Andrew Fuller is no stranger to reality television. The owner of Sugar Freakshow Cake Studio in Des Moines first appeared on “Halloween Baking Championship” in 2018, but he gained fame on “Is It Cake?” after winning the Netflix show where contestants designed lifelike cakes in 2022. Now he’s back, competing against TV personality and baker extraordinaire Duff Goldman on “Super Mega Cakes” on the Food Network.
The idea is exactly what it sounds like: Goldman and his Baltimore-based Charm City Cakes team compete against six teams of the country’s best cake artists to make massive cakes, including giant versions of Superman and monster-sized sharks jumping out of the ocean.
The six-episode season features a special new computer host, W.I.S.C. (Witty Intelligent Super Computer).
Fuller returns to television to compete against Goldman and his team at 8 p.m. CDT on July 21 on the Food Network. A 50-person audience tastes and judges the cakes to determine the winner. This episode features six teams competing against Goldman in an episode titled “Alien Invasion.”
Fuller talked to the Des Moines Register about his experience on “Super Mega Cakes,” highlighting his preparation and the challenges of creating the largest cake of his career.
This interview was lightly edited.
Des Moines Register: Did you do anything to prepare to be on “Super Mega Cakes”?
Andrew Fuller: My whole life leading up to this has been preparation. Let’s face the facts, if you have anything to do with cake, period, you know Duff, and Duff is a legend and an icon to anyone who’s ever done anything cake-related.
I’ve always been creative, but cake was nowhere on my radar. Duff was the guy that, when I watched “Ace of Cakes” he was the only one doing the kind of things that he did, and I didn’t realize that you could do the things that he does with cake. That sparked this little thing in me; maybe I could turn my art form into an edible medium.
The first show that I ever did on the Food Network was leading me up to the preparation of this.
But of course, we’re talking “Super Mega Cakes.” These cakes are larger than life, right? I’m not kidding when I say this is by and far the largest cake that I’ve ever done, and probably ever will do, God willing. I don’t know how you prepare for that.
The Register: Do you have recipes memorized because you’ve been doing this for so long?
Fuller: Absolutely not. What’s really funny is that I always tell everybody that I’m an artist versus a baker. With that said, I really pride myself on my flavors. I feel like, in the end, if it’s cake, it needs to taste good. I want to build a beautiful, artistic, creative masterpiece, but if it doesn’t taste good, then what am I doing? But on that note, I am the most chaotic human being who’s ever existed, and so following things down to a recipe is so difficult for me.
I probably cook more than I bake in my personal life, because I do like to play. I like to experiment. If you follow what I do, if you pay attention to the cake that I do, I always have really bizarre flavors. The reason for that is because I know I have to be so regimented and so streaming with following recipes, that the place that I get to play, get to be fun and creative, is with my flavors.
So to lead into what you’re saying, I can’t memorize a single recipe. I’m really bad at recipe memorization.
The Register: What made you decide you wanted to take on this challenge?
Fuller: I have an ego. I mean, I’m fully transparent. Cake has taken me so far. When I did the first show that I won, it blew up my entire life. I couldn’t be more grateful for how much my life has just become what it is.
So now this whole thing was kind of like my love letter to cake, saying thank you to cake because I promised, and I have an agent who has made me promise that I would not compete anymore. I said I wasn’t gonna be doing any more competitions. I wanted to do judging and hosting. I still want to stay in the world of TV and the world of cake, but I thought that I was done with competing.
When Food Network came to me and they said, “We’re not looking for just bakers, we’re looking for the best bakers in the world, and we’re giving you an opportunity to have the most over-the-top cake experience you’ve ever had, and you might have the opportunity to beat Duff Goldman,” my ego jumped right in.
The Register: How has your life changed since you’ve become famous?
Fuller: It’s weird. You know what’s so weird? I always say I’m Iowa famous, but it’s not even just Iowa. When I’m in LA, especially in LA, it’s really funny, because, like, sometimes with the things that I do, they’ll put me in a hotel that’s literally right off Hollywood Boulevard. That means there are a lot of tourists there, which means they are trying to find celebrities.
Between the demographic of, like, 8- to 12-year-olds, I’m like Lady Gaga. The kids go crazy over me. I was in New Zealand and Australia, and then we got off the airplane, we had people run up to us and freak out. I can’t be anywhere in the world without someone knowing who I am.
That has been really surreal.
I still, to this day, get fan mail from kids who or kid’s parents who are like, “You know what? I’m just gonna be totally honest with you, my kid’s a weirdo. My kid’s an oddball who doesn’t really fit in and doesn’t really know what their what their game is in life. And seeing somebody like you on TV who’s not just wild looking, but actually backs up what you do is really inspiring. It’s teaching my kids that you really can march to a different beat and still be successful.”
I never thought I would ever have the ability to touch people and it’s been unreal.
I’ve gotten to meet my icons like Tim Burton. If you know anything about me, I’m a massive Tim Burton fan.
The Register: For this upcoming episode that you’re on, can you talk a bit about the role you have on it?
Fuller: They came to me saying, “You’ll be a team leader, and then you’ll have two assistants.” I really wanted to make sure that my two assistants think of themselves as incredibly talented human beings.
I was able to choose April Julien, who I went up against in the finale of “Is It Cake?” as one of my assistants, and then a guy named Dill Barlow, who actually just won a TV show himself called “Killer Cakes.” Both of them are icons to me.
We treated it like a team experience but I had to be the one to rein people in.
Basically, it’s Team Andrew against Team Duff.
The Register: Is there anything that you can tease viewers to watch for on Monday?
Fuller: Everybody already knows, because they haven’t kept it a secret, but it’s literally Duff just working on six cakes while six other teams are working on one individual cake.
I get to be team alien and talk about the stars aligning. I spent my honeymoon in Roswell, New Mexico. If something else is out there, please come get me. I need to go back to the motherland. Being given a challenge like alien invasion, I really wanted to go hard with it. So I wanted to bring crazy effects and crazy techniques that I have not seen on any other cake show or seen other cake artists do. So you can keep your eye out for that.
How to see Andrew Fuller on ‘Super Mega Cakes’
“Super Mega Cakes” finale airs at 8 p.m. CDT on July 21 on the Food Network.
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Susan Stapleton is the entertainment editor and dining reporter at The Des Moines Register. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, or drop her a line at sstapleton@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Sugar Freakshow’s Andrew Fuller returns to TV on ‘Super Mega Cakes’
Reporting by Susan Stapleton, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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