Ace of Cakes | |
---|---|
Series logo as seen in the opening sequence |
|
Genre | Reality |
Written by | Heather Mitchell Miriam Leffert Dustin Rubin |
Directed by | Brandy Menefee Jeffrey R. Daniels Matthew Carr |
Starring | Duff Goldman Geof Manthorne Mary Alice Yeskey Sherri Chambers Anna Ellison Katherine Hill Adam Goldstein Richard Todd Karoll Katie Rose Mary Smith Ben Turner Elena Fox Lauren Friedman Erica Harrison Mark Muller |
Country of origin | United States |
Language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 10 |
No. of episodes | 115 (List of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) | Becca Lewis Tom Rogan |
Producer(s) | Authentic Entertainment |
Editor(s) | Grayce Lackland |
Location(s) | Baltimore, Maryland |
Cinematography | Matthew Carr |
Running time | 22–24 minutes |
Broadcast | |
Original channel | Food Network |
Original run | August 17, 2006 | – February 10, 2011
External links | |
Website |
Ace of Cakes is an American reality television show which airs on the Food Network. The show focuses 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 |
Ace of Cakes highlights the frantic activity encompassing the production of a substantial number of custom cakes in a short period of time. The staff consists primarily of Duff Goldman's good friends who have varying personalities, making the show very humorous at times. 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 blow torches, 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 installment of Harry Potter 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]
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 13 episodes for season two including an 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]
Season | Season premiere | Season finale |
---|---|---|
1 | August 17, 2006 | September 21, 2006 |
2 | January 18, 2007 | May 17, 2007 |
3 | July 19, 2007 | December 13, 2007 |
4 | January 24, 2008 | May 1, 2008 |
5 | June 29, 2008 | October 16, 2008 |
6 | January 15, 2009 | May 9, 2009 |
7 | July 19, 2009 | October 29, 2009 |
8 | January 21, 2010 | April 22, 2010 |
9 | July 1, 2010 | December 9, 2010 |
10
(final) |
January 2011
(planned) |
February 10, 2011 (last episode)
(series finale) |
Ace of Cakes is 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, Hawaii and others. The show is edited in Los Angeles at the show's production company, Authentic Entertainment, a subsidiary of Endemol.[5]
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, and began airing its ninth season in July 2010. 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 broadcasted in the United Kingdom on Good Food, México and Latin America on FOXLIFE New Zealand on the Food Channel and in Australia on LifeStyle Food.
On November 19, 2010, Food Network announced that the 10th season of Ace of Cakes would be its last and began airing in January 2011, ending shortly after in February.[8]