Food Network Takes the Cake with Ace of Cakes

Baker Duff Goldman, owner of the bakery Charm City Cakes in Baltimore, Maryland breaks new ground and old stereotypes with Ace of Cakes, which airs Thursday nights on Food Network. Charm City Cakes consists of a staff of rock musicians, and power tools - not what most people would expect from a bakery. Cakes become sculptures with use of drill saws, blow torches, and sometimes fireworks.

Food Network often has a line up consisting mainly of someone standing in a kitchen cooking from recipes. Food enthusiasts may find an overly perky chef smiling so big her molars show entertaining, but others need more bang, and will find it on Ace of Cakes. Not your typical "cooking" show, Ace of Cakes is all about cake and sculpting it into designs that range from breath taking to fun. It almost breaks your heart to imagine someone cutting those fantastic sculptures and eating them. Watching
Ace of Cakes is mesmerizing, and comical. Episodes sometimes feature Chef Goldman's family members.

Tradition and perception of what a cake should be are tossed out the window, and replaced with eye-catching three dimensional confections that allow the customer to dream out loud. If you can imagine it, Duff Goldman and his crew can put it on your table in the form of a cake. They do not use frozen cakes, each one is baked fresh. Cakes are not restricted to standard ingredients. Vegan and diet restricted cakes are also available.

Cakes for all occasions are most often completely edible. Using vivid imagination, and artistic talent, Duff Goldman is one of the country's most sought after bakers. Starting out making cakes for close friends and family members only -in his kitchen at home - word spread of Goldman's cake wizardry, and soon he quit his regular job to make cakes full time.

Charm City Cakes is not a store front bakery, so patrons cannot walk in and place an order. Orders are taken via email, or by phone, and cannot be shipped. When submitting your email inquiry to Charm City Cakes, make sure you have all of the information required from the website instructions. Also, the public are not allowed to stop by and watch the team decorate their masterpieces. Chef Duff does have the option available to travel to your wedding location and create a cake on site. How sweet is that?

The Charm City website offers galleries with hundreds of photos showcasing works from elegant tiered wedding cakes to the absolutely bizarre. There is clearly no limit as to what can, and will, be designed out of cake, frosting, and fondant.

Pricing for all cakes is not available on their website, however, wedding cakes are about $6 a serving, and there is no additional cost for mixing and matching flavors. For example, a multiple tier wedding cake with a different flavor for each tier will not cost more than if you ordered one flavor. The list of flavors is too lengthy to mention, but it includes flavors such as almond amaretto cream, chocolate cherry, and mudslide. Traditional white, yellow, and chocolate are also available.

Ace of Cakes brings more to the table than a few fantastic cakes and the illusion that cake making is flawless and easy for the crew. Mistakes, difference of artistic opinion and colorful language that is bleeped out adds to the entertainment and gives a more human approach. Also, there is a story behind each cake the crew makes.

Food Network's approach to fresh shows that appeal to younger audiences is growing. Younger chefs with flair make up a good percentage of their current prime time line up. Ace of Cakes gives the viewer a fresh and modern take on an old craft. Doing so draws a younger audience, and shows us that you don't have to be a rigid pastry chef in a tall white hat to be a master cake artist and baker.