He's The Boss

Late in the spring I caught wind of a special event coming to the Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines on November 13. Realizing what it was I checked the Hawkeye's football schedule and was relieved when it was an away game (not touching that at all). Buddy Valastro, of TLC's The Cake Boss, was starting a tour around the US and was going to be in Des Moines! Molly and I really enjoyed watching his show, and we do miss it now that we don't have the satellite dish. I thought it would be a great anniversary and birthday gift to get her tickets. It also coincided with the release of his first book "Stories and Recipes from Mia Famiglia" so, of course, I had to get that too. Molly is the decorator of the family so I knew this would be an amazing night for her.

I got on Ticketmaster's website the very minute the pre-sale started and was able to score two tickets in the second row of the center-floor section right on the aisle. When I gave her the tickets I said she had to go and she could choose anyone else to go with her, and I wouldn't feel bad if she didn't take me. Well she did choose me, and I had a great time.

The show started with Buddy entering from the back of the auditorium. Since I had seen a promo video for his tour I knew about that and had Molly sit in the aisle seat. When he came walking down the aisle Molly was able to give him a high-5. That made her night right there. After giving an introduction Buddy started asking for any women who decorated or baked to come on stage. Molly was yelling and clapping and finally I told her to stand up. When she stood up Buddy pointed right at her! She was the first person picked! She didn't know what to do and I told her to get up there. He had 4 women on stage competing in a cupcake decorating contest. Molly had the pressure of decorating a cupcake with the best in the business looking over her shoulder and making jokes, all in front of 1,200+ people. Molly's didn't win the audience vote but I thought it was the best by far; she even had a lot of comments on it after the show.

After that Buddy had a few more contests with men and one with kids. He told stories of his family and how the bakery was turned over to his family and how the TV show got started. After the stories he decorated a cake while taking questions from the audience. At one point he took the un-decorated cupcakes and threw them into the audience. One of them fell on the floor and I yelled "5 second rule" to which he chuckled and threw it to me. I now call it the "5 second rule cupcake".

After the show he made his way to the art gallery to pose for pictures and sign autographs. We waited in line for around an hour but we got to him. Unfortunately the battery on my cell phone died so we were without a camera. Luckily a person in front of us offered us her camera and she will be emailing it to us soon. We posed for the picture and he signed our book and Molly's ticket. He even said to Molly "I hope this book inspires you" which she will keep in her mind forever.

The show itself was amazing and Buddy is an amazing person with all that he has done. The night couldn't have gone any better!