As the latest episode of Cake Boss begins, Buddy goes on the Dan Patrick radio show to discuss the cake Nissan wants him to make to celebrate their sponsorship of the Heisman Trophy, the award given to college football's best player. Patrick, the snarky former Sportscenter anchor, is one of the Heisman voters. He's got the iconic trophy right in front of Buddy. Buddy says he's going to make a cake of the trophy so authentic that Patrick won't be able to tell the difference. “No flowers," Patrick says. "Don't screw up the cake Buddy.” Hold on, hasn't this guy seen Buddy's highlight reel? He's …

Finally, the finale of the Cake Boss contest spinoff show Next Great Baker! Thirteen baker wannabes whittled to three and now down to one rising star. The surviving trio includes cocky Ryan, feisty Marissa and demure Nadine. “Nadine's great at piping and detail,” Marissa says. “Ryan's not that great of a baker. I can't even stand him. I don't want to look at him, I don't want to hear his voice.” Get those two lovebirds a room! Buddy enters. He's confident his next great baker is in the kitchen. The winner will get to work with him at Carlo's, plus receive $100,000 and a four page spread in …

Buddy sure was busy Monday night, with both the penultimate episode of his contest show Next Great Baker, and the season five premiere of Cake Boss. Not only is Buddy busy at the bakery, but this is the week he's renewing his marriage vows with Lisa for their tenth anniversary. They're going to do it on a cruise to the Bahamas, and the whole family is coming. Of course Buddy's going to bake for the wedding. “This week I bake the best cake of my life,” he says. But he's having a tough time coming up with a design, which he compares to writer's block. “I got cake block,” he says. Flaubert had …

We're down to the final four in the Cake Boss contest spinoff Next Great Baker. As the new episode opens Buddy greets Chad, Marissa, Nadine and Ryan in the kitchen and has them shape modeling chocolate roses for their baker's challenge. “It's one of the things that I'm known for,” he says. “If you want to work with me at Carlo's you better know how to make a sugar flower.” Buddy demonstrates. It's like watching Ray Lewis supervise a tackling drill. None of the contestants have ever really done this before. Somehow rugged Ryan finishes but dainty Nadine does not. Buddy declares Ryan the winner…

The latest episode of the Cake Boss spinoff Next Great Baker was very emotional. Lots of tempers flaring. Lots of passion. And a grown man cried. A lot. Somehow the new episode Monday night had even more emotion, as the contestants had to placate the bride from hell. First, Buddy challenges the bakers on their piping skills. “Back to the basics,” he says. “What I was born and bred on.” He gives them a flawless demonstration. It's like watching Picasso paint. Expectant mom Heather is excited.  Whatever the baking skill involved, it always seems like half the contestants have never done it …

We're down to the elite eight as the newest episode of the Cake Boss spinoff Next Great Baker begins. The contestants know Buddy is going to test them. For their baker's challenge he takes them to the oven room in the Lackawanna factory. They have to unload the big oven as quickly as possible. Buddy and Cousin Anthony demonstrate by yanking a series of hot trays filled with pastries and sliding them into storage racks. Buddy does it with the ease of Larry Bird swishing threes in a shooting contest. But it looks hard. “You could easily burn a hand,” he says. The bakers work in pairs. Carmelo …

Fresh off Minerva's diabolical performance last week, when she managed to get Wesley eliminated in her place, the contestants on the Cake Boss spinoff show Next Great Baker assembled for another episode on Monday night. As the episode opens Buddy enters and asks the nine remaining contestants how they're doing, especially Minerva, since she said she was so tired she had to go to the hospital. Everyone, Buddy included, thinks she quit. Nadine wins a quick bakers challenge where the contestants have to cover a cake in fondant. Buddy then puts her on a team for the elimination challenge with …

It's Christmas time on the Cake Boss spinoff Next Great Baker. Danny enters the kitchen wearing a Santa outfit and a scowl. “Ho..ho...ho...,” he says with the energy of a slug crawling on sandpaper. Then Buddy enters. “Christmas time at Carlo's Bakery is go time,” he tells the bakers. For their baker's challenge the contestants will have to make their best holiday desert. Carmelo is making rice pudding, and Heather M. is making baklava. Wesley is making peach cobbler. “I want to give Buddy a little taste of the south,” he says. Good luck with that. Remember in episode one Wesley used a box …

Thirteen contestants started in the second season of the Cake Boss spinoff show Next Great Baker. Suddenly we're down to only ten. Readers should note that there was no episode recap last week, because the writer of this column lost his cable service last Monday, because a certain huge telecommunications company screwed up his account. The cable service is back, but not contestant Tony, who was eliminated last week.  Anyway, as last night's new episode opens, Buddy has the contestants bake a chocolate dessert incorporating a Hershey's candy assigned to them at random. Some of these candies, …

Monday saw the season two premiere of the Cake Boss spinoff show Next Great Baker, where 13 contestants will compete for $100,000 and the chance to work at Carlo's with the boss Buddy Valastro. Patch will recap each new episode, and to start, here's a bit about each of the contenders: Marissa, 24, Pompton Lakes, New Jersey: She got involved with cakes because she was poor student in school. “I do have a little bit of an attitude,” she says. “I have a mouth, I have a temper, I could be a nice person, but don't do me the wrong way.” Apparently Melissa mistakenly auditioned for Next Great Baker …

“This has been one of the biggest years in Carlo's history,” Buddy says, as the latest new episode, and season five finale of Cake Boss begins. “My dad took a risk, but it was his dream we could have a place where we could all work together,” he says. Buddy says he's continuing that dream by growing the bakery, having recently launched the new factory at Lackawanna. The next plan is to renovate the old Carlo's “We need to give it a fresh, brand new look,” he says. Buddy wants to redo all three floors of Carlo's to make things easier for the customers and the employees. Speaking of customers, …

“It's a very special week for us at Carlo's,” Buddy says as the latest new episode of Cake Boss begins. It's Grace and Joey's 20th wedding anniversary. Cut to an old photo of a teenage Buddy with his arm around his sister and Joey. Grace looks pretty, Joey is growing what looks to be a late 1980's style mullet, and Buddy has two racoons pasted over his eyes. Oh wait, those are his eyebrows. “When Joey came into the family I was probably 12 years old,” Buddy says. “When I was a kid I looked up to him.” Joey says that he is going to surprise Grace by recreating their original wedding cake, one …

The latest new episode of Cake Boss opens with Maurizio doing woodwork. Great opening with one of Carlo's most obscure employees. He's actually Buddy's brother-in-law, but still this is like going to see the E Street Band and hearing Springsteen say the head roadie is singing the first song. Then Cousin Anthony enters and asks Maurizio what he's doing. Anthony calls him “Chato,” which might be a nickname, made-up on the spot slang or Italian cuss word. We don't know, so no harm done. With the enthusiasm of Charlie Brown getting his heart crushed on Valentine's Day, Maurizio says he's making …

As the latest episode of Cake Boss opens, Buddy meets with a husband and wife, Dave and Ruth. Ruth is pregnant, and she and Dave want to throw what they call a “gender reveal” party. Apparently these parties are all the rage nowadays. They're going to send the results of the gender test to Buddy, who then will bake the inside of the cake with either blue or pink sponge. Dave and Ruth will find out what they're getting when they cut into the cake. “That's pretty cool,” Buddy says. Buddy designs a cake of a baby's bottom. “You know, when you're looking at a baby's butt, in the diaper, you can't…

“Halloween is an interesting time of year around Carlo's,” Buddy says as the latest episode of Cake Boss begins. “Something weird always happens.” This episode Buddy will bake a cake for Betty, who is a friend of Ralph. Betty says she's going to become a vampire. She's got a whole group of friends who are into the same malarkey. “We need a coffin cake,” she says. (Note that she's not really going to become a vampire because vampires aren't real.) Betty needs a coffin with a person inside. She tells Buddy she wants the cake person to look like Danny, because he “looks like the right kind of …

The latest episode of Cake Boss has a spooky beginning. Mary enters the Lackawanna factory and introduces Buddy to two clients, Pat and Doug, who are ghost hunters. Also dorks. Pat and Doug want a cake for their upcoming hunt of the famous Jersey Devil. “You need a cake for a ghost hunt,” Buddy asks, with a bit of smirk. “We need a cake that looks like the Jersey Devil,” Pat says. “If you grew up in New Jersey you know about the Jersey Devil,” Buddy says. Legend has it he was a man who was possessed by the devil and now haunts the Pine Barrens. “We're going to go into the woods to track this …

As the latest episode of Cake Boss begins, Buddy narrates that Carlo's is known for its specialty cakes and that he just got a call from someone famous. "So I told her, just stop by and I'll see what I can do,” he says. So in walks Indy car driver Danica Patrick through the backdoor of Carlo's dressed in all black with dark sunglasses to match. Danica is also famous for her good looks. Hopefully Cousin Anthony came into work today, because he's going to want to see this. Danica wants a cake to surpise her friend Michael who's helped her a lot with her charity, which raises awareness about …

On the first new episode of Cake Boss on Monday night, Buddy meets two big television stars. But first he consults with a client known as Maria the Korean Bride. Maria has been married 49 times in 49 states to 49 different people, which would stand as a record if not for Larry King. She tells Buddy she is going to get married one last time in New York City. “Lucky number 50?” Buddy asks. She explains that she's doing an art project to discuss what it means to be married, especially since so many marriages end in divorce. Maria actually only marries ceremonially, and in addition to marrying …

On the second new episode of Cake Boss Monday night, Buddy gets a call from the New York Beekeeper's Association, which wants a cake to celebrate the one-year anniversary of New York City legalizing beekeeping. Why was it illegal in the first place? Were there beekeeper speakeasies to buck the prohibition? Buddy and Danny meet the client, Andrew, outside. “So you guys got the honey here,” Buddy says. “I got the honey upstairs if you guys want to check it out,” Andrew says. “Let's check it out. I love good honey,” Buddy says. These are the exact same lines of dialogue that expert potheads and …

The second new episode of Cake Boss Monday night opens with Danny throwing away garbage in the back alley. He's wearing shorts. He's also probably going on a smoke break. Just then a black Rolls Royce drives up. “Whoa,” Danny says. A guy in a raspy voice sitting alone in the back seat asks for Buddy. He looks intimidating. “You want to talk to Buddy?” Danny asks. “Just tell him I have a favor to ask him,” the man says. Apparently this is the episode of Cake Boss where Buddy makes a cake used in a mob hit. Danny tells Buddy a tough guy outside wants to talk to him. Even Buddy wonders if the …