Cake Boss Hires His Next Great Baker

The season finale of Buddy Valastro's Cake Boss spin-off contest show Next Great Baker aired Monday night, with Buddy choosing the winner of the competition to win $50,000, a brand new car and a job at Carlo's. Mayor Dawn Zimmer served as one of the judges and helped Buddy make the decision.
The three finalists fighting for the grand prize are Corina, Dana and Megan.
While the finalists prepare—they're supposed to bake 400 cookies, 20 cakes, 20 pies and 200 pastries in 24 hours—Buddy announces that they'll also have to make a custom order cake for a very special client.
He then introduces the finalists to the mayor, who explains her order.
“We want to do a cake to celebrate the city of Hoboken," she says. “We have a lot of rich history here.”
She then tells them about some of Hoboken's landmarks, including city hall and the library, and also that we Hobokenites are a very diverse community, and have pedestrian and bike friendly streets on top of serving as a major transportation hub. Oh, and we're the birthplace of baseball too.
The finalists ask the mayor what kind of cake she likes. Chocolate. "That's my kind of girl," Megan answers.
But while the finalists think about how best to represent Hoboken in cake form, they must also finish preparing for the onslaught of running the Carlo's counter.
They stock the glass cases with their wares, and Corina notices her selection isn't as wide as Dana's and Megan's.
Buddy explains that he has handed tickets to the customers outside to exchange for sweets, and he'll use those to keep score.
At the end of the two hours, he surprises the finalists by saying that he's going to eliminate the finalist with the lowest sales total.
That's Corina, leaving Dana and Megan to battle between themselves. With the counter rush over, they return to work on their Hoboken cakes.
Dana's is square, multi-tiered and very colorful, with photos of famous Hoboken places printed onto the cake. In addition to a figurine of the mayor and her bicycle and Buddy, he also has a graduate from Stevens and a Port Authority worker.
Megan's is multi-tiered, but round. She too has figurines, with the one of Zimmer posted at the very top. Hers has included a baseball motif and has big letters saying Hoboken.
The two finalists finish their cakes and escort them to the Stevens campus. When they walk in they see hundreds of Cake Boss fans seated in the audience, as well as their own families in the front row. Up on stage are Buddy, his mother Mary and Zimmer.
Mary tells the crowd, “I'm the boss of the bakery,” and Buddy introduces Zimmer as “the boss of Hoboken.”
The judges taste a sample of the two cakes. First, Dana's. Mary likes it. Zimmer complements the design and says it tastes moist and sweet, though she asks why it isn't made of chocolate like she had ordered. Buddy agrees with her, saying that Dana didn't follow directions.
Next Megan's. Zimmer likes the chocolate and the big Hoboken letters. Mary likes Megan's but still prefers Dana's.
Then Buddy asks for their vote. Mary goes with Dana, Zimmer picks Megan. Buddy stirs the pot by saying he's got the deciding vote, and asks Dana and Megan to explain why he should pick them.
Megan says she can manage a team well and work with clients. Dana says he fights hard and is a clutch player.
In the end Buddy announces that the winner of the next great baker challenge is Dana.
After celebrating onstage, Buddy and the bakers walk Dana back to Carlo's, where Buddy's sisters welcome them all with champagne. They hand Dana his own Carlo's white baker's coat, and Buddy welcomes him into the family.