Ace Of Cakes Was Originally Called Something Totally Different
The hit Food Network show "Ace of Cakes," which ran for 10 seasons between 2006 and 2011, turned pastry chef Duff Goldman into a celebrity. With unconventional tools such as blowtorches and saws, he and his team have created impressively detailed, larger-than-life cakes for "Star Wars" creator George Lucas, the premiere of the fifth "Harry Potter" film, and even President Obama's second inauguration in 2013.
The show focuses on Charm City Cakes, Goldman's bakery housed in a converted 1890s church in Baltimore. Fans might be shocked to learn that, although each episode was a short 22 minutes long, they were way more time-consuming to produce. The episodes, per Food Network, were whittled down from 120 hours of raw footage — that's five straight days' worth of video for each episode's runtime.
Ultimately, "Ace of Cakes" was canceled in 2011, but Goldman hasn't slowed down. He can still be seen on other Food Network shows and has expanded his bakery to Los Angeles. "Ace of Cakes," now a household name, was not the original title for the show — it was originally pitched as something much less family-friendly.
Duff Goldman's idea for the name of his TV Show was a bit risque
The title "Ace of Cakes" was not celebrity chef Duff Goldman's initial idea for the show's name. A TV pitch highlighting Charm City Cakes originally came to Food Network producers as a demo tape called "____ You Let's Bake" (per Food Network).
This risque name may not be a surprise given Duff's high-octane personality and willingness to break traditional baking norms to achieve his impressive creations. However, the network wanted a more G-rated name, and they considered other options such as "Bake It to the Limit," "Charm City," and "Doughboy."
Although the network ultimately settled on the now-well-known "Ace of Cakes," the show did retain some of the unvarnished energy the original name suggested. Instead of hiring professional cake decorators, Goldman hired friends and art school graduates who were willing to join in his unorthodox approach to cake-building. Rather than editing out mistakes, producers allowed viewers to see the real conversations, arguments, and technical difficulties that occur in a busy cake shop. These aspects of the show are what helped make it so likable — and Goldman agrees.
"I think one of the things that was so wonderful about 'Ace of Cakes' is that nobody really cared that they were being filmed," Goldman said on an episode of the podcast "Food Network Obsessed" (via Apple Podcasts).