Ace of Cakes

Last updated

Ace of Cakes
Aceofcakeslogo.jpg
Genre Reality
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
Producer Authentic Entertainment
Production location Baltimore, Maryland
Cinematography Matthew Carr
EditorGrayce Lackland
Running time22–24 minutes
Original release
Network Food Network
ReleaseAugust 18, 2006 (2006-08-18) –
February 11, 2011 (2011-02-11)

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.

Contents

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 Cake hubble.JPG
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

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
1 6August 18, 2006 (2006-08-18)September 22, 2006 (2006-09-22)
2 13January 19, 2007 (2007-01-19)May 18, 2007 (2007-05-18)
3 13July 20, 2007 (2007-07-20)December 14, 2007 (2007-12-14)
4 13January 25, 2008 (2008-01-25)May 9, 2008 (2008-05-09)
5 13June 30, 2008 (2008-06-30)October 17, 2008 (2008-10-17)
6 13January 16, 2009 (2009-01-16)May 10, 2009 (2009-05-10)
7 13July 20, 2009 (2009-07-20)October 30, 2009 (2009-10-30)
8 14January 15, 2010 (2010-01-15)April 30, 2010 (2010-04-30)
9 14July 2, 2010 (2010-07-02)December 10, 2010 (2010-12-10)
10 6January 7, 2011 (2011-01-07)February 11, 2011 (2011-02-11)

Production

Charm City Cakes exterior at 2936 Remington Avenue in Baltimore Charm City Cakes exterior.jpg
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]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duff Goldman</span> American chef

Jeffrey Adam "Duff" Goldman is an American pastry chef, television personality, and cookbook author. He is the executive chef of the Baltimore-based Charm City Cakes shop, which was featured in the Food Network reality television show Ace of Cakes, and his second, Los Angeles–based, shop Charm City Cakes West, which is featured in Food Network's Duff Till Dawn and "Cake Masters" series. His work has also been featured on the Food Network Challenge, Iron Chef America, Oprah, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Man v. Food, Buddy vs. Duff, Duff Takes the Cake, and Duff's Happy Fun Bake Time.

Sugar Rush is an American cooking television program that aired on the Food Network from 2005 to 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Endemol Shine North America</span> Television production company

Endemol Shine North America is the American division of Banijay that was founded on March 15, 2002 as a merger of Shine Americas, Shine USA, and Reveille Productions.

Food Network Challenge is a competitive cooking television series that aired on the Food Network. In each episode, professional chefs vie in a timed competition in their professional specialty. The winner receives a cheque for $10,000 and a gold medal. The first run of the series started in 2005 as a number of specials, before becoming a regular series that launched in 2007 and ended in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Cronin</span> American television producer and writer

Mark Cronin is an American television producer and writer.

Geoffrey Manthorne, more commonly known as Geof, is an American chef known for his skill in cake building, as well as decorating. He stars on the Food Network's reality-TV show Ace of Cakes and works as executive sous chef at Duff Goldman's bakery Charm City Cakes in Baltimore, Maryland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Variable</span> 14th episode of the 5th season of Lost

"The Variable" is the 14th television episode of the fifth season of Lost, and the 100th episode overall. It originally aired on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in the United States on April 29, 2009. The hundredth episode milestone was celebrated by cast and crew on location in Hawaii. In the episode, Daniel Faraday returns to the island in order to warn its inhabitants of a catastrophe involving the Dharma Initiative research station, The Swan. Jack, Kate and Daniel begin a gun fight with Dharma, leading Dharma to go after Sawyer and Juliet. In flashbacks, Daniel's relationship with his parents, Eloise Hawking and Charles Widmore, is shown.

<i>The Best Thing I Ever Ate</i> American TV series or program

The Best Thing I Ever Ate is a television series that originally aired on Food Network, debuting on June 22, 2009.

Authentic Entertainment, LLC is a Burbank-based reality television company that has produced television series that cover a wide range of subjects, and most recently Cheer Perfection and Is Your Dog A Genius? and air on multiple networks, including Bravo, the Food Network, TLC, and the Discovery Channel. Authentic produces about 200 hours of programming a year. Endemol has been the majority owner of Authentic Entertainment since 2010.

Man Caves is a home renovation reality television program hosted by former NFL defensive tackle and Super Bowl winner Tony Siragusa and licensed contractor Jason Cameron, broadcast by DIY Network.

<i>Holiday Baking Championship</i> American food reality television series

The Holiday Baking Championship is an American cooking competition series produced by Triage Entertainment and aired on Food Network. It airs from early November through late December, covering the U.S Thanksgiving and Christmas season. The first episode premiered on November 9, 2014, and it has become a yearly competition with several spin-off shows, including Spring Baking Championship, Halloween Baking Championship, Kids Baking Championship, and Wedding Cake Championship.

Kids Baking Championship is a competitive reality baking program produced by Levity Entertainment Group for the Food Network. Each week, the children compete to make the best dish, and are judged on presentation, taste, and creativity. All nine seasons of the series have been hosted and judged by actress Valerie Bertinelli and baker Duff Goldman of Charm City Cakes. In 2018, the show enjoyed its highest ratings ever that also eclipsed Duff Goldman's earlier show, Ace of Cakes, as the highest-rated series in the network's history.

<i>Cake Wars</i> American TV series or program

Cake Wars is an American reality competition series that was first broadcast on June 29, 2015, aired on Food Network. Jonathan Bennett hosted the competition, where four bakers face off to have their cakes featured in a special event, in addition to a $10,000 prize. Star pastry chefs Waylynn Lucas, Ron Ben-Israel and Richard Ruskell judge which cakes are worthy of headlining parties for pop culture media such as The Simpsons, The Sound of Music, DC Comics, and more. The first and fifth seasons of the show ran for eight episodes and later seasons of the show ran for thirteen episodes. There was also an annual Christmas-themed spin-off of the show called Cake Wars: Christmas, which made its debut the same year as Cake Wars.

<i>Spring Baking Championship</i> American food reality television series

Spring Baking Championship is an American cooking competition television series that airs on Food Network. It was originally presented by chef Bobby Deen; with fellow Food Network chefs Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Lorraine Pascale serving as judges. All four chefs also appeared in the same roles on Holiday Baking Championship; and similar to that competition, the grand prize for the winner of this competition is also $50,000.

<i>Worst Bakers in America</i> American food reality television series

Worst Bakers in America is an American cooking competition television series that aired on Food Network, presented by chefs Duff Goldman and Lorraine Pascale. The series is a spin-off of Worst Cooks in America.

Dessert Games is an American-based cooking television game show hosted by Duff Goldman and Guy Fieri on Food Network (USA), that debuted in 2017. The show is a spin-off to Guy's Grocery Games (GGG).

References

  1. ↑ "NASA has its Hubble cake, can't eat it too". collectSPACE . April 6, 2009. Archived from the original on October 23, 2017. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
  2. ↑ "LOST in Hawaii". Food Network . Archived from the original on June 7, 2009. Retrieved May 25, 2009.
  3. 1 2 Batz, Bob Jr. (April 26, 2007). "'Ace of Cakes' can sculpt whatever you want out of batter". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . Archived from the original on April 9, 2009. Retrieved March 11, 2009.
  4. ↑ "'Back to the Future' Reunion". The Denver Post . October 26, 2010. Archived from the original on August 20, 2016. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
  5. ↑ Littleton, Cynthia (August 9, 2010). "Endemol to acquire Authentic Entertainment". Variety . Archived from the original on November 7, 2012. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
  6. ↑ Swegle, Connor (March 22, 2010). "Food Network's Ace of Cakes - Script, Design, Animation, Editorial by Click 3X". Click 3X Blog. Archived from the original on July 11, 2010.
  7. ↑ Shartin, Emily (October 18, 2006). "Food Network show is icing on a young baker's 'Cakes'". The Boston Globe . Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
  8. ↑ Chan, Anna (November 19, 2010). "'Ace of Cakes' is serving its last slice". Today . Archived from the original on November 23, 2010. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
  9. ↑ Campbell-Schmitt, Adam (January 17, 2019). "'Cake Boss' and 'Ace of Cakes' Stars to Face Off in Food Network Series". Food & Wine . Archived from the original on February 16, 2019. Retrieved February 16, 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.