'Cake Boss' Buddy Valastro's Discovery series features former Wilmington resident

Landenberg, Pennsylvania, resident Shannon Giordano plans to scare up some sweet treats later this month for “Cake Boss” Buddy Valastro.

Giordano, the Delaware Nature Society's public relations and social media coordinator, will be featured on an upcoming episode of Discovery Family Channel’s baking competition series, "Bake it Like Buddy."  

The 30-minute episode, about Halloween cakes, airs at 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20.

"It was exciting," said Giordano, who could not give away much about the upcoming episode. "I thought it was an interesting and fun experience, but it's going to be hard to watch myself on TV."

Valastro, a fourth-generation baker known as the "Cake Boss," and his family own and operate the flagship Carlo’s Bakery in Hoboken, New Jersey, and other locations throughout the country. They first came to prominence in 2009 after they were featured on the TLC reality show, "Cake Boss." 

The Power of Food TV on Delaware chefs' careers

Valastro and his sisters are now starring in the new competition series that features other American baking families.

Each week, two members of a family face off against another team in a bake-off at their New Jersey factory. The contestants range from professionals to emerging chefs to passionate weekend bakers.

Giordano, who recently moved from Wilmington, is a mother of three and an avid, self-taught home baker. She and her sister-in-law Heather Scibetta of Buffalo, New York, are competing against a brother-sister team from Queens, New York.

Their challenge is to bake and decorate a "spooky" Halloween-themed cake in four hours.

The prize is $1,000 in cash, professional baking supplies and bragging rights.

Giordano said her sister-in-law is the one who first heard about the series. "She got an email about them searching for contestants."

The pair then went through a series of Skype interviews and phone calls with series producers. 

They were chosen for the Halloween episode and had to keep their involvement a secret.

In February, Giordano said she took a vacation day from work and traveled to Valastro's 51,000-square-foot baking and distribution facility in the Lackawanna Center in Jersey City, New Jersey, to film the episode in one day. 

Giordano said she was already nervous and had added stress because the day she filmed was the same day her Wilmington home was going on the market.

Giordano has been baking cakes for family and friends since high school and was already a fan of Valastro's.

"He was fantastic. He was so nice and really encouraging to us. He told us not to worry about anything. He was exactly what you see on TV," she said. 

Giordano said her biggest surprise was seeing how a TV series works.

"It is definitely a competition. They start that clock and off you go. You're given four hours and that's it." 

Valastro was already very familiar to Delaware bakers before meeting Giordano.

In December 2010, Bear resident Dana Herbert won the title of "Next Great Baker," another competition series hosted by Valastro.

A little more than three years later, Herbert opened the Newark bakery, Desserts by Dana, in the Red Mill Square shopping center at 1212 Capitol Trail, near the intersection with Polly Drummond Road. 

'Next Great Baker' opens new shop

Valastro also is credited with helping Bing's Bakery, a Newark landmark since 1946.

The celebrity pastry chef visited Bing's Bakery at 253 E. Main St. in October 2013 to help owners Tom and Carla Guzzi and their four sons turn around the struggling family business.

The episode featuring the Guzzis aired in 2014 and was the premiere episode of "Buddy's Bakery Rescue," a TLC series then hosted by Valastro. 

'Cake Boss' visit brings customers to Bing's

The Guzzis, who took over the Delaware bakery in 2005, were initially reluctant to share their financial challenges with their customers, let alone air them on national TV.

"People didn't realize. They didn't know what we've been going through," Carla Guzzi told The News Journal.

She said the national TV exposure helped boost the bakery's sales. 

"Being on national TV, it was a great recognition. It was a great way for people to be aware of us and remind them that we were here. We have kept the momentum up. We kept it up and have gone a tad bit higher,” Guzzi said in 2016.

Contact Patricia Talorico at (302) 324-2861 or ptalorico@delawareonline.com and on Twitter @pattytalorico.