get it down the stairs but finally they manage. He takes the biggest guys to the social club just in case people don’t like it. They’re really old school “are you lookin’ at me” types. The guys who ordered the cake think it looks great. (Is this a mafia group?) The boss who they made the cake for examines it, Buddy fears he will be unhappy, but he says it’s fantastic. Buddy is then welcomes like one of the family. Hmmm…

Stretch comes in to check the deliveries, coordinate the slips and deliveries. They nervously make deliveries but when Stretch shows up it seems the cake is for the next day. He gets yelled at for not double checking the slip.

Next he brings the wedding cake for the grooms. But it is not the correct cake. This wouldn’t be such a problem if he just read the slips! Buddy sees why the slip system could have flaws. So he found the correct cake and the grooms are happy.

They may not be the most organized system but everyone got their cakes, everyone’s happy, and Buddy didn’t get whacked.

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Cake Boss 3

I found another episode up on TLC (I guess it’s official, I do like the show now).

Luis comes to Buddy every year for a huge birthday cake. This year the theme is Tikis and he wants the cake to be a huge tiki that sprouts fire to match the crazy party itself. Buddy proves innovative and finds a way to create a huge mask with an open math that a fire breather can stand behind and breath fire through for the party’s finale.

At the same time, his cousin Vinny shows up at the Bakery needing a cake for his bridal shower. The cake is going to look like three tiers of luggage, their most popular cake.

Buddy checks in on the Tiki cake to find that the icing process if going slowly. Buddy is annoyed and says it should be the easiest part, he could do it better blindfolded. Which of course means he has to do it. Loser has to wear a grass skirt and coconut bra and stand outside and give out cupcakes outside the bakery. Sure enough, he does it perfectly. I am actually very impressed. Not so excited to see the tiki outfit. (In solidarity they all wear leis.)

They get back to work on the luggage cake and in comes his wife and mother in law. His mother in law decides she does not like it. She wants a jewelry box. The theme is jewelry. Luckily they didn’t get very far so they can still use the tiers. One of the decorators makes mannequin style jewelry stands that look beautiful (she went to an art school and always enjoyed working with clay so this job is great for her). They add jewels and necklaces, a shoe and purse, and put together it looks great.

The tiki case involves some screws and wood. Buddy is worried that the tiki head will fall off. Once they put it all together they want to test it to make sure nothing will melt. Test one goes well, no unexpected fires or destruction.

They deliver the cake and with the fire breather in place, the cake looks amazing.

Then, at the bridal shower, they deliver that cake and everyone loves that one as well. And to answer my question of if it tastes good, the bride to be takes a bite and says it’s great.

More Cake Boss.