I Got To Meet Buddy Valastro

I was invited to go to the Giant Eagle Market District store along with three other bloggers.  They were having a guest appearance by Buddy The Cake Boss.  I didn’t think I was going to be able to go at first, because I was planning to help my son move to Lexington KY, but plans changed and I was able to come. (Yippee!)

We got there at 9am. I had not been to the Kingsdale shopping center for ages. I had no idea it was so nice! They really did a lot of work. I wish I had time to shop!

The beginning event was upstairs in a private room.  The Market District Facebook page had hosted a cake decorating contest.  There were eight winners asked to participate and four of them came.  Why the others didn’t, I don’t know?

There was one little girl, Lauren, who had made a cake and her cake was chosen as one of the winners of the FB contest – but it wasn’t until the evening before that they learned she was only 8 years old (I think, she might have been 10?) They had been emailing and talking with her mother and didn’t realize that Lauren was actually a child. The rules said you have to be 18 years old.  They still invited her to come to the event, but she couldn’t participate to win the prize.

Lauren made a cake last night, so she could give it to Buddy, The Cake Boss
The other 4 participants were given these supplies and 40 minutes in order to decorate the best cake.

They went to work!

They had one of the cake decorators from the Market District bakery give them some pointers before they began.

She was creating a sign language themed cake.

These woman are not cake decorators, they do not do it as a business. The one gal had never picked up an icing bag before today.

Here is one of the finished cakes!

Here is another one of the participants.

Kim from Crafty Mama of 4 (right) and Beth from The Plus Size Mommy (center) were here also.  Kim brought her daughter Emilee and Beth brought her mother so they could see the Cake Boss.

Wendy from Celiacs in the House also was there and brought her teenage daughter.

After the contestant decorated their cakes, then Buddy Valastro came in! Of course we were all excited to meet him.  It was a small room of us. (This while the contestants were decorating)

So in comes Buddy The Cake Boss. He still works at  his family bakery in New York City called Carlos Bakery.

He went over the first thing to see Lauren and the cake she made for him.  He posed for several pictures with her. She was just beaming! This little girl knew EVERY trivia question they were asking us (before he got there, while the contestants were decorating, they were giving away gift cards if we answered questions correct. She knew them all! Her mother said he is her idol)

He picked the winner of the $200 gift card. There was also a 2nd place ($100 gift card) and a 3rd place winner ($50 gift card)

Here I am with Kim, Beth and Lauren

We also all got a little swag bag and Buddy’s book

Once we were finished we all went downstairs to watch Buddy do the store presentation.  I did get a few pictures of the store.  There is a strict no photo policy in the Giant Eagle Stores.  When I was at the Pittsburgh Giant Eagle Market District Store we were walking around with Donna who would let all of the people who were telling us no photos… that is was alright for us.
But she hasn’t come down at the same time as us, so getting photos here was different.   This picture was taken first thing in the morning from the upstairs level.

I love the candy department!

I was really impressed with all the produce while I was at the Pittsburgh Market District store.  This store looked just as nice. I got these couple pics while we were waiting for our seats to see Buddy.

Look at these things! I have no idea what you use them for.

We ended up being seated in the 2nd row to see Buddy The Cake Boss.  Look at all the empty seats behind us.

And this is how they looked after they filled almost 300 seats! (There were still oodles of people standing watching)

Buddy Valastro came out and was personally greeting some of the people before he went behind the counter.

I was thrilled to have a fantastic seat, but there was a camera man who was filming for the video screens above standing in my direct view. Yeah… really…. the whole time!  This was my friend Kim who got picked to be one of the 3 moms that went  up to help decorate a cupcake.

Since I couldn’t get a good shot directly on, I took pictures of the video screen. If you can’t beat em, figure out another way right?

Buddy then picked out 3 Dad’s to compete. One of them was a Crew soccer player who gave him a Crew scarf.

He had a fun time with the Dads.

He even made a rose blind folded. (using the Crew Scarf)  Not a great pic at all, but best I got for this.

He then brought six kids up and had them try a cupcake decoration.

He was very entertaining, very personable and gave lots of hugs.

He then gave autographed pictures and was also taking pictures with everyone. Wow…

Thanks so much Giant Eagle Market District , Donna and Michael for inviting me over to the store to see the cake decorating contest, meet Buddy Valastro, the great seats we had (sans the camera man) and the Giant Eagle Pasta, sauce and The Cake Boss book).  You have one amazing store!

Be sure to stop by in Columbus, The Giant Eagle Market District Store – The store is located in the Kingsdale shopping center:  3061 Kingsdale Center, Columbus, OH 43221 It is only the 2nd of it’s kind. The other one is in Pittsburgh.  You can see my complete review from the Pittsburgh Market District store here on my Chat with Sandy blog.