Ace of Cakes: Difference between revisions

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** Geof seems to be the veritable fountain of this trope, as he seems to uncover something unexpectedly brilliant in just about every episode, ranging from songwriting to paintball.

* [[Christmas Episode]]: Duff found it highly amusing that the Jewish dude (him) was the one who had to get everyone into the holiday spirit ([[Incendiary Exponent|with fireworks, of course]]).

* [[Crossover]]: [[Jon and Kate Plus Eight|Kate + Eight]] visited as a surprise for Kate; Guy Fieri came in for an episode of ''[[Diners Drive Ins and Dives]]'' on Baltimore and Duff treated him to a giant cake shaped like a giant hamburger; Geof and Duff made an anniversary cake for ''[[King of the Hill]]'' and had cameos on the show; the crew traveled to Hawaii to ''simultaneously'' work on cakes for ''[[Lost]]'''s wrap party and a US military base (both groups loved it). The cast of ''[[Avenue Q]]'' came into the bakery, puppets and all while they were making a cake for the show.

* [[Crossover]]: [[Jon and Kate Plus Eight|Kate + Eight]] visited as a surprise for Kate; Guy Fieri came in for an episode of ''[[Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives]]'' on Baltimore and Duff treated him to a giant cake shaped like a giant hamburger; Geof and Duff made an anniversary cake for ''[[King of the Hill]]'' and had cameos on the show; the crew traveled to Hawaii to ''simultaneously'' work on cakes for ''[[Lost]]'''s wrap party and a US military base (both groups loved it). The cast of ''[[Avenue Q]]'' came into the bakery, puppets and all while they were making a cake for the show.

** Is that where the puppet-versions of the bakers in the ''Lost'' episode came from?

** The crew of ''Man Caves'' fixed up the bakery's basement/band room for Duff; Duff also got to ring the opening bell at the NY Stock Exchange in, um, exchange for a birthday cake for the NYSE's president.

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* [[Does Not Like Spam|Does Not Like Cupcakes]]: Duff despises them despite (or maybe because of) trying to make the world's largest cupcake and failing. He stated that one of the reasons he hates them is because "people who make cupcakes think they can bake".

* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]: Combined with the above, Duff forced himself to make 52 cupcakes for the New York Rangers hockey team so he could "earn" being involved with his favorite sport.

* [[Everything's Better ~~With~~ Sparkles]]: Mostly the older cakes.

* [[Everything's Better with Sparkles]]: Mostly the older cakes.

* [[Everything's Deader ~~With~~ Zombies]]: Quite a few times, especially around Halloween. They once made an exception to their "no portraits" rule when the client added "--and his brains are being eaten by zombies."

* [[Everything's Deader with Zombies]]: Quite a few times, especially around Halloween. They once made an exception to their "no portraits" rule when the client added "--and his brains are being eaten by zombies."

* [[Evolving Credits]]: Since Charm City Cakes' staff increased over the series' run, and a lot more of them appeared on camera, the later seasons' credits noticeably changed to reflect this.

* [[Fandom]]: The bakery once received a picture of two girls dressed as Duff and Mary Alice, complete with whisk tattoo and colored hair, respectively.

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** The 50th anniversary of Alaskan statehood

** Anniversary cakes for Macy's, Ocean Spray, and Milk Bone

** Several movie premieres, notably ''two [[Harry Potter (~~Film~~)|Harry Potter]]'' movies

** Several movie premieres, notably ''two [[Harry Potter (film)|Harry Potter]]'' movies

** And their own 100th episode, of course.

** The wrap party of the reunion tour of storied indie rock band [[Pavement]]

** The final episode featured the 25th anniversary of ''[[Back to ~~The~~ Future (~~Film~~)|Back to The Future]]''.

** The final episode featured the 25th anniversary of ''[[Back to the Future (film)|Back to The Future]]''.

* [[More Dakka]]: The police of Muleshoe, TX welcomed the bakers by letting them shoot some automatic weapons and let Duff use a sniper rifle on some despised cupcakes.

* [[Muppet Cameo]]: One which combined ''Ace Of Cakes'', ''[[Avenue Q]]'', and ''[[Lost]]''.

* [[Mysterious Benefactor]]: The unnamed VIP client who asked for the dressage cake. When they explained they don't ship cakes outside of driving distance and jokingly added that the client would need a private jet, s/he ''provided one just for the cake''.

* [[One of Us]]: In several episodes ''[[~~Homestar Runner (Web Animation)|~~Homestar Runner]]'' merch can be seen.

* [[One of Us]]: In several episodes ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' merch can be seen.

* [[One Steve Limit]]:

** Averted; there's at least two Marys in the bakery.

** Also subverted - Duff's first name is actually Jeff, but most people would never know that. Even his mom calls him Duff on the show.

* [[Parody]]: The 100th episode included several parodies of other series like ''[[The Hills]]'', ''[[The Real World]]'', ''[[Undercover Boss]]'', and ''[[~~The A-Team (TV)|~~The A-Team]]''.

* [[Parody]]: The 100th episode included several parodies of other series like ''[[The Hills]]'', ''[[The Real World]]'', ''[[Undercover Boss]]'', and ''[[The A-Team]]''.

* [[Platonic Life Partners]]:

** Duff and Mary Alice

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** Both ''Ace'' and ''Cake Boss'' are forbidden from saying Rice Crispy Treats (they use "cereal treats" instead<ref>''Cake Boss'' was recently granted permission by the product placement gods</ref>), even though it's a well-used "construction material".

* [[Product Placement]]:

** They've gotten commissions from Macy's, Ocean Spray, [[Warner Bros]] (for the ''[[Harry Potter (~~Film~~)|Harry Potter]]'' movie premier - twice!), [[Dreamworks Animation]] (for ''[[~~Kung Fu Panda (Animation)|~~Kung Fu Panda]]''), ''[[~~Lost (TV)|~~Lost]]'', and [[Cirque Du Soleil]], among many.

** They've gotten commissions from Macy's, Ocean Spray, [[Warner Bros]] (for the ''[[Harry Potter (film)|Harry Potter]]'' movie premier - twice!), [[Dreamworks Animation]] (for ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]''), ''[[Lost]]'', and [[Cirque Du Soleil]], among many.

** They made a huge [[Warhammer|squig]] cake (they claimed it was the largest cake they'd ever made - it even had an ork inside its mouth!) that earned them a Golden Demon award in the Large Model category. The best part was that the bakers had never heard of ''[[Warhammer]]'' before.

** ''Ace of Cakes'' as it turns out is pretty good Product Placement for ''itself''; needless to say the waiting list for Charm City Cakes has gotten quite a bit longer since the premiere of the show.

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** This whole show came into existence because Duff, a somewhat regular competitor of ''Food Network Challenges'', kept amazing audiences, judges and network execs alike with his incredible cakes. Came full circle when Duff and the Charm City Cakes staff themselves were judges of a ''Food Network Challenges'' episode, where the theme was, appropriately enough, "Extreme Cakes."

* [[Square-Cube Law]]: Invoked in the giant cupcake episode. Duff originally just wanted to make a really big cupcake, but after crunching the numbers they found out there was no way the cake would ever support its own weight.

* [[Shout-Out]] / [[Take That]]: To their TLC counterparts: "You need to be the ''boss'' of the cake". "You (the puppet bakers) aren't working out, I'm bumping you to the minor leagues" -- [[Put On a Bus|Stuffed in a box]] with a "Jersey Or Bust" sign (if they really went there, they'd be returned covered in flour and dipped in icing).

* [[Shout-Out]] / [[Take That]]: To their TLC counterparts: "You need to be the ''boss'' of the cake". "You (the puppet bakers) aren't working out, I'm bumping you to the minor leagues" -- [[Put on a Bus|Stuffed in a box]] with a "Jersey Or Bust" sign (if they really went there, they'd be returned covered in flour and dipped in icing).

* [[Shown Their Work]]: In addition to the process of actually making the cakes, for big or unusual commissions they'll do research. Examples:

** For the Ocean Spray cake they crew went to a real cranberry bog and got to help harvest cranberries.

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** When Duff was asked to do a cake based on a tank, he got to go to an Army base and drive a tank. At this point Duff and Geof explained that their "research" is really [[Lampshade Hanging|just an excuse to go off and do cool stuff]].

** In one episode, they made a [[Doctor Who|Dalek]] cake. They made sure to get the voice exactly right.

** The R2D2 cake, in addition to being life-size with a turning head, also had to look specifically like the ''[[Star Wars Clone Wars]]'' version of R2. This meant that not only did it have to look a little busted-up but also match the "painterly" style of the show, which went against the shop's no-visible-brushstrokes ideal. They were able to do everything aside from getting R2's head to turn - it was beyond Duff's engineering skills but fortunately a handyman at Skywalker Ranch was able to rig up a little something and save the day.

** The R2D2 cake, in addition to being life-size with a turning head, also had to look specifically like the ''[[Star Wars: Clone Wars]]'' version of R2. This meant that not only did it have to look a little busted-up but also match the "painterly" style of the show, which went against the shop's no-visible-brushstrokes ideal. They were able to do everything aside from getting R2's head to turn - it was beyond Duff's engineering skills but fortunately a handyman at Skywalker Ranch was able to rig up a little something and save the day.

* [[Squick]]: Adam is a vegan and was a little grossed out when forced to handle hot dogs while helping Duff make [[30 Rock ~~(TV)~~|cheesy blasters]].

* [[Squick]]: Adam is a vegan and was a little grossed out when forced to handle hot dogs while helping Duff make [[30 Rock|cheesy blasters]].

* [[Time Travel]] / [["Close Enough" Timeline]]: Parodied in the final ''[[Back to ~~The~~ Future (~~Film~~)|Back to The Future]]''-themed episode where {{spoiler|screwing around with the bakery's flux capacitor caused the bakers to become office workers, bugs, and random haz-mat suit (really painter's suits) wearers. ''Really'' screwing up the flux capacitor caused Geof and Duff to become workers at a cake box factory}}.

* [[Time Travel]] / [["Close Enough" Timeline]]: Parodied in the final ''[[Back to the Future (film)|Back to The Future]]''-themed episode where {{spoiler|screwing around with the bakery's flux capacitor caused the bakers to become office workers, bugs, and random haz-mat suit (really painter's suits) wearers. ''Really'' screwing up the flux capacitor caused Geof and Duff to become workers at a cake box factory}}.

* [[True Companions]]: The staff.

* [[Up to Eleven]]: