Ace of Cakes

Ace of Cakes is an American reality television show that aired on the Food Network. The show focused on the daily operations of Duff Goldman's custom cake shop, Charm City Cakes, in Baltimore, Maryland; including small-business ownership, working with various vendors, tasting with customers, constructing cakes, and delivering his products.

Ace of Cakes
GenreReality
Created by
  • Lauren Lexton
  • Tom Rogan
Written by
  • Heather Mitchell
  • Miriam Leffert
  • Dustin Rubin
Directed by
Starring
  • Duff Goldman
  • Geof Manthorne
  • Mary Alice Yeskey
  • Sherri Chambers
  • Anna Ellison
  • Katherine Hill
  • Adam lGoldstein
  • Richard Todd Karoll
  • Katie Rose
  • Mary Smith
  • Ben Turner
  • Elena Fox
  • Lauren Friedman
  • Erica Harrison
  • Mark Muller
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons10
No. of episodes117 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers
  • Lauren Lexton
  • Tom Rogan
ProducerAuthentic Entertainment
Production locationBaltimore, Maryland
CinematographyMatthew Carr
EditorGrayce Lackland
Running time22–24 minutes
Release
Original networkFood Network
Original releaseAugust 18, 2006 (2006-08-18) –
February 11, 2011 (2011-02-11)

Synopsis
Model of the Hubble Space Telescope and Jupiter created by Charm City Cakes on display at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland

Ace of Cakes highlights the frantic activity encompassing the production of a substantial number of custom edible art cakes in a short period of time. The staff consists primarily of Duff Goldman's good friends who have varying personalities. They are frequently shown working long hours to build and decorate the cakes, yet are always making jokes to offset the alleged stress of hitting each deadline. Staff members sometimes drive the cakes to their final destinations, which can require road trips of several hundred miles. Goldman has an informal approach to running Charm City Cakes. He is known for using non-traditional cooking utensils such as blowtorches, belt sanders, and power saws, and more to construct his designs.

Some of the notable cakes created by Charm City Cakes include cakes for the Preakness Stakes horse race at Pimlico in Maryland, Baltimore Zoo, the premiere of the 2007 film Hairspray, a replica of Radio City Music Hall for The Rockettes, a hatbox-shaped cake for an 80-year-old grandmother, the Hogwarts castle for the premiere of the fifth Harry Potter film in Los Angeles, an edible replica of Wrigley Field, a replica of the shark ray at the Newport Aquarium, a cake for the Paramount Pictures premiere of the DreamWorks Animation film Kung-Fu Panda, and a replica of the Hubble Space Telescope for NASA.[1] For the season finale of Season 5, the bakery's staff traveled to Hawaii to create a cake for the 100th episode of Lost.[2]

Episodes
Main article: List of Ace of Cakes episodes

Season one of Ace of Cakes consisted of six episodes airing in early fall 2006. The show proved to be one of the highest-rated prime time shows in Food Network's history, causing the network to order 15 episodes for season two including a 2-hour-long episode featuring the official NFL cake for Super Bowl XLI.[3] A one-hour special featured the show's first international delivery (to London, England) in an episode aired in December 2010. Season 10, planned to be the program's last (despite its popularity), premiered in January 2011 and had six episodes. The final episode featured a large-scale Delorean time machine cake created for Universal Studios' Back to the Future anniversary event in New York City.[4] Seasons 1–5 have been released on DVD.

SeasonEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast aired
16August 18, 2006 (2006-08-18)September 22, 2006 (2006-09-22)
213January 19, 2007 (2007-01-19)May 18, 2007 (2007-05-18)
313July 20, 2007 (2007-07-20)December 14, 2007 (2007-12-14)
413January 25, 2008 (2008-01-25)May 9, 2008 (2008-05-09)
513June 30, 2008 (2008-06-30)October 17, 2008 (2008-10-17)
613January 16, 2009 (2009-01-16)May 10, 2009 (2009-05-10)
713July 20, 2009 (2009-07-20)October 30, 2009 (2009-10-30)
814January 15, 2010 (2010-01-15)April 30, 2010 (2010-04-30)
914July 2, 2010 (2010-07-02)December 10, 2010 (2010-12-10)
106January 7, 2011 (2011-01-07)February 11, 2011 (2011-02-11)

Production
Charm City Cakes exterior at 2936 Remington Avenue in Baltimore

Ace of Cakes was shot on location at the bakery in Baltimore, Maryland, a converted church. The show has also featured other locations where Duff, Geof and occasionally others travel to in delivery of cakes such as Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., Miami, Boston, Alaska, and Hawaii, among others. The show was edited in Los Angeles at the show's production company, Authentic Entertainment, a subsidiary of Endemol.[5]

Reception

During Season 8, Ace of Cakes launched a new promotion concept involving a deck of Las Vegas-style playing cards.[6]

Ace of Cakes has been a very large success with fans and critics alike. The show has brought Food Network some of the highest ratings it has ever received for a prime-time program.[3][7] Ace of Cakes is also broadcast in the United Kingdom on food network, in México and Latin America on FOXlife, in New Zealand on the Food Channel, in Australia on LifeStyle Food, and in Portugal on SIC Mulher.

On November 19, 2010, Food Network announced that the 10th season of Ace of Cakes would be its last. Season 10 began airing in January 2011, ending shortly thereafter in February.[8]

In 2019, Food Network announced that Goldman would appear in a new series, Buddy vs. Duff, where he competes against Buddy Valastro of the similar TLC series Cake Boss (both networks are now owned by Discovery Inc.).[9]

References
  1. "collectSPACE – news – "NASA has its Hubble cake, can't eat it too"". Archived from the original on 23 October 2017. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  2. "LOST in Hawaii : Ace of Cakes : Food Network". Archived from the original on 2009-06-07. Retrieved 2009-05-25.
  3. "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 26, 2007". Archived from the original on April 9, 2009. Retrieved March 11, 2009.
  4. "'Back to the Future' Reunion". 26 October 2010. Archived from the original on 20 August 2016. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  5. Littleton, Cynthia (9 August 2010). "Endemol to acquire Authentic Entertainment". Archived from the original on 7 November 2012. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  6. Click 3X Blog Archived March 22, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  7. Shartin, Emily (18 October 2006). "Food Network show is icing on a young baker's 'Cakes'". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  8. "Latest News, Videos & Guest Interviews from the Today Show on NBC". Archived from the original on 23 November 2010. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  9. "'Cake Boss' and 'Ace of Cakes' Stars to Face Off in Food Network Series". Food & Wine. Archived from the original on 2019-02-16. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
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