Editor's Pick: TLC's "Cake Boss"

This past summer, I developed an addiction to television shows about food. From "The Rachael Ray Show" to "Unwrapped" to "The Best Thing I Ever Ate," I watch and love them all. I usually find myself salivating over the delicious concoctions, and I can't seem to drag myself away from learning how to make the perfect chicken saltimbocca. While I love them all, my favorite food-related show is "Cake Boss" by far.

"Cake Boss," which airs on TLC, follows Buddy Valastro and his team as they construct fabulous cakes out of Carlo's Bake Shop, which is located in Hoboken, N.J. (I am completely determined to visit before this year is over). Buddy, the cake boss, runs a close-knit team of cake artists that includes his mother, four older sisters and three brothers-in-law. While this adds to the chemistry of the team, it also creates a lot of drama as Buddy attempts to control his crazy family members. Although the outbursts often seem staged, I still find it entertaining when one family member throws a cake in another's face.

It is clear that Buddy loves the attention that comes along with his cakes, as he often makes a huge show of presenting the cakes to his customers. For example, in one episode a couple wanted Buddy to make a cake for their wedding that featured a glass case with doves in the middle. When it came time for the wedding, Buddy not only dropped off the cake, but stayed and opened the door for the doves when it was time (predictably, they were not interested in leaving their new glass home, but they eventually flew away as planned).

In one episode, an unsatisfied and extremely demanding bride did not like the cake that Buddy made, although it was exactly what they had previously discussed. When he left, she took colored frosting to his immaculate white cake and began crazily making marks all over it, telling him that is what she was looking for. Buddy understandably got upset and ordered her out of his store, but in the end made the cake for her as a favor to her mother, a close friend of Buddy's.

Antics aside, the main reason I watch the show is because of the cakes. Buddy and company design and construct amazing cakes each week. From a pot of boiling water with a lobster on top to a completely authentic roulette table; they are able to go from a few sheets of pound cake to a masterpiece in each episode. I became obsessed with all of the terms that they use in the show, like fondant, a smooth, almost flawless icing that they use to cover their cakes. My favorite cake, which debuted on the season finale, was a replica of the New York City skyline that a wealthy family commissioned for the Fourth of July. Since this family made their fortune off of fireworks, the cake actually came complete with a built-in fireworks display.

Sometimes, after a particularly good "Cake Boss" episode, I even get inspired to bake a cake or two of my own. While I have not yet graduated to fondant, this summer I went from never having baked a cake to whipping up cheesecakes, marble cakes, vanilla cakes and pound cakes. Here at school, in my kitchen-less dorm, I find myself itching to bake again. Until

I go home, though, I suppose I will have to settle for watching Buddy make the masterpieces.