Cake Boss Recap: Happy Birthday, Baker Danny

Cake Boss is back, with two new episodes that aired on Monday night. As the first episodes opens, Mary meets with Buddy in his office. His office looks more like billionaire Warren Buffet's than that of any baker's. He's got a huge executive desk and one of those fancy Keurig coffee machines.

Mary is in trouble. “You're my sister and I love you,” Buddy says. “But, we've had this conversation before. Your biggest problem is your mouth.”

Buddy says Mary yells at the employees too much. So much that he's actually considering getting rid of her. “I'm in a position where what's best for the business is not to have you be a part of it,” he says. Not quite a firing like Donald Trump would have done it, but then again Buddy doesn't have the Donald's modesty.

Mary gets defensive. She admits she yells at the employees but says that Buddy is not fair, and that he's too lax with them. Buddy and Mary start yelling at each other. Mary invokes their mother, but Buddy tells her he's the boss, not Mama. “You will never manage Carlo's bakery again,” Buddy tells his sister. Mary walks away silently and sadly. Buddy says he wishes that he doesn't have to be the boss.

In the next scene we see Buddy approach right here in Hoboken. He's wearing his baker's whites and a hellacious black leather jacket. He sits in a pew and prays. In the shot we see an older woman a few pews back looking at the cameras with a puzzled expression.

Buddy is at the church to see Father Bob. Father Bob wants Buddy to bake a cake for Lou, the church's retiring music director. He wants Buddy to take inspiration from the stained glass windows in the church. “God's light shining through a stained glass into a cake,” Father Bob says. This is where Buddy is at with his career, he's baking somewhere on a skill level between God and the Holy Ghost. Buddy says he's happy for the challenge.

Meanwhile, it's also Danny's birthday. He's going to be 50, which means his body is catching up with his mindset of a curmudgeonly 85 year-old.

Of course Buddy is going to make him a cake, showing Danny as a hairy caveman wearing a speedo and riding a mule, surrounded by women in bikinis.

Danny has been working at the bakery for 36 years, longer than Buddy has been alive. We see several photos of him from the 80's. He's filled out a bit since then. “Four of his favorite foods are shrimp,” Buddy says.

Buddy and the crew quickly finish the church cake. It's a three-tiered and six-sided, and very ornate and colorful.

They deliver the cake to the church during a service. Lou the music director is very excited. He says Buddy nailed the God shining through the light part. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Baker...

Then the bakers finish Danny's birthday cake. It's got plenty of Danny-centric knick-knacks on it, like cigarettes, playing cards and a Mets jersey with his name on it.

The bakers throw a surprise party for him at the posh here in Hoboken. Danny's daughter from Florida is there too. Everyone is wearing fake mustaches. With his Buddy looks like a drug dealer from Miami Vice.

Danny enters. Buddy says the expression on Danny's face is priceless – the man they call a mule in part for his sullen nature actually has a pretty big smile on his face.

As the episode ends Buddy wonders about having to fire his sister, something that should be an interesting plot line this season. “I have to do what's best for the bakery,” he says.