On Saturday, our own pastry chef-turned-Food Network star Duff Goldman tied the knot in his new home of California. He married writer Johnna Colbry at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

According to Martha Stewart Weddings, the couple exchanged vows in the museum’s Dinosaur Hall before cutting into five wedding cakes, including a traditional white six-tier, an underwater-themed confection suspended from the ceiling, and a savory, meat-filled groom’s cake with mashed potato “icing” and bacon roses.

Though the wedding was a few time zones away, some important members of Goldman’s Baltimore family were able to make the trip out west to celebrate.

Among them was chef Cindy Wolf, Goldman’s mentor whom he credits with jumpstarting his career: “Cindy is 100 percent directly responsible for my success,” Goldman told us in a 2015 preview of his cookbook Duff Bakes: Think and Bake Like a Pro at Home, which he dedicated to Wolf. “She changed my life. If I hadn’t met her, who knows where I’d be right now.”

Wolf, the James Beard-nominated executive chef of Charleston in Harbor East, took to Instagram to share well wishes after attending. “One of the best weddings ever!” Wolf captioned her post. “Duff—I am so very happy for you and I love you!” In response, Goldman commented: “Thanks for being there chef. You mean more to me than I think you know.”

“Duff’s wedding was just as creative, beautiful and loving as anyone could wish,” Wolf later told us. “It was an honor to be included, and I could not be more happy for him.”

The chefs first met in the late-’90s, when Wolf hired Goldman to bake biscuits and muffins at her now-closed restaurant Savannah in Fells Point. Back then, Goldman’s only relevant experience was working at fast-food eateries.

“I didn’t even know what a pastry chef was,” said Goldman, who later rose to fame when the Food Network decided to produce a show about his Remington bakeshop, Charm City Cakes. “Thanks to Cindy, I started to understand baking fundamentals.”

Goldman’s career came full circle in 2015 with the release of his book, which features an adaptation of the cornbread recipe that he began his career making for Wolf at Savannah.

“She took a chance on me when I really didn’t know how to cook, like, at all,” he writes in the introduction. “She made me bake the cornbread for the restaurant, and it taught me that no matter what you’re doing, do it the best you can. To be honest, every time I open the oven, I’m doing something that Cindy taught me how to do.”

Right after the wedding, Goldman and his new bride jetted off to Thailand. They’ll return so the chef can film for a few weeks before their second honeymoon takes them around the world.

“I’m excited to go on adventures with my best friend,” Colbry told People magazine. “I think that’s going to be fun.”

EPICUREAN EVENTS

R. House Brunch: Just when we thought Remington’s new communal food hall couldn’t get any more enticing, the marketplace is launching a brand-new weekend brunch program.  Starting this Saturday, April 22, five of the market’s stalls will introduce mid-morning menus to be offered from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Dishes will include updated breakfast sandwiches from Ground & Griddled; traditional sabah pita filled with hard-boiled egg, eggplant fries, and hummus at Arba; over-easy eggs atop yucca hash browns at White Envelope; authentic Hawaiian loco moco and sushi breakfast burritos at Hilo; and vegan donuts and smoothie bowls from Stall 11. R. Bar will also unveil a brunch cocktail list featuring a house Bloody Mary with mezcal and Old Bay olives, and a sangria rosé that uses Mobtown Fermentation’s Wild Kombucha. 301 W. 29th St., 443-347-3570

Harbor Market: Instead of brown bagging-it at your desk, make your way to McKeldin Square to get some fresh air during lunch this season. Waterfront Partnership’s pop-up market will return on Wednesdays and Fridays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. starting May 5, with options like mac and cheese from Smoking Swine, crab cones from Gypsy Queen Cafe, bowls from Dooby’s, steamed buns from Ekiben, and ice cream sandwiches from Cream Cruiser. Plus, make the most of your lunch hour by challenging a co-worker to a round of cornhole, ladder toss, Bearpong, or Jenga. McKeldin Square, Inner Harbor, Wednesdays and Fridays throughout October from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. starting May 5.

International Dipping Cabinet at The Charmery: This go-to ice cream parlor on The Avenue in Hampden is all about using its unique flavors as a tool for community outreach. Next week, husband-and-wife owners David and Laura Alima are hosting an event celebrating the city’s culturally diverse dining scene. On Wednesday, April 26 from 6-10 p.m., the shop will feature signature scoops inspired by local restaurants like Greek mainstay Souvlaki, Senegalese favorite Nailah’s Kitchen, and Italian outpost Hersh’s. With input from the partnering spots, The Charmery has crafted flavors such as Matcha with Azuki Bean Swirl as a nod to the Japanese heritage of Ekiben, and a variety fusing pistachio, rosewater, almonds, and dates to honor Afghani destination The Helmand. Ten percent of all of the evening’s proceeds will be donated to the local chapter of the International Rescue Committee. 801 W. 36th St., 410-814-0493

OPEN

Charm City Cakes: Baltimore boy-turned-big name baker Duff Goldman has returned to his old stomping grounds to cut the ribbon at his new bakeshop in Harbor East. Charm City Cakes—Goldman’s Remington bakery best-known as the subject of Food Network’s Ace of Cakes—unveiled the new storefront at 618 South President Street in between Roy’s and James Joyce earlier today. The shop will serve as a retail arm to peddle the bakery’s signature brownies, cake jars, macarons, and cupcakes. 618 S. President St.

COMING SOON

Atlas Restaurant Group Expands at the Four Seasons: Atlas Restaurant Group founder Alex Smith tightened his grip on the Harbor East’s dining scene earlier this month, with the announcement that he will be opening a new rooftop concept at the Four Seasons Baltimore. Slated to debut this fall, the 10,000-square-foot restaurant will seat 250 people, include three outdoor spaces, and offer killer views of the Baltimore skyline. Smith also operates Loch Bar and Azumi in the Four Seasons, as well as other community destinations Ouzo Bay, Harbor East Deli, and soon-to-open Tagliata. 200 International Drive.

Batch Bake Shop: Hamilton-Lauraville locals, who are still lamenting the loss of Hamilton Bakery on Harford Road, will be happy to hear that a new bakeshop will soon take its place. Expected to debut this spring, the remodeled shop will feature wooden furniture, modern exposed-bulb lighting, and large display cases filled with sweet treats. 5414 Harford Road.

The DockBar: The Boathouse Canton is preparing to once again unveil its adjoining outdoor patio just in time for al fresco dining season. DockBar, the dog-friendly pavilion ideal for summer sipping, will open on April 21. Guests are invited to enjoy the waterfront views while listening to live music, indulging in Bloody Marys, tipping back Orange Crushes, and sampling “frosé”—the bar’s new offering that fuses rosé with frozen strawberry purée. Seasonal dishes to look out for range from cocktail shrimp and oysters on the half shell to Baja tacos and pulled pork sandwiches. 2809 Boston St., 410-773-9795

Wit on the Water: Another al fresco option is Wit & Wisdom’s picturesque patio at the Four Seasons Baltimore. The outdoor concept will make its return for the season at a grand opening event on April 26, which will feature live music, cornhole, frozen cocktails, local beer, and crab dishes by executive chef Zack Mills. If you can’t make it to the premiere, the 85-seat spot will be open throug October with a menu of specialty cocktails, Eastern Shore-inspired plates, and desserts by pastry chef Dyan Ng. 200 International Drive., 410-576-5800

NEWS

Mayor’s Office Adds New Food Truck Zones: Mobile kitchens were granted more flexibility last week as Mayor Pugh designated 10 new food truck zones in high-pedestrian areas throughout the city. The zones—which sit at least 300 feet away from restaurants selling similar products and now include areas around Penn Station, Sinai Hospital, and Coppin State University—were first introduced in 2014 as a way to reduce competition between food trucks and surrounding brick-and-mortar businesses. Though the hope is that the additions will give trucks more room to grow, a lawsuit spearheaded by the owners of Pizza di Joey and Madame BBQ to revoke the 300-foot rule is still working its way through the city court system.

SHUT:

Lenny’s Delicatessen: This weekend will be the last for regulars to get their fix of overstuffed reubens and jumbo hot dogs at Lenny’s Deli on Corned Beef Row. After 26 years, owner Alan Smith has decided to turn over the lease at the Lombard Street staple. “It’s just time,” Smith tells us. Following its last service, the deli will be transformed into a temporary headquarters for the nearby Helping Up Mission, which provides assistance for locals struggling with homelessness and addiction. Smith has vowed to donate all of the eatery’s existing furniture and equipment to the nonprofit while a $2 million renovation project is completed at its existing property around the corner. Two other Lenny’s locations—the Owings Mills flagship and a storefront at the Baltimore Marketplace inside Horseshoe Casino—are still going strong.  “Whenever something is in your life for this amount of time and it goes away, there’s definitely a feeling of loss,” says Smith, who worked at Lennys’ predecessor, Jack’s of Lombard Street, for four years before taking over the space. “But it’s not an unhappy situation. It feels good that I can do something positive.”

Ware House 518: Owners Ezra Tilaye and Tegist Ayalew said goodbye to their contemporary restaurant in Mt. Vernon earlier this month, after managing the space for nearly seven years. Tilaye cites Ayalew’s impending retirement as the primary reason for the closure, and says that he will now focus his efforts on the duo’s D.C. concept, Creme. New owners Joshua Persing and Robert Gay have since gotten to work to transform the space into a new gay bar. Expected to debut April 28, the club will feature a West Coast vibe with small plates, sleek furniture, and live entertainment including drag brunches on weekends. 

With the inauguration of President Donald Trump and the marches attended by millions of protestors across the country that followed, this past weekend certainly sparked plenty of controversy.

But one aspect of the inauguration that stood out to Baltimoreans in particular was the blatant similarities between Trump’s cake served at Friday evening’s Salute to Our Armed Forces Ball, and the nine-tier sensation created by Charm City Cakes that originally debuted at Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2013.

Baltimore’s own Duff Goldman—the famed Food Network personality who founded the Remington bakeshop in 2002 and has since relocated to the West Coast to oversee operations of a spinoff bakery in Los Angeles—addressed the resemblance via Instagram on Saturday morning, posting a side-by-side image of both cakes.

“The cake on the left is the one I made for President Obama’s inauguration four years ago,” the post reads. “The one on the right is Trump’s. I didn’t make it.”

Charm City Cakes worked closely with Obama’s inaugural committee in 2012 to create a four-foot design boasting red stripes, silver leaves and seals, and glitter stars. The original sketch was done by former creative director Katie Rose and dated January 7, 2013.

Rose tells us that, though the committee had certain elements that they wanted to be included on the cake, she was free to create her own design: “I made sure it wasn’t too whimsical or silly,” she says with a laugh. “It was as respectful as a cake can be.”

When Rose was first made aware of the imitation, she was in D.C. for the Women’s March. She says that, after she saw it, she had to do a quick Google search to refresh her memory of what her cake looked like.

“When I was watching the inauguration coverage and saw the cake I was like ‘Wow that looks so much like the cake we made,’” she says.“And then I thought, ‘Wait a minute, is it the cake we made?’”

Though it was a shock, Rose says that she felt more surprised by the situation than outraged: “I was pretty blown away, but at the same time, I was there to march,” she says. “It felt kind of small to me. I knew it wasn’t Trump himself who was like, ‘Get me that cake and copy it exactly.’”

The replica—which features precisely the same details—was created by Tiffany MacIsaac, owner of Buttercream Bakeshop in Washington, D.C.

“Excited to share the cake we got to make for one of last night’s inaugural balls,” MacIsaac captioned a photo of the cake on Instagram Saturday. “While we mostly love creating original designs, when we are asked to replicate someone else’s work, we are thrilled when it is a masterpiece like this one.”

In an interview with The Washington Post, MacIsaac explained that when Trump’s team placed the order, they insisted that the cake look identical to its predecessor.

“They came to us a couple of weeks ago, which is pretty last minute, and said, ‘We have a photo that we would like to replicate,’” she told The Post. When encouraging the client to use the photo as inspiration, “They said, ‘Nope, they want this exact cake. It’s perfect.’ And we said, ‘Great.’”

Though she declined to mention her political affiliation, MacIsaac said that she prides herself on being non-discriminatory.

“I’m a small-business owner, and one of the things I’m very, very proud about is that I don’t discriminate,” she said. “I would never turn someone away based on their age, their sex, their sexual orientation, their political views. It’s just not the way we operate.”

In keeping with that sentiment, Buttercream Bakeshop donated $1200 of the cake’s proceeds to the Human Rights Campaign, a nonprofit that works to bring equality to the LGBTQ community.

After hearing MacIsaac’s perspective, Goldman took to Twitter to clear the air, declaring that: “cake decorators borrow and are inspired by each other all the time. It’s how we keep this industry fresh, relevant, and moving forward.”

Rose, too, is choosing to take the high road: “I think maybe the person who asked didn’t actually realize it would be such a big deal,” she says. “I imagine people out there don’t realize that you shouldn’t steal somebody else’s designs. Maybe because it’s a cake it’s seen as a less-respected art? Maybe they just don’t see that a line was crossed.”

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all.

Long before he became famous for his sculptural specialties on the Food Network’s Ace of Cakes, Duff Goldman made muffins and baked biscuits at Cindy Wolf’s Savannah in Fells Point. And though the celebrity chef had only fast-food experience at the time, he credits Wolf—now one-half of Foreman Wolf—as the person who helped him break into baking.

“I didn’t even know what a pastry chef was,” Goldman says. “Thanks to Cindy, I started to understand baking fundamentals.” Clearly, Goldman was a star student. These days, he runs a bicoastal bakery business in Baltimore and Los Angeles and has appeared on the Food Network’s Duff Till Dawn. In addition to designing the cake for Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux’s wedding, his latest project is Duff Bakes: Think and Bake Like a Pro at Home. Recently, we caught up with Goldman to talk about the art of baking—and graffiti.

What was your goal in writing this book?
Most cookbooks have big, beautiful pictures that intimidate and scare people. But you don’t have to be so serious when you bake. The book is full of science and technique fundamentals, but it’s also very funny. I really want people to read this book. I wanted to write it in a way that it wouldn’t be over anyone’s head. Baking is viewed as this mysterious alchemy that only the fortunate few can do, but that’s not true.

What appeals to you about baking?
I’m obviously artistic and think mathematically, too. I minored in philosophy [at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County] and am very introspective. I enjoy the thought process that goes into baking and all the things that you have to consider like temperature, altitude, the brand of the oven . . .

What’s your advice to someone who wants to go pro?
Anyone who wants to be a chef should work at McDonald’s. It teaches you consistency. Every burger has to be exactly the same every time.

What do you make of your success?
I was a graffiti artist at 13. I was breaking into train yards, spray-painting in subway tunnels, and climbing buildings to get that one spot that people would see from the street. Because I conquered a lot of fear when I was so young, that fearlessness stuck with me. When I was first put on camera for the Food Network, I wasn’t afraid to look stupid.

You dedicated your book to chef Cindy Wolf. Why?
She changed my life. If I hadn’t met her, who knows where I’d be right now? Cindy is 100 percent directly responsible for my success, though I don’t think she’d want me in her kitchen now.

Recipe: Duff’s Cornbread

My first fine-dining job was working for Chef Cindy Wolf in Baltimore. She took a chance on me when I really didn’t know how to cook, like, at all. She made me bake the cornbread for the restaurant, and it taught me that no matter what you’re doing, do it the best you can. She’ll tell you that I made the best damn cornbread in the state. This is my adaptation of Chef Cindy Wolf’s recipe, but to be honest, every time I open the oven, I’m doing something that Cindy taught me how to do.

Bake these as soon as they’re mixed, because the acid in the buttermilk will set off the baking soda and you want to get the most lift out of your leavening agent. And make your mouth happy and serve with homemade honey butter—roughly a 2:1 ratio of butter to honey, whipped until soft and awesome. —Duff

Ingredients

• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Big pinch of kosher salt
• 2 extra-large eggs plus
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 cup buttermilk

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375˚F and grease a 9×13-inch baking dish or cake pan, or a 12-cup muffin tin.
2. In a big bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs and buttermilk to a uniform color.
4. Quickly but gently fold the liquid mixture into the dry mixture. It should be a loose batter, not a dough. If not, add some more buttermilk or even some cream, but just a tad; these ratios are right.
5. Pour the batter into the pan or divide it among muffin cups and bake for about 22 minutes (15 to 18 minutes for muffins), or until the top is golden and a toothpick comes out somewhat clean. Let cool for 7 minutes, then turn them out upside-down so they develop a nice thin crust on the baked edge.

From Duff Bakes by Duff Goldman and Sara Gonzales. Copyright © 2015 by Duff Goldman. Reprinted by permission of William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Street Wise

July 11, 2014
North Avenue

Lieutenant Colonel Melvin Russell, the setting sun catching the gold trim of his police hat, is addressing several hundred men at the edge of Leakin Park on a warm Friday night. “This city belongs to all of us,” Russell implores the crowd, preparing for a 9.5-mile anti-violence march from one end of often-notorious North Avenue to the other—and back. “It’s your presence, your being out here, that’s going to turn this city around. You can’t be afraid of the kids that you used to give freeze pops and bags of chips to.”

As sirens and dirt-bike riders known as “12 O’clock Boys” fly past, organizer Munir Bahar, who launched the initial 300 Men March last summer after a string of shootings, adds that change requires time and attention: “Like a slow-cooked meal.”

Then, the men, nearly all African-American, most wearing black “300 Men March” T-shirts with “Baltimore’s Anti-Violence Movement” emblazoned in block white lettering across the back, begin their journey. Onlookers shout and cars honk encouragement as the march’s female supporters hand out water bottles every few miles.

“It gets real when you come back up under I-83 and see that hill, knowing there’s two miles to go,” laughs Ian Smith, his shaved head already glistening. Smith is also keeping tabs on Divine Jones, a Fort Worthington Elementary fifth-grader. “Even when his older brother backed out, he told me he still wanted to do it,” says Anita Harris, his mother, waiting at the Baltimore Cemetery, the halfway point. “We’ve lost a lot of friends and family to violence.”

“He took my walking stick and he was off,” Smith says.

Bird Food

July 13, 2014
Remington Avenue

“Roll lightly. You don’t want to be smashing it into the table,” Charm City Cakes designer Mary Smith cautions her Sunday morning class who are learning the fundamentals of fondant application while competing for tickets and batting practice field passes for tonight’s nationally televised Yankees-Orioles game at Camden Yards.

Meanwhile, soon-to-be-married Orioles season ticketholders Stephen Smeal and Sherry Green are building their masterpieces side by side. He’s playing off the O’s “Birdland Passport” image, which features the Oriole bird holding a bat in each clawed foot, while her more traditional white cake is themed around the Orioles’ 60th anniversary season. Last year, the couple even planned their vacation around the team’s West Coast swing, catching several games in California. “If we win tickets,” says Smeal, “it’ll be our fourth game this week.” (They did; Green’s cake took second place.)

The proceeds from the workshop/cake competition benefit the YAI (Young Adult Initiative) Network, whose fundraising captain, Connie Schwab, has convinced her boyfriend, coincidentally Yankees beat writer Bryan Hoch—now delicately drawing the Yankees’ logo in icing—to take part. Later, using an X-Acto knife, he cuts out a silhouette of the New York skyline and rings the cake in (slightly crooked) navy blue pinstripes. “It’s good,” he says, of his rookie effort.

“Well, it’s your first time, honey,” offers his girlfriend, more objectively.

Afterward, someone suggests he present the cake to outgoing Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter as a retirement gift. “Hey, I haven’t gotten him anything, and I am flying to Minneapolis after this for the All-Star Game,” Hoch says. “I’ll see him there.”

“That’s an idea,” Schwab nods and smiles. “That way it won’t have to come back to New York with me.”

Big Dreams

July 18, 2014
Annapolis

Inside a 210-square-foot, off-the-grid home being built behind The Key School’s administration office, Cameron Salvon-Harman, a rising Key School ninth-grader, pulls a nail from his pouch and drives it into a piece of three-quarter-inch plywood, aiming for the stud. “Crap, I missed,” he says, wiping his brow. Elsewhere on the modest construction site, a dozen middle-school campers in hard hats and safety goggles, are toting lumber, sawing wood, and building bookcases.

The first “Tiny House” built by Maryland students—according to The Key School and SustainaFest, a two-year-old, Annapolis-based sustainability and education nonprofit—the project is designed to teach students about sustainability principles. In the process, SustainaFest president George Chmael II adds, they’re also learning about green design and technology, including solar electricity and rainwater filtration. Each camp day begins with a talk from a local green expert and, ultimately, the home will become a traveling exhibit. Already, Chmael II says, the project has received a great deal of interest, including a call from Good Morning America.

“It’s a little smaller than my bedroom, but I think I could live in a house like that,” says Salvon-Harman. “I’d put it on a barge, make it into a houseboat, and sail it and live on the water for a while. Then I’d hitch it to a trailer and drive across the country—just go anywhere.”

Charm City Cakes owner and Ace of Cakes star Duff Goldman is about to answer the question that his fans have been asking for years: What do his cakes actually taste like?

The public will get to find out on Aug. 26 with the opening of Horseshoe Casino’s Jack Binion’s Steak House, which has teamed with Charm City cakes to create an array of inventive dessert options.

Goldman’s sweet stuff will include 10-inch buttercream cakes, decorated six-inch cakes, cupcakes and cake jars, in crowd-pleasing flavors such as red velvet and carrot cake.

“This is a way for everyone who’s coming to the casino or from out of town to try our cakes,” says Goldman. “They’ll be able to see that our cakes don’t just look awesome, but they taste great, too.”

Typically, Goldman’s cakes are custom-ordered and come at a premium price. (They can run well into the thousands of dollars.) With this venture, the goal is to democratize his product and reach out to fans.

“It’s not some big wedding cake that you have to pay hundreds of dollars for—it’s just a slice,” says Goldman.

The partnership is one of the first new projects that Goldman has taken on in Baltimore since expanding his brand to Los Angeles with Charm City Cakes West and Duff’s Cakemix, a do-it-yourself cake shop for kids.

“It’s been a long haul getting a casino opened in Baltimore,” says Goldman. “Now that it’s here and my friends Guy [Fieri], Aarón [Sánchez] and John [Besh] opened restaurants, I was like ‘I should probably have a place too.’”

Although Goldman’s Ace of Cakes last aired on the Food Network in 2011, he plans to make a return to the screen.

“I was working on a YouTube series with Gartner [production house], but they sort of lost interest,” he explains. “They’re an awesome production company, but their tastes skew toward traditional media and were used to seeing television-type [ratings] and results. I will be doing more digital content in the future, though.”

Since then, he’s grown tired of celebrity chef culture.

“I don’t like those words,” says Goldman. “I’m just a chef that people point cameras at. If you need to introduce yourself as a celebrity chef, you need to reexamine why you started cooking in the first place.”

He clarifies his position: “Back in the day, there used to only be Emeril, Julia Child and handful of others. Now there’s a cooking show or two on every channel. Being a celebrity chef isn’t the great qualifier that it used to be.”

The talented baker does, however, cherish the newfound knowledge and love of food that the average American has thanks to cooking shows.

“There are all these kids that are being inspired to go to culinary school—not because they want to be on T.V., but because they want to be chefs—which is great,” says Goldman. “At Cakemix, I get kids decorating cakes better than I was when I graduated culinary school and they’re 10 years old. It’s amazing.”

SugarBaker’s Cakes

752 Frederick Rd., Catonsville, 410-788-9478.

Owner
Jamie Williams has gotten lots of exposure for her edible works of arts
in bridal magazines, on TV shows (Today and Whose Wedding Is It
Anyway?), and through celebrity wedding gigs (though she doesn’t bake
and tell). She also runs a bustling retail business in Catonsville.
Selections change daily, but if you’re lucky, the Smith Island cake
(yellow cake with fudge icing and melted peanut-butter cups) or the
country carrot cake will be available in the display case.

Editor’s pick: Amaretto-raspberry cake—almond cake infused with a layer of amaretto buttercream and raspberry filling.

Charm City Cakes

2936 Remington Ave., 410-235-9229.

Back
when most cakes were baked in rounds or squares, Charm City Cakes was
thinking outside the (cake) box with a King Tut sarcophagus cake and an
edible facsimile of Hogwarts Castle. Duff Goldman et al still specialize
in edible masterpieces, but for those of us who don’t necessarily need a
culinary replica of the Millennium Falcon, “cake jars”—filled with
pecan pie and dozens of other flavors—are on hand for $9.

Editor’s pick: Pumpkin chocolate-chip cake with Swiss buttercream.

Hamilton Bakery

5414 Harford Rd., 410-254-0797.

With
its retro décor and amiable employees, the bakery may seem low-key, but
there’s nothing simple about its very serious selection of
confections—like round layer cakes in red velvet, German chocolate,
Black Forest, and coconut, to name a few.

Editor’s pick:
Chocolate Overload cake—a three-layer chocolate cake with chocolate
mousse and chocolate ganache smothered in chocolate buttercream and
finished with chocolate ganache.

Woodlea Bakery

Several locations including 4905 Belair Rd., 410-488-7717.

Not
much has changed here since opening day in 1943—and that’s a good
thing. Owned by the Hergenroeder family and now in its fourth
generation, this is a neighborhood bakery at its best—with an
eager-to-help staff and prices from yesteryear. (A pineapple upside-down
cake rings in at $7.95, for example.)

Editor’s pick: German chocolate cake.

Yia Yia’s Bakery

9415 Philadelphia Rd., 410-238-2253.

Double
T Diner’s John, Louis, and Tom Korologos are the masterminds behind the
over-the-top desserts at Yia Yia’s. (The name is Greek for
grandmother.) You’ll find towering cakes of coconut, aromatic passion
fruit, and a Black Forest version with alternating layers of yellow and
chocolate cake.

Editor’s pick: The strawberry New York-style cheesecake with fresh glazed berries.

Layered Past Fun Fact

In
the 1800s, Smith Island natives sent these cakes with the waterman on
the autumn oyster harvest. Fudge was used instead of buttercream
frosting in order to preserve freshness longer.

Birthday Candle Record

48: Record-holding number of candles, in thousands, on a birthday cake (48,523 to be exact).*

*According to Guinness World Records.

On a dreary day in late February, Mary Alice Yeskey attends her first Charm City Cakes staff meeting since going on maternity leave. When she officially returns to work this spring (with two-month-old son Spencer in tow), her new office will be in the former equipment storeroom for Ace of Cakes, the Food Network reality show that was filmed at the Remington bakery.

Now that the show has ended its five-year, 10-season run, there’s a car seat, Diaper Genie, and baby toys littering the floor of the small room that once held cameras, electrical cords, and lights.

“From day one, when Duff [Goldman] bought the building, we joked that this would be the nursery,” says Yeskey, who will share the space with administrative assistant Kerry Dillon and her baby (16-month-old Willow). “Now it is.”

Becoming a mom for the first time isn’t the only change for the 34-year-old Yeskey, who has gone from being the show’s beloved commentator and office manager to the marketing director of Charm City Cakes. The bakery is in a state of transition as Goldman—TV star, bakery owner, and one of Yeskey’s best friends—broadens his brand and opens Charm City Cakes West in Los Angeles in the next couple of months. He’ll still be returning to Baltimore once a month, though.

Yeskey knows the Baltimore bakery will be different without Goldman’s regular presence. “I will definitely miss seeing Duff every day. The place does have a different feel when he’s not there,” she says. “It’s quieter and less frenetic but also feels kind of void of energy without him.”

Goldman, who’s at the staff meeting, stresses that he’s not seeking an L.A. bakery per se. “We are opening a Baltimorean embassy,” he says. “We are going to keep our Baltimore spirit as a company and individuals.”

While several of Yeskey’s coworkers— including art director Anna Ellison and cake decorator Katherine Hill—get settled in the City of Angels, her task is to keep the Baltimore home fires burning. “The trick is not to water down what we have,” she says. “The flip side of the fame and notoriety from the show is all the misinformation that has floated about us locally. I have had local wedding planners say, ‘Oh, I didn’t even realize you did cakes in Baltimore,’ and I’m like, ‘We are a local shop. That’s what we’ve always done.’ My goal is to make sure people know that.”

Fiercely articulate and organized, Yeskey is the natural choice to promote the bakery, whose interior is reminiscent of a trip through Alice in Wonderland’s looking glass with artists, architects, and engineers wielding electric saws and blowtorches to create edible art.

“She’s really good at translating Charm City Cakes in the real world,” says Goldman. “We have our own language in here. We do something very strange and different, and Mary Alice is really good at translating the strangeness of what goes on in here.”

Geof Manthorne, who is taking over the helm of the Baltimore bakery, says Yeskey is like a secretary of state. “Duff is so much the image of this place, but Mary Alice is putting that out there, and she handles everything with grace,” he says.

In addition to continuing to grow the Baltimore business, Yeskey’s mission is to clear up misconceptions. “The cakes are not a million dollars,” she says. (Although the minimum custom order is $1,000.) “And there isn’t an eight-year waiting list. People think we only do cakes for ‘famous people,’ which breaks my heart. I’ve said no to some pretty famous people, including Oprah, because her production company called on a Monday and wanted us to be in Chicago with a cake on a Wednesday. We bake on a first-come, first-serve basis.” (For the record, eventually a cake was made for Oprah when the bakery was given more notice.)

That’s not to say that Yeskey is unfazed by the luminaries who have appeared on the show. She remembers when the Cakes crew was making a cake for George Lucas about a year ago.

“I am this huge Star Wars fan,” says Yeskey, smiling at the memory. “Even though I couldn’t contribute a lot to cake decorating, Duff said to me, ‘You are coming with us,’ because I think he knew if I hadn’t gone, I would have quit my job! When I met George Lucas, I was shaking—the whole thing was surreal. I told Duff, ‘You never have to take me anywhere again.'”

Goldman and Yeskey have been friends since they met as college students at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). When people ask him whether he’s worried about hiring friends, he points to Yeskey. “She knew me when, at two in the morning, we were watching The Lost Boys in the lobby of our college dorm,” he says. “If something is going down, and I’m not there to see it, there’s no question she’s got my back.”

Years ago, it was Goldman who had Yeskey’s back. She was a freshman at UMBC in the fall of 1994, and Goldman was a sophomore, who also worked for the university’s Office of Residential Life. Yeskey had taken her mother’s pearl necklace to school (unbeknownst to her mother) and, one morning, watched in horror as she dropped it down the drain of her dorm-room sink. “It was terrible of me, but I didn’t think she would miss it,” says Yeskey, a Gaithersburg native whose brother Neil is the lead singer for the rock band Clutch. She quickly went to the front desk and filled out a maintenance request.

Ten minutes later, Goldman showed up at her door. “He looked like this college dude with his tool belt and tie-dyed shirt. He was a student, but one of his jobs to pay for his room and board was to be the ‘super’ of Chesapeake Hall,” Yeskey says. “He was like, ‘You’ve got a problem with your sink?’ Two seconds later, he undid the u-pipe and handed me my pearls. . . . Every time I saw him after that, I was like, ‘There’s my hero.'”

By the middle of her sophomore year in 1995, Yeskey had transferred to the University of Maryland, College Park to finish a degree in English and then later pursued a master’s degree in publication design from University of Baltimore. She and Goldman remained friends. “Once I left UMBC, that’s when we started e-mailing each other and became even closer,” says Yeskey. “We would send these giant e-mails to each other.”

By 1998, Yeskey had graduated and was working for nonprofit organizations. But after several years, she was unhappy with her work situation and ready to move on. Serendipitously, Goldman stopped by her office one day in 2005, and Yeskey confided that she hated her job and started crying. Goldman, whose office manager had just left him, recalls the visit. “A girl starts crying, and what are you going to do?” he says. “You need to help, so I was like, ‘Do you want a job?’ I didn’t even know if I could afford to pay her.”

From the start, the duo complemented each other. “We have this relationship that is like brother-sister with a little bit of old married couple thrown in,” says Yeskey. “In my other jobs, I needed work clothes that I had to iron. For one job, I had to take out my nose ring every day and cover up all my tattoos—I felt like I was pretending to be someone I wasn’t. Duff has created everyone’s fantasy, which is to work doing something you love with all your friends. It’s like Disneyland.”

One unwritten aspect of Yeskey’s job is keeping her sometimes overly ebullient boss in check. “One of the reasons my job is so perfect is that Duff needs someone who isn’t afraid to tell him he’s being a goofball,” says Yeskey, fondly. “Usually, this has to do with his desire to put pyrotechnics into cakes, like the time we were making a cake for a military event, despite the fact that the clients had specifically stated that fireworks were prohibited on the military base, but he wanted to do it anyway. I told him I wouldn’t bail him out of military jail!”

Their on-air relationship is no different off camera. “Because we’ve had such a long relationship, we had a really good rapport with each other and can say anything to each other—on and off television,” says Goldman. “We could do a lot of bickering, and it would come across as really funny. The show wouldn’t have done one-tenth of what it did without her. She added a dimension that made the show complete. She was the one who was like, ‘Look at this room full of crazy I’m stuck in.’ She was the voice of the viewer.”

Yeskey says it was a stroke of good timing that the show was ending just as she was about to give birth to her son. At the three-bedroom Mayfield bungalow she shares with her husband Dave, a network engineer, she’s now surrounded by eco-friendly diapers and is content to serve as a human hammock for Spencer, who slumbers blissfully across her chest. While she’s grateful for the show that took her to the set of Lost in Hawaii (where the crew delivered an island-shaped cake) and to Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch (to present an R2-D2-shaped creation), she’s enjoying the new challenges of motherhood. “It’s what everyone says, but you don’t realize until it happens to you,” she says. “Immediately, so much stuff becomes unimportant. This is the priority.”

She’s learned so much from Goldman, she says, as she reflects on the shooting of the final episode of Ace of Cakes—in which the cast made a Back to the Future DeLorean time-machine cake to commemorate the film’s 25th anniversary. “Duff was standing there with Michael J. Fox, and pointing out all the stuff on the cake,” says Yeskey. “And I was just standing there watching. I don’t stand in wonder because I didn’t think he was capable. I’m more like, ‘How did this all happen?’ Duff has taught me to follow my gut. He has shown me what can happen if you close your eyes and leap—I love him for showing me what can happen if you really go for it.”

And while Yeskey will miss her face-to-face interaction with Goldman, she knows they will be in constant communication. “We will be keeping in touch like crazy through e-mails and obnoxious text messages,” she says. “We’re already fond of sending each other goofy pictures from our phones, so I can only see that habit getting more frequent once he’s gone.”