'Cake Boss' Buddy's got a lot in the oven

'Cake Boss' Buddy Valastro has new show cooking for TLC. He also has a new line of cake-decorating tools in the oven.

TLC's "Cake Boss" Buddy Valastro has more cooking up his sleeve.

Indeed, the popular bakery chef could someday expand beyond cooking sweets. Think of the foods that come long before dessert.

Valastro told an audience at the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank last weekend that he's working on a cooking show for TLC.

"Stuff that your grandma would make, that's what I'm going to be doing," he said.

Valastro fielded questions from the audience during the first in what will become a series of stage performances by the head of Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken.

He also said he's working on a line of cake-decorating tools and his own line of fondant - the sugary paste used to decorate cakes on the hugely popular TLC show.

During the stage show, Valastro led audience members in a cupcake-decorating competition, had men make chocolate roses and took questions that ranged from would he be in the bakery on certain dates to his relationship with a woman best known as "Bridezilla" on the show.

Fans of "Cake Boss" called her that after she demolished a cake he made for her wedding.

Valastro joked that he initially wanted to react badly to the cake bashing, but remembered that cameras were rolling. The woman, he said, was lambasted by viewers, who left threatening messages on her Facebook page.

"I felt so bad," he said of the unexpected fan reaction.

"Maybe scare her a little bit," he joked, "a pie in the puss maybe, but I didn't want her to be killed."

He said he and the woman are now friends and he's since made other cakes for her.

The Red Bank performance, before a soldout crowd of 1,500, comes just before Valastro and his team start production on a third, 26-episode season of "Cake Boss."

"Buddy and his team are true artists and have created the most amazing cakes this season - including a life-sized NASCAR cake! We can't wait to see what's next for the entire family at Carlo's bakery," Nancy Daniels, TLC's senior vice president of production and development, said in a statement.

Valastro is expected to do another 10 stage performances after shooting ends, and then do more following the launch of a cookbook he's working on.

During the stage production, Valastro got emotional talking about his father, whom he frequently credits with guiding him into the bakery business.

And he took a good jab at the Food Network, where he was first exposed to TV audiences as a competitor on the network's cake competition.

He lost several times before finally winning.

He said he also submitted a videotape of his family bakery as a test for a potential reality show. The Food Network passed, and he was picked up by TLC.

"They actually thought ["Ace of Cakes"] Duff [Goldman] was better," Valastro said, adding, "We know how that turned out."