'Cake Boss' recap: Buddy, sister Grace go all out for Rachael Ray

TLCRachael Ray has a special request for Buddy Valastro on tonight's episode of "Cake Boss."Season 4, Episode 1: "Circus, Celebrity Chef and Surprise!"

After the first season of the spin-off competition series "Next Great Baker," "Cake Boss" is back in full swing for the fourth season.

Tonight we join Buddy and his wife Lisa during an intimate moment with the OB/GYN as the two looked at ultrasound pictures of their fourth child.

Buddy is inspired to make a cake for Lisa in the shape of a stork holding a baby in a yellow blanket - the perfect dessert for an upcoming party where the Boss and his wife plan to announce the new addition to the rest of the familgia.

The cake must remain a surprise and, because little is sacred in Carlo's Bake Shop, Mauro is charged with helping Buddy keep it that way.

But the stork cake soon becomes an afterthought as the bakers get two high-profile assignments for the week: commissions from Rachael Ray and Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Daytime television's newest darling comes to the bakery (via the back door, of course) to ask Buddy to make her a cake in honor of her fifth wedding anniversary to husband John Cusimano. The Boss decides to make a replica of the Castello di Velona, the castle-turned-hotel in the Tuscan countryside where the couple was wed.

Rice crispy treats, cannoli cream and the usual layer of textured fondant do the job for the castle, while modeling chocolate figures of Rachael and John complete the pretty picture.

In the meantime, it is quickly revealed that Buddy's sister Grace is a huge fan of Rachael Ray, showering her with platters of Italian cookies. Feeling generous - or perhaps pressured by TV cameras - he brings his sister along to come with him to deliver the cake to the set of the Rachael Ray Show in New York City.

In the midst of all the baking, the crew finds time to check out the the Lackawanna Center, an 8-story industrial building just next door to Hoboken in Jersey City and the future site of the Boss' new office suite and state-of-the-art baking facility.

Which brings us to the third cake of the week: a replica of the Circus ring in honor of the Ringling Bros.'s final performance of the season commissioned by Dean the Clown.

For the "Greatest Show on Earth," Buddy must make the "Greatest Cake on Earth" so he and his crew roll up their sleeves to recreate the animals, the clowns and the tightrope atop layers of red velvet and vanilla cake. They even manage to throw in some pyrotechnics with a hoop of fire and modeling chocolate people shooting out of canons.

Buddy and the bakers deliver the cake to the big top where Dean gives it a thumbs up, leaving him to finish his covert operations for the week in time for the family gathering at the Valastro's.

As Buddy and his decorator Ralph are putting the finishing touches on the stork cake, who should walk in but Lisa followed by Mauro who did a rather unconvincing job at informing her that Buddy had already left the bakery for the day. 

Seeming unfazed, Lisa asks Buddy a question about an order and walks out of the bakery.

Cut to the family enjoying a Sunday dinner of what appears to be Italian sausage and peppers and Buddy and Lisa tell the family their big news. Once the hugging and shrieking is out of the way, Mauro helps Buddy present Lisa with the surprise of his own and the Boss cuts into his stork cake.

The moral of today's episode, "Cake Boss" fans?

"It doesn't matter what changes we go through. It doesn't matter how the business grows," Buddy says. "At the end of the day, it's about this right here. It's about famiglia."

'Cake Boss' recap: Buddy, Cousin Anthony fist pump for Snooki

TLCBuddy poses with Nicole Polizzi, or "Snooki," and her mother's cake.

Episode 20: "Snooki, Super Anthony and a Ship"

You know Carlo's Bakery is going somewhere when it is graced by the presence of Snooki of "The Jersey Shore."

She wanted a cake for her mom's birthday, but it needed pizzazz because as she said, her mom is very conservative. So Snooki requested to have a bit of herself in it somehow — selfless daughter indeed.

Cousin Anthony and younger cousin, Buddy, were starstruck by the new client, and tried impressing her. It was obvious that no one at the bakery watches "The Jersey Shore" as Snooki made references about her poof, GTL-ing, and fist pumping gorillas that no one could decipher upon first mention.

She seemed almost taken aback when she requested that her signature poof be somehow incorporated into her mom's cake, and Buddy just stared clueless.

A rectangular base followed by two little round tiers next to each other were used to resemble two different cakes in one. One side was Snooki's and the opposing was her mom's. Snooki's part of the cake was a cool blue, with a mini-she, done by Ralphie, who had no idea of the hair poof either, and was surrounded by shirtless, buffed up "guidos" on the brown-sugared beach.

Snooki's mom's side was neon green, with piping flowers and miniature flower pots, along with a sculpture of her as a gardener.

I believe this was the first time cherry filling with real cherries was used.

Do I recall Buddy at some point express discontent with everything "The Jersey Shore" represents for Italian-Americans? Yet here he was taking orders from the "guidette" and teaching Ralphie how to fist pump. He only mentioned how he didn't like the term "guido" but shrugged it off as part of the normal talk at the shore.

On to our second cake, which was really the first one introduced in the show. Clients at South Street Seaport in New York City asked for a different kind of ship cake in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the S.S. Normandie luxury liner. They didn't just want a replica of the ship. Instead, they wanted the cake to exhibit what was found inside the ship.

TLCJuan paints art deco tiles for the Seaport Museum Cake.

Buddy highlighted what he found to be memorable, and made a four-tiered white cake with twisted fondant to resemble roping to go around each tier.

One of the few items saved after the ship was destroyed in 1942 was the grand wheel. So Buddy decided to make a giant, brown wheel on top of the cake that actually spun. It was molded out of PVC pipes with the help of strongman Mauro. I do have to point out that Buddy failed to give credit to him, saying that he himself got it to work after failing at making a large wheel the first time.

The front part of the ship was also made, out of Rice Krispies treats and placed next to the cake. Badges, anchors, art decor from the dining tapestry, captain caps, and tiny French butlers decorated the vanilla and chocolate ganache cake.

The museum folks were pleasantly stunned by Buddy's keen sense of detail.

Back to Snooki's visit. By now, Anthony isn't shy to make a fool out of himelf, asking to hang out sometime. Snooki commented on how he was pale, a huge turnoff for the queen of baking under the sun. He decided to "upgrade" his look, getting a makeover by the girls at the bakery to suit Snooki's taste in juiced up men, or as she calls them "gorillas."

TLCDanny and Buddy work on the Seaport cake.

What did the makeover include? A black muscle tee, a terrible spray-on tan, and an Italian flag belt buckle that was reversed, resembling the Mexican flag. All that heavy cake lifting does provide results, though, as Anthony showed off his guns, and midriff to Snooki. And she approved by offering to stand near him and pose for pictures.

One of the first things Snooki noticed when presented with the cake was the molding of herself.

At the end, we hear her pale mom speak, saying how grateful she is of the cake especially after her daughter failed to see her at Mother's Day. Sounds like there's some personal drama there.

Cake Boss Recap: A Giant Flip-Flop and PB&J

Last night's episode of Cake Boss opened with a meeting between Buddy and Amie Lee of the Myrtle Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. Amie explains to Buddy that Myrtle Beach is celebrating 50 years of their boardwalk by building a new and longer, mile-long boardwalk. They want one of Carlos Bakery's famous cakes to commemorate the occasion.

What kind of cake do they want? A giant flip flop, of course.

Buddy seems unimpressed by the idea of a flip-flop cake. He feels like he is capable of something more impressive than a flip-flop. Amie explains there is nothing more indicative of the beach than a flip-flop and that she wants the "wow factor" to be the cake's size.

And then the bartering begins. "How big of a cake do you want?" Buddy asks. "Three, four, five feet?"

Amie replies that she wants a 15-foot cake. Buddy scoffs at this and they go back and forth until they split the difference at 10 feet by 3.5 feet. Buddy says that since they are going to deliver the cake to South Carolina themselves, that is the biggest cake that will fit in the van.

Amie seems pleased with their compromise and tells Buddy that the mayor will be coming up to Hoboken to check out the cake before it is sent down to Myrtle Beach for the event. 

"She's gonna bring the mayor to see off the cake, so it better be a great cake," Buddy says.

Work on the cake commences with the baking of 200 sheets of sponge cake which they will cut out in the shape of a flip-flop.  The thong will be made out of modeling chocolate.

"This is gonna be like King Kong's flip flop!" Buddy exclaims.

The first step they take is to draw out a template made of cardboard. There is some difficulty with this and it takes them a few attempts to get it right because of the sheer size of the template. Once they nail it, Joey gets to making the sponge cake right away.

Next up, they start making colorful squares out of fondant that will line the sole of the flip-flop. Some have a colorful tie-dyed effect, while others have creative die-cut designs. They also make a Myrtle Beach logo to go on the sole.

Cut to Buddy's second meeting of the episode - this one with two second grade teachers from Steven's Cooperative School. The teachers tell Buddy that they want a cake to celebrate the students graduating from second to third grade. The teachers mention that the kids eat a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and so Buddy has the idea to make a giant peanut butter and jelly sandwich cake.

"Frankie and I used to eat triple deckers when we were kids," Buddy tells the teachers. "We'll make a triple decker PB&J cake!" The teachers explain that they should have an option for the kids who have peanut allergies, so Buddy agrees to make a little cake on the side with only jelly, no peanut butter.

Joey calls to Buddy from over by the ovens to tell him that a shelf in the oven has fallen.  Buddy explains that the ovens have been breaking down a lot lately and that he was planning on getting them fixed next month but he's going to have to deal with it now.

Joey then goes to work on the PB&J cake in the other oven.  Buddy also turns his attention to the peanut butter and jelly cake.  He makes jars of peanut butter and jelly made of rice crispy treats to go by the side of the sandwich cake.
Next, they cover the cake with white fondont and cut up strips of brown fondant to put around the perimeter of the cake made to look like crust.

Next, we see Buddy meeting with Angela Logan, who is the creator of  the Mortgage Apple Cakes. She explains to Buddy that she baked 100 cakes in 10 days and sold them to friends in an attempt to save her home from foreclosure. And because so many people helped her in her time of need, she created a charity to give back. She continues to sell her apple cakes and gives a percentage to others trying to save their homes from foreclosure. Angela has come to Buddy hoping he will give her some new apple cake recipes.

Buddy says he can't give out Carlo's Bakery recipes to anyone, but he can give her some pointers. They hit the kitchen and he shows her some things she can use for her apple cakes and then invites her back to Carlo's Bakery anytime.

Back to the peanut butter and jelly cake. Buddy puts  butter cream on top and pats it with a paper towel to make it look spongey like a slice of real bread.

Over at the flip-flop cake, Buddy and company  trim the top to get rid of divets.  "It's ginormous!" Buddy says. "It weights like 2,000 pounds. This may be the heaviest cake ever to come out of this bakery!"

Next, the oven installation guys show up and Buddy explains that the new oven needs to go upstairs and that they are going to have to forklift it. 

The PB&J cake is finished and so they load the cake into the van and take it over to Steven's Cooperative School. The kids go absolutely nuts, screaming and jumping up and down when they see the cake. The children also made an adorable banner thanking the bakery for the cake.

Back at the bakery, the finishing touches are being laid on the flip-flop cake. Buddy and all of his co-workers are yawning because it's getting late, but the mayor of Myrtle Beach is on the way, so they've got to step on it.

Danny says, "These cakes are getting heavier and heavier, and we are getting older and older."

They add the tiles and stitching to the sole and cover the thong in brown modeling chocolate, just as Mayor Rhodes and Amie Lee are walking up to the bakery. The two visitors are visibly impressed and tell Buddy that he exceeded their expectations.

But, Buddy is concerned about the weight of the cake. It takes 10 people to get it loaded into the van and he worries about how it will get unloaded in Myrtle Beach with just Danny driving it down. In the end, he flies down to meet Danny in Myrtle Beach to oversee the process and everything works out great.

"Everyone in Myrtle Beach was warm and welcoming," Buddy said. "We'll  see you on the boardwalk!"