Not long after he took over Carlo's Bakery, Buddy Valastro could see that supermarkets were cutting into bakeries' birthday cake business. That, he told Vanity Fair, was when he decided "to make cakes they'll never be able to make," spurring him to create "these crazy kind of cakes."
Of all Valastro's spectacular cakes, one holds the record as his most expensive: the cake he baked for New York City socialite Devorah Rose in 2011 for her Devorah's Diamond Gala charity event. According to Market Watch, the cake was valued at a staggering $30 million, due to its use of rubies, emeralds, sapphires, flawless diamonds, and other precious stones. The trick, Valastro admitted, was to ensure that his cake didn't "overpower" those sparkling gems.
Meanwhile, Valastro singled out a different cake as his all-time favorite, proudly describing his "Transformers"-themed cake in an interview with Parade. According to Valastro, the ambitious cake — which stood 12 feet tall and weighed 7,000 pounds — took a team of more than eight people a full three days to make. "I'll never forget when I was done," he said. "I stepped back, I looked at what I made, and cried."
