For cake’s sake

An Evening with

Buddy Valastro: The Cake Boss, Wednesday, June 23 7:30 p.m.,

F.M. Kirby Center (71 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre).

Tickets: $25.50-$45.50 Info: carlosbakery.com,

kirbycenter.org, 570.826.1100

by Nikki M. Mascali
Weekender Editor

New Jersey is white hot right now thanks to several high-profile reality TV shows based there. With The Style Network’s “Jerseylicious” and Oxygen’s “Jersey Couture” riding on the coattails of MTV’s “Jersey Shore” and Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” the Garden State has been put on the map all over again.

But one Jersey-based show is a — pardon the pun — slice above the rest. Set in Hoboken, TLC’s “Cake Boss” tells the story of Carlo’s Bake Shop, its owner Bartolo “Buddy” Valastro and his family. While cake may be far sweeter than the cat fights you might see on another show, “Cake Boss” isn’t without drama of its own: Valastro’s mother, four strong-willed older sisters and his three brothers-in-law are all members of the cast.

“Listen, I ain’t going to lie, my sisters sometimes drive me crazy,” Valastro, a fourth-generation baker, shared during a recent phone call from the bakery. “And sometimes they’re a little bit of a pain in the ass, but they’re my sisters, you know what I’m saying? They’re not bad, we get along very well. We don’t really hold back anything — there’s nothing to really hold back.”

The first season of “Cake Boss” premiered in April 2009 and was such a hit a second followed in October. Valastro decided to take the show on the road after seeing firsthand how popular “Cake Boss” had become while giving a demo at a supermarket in Pittsburgh. The baker expected an attendance of 200-300 people, but 2,000 showed up.

“It was like screaming chaos, so I thought maybe I should do this at an event,” Valastro said.

The tour, dubbed “An Evening with Buddy Valastro: The Cake Boss,” stops at the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre Wednesday, June 23. The show features Valastro decorating cupcakes, bringing people up from the audience, telling stories about his life and creating a finale cake.

“I remember my first show was in Red Bank, N.J., and I was petrified,” Valastro said. “When I come in, I run through the crowd up on stage, and the energy that I felt from having all those people there was so soothing and entertaining — it was just awesome. It’s a feeling I can never explain.”

GROWING UP BAKER

From the time he was a young boy, Valastro worked at the bakery, which his parents Mary and Bartolo Sr. bought in 1964. When Valastro was 17, his father passed away, and the teen had to drop out of high school to work in the bakery full-time.

After watching a few “Cake Boss” episodes, viewers soon know how important Valastro’s father had been to him — and how much he misses his father. When asked what his earliest memory at Carlo’s is with his dad, Valastro’s voice filled with warmth.

“I remember going to the bakery when I was probably 5 or 6 years old, like my kids’ ages, and I used to have to stand up on a bucket,” Valastro recalled. “(My dad) would roll (dough), and he had a heart cookie cutter that had fluted edges, and I would cut out cookies and put them on a sheet pan, paint them with egg wash and put little sprinkles on them.

“He would put them in the oven, and I’d bring them home to my mom. My kids do the same thing now, but the only thing is my kids are more into cake-making than baking cookies.”

With his father’s recipes and Valastro’s artistic flair for decorating and baking, the younger Valastro took Carlo’s Bake Shop to new heights. He and his cakes have been featured in numerous bridal and baking magazines, as well as on The Food Network, “The Today Show,” “Good Morning America” and “Oprah.”

It was Valastro’s appearance on “The Food Network Challenge” that ultimately led to “Cake Boss.”

“TLC saw me on ‘Challenge’ and said, ‘We want to do a cake show,’” Valastro said. “And I said, ‘Well, I have a great idea for one: Just follow me in my bakery.’”

The network sent Valastro a camcorder with instructions to run it through the bakery to tape day-to-day activities and send it back.

“So we did that, and then boom! The next day we had an offer,” he said.

BALANCING ACT

The third season of “Cake Boss” premiered May 31, and during the course of its 24 episodes, there’s a trip to Italy, Valastro takes a February dip in the ocean with the Polar Bear Club — and makes a life-sized replica of his wife out of cake.

“I was very proud of what I did with (it),” he said. “I just had all round cakes and just carved her out of cake. It was pretty intense.”

Though viewers get a taste of the drama and stress that comes with running a successful family-owned bakery, not all blunders make it onto the show.

“The day after we wrapped season two, somebody left the walk-in box door open a crack, and five big-time wedding cakes got totally ruined,” Valastro said. “We had to remake them and had about five hours to do it.

“And the first thing I said was, ‘Where the hell are the cameras now?’ People say it’s all fake, bullshit it’s fake!” he exclaimed, laughing.

Valastro is in talks for other potential shows, “but if you want a quote, I don’t think you’ve seen the last of me,” he said, chuckling. What he can talk about, though, is the “Cake Boss” book, which will be released in November.

“I’m so proud of it. It has a lot of heart, it really is my life story, it’s my dad’s story, it’s the American dream,” he said. “My dad came here from Sicily with nothing and built up this business. … I took the business from what it was to where it is.”

Unlike many reality TV stars, Valastro seems humble despite his ever-growing popularity and Carlo’s Bake Shop now a full-fledged tourist attraction.

“I am who I am, and you’ve got to stay grounded,” he said. “You’ve got to stay true to your roots, remember where you came from. I don’t feel like a celebrity, I still feel like a regular guy. I’m the type of guy you could sit down and have a cup of coffee with and talk.”

When asked what his father would think about the popularity of his bakery, Valastro didn’t hesitate.

“He would be so proud, he would be so, so proud of me and my family for what we’ve done, he really would. He’s looking down watching us.”

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