Charm City Cakes is not your run-of-the-mill bakery, and you’re more rock star than Betty Crocker. What’s the appeal in making cakes?
I enjoy the process. I enjoy the calmness of it. I enjoy the patience you need to have. Everywhere I’ve ever worked, I’ve always been the cake guy.
You’ve crafted cakes for big-time premieres, such as Harry Potter, Indiana Jones and the new Batman movie. Has it always been this glamorous?
When I started the cake company, I was literally baking in my house oven, decorating on my coffee table, living on the third floor with no elevator and delivering cakes in my little VW Golf. So ... no.
You’ve been called the “bad boy of baking.” And on your Food Network show, you swear, you act out. Was there any pressure to conform for television?
They love us and they hate us. They said, “If you cross the line, we’ll tell you, but just be yourself and see what happens.” What happened is we have the highest-rated show on the network.
What do you think of the recent cupcake craze—passing trend or here to stay?
It’s a fad.
Did you have any cooking influences?
My mom was and is an amazing cook and got me into home-cooked food at a very young age. I remember going to friends’ houses for dinner, and being like, “Wow, you guys eat this stuff? You eat Hungry-Man?”
Have you ever made any outrageous cakes for famous Washingtonians?
You name a lawyer in D.C., and we’ve made a cake for them. I’m not going to give names, but let’s just say, “Appropriations Committee?”
Charm City Cakes has more than 50 flavors. Any favorites?
We’re always coming up with new ones. I’m trying to figure out a good rocky road, which is tough in a cake. Chocolate mint. A spinach flavor. We don’t have a chocolate peanut nugget butter cream caramel cake, but we should.
Skip the milk. What’s another great drink to have with cake?
A mudslide. Or maybe a Guinness.
Do you have a dream cake you have yet to make?
The specifics aren’t as important as the challenge factor—or the cool factor. Whatever that dream cake is, though, it has to involve pyrotechnics. I love them.