I guess I missed all the negative stuff about you and all that. I am glad. It is easy to say I will only make a cake once, but it is not profitable. Slight variations of it maybe but repition is profitable. It also can be art, as it is in your case. Your talent is a blessing that you share, not all do. It is great that you give helpful advice. Celebrity or just a talented decorator, your a businessman first and foremost. In this business that is the only way it works. It would be great if everyone remembers starting out way at the bottom and struggling to get noticed much less to the honor of celebrity. The fact that you employee 40 people and have enough left over for everything else just seems like you need to talk to the banks and teach them a bit about being in the red and black. You have my respect, admiration, and well, I must admit a bit jealous of all your skills. Thanks for bloggin with the commoners of the community you lead.

We should all raise a glass to Buddy for sharing his experience with the challenges and the day to day stuff......... I've got a Kahlua and cream........anyone care to join me?? Waters fine too.........

Whew! I just found out about this link from another site I was on & read through the whole thing. I don't know where to start. I'm famous for my long stories so here goes.... Maybe a year or 2 ago, my mom & I were watching the wedding cake challenge when Buddy finished early. We LOVED his cakes & thought he should have won. That bride was so annoying because she critisized everyone. Now, maybe they did that on purpose & she wasn't really that way but I wrote Buddy an email and told him what I thought about his work and THAT BRIDE (UGH!). I got the nicest email back and I said to myself "ha! What a gentleman!"

Fastforward a year or two later and I'm in the cake group and attending Buddy's class this past weekend. Here is the thread that I started(slightly edited-I was so excited writing about my day) on another forum on Monday...
"Look who I was hanging out with this Sunday.... "
Buddy Valastro had our cake group over to play with cake and icing. We had such a BLAST!!! A cake decorator's dream playing with premade cake & icing!! What great guys!! They are such patient & nice guys!!! You probably recognize Mauro, the assistant from his Food Network Challenges. The 2 guys in the pictures are his brothers in law. All three were so patient, nice & fun. I will NEVER be able to ice a cake like them. Remy did a demonstration of how he normally ices a cake in less than a minute & perfect. Then he & Mauro showed us the tricks, had us remove the icing, and do it again & again. Our group was split in half & the others learned the Buddy rose technique then we swapped. Got to use the fondant sheeter!! I WANT ONE!!!! WAAAAAH!!! I bring one of those home & my husband will crack the whip and make me sell cakes! We had a mixing bowl of icing at least 2 ft tall on the table & icing bags that were longer than my arm.

Buddy did win a Food Network Challenge and it should be interesting. The winning challenge will be on in February! What great instructors they all were. Buddy is a really nice guy and deserves his success.

The cake I'm holding in the pic (not attached) I can only claim that I iced it & put fondant on it. We were there almost 6 hours & when I realized how late it was, we all were just starting to put decorations on the cake. I was rushing to get home to Mom (disabled from a stroke) because I had left her so long (with my hubby which isn't the same). I was having trouble finding a bag, finally did, put the border on then attempted flowers in buttercream & they were awful & I wiped them off. Then I attempted to dust my roses & loused up one & quit there. Buddy came over & covered up the smutz on my cake from the wiped off icing with the decoration you see. That's a pro! (He) Looks at it, says how about swirls & it's beautiful!

Good luck Buddy, Mauro, Remy and the rest at Carlo's Bakery. Check out their website.

It was one of the most fun days of my life. The ladies in the group are just great. We have guys too but they weren't there. You should see all the pictures we have with smiling faces!
__________________

Buddy, thanks for a great time!!! You deserve a Ferrari! Hell! If you're working 90 hours a week, you don't have time to spend money on anything else. Drive happy! I HOPE YOU HAVE A GARAGE! OR A SMART CAR TO DRIVE TO WORK!!! Buddy, check out the pics on our groups site. My husband looked at them because I was so excited when I got home and he got a kick out of them. He said we all looked real happy and we were!

Thanks for you and your staff's generosity and warmth! I'm still smiling!!

Jasmine, you crack me up!

I agree with you, the class was great! This is the BEST cake decorating class I have ever taken...now I know how to frost a cake and my gumpaste roses now look almost real! can't wait for our next class!

Carmen

JAZZ2U - I saw that - he did a great job with the scrolls and boom, 1 -2 -3 done. He just didn't want you to leave unhappy/"unfinished". Yet another example of his kindness. It's hard to explain to others what a great time we had & and how appreciative we are for the experience!
BTW what other site did you blog on/hear about this thread? (was it our meetup site?) I'm always looking for more sites to browse & get good tips from!

BUDDY - I've been following this thread all along- wrote a few responses... just have to say you do NOT have to explain yourself! As someone who has known of/been a customer of your bakery for many years... Not only does all of your work speak for itself - so does your kindness & generosity! The fact that you are even taking the time to answer questions & participate on the site with everyone, says a lot. In my opinion, you definately make your Mom (& Dad)proud!
( Don't worry, I got 'cha back! Guess it's the Italian/Hudson County in me! LOL )


BTW -mjballinger - make mine a Grey Goose & cranberry or something tropical (it's been too damn cold in NJ) - I'm flexible!

Traci
PS: Cool to see a few people who were part of the class on here too! Hi all!

Hello Buddy,

Welcome, I am both a CC and Food Network Cake Challenge fanatic and love your cakes too. Would you mind explaining your steaming technique for fondant?

Baci, I'll post the forum on our group's site.

Edna, beautiful cakes!

This site does have incredible talent! I've complained that it makes me try things I'm not capable of!!

Being in a challenge must be... well, a challenge! You're not working in your own kitchen, don't know what you're going to have to do, working under pressure, hot lights, etc. You see the challengers sometimes working in hot or humid conditions & you can imagine what that does to your fondant, icing and cakes. Like I say to my husband when he complains about baseball and football players. If it was easy, everyone would do it! Hell, I wish he could do it, then we could afford more cake things for me to play with!

I heard Buddy wants us back for more playtime!! YAAAAAH!! I thought he, Maura, & Remy were having fun too. They are incredible teachers!

And a shout out to Christine from there too who helped make our fun filled day more special!

Buddy, I hope you will continue to post on Cake Central - I think you are great and I hope the folks at Food Network continue to have you back time and time again - you do make for great TV!! As a hobby baker, I love learning about the professional aspects of the baking industry and you've provided a lot of info here. I also hope you'll post when you are teaching classes - is that something you do regularly? I'd love to hone my buttercream skills and from what I've read here, you seem to be the man to ask! Much luck to you and yours!

Man, after reading about the class Buddy gave, I am even more envious of those who got to attend. We don't get a lot of famous cake people here in Omaha who are willing to "mingle with the masses". Sigh. I guess I will have to worship from afar.

Anyone with Food Network's ear....I'd love to see a decorated cookie challenge! I've done cakes for years, but have only been turned on to decorated cookies since finding CC a couple years ago. It's become my obsession.

I competed in the Castle Cake Competition at the Mid Atlantic Wedding Cake Show and Competition last year. I know it doesn't compare to the Food Network but let me tell you - being a small time decorator with big time aspirations - I was a nervous wreck! It all worked out well and I had a great time but it isn't easy being in the spotlight - especially when you're competing against well known decorators (and they're all trying to figure out who you are ). I can only imagine what these decorators go through with the tv cameras rolling and $10,000 at stake!

Debbie

I think it would be fun if Buddy challenged Edna to a wedding cake throwdown

I'm raising my cup of coffee for now (kids are still asleep this morning)

I was just about to say, now that I've gotten to know Buddy and he has enlightened us all, I'll be cheering him on through his next challenge - but now the outcome has been spoiled . Congrats and I can't wait to watch it in February!

Cool! How did you do? Who did you compete against? Details...I need details! How exciting for you![/quote]

The competitors were Ruth Rickey, Becky Rink, Dianna Lopez and little 'ol me! Each of us had an assistant of our choosing. It was fun. Norm Davis is a sweet heart. I was more nervous the day before when we went to be assigned our castles and meet everyone but Norm put me at ease and I was okay for the actual competition. It wasn't as "big" as I had it made out in my mind to be but it was still stressful. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. They only announced a winner - no second place or runner up - I didn't win but I felt good about what I made - it was well received. There's a picture of mine in my gallery.

Debbie

Ruth Rickey is awesome - I took some classes of hers this summer and she is a great teacher and a lovely person. She said she is dying to do a Food Network Challenge but has never gotten the call.

Everyone was very nice. It made it much easier to compete!


Debbie

Hi Buddy,
I am so glad you're here! I thought you should have won that wedding cake challenge and I loved the Santa cake. Thank you for telling us what becomes of those cakes because I was always wondering if they gave them to the crowd or took them to a shelter or what. I had already signed up for a class at the timne when what you are teaching at the NCACS showed up. I hope you come next year as I'd like to take a class with you as well. I look forward to hearing more from you on this board.
terri

Okay, so let me begin by saying I caught on to this thread due to Jasmine (Jazz2u) mentioning at our cake club's site. (Thanks, Jasmine!).

I was also in attendance at Buddy's Cake Class last Sunday. Let me say how professional, yet fun, he and his brother-in-law/employees are, that taught at this class. Maro and Remy have also assisted Buddy at the Food Network Challenges, too. They are all super teachers - patient and extremely knowledgable (sp?)!!

They are all also laid back and fun which helped to make the day fly by way too fast! I'm so looking forward to future classes.

To be fair, I was also lucky enough to attend Cake Camp this past Aug. and got to take classes with such great instructors as Geraldine Randlesome, Toba Garrett, Roland and Marsha Winbeckler, and Janet Foster. I can't say a bad word about any of them. Honestly, each one was professional, courteous, kind and answered questions and shared information like nobody's business. I also got to meet and talk to Colette Peters ("my NJ buddy!"), Norm Davis and Zan Beg. We ran into each other a few times and they even remembered my name and were so down to Earth and 'real'. Such nice people!! Maybe I've just been lucky, but I prefer to think that most cakers/decorators are just nice, artistic people and we share a common love - cake decorating - that gives us all something in common.

Thank you, Buddy! Thanks for opening up your bakery to our group last Sunday and for offering us another future class! It's appreciated and you are a gem for doing it! I hope to one day learn and be able to accomplish and do all the techniques I have learned from such great teachers as you (and the others I mentioned above by name). With people like you and them sharing your vast knowledge and experience with the rest of us, there's hope for people like me. Thanks again!!

Also, a big thank you to: Mauro and Remy, and your interns, Christine and Dianne.

-Grace
One of Five Assistant Organizers for
The NJ Cake Decorator's Club

first i want to really thank all the people at my class who enjoyed it for all the great replies. i really enjoyed it to you guys were great . i do not always have time to blog so if you have questions email me at [email protected] and if i can i will help anyone . this has been a good experiance for me. i am also glad to know how many people are so interested in cakes or cake decorating . now i know i am not the only crazy person in the world. there is just a sence of saticefaction in making something like a cake when i cake decorate i go into a trans and i forget all my problems and go to a place in my heart and head that is a bliss it is a great feeling and i know you all have been there . then after your done you stare at what you did and here all the complimants you forget about how long it took or how tired you are it is all worth it . really what i am trying to say after all these cakes and all these years i still have that passion and from reading alot of these blogs so do all of you .so if you are a new commer or a master keep on cakeing.

your fellow cake decorater,
Buddy Valastro


ps i will try to keep up with blogs as best i could

This is the first chance I have had to read this post. Thanks Buddy for all or your information.

The first cake I saw of yours was on the Today show. I loved it. Then I got to see you actually make it in Tulsa. I was highly impressed with your speed and confidence. It was also funny to see you wait for the others to finish. I also think you are quite funny. I love your bluntness and candor. It was great to get to see your work up close. I only wish I had gotten a chance to meet you.

By the way, I think they should have buttercream challenges also. That takes some real talent.

Good luck with your business and any challenges you do.

Michele

I think Buddy is awesome!

I was just talking with my new partner and we decided that he'd like to take a vacation to rainy Oregon and help us get set up and give us tips on our business. hahahahaha

Now that my husband has seen some of the beautiful cakes at CC, he is as hooked on the FN cake challenges as I am. When he saw the bridal couple pass up Buddy's beautiful wedding cake and that awesome groom's cake, he just kept saying how foolish they were and that he would have chosen Buddy's cakes in a heartbeat. He also said, "now that is a man who acts comfortable in his own skin" (meaning he was plenty confident because he has the talent to back the confidence up).