In 2010, I was filmed making a giant cake for one episode (season 2, episode 4) of a Discovery Network reality television show called Fabulous Cakes, now syndicated on TLC. I was under contract to NOT blog about the filming for a while but that agreement has expired so at long last, here is the real story behind the making of the 3½ foot tall tire-garden rooster cake for Olivewood Gardens.
Here is the actual Olivewood tire garden that inspired the cake design:
The full cake design consisted of five tire planters, two flower pots, one rooster, one pumpkin, two tomatoes, one chick, and one ear of corn, which added up to 15 cakes, all decorated in buttercream and modeling chocolate. Here was the final sketch of the design:
In order to stage three days of uninterrupted filming, I converted my dining room into a ‘set’ complete with rolling speed racks and a vinyl floor glued over the rug.
The cake did not sell for $1300 as the story line claims. It was a donation for a fundraiser/rooster naming. The consultation scene was also staged.
What the producer really craved was drama i.e. for me to cry or drop my cake. Sometimes I wasn’t sure if I was being asked to do something a second time because they were missing the angle they needed or because they were trying to get me to crack on camera.
For instance, they made me model the rooster head twice (dummy on left, original on right):
Then we had a spare rooster head kicking around so the producer said, “Hmmmm. Hey, Kristen, can we do something with this extra rooster head? Like how about you pretend to drop it on the floor ‘by accident?'”
“Hmmm.” I waved the dummy rooster head in front of the camera. “How about you eat my cock?” But that clip never made it onto the show.
Thanks to TLC for the opportunity and to Amy, Julie, Michelle, Erica, Franco, Heidi, Larisse, Olivewood Gardens! Couldn’t have done it without you guys!
Cockadoodledoo!
Many of the techniques used on the show are now available in my new book:
New to Wicked Goodies? Start *HERE*
This had me LOL! I can’t believe this is the 1st time I’ve been here. Bookmarked.
I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you on this! I feel like I was rude!
I really tried to go to a bunch of those patisseries, but my wife had an amazing agenda that she made for us and we stuck to her schedule. We saw everything we really wanted to and did get to have some pastries, but not at the places you told me about. Honestly, I wasn’t too impressed with the normal food, but the pastries that I had were awesome.
Hey Carmelo, nice to hear from you. I recently checked out your site and saw you had blogged a little about your trip. Glad you enjoyed the pastries in Paris!
I look forward to seeing your next creation on facebook – Kristen
Holy cow K. I always wondered why those shows seems so drama related. They just want it. I’m glad you told them off. I’m also glad you can finally talk about it too.
Haven’t chatted with you in a long time, hope all is well!
P.S. Paris was awesome!
Hey Carmelo I’m glad you had a rocking time in Paris. Did you get to any of those patisseries that I told you about?
Would you do another reality show and I figured that wasnt the real pirce for 15 cakes more like 4500 right lol. Cant wait for the book check out my site let me know what u think
Hi Julia – I would considering doing something like again but seeing as I stayed up for 3 straight days to pull the gig off, I would probably plan better next time! I checked out your website. It’s great! Nice work! It doesn’t a mention a location, though. Where are you situated? Cheers, Kristen