The Boss is in town

Most people bake cakes in toddler-geometry shapes.

When Buddy Valastro designs a cake, it can look like anything from a cow to a coral reef.

I kind of feel like an engineer or architect, said Valastro, better known as The Cake Boss to viewers of his popular TLC reality show.

Fans who have seen him in action know Valastro can include in a cake design elements as diverse as a board game, an aquarium or real chocolate milk spouting from the cow.

That fun-loving aspect of his personality should be evident on Friday when he brings his Homemade for the Holidays Tour to the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre.

Along with sharing holiday traditions and recipes from his home base, Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken, N.J., Valastro will have a competition for audience members, giving them a chance to crack eggs or race in a potato sack or answer trivia questions. Their prizes will be Cake Boss cakes.

During a recent telephone interview, Valastro mentioned he uses cake flour rather than all-purpose flour in his cakes because it leaves more of a velvety feel on your tongue.

Armed with that knowledge, as well as other tips they might learn on Friday, Valastro said, the audience members likely will be able to create their own cakes that are a little more Cake Boss-esque.