''Ace of Cakes'' is an American

reality television show Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

that aired on the

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ( ...

. The show focused on the daily operations of

Duff Goldman Jeffrey Adam "Duff" Goldman is a 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'', ...

's custom cake shop, Charm City Cakes, in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

; including small-business ownership, working with various vendors, tasting with customers, constructing cakes, and delivering his products.

Synopsis

''Ace of Cakes'' highlights the frantic activity encompassing the production of a substantial number of custom

edible art Edible art refers to food created to be art. It is distinguished from Edible Arrangements (which predominantly consist of fruit) because it is usually more elaborate dessert food. A common form of edible art is wedding cakes, but options for 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

blowtorch A blowtorch, also referred to as a blowlamp, is an ambient air fuel-burning gas lamp used for applying flame and heat to various applications, usually metalworking. Early blowtorches used liquid fuel, carried in a refillable reservoir attach ...

es, 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 The Preakness Stakes is an American thoroughbred horse race held on Armed Forces Day which is also the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs () o ...

horse race at Pimlico in Maryland, Baltimore Zoo, the premiere of the 2007 film ''

Hairspray Hairspray may refer to: * Hair spray, a personal grooming product that keeps hair protected from humidity and wind * ''Hairspray'' (1988 film), a film by John Waters ** ''Hairspray'' (1988 soundtrack), the film's soundtrack album ** ''Hairspray ...

,'' a replica of Radio City Music Hall for

The Rockettes The Rockettes are an American precision dance company. Founded 1925 in St. Louis, they have, since , performed at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Until 2015, they also had a touring company. They are best known for starring in the ...

, a hatbox-shaped cake for an 80-year-old grandmother, the

Hogwarts Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry () is a fictional Scotland, Scottish boarding school of Magic in Harry Potter, magic for students aged eleven to eighteen, and is the primary setting for the first six books in J. K. Rowling's ''Harry Pot ...

castle for the premiere of the fifth Harry Potter film in Los Angeles, an edible replica of

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago ...

, a replica of the shark ray at the

Newport Aquarium The Newport Aquarium is an aquarium located in Newport, Kentucky, United States at Newport on the Levee, across the river from Cincinnati. It has 70 exhibits and 14 galleries, including five seamless acrylic tunnels totaling over in length. T ...

, a cake for the Paramount Pictures premiere of the DreamWorks Animation film '' Kung-Fu Panda'', and a replica of the

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most vers ...

for

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

. For the season finale of Season 5, the bakery's staff traveled to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

to create a cake for the 100th episode of '' Lost''.

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.Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 26, 2007
/ref> 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 ''Back to the Future'' is a 1985 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis, and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, and Thomas F. Wilson. Set in 1985, ...

'' anniversary event in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Seasons 1–5 have been released on DVD.

Production

''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 Authentic Entertainment, LLC is a Burbank-based reality television company that has produced television series that cover a wide range of subjects (e.g. '' Ace of Cakes'', '' Weird Travels'', '' Toddlers & Tiaras'', ''All on the Line'', ''Surprise ...

, a subsidiary of Endemol.

Reception

During Season 8, ''Ace of Cakes'' launched a new promotion concept involving a deck of Las Vegas-style playing cards. ''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. ''Ace of Cakes'' is also broadcast in the United Kingdom on

food network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ( ...

, in

México Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatem ...

and

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

on FOXlife, in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

on the

Food Channel The Food Channel (not affiliated with Food Network) is an American consumer Web site with food recipes, news, reviews and advice. The site compiles information to produce food industry trends and aims to be a gateway for all things food. Site c ...

, in Australia on LifeStyle Food, and in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

SIC Mulher SIC Mulher (lit. ''SIC Woman'') is a Portuguese basic cable and satellite television channel owned by Sociedade Independente de Comunicação (SIC) and launched on March 8, 2003. Its target audience are women. Programming *''Alas Smith and Jon ...

. 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. 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 ''Cake Boss'' is an American reality television series, which originally aired on the cable television network TLC. The series premiered on April 19, 2009, and has spawned four spin-offs: '' Next Great Baker'', ''Kitchen Boss'', ''Bake You Ric ...

'' (both networks are now owned by

Discovery Inc. Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1985, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Cha ...

References

External links

*
''Ace of Cakes'' official website at Food Network
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ace Of Cakes 2000s American reality television series 2006 American television series debuts 2010s American reality television series 2011 American television series endings English-language television shows Food Network original programming Food reality television series Media about cakes Television series by Authentic Entertainment Television shows set in Baltimore