Jamila Young – Arts & Entertainment Editor
The Lyman Center was filled with people, young and old, from all over Connecticut, and outside of Connecticut, to see the one and only Cake Boss, Buddy Valastro.
Rita Chhabra, a resident of Rocky Hill, came to see the show with her two daughters.
“We watch his show,” said Chhabra. “I love seeing his creations.”
Valastro is on his “Family Celebrations Tour,” for his newest book, “Family Celebrations with the Cake Boss,” which came out in stores last Tuesday. Before the event in the Lyman Center, Valastro held a book signing at Price Chopper in Middletown.
Valastro came on stage and had his son, Marco, along with him. Throughout the show Valastro gave demonstrations of various decorations for cakes and cupcakes, and also held contests for audience members to win what he made. The first contest took place when beach balls were passed around amongst the audience while music played, and whoever had a ball when the music stopped, got to go on stage and get a cupcake that Valastro had decorated.
The cupcake decorations consisted of a sunflower, as well as a puff flower, where the flower petals were made up of very thick icing, as opposed to the petals of the sunflower that were thin. He also showed how to make a rose out of icing. He did each demo three times, and went really fast on his third time.
Valastro showed off his skills when he decided to make a rose blindfolded.
“It becomes muscle memory,” said Valastro. “You don’t even think about it.”
When Valastro went on to decorate some cakes, he used fondant to do it.
“Fondant is like the Houdini of cake decorating, because it looks really hard, but it’s really not,” said Valastro.
Valastro said that at his bakery, they go through about 10,000 lbs. of fondant a month. Valastro kneaded the fondant before he put it through a machine he brought with him, which makes the fondant smooth to be put on the cakes. He said that the heat from your hands when you knead the fondant makes it stretchy, and it can be stored for up to a year.
Valastro also said that dealing with fondant the first time won’t be an easy task to handle.
“The more you play around with it, the easier it will become for you,” said Valastro.
Thanksgiving is coming up in a few weeks, so Valastro decided to show how to make a cake in the shape of a turkey. He took a bundt cake and cut one third of it off. He then stood the two cakes one in front of the other, with their cut halves on the turntable, and with the smaller half in front of the bigger half. The bigger half had different colored rows of frosting to resemble a turkey’s feathers. The smaller half was the front of the turkey, where Valastro took white icing and made the neck and face of the turkey.
Southern student Kelsey Kosarko really enjoyed this demonstration best.
“My favorite part was when he decorated the turkey bundt cake,” said Kosarko.
Valastro owns his own bakery in Hoboken, New Jersey called Carlo’s Bakery, which used to belong to his father, and is where his show on TLC, called “Cake Boss” takes place. He talked a little about some of what goes on there. He said that they make between 300-600 birthday cakes a week, and 100-200 wedding cakes a week also.
The cakes that don’t get sold get sent to homeless shelters.
“It’s something my dad did, said Valastro. “We always have and always will give to the homeless shelter.”
Valastro is set to have another show air on the TLC network called “Bakery Boss,” set to premiere December 2, and he’s also opening a bakery in Greenwich.
“I’m hoping to be open by Valentine’s Day,” said Valastro.
