Cake Decorating Contests Fort Myers Fl

Cake Boss Buddy Valastro

Any baker worth his salt can pipe rose buds and flower petals from a tube to make a cake look pretty.

But Buddy Valastro doesn't just decorate cakes.

He builds them, like a sculptor creating a work of art.

He's made a life-sized NASCAR racing car, using 24,000 cakes.

He's created a robot cake that glowed from the inside.

And at the request of a particular group of plumbers, he made a toilet bowl cake that flushed.

"I enjoy the challenges," Mr. Valastro says. "As crazy as my life is, I enjoy challenging myself to see how big I can go."

Viewers who know Mr. Valastro as the titular character of TLC's "Cake Boss" know that he loves a good challenge; the odder the request, the better. And they tune in every week to see how he'll top himself this time.

Buddy Valastro makes fish for the boys, Danny, Frankie, Buddy, Joey and Mauro.

He brings his "Bakin' with the Boss Tour: An Evening with Buddy Valastro, the Cake Boss" to the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall in Fort Myers on Saturday, June 4. He'll tell his story, demonstrate some techniques and involve the audience in a bit of cake-decorating competition.

"You can bring your 4-year-old and you can bring your grandmother," he says about the fun, fast-paced evening that's set to music.

Buddy Valastro airbrushes the Stork Cake.

His life story is a condensed version of the American Dream, he says.

"When I tell my story, you might even cry," he claims.

He'll also answer questions from the audience while decorating a wedding cake. And at the end, there's a big surprise. "It's the funniest part of the show," he says. "My favorite response is when someone says afterward, 'I didn't know what to expect, and I loved it.' That's a great feeling."

The Boss is born

Mr. Valastro's career has been in overdrive lately, advancing at warp speed.

As an 11-year-old, he began working by his father's side at the family-owned Carlo's Bake Shop in Hoboken, N.J. (The bakery is named after its original owner, Carlo Guastaffero.) When Mr. Valastro was 17, his father died.

"I dropped out of school to take over the family business," he says.

In 2004, he was invited to participate in the Food Network Challenge. He didn't win, but wound up participating in three more of the network's cake competitions, finally winning the last one, "Battle of the Brides."

The folks at TLC liked his friendliness and ease in front of the camera, the way he would banter in his New Jersey accent. They decided to make a reality series set around Mr. Valastro and his bakery. They liked the "Cake Boss" pilot so much, they ordered 12 more episodes for the first season. (The No. 1 hit began its fourth season May 30.)

The show also features Mr. Valastro's mother (the Boss Boss) and his four older sisters (who all work at the bakery), along with in-laws and other employees.

Although some viewers complain about how scripted the show can seem, there's no doubt that the cake-making is amazing: cakes in the shape of dogs, people, robots, cars, pool tables.

The series is so popular it's spawned two spinoffs. "The Next Great Baker" is a competition ala "Top Chef." The winner receives $50,000, a new car and the opportunity to apprentice with Mr. Valastro at Carlo's Bake Shop.

The second spinoff is a daily halfhour show, "Kitchen Boss," in which Mr. Valastro cooks an Italian dish from one of his family's recipes.

As if that's not enough, he came out with a book in November: "Cake Boss: Stories and Recipes from Mia Famiglia" ($25.99, The Free Press). And he's just expanded across the Hudson River, opening the Cake Boss Café in New York's Times Square. The New York store sells his smaller baked goods, but not his highly prized decorated cakes.

His business has grown exponentially. Lines at the Hoboken bakery notoriously wind around the block; some customers have waited six hours. The bakery, it's said, also employs a bouncer.

He's also opening a bigger kitchen in Jersey City, so he can sell his goods nationally.

"Now that I'm the Cake Boss, it's a bigger business," Mr. Valastro says. "It's a great thing, but it's not an easy thing, and not everybody can rise to the challenge to make things happen."

You might think he's brash or boastful, but consider this: In addition to his hit TV shows, his book, his tour and his new store, he's appeared in the pages of People magazine, The New York Times, USA Today and Brides magazine. And he's been on "The Oprah Show," "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," "Good Morning America" and "The Today Show," just to name a few.

Crazy cake requests

Mr. Valastro has made a cake commissioned by the Bronx Zoo and one for the 40th anniversary of "Sesame Street."

What's the strangest cake request he's ever had?

"The toilet bowl, probably," he says. "That was the most crazy, different thing that we did."

He also lists the life-sized NASCAR cake.

"The Transformer cake was crazy, too," he says. "There've been lots of challenging cakes."

What's the prettiest cake he's created?

He seems uncharacteristically flummoxed by the question, but then says, "The prettiest cake was the one of my wife, because she's beautiful." (He created a life-size replica of Lisa Valastro for her 30th birthday.)

Finding inspiration

The Cake Boss says his surroundings inspire his creations in the kitchen.

"I can look at a building and see the architecture and see how I could turn that into a cake. I see the way flowers bloom, the way Mother Nature uses color."

Because his confections are works of art, customers sometimes hesitate to cut into them and eat a slice.

"I'm done with that," Mr. Valastro says. "I've been doing cakes since I was 11. I love to see them cut and people enjoying them. Then they say they taste as good as they look."

in the know

>> "Bakin' with the Boss Tour:
An Evening with Buddy Valastro,
the Cake Boss"
>> When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 4
>> Where: The Barbara B. Mann Performing
Arts Hall
>> Tickets: $45.75 and $35.75
>> Info: 481-4849 or www.bbmannpah.com

>> By the numbers:
>> 24,000: Cakes used to make a life-sized
NASCAR racecar cake
>> 10,000: Pounds the NASCAR cake
weighed
>> 120: Hours of footage filmed for the first
half-hour episode of "Cake Boss"
>> 101: Years Carlo's Bake Shop has been in
existence
>> 4: Tons of flour the shop goes through
every week
>> 2: Tons of sugar the shop goes through
every week