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.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Cake Boss
Cake Boss Postview: Motorcycles, Manhattanites & Misbehaving
By Amy Sara Clark/The Jersey Journal
December 15, 2009, 1:02AM
Buddy "Cake Boss" Valastro and the "crew" outside Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken.On tonight's episode of "Cake Boss," Hoboken's own Buddy Valastro gets yelled at by his mother for riding a motorcycle.
He was riding the bike because a bunch of Hell's Angels members came and asked him to make a cake and of course he made one with a 4-foot motorcycle on top.
This motorcycle brings me to a concern that's been brewing for awhile: I'm not sure pipes and wood covered with rice crispy treats really count as cake. Granted, the bikers ate the base cake, which looked very good.
But the bike at the top? Really it was just a model. Who wants to eat a bunch of rice crispy treats covered with modeling chocolate?
My husband, who joined me for the episode thanks to the Hell's Angel's theme (he's gotten very into "Sons of Anarchy," an FX series about bikers), had another concern about the motorcycle. He thought the wheels looked too small.
“That looks like a scooter," he said. "If I were a Hell’s Angel, I would not be pleased.”
But the bikers seemed pretty pleased so Buddy made it out of Long Island intact.
The other cake of the week was a giant tea pot and tea cups for a Manhattan "socialite's" tea party.
First of all, the cake looked like it would feed 40; the party was for 10. Second of all, those girls were so thin, who knows if they ate any of it.
So why did the socialite get the cake?
Either she desperately wanted to be on a reality show or she thought the cake would make a splash. Well she got both.
Which brings me to another question. Does everyone, these days, who orders a specialty cake at Carlo's Bakery, hope to get on reality television? And if so, does that mean the Hell's Angel's were trying to get publicity?
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
ckje;we
About Cake Boss Buddy Valastro
Buddy Valastro is one of the most successful and renowned cake artists in the United States. Master baker of Carlo's City Hall Bake Shop in Hoboken, New Jersey, Buddy is the cake boss.
He supervises a team that includes his mother, four older sisters and three brothers-in-law. And when you're working with family on a daily basis, there is bound to be a lot of drama. The Valastros know drama but and at the end of the day they also know love.
Cake Boss chronicles Buddy's over-arching desire to achieve his late father's dream of making Carlo's Bake Shop a household name with or without the help of his family.
New Season Premieres Oct. 26 @ 10/9c. Get the schedule.
Buddy Valastro is one of the most successful and renowned cake artists in the United States. Master baker of Carlo's City Hall Bake Shop in Hoboken, New Jersey, Buddy is the cake boss.
He supervises a team that includes his mother, four older sisters and three brothers-in-law. And when you're working with family on a daily basis, there is bound to be a lot of drama. The Valastros know drama but and at the end of the day they also know love.
Cake Boss chronicles Buddy's over-arching desire to achieve his late father's dream of making Carlo's Bake Shop a household name with or without the help of his family.
New Season Premieres Oct. 26 @ 10/9c. Get the schedule.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
About Cake Boss
Buddy Valastro is one of the most successful and renowned cake artists in the United States. Master baker of Carlo's City Hall Bake Shop in Hoboken, New Jersey, Buddy is the cake boss.
He supervises a team that includes his mother, four older sisters and three brothers-in-law. And when you're working with family on a daily basis, there is bound to be a lot of drama. The Valastros know drama but and at the end of the day they also know love.
Cake Boss chronicles Buddy's over-arching desire to achieve his late father's dream of making Carlo's Bake Shop a household name with or without the help of his family.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Cake artists in the television show
Cake Boss is a reality television show, aired on TLC, featuring the owner of Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken, New Jersey, Buddy Valastro, and his staff, mostly consisted of his family. The show follows the daily life in the bakery, including arguments.
Buddy Valastro is one of the most successful and renowned cake artists in the United States. Master baker of Carlo's City Hall Bake Shop in Hoboken, New Jersey, Buddy is the cake boss.
He supervises a team that includes his mother, four older sisters and three brothers-in-law. And when you're working with family on a daily basis, there is bound to be a lot of drama. The Valastros know drama but and at the end of the day they also know love.
Cake Boss chronicles Buddy's over-arching desire to achieve his late father's dream of making Carlo's Bake Shop a household name with or without the help of his family.
TLC's latest foray into the reality TV world -- known as Cake Boss -- sounds like it should be a cooking show focused on baking and sugary confections and anything coveredin frosting. Yum! And it is -- sort of. But don't expect to find a recipe in the show -- at least not in the sneak preview pilot, which aired last night. Aww, not so sweet.
No, TV watchers, Boss is less cooking show, more reality show about a a big Italian family in New Jersey owns a big bakery called Carlo's. The Boss part of the title refers to Buddy Valastro (pictured), who's in charge of the bakery and is the show's "star."
Early on in this first episode, the lovable but slightly dim-seeming Buddy is swamped with a busy week when -- can you believe it! -- he gets a call from Brides magazine. For a shoot this coming Friday, they need a multi-tiered wedding cake with excruciating detail. He goes into overdrive. Then! His two sisters -- Mary and Grace, who manage the retail part of the bakery together -- trick him into making his own birthday cake in the shape of a boat. The bakery runs out of sugar in the midst of all this, and Buddy flies off the handle. For, really, no good reason. And, naturally, the day before the cake is due to the Brides photo shoot, the editor -- who is, creepily enough, named Maria McBride -- calls to say she needs to additional cake options. See the staff go into continued overdrive! They've gotta make dozens of icing flowers in one day!
The problem -- for us viewers, at least -- is that there really are no problems. The bakery actually seems to run like a well-oiled machine. Which is boring. The cakes get done, beautifully. They get delivered, on time. Everything that does kind of transpire -- the whole we've-got-no-sugar thing and a fracas with sister Mary not providing customer service -- seem so contrived and, frankly, in consequential. Honestly, I wanted one of the Brides cakes to go splattering down the stairs while in transit or there to be some sort of cake-encrusted food fight in the bakery. Maybe just a fallen souffle? Something to make me laugh, cry, or -- please, please, please! -- hate or love one of these characters.
The problem with Buddy as a reality TV star is that he seems to be pandering to the cameras and is out solely for self-promotional purposes. (But, then again, what else is the motivator for doing a reality show?) Buddy explodes at his cousin Little Frankie (yes, that's his name!) after the bakery is out of sugar. But why? Couldn't some sort of underling just go to the grocery down the street and pick some up? Later, during the fracas with his gruff sister Mary, he calls her into his office after he receives a complaint about her and tells her to read the email outloud. When would you ever do that besides on a reality show? I called Buddy "dim" above because he just isn't quite all there. He keeps referring to "breaking my chops." Isn't the phrase "bust my chops"? Just sayin'. But, then again, he's not dim enough that he's endearing and fun to watch.
Cake Boss is not a bad show -- it's just that (pardon the really bad pun) the recipe hasn't quite been perfected yet. But with a tweak or two -- or maybe just another few episodes, so we can really see the dynamic of this whirling bakery and its cast of characters -- it could be rather sweet.
Buddy Valastro is one of the most successful and renowned cake artists in the United States. Master baker of Carlo's City Hall Bake Shop in Hoboken, New Jersey, Buddy is the cake boss.
He supervises a team that includes his mother, four older sisters and three brothers-in-law. And when you're working with family on a daily basis, there is bound to be a lot of drama. The Valastros know drama but and at the end of the day they also know love.
Cake Boss chronicles Buddy's over-arching desire to achieve his late father's dream of making Carlo's Bake Shop a household name with or without the help of his family.
TLC's latest foray into the reality TV world -- known as Cake Boss -- sounds like it should be a cooking show focused on baking and sugary confections and anything coveredin frosting. Yum! And it is -- sort of. But don't expect to find a recipe in the show -- at least not in the sneak preview pilot, which aired last night. Aww, not so sweet.
No, TV watchers, Boss is less cooking show, more reality show about a a big Italian family in New Jersey owns a big bakery called Carlo's. The Boss part of the title refers to Buddy Valastro (pictured), who's in charge of the bakery and is the show's "star."
Early on in this first episode, the lovable but slightly dim-seeming Buddy is swamped with a busy week when -- can you believe it! -- he gets a call from Brides magazine. For a shoot this coming Friday, they need a multi-tiered wedding cake with excruciating detail. He goes into overdrive. Then! His two sisters -- Mary and Grace, who manage the retail part of the bakery together -- trick him into making his own birthday cake in the shape of a boat. The bakery runs out of sugar in the midst of all this, and Buddy flies off the handle. For, really, no good reason. And, naturally, the day before the cake is due to the Brides photo shoot, the editor -- who is, creepily enough, named Maria McBride -- calls to say she needs to additional cake options. See the staff go into continued overdrive! They've gotta make dozens of icing flowers in one day!
The problem -- for us viewers, at least -- is that there really are no problems. The bakery actually seems to run like a well-oiled machine. Which is boring. The cakes get done, beautifully. They get delivered, on time. Everything that does kind of transpire -- the whole we've-got-no-sugar thing and a fracas with sister Mary not providing customer service -- seem so contrived and, frankly, in consequential. Honestly, I wanted one of the Brides cakes to go splattering down the stairs while in transit or there to be some sort of cake-encrusted food fight in the bakery. Maybe just a fallen souffle? Something to make me laugh, cry, or -- please, please, please! -- hate or love one of these characters.
The problem with Buddy as a reality TV star is that he seems to be pandering to the cameras and is out solely for self-promotional purposes. (But, then again, what else is the motivator for doing a reality show?) Buddy explodes at his cousin Little Frankie (yes, that's his name!) after the bakery is out of sugar. But why? Couldn't some sort of underling just go to the grocery down the street and pick some up? Later, during the fracas with his gruff sister Mary, he calls her into his office after he receives a complaint about her and tells her to read the email outloud. When would you ever do that besides on a reality show? I called Buddy "dim" above because he just isn't quite all there. He keeps referring to "breaking my chops." Isn't the phrase "bust my chops"? Just sayin'. But, then again, he's not dim enough that he's endearing and fun to watch.
Cake Boss is not a bad show -- it's just that (pardon the really bad pun) the recipe hasn't quite been perfected yet. But with a tweak or two -- or maybe just another few episodes, so we can really see the dynamic of this whirling bakery and its cast of characters -- it could be rather sweet.
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