The One Type Of Small Cake Duff Goldman Truly Hates
Go big or go home: That expression definitely applies to celebrity baker Duff Goldman. The visionary and confectionary architect behind Baltimore's famous Charm City Cakes is known for elaborate, multi-layer, and multi-part assemblages fashioned from cake. He's taken on baking assignments for NASA and the New York Yankees (per Food Network), and developed elaborate theme cakes served at the American premieres of most of the Harry Potter movies (per Parade), like "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”
Another expression that applies to Goldman: Bake it until you make it. It might not be the largest, but perhaps Goldman's favorite cake creation thus far in his pastry career is the R2-D2 cake he and his team made for none other than legendary "Star Wars” filmmaker George Lucas. "It had all these moving parts and lights and smoke and noise and stuff that was really cool,” Goldman explained to Parade.
Scroll through the Charm City Cakes Instagram feed and you'll see smaller cakes of all kinds, including Goldman and his team's signature, sculpted creations, designed to replicate dinosaurs, spaceships, unicorns, and handbags. We've said it before and we'll say it again — there's nothing Goldman can't do with flour, sugar, and fondant, but there is one thing he would rather not do, and that's cupcakes. Or so he said in 2011, according to Eater. But people can change.
Goldman takes aim at cupcake bakers
More than a decade ago, the then cupcake-aversed Charm City Cakes founder reportedly surprised his team by committing to creating cupcakes for the New York Rangers (per Eater). Meanwhile, on an episode of the popular "Ace of Cakes" show, the master baker had this bit of unpleasantness to say about cupcakes and those who bake them. "What bothers me about cupcakes is that most of the people that bake cupcakes think they can actually bake." Ouch. In the same episode, which seems to have been scrubbed from the Internet, Goldman was shown taking the lives of poor little innocent decorated cupcakes with a gun.
We're not sure where Goldman's cupcake hate came from. Could it have anything to do with winning a Guinness World Records cupcake title, and later being stripped of it? In 2008, according to Delish, the TV personality created what was declared to be the largest cupcake in history. The foot-tall cupcake, which weighed in at more than 61 pounds, was made using 10 pounds of sugar and 16 pounds of butter. The ginormous confection, with a dome of blue frosting, was later disqualified by Guinness because Goldman went against the official rules and made the cake in two pieces. Yikes!
Did Goldman have a change of heart?
The good news is Duff Goldman seems to have come around to cupcakes. "Wanna see the right way to eat a cupcake?,” the "Ace of Cakes” asked in a promo for Food Network's "Kids Baking Championship” several years ago (per Food Network). He proceeds to break off a piece of cupcake bottom, apply it on the iced cupcake top, and "make a sandwich," a technique that would create rather a mess if the cupcake is cream- or jam-filled.
Still, social media has a long memory and hasn't forgotten the TV host's disdain for the petite treats of the decorated cake world. "Yeah Baltimore!,” Goldman said in a 2022 Tweet, "We got cupcakes and football,” a reference to the NFL's Ravens. Goldman is pictured wearing a black "Cupcakes and football” T-shirt. One snarky commenter replied, "I thought you didn't like cupcakes.”
Goldman's anti-cupcake stance from back in the day hasn't stopped him from selling them and showing others how to make them. "Stop by our Baltimore store for an easy pick-me-up! Cupcakes,” suggests one post on the Charm City Cakes Instagram account. Another Instagram post alerts viewers to a "Star Wars” cupcake class for beginner bakers.