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Everything You Wanted To Know About Cake
2009-04-22 17:38:07

The Challenge Set

Work in progress

Doodles done to amuse myself

Nothing is sadder than unused monkey heads

Now that the episode of Food Network Challenge: Last Cake Standing aired last Sunday, I can finally share with you a few behind-the-scenes stories, as well as the couple photos I shot while on the set. As you’d expect, I’ve been receiving a number of questions and responses from people who caught all or part of the broadcast this past weekend, so hopefully this will serve as a sort of catch-all FAQ concerning my adventures in cake.

--I was invited to come out and be a judge after the production team, High Noon Entertainment, contacted Marvel looking for a guest judge. Joe Q was enmeshed in a bunch of other stuff at the time, so I was offered the assignment.

--I have no idea what they do with the cakes after the production wraps, but one thing that definitely doesn’t happen is that they get eaten. These cakes were for presentation only, and especially with all of the hardware baked into them for their “extreme elements”, they’re probably nothing you’d want to put in your mouth in the first place. In the two days I was on set, not once did I eat anything even resembling a tasty pastry.

--On the first day, my flight landed in Colorado at 1:30, and my instructions were to report to the studio at 3:30 for the Judge’s Meeting. Having no idea what this was, I found my hotel, dropped my bags, and then hustled over there still wearing the knock-around clothes I had traveled in, including my hat. As it turns out, and what everybody had neglected to mention to me, the Judge’s Meeting isn’t just prep work for the next day’s shoot—it’s filmed. And while none of that footage wound up being in the final cut of the episode, it did set the tone for the rest of the show. Specifically, somebody there thought my hat made me look more distinctive, more like whatever they imagined a comic book person should look like. So as a result I wound up wearing it all through the filming.

--While the contestants do only have a rigidly-enforced eight hours to create their cakes, most of the inserts of host Keegan weren’t filmed in real time, but at the approximate time, with a simulated clock behind him. This is to allow for multiple takes, to ensure that what’s needed to advance the plot of the show gets captured on film. It was interesting to see that part of the process.

--Filming began at a horrifying 6:30 in the morning, and ran solid through just after 8:00 in the evening. The time difference worked in my favor, though, as this was like 8:30 in the morning to me, a typical work day. But the competitors and crew filmed all four episodes of the show that air this month in the course of a little bit over the week, so when people look tired in this episode, it’s because they’d been baking and designing for the six or seven days previous to this already, and with hours just as grueling.

--There were some definite differing opinions when it came to judging the winner. It wasn’t a unanimous call by any means.

--As soon as the final cake-off began, I very suddenly became an "un-person" for teh next hour, as the crew moved to get done the stuff that had to be done for that added challenge. It was a disorienting shift-of-focus after being at the center of things for the whole day previous.

--In real life, my head looks slightly less like an ill-proportioned pineapple.

So on the whole, it was an interesting experience, and I'd do it again.

More later.

Tom B

No pics of the actual cake?
Aww man! I missed the episode. Ive been trying to catch it since Tom first mentioned the show a month or so ago. Any chance of us getting some pics of the winner and runners up?

Posted by sirviz on 2009-04-22 18:29:52

telling appearance.
While I thought you came across as a pretty charming guy, my favorite part was when you said "spectacular disasters" could be "just as entertaining" as something coming together really well. It gave me a better understanding of what you guys were trying to do with ASM over the past few years.

Posted by dtrod on 2009-04-22 19:28:30

No cake at all? That's criminal!

I'm always amazed at the audience. Seems like it would be kind of dull to be there for 8 hours.

Posted by motteditor on 2009-04-22 22:22:25

TOM is DEATH
I caught it last night and it was all a lot of fun. The concepts were corny but the rendering of the characters done by the winning team was incredible.

Tom makes for a photogenic and likable TV personality/ comics ambassador even with his one (unintentional?) baking pun ("That's a recipe for disaster!").

BUT then, as the losing team was forced into a half hour elimination decorate-off, the specter of death loomed in the distance in the form of a familiar silhouette. I have still that were shot from the 58:10 mark and I was cracking up when I saw it real time.

Check out my Newsarama post for the pic (can I post pics on the Marvel Board?)

http://www.newsarama.com/common/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=7101&p=215244#p215244

Thanks Tom!

Posted by hamgravy on 2009-04-23 09:27:54

The PICS
Lemme see if this works:

[img]http://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt268/hamgravy_photos/TB_01.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt268/hamgravy_photos/TB_02.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt268/hamgravy_photos/TB_03.jpg[/img]

Posted by hamgravy on 2009-04-23 09:28:52

Dude, my mom called me the other day and said A COMIC GUY IS ON THE FOOD NETWORK!!!!! I totally knew about it and she was very impressed. Or frightened.

Posted by stuckinazkaban on 2009-04-23 19:09:20

Very cool show
I just watched it.

Tom
You gotta auction off your drawing for charity :-)

Posted by ifwagba on 2009-04-26 20:30:36

I missed it! I often watch this show, and it just so happened last Sunday was one of the rare times I wasn't home in the evening when I would've watched! I guess I'll have to try and catch it in re-runs.

Posted by Arachkid on 2009-04-27 12:26:37

Array

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About this blog:
Ramblings and musings from the mind of Tom Brevoort. "It won’t be clean. It won’t be fun. It mostly won’t be coherent."

About the author:
Tom Brevoort is Executive Editor for Marvel Comics, and oversees such titles as New Avengers, Civil War, and Fantastic Four.


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