"Cake Boss" Buddy Valastro to Sign Books at Carmichael's

[Robin Garr]

"Cake Boss" Buddy Valastro to Sign Books at Carmichael's

Carmichael's Bookstore is partnering with The Make-a-Wish Foundation to host a book signing for TLC reality show star Buddy Valastro, owner of Carlo's Bake Shop in Hoboken, N.J. The event will be held at Carmichael's Frankfort Avenue store, 2720 Frankfort Avenue, beginning at noon on Saturday, Nov. 5. Buddy will talk with his fans and sign copies of his new book, Baking with the Cake Boss, which goes on sale Nov. 1.

Because Buddy Valastro is a big supporter and honorary board member of the Make-a-Wish Foundation, Carmichael's has invited representatives of the local chapter of Make-a-Wish to be on hand at this event. In the weeks running up to this event, Carmichael's is offering customers who donate $1 to the Make-a-Wish Foundation a chance to win an autographed copy of Baking with the Cake Boss and two free tickets to Buddy's show at the Louisville Palace Saturday night.

Baking with the Cake Boss offers readers the same on-the-job education given to everyone who goes to work at Carlo's Bake Shop, punctuated with Buddy's stories about his family and his shop. The book builds organically from simple cookies and pies to pastries, flower-adorned cupcakes, and basic fondant cakes, to breathtaking cakes for every holiday and special occasion. It brims with Buddy's trademark style and his passion for baking and for life. With more than 100 of his most sought-after recipes and 650 gorgeous, step-by-step instructional photos, readers can follow Buddy as if they were next to him in the bakery. Baking with the Cake Boss is a master course that can help anyone create the kind of show-stopping cakes that have been featured in dozens of magazine and television shows and that have made both Buddy and Carlo's Bake Shop famous.

"CAKE BOSS" Buddy Valastro
Saturday, Nov. 5 @ Noon
2720 Frankfort Ave.

I have a few thoughts on this, would like some feedback but do understand that this really is not that important for serious food people. All the same here goes nothing.

At times I find this show to be entertaining & certainly the cakes they put out are impressive in their size & complexity. Most likely they don't taste that good, but for what they need to be I am sure they get the job done. What rubs me the wrong way is how morbidly obese 8 out of 10 of the family members are, it seems that working in a bakery can have some bad side effects if you don't exercise control on your sweet intake. With that said, I get distressed watching all of these overweight people make huge fattening cakes & eat themselves to death in the process.

Whenever they have a family celebration, here comes another huge, over the top, fattening cake that could feed 10 times the number of people in the room. Not only is this gluttonous but extremely wasteful as well. The life sized cake he made of his wife flat out gave me the creeps, something seemed really wrong about that one. Am I crazy or does any of this strike others in a similar way?

Finally, I read some excerpts from his book one day on lunch break while killing time at a local bookstore. He told a story of how when he was younger, his mother cut back his weekly pay in order to help him save some money. The implication clearly was that there was less cash in his weekly envelope than there normally was. Are we supposed to celebrate & admire a person & family who pays some of their employees in cash? Last time I checked that was a violation of our country's tax laws. This bothers me, and I was appalled that he printed this in his book. I still don't understand that one.

In closing, maybe I am putting more into this than necesary, maybe I am jealous of his family's success, or maybe some of this stuff geniunely rubs me the wrong way. Any additional comments on these topics would be welcomed.

One thing just because a person is paid in cash does not mean taxes were not filed or withheld...I remember when I was very young my Sister worked for Woolworths and got a pay envelope with cash and all her withholdings were on the outside of the envelope.
Secondly as an overweight person I get tired of folks griping about seeing real people on tv...this is a real family....if you dont like it dont watch it.