Throwback: The Boss

No, not Bruce Springsteen.

I'm talking about a far sweeter sort of boss...the Cake Boss. A few months ago, the Little Chips and I decided to make a journey--a pilgrimage, really--to the now-infamous Carlo's Bakery. We had seen too many delicious cookies and pastries and cannolis consumed on our TV screens to go another day without tasting them ourselves.

Now, if you're a fan of the show, you know that patrons start lining up outside before the bakery even opens on most days. Much as it might have pained our sleep-loving souls, we were prepared to forgo normal REM-cycle patterns in our quest to sample Buddy & Co.'s baked goods.

Waking up when it's still dark out sucks. I think we can all say this with a fair amount of certainty. Everyone remembers those winter days in high school where you had to wake up to catch your bus and it was still pitch black, when you were attempting not to pour orange juice into your cereal instead of milk because you were still half-asleep. Well, after rising at the ungodly hour of 5:30 am, the Chips and I stumbled toward our local train station in the (still) pitch black. Arriving in NYC meant grabbing a hasty breakfast (egg sandwiches, the food of champions) and boarding yet another train to ye olde Hoboken, New Jersey, where we found...

They "renamed" the street the bakery is on--I guess Buddy's kind of a big deal.

We got to the bakery a little while after it had opened, around 7:30, and although I was worried we'd get slammed with a long wait (then again, I worry about everything), the line had only just started to snake outside the door of the shop. Hurray!

The view of the line when we made it inside the door.

We did have one celebrity sighting! That's one of Buddy's sisters.

What's the best way to pass a half-hour wait in line? By planning the laundry list of sweet treats you're going to buy when it's finally your turn, of course.

And as a side note, the entire place just smells delicious. I think if I ever buy an air freshener for my car, it'll be "Just-Opened Bakery Fresh."

Baby Chip is OBSESSED with the psychedelic purple cake in the middle. It is her dream to one day call this cake her own.

Finally, finally it was our turn! We each bought more baked goods individually than we all could have eaten together, but let me tell you...it was so worth it. We brought that haul home and ate ourselves into sugar comas for the next three days.

And you thought I was exaggerating.

The only fitting was to close out this post is with a picture montage. I leave you with the following snapshots of our delicious loot, as well as the promise that there will be another Carlo's Bakery update sometime in the near future--Baby Chip has been demanding a return basically since we set foot on the train to come home. Maybe this time we'll even see the Boss himself...

On the left, a twist on Italian seven-layer cookies--these were made with Nutella! And on the right, the most unimaginably delicious crumb cake I have ever consumed.

You can't go to an Italian bakery and not get a cannoli. Seriously, who do you think I am?

Baby Chip keeps it classic--a sugar cookie and a yellow cupcake with vanilla buttercream.

Red velvety goodness, waiting unassumingly in its box.

The alcove where Buddy takes consultations on the show!

(Not all of you may be quite as rabid in your fandom as the Little Chips and I am, but in case you're curious, you can follow Buddy on Twitter, become his fan on Facebook, or buy his book [thank you, Middle Chip, for this lovely Christmas present].)