Charm City Cakes' Executive Sous Chef More Than Just a Cake Decorator?

Charm City Cakes, located in Baltimore, Maryland and owned by Chef Duff Goldman, is the setting of the hit reality show on the Food Network, Ace of Cakes. Charm City Cakes started in March 2000, with Chef Duff Goldman making his creative cakes for people he cares about, friends and family. Two years, later word of Chef Goldman's creations got out, and business started booming, that is when he made cake baking and decorating his full-time job. A little over three years after that, Chef Goldman bought, what today is, Charm City Cakes, where he and his employees, who are all friends of his, work. They are a very creative team, and their inspiration for each cake comes from all over, especially from the customer. Everyone on the staff comes from a creative background whether it is being a musician, architectural modeling, graphic design, painting, and much more.

When you watch the show, you get to know all of the employees at Charm City Cakes, like executive sous chef, Geof Manthorne. Manthorne, born April 25, 1974 and originally from Pottstown, PA, has previously worked as an architectural model builder, which would explain why he is known for his cake building skill (and cake decorating skill too). He went to school for geography and his hobbies are music and songwriting. On Ace of Cakes, you can see his very mellow and laid-back personality and his witty and great sense of humor. He is always taking on crazy projects just like the other employees at Charm City Cakes. He always gets his job done and handles stress very well (or at least he never shows when he is stressed). He does a lot of the cakes that look like other things, such as cars, planes, and stadiums. According to Chef Goldman, "Geof is the detail guy. He executes whatever he does flawlessly." It is obvious that Geof seems to be very good at what he does. However, is cake decorating all he does?

No.

Geof's hobbies are music and songwriting. He thought he would make a living doing that somehow before he started working at Charm City Cakes.

A little more than a year ago, in January 2007, the Food Network released a YouTube video of Geof Manthorne unplugged. It is a video of Geof playing an original acoustic song in the middle of the Charm City Cakes bakery. He is a fantastic guitar player and has a great singing voice. The title of the song is unknown, but the song is great. Similar to Manthorne's personality, the song is mellow and laid back, with lyrics like "All the girls at the Jersey shore think heaven is just a club down here with wet t-shirts and cheap beer and if you dance on the bar just right you might fall in someone's arms to night hey this is heaven after all this is heaven after all." The melody is great as are the lyrics, and is reminiscent of Bob Dylan.

After hearing this song, I hope to hear more from Geof. I really enjoy his mellow, laid-back style. Apparently, I am not the only one who really enjoyed this song. Practically every comment on the YouTube video of this song is a positive comment about the song, the lyrics, the guitar playing, his voice, or just Geof in general.

So, not only is Geof Manthorne a fantastic artist when it comes to building and decorating cakes, he is also a great musician.

More Supporting Links:

http://www.aceofcakestv.com/

(Take a listen for yourself and watch the video!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZiL9N_YLxM