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
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	69 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Becca Lewis Tom Rogan
Editor(s)	Grayce Lackland
Location(s)	Baltimore, Maryland
Cinematography	Matthew Carr
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Food Network Good Food (UK)
Original run	August 17, 2006 – Present
External links
Official website
Production website

Ace of Cakes is a reality television show currently airing 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. The show is one of Food Network's first docu-soap reality series, paving the way for new outside the kitchen studio programs.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Synopsis

Ace of Cakes highlights the frantic activity surrounding production of a large number of custom cakes in a short period of time. The staff consists primarily of Goldman's personal friends. They are frequently shown working long hours to build and decorate the cakes. Staff members 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 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 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, a creative replica of the Hubble Space Telescope for NASA^[1] and more. For the season finale of Season 6, the bakery's staff traveled to Hawaii to create a cake for the 100th episode of Lost.^[2].

[edit] Episodes

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.^{[citation needed]}

model of the Hubble Space Telescope and Jupiter created by Charm City Cakes on display at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland

[edit] Production

Charm City Cakes exterior at 2936 Remington Avenue in Baltimore

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.^[3]

[edit] Reception

Ace of Cakes has been a very large success with fans and critics alike, and began airing its sixth season in January 2009. The show has brought Food Network some of the highest ratings it has ever received for a prime-time program.^[4][5] Ace of Cakes is also broadcast in the United Kingdom on Good Food. Clearly inspired by Ace of Cakes^{[citation needed]}, on April 19, 2009, TLC aired its own show about a chef who bakes cakes called Cake Boss, featuring another Food Network Challenge competitor, Buddy Valastro.

The June 4, 2008 episode had higher ratings than the NHL's 2008 Stanley Cup Finals.^[6]

[edit] References

This article includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (October 2009)

• Newsweek
• Entrepreneur.com
• People magazine
• Dallas Morning News
• The Street
• Velocity Weekly
• USA Today
• MSNBC
• Courier Journal
• Army.mil: Ace of Cakes Visits Aberdeen Proving Ground

[edit] External links

• Ace of Cakes - Official Food Network site for the series
• Charm City Cakes official site
• Ace of Cakes at the Internet Movie Database
• Ace of Cakes at TV.com
• Interview with Chef Duff from Empire Extreme Magazine March 2008