I like cake. I like watching cakes being made. I like to watch TV. I like to watch TV while eating cake if the opportunity presents itself.  Virtually any combo of TV and cake is good with me as long as the TV doesn’t eat my cake. That would be… life changing.

Nowadays, there are so many shows… so many cakes… so little time! Let me help narrow it down for you.

The Food Network show that takes the cake would definitely have to be “Ace of Cakes”. Charm City Cakes in Baltimore has the most out of the box concepts and they are notorious for using power tools in the kitchen to bring their ideas to life. The owner, Chef Duff and his employees are the rock and roll types and both their designs and personalities are likeable. (Except for Geoff – is he a closet cake knife-wielding serial killer? He creeps me out a little.) Anyway, each cake that the team comes together to craft is truly a masterpiece. 

Did anyone catch the episode where they create a replica of a Nikon D60 DSLR for a photographer’s birthday? Or the magic castle? Or the friggin’ Millenium Falcon? Absolutely amazing pieces of art. 

“Amazing Wedding Cakes” also fulfills that sweet tooth from time to time with the variety of “pretty” it provides. The show, on the WE TV, features multiple bakeries across the country, from New York (The Cake Atelier) to Chicago (Cakegirls) to Los Angeles (Cake Divas).

The Cake Atelier and Cakegirls have earned my respect on the show, but Cake Divas has some truly ugly cakes. I distinctly remember a hideous monkey and a sandcastle that my culinary-challenged self could have easily made, perhaps even a little boozed up, for a fraction of the price. The Cake Diva’s kitchen antics and dialogue are also a little tiresome – it’s a business, not an episode of “The Hills”.

Cakegirls have made some incredible purse cakes for wedding showers and they have also become famous for their Wrigley Field cake that damn near looks like the real thing. I don’t know how people order these beautiful, extravagant, expensive cakes and then actually eat them. I would preserve, preserve, preserve!

The Cake Atelier put some major skill into their hand-crafted details and their ability to make 150 individual cakes and fragile sugar flowers is quite impressive to watch, as they have such a small staff and tight deadlines.

As if TLC hasn’t been hogging the TV waves enough with “Jon & Kate Plus Eight”, they network has just introduced a new show into the mix called,  “The Cake Boss”.

“The Cake Boss” wasn’t too much to brag about; it had that “pre-scripted” reality TV cheese factor to it. The first episode aired Monday night and the running theme was the bakery shop owner’s Mom going into a tizzy over some nude sculptures done for bachelorette party cakes, which she originally banned from the bakery. You could see her trying not to laugh half of the shots when she was supposed to be reprimanding the staff. All in all, their first episode cake designs weren’t too bad, but Buddy (the owner) can take his stereotypical New Jersey Italian personality down a notch. You run a cake shop, Buddy, not one of the five families.

If you haven’t ventured into cake TV yet, I would suggest starting with inventive team at “Ace of Cakes” and then work your way down the line of shows. The show is on The Food Network, every Tuesday and Thursday at 9:00 and 9:30 PM.

I would like to close this post by commending myself for not using cake colloquialisms in excess. Do you know what kind of mockery I could have had in here? I mean, it would have been a piece of cake, but I held back. I know, I know, we should have our cake and eat it too. Let them eat cake, I always say. But sometimes you just got to hold back. It isn’t always a cakewalk.

Ah, I feel so much better. Getting those out was the icing on the cake!

Time to cake, rattle & roll!

Really, I apologize.