The Real Story Behind Carlo's Bakery

The idea of illusive cakes is not new. In fact, it's currently trending, and it has everyone wondering what everyday objects in their lives are actually cake. But the practice of creating a wildly deceptive art cake was popularized largely thanks to the likes of Cake Boss. The Learning Channel show rocketed Buddy Valastro to celebrity baker status, resulted in tons of spinoffs, and made fondant more of a household name.

With all that, it's easy to forget that Valastro's creations are coming from an actual bakery — a petite bake shop dating back to 1910 when it was opened by Carlo Guastaferro on a quiet residential street in New Jersey. In fact, decades of baking, business-building, changing of the ownership guard, and even tragedy occurred in this East Coast bakery before Cake Boss ever premiered back in 2009.

The site is a tourist attraction now, still across from Hoboken City Hall, with lines winding down the streets and $125 cake-decorating classes. There are multiple locations across the country and even locations in Brazil, as well as vending machines in Canada. But it all started as Carlo's Bakery on Adams Street.

Residing in Little Ferry, New Jersey, Bartolo Valastro Sr. was a family man — a husband and father to four daughters and a son, the youngest. Buddy Valastro Jr. and sisters grew up around cakes and pastries, leading to Buddy Jr. following his father to Carlo's Bakery as early as 11 years old. At first, our apprentice was washing dishes and cleaning up. On his first day at the bakery, Buddy Jr. says his father made him clean the toilet bowl — just to show he wouldn't be getting any special treatment. 

Soon, he graduated from the bathroom to the kitchen, cracking eggs and moving flour and sugar. Then he started filling cannoli (though, not very well in the early days). But despite those early fumbles, it was soon discovered he'd be a fourth-generation baker. Buddy Jr.'s first cake was an Italian rum cake — a birthday treat for his mother — at age 12. 

But he seemed a natural. "We had less regulations back then, so you could stick your arm in the mixing bowl while it was mixing," Buddy Valastro told Thrillist. "It was dangerous code, but you knew the rhythm of the way that machine worked. It's like a musician knowing how to play an instrument."

It's well-known to Carlo's Bakery fans that Buddy Valastro was not inherently artistic and struggled in art classes at school. But after establishing himself as the new owner and operator of the historic Hoboken bake shop, Valastro started getting imaginative.

"I wanted to be creative," it reads on the Carlo's website, "and thought if I can make cakes that don't look like normal cakes but taste the way my dad's cakes tasted ... then I might be onto something." Valastro started with his father's recipes, creating early bakery orders like the red velvet cake, flower cupcakes, and artistic wedding cakes. Soon, designer cakes became Valastro's signature, leading to heavy regional recognition for himself and the bakery.

In 2004, Valastro was asked to be a contestant on Food Network Challenge — a competitive cooking series at the dawn of reality baking shows. Valastro competed in four of the show's cake competitions, losing the first three, but winning the fourth, which earned him $10,000 and some mild fame.

But it would be TLC, not Food Network, that would offer Valastro a television series and status as a celebrity baker. TLC filmed for 120 hours for the pilot alone, but the channel was apparently hooked. An additional 12 episodes were ordered, and Cake Boss premiered in 2009. The show has now seen ten seasons.

Remember when we mentioned how Buddy Valastro was delivering pastries and other baked goods to the first location outside of Hoboken? That seems like extra work, but it's probably important for bakery owners to ensure customers are eating fresh-baked goods. So, while our humble Cake Boss was making daily trips to neighboring New York City for the sake of a fresh bake, the same couldn't be said for the designer cakes. Cakes were not sold at the Cake Boss Cafe at Discovery Times Square when it opened in 2011.

Despite this standard, Valastro did roll out a line of grocery store cakes in summer 2012. The mass-produced buttercream cake line, released in partnership with Dawn Foods, first had two choices: the Badda Bloom and My Party Cake.

Valastro pulled it off by turning to the family-run company that supplied Carlo's Bakery with its flour, sugar, and other ingredients. He gave them his cake recipes so they could replicate them in large supply. "We came up with the designs, using my exact ingredients and baking instructions, down to how many revolutions for mixing the batter," Valastro told the Associated Press. "I'm proud of this."

Over the years, new pastries and cakes followed, including Let's Party, Eye Poppin' Petals, and Beach Party. However, all this seems to have gone by the wayside. Carlo's Bakery now just offers nationwide shipping through Goldbelly. It even released a new cake and decorating tool combo.

One has to wonder if Carlo Guastaferro ever pictured a giant NASA shuttle cake coming from his little New Jersey bake shop. In the beginning, Buddy Valastro struggled with lobster tails. In more recent times, he and a small team struggled to get a 7,000-pound Transformer Cake featuring Bumblebee into the showroom.

Throughout the history of Cake Boss and the recent history of Carlo's Bakery, the cakes have definitely gone overboard. We do think a few are pretty great — especially the entire city block cake made for the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street. And then there's that World's Largest Quilt Cake. 

But a few more are just the worst. There's the $30 million , plus just insane creations like the ugly feet cake and a literal toilet cake. Also, the cake made to look like Buddy's wife Lisa is kind of scary. But the biggest blunder may be the Wrigley Field cake.

The giant stadium-shaped dessert clocked in at 25 square feet and 400 pounds. It was made with chocolate, vanilla, chocolate fudge, and chewable baseball players. However, those were just about the only parts that were edible. The Cubs cake ended up in the dumpster, and photos absolutely surfaced. Bad publicity started brewing, and The Cubs had to issue a statement: "The team made a decision not to serve the edible portion after the cake was on display outside Wrigley Field for most of the day."

Now, when you check out the remaining locations of Carlo's Bakery, you see three weird entries. Toronto is home to three Carlo's Bakery ATMs. And these are exactly what they sound like.

In November 2019, Carlo's Bakery planted three cake vending machines in Ontario — one at the Royal Bank Plaza, one at Richmond Adelaide Centre, and another at Waterpark Place. Since each machine is stamped with "Fresh from Carlo's Bakery," the vending machines are reportedly re-stocked daily. The ATM vends up to 160 slices, which cost $8.99 each. However, much like the Hoboken location of Carlo's Bakery, and the many other locations on opening day, the bakery drew lengthy lines of cake fans.

While these little slice-peddling machines seem a little informal, it was the first time Canadians could buy Carlo's cake on their own soil. That is, until delivery to Canada started in the summer of 2020. Carlo's Bakery delivery service in Canada launched on June 22. It was announced via an Instagram video from Buddy Valastro himself. "I know that my Canadian fans have been asking me for a long time, 'How do I taste your cakes?'" Cake Boss said. "Well, let me tell you guys, now is the time!"

Cakes are $99 and frozen with dry ice to keep fresh while shipping. Canadian cake fans may choose from five styles — the Oh Canada Baby, rainbow cake, chocolate fudge, carrot cake, and the sampler (a combination of all four).