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Ace of Cakes: Inside the World of Charm City Cakes | 
| Authors: Duff Goldman, Willie Goldman
Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks
List Price: $35.00
Buy New: $17.50
as of 11/21/2009 18:39 CST details
You Save: $17.50 (50%)
New (27) Used (7) from $17.50
Seller: strandbookstore
Rating:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 270
Media: Hardcover
Edition: First Edition, First Printing
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.7
Dimensions (in): 10.2 x 8.3 x 1
ISBN: 006170301X
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.8653
EAN: 9780061703010
ASIN: 006170301X
Publication Date: October 20, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
When Duff Goldman, Food Network's "Ace of Cakes," envisioned Charm City Cakes in Baltimore nearly a decade ago, his goal was to make wonderful cakes for friends and family. As word spread about his fabulous creations, his dream grew into a nationally renowned business staffed by a team of talented professionals, including musicians, artists, and creative souls with experience in architectural modeling, graphic design, deejaying, coffee making, performance art, dog walking, sculpture, painting and more. Aces of Cakes: Inside the World of Charm City Cakes is a celebration of the bakery that started it all. This colorful scrapbook is loaded with stories about Duff's early days as a graffiti artist turned young chef, his successes and hilarious disasters, and the amazing team he built step-by-step. Through candid interviews and profiles and hundreds of photographs, illustrations, and collages, the book shows how energy, inspiration, collaboration, and a bit of luck can conspire to help anyone achieve their creative vision. Of course, at the center of this stunning book are Charm City's Cakes. From the simple to the breathtakingly complex, Duff shows off some of the bakery's more unusual techniques and tools that shape their famous creations. He also offers a behind-the-scenes look at his Food Network show, shares his most incredible customer stories and requests, and reveals some of the bakery's favorite cake facts and tips--along with a comprehensive episode guide and a monster cake montage featuring seven years' worth of the bakery's astonishing cake creations.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 34
 A must-have for Ace of Cakes enthusiasts! November 19, 2009
M. Mills (East Coast, USA)
This book is the perfect gift for anyone who loves the Food Network show Ace of Cakes, featuring Baltimore-based rogue baker Duff Goldman and his unique and talented staff. It's the right size for a coffee table book, about 10" x 12", hardback, a tad over 300 pages, replete with gorgeous glossy photos and even a "centerfold" montage of all the cakes the bakery has churned out in the last seven years.
Just as the title says, this book really is a vignette into the inner workings of Charm City Cakes (the bakery) and Ace of Cakes (the TV show about the bakery). Perceptive readers will also notice that the book is also somewhat of a love song to Baltimore. Baker beware, though: it's not a cookbook or a cake decorating how-to guide. Duff begins with his own story of how he came into the world of culinary arts and eventually baking. Staff biographies are peppered intermittently throughout the book, each one as visually and substantively creative as the person who wrote it. Additionally, there are interviews with the directors, producers, writers, cameramen, and other production crew members. There's even a comprehensive episode guide. One particularly fun and heartwarming section is the fan mail spread, with drawings and letters Charm City Cakes has received from across the country. The only feature this book lacks is an index; several times I have wanted to find one particular staff biography and had to thumb through the entire book to find it. Despite this one minor oversight, this book includes everything you would ever want to know about the production of Ace of Cakes and what it's like to work at the bakery.
But what really engages the reader are the photos of the cakes. Each Charm City Cakes staff member created a cake for the book, and the work they do is so artistic, original, and creative that readers will flip through the pages hungrily just to see how much -- to use a Duffism -- bigger, badder, and more awesome the next one will be. There is quite a bit of text in this book, which I was surprised to find myself skipping initially (how can I read a five-page interview when the most amazing and creative cake I've ever seen is on the very next page?!). But then after having satiated my visual appetite, I went back and read everything and was happy to discover that the text was just as enthralling as the photos.
The inside story of the Charm City Cakes bakery is truly fascinating, and any Ace of Cakes fan will absolutely devour this book. Very highly recommended!
ACE OF CAKES is A Winner! November 19, 2009
Bingo-Karen Haney (Florida)
CHARM CITY CAKES is a wonderful place to be and this book tells all about it. For fans of ACE OF CAKES, this is THE book to get! This tells all about the show so don't be fooled into thinking it is a cookbook although it does have a few ways to make cakes like they do in there.It does tell how Duff started his business and then how his show came to be on television. It describes everyone on the show and even the ones that aren't on camera but are behind the scenes. Like the show, there is a lot of humor and it makes for a very enjoyable book to read. It also would make a good coffee table book to have out as I imagine it would stimulate many conversations...especially if people are fans of the show. I enjoyed the book and would recommend it for people who watch the show but also for those who don't..it is just a good book to enjoy!
All Hail Duff! November 19, 2009
@homemom (Jersey Shore, United States)
Ok I'll admit it, I watch two things on tv... countless semi painful hours of children's cartoons (I'm a stay at home mom) and Food Network, and I was a Food Network junkie long before I ever became a mom. I still remember the first time my husband and I saw Duff, it was on one of the cake challenges and we were both cracking up at this semi crazy seeming guy with the power tools, I distinctly remember we looked at eachother and said "this guy needs his own show!". Who would guess that several years later not only would he have a fantastic show that we love but that our daughter would beg to stay up past her bedtime to watch it as well.
Are you looking for a baking book? A book on cake decorating? I'm sure there are plenty here on amazon, this isn't one of them. This is a inside look at all our favorite cake decorating characters from Charm City Cakes (yes I realize these are real people not "characters" but once you watch the show and read the book you can't argue they are full of character and are hilarious). From the blue print of the bakery to the photo of baby Duff laying on his mom (collective AWWWW) this book is jammed full of color photographs, in fact every page except for the episode guide at the end has photos on it which make this a great coffee table book or a book to put in your guest room for company to flip through. I love the show but even I didn't sit down to read it all at once, we've kept it in our living room and have all been flipping through it and reading and laughing over the past several weeks. There are a number photos of their cakes of course but as an addict I do wish there were more larger photos to drool over, that would be my only semi complaint though (and leaves room for them to publish an actual coffee table book filled with large photos of all the cakes, hint hint). I love this book and if you love the show you will too!
 Very interesting book November 19, 2009
D. Hamilton (Connecticut, United States)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Although I thought this was a book where I can get some great cake recipes, I was a little disapointed. This is NOT a recipe book. It is a book about how he got started and how he ended up on the foodnetwork. This book will have you laughing, he has a great personality. Pretty interesting.
Captivating, inspiring and hunger inducing! November 19, 2009
NaughtiLiterati (NYC)
Warning - don't read this if you are on a diet or have no self-control! What I enjoy most about this book is that it is not a cookbook but a very close-up look at this amazing business and how it became SO popular - from getting in the door to the cakes being taken out the back; though you may never bake anywhere near as daring, it is fantastic to see how much work and love is put into this business and you get to know the staff too! If you are an Ace of Cakes fanatic or know someone who is, this is the perfect treat for you or a gift for that special someone!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 34
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