Courtesy of Jared Albert

Juan Lopez Jr. '22 and his father put finishing touches on their cake during the baking competition.

September 20, 2018

Cornell Freshman Tries to ‘Bake It’ Like the Cake Boss in TV Competition

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On Saturday, Juan Lopez Jr. ’22 will be appearing with his father on Discovery Family Channel’s cooking competition show Bake It Like Buddy, where contestants have just four hours to design, bake and decorate a cake to be judged by celebrity chef and TV personality Buddy Valastro.

Although the filming for the competition took place in March, the episode will be on-air this Saturday. For Lopez, who was in high-school at the time, there wasn’t much added pressure even as he faced the Cake Boss himself.

“The filming for Bake it Like Buddy was back in March but it was only for a few days so it wasn’t much of an interruption,” he explained.

Bake It Like Buddy takes place at Carlo’s Bakery, which was Valastro’s claim to fame on TLC’s Cake Boss, and features two family duos compete head-to-head in a bake-off each week for a cash prize of $1,000 and professional baking supplies, according to a description of the show.

The contestants range from professionals to up-and-coming chefs to “passionate weekend bakers,” the website states.

Though this four-hour feat may seem daunting for most, for Lopez, the competition was a piece of cake.

Lopez started baking from a very young age while helping out with his family’s bakery — an Italian pastry shop.

“I started off with simple tasks like adding sprinkles to cookies and over time I’ve really gotten to enjoy banking and decorating,” he said.

Lopez, an architecture student, told The Sun that filming the unusual competition was both challenging and fun.

“The most challenging part of the competition was trying to turn a big idea into a cake in just a few hours. It actually reminds me of architecture studio so I guess I like putting myself under those circumstances,” he said.

Lopez also found it interesting to view the preparation for the filming of the show.

“The fun part of filming was being able to see all the behind-the-scenes action,” he said. “So much work goes into just one episode and everything is so carefully planned.”