Cake Boss Buddy Valastro and the Ace of Cakes Duff Goldman are finally going head-to-head in a competition so sweet, it needed six weeks to be completed. In Food Network’s Buddy vs. Duff, these two cake connoisseurs compete in a series of wacky, crazy and just plain impressive challenges where, in the end, one of them is crowned the king of cakes.
Buddy Valastro is taking on Duff Goldman in an over the top cake competition
The show premieres March 10, but many fans and cake lovers have been calling for a competition between the two stars for years, including the Cake Boss himself. “I think secretly I’ve always wanted to go head to head with Duff, and secretly he wanted to go head to head against me,” Buddy says. “It’s something that we both were never scared of and something we always wanted to do, time to give the fans what they want.”
Buddy Valastro is not shy in front of the camera, he’s been serving up extraordinarily gigantic cakes on TLC with the smash hit show Cake Boss for over a decade. Being on the popular show helped “train” the Hoboken native for the impending competition. “I gotta be honest with you, the biggest thing that helped me was Cake Boss. It’s kind of like training for the Olympics right? When you think about it, what does a swimmer do? He swims every day. Doing ten years of Cake Boss every week trained me and Ralph to go to the Olympics of making cakes.”
Although Buddy has gotten plenty of Olympic-style training in, not every part of the competition was easy. “The hardest was definitely the finale. We had four days to make the finale cake. I worked four days straight, 20 hours a day- I slept in my office.”
In fact, some rounds of the competition proved to be extremely difficult, especially when facing former pastry chef Duff. “I think we had some episodes where he had advantages and some where I had advantages. One episode we had to do a plate of desserts, Duff worked as a pastry chef in restaurants and hotels. I never made a plate of desserts in my life really, I’ve been a baker.”
Buddy and Duff have to accomplish incredible feats during the competition such as constructing elaborate car-inspired cakes, making carnival treats for hungry patrons, creating illusion cakes for a special show at Hollywood’s Magic Castle and more. But there were some rounds where baking a cake was as easy as riding a bike. “I know what I know, the difference is what I know I don’t think about. I’ve done it for so many years. When I pick up a rolling pin it’s connected to my arm, it’s a part of me. It’s effortless. I don’t think about it, I just do it,” says Buddy.
In the end, Buddy had nothing but respect for the Charm City Cakes owner.”I knew who Duff was, but I didn’t know him personally. After the competition, I have a lot more respect and admiration for him as a baker, as a person and as a pastry chef -and I think it’s vice versa.”
Buddy also thinks this competition is unlike many others that are out there now. The head-to-head part where he gets to verse another popular cake celebrity was just the icing on top of an already delicious show idea. At the end of the day, the Carlos Bakeshop owner is just happy he got to show off his passion and art again. “That’s why I became a baker. It’s an art. You put your heart and soul into it and give it everything you’ve got and you step back and look at what you created. It gives you that feeling of self-worth, the feeling of this is why I do what I do. I got that through all six episodes, but the finale was the biggest, it was over the top”
Will Buddy Valastro be crowned the champion? Tune in to Food Network on March 10 at 9 p.m. to watch the competition kick off and eventually find out who comes out on top.
